Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
5:03 | Bill Cruickshank will never forget the short conversation he had with his best buddy in the mountains of Italy. It was shortly before the firefight which took his friend's life and badly wounded him. He kept the memories of that time alive for the rest of his life with reunions and group trips to Europe.
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Bill Cruickshank's father secured him an appointment to West Point but, after only a month there, the Army decided it needed eighteen year olds right now in the war. Everyone born before a certain date was sent home and exposed to the draft. Then, another opportunity opened up for the avid skier. There was a new unit of ski troops being formed.
At the train station where Bill Cruickshank was about to depart for training, he met a family of celebrities who were seeing two sons off to the same outfit. He didn't recognize the name but he would meet one of them later in Italy. The mountain training was arduous for the newly formed 10th Mountain Division, who used a lot of highly specialized gear.
The newly formed ski troops were finally finding a purpose. Now part of the 10th Mountain Division, they were dispatched to Italy, where Bill Cruickshank found out that his job was going to be pushing the Germans back from their positions in the mountains above Pisa.
Bill Cruickshank explains how the ski troops were used as a ruse to get the Nazis to deploy their troops in Norway, where they weren't really needed. Eventually, they were given a real task, pushing the enemy off the high mountain ridges in Italy.
The men of the 10th Mountain Division were taking a series of ridges one at a time, pushing the Germans further back from the city of Pisa down below. It was on the last ridge that Bill Cruickshank was wounded by machine gun fire. As if that wasn't enough, the mortar fire started.
It was a long recovery for Bill Cruickshank, who was wounded by machine gun fire in Italy. The hospital was in Atlantic City and, as soon as he was able, he pushed wheelchairs along the boardwalk to give more severely wounded men some recreation. This began a lifelong mission of helping others.
Bill Cruickshank felt fortunate that he never had to face a bad artillery barrage, but he had more than enough time in a foxhole with bullets flying overhead. You never forget the noise they make when they are close.
During the action at Riva Ridge near Pisa, a small group of Germans were captured by Bill Cruickshank and his men. They were dispatched to the rear and he didn't think any more about it. Years later, he was asked a question about that day which led to an extraordinary meeting.
