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PFC EDWARD R. FEAGINS
ARMY SERIAL HUMBER 34883825
COMPANY E, THIRD PLATOON
143RD INFANTRY REGIMENT
36TH INFANTRY DIVISION
TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD UNIT
�A COUNTRY BOY IN WORLD WAR I I
The draft was in process before Pearl Harbor and a song was
written,
"I will be back in a year,
Japanese
bombed Pearl
service had to stay.
Sunday afternoon,
little darling".
Harbor and everyone that was
Then the
already in
We were listening to the radio at home on
December 7,
Pearl Harbor had been bombed.
1941,
when it was announced that
Being 18 that day,
I knew that my
chance of going into the army was very good.
I was planning on staying at home that Sunday night and going
to bed early but after the news of the bombing I
something.
So,
S. L.
wanted to do
Taylor and I decided we would go different
places to see what people were saying about the news.
Rogersville,
Surgoinsville,
Church Hill,
We went to
and Kingsport,
and we
would go in restaurants and listen and talk to people about Pearl
Harbor.
The mood seemed to be the same everywhere; the people were
shocked or stunned and they were mad.
Little did I know that a year and half from that night I would
be learning how to kill the enemy.
Before I was drafted, people
would ask me why I wasn't in the army and I would tell them that my
number had not been called, which was the truth.
This didn't seem
to satisfy them so I started telling them different things like the
army didn't pay enough and other answers similar to this.
Sometime in early 1943 I was called to Rogersville, TN for a
physical examination by the local draft board.
This was to be my
first blood test and the nurse tried to get blood out of my right
arm.
She went through the vein, around the vein and even missed it
�altogether.
She then tried my left arm and on the second try she
finally got some blood.
I
suppose they thought if I was strong
enough to stand the blood test, I should be lA.
I received my "Greetings" from the President August 5, 1943 to
go to Fort Oglethorpe,
Rogersville,
after
GA for my physical examination.
TN on a bus on the morning of August 23,
eating
lunch
at
compliments
of
the
afternoon.
My first
Morrison's
army,
I
meal
Cafeteria
arrived
at
in
Fort
I left
1943 and
Knoxville,
Oglethorpe
at Fort Oglethorpe was
TN
that
hotdogs and
sauerkraut and you could smell the mess hall 100 yards away.
On the way to Fort Oglethorpe there was a short fat boy from
Rogersville, Tennessee on our bus and he thought that he was hot
stuff.
He was loud and obnoxious and bragged about what he was
going to do in service.
The day of th examination we were all
standing in a hall, naked as a jaybird.
Some of us looked over and
this fat boy was standing between two black boys.
We started
laughing because compared to the black boys, he looked like he
didn't have a pecker.
The army gave me my physical examination the next day and when
I took the eye test I failed the color blind test.
The doctor told
me to tell him what number I saw and I squinted my eyes looking for
a small number.
square.
When he showed it to me it was about two feet
So because I was color blind my record showed army only,
and I did not have a choice as to what branch of service I would be
in.
After I
August 24.
passed the physical I was sworn in at 5:00 p.m.,
We then boarded a bus and rode most of the night back
3
�to Rogersville.
On the way back to Rogersville, we gave that fat boy a hard
time.
For one thing, he did not pass his physical and we rode him
hard about that.
boys.
We would also bring up the thing about the black
He deserved everything we said on the trip home because of
the way he acted on the way down.
4:00 a.m. August 25, and I
We arrived in Rogersville around
spent the next 21 days at home before
reporting back to Fort Oglethorpe.
I went back to Fort Oglethorpe September 14, 1943.
As I was
receiving my uniform I saw Joe Elsea who was giving out uniforms.
Joe said,
"What are you doing down here boy?"
working at the Kingsport Press.
I
knew Joe from
On September 15 I
received my
shots and a hair cut even though I had a hair cut the day before I
left home.
Since I was tall a sergeant said, "Slim, carry these
soldiers over to the medical building for their shots."
can't carry all these men," and he said,
I said, "I
"I mean lead them".
On September 16, 1943 I reported to medical with a fever and
they admitted me to the post hospital.
I think I slept for three
days and they discharged me from the hospital September 22, 1943.
I was sent to area A Barracks 31 and I slept on the top bunk.
They
used to have mail call every night at the head of my bed and I
would never hear them.
They would place my mail under my pillow
and I would look every morning to see if I had any mail.
was in Barracks 31
I
did a
lot of K.P.
While I
and other details that
needed to be done.
I remember that I did have a one day pass while I was there
4
�and I went to Chattanooga.
The only thing I remember doing was
sight-seeing and eating ice cream.
Being on K.P.
in the mess hall was some experience.
After
each meal, we would scrub the tables down with soap and water and
then move them around so we could mop the floor.
After we would
dry the floor, we lined the tables up using a string.
We also
lined up the salt and pepper shakers and the sugar bowls with a
string.
court.
This mess hall was about twice the size of a basketball
Being in the mess hall was easier than being on pots and
pans because washing pots and pans all day was ha.c k-breaking work.
The garbage detail was the easiest of the three jobs.
One day I had to help unload meat from a refrigerated house.
The meat was hanging on hooks and we would carry it out to a truck.
This was my first time to see a refrigerated storage house full of
meat.
I remember having to mop the barracks but I was lucky that I
never had latrine duty.
Most of the time there were several on the
same detail and if you worked hard you would have a
lot of free
time.
On
October 5,
McClellan,
Alabama.
Basic Training.
Infantry
1943
loaded
on
buses
and
went to
Fort
was sent to Fort McClellan for Infantry
I was in Company C, Fourteenth Training Battalion,
Replacement
October 11,
I
we
Training Center.
we got to know Tech.
training non-corn.
Sgt.
Between
James C.
October
Davis,
5
and
the top
He would blow his whistle and he expected us to
fall out into the company street.
One time we were looking out the
5
�doors and windows and Sgt. Davis blew his whistle and told us he
expected us to fall out when he blew his whistle even if we were
naked as a jaybird.
Another time, he had trouble getting us out of
the barracks and he stood on the top steps with sun glasses and a
helmet liner on his head and he cussed for at least 15 minutes.
After he let us go back into our barracks we discussed that we had
the meanest sergeant in the army.
The company would be marching to
a training area and Sgt. Davis would yell,
"Port arms" and then,
"Double time march" and we would have to run until he told us to
stop.
After we were assigned to a platoon, and they assigned us to
a drill sergeant, we heard very little from Sgt. Davis.
During the first week at Fort McClellan and while we were
waiting for everything to get ready for training to start, a couple
of sergeants came into our company and started poker games.
They
had marked cards and of course they knew how to play poker and
cheat.
They took everyone's money in the company and moved on.
Just after they left
martialled them.
someone reported them and the Army court
I don't remember what happened to them.
Every morning we could fall out and line up and police the
company area.
Someone would inspect the area and if they thought
we had not done a good job we would have to do it over.
The second
time we would have to go over it while we were on our knees or
squatted down.
It didn't take us long to do it right the first
time.
We also had to make our bed up every morning so tight you
could bounce a quarter on it.
We had to mop the floors and hang
6
�our clothes just right on the rack.
We had to place everything in
our foot locker just exactly like the army wanted you to.
Fort McClellan was a large place covering several square mile.
There were thousands of soldiers there in different parts of their
training.
Some were half way through and others were finishing up
just as we arrived to start our training.
Each area was designed for different types of training and we
had to walk or run to every one of them.
At first we had dry runs
for everything we were going to do later with live ammunition.
We
were scheduled each day for one of the areas.
Each
training.
building was
also
set
up
for
a different
type
of
How to take a rifle, BAR, machine gun, or mortar apart
and clean it and put it back together.
We learned to read maps,
how to read a compass, personal hygiene training, and saw VD films
in different buildings.
The VD films were always shown in the
theater and we would usually go to sleep while the film was shown.
Our Captain of Company C was Harold L. Fillmore, and besides
him we had one First Lieutenant and four Second Lieutenants plus
several
etc.).
cadremen
(sergeants,
corporals,
technicians,
privates,
Captain Fillmore was really a fine officer and he made sure
that the other officers did not mistreat us.
He was wounded three
times in Europe and his wife who was also in the army was wounded
at Anzio, Italy.
My best friend was James R. Sanders from McRoberts, Kentucky
and he gave me a dollar just before we got off of the ship in Oran,
Africa.
He told me that he had two and he gave me one and said we
7
�would keep them and take them home with us.
He was killed at Anzio
and I went to his funeral in Staunton, Virginia when they brought
nis body home in July 1948.
Other friends in my unit were W.K. Funkhauser, A.E. Evans,
JLA.
Bride, Roscoe Smith, W.M. Day, M.E. Bridgewater and Nelson
Jones.
W. K. Funkhauser is the only one that I saw after WWII.
He
was an assistant manager at J.C. Penney's in Knoxville and later
manager of a J.C. Penney's store in Oak Ridge, TN.
Our drill sergeant and platoon sergeant was Thomas J. Kearns
and he was regular army and at the time seemed like an old man
(maybe 40).
Our training platoon was the second platoon with four
squads of twelve men each.
I was 4th squad leader and I think the
squad leaders were picked because of our size.
platoons
in
each company
and four
companies
There were four
in
our training
battalion.
One of the first things I learned was that they told you what
to wear.
The drill sergeant would tell each squad leader what to
wear and we would tell the men in our squad.
One afternoon we were
told to put on long underwear under our khakis because we were
going to the amphitheater for a program that night.
Since it was
warm that afternoon we thought they had lost their minds.
By the
time we returned to the barracks that night we realized that they
knew what they were doing because the weather had turned cold.
Being a squad leader had it good and bad points.
The bad
points were having to tell your men that they were on guard duty,
or KP, or to fall out with a full field-pack.
8
The good points were
�that I did not have to do KP or walk a post or do guard duty and I
got some leadership experience.
Basic training was a learning experience about several things;
how to do a close order drill, the proper way to salute, how to
prepare your pack,
how to make a bed,
how to pitch a tent and
several other things I will mention later.
One of the first things you did was to check out a Ml rifle
and memorize the serial number, just like you memorized your Army
serial number ( 34883825).
The next thing you did was to learn how
to break it down to clean it.
You had to keep it clean because the
officers inspected it almost every day and if they found it dirty
you were in for some extra work.
One day I forgot to screw the cap
tight on the gas cylinder and we went to the rifle range the next
day.
When I would fire it, the cartridge would not eject and place
Some first lieutenant looked at my
a new round in the chamber.
rifle and found the problem and boy did he "chew my ass".
to say,
again.
I
Needless
never for got to tighten the cap on the gas cylinder
We learned to fire the Ml and how to set the sights for
distance.
When we fired at the end of basic training,
I made
sharpshooter from 200, 300, and 500 yards.
One thing they tried to teach us was the different positions
from which to shoot a rifle.
During one training session we were
sitting in the sun on some bleachers and I dozed off for a few
minutes.
They were showing us the squat position when the training
officer yelled,
combat?"
"Feagins,
when would you use this
Being an old country boy I
9
said,
position in
"I guess to take a
�crap."
He said, "Corne down here and show us how to take a crap by
the numbers."
I had to go up on that platform and pull my pants
down and squat down like I
was going to take a crap.
Everyone
really laughed at me.
Usually when they caught us sleeping during a training session
they would hit our helmet
liners with a
helmet liners all day long.
the helmet liners.
stick.
We wore those
They hit a few hard enough to crack
When they would hit us on the head it would
sound like dynamite going off in your ears.
One part of our training that I
street or village fighting.
thought was dangerous was
We would go through a window or door.
You put a leg through the window and a target would fly out of the
wall or door and you shot it with live ammunition.
At the same
time one soldier would be on one side of the house and another
soldier on the other side of the house.
Targets were flying up for
them outside of the house.
