The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1945-03-22
Libby Man Led
Pdrdtroops In
Noted Attack
Maj. Melvin Knudson Tells
Thrilling Tale of
Fighting Nips.

/
COMMANDED ONE OF
WARS HISTORIC FIGHTS
Following is letter written re-
Gently by Maj. Melvin R. Knudson,
son of Mr.. and Mrs. John Knudson
of Libby. Maj Knudson, who is q
Libby boy still In his 20's has been
overseas for year and has been
in action against the Japs. A BROTH
er, LIST. It. Karl Knudson recently
received medical discharge from
the 10th Mountain Div. and is now
home in Libby.
Maj. Knudson letter follows
My pack finally came in and I
have a little paper and some en-
velopes and now it can be told.
/ received letter from Tip today,
written from home with greetings
from you all
You made guess or two where
| am and then at the end Tip made
mention of a news broadcast about
a parachute landing. Well guess
was part of that job. If you still
can't guess I'll enclose a news clip
ping that we're allowed to send
home. / can tell you we are part
of the 503'd Parachute Regiment,
and if you don't know where | am
now, you will never know
This campaign is just about
wound up for us and we should be
leaving here in a little while to
go back to No. 321 for little rest
and to lick our wounds.
Gen. Macarthur was here yesteT-
day along with Gen. Grueger and
we had quite ceremony while the
place was presented to him. | was
part of the guard of honor and the
kid crooked the news reel 1t was
really quite nice and Old Mac really
gave up a ''snow job" about the
job we had done.
Our combat c. o. was given the
D. S. c. Awards are at high prem
ium on this operation because every
man and officer did such superb
| job under such extreme conditions.
4 We were highly 'outnun1bered when
we jumped, but we nearly cleaned
the place out. For every boy we lost
/ in combat we knocked off over 30
Nips. That is quite ratio, isn't it.
but 1900 of those bast-- aren't
worth one of our boys We ran into
all the fanaticism you have read
about Banzi attacks, Nips in caves
blowing themselves up in an effort
to get our boys too, and also to pre-
vent capture. We could only get IL
P. O. VS., but we didn't want them
very bad either.
The first few days our guns were
all employed as assault weapons
We moved them all over every
where to get direct fire into cover
and pill boxes. We even put guns
into wrecked buildings to get a
little cover while firing. We gave
those Nips all the white phosphor-
Gus we could throw at them, and
boy, they didn't like it bit.
Our battalion made quite name
ficult operations in this theatre, and
possibly in any theatre. At least
they tell us we really got the pub
licity at home. My own experience
on the jump was typical When |
jumped | could hear that Pit and
hiss of the Nips messengers around
my ears and canopy. Init the ground
| like a ton of brick and felt like
mule had kicked me, but was OK.
was quite proud Of the fact that
| jumped IA men, and every one
of them in field not as big as a
! football field, with debris, build
ings, stumps, trees and shell era
ters all around it, with no man hurt.
was last on the ground and they
all came over all smiles and licked
pink. The only scratch | received
was a number of scratches and
bruises received from a 15-foot dive
into hole in the ground when a
sniper and machine gun seemed
like they were after me personally
| didn't know | could get into such
a small hole. / looked up once and
saw my foot sticking out. Guessed
they were trying to get bead on
that SO pulled that right up to my
chin, and then in little while
worked my way out of there. Those
\ Nip snipers are good and don't let
anyone tell you any different
know God had me by the hand all
the way through the thing, because
| look and feel better now than the
day T jumped here wouldn't wor-
~ if I were you people because
they could never find another one
as tough as this one, and He
watched over me SO we'll on this
one. | know He will on all the rest
of them. This operation was a
combined operation of paratroopers
Navy and air corps, and let me
tell you, it really worked the boys
over. They tell us we got 5000 NipS