(gentle classical music) - The 87th Infantry was one of the many newly minted replacement divisions that found themselves thrust into brutal combat.

(gentle classical music continues) Among them was 18-year-old enlistee, Jack Moran.

(gentle classical music fades) Here to tell his story is an Oscar nominee and multiple Emmy-winning actor whose parents served in the military during and after World War II, Bryan Cranston.

(audience applauding) (gentle classical music) (audience member whistles) - We were just a bunch of smart ass kids, 17 and 18.

We thought it was going to be an adventure.

We didn't have any fear.

We were just, "Let's get over there.

Let's get into the fight."

(gentle classical music continues) Our first day in action was in the Saar Valley outside of Metz, France.

(gentle classical music continues) I saw seven guys go down in 15 seconds.

(gentle classical music continues) My best friend from basic, Hugh Gorman got shot in the face by a German machine gun.

(gentle classical music continues) When you get hit by a machine gun, it isn't just one bullet.

You can't drop fast enough to avoid number two, number three, number four, (gentle classical music continues) it ripped his face out.

That month of combat, I saw enough death and destruction to last me a lifetime.

(gentle classical music continues) Up on a place called Hill 360, I lost four more friends, Noble, Alton, McKinney and my squad leader, Tommy Langston.

I became the squad leader after that.

All they told us was Hitler had broken through at the Bulge and destroyed our 106th division in the first hour, 8,000 men taken prisoner.

The way we heard it, General Eisenhower told Patton and Montgomery, the British commander, that he needed some help.

(gentle classical music continues) Patton hated Montgomery.

So when Montgomery said he could be up there in four days, Patton said he can do it in three.

Well, that was us.

(gentle classical music continues) A 40 hour ride in open bed trucks, freezing our butts off in the cold, strafed the whole way.

No blankets, no bed rolls.

We got up around Bastogne in the middle of the night.

Snow was about a foot deep.

At four o'clock the next morning, I remember I was sucking on a frozen turkey leg.

That was my Christmas dinner for 1944.

We dug a circle of foxholes and stayed quiet.

(gentle classical music continues) The Germans had us surrounded, (gentle classical music continues) the kid in the foxhole next to me got a bullet between the eyes.

All we could do was pull his helmet down and try not to look.

(gentle classical music continues) One night I heard somebody three feet from my foxhole.

I pulled a pin on a grenade.

I rolled it over the edge and hoped it didn't kill any of us.

(gentle classical music continues) It did the job.

(gentle classical music continues) Six days we were pinned down.

Our food ran out after three.

When we got thirsty, we ate snow.

(gentle classical music continues) The Germans threw a lot of heavy mortars at us.

The 88s came in thick as snowflakes.

(gentle classical music continues) I mean, it got so bad, I knelt in my foxhole.

I held up my arms and I said, "Please stop!

Please God, stop the shelling!"

(gentle classical music continues) That was the first time I ever cried in the war, (gentle classical music continues) and the last.

(gentle classical music continues) The brass figured we'd been all wiped out.

Headquarters started to pack up our personal effects.

But after the Army Air Force broke through, we managed to make it back to base with our dead and wounded.

Finally got to take a hot bath, woo.

It sure beat throwing a powder down your underwear.

From Bastogne, we started marching east toward Germany.

We crossed the Rhine at midnight in boats about as big as the pool table.

(gentle somber music) 128 men in 16 boats, eight men to a boat.

(gentle somber music continues) The second we hit the water, the German started throwing up flares.

They lit up that river like it was a baseball field.

at nine o'clock.

I yelled for my men to dig in and some of the guys that were so tempted to jump into the water and swim.

But with all that equipment, you'd drown if you didn't freeze to death first.

(gentle somber music continues) I had a radio man in my boat, Frank Nagle.

He was riding number three position, right directly behind me.

(gentle somber music continues) Halfway across, I felt a bullet whiz past me (gentle somber music continues) and it hit Frank in the heart (gentle somber music continues) and he fell over on top of me (gentle somber music continues) and we lost about half our men that night.

(gentle somber music continues) They were pulling corpses out of the river for a week after that.

(gentle somber music continues) So much blood in the water.

It was a terrible thing to look at.

And you never forget... My unit arrived in Buchenwald two days after it was liberated.

Now, we already knew the concentration camps existed.

They had started to remove the dead bodies, but there were still survivors there.

(gentle somber music) Human shadows, barely able to stand, but oh, still happy to see us.

(gentle somber music continues) We went through the barracks.

We saw the ovens.

(gentle somber music continues) It was hard to believe man could be so inhumane to his fellow man.

(gentle somber music continues) Now, when the news of the German surrender came, our outfit was one of the first to be sent home.

(gentle somber music continues) They wanted us back in training for the invasion of Japan, and we were going to be in the first wave.

(gentle somber music continues) It ate at our guts.

I didn't think I could survive two wars, and thank God it was over before we got there.

On Memorial Day, my mind goes back to the guys who fought and died right next to me, (gentle classical music) the guys I lost on Hill 360, the saddest day of my life.

(gentle classical music continues) And when I closed my eyes, (gentle classical music continues) I can still see it all.

(gentle classical music continues) The price we paid to win that war was staggering.

So many men never got the chance to be a good parent or a loving husband.

They lost everything.

(gentle classical music continues) And I thank God every single day for protecting and saving me.

(gentle classical music continues) Sometimes I don't think I deserve all the good fortune I've had, (gentle classical music continues) and well, there aren't many of us left.

(gentle classical music continues) War is a terrible thing, but that war was so important.

Making it out alive means you are here for a purpose.

You are on a mission.

(gentle classical music continues) I give talks to young people.

I share my story.

I hope I can inspire pride in their country (gentle classical music continues) and appreciation for the sacrifices and suffering so many people endure to protect our way of life.

(gentle classical music continues) If I can do that, then it'll be worth every drop of blood we shed.

(gentle classical music continues) (audience applauding) (audience applauding) (audience member whistles) (gentle classical music continues) (audience applauding) (audience member whistles) (audience member whistles) (audience applauding) (gentle classical music fades) (audience applauding)