When you would get in the prone position to look around the
corner of the house they would be behind you and shoot in the dirt
just ahead of you.
time it was scary.
I never heard of anyone getting hurt but at the
It was very useful training and it came in
handy later on.
A couple of things happened in basic training that I am not
too proud of.
We had this
anything he was told to do.
Jewish boy that
just would not do
So one day the sergeant told the four
squad leaders to take him through this obstacle course whether he
wanted to or not.
Two of us got him by the arms and the other two
10
�got behind him and pushed.
One place in this obstacle course you
were on a platform and you grabbed a rope and swung out over water
and dropped on the other side in between some barbed wire.
There
was plenty of room to land in between the barbed wire.
We placed the rope in the boy's hand and pushed him off of the
platform.
He landed on the other side and purposely fell all over
the barbed wire and of course he cut himself a few places.
He left
our company shortly after that and I suspect that he got out of the
army as that was what he was trying to do.
The other thing was we were told to go get a young soldier and
take him to the latrine and give him a bath.
We went in the
barracks and took him to the shower and he was scared to death.
I
l ater learned that he was bashful and he did not know how to turn
the shower on.
I felt sorry for him after I learned more about
him .
Basic training consisted of learning how to take care of your
body and your equipment, and how to use several different field
pieces (Ml GRARAND rifle, (BAR) Browning Automatic Rifle, both air
and water cooled machine guns, 60MM mortars, rifle grenades, hand
grenades, bayonets and explosives).
We saw several VD films and other training films on how to
keep your body clean, especially your feet.
had to have good feet to hike every day.
In the infantry you
We were given exercise
every day to keep us in tip-top shape.
Before we would use one of the field pieces listed above we
would have classes on how to take it apart and put it back together
11
�and also how to clean it and use it in combat.
The bayonet training was the most gruelling and back-breaking
training that we had to do.
Sometimes we would spend all afternoon
holding an Ml rifle with a bayonet on the end of it butting and slashing an imaginary enemy.
jabbing,
Sometimes we would run
several hundred yards down a trail and as a dummy would spring up
we would have to stick it with our bayonet, hit it with the butt
end of the rifle and slash it with the bayonet.
We learned how to face a bayonet if someone was going to
bayonet us.
training.
This was really scary when we first started this
At first we would use a bayonet with a cover on it and
then we would use a bare bayonet.
The secret was to knock the
bayonet to one side with an opened hand and grab the stock with the
other hand.
If you tried to grab the bayonet it would cut your
hand and you could not hold it.
Hand to hand combat was also rough.
We learned how to break
the neck hold, punch the enemy in the eyes, hit him in the groin
with your knee and then straighten him up with a knee to the nose.
If he were choking you, you would bring your hand and arm over the
top of his head breaking his hold and then hit him in the neck with
the side of your hand.
You also learned how to grab your enemy by the shoulders or
his hair and go down backward and stick you feet in his stomach and
throw him over your head and land on top of him.
When you were
thrown and hit on your back it would jar every bone in your body.
The infiltration course was scary when you first heard about
12
�it.
This is where you climb over a bank and crawl about 200 yards
on your belly with your rifle in your arms.
While you are crawling
they are shooting 30 caliber machine gun bullets over head and
blowing up explosives all around you.
The explosives were in holes
and you knew not to crawl over or in one of those holes.
The night before I was supposed to do this,
orderly and someone came
I was day room
in and told me that a private and a
lieutenant had been shot that day.
To say the least this scared
the crap out of me and I did not sleep very well that night. We
learned later that the private panicked and jumped up and that
lieutenant stood to pull him down.
them and kept shooting.
lived.
The machine gunner did not see
Both of them were hit several times and
We also heard that other people had crawled upon a snake
and raised up.
After
I
went
through
this
the
first
time
and
everything was laid out it was a breeze to go through.
saw
how
In fact,
the squad leaders would race our training sergeant to see if we
could beat him through it.
Since we were younger we would usually
beat him and this made him mad.
Learning how to pitch a tent and sleep on the ground was
something else I really didn't care to do.
The first time I did
this we hiked out to a hill and pitched our tent and slept on the
ground that night.
My bones ached all night as I was cold and
didn't sleep very much.
All during basic training each person
carried 1/4 of a tent and to have a complete tent you had to put
four pieces together.
13
�Just a week before Christmas my squad was on guard duty all
night and the next day we hiked out to this mountain for training.
We supposedly set up a defense on the side and top of the mountain
and we stayed in this
morning.
position until
around 2:00 a.m.
in the
It was so cold that water droplets were frozen on the
branches and most of us had a little frost bite on our feet.
Since my squad had been on guard duty the night before we did
not have to stand guard that night.
We pitched three tents with
four to a tent and we went to sleep.
The next morning no one
bothered to awaken us and the whole company was ready to march and
my squad and I were still asleep.
The platoon sergeant found us
still asleep and boy did he ever chew our ass out.
After we were
awakened, we struck our tents and had our full field packs ready in
record time .
During the month of January we went back out on a mountain for
a week of mountain training.
We would set up defensive positions
one day and the next day we would attack a mountain.
We did this
all week in the rain and snow as it snowed while we were there in
the mountains.
It was so cold that with four of us in a small
tent, our breath would be frozen
on the inside of the tent.
We
would share our blanket so as to keep warm.
We went back into camp and cleaned our equipment and clothes
and about three days later we went out again for two more weeks.
This time we were out in the country close to Gadsen, Alabama.
This was more like maneuvers as we would attack another unit when
they least expected us and they would do the same thing to us.
14
�By this time we were used to roughing it and it was easier
sleeping on the ground.
a tent.
In fact some nights we didn't even pitch
All we had to eat was C rations for two weeks and they
sure would put gas in your belly.
Our whole battalion broke camp one morning and we had to hike
26 miles back to camp.
Everyone was breaking wind from all the C
rations we had eaten and you never heard such cussing, especially
from the soldiers in the rear.
They had ambulances and jeeps following us because we were
more or less doing a force march.
than usual.
I mean we were walking faster
Every company in the battalion had people to fall out
but ours and we were bringing up the rear.
Our battalion commander
said our company was the darnndest company he had ever seen.
He
said that we couldn't parade worth a damn but that we were the
walkingest company that he had ever seen.
I don't think we ever
had anyone to drop out on a march.
On one of our camping trips someone took a crap close to the
mess tent.
The next day our company drill sergeant (Davis) took
the platoon that was sleeping closest to the mess tent and had a
funeral.
Sgt.
Davis made them dig a
big hole and before they
buried the crap, he made them sing songs and preach and pray about
it.
Needless to say, no one took a crap close to the mess tent
again.
Another thing we had to do about once a month was to fall out
with just our overcoat and shoes on and walk about a half mile to
the infirmary for short arm inspection.
15
( Remember that this was in
�the winter time.)
One day we were going through the line showing
our peckers to the doctor when one old boy was playing with himself
and had a hard on.
When he pulled back his overcoat that doctor
about fell backwards in his chair laughing and I don't think he saw
the next five or six men because he was laughing so much.
I remember our platoon going up a hill firing live ammunition
at targets that were stuck up out of a hole.
the hill,
After we had taken
I discovered that other soldiers were in those holes
holding up those targets.
I thought how dangerous and little did
I know that we would be in those holes for the next group to come
charging up that hill firing at those targets.
taste of bullets flying over our heads.
We got the real
I was scared that someone
would shoot down into one of those holes, especially the one that
I was in.
Another time we would go charging up a hill
shooting at
nothing and mortars shells would be landing on top of the hill in
front of us.
I was in charge of the next group that went up the
hill and I directed the mortars be fired from a forward position.
I must have given the right information as the cadre with me did
not correct me.
I have often thought what if I had given the wrong
information to the mortar crews.
We had four or five men to get hurt one day when we first
started mortar training with live ammunition.
They set their
mortars up on top of a hill so they could see where they were
hitting down in the valley.
The only trouble was a telephone line
just above where they set up their mortars.
16
When they started
�firing a shell hit the telephone line and wounded four or five
soldiers.
We would go through training using dummy ammunition with
all the weapons that we were trained to use.
When they thought we
were ready they would let us use live ammunition.
There always
seemed to be something that was not thought about when we were
using our weapons.
It was necessary to teach us all the different
things that could happen to you in combat but I think the best
thing they taught us was team work.
You had to work as a team or
your other training would not have been any good.
If I remember correctly we did not have to do anything on
Thanksgiving Day.
What I do remember is we had a big Thanksgiving
dinner - turkey with all the trimmings.
We did train on Friday and
on the way to the training area my good friend,
James Sanders,
asked the sergeant for permission to go to the bathroom.
Before he
could get off of the road he crapped all over himself, so he went
back to the barracks.
Before the morning was over we had a line of
soldiers going to the slit trenches, a line crapping in the slit
trenches, and a line coming back to the training area.
picked up the G.I.'s from the Thanksgiving dinner.
It seems we
After a couple
hours of this they took us to the infirmary and gave us all some
medicine.
At least we did not have to do anything else that day.
On Friday December 24 we trained all day and they were giving
out passes at
6
p.m. for Saturday, Christmas day, and Sunday.
Roy
Duncan from Knoxville and Lucein Graves from Alcoa were going home
for Christmas.
6 p.m.
Their brothers were coming down to pick them up at
I was in line to get me a pass when my platoon sergeant
17
�spotted me.
He yelled out,
think you are going."
"Feagins,
where in the hell do you
I started walking towards my hut and I said,
"I did have a chance to go home. "
about a minute and said,
He looked at me real mean for
"Get back in that line."
The reason he
was mad at me was because a couple of days before that was when the
company was ready to go and my squad and I were still asleep in our
tents.
We left Fort McClellan, Alabama around 6:30 p.m. and drove all
night and arrived in Knoxville the next morning.
icy and we could not drive very fast.
The roads were
Because of the roads Uncle
Winfred and Aunt Laura Roadman had not left for Church Hill for
Christmas.
I arrived at their house around 10:00 a.m. and we left
for Church Hill at 12: 00 noon arriving home around 2: 00 in the
afternoon.
I ate Christmas lunch around 2:30 and dinner about 6:00.
I
went to bed about 11: 00 p .m. and got up at 4: 00 a .m. Sunday morning
to catch a bus to Knoxville to meet my buddies.
Church
Hill
Virginia.
I
I
found
caught
out
the
the
bus
was
mail truck
When I arrived in
snowbound
to
Knoxville
somewhere
and
their
in
I
discovered I had missed the only bus that would get me back to camp
on time.
I then checked both train stations and found I could catch a
train that would get into Gadsen, Alabama around 4:00 a.m.
was 20 miles from camp.
This
I caught the train and it was so crowded
that I stood up all the way to Gadsen.
At 4:00 in the morning I
was worried about getting to Ft. McClellan on time so five of us
18
�caught a cab and the cab driver took us to the main gate and we had
to walk from there.
It cost us $2 each.
before we had to fall out for reveille.
I just did get in my hut
I trained all day out in
the field and that night we had to scrub the hut for some General's
inspection.
To say I was worn out for the rest of the week would
be an understatement.
The week of December 27,
torture.
nights.
1943 to January 1,
1944 was real
I was so tired and we trained hard every day and three
The platoon sergeant said I could not go home again until
basic training was over because I had not been worth a damn all
week.
From this time until February
s,
1944 we were really put
through the wringer.
We had to do things
like run the 100 yard dash,
jump long
distances, run and walk four miles in about forty minutes, throw a
hand grenade, go to the rifle range and see if you could set up
your rifle to shoot 200, 300 and 500 yards.
We also had to run the
infiltration course and the one thing I could not do along with a
lot of other soldiers was climb a rope.
Everyone had to go to the dentist and it seemed like I stayed
all day.
