There is more to the story than that. He got off the boat on the beach with two other guys. The other two were shot.Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:
One of his Purple Hearts was for this: He was walking across a field, and a German soldier came rushing toward him with a bayonet. The German looked 14 or 15 years old. "I didn't see a soldier," Durning said. "I saw a child." He couldn't shoot him. The German soldier attacked, and Durning tried to neutralize him. They wrestled; the German soldier stabbed Durning several times before Durning picked up a rock and shattered his skull, without wanting to. When he realized he'd killed him, Durning dropped to the ground and cried and cradled the dead boy in his arms. He spent 10 years after the war recovering from what we now call post traumatic stress. I just read that account this morning. I've admired as an actor him since I saw him in 'Kiss Me Deadly' but now my feeling about him as a person is profound.