Mel’s funniest war story
I was a corporal in World War II. One day, I took eight guys out on a scouting mission, and we found a box of German rifles. Nearby, there were telephone polls with the ceramic insulators at the top. So I say, “A buck a piece—whoever can knock off the most insulators gets the pot.” We grab the rifles and start shooting. Somebody from Arkansas—they know how to do it—knocked off all of them and gets the nine bucks. When we get back to our base, sirens are going off. Everybody’s running around. I see my sergeant and ask what’s going on. He says, “Communications have been cut off between the 7th Army and the 26th Corps. All the telephone lines are down. We think there are snipers and we’re getting a patrol together to find them.” Now, I’m a little scared. I know exactly who’s at fault. So I said, “Okay, count me in.” and out I went again. We never did find them.
I was wondering in that story, why they used German guns when Combat Engineers were armed with Garands. Then I recall Daddy saying they fired them as little as possible because every time one was fired it had to be thoroughly cleaned.
The German guns they could just leave.
He recounted that story in an excellent interview Bob Costas conducted one time on his show years ago. Brooks is without a doubt one of the best story tellers there is. His stories of when he was a writer on Your Show of Shows with Sid Caesar are hilarious.