ken russell also was. he's hanging there, trying to get to his trench knife so he can cut himself loose from his risers, when a german sergeant came around the corner. ken says, "i'll never forget him -- blue-eyed and red-haired." and this german sergeant pulled up his schmeisser -- a machine pistol -- to shoot russell and steele, hanging there on the steeple, and sgt. john ray from homer, louisiana, came down right behind that german. the german turned and cut him, as i gather from ken's story, almost literally just cut him in half with a burst from that schmeisser, turned back to shoot russell and steele, and sgt. ray, in his dying gasp with his guts spilling out, got that .45 out and shot that german in the back of the head. then ken cut himself loose from his risers, and in the process he cut off one of his fingers and didn't know it for the next three hours. he ran. he said, "i was the loneliest man in the world." he ran through the village, got to the edge, and there was a german flakwagen, a 20mm gun