I had one cavity when I went into service and I ate so
much candy in basic training I ruined my teeth.
We would buy candy
by the box and we would keep it in our cartridge belt.
We always
kept Heath Bars as they would fit into our cartridge belts and
officers would not know we had them.
The reason we ate
enough to eat some days.
so much candy is we really did not get
They only had so much food and if our
19
�table man could not get enough food to our table, then we had to do
with what we got.
In the morning they used to feed us scrambled
eggs mixed with potatoes and the potatoes would be half raw.
rest
of
the
day
was
typical
G. I.
food:
The
spam,
vegetables,
would
get up for
especially potatoes, etc.
Sunday morning was
my best meal,
as
I
breakfast, and they would give you all the pancakes you could eat.
Sometimes on Sunday afternoons we would go by the PX and buy two
pints of ice cream and go to the movie.
Of course we would do this
only if we didn't have to train on Sunday.
I remember going into the town of Anniston, Alabama one or two
times while
I
was at
Fort McClellan.
I
don't remember doing
anything exciting but I do remember going to the USO Club.
I don't
know what I was looking for but I did not see anything at the USO
Club that I was interested in.
I finished basic training February 5, 1944 and February 6 they
took us
Anniston
to Anniston to
to
Birmingham.
Birmingham
catch a
and
had
train.
a
We rode
layover
of
a
five
train from
hours
in
So four of us decided to go to a nice restaurant to
eat before catching the train to Bristol, TN.
We went in to a
restaurant to order our food and we decided to have a beer.
Since
three of us were under 21 he would only sell the soldier over 21 a
beer.
Our thoughts were that we were old enough to fight for our
country, but not old enough to buy a beer.
The man said that if he
sold us a beer he would lose his license.
We got on the train in Birmingham that afternoon and rode all
20
�night in our seats, arriving in Bristol about 6:00 a.m. , February
7, 1944.
I
caught a bus to Kingsport and there I
saw my uncle
Malcolm Feagins and he gave me his address and wanted me to write
him.
I caught another bus and arrived home about 8:00 a.m.
I had a good time at home, eating etc.
at Bristol February 17
and we caught
a
I met my buddies back
train at
7: 00
p.m.
to
Washington D . C .
We again rode a train all night in our seats and arrived in
Washington D.C. around daylight.
We then caught a train to Fort
Meade, Maryland (February 18, 1944) and arrived there about noon.
Saturday night Alfred Duncan, Lucein Graves, Nelson Jones and I got
passes to Washington for Saturday night and Sunday.
(These were
the same friends that I was with in Birmingham when we ate in a
nice restaurant.)
We found a place to stay and then we looked
around the city that night and got lost.
The next day we took a
tour of the city that took about all day.
We then went into a restaurant close to the train station so
we would be ready to go to camp at 8:00 p.m.
While we were eating
I went up to the front of the restaurant for something and on the
way back there were three civilians and three women s ·i tting at a
table.
They were the only civilians in the restaurant.
man grabbed me by the arm and said,
This one
"Is it cold up there, Slim?"
He was trying to show off to his girl friend and this made me mad
so I said, "There is a telephone in my ass, call up and see."
He
jumped up from his chair and every G.I. in that restaurant saw what
happened.
They all either got up or turned around on their stools.
21
�One big old sergeant was sitting at the bar and when he turned
around he said, "Are we going to have trouble, Slim."
don't think so , do you?"
for them,
And he said "If they know what is good
there won't be any trouble."
starting apologizing and
trying to act smart.
I said, "I
This man that jumped up
the other two men chewed him out for
After this we caught the train back to Fort
Meade.
The next morning was Monday and after breakfast, I crawled up
on the top bunk and went to sleep.
I slept all morning and little
did I know that they were calling everybody out to sign papers and
give them some information.
in the barrack.
I woke up around 11:30 and no on was
I slipped outside and saw all of them standing in
front of a building.
Just about the time I arrived at the back of
the group they called my name and I said, "here".
"Where in the hell have you been all morning?'
asleep and no one awakened me."
The officer said
and I said, "I was
He said, "Go in this building and
sign some papers" and as a result of my sleeping all morning,
I
signed all my papers in about five minutes and that was the last
formation we had all day.
Everywhere you went you checked out a rifle and turned it in
when you left.
turned
it
barracks.
They checked me out a rifle on February 18 and I
in February
22
and the
rifle was
never
out of the
When I turned i t in some lieutenant started chewing me
out because it was pitted and rusty.
I knew we were leaving to go
over seas so I chewed him out and he threatened to court martial
me.
I knew that they were not going to leave me behind.
22
I told
�him if he thought I was dumb enough to think a rifle could get in
that shape in four days in the barracks, then he must be the one
that was dumb.
That went over like a lead balloon.
anymore
this
about
as
we
left
Ft.
Meade
I never heard
shortly
after
this
happened.
We arrived at Camp Patrick Henry somewhere in the pines in
Virginia on February 23, 1944.
the
u.s.s.
We left Patrick Henry and got on
General A.E. Anderson February 26, 1944.
We sailed from
Newport News, Virginia on February 28, 1944.
I was up on deck and as I watched the shore line go out of
sight I wondered if I would ever see the shore line of the USA
again.
We were on the bottom deck of the ship and there were about
5,000 G.I. 'son board besides the Navy crew.
We had to sleep with
our barracks bag and everything we owned on a bunk.
Since there
were so many troops on this ship we were only fed twice a day.
you had to work you were fed three times a day.
If
Along with several
others I was given the job of being on guard with the 20MM guns.
Four of us were in a mount on the starboard side with two 20MM
guns.
The navy taught us how to load and fire them if necessary.
We only had to do this in case they could not make i t to the gun
mounts.
One day we would be on guard duty for twelve hours: 12:00 a.m.
to 4:00 a.m.; 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.; and 8:00 p.m. to midnight.
The next two days we would only be on guard 6 hours: 4:00 a.m. to
8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
23
and the second day from
�8:00 a.m.
to 12:00 noon and 6:00 p.m.
to 8:00 p.m.
This was
staggered this way so we could eat three meals a day and we were
the ones who always ate first.
Since my buddy James Sanders was
sea sick I would take him my oranges and things of this nature back
to his bunk so he could have a little something to eat.
I still remember how beautiful the moon looked on the water
around two or three o'clock in the morning.
Remember this was war
time and we did not have a escort with us.
We were out there all
alone and our ship had radar and we changed course every so often.
Sometimes you could feel it pick up speed like it had picked up
something on the radar.
I was lying out on deck one day and they were playing some of
the popular music of the early 40 's and for a few minutes I thought
I was back at Silver Lake, lying on a float in the swimming pool.
II
I think this was the first time I was home-sick.
I also remember Madaline Carroll, the movie star, being on our
ship and every day she would come out on the top deck of the ship.
I suppose she was going over to entertain the troops.
The night of March 8, 1944 we passed by the Rock of Gibraltar
and we could see lights shining.
Oran, Africa.
The next morning, we landed in
Before we left the ship my friend, James Sanders,
gave me a one dollar bill and a penney and said that was half of
what he had kept and that we would take it home with us.
As I have
I
said before he was killed on Anzio.
We had to turn all of our
money in for Italian lira and James had kept two dollars and two
I
pennies.
24
J
�I lost the penny but I still have the one dollar bill in my
billfold.
but
I have never been broke since James gave me that dollar,
there
have
been
times
that
I
was
tempted
to
spend,
it
especially when that dollar was the only money I had.
We left the General A.E. Anderson ship March 9, 1944 and rode
trucks down the harbor and boarded the H.T. Circassia, an English
ship.
Oran appeared to me to be a strange place and since I did
not see much of Newport News harbor,
harbor.
I was fascinated with the
Also, all the women wore long dresses with their faces
covered and the men's clothing did not look like anything we wore
in Church Hill.
We could not get off the ship but we could see a
large part of the harbor and city from the deck of the ship.
We
spent most of our time walking around the ship deck to see if
something new turned up.
We sailed from Oran, Africa March 9 along with three or four
other troop-carrying ships.
They had long steel cables attached to
balloons and the ship and the balloons were about 500 yards in the
air.
This
was to keep
strafing the ships.
every day.
German planes
from corning
in
low and
We would see P38 's flying around above us
I suppose they were our escort or look-out for German
subs.
This English ship was the worst ship that I rode during my
army time.
We went down into the hole of the ship and picked us
out a spot on the floor to sleep and stayed for four days.
The
latrines were built like an out-house on the forward and rear deck
of the ship.
They had water running down a trough and everything
25
�went right into the ocean.
These latrines were about twenty feet
long.
The food was terrible and as I remember I only ate bread and
jelly for four days, when I could get it.
They had fish every day
but I could not stand the smell as it would almost make me sick.
One day it was my turn to go down to the galley and get food.
About half way down to the galley, I started smelling the fish and
I had to run to get some fresh air on the deck before I started
vomiting.
Another time we were down in the ship looking around
when we found this clean bathroom.
About the time we started to
urinate, an English sailor came in and said, "Mates, this is the
captain's bathroom and you cannot piss in here."
We landed in Naples, Italy just about dark on March 14, 1944.
We boarded a train and rode out to a staging area where we slept on
the ground that night.
We just did get off the ships when the
Germans flew in and bombed the harbor.
I never will forget while
we were riding the train we started singing "Deep in the Heart of
Texas" and songs similar to that and poor old Joe Elsea just sat
there with tears running down his cheek.
We stayed at the staging
area all night and the next day we were shipped to a replacement
depot, Pleasant Farm.
At the replacement depot they would call out names for work
details and the rest of us would go on short hikes.
I was learning
how to get along in the army and if they didn't pronounce my name
correctly,
I would not answer for the work details.
It was cold
and we would share blankets to keep warm as we were sleeping on the
26
�ground in a tent.
I remember one day a P38 came in low over us and
barrel-rolled and it scared the crap out of most of us.
We stayed
at this replacement depot for three days.
On March 18, they called out a lot of names and loaded us on
trucks and took us to the Madadoloni Valley.
We unloaded from the
trucks and while we were waiting an Italian came along selling
champagne and someone bought a bottle and poured each of us some in
our canteen cups.
This was my first time to taste champagne and I
thought i t tasted like ginger ale.
Shortly after we
unloaded
several
officers
and
sergeants
showed up and started calling names and told each of us what line
to get in.
Little did I know they were getting replacements for
each company.
They called Joe Elsea's name and one other person,
then they called mine.
As soon as I got in line Joe said, "Come up
here with me so we will be together", and I did.
That
day
(March
18)
we
joined
the
36th
Division,
Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Company E, 5th Army.
143rd
After we
had marched to our company, they lined us up in three lines and Joe
and I
got in the same
Platoon.
line again and were assigned to the 3rd
We lined up again the next day and again we got in the
same line and we were assigned to the Third Squad.
That first night we were standing outside our squad tent when
a sergeant came over and asked if anyone was from Tennessee.
We
told him that we were from Kingsport and Church Hill, and he said
that he was from Kyles Ford, near Sneedville.
His name was James
Baker and he turned out to be our squad leader and a good one at
27
�that.
We lived in a squad tent and at night we would build a fire in
something like a lard can.
We punched holes in the bottom and we
would place it on some rocks in the middle of the tent.
A boy by
the name of Ed Gaggley from Chicago, Illinois lived in our tent and
he would go out and steal some charquettes from the officers.
We
would use these in our lard can to keep warm at night.
For light to write letters by we would take a champagne bottle
and fill it with kerosene from the kitchen and then twist a G.I.
handkerchief down into the bottle.
The G. I. handkerchief would act
like a wick and when we would light it, it gave off enough light to
read by.
They would give us a candle once in a while when supply
could get them.
We would wake up in the morning with our nose and ears full of
black soot from the charquette fire.
I am thankful we did not have
to do this long as it warmed up after we had been over there for a
while.
