Combat· World War II
The capture at Centron
Six went into Centron: Ortiz, Coolidge, Risler, Bodnar, Brunner, and Arcelin.
LaSalle was out of the fight, injured on the jump. Around ten in the morning of August 16 the team climbed a ramp toward the N90. It was the same crossing they had used escaping Montgirod two nights before. A German convoy came around the bend, the lead truck a few yards away. Coolidge shouted from the rear: "Pete, we've been seen." Machine gunners opened fire from the truck cabs. The team scattered into the village. Risler pressed into a drainage ditch while bullets riddled the pack on his back. Ortiz and Bodnar sheltered in a barn. Coolidge and Brunner fought their way southeast under fire toward the river; Brunner called for Arcelin to follow, but he stayed in the town. Coolidge took a bullet in the leg and kept going, and the two got clean away, reaching the battalion's mountain base two days later. The Americans fired so fast from so many positions that the Germans believed they faced a platoon of thirty. They settled in to encircle. A woman of the village was killed in the crossfire. After nearly two hours Ortiz weighed it. At Montgirod two days earlier the Germans had shot the wounded and burned the church. They had destroyed the Vercors. The war was won, and Centron would pay for a fight that changed nothing. He crawled to Bodnar and offered a choice: surrender with him or fight on. "Major, we are Marines. What you think is right goes for me too." Bodnar's white t-shirt served as the flag. Ortiz saluted the junior Marine first, thanks and farewell, and walked into the open. He called out in French, English, and German for twenty minutes while machine-gun rounds kicked dust at his feet. When the firing stopped, the convoy commander stepped forward and offered a cigarette. The terms were simple. Union II would surrender. Centron would be spared. Ortiz could produce only Risler and Bodnar. The German major raged that he had been promised six. Three had held off a convoy. The major kept his word. Centron was not burned. Arcelin, who had stayed in the village, was taken separately, still wearing a dead Marine's uniform and carrying his name.
Podcast episodes on World War II
Record no. 894