Joe and I use to kid Joseph Stallone every few days.
did not like chili and our cooks did make it hot.
Stallone,
Stallone
We would say to
"Guess what we are going to have tomorrow for lunch?"
Stallone would ask, and we would tell him "Chili."
Then Stallone
would rant and rave for a while and then realize that we were
pulling his leg.
Donald Durbin use to kid me about being a hillbilly and I
would make up things to tell him.
I told him that I put sand in my
shoes to feel at home and I stood for a half day when they put a
28
�tie on me because I thought I was tied.
One day he was drinking
his coffee with his spoon in his cup and I told him that even
hillbillies knew better than that.
I told him that he was going to
put his eye out with that spoon and he just laughed as we were good
friends.
Durbin was
killed in France when an artillery shell
almost hit on top of him.
One thing I remember that I had not thought of in a long time
was we would rake our mess kits out into a hole and kids would be
there trying to get what we had thrown away.
I don't remember ever
not eating all they gave me as I was always hungry.
They tried to
keep the kids away from the soldiers but they were not successful.
One day I was in the latrine taking a crap when an old lady
pulled the side of the tent up and said,
I said,
"Cigarettes for Pa Pa."
"Get out of here" and she took off.
Every time we moved,
somebody had to dig a big hole for an
eight haler and also we would dig a hole for the kitchen.
It would
not take long as they would use one whole platoon to dig one hole
and another platoon to dig the kitchen hole.
While we were at this location in the Madadoloni valley, we
trained to be in good physical shape and also for team work with
the other squads and platoons.
Each morning we would stack our
rifles and go up this mountain and the hardest part was to go up
those terraces.
Each morning we would go a little higher up the
mountain.
After we would come down from the mountain we could go out
into a field and do the British Basic Battle Drill.
29
This drill was
�to train us to move on command.
to get the feel of it.
At first we would walk through i t
What it consisted of was the squad leader
would give a command to the two scouts and the B.A.R. team to go
forward 20 yards and this would put these six men 10 yards in front
of the assistant squad leader and five riflemen.
The assistant
squad leader would then give a command to move forward 20 yards and
these six men would be 10 yards in front of the squad leader and
his men.
After we caught on to this we would then run 20 yards and hit
the ground and pretend to shoot and then we would start using live
ammunition.
This drill would wear you out -
running 20 yards,
falling on the ground and then jumping up and running 20 yards
more,
sometimes we would do this for two or three hours.
The
purpose of this was for the six men lying on the ground to keep
shooting at the Germans while the other six men were advancing.
After doing this all morning we would usually fall out after
lunch with just our fatigues on and this meant we were going to be
doing some hiking and running that afternoon.
Sometimes late in
the afternoon we would ride out to an area and practice taking a
mountain or hill after dark to get us used to fighting in the
mountains.
One particular night when we were riding back you could
see fires all over Madadoloni Valley.
The chaplains thought the
whores from Naples had been using the straw huts up and down the
valley so they set fire to all of them.
We then moved south down Madadoloni Valley near the town of
Avellino for some mountain training with live artillery shells
30
�hitting in f rant of us .
We also attacked pill boxes with live
ammunition and one day our captain was under a tree to one side of
the pill
box when a
boy by the name of Bean shot eight times
through a tree right above his head.
Captain Hoffrichter sure did
haul ass out of there and he never did find out who did it.
One morning I went to the dentist and the dentist was in a
tent out in the field and he filled three teeth for me while some
soldier pedaled a wheel that turned the drill.
I suppose he did a
good job as the teeth never did give me any trouble.
After I had my teeth filled we went on a mountain problem with
artillery
mountains.
and mortars
firing
shells
just ahead
of
us
on
the
The mortars were firing phosphorus shells and they hit
too close to us and some of our soldiers got hit with pieces of
phosphorus.
It had to be picked out of your skin but to keep it
from burning you could put mud on it even if you had to piss in the
dirt and make some mud.
We went all the way to the top of the
mountain. We were above the clouds and an airplane was flying down
the in the valley and we were above it.
I dug in behind a tree
that night and I was afraid I would roll all the way to the valley
if I started rolling.
I sure was glad Joe Elsea was not with us as
I would have had to carry him.
I was.
He was more afraid of heights than
He was in rest camp at the time we climbed this mountain.
While we were near Avellino,
Sanders, for the last time.
I went to see my buddy, James
His sister had written me and given me
his address. He was in the 141st regiment of the 36th division.
We
had a long visit one afternoon and he told me that day that he did
31
�not know what he would do if he came face to face with a German.
He said, "The Bible says 'Thou shall not kill' and I don't know if
I will shoot first or let the German shoot first."
From what I
heard, James did not have to make that decision as he was killed by
artillery fire.
While we were at Avellino we went on a two day, one night
river crossing training exercise.
to the rapids of the river.
rubber boats lying in a field.
We rode trucks to an area close
When we arrived there we saw several
The objective was for a squad of 12
men to carry the boat to the river and then get in the boat and
cross to the other side.
During that first day we would practice crossing the river and
then we would bring it back for someone else to use it.
The river
was swift and there were several boats being used at the same time.
One boat full of soldiers evidently get scared and grabbed a cable
and turned it over.
everyone could swim.
It was funny until we realized that not
But we got everyone out of the water.
We practiced several times that day
- carrying the boats down
to the river without the enemy seeing or hearing us.
We used hand
signals as we could not talk and if we had anything that rattled we
wrapped it up or left it behind.
The river was so swift that you
would land on the far side several feet below from where you had
started.
About 10:00 that night the whole battalion was ready to cross
the river.
We carried our boat down to the river and we got in the
boat and paddled to the far side.
32
Two men were supposed to jump
�out and pull the boat up on land.
I don't know what happened but
one said that he fell out and the other one must have been scared
as he let us go back out in the river.
We knew we were going to
turn over unless we could paddle it back to shore.
When we hit
land the next time, it was on my end, so along with another soldier
we jumped out and grabbed the boat and pulled it up on land.
We then climbed up a big bluff and laid down for the night.
About the time we laid down it started to rain and I
back all night with my parka pulled up over me.
helmet with the parka hood up over my face.
laid on my
My head was in my
I remember that my
buddy who fell out of the boat and got wet all over was about to
freeze,
so I took off my field jacket and gave it to him and he
really appreciated it.
His name was Calvin Bean and we were good
friends.
We
Naples.
moved from Avellino to the
dust bowl
just outside of
We called it the dust bowl because we never had before or
since been in that much dust.
A platoon of men would be marching
out of camp and there would be a large dust cloud behind them.
There is a picture of Joseph Stallone and myself showing how dirty
we were while we were in the dust bowl.
While we were here we had
several parades and we would have to stand for hours with those hot
wool uniforms on waiting for some General to fly in for the parade.
This was the middle of May and it was hot and several soldiers
would pass out and hit the ground.
One thing Joe Elsea and I did up to this point was to fill our
mattress cover with straw to sleep on.
33
We would also take our
�O.D.'s and shoes off every night.
By doing this, we would have to
get up earlier to get our clothes on for reveille and remember we
were still having to lace up our leggings.
Along about this time,
someone gave me a combat boot top and I took it into Naples and had
it sewed on to my shoes.
and top and every time
There was a space between the shoe tongue
I
dug a fox hole, dirt would get in my
shoes.
You can see this in the picture of Joseph Stallone and
myself.
Men that had already been in combat would tell us that
once we were in combat we would learn to sleep with our clothes on
and
we
wouldn't
bother
with
the
straw
anymore.
They
were
absolutely correct for that is the last time we had straw for a bed
or took our clothes off to sleep.
We left the dust bowl and boarded a
(L.C.I.)
Infantry at Naples on May 20, 1944 (Ship #191).
Anzio Beach Head May 21.
Landing Craft
We landed at the
On our way to Anzio, I was lying in my
bunk with my shoes on when Calvin Bean came by and took them off.
He said, "Ed, you had better rest your feet because you don't know
when you will get to take your combat boots off again."
same man
that
shot over
the captain's
head.
His
He was the
brother or
brothers had been killed in Africa and he joined the army at 16
years of age.
At this point of his life, he was a nervous wreck.
Calvin was so nervous or shell-shocked that he would jump a
foot or two off the ground every time a gun fired.
If he were
lying down, he whole body would tense up until his body would clear
the ground.
I heard that before I joined the company, an artillery
shell blew an arm or leg from a dead soldier into Calvin's fox-hole
34
�and it landed around Calvin's neck.
The first day that we were
under artillery fire, Calvin went beserk and grabbed a hand grenade
and pulled the pin and went looking for the aid station.
Two or
three of our buddies grabbed him and took the hand grenade away
from him.
The was the last time I
saw him because he was sent
home.
While we were coming in to the harbor, I was on top of the
ship as a
look-out and I
could see German shells hitting in the
water where we were going to land.
Something stopped the shells
from coming into our beach area and we landed without any trouble.
I suppose one of our spotter planes spotted the German artillery
and our artillery started firing back at the Germans.
We rode
trucks to a place on the beach and we were assigned to an area to
dig us a sleeping hole.
Joe and I dug us a hole to sleep in and we
stayed close to it for four days.
When we would go to eat we had
to stay five yards apart so if a shell came in it would only kill
or hurt one or two soldiers.
sleeping
holes
long
Joe said that it wore him out digging
enough for
me
as
Joe was
several
inches
Express)
German
shorter than I.
While
we were
at
this position
a
(Anzio
railroad gun (280MM) would fire a shell or two into our area every
night.
They would make a hole you could put a truck into.
Also,
every night there were 2800 guns of some description firing at the
Germans.
It seemed like the whole
artillery guns firing at the Germans.
area would be
lit up from
Anzio looked like a horse
shoe as a range of mountains were surrounding the whole Anzio area.
35
�The area was large enough for four infantry divisions (3rd, 34th,
45th, and 36th), an armored division, two or three field hospitals,
and an airport.
I will never forget one night some kind of bug got in my ear
and fluttered all night.
The next morning I
station and they washed it out with water.
went to the aid
Sometimes at night we
would lie awake and watch the German planes bombing the harbor or
going to
Naples to bomb the Naples
harbor.
One day our B-17
bombers were corning back in formation and one of them got hit and
it fell like a rock with only two parachutes opening up.
that they were captured as they were behind German lines.
I am sure
Another
day a P-51 was shot down and it landed between the American Army
and the
German Army.
The Americans
went out and
rescued the
American pilot and he said, "I will get to go home now and we were
just starting to fight. "
While at Anzio we saw in "The Stars and Stripes" that Congress
was going to pass a G.I. Bill to help veterans go to school.
I
decided that day that if I returned home I was going to college.
That same day I received in the mail a card making me a member of
the Dunkin Doughnut Association.
I don't know who sent me this as
no one else in the company received one.
Speaking of doughnuts, it seemed that every time something was
going to happen to us
doughnuts and coffee.
the Red Cross
girls would
show up with
Before we got on the ship at Newport News
they were handing out doughnuts and coffee.
time we were to get on a ship.
It was the same every
If we were in the rear and we were
36
�going to move up to the front lines, there would be the Red Cross
girls in their jeep handing out doughnuts and coffee.
It got so we
really hated to see them even though they were the only American
girls we came in contact with.
We left our area at night Wednesday May 24, 1944 and walked
all night towards the front as all those artillery pieces were
firing.
We stopped the next morning and dug in on the side of a
hill and stayed there until the morning of the 26th of May.
We
then moved towards Cisterna cleaning out houses as we went.
We
would throw a hand grenade in the house and then go through the
door shooting.
One day a soldier tried to throw a hand grenade in
an upstairs window and he missed the window.
bunch of soldiers hauling ass . . .
the ground and just as
buzzing over my head.
operation.
I
did,
I
You talk about a
I took about ten steps and hit
heard a piece of
shrapnel go
We captured a few Germans in this wrap up
One day they passed down the word to watch out for
snipers and if anything would chill you, this would because you
didn't have any idea whether they were going to shoot you from the
back or front.
And you just knew that any minute a bullet was
going to slam into you and probably hit your head since that was
where they usually aimed.
We went on past Cisterna up Highway 7 a few miles and dug in
for the night.
We had relieved an engineering outfit and we were
looking at Velletri.
Velletri was the last strong-hold to keep us
from going to Rome and we could see our artillery shells falling on
Velletri.
37
�Saturday morning May 27, 1944 started out like the other days
at Anzio except for one thing.
We were moving up through a potato
patch when all hell broke loose.
Mortar and artillery shells
started falling among us and small arms fire (machine gun and rifle
bullets) were flying over and around us.
You can tell when bullets
are close to you as they will make a loud popping sound.
I hit the
ground and when they would let up for a minute I would try to dig
me a hole with my helmet.
When they would start shelling us again,
I would put on my helmet and dirt would go down my shirt collar but
that didn't bother me.
At that time in my life, I was the most
frightened that I had ever been.
The reason I was digging with my helmet was because I had my
entrenching tool strapped down on the back of my pack and I could
not get to it.
After that I made sure I could get to it.
I picked up a pick to go along with my shovel.
In fact,
The pick really
came in useful as the ground in Italy was really hard.
During the first barrage I heard my old buddy Joseph Stallone
crying out for his mother and I just knew he was dying.
but not as seriously as he thought.
He was hit
During the next barrage I
heard him calling the Germans all kind of names and I knew that he
was okay.
I don't know how many places he was hit but I do know he
had his ear lobe cut off and was hit in the leg with shrapnel.
He
walked right by me going to the rear and that was the last time I
ever saw him.
From that time on when he was in the hospital, I was
with the company and when I was in the hospital he was with the
company.
38
�Besides Stallone there were wounded soldiers
place and a few were killed.
all over the
I saw my first dead soldiers that day
and they were two men that I knew in the first platoon.
describe how I felt when
I
saw them that day.
I can't
On this day
realized I was in war and people were trying to kill me.
I
After
this first battle I felt like my chances of going home were very
slim.
I wrote home and told John Lee to give my clothes away as I
didn't think I would ever need them again.
One thing you do in combat is you do a lot of praying and
reading the Bible when you get a chance.
I was doing a lot of
praying that day and I don't know how long the shelling went on but
it seemed like forever.
I suppose our spotter planes spotted the
artillery and mortars and the Germans had to take cover from our
artillery.
We pulled back about 200 yards and when I went over the
terrace, my platoon sergeant Horace E. Henderson was fussing.
I
said, "What is the trouble, sergeant?" and he said, "Jerry and his
damn mortars made me spill my coffee."
We
regrouped and pushed on toward Velletri up a
across a road.
hill and
That afternoon we had to fall back to where we were
shelled that morning.
The reason for falling back was we had gone
too far and we had no one on our right or left flank to protect us.
I knew when we arrived back at that point the Germans would have
that area zeroed in and would start shelling us.
Since I was carrying a B.A.R. they put me next to the road
with one of my buddies and we started digging a sleeping hole.
Elsea was just a few yards over from us with another G.I.
39
Joe
We dug
�until around midnight and they started shelling us.
They shelled
us until daylight and with shells exploding and tracers going over
our heads our area was lit up like we were having fireworks.
My
buddy and I did not get out of this fox hole from the night of May
27 until the night of May 30.
Joe Elsea.
During this time I did not ever see
At night we dug our hole deeper and in the daytime, we
slept and read our Bibles.
We could not take a chance of getting out of our hole to take
a crap because they could shoot right over the top of it.
We had
our hole deep enough that we could squat down and take a crap in a
K-ration box and throw it outside.
They shelled us every night
that we were in that hole and sometimes during the day time.
One
night a piece of shrapnel came buzzing in and hit me on the leg and
my buddy said, "Are you hit?" I said, "Yes, but I think all it did
was burn me as that piece of metal was really hot."
The last shell
to hit close to us was a dud and it hit so close to us I think it
would have buried us if it had gone off.
During all of this shelling my platoon sergeant, TECK Sgt.
Henderson was wounded and my squad leader Staff Sgt. James Baker
was wounded and I never saw either of these two men again.
Several
men in our company were killed or wounded during these three days
of combat.
Just about dusk on May 30, 1944 the 36th Engineering Regiment
crawled over to our holes and relieved us and we had to crawl about
200 yards to a terrace that would let us get up and walk.
We then
rode trucks via Cori to the right flank of 141st Infantry Regiment
40
�and here we dismounted from the trucks and started walking.
Little
did we know that we were going to by-pass Velletri and get in
behind the German lines.
We walked all night and ended up in a
valley the next morning and had started to dig in when they said we
were moving again.
We walked all day until we were behind the Germans and they
sent a battalion up to fight us not knowing that there were two
regiments behind them.
The Germans did not last long as most of
them surrendered when they realized they were out-numbered.
We
walked up Monte Artemisio and marched straight across what had once
been the floor of the ancient crater to capture Monte Cavo and
Rocca di-Papa, the two highest points in the Alban Hills.
had the most important observation points,
Since we
the Germans started
pulling back to Rome and beyond the Tiber.
We dug fox holes or fighting holes that night and half of us
had to stay awake.
So we would sleep an hour and then be on guard
an hour. I would stand up in my fox-hole and go to sleep and fall
from one side to the other and wake up.
I have gone to sleep
walking. When they would stop in front of me I would run into the
man just ahead of me and wake up and he would cuss.
That
night
was
the
first
time
I
heard
the
NEBELWERFER
(screaming memoies) and it would make the darndest noise you ever
heard.
It sure was demoralizing as you could hear it all over the
valley and mountains.
I can't describe it exactly but it did sound
like a bunch of gears with grit in them grinding together.
The
apparatus looked like six stove pipes about six feet long and they
41
�could fire electrically six shells at us that weighed about 60
pounds.
They were not very accurate and the biggest thing about
them was the concussion when they exploded.
They were also a
morale breaker.
From June 1 to June 4 we fought our way from Mount Artemisio
to Rocca di-Papa, the last mountain overlooking Highway 7 and Rome.
During one of those days I must have lost my mind as I volunteered
to go on patrol to contact the 142nd Infantry.
We were gone all
afternoon and when we contacted them they did not have any water so
we gave what little we had to them.
The morning of June 4, 1944 we were to advance 2000 yards down
the mountain to clear out some Germans that were dug in near some
trees.
We were lucky as our artillery threw a barrage in those
trees and it either killed or wounded every German there.
These
Germans were some of Hitler's best soldiers and they would have
made it rough for us.
The artillery shells would hit those trees
and explode and it was like some one would be up in those trees
shooting down at the Germans.
After we had captured these Germans, we started moving towards
Rome, Italy.
We hiked 18 miles without a break to Rome on Sunday
June 4, 1944.
We were going up Highway 7 and we had tanks, jeeps,
trucks and several other vehicles going along with us.
At one
point, we heard a tank battle going on ahead of us and we sure
hoped that our side was winning.
Our platoon had to guard the left
flank of the column, so we had to walk through the fields and make
sure that there were no Germans hiding out in the fields.
42
�Just as we arrived in or near the city limits of Rome,
German anti-tank gun knocked out two of our tanks
everyone in those tanks was killed.
and I
a
think
We also ran into some sniper
fire and 1st Lt. Joseph Kulick, our company commander, took a squad
of men and captured one or two Germans and killed the others.
He
wanted to shoot the two he had captured but the CO told him that he
would court-martial him if he shot them.
1st Lt. Kulick did not
like snipers and he said that they were not soldiers.
I was in the first infantry company to enter Rome and this was
the first time Rome was captured from the south because of the high
mountains.
After we entered Rome we stopped in a wheat field to
dig in for the night and to let another battalion or regiment go
through us.
Just about the time we had laid down or sat down in
the wheat field bullets started flying among us and all over the
place.
I heard Lt. James, our platoon leader, "Stop it, stop it,
I said to stop it, darnnit!"
I thought to myself that those Germans
are not going to stop shooting.
It turned out to be some of our
tanks that had pulled off the road into the edge of the wheat field
and when they saw soldiers they started shooting.
was
walking along beside the tanks
Their captain
and when he
saw what
had
happened he apologized but by that
time every
soldier in our
company had his rifle trained on him.
He saw the situation and he
was scared to death and I mean he climbed down in one of those
tanks in a hurry.
Two or three years
friends
later I was telling this story to some
at ETSU and everyone took it as a war story.
43
Several
�months later a man by the name of Ed Golden came into my room and
said, "Ed since I know you better now, I can tell you that I was in
one of those tanks at Rome.
to kill our captain."
I thought sure your company was going
Ed married a
girl from Church Hill and
taught school at Church Hill until he retired.
He still lives
there.
If I remember correctly one of those bullets went through my
pack and my squad leader was hit in the groin and our medic got his
arm shot off.
The worst thing was the tanks moved on and artillery
started falling on us trying to hit those tanks.
I
never will
forget this sergeant lying on his back while those artillery shells
were bursting all around us.
I said, "Sergeant, how can you lie on
your back when they are shooting at us?"
He said, "You never know
where you are going to get hit so one way is as good as the other. "
I was always lying on my stomach trying to get as low as I could.
We spent the night in that wheat field and we dug sleeping holes
because we knew the Germans knew where we were and were likely to
shell us any time.
By this time of the year, the ground was so
hard that you had to use a pick and shovel and you just could dig
out enough to get your body below ground and let your legs hang
out.
On June 5 we loaded on trucks and rode through Rome.
It was
better than a parade as the Italians were standing on the sides of
the streets offering us water, wine, bread, etc.
As usual, I think
that I slept part of the way but I do remember getting off of the
truck in front of St. Peter's Cathedral and washing my hands and
44
�face in one of the fountains.
We stopped just north of Rome and rested that afternoon.
We
also shaved and took a bath in the fountains that the cows used for
drinking water.
One big old red headed soldier dived into one of
those fountains and hit his head on the concrete base and they took
him to the hospital.
I don't remember ever seeing him again.
We
stayed there all night and everyone checked and cleaned his rifle
and got his gear in order for the next day.
The morning of June 6 we started hiking up Highway 7 and we
heard from the jeep radios along the way that the Americans and
British had invaded France.
We all put in $5 and put down a date
we thought the war would be over.
No one put a date down past
Thanksgiving and of course the war was not over until May 6, 1945.
I often wondered what happened to that money.
I think we walked
over 2 0 miles that day as we had the Germans on the run.
Before we
left Rome that day they loaded us down with ammunition and hand
grenades and I remember my shoulders killing me that day.
We dug in the night of June 6 and established two or three
outposts so if the Germans were coming our way the outposts would
start shooting and wake everyone up.
get us two hot meals a
light.
Our kitchen crew would try to
day; one after dark and one before day
They didn't always succeed as we would be under fire or
they could not get close enough to get the food to us but they
tried every day.
I
don't think there was any other division,
hospital, replacement depot or any unit that was fed as well as the
36th Division was in WWII.
I always kept enough K-rations in my
45
�pack so I did not go hungry.
K-rations came in a box about one inch high, three inches wide
and six inches long.
The outside box was cardboard and the inside
box was a wax box that would burn very slowly.
For breakfast, we
would have a can of bacon and eggs about the size of a tuna fish
can, coffee, crackers, cigarettes and candy.
I would cut the top
off of the box and light the open end of the box with a match.
I
would place my coffee in my canteen along with water and sugar and
I would open my bacon and eggs can just a little with a key that
came with it.
I would then hold my coffee and my bacon and eggs
over the wax box that was burning and this would heat my coffee and
warm my breakfast.
We would do this every meal if we had time,
unless one of the meals was cheese.
One of the meals would have a
D-bar, a concentrated chocolate bar.
The morning of June 7 Company E was leading the 2nd Battalion
and Companies F, G and H were following us.
Just before noon we
received some small arms fire and Lt. Joseph Kulick and the first
and second platoons
left the road and charged up
a hill and
captured the rear guard troops that were left to slow us down.
Our first scout at this time was Donald C. Durbin from Howard,
Ohio and he only weighed 110 pounds soaking wet.
He was a good
friend and I can see him now going across the field with his rain
coat stuck in his cartridge belt and it hanging down to his knees.
I was sorry to hear that he was killed while I was in the hospital.
As we were going through a wheat field that day they passed
the word back to watch out for personal mines.
46
Those were the kind
�that when you stepped on one and then stepped off of it, it would
bounce up about waist high and go off.
man,
was
walking close
John C. Neves, our radio
to us and he told us that
the way the
Germans put those mines in the ground was they would pull up a
bunch of wheat and place the mine under the wheat.
He said that
when you stepped on the mine it would pop and every time we stepped
on the dry wheat it would crackle and pop.
He would also come up
through the company saying, "Have no fear men, Neves is here."
He
was killed the night after I was wounded in France.
June 7 was a hot day and the dust from the vehicles would get
in our mouths and noses.
It wasn't too long before we all ran out
of water and we started looking for wells along the road.
We found
some wells and everyone started filling his canteen when Lt. Col.
Gualden Watkins, Commanding Officer of 2nd Battalion, 143 Infantry
came along and told us not to get the water from the wells.
after
he
left,
Col.
Paul
D.
Adams,
Commanding Officer of
Just
143
Infantry Regiment came along and told 2nd Lt. Harry B. James, 3rd
Platoon Leader said to let us get water as long as we put halogen
tablets in it to purify the water.
Lt. James threw his helmet on
the ground (after the colonel had left) and said,
expect me to do when they give me different orders."
"Let's go with Col.
officer"
Adams '
"What do they
We all said,
orders as he is the highest ranking
and we did.
We were always thirsty in Italy as water was scarce because i t
did not rain very much.
The one thing I remember about Italy was
how good water tasted when we could get it.
47
I remember one night
�we were on a hill and next to a house with a well.
We drew water
up from that well and we could not get any good water because it
had dredgings in it.
I remember straining it through my teeth just
to get a little water.
I poured halogen tablets in my canteen and
I don't think I left them long enough to do any good before I
started drinking the water.
I think they were supposed to be in
the water 30 minutes before drinking.
I think that probably gave
me the G.I. 'sand I will explain that later.
I can't remember the sequence in which things happened between
June 7 and June 27,
remember.
1944 but I will
As you know or have heard,
just tell
the things
I
the American G. I. would
always be looking to make things a little easier.
For instance,
the weapons company had picked up some bicycles and trailers on
which to haul their heavy machine guns, mortars, and ammunition.
They were down in the valley and we were dug in upon a ridge. There
were all kinds of trucks and jeeps in front of them and behind them
with U.S. markings on them.
We saw these planes coming down the valley and we knew they
were our planes so no one took cover.
All of a sudden, they just
started strafing the hell out of the weapons company (Co. H. ) •
Evidently all they saw was bicycles
shooting.
and trailers
and started
You better believe that the trailers and bicycles were
left behind.
General Walker found out it was a black squadron from
I
southern Italy that fired on us and you can bet some heads rolled
over that mistake.
Several soldiers were killed and wounded and the Germans must
48
I
I
�have thought it was their planes because they started shelling us.
Every day up through Italy we would come under artillery fire and
small . arms fire like machine guns and rifles.
Those little cub
planes would spot where the enemy fire was coming from and would
relay this information to the ground so our artillery could shoot
at them and we could decide which way to attack them.
Some days we would make several miles and then the Germans
would dig in on a hill and try to hold us up for a few days.
Just
after taking one of these hills our officers let us stay behind and
rest a few hours.
We found a creek running down the valley so we
all took our clothes off and went swimming.
We did not have any
soap but at least the water washed the dust off of us.
We learned
later that a dead horse and a couple of German soldiers were dead
and lying in the creek just above us.
dog tags and I believe
About this time I lost my
I must have laid them down when I went
swimming and forgot to pick them up after I got out of the creek.
One day we were riding on the outside of tanks and just as we
rounded a
curve in the road the Germans starting hitting those
tanks with machine gun and rifle fire.
The bullets were bouncing
off those tanks and several soldiers were wounded before they could
get off of the tanks.
I remember jumping from the top of that tank
and hitting the road hard and rolling into a ditch.
After we
spotted where the enemy fire was coming from the tanks put the
machine guns out of commission.
One day we took a hill as there were some German soldiers just
trying to slow us down and they didn't put up much of a fight.
49
On
�the way back down the hill I said, "Lt. James, where are we going
or what are we going to do now?
11
Lt. James said,
11
Son, haven't you
been in this army long enough to know that the army doesn't know
from one minute to the next what the hell we are going to do."
After taking this hill we would rest for a few hours and our
days of rest were always needed.
letters and get some hot meals.
It gave us a chance to write
I remember lying on the ground
smoking a
cigarette and I went to sleep and burned holes in my
pants.
I
think everyone smoked because it was a way of staying
awake.
If you went to sleep it would burn your fingers and wake
you up.
We were good enough that we could lie down three feet from
anyone and light a cigarette and they would never see the light.
You would keep the cigarette under your field jacket or blanket.
I
remember one day when we stopped for a few hours of rest
they brought a keg of beer and candy bars up to us.
They were
going to give us eight candy bars and a canteen cup of beer so I
traded my beer for eight candy bars.
I ate the first eight bars in
less than 30 minutes and saved the other eight bars for the next
day.
The
next day we
artillery fire.
got pinned down
by small
arms
fire
and
I found one of those big holes that the Germans
used when they were being strafed.
It was about eight feet deep,
four feet wide and eight feet long with steps going down into it.
It had water in the bottom of it so I
went to sleep.
sat down on the steps and
Sometime later I heard Lt. James calling to me and
after I was awake good I wanted to know what he needed.
50
He said,
�11
I don't need a damn thing but I threw a D-bar over there and hit
you in the helmet and you didn't even move.
11
I looked around and
sure enough there was a D-bar lying beside me.
I ate every D-bar
I could get my hands on because they would give you energy.
On June 20, 1944 we took the town of Montepescai and then we
attacked and took hill 409 from the Germans, just off Highway 1.
Everyone in the company was tired and most everyone tried to get a
little sleep.
The next morning the Germans counter-attacked with
machine pistols and stick grenades.
They also had four German Mark
VI tanks with their weapons pointed toward our positions.
Just as we were going around a point on the hill the tanks
opened fire on us and I
climbed a high bank that under ordinary
circumstances I would never be able to climb.
some fox-holes up on the bank.
I knew there were
We were scared that those tanks
were going to come up to where we were dug in and if they had, they
would have wiped us out.
The German tanks were all hit by American artillery and as a
result the 2nd Battalion of the 143 Infantry was still holding Hill
409.
We lost the artillery officer in charge of the F.O. team, a
company
commander,
three
other officers
and eighteen good men
before we stopped the counter-attack.
The 143 Infantry reverted to Division Reserve on June 22 and
stayed as Division Reserve until June 24, 1944.
Company E a much needed rest.
This gave
These rest periods on the drive
north helped the men of Company E and other companies as well.
We
would hit the Germans for one or two days, then another unit would
51
�push through us and pick up the drive and push on.
These leap frog
tactics were quite successful with the units of our division and it
gave the men mental rest that was always needed in combat.
(See
The Fighting 36th, Vol. XIII, No. 1, Spring 1993.)
Just after we had taken the town of Grosseto we were pinned
down by German artillery fire.
I jumped into a ditch next to a
bridge and there looked to be two or three snake skins under that
bridge.
Along about dark I found a garden harrow and placed i t
over the ditch and I placed some wheat bundles over the harrow.
I
thought the wheat would stop the shrapnel and I would worry about
the snakes later - if there were any under the bridge.
Just north of Grosseto, Italy we had a storm and I believe it
was the only rain or storm we had after we landed at Anzio.
were in a
We
field and there were these big tall metal poles with
wires running down to the ground.
I
suppose the air force had
bombed these installations to cut the power off from the Germans.
Lightning was really bad that day and I was lying there on top of
my B.A.R. trying to keep it dry.
I thought; "If lightning hits one
of those poles and runs down that wire it is sure to hit that metal
rifle.
trouble."
But if my rifle gets wet and won't fire
I
will be in
So I decided to lie on top of my rifle.
That night we ended up on top of a mountain or hill.
We were
supposed to dig in but we were so tired we just barely dug enough
to get part way below the surface of the ground.
By this time in
combat we were so tired that we would rather take a chance on
getting hit than dig half of the night.
52
That night a shell hit
�close to Joe and me and killed two and wounded three or four more.
Joe and I did not even hear the noise.
One afternoon we were digging in on top of a hill and the
ground was so hard we would hit it with our pick and break just a
little piece of dirt loose.
Joe and I dug just enough to get our
bodies below the top of the ground and left or legs hanging out on
top of the ground.
That afternoon we received about 50 replacements straight from
the states.
The first thing we did was to crawl from hole to hole
to see if anyone was from Tennessee.
Erwin and a Anderson
w.
We found a John Smith from
Cole from Kingsport.
I never saw either of
these two men after I returned home.
That night just after dark we were to attack another hill and
everything started off just fine until the Germans heard us.
They
started shooting in our general direction and mortar shells started
falling around us.
The worst thing that happened was a self-
propelled gun or tank started shooting at us point blank.
I mean
that will scare the pants right off of you.
I saw a ditch and i t was filled with briars but I dove into
that ditch, briars and all.
A piece of shrapnel took just a little
piece of my shoe heel off that night.
Lt. Joseph Kulick noticed
that we did not have anyone on our right or left flank and the
radio man could not raise Battalion Headquarters.
Lt. Kulick gave
the orders to fall back to our original holes and we had to get the
wounded out of there as we went back.
Lt. Kulick had been at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed.
53
He
�had received a D.S. C.
and a Silver Star in the Pacific before
coming to the 36th Division.
someone
asked
him
where
When he arrived at the 36th Division
he
was
f ram
and
he
gave
them
some
fictitious name in Texas. Then they asked where is that close to
and he gave them another fictitious name in Texas.
Shamokin, PA.
He was from
Someone asked him later why he told them he was from
Texas and he told them if the think you are from the same state you
can get along a lot better.
He said, "If I had told you that I was
from Pennsylvania, you might have resented me coming in and being
company commander. "
After we got our wounded out and were back in our original fox
holes,
Lt.
Kulick went
looking for Battalion Headquarters.
He
found everyone including the colonel asleep and he also found out
the attack had been called off that afternoon, but the Battalion
had not told Lt. Kulick.
From what I heard later, he pitched such a fit that Lt. Col
Watkins told the medical doctor to declare him battle fatigued and
send him home.
I believe Lt. Col. Watkins was afraid of Lt. Kulick
and I bet he thought the lieutenant was going to kill him right
there.
I~ not there, he would get him later for letting some of
his men get killed and wounded.
For combat duty he was probably
the best company commander in the 36th division.
The last hill we took in Italy was near the city of Piombino
which was on a peninsula to our left with the beautiful Tyrrhenian
Sea off in the distance.
I remember looking at the harbor and
thinking how peaceful i t looked.
54
�On one occasion a service company of trucks driven by blacks
were moving us up so we could leap frog through the company that
was on the front.
An artillery shell hit in the field close to our
convoy and one of the drivers
jumped out of his
truck with i t
moving. It went over a bank and hurt a lot of soldiers.
They were
so mad I believe they would have shot him right there if they could
have found him.
The rest of us dismounted from the trucks and
walked the rest of the way to the front.
In a way, you couldn't
blame the driver as he had not been trained for artillery shells to
be exploding close to him.
There used to be a joke in Italy that one black soldier upon
hearing the first artillery shell started running and after running
several miles bumped into someone in the dark.
He said,"
I am
sorry sergeant." "I am not a sergeant" the soldier exclaimed.
Then
he said in this order,
colonel -
"I am sorry lieutenant - captain - major
"Then the soldier that he had bumped into said, "I am a
general" and the other soldier said,
" I did not know that I was
this far behind the enemy lines."
After taking the hill we sat up an outpost out on the crest of
the hill 200 yards in front of the company.
A buddy and I had
outpost duty from 12: 00 midnight until 2: 00 a.m.
and after we
arrived at the outpost we climbed down in the hole.
After we were
in the hole we decided that one would sleep for an hour and then
let the other one sleep as we were dog-tired.
I remember smoking
cigarettes and waking up every time the cigarette would burn me.
This was one way to stay awake and be still and listen for the
55
�enemy.
One of us went to sleep when we shouldn't have and when we
looked at our watch i t was 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.
At this time in my
life I can't remember which one of us was supposed to be awake from
1:00 to 2:00 a.m.
Knowing the way I go to sleep,
it could very
well have been me.
Anyway, my buddy went back to get our relief and he told them
that our watch had stopped and that he did not know what time i t
was.
I suppose that they believed his story as we never did hear
anything about it.
The next day June 27, 1944 would be the last day of combat in
Italy for the men of the 36th Division.
The
36th Division who led
the Americans ashore on September 9 1943 was now considered one of
the best Infantry Divisions in Europe.
good friends from Anzio to Piombino.
I sure did have a lot of
I can still see their faces
but I cannot remember their names.
I had been selected to go to rest camp for five days in Rome
and early the morning of June 27 I climbed on a truck along with
several other soldiers from the 36th Division and we rode about 200
miles to Rome that day.
The 36th Division was relieved that day
and they started south to Rome but it took them four or five days
to arrive on the outskirts of Rome. The reason it took them so long
to get to Rome was that the division had to move everthing it had.
During our 30 days of combat we gained about 240 miles and
captured Rome.
I made a lot of good friends and I also lost a lot
of good friends between Anzio and Piombino.
When I arrived in Rome I found out we were staying in the camp
56
�that Mussolini had built for his Boy's Club.
There were tennis
courts, an indoor swimming pool and the buildings were beautiful.
They
gave
us
bunk
beds
mattresses or springs,
and
two
blankets.
only boards.
The
beds
had
no
But after sleeping on the
ground for 30 days, it was a luxury to be sleeping in a building.
We had fairly good food and I think all I did for the first
three days was to eat, rest and write letters.
One building was
like a big living room with lots of easy chairs and couches.
I
would go over to this room and sit down in one of the easy chairs
and talk and write letters.
One day I decided to go swimming and the Red Cross loaned me
a bathing suit.
The water was clear and I swam a while and then I
made my mistake.
I decided to dive off of the platform board.
Remember I use to dive off of a spring board at Silver Lake and the
water was muddy or at least dark brown sand or mud.
I climbed upon
this platform that was 15 or 20 feet above the water.
do a
jack-knife and I
bottom of the pool.
I decided to
didn't know it but I was aiming for the
Just as I leveled out I hit the top of the
water and this was a surprise as I had never dived in clear water.
It embarrassed me so I
just sank to the bottom and swam to the
other end before I came up.
The fourth day I went with some friends to visit some places
in Rome
like St.
Peter's Cathedral,
the catacombs,
Cathedral, the Coliseum and several other places.
St.
Paul's
We also took a
buggy ride that was interesting and we got to see the whole city
this way.
57
�At lunch we ate at a G.I. supervised restaurant that served
spaghetti.
We had to stand in line and after we got inside and sat
down they would give you a plate of spaghetti for 10 cents.
We
could buy two plates while we were in there and then we could go
outside and stand in line again.
The spaghetti was so good we ate
our two plates and we went back outside and stood in line again so
we could get two more plates.
At the rest camp I met a guy from Texas that was a cook and we
became friends.
He would load my plate with food as I would go
through the chow line.
I think it was the fourth night that he and
the other cooks were cooking steaks and he invited me down to the
kitchen to eat with them.
They were all friendly and believe you
me I ate way too much that night.
About three or four o'clock the
next morning I was sick as a dog and I vomited all over the floor.
I got up about daylight and mopped the floor.
I
suppose after
eating K-rations for a month that rich food did not hit my stomach
too well.
At the end of the fifth day I rode in a truck about five miles
outside of Rome and joined my company (CO. E., 143 INF.) and they
had a squad tent set up with my belongings in it.
As I was walking
by the supply tent, the supply sergeant wanted to know what size
combat boot I wore.
I told him that I wore a 12 and he said, "Corne
and get these damn boots, they are the biggest boots I have ever
seen."
This was my first pair of combat boots.
I went back in to Rome the next day with Joe Elsea and we had
a good time sight-seeing.
By this time in our lives Joe and I had
58
�become the best of friends.
We had survived the battles from Anzio
to Piombino that covered over 240 miles.
On
July 1,
1944
we
left Rome on
a
L.C.I.
(Landing Craft
Infantry) and we stopped at Pasturn and stayed there until July 9.
I was glad we stopped for a few days of rest as I had gone to sleep
leaning up against the front gun mount with my shirt off.
I was
really blistered and I went to see the battalion medical officer.
He gave me something to rub on my chest and shoulders.
He also
gave me a slip to take back to the company commander telling him
that I could not train for a few days.
On July 9 I was back to full duty and we moved closer to
Salerno.
At Salerno
Training Course) .
we
took eleven
days of
I. T. C.
( Invasion
This was rough training in more ways than one as
the days were long and the things we had to do were tough.
Just about the time this training started, I got the G.I.'s
and it kept getting worse each day.
I will explain what happened
at the end of the training.
The first thing we did was to climb a high platform (about 30
or 40 feet) and climb down on the other side using a rope ladder
and with full field pack and bare bayonet.
This would be the way
we would leave the ship on an invasion.
Another thing we did was to learn how to put a fuse in a cap,
put the cap in a quarter pound of highly explosive material (TNT),
pull the starter on the end of the fuse, and drop the explosive
material in a hole.
We would use the cap and fuse to place in the
end of a bangalor torpedo to blow up barbed wire entanglements.
59
�The bangalor torpedoes were about two inches in diameter and three
feet long and you could link them together as you pushed them
through the area you wanted to clear.
You tried to place them next
to the steel stakes that held the wire and this would clear a wider
path through the wire.
One cap and one fuse in the last one would
explode five or six or maybe more of these bangalor torpedoes.
We would fan out behind the man that was blowing up the wire
and as soon as it blew we would jump up and run through this blown
I
area .
One day a freak accident happened as a piece of steel pole
came back our way and stuck in a soldier's leg.
All this training
was necessary just in case we had to use it on the beaches we were
i nvading.
Just before dark each night we would go aboard a landing craft
tank (LCT) and supposedly sleep for a few hours.
The ship would go
out a few miles in the sea and about 4:00 in the morning we would
be standing on deck waiting for a small landing craft (LCVP) to
come along side the LST.
The LCVP would hold about 30 soldiers and
as we would go down the rope ladder that was up against the side of
the ship the waves would make the LCVP bump into the side of the
ship.
Sometimes it would bump higher than the last time so you had
to watch and if it was going to crush you, you would turn loose of
the rope ladder and jump in the boat.
Sometimes you just had to
jump on top of someone to save your life.
After everyone was in a LCVP, we would ride around awhile and
just at daylight we would start for the beach.
There would be a
row of LCVP's as far as you could see going into the beaches all up
60
I.
�and down the coast.
Sometimes the ship would get us to dry ground
and other times we would leave the
everything we had wet .
ship in deep water and get
Wet or dry,
we would
go
towards
the
mountain some distance away.
One thing we encountered was Mussolini's canals.
They were
too wide to jump and we would have to wade across them as the dirty
water was about waist high.
We tried to jump them at first and our
feet would hit the water and slam our knees into the concrete
walls.
After one or two times hitting the concrete we gave up
trying to jump them.
down the mosquitos.
The canals were to drain the water and keep
We would keep going inland for several miles
or until noon sometimes and then we would go back to the company
area for lunch.
Then we would do something else in the afternoon
and go back out on the boat at night.
We did this routine for 11
days and we were all dog tired.
During this time my G. I.' s were getting worse and even the
lime they placed down in the latrines would burn my ass when I sat
down to go to the bathroom.
I believe some of the water I drank up
through Italy gave me the G.I.'s.
The invasion training was over and we were on a 16 mile hike
one afternoon when
I
could see
spots
before my
eyes.
I
had
consumed my canteen of water and was still thirsty when we stopped
for supper after 12 miles.
made me sick to smell it.
The kitchen brought food out and it
I
I
I
The company commander told me to go back
on the kitchen truck and go on sick call.
I went on sick call and found out that I had walked 12 miles
61
I
,,
�with a
temperature of
103F.
They kept trying to make me have
malaria and I kept telling them that I was just sick.
This was
July 21 and they sent me to 111th Clearing Station Hospital that
night.
The next day
Hospital and I still
I
was admitted
into the 59th Evacuation
had a 103F temperature.
I
left the 59th
Evacuation Hospital and rode a train to the 103rd Station Hospital
in Naples, Italy on July 24, 1944.
At the 103rd Station Hospital they could not find out what was
wrong with me and at one point they talked about taking my tonsils
out.
I still had the G.I. 's but it wasn't as bad as it was when I
first entered the hospital.
After my fever went down they released me from the hospital
August 12, 1944.
I was sent to the Race Track, a replacement depot
and I stayed there until August 18, 1944.
While at the Race Track
the infantry slept on the ground and the air force people slept on
cots.
I received a pass and visited Naples on August 13 and again
on August 15.
The day I was visiting Naples, the 36th, 45th and
3rd Divisions invaded southern France.
This was the reason we had
been taking invasion training.
I left the race track and went to the 2nd Replacement Depot
August 18, 1944.
This place was out on a hill and we just laid our
blankets on the ground to sleep without a tent or anything.
This
is where I really got acquainted with my friend Robert Carty from
Abingdon, VA.
All of the 36th Division soldiers stayed together in
one area and Bob and I put our blankets together.
Even though Bob
and I were in the same company we did not know each other too well
62
�as he was in the weapons platoon (a machine gunner).
We really had a good time as we would roughhouse and wrestle
a lot.
Some of our buddies would cuss and fuss as we would roll
over them.
One day I kicked at Bob and caught a scab with my heel
just above his knee.
about
six
wounded.
inches
I
tore the scab completely off and it was
long.
The scab was
he had been
We walked down the road to the aid station and they
almost sent him back to the hospital.
Bob said,
from where
On the way back up the road
"I don't know whether to kick you for kicking me or to
kick you for not kicking me harder."
While at the 2nd Replacement Depot we would go into town.
One
day we went to see his brother who had been wounded and was in the
hospital.
We also went to the beach and would pull off all our
clothes except our boxer shorts.
One day we walked across the officers beach to the civilian
beach and borrowed a boat.
Bob and two buddies and I rowed that
boat out to a buoy and Bob could not swim a lick.
One other day we
were swimming next to a sunken boat when Bob jumped off the boat
and we had to pull him in.
He said that he thought he could swim
if he jumped in and had to.
Bob went to school at VPI and taught school awhile and then he
went to Emory in Atlanta to become a Methodist preacher.
Before I leave Italy I will try to look back and think of some
of the things that made an impression on me.
nasty
tasting
atabrine
for
malaria
One thing was that
prevention;
churches
on
hilltops, women carrying huge loads on the top of their heads; the
63
�rapid fire of huge guns, the distant sound of baying donkeys and
ringing church bells.
Our helmets -
brushed our teeth out of them,
we carried water in them,
washed and shaved out of them,
washed our socks out of them, used them as shovels, tried to crawl
inside them while under fire and sat on them to watch a movie.
Every time you would sit on them your legs would go to sleep.
Anzio and our march through Rome.
Invasion Training.
Hungry
little kids with their rusty containers standing by our garbage can
begging for leftover scraps of food from our mess kits.
Little
kids pimping their older sisters and little girls pimping for their
mothers.
Olive groves and vineyards.
from Mt. Vesuvius.
Birdwatching on lava dust
The lack of water in the summer time.
camp in Rome and the beautiful St. Peter's Cathedral.
of good friends.
Velletri and my first time under fire.
The rest
The deaths
It seemed
like everybody wanted a part of you; mines, small arms, airplanes,
tanks mortars, and artillery.
The supernatural strength we would
have at times.
On September 1, 1944 I loaded on to LCI #192.
I sailed from
Naples Italy September 2 and landed in France September 4, 1944.
Everyone in the front compartment of that ship was sick the
morning of September 3 and I nearly got sick from all of those
soldiers being sick.
I went up on deck and stayed up there all day
and part of the night so I would not have to smell all that vomit.
A boy from Knoxville was sleeping just below me and I carried him
back to the control tower as he was vomiting blood.
something and
r
put him back in his bunk.
64
They gave him
His name was Paul F.
�Mynatt.
I left southern France and rode a truck up to Grenoble, France
August 9, 1944.
I remember having a short visit in Grenoble before
going to the 36th, 143 Service Company on September 10.
I joined
my company September 12 and I remember that the first person I saw
was Joe Elsea.
He was making himself a cup of coffee.
We had a
good time that night talking and Joe left for the hospital the next
morning.
exhausted.
Joe was 36 years old and he was physically and mentally
They sent him back to a hospital complex in Naples,
Italy where I would soon join him.
On August 13 we were attacking a small town when machine gun
and rifle fire started coming into us.
say,
I heard one of the new men
"Oh boy, there will be lots of souvenirs in this town. "
thought to myself, "How stupid can he be?
I
Doesn't he know we will
get people killed and wounded taking this town?"
After we had
taken the town we found German prisoners hiding in hay lofts and
other places.
A Frenchman told us there were prisoners in this hay loft just
above his house.
through the hay.
The chimney from the house would go right up
we were up in the hay loft getting prisoners out
of it and the Frenchman would say, "More are up there."
back up in the hay loft with a buddy of mine.
So I went
He was holding a
flash light and I was holding my M-1 Grarand rifle.
We went over
to the chimney and found a prisoner down in the hay beside the
chimney.
We told him to come out and he started to hand his rifle
out and I thought he was going to shoot us.
65
I flipped my safety
�off to shoot and he heard the safety go off and dropped his rifle.
I have always been glad that he dropped his rifle and I did not
have to shoot him at point blank range.
We moved out of town and stopped on a hillside for the night.
It rained all night and I slept on one side all night with my parka
over me to keep from getting wet all over my body.
We built some
big fires the next morning so we could dry off a little and I just
knew that at any minute the Germans were going to see those fires
and start throwing artillery shells in on us.
The next night just about dark 2nd and 3rd platoon went on a
combat patrol.
And along about 12:00 that night we realized that
we were lost and so we dug in, in a circle as we did not know which
way the enemy might come from.
Nothing happened that night and we
joined the company the next day.
We kept moving toward the foothills of the Voges taking a town
one day and/or hill the next day.
The Germans were on the move and
they were trying to delay us long enough to get their defenses set
up at the Moselle river and the mountains behind the Moselle river.
One night we walked all night, wading creeks and climbing over
fences trying to get behind the Germans so we could cut them off
and capture them.
we arrived in town about daylight to find the
Germans had pulled out.
We started to dig in so if they tried to
take the town back we would be ready for them.
A man came out of
a house and asked me and my buddy if we would like some breakfast.
We said yes, but when it was ready my buddy would not go in and
eat.
This lady had eggs, bread and wine on the table and I bet I
66
�ate a dozen eggs and nearly a loaf of bread and part of a bottle of
wine.
I thanked them and they both hugged and kissed me as I left.
They were so thankful that we had run the Germans out of their
town.
I went to church in a French church.
know now what denomination it was.
I
I did not and do not now
do know that we had our
battalion chaplin and we carried our rifles right into the pews
with us.
Our rifles were loaded with a round in the chamber.
This
is the way we carried them all the time.
Another time we had an outpost in a small railroad station,
only the people that worked in the station lived in it too.
They
thought we were going to be there for the evening meal so the lady
prepared enough food for all of us.
cooking for all of us.
We did not know that she was
It was really a good meal and when we left
we gathered up as many K-ration meals as we could and gave them to
the French lady.
One night we moved into a house to spend the night and some of
them said,
11
I get the bed.
and slept all night.
11
The rest of us laid down on the floor
The G.I.'s that slept in the beds had to get
up in the night as there were bed bugs in the beds.
Another night we were doing guard duty using 50 and 30 caliber
machine guns.
Sometime in the night the G.I.'s that were on guard
duty started shooting
shooting.
and the rest
of us woke
up and started
After daylight we discovered that a cow had gotten in a
woven wire fence and was making a noise.
several cows that night.
So as a result we killed
I never did hear what became of this.
67
I
�suppose the U.S. Government paid for the cows.
When I joined the company August 12, 1944 I was asked or told
to be a
runner for the
3rd platoon.
A runner
stays with the
company commander and company headquarters most of the time.
When
the company commander cannot get a message to the platoon leader by
radio or telephone then the runner has to go and find the platoon
leader and give him the message.
I thought being a runner would be
a lot safer then being in a platoon.
The morning of August 21, 1944 we had been dug in along a road
and we discovered after we were awake that an artillery unit had
moved in around us.
We were given extra ammunition that morning
and told to get ready to move out.
About the time we were ready,
the artillery kitchens started serving breakfast.
I grabbed a top
off of a cardboard box and bent it so it would hold food and went
through the artillery chow line.
eggs,
They gave me some grits, powdered
toast and coffee and I went
breakfast and boy did i t taste good.
said
II
down the road eating a
hot
The cook that was serving
I know these boys are not artillery men, but I' 11 be damned
if I am going to turn them away without feeding them.
The afternoon of August 21,
11
1944 we arrived at the Moselle
River at a point between the cities of Remiremont and Eloyes.
141st Regiment had already crossed at this point.
The
An American
soldier from the 141st swam the river and tied a rope to a tree as
the river was swift and about four feet deep.
By the time we
arrived they had several ropes across the river.
our whole battalion started pulling off our clothes and tying
68
�them around our necks
so they would not get wet.
What was
so
funny, there was a major from Battalion Headquarters who kept his
shorts on and he stuck out like a sore thumb.
I guess you could
say that there were other things sticking out, but believe you me
when we hit that cold water (and was i t cold) everything drew up.
The river was so swift that we had to hang on to a rope with one
hand all the time.
In the meantime, we had to keep our rifle and
pack dry while going across as our ammunition was
in our pack.
After we crossed the river we put our clothes on and then moved to
a small town and dug in for the night except I had to go to the
platoon several times that night.
Bill Hartung, the 1st platoon runner, and I had to go down a
road about 500 yards to where our platoons were dug in and give a
message to our platoon leaders.
On the way down we were talking
when the Germans started shooting at us.
They were located on top
of the hill and they had the road zeroed in with their machine
guns.
So on the way back we were quiet and they didn't shoot.
next trip down that road we had to take two English officers
colonel
and
a
major)
Observer Officer ( F. o.
to
).
find
the
American
Artillery
The
(a
Forward
They were with the underground French
F.F.I. and they knew where the German artillery was located.
On the way down we warned them to be quiet and about half way
down German artillery started hitting close to us.
The major, Bill
and I hit the ground but the colonel kept standing, so we told him
he had better hit the ground next time and he agreed.
flying all over that road from the bursting shells.
69
Shrapnel was
We finally
�finished all our mission that night and I think we slept about two
hours.
The next morning, September 22, just at daybreak we were going
down the road to join the company when German machine gun fire
opened up on the company.
We were behind a bank and we watched as
soldiers were running, trying to find cover.
seeing our buddies
being gunned down
We
felt so helpless
like that.
The Germans
realized they were out numbered and after firing a few minutes,
they left to pull back to another hill.
After we took care of our wounded we moved on up in the Vosges
mountains.
all that
I remember eating a K-ration cheese that day and it was
I
ate that
day.
We were
going around the mountains
attacking a small town of Melia on our way to taking Vesoul.
We had stopped for a few minutes and Bill Hartung and I were
about ten feet apart on a steep slope of the mountain.
Bennett,
Kenneth
2nd platoon runner was about 15 yards in front of us.
Bill Hartung was above me when a mortar or artillery shell hit
right between us.
The concussion knocked me out and I never did
know how long I was out.
I can just remember as I was coming to, some one was yelling
"Medico".
That was what you yelled when you were hit.
I heard Lt.
Roses asking if anyone was hit back there and I told him that I
was.
Just as I came to, I was afraid to look at my legs because I
thought that they had been blown off.
I asked Lt. Roses to look at
Bill Hartung because I thought that maybe it had hit on top of him.
Lt. Roses looked in that direction and said, "He didn't know what
70
�hit him."
I did not know until I was back in the hospital that i t
was Ken Bennett that was killed.
Limbs from branches that had been
cut by shrapnel were laying all over me.
Of course I left my pack and rifle lying right where I was
wounded and Lt. Roses helped me down the side of the mountain to a
barn.
I had to hop on my left leg as I couldn't use my right leg.
While at the barn I took my sulfa pills and then sprinkled sulfa
powder on my wound.
They took my combat boot off and when the jeep
picked up another soldier they took my boot back with him.
I had
my name, rank and serial number in my boot.
The jeep came back and picked me up and took me to battalion
aid station, a house on the back side of the mountain.
When we
pulled up into the yard Bill Hartung came running over and said,
thought you were dead,
11
and I said
II
I thought you were dead.
11
11
I
I
did not talk to Bill again for 44 years and when I asked him about
that day he told me that after he came to, he crawled down to me
and I wasn't moving or breathing so he jumped up and ran like hell.
He wasn't hurt physically but I heard later that they had to send
him to the rear because of his nerves.
They took me into the house and placed me on a stretcher and
after I told the doctors my name they said they knew I was coming
because they had my boot.
The doctors gave me a shot and in a few
minutes I was feeling better.
My ears rang for days and my foot
felt like needles were sticking in it.
I was told that was because
the nerves were damaged or cut into.
It took years before this
sensation of needles sticking in my foot improved.
71
�I
left the battalion aid station on a jeep.
across the front and back of the
They had bars
jeep and it could hold three
people on stretchers - one stretcher beside the driver on the lower
level and two stretchers on the top level.
I was on the top level
and I just knew that at any minute a machine gun was going to open
up on us.
We went back down the road where we had been the night
before and across the Moselle River to a medical clearing station.
From here the worst casualty patients were taken by ambulance
to the hospital first.
They put me in an ambulance and took me to
the 11th Evacuation Hospital.
put me in a tent.
operating
tent
I arrived there after dark and they
Sometime that night they carried me into the
and
operated on me.
reminded me of Mash,
From what
I
remember
the show that used to be on TV.
around and I could see the doctors operating on people.
it
I looked
They stuck
that needle in my arm and that was the last thing I remembered
until I woke up in a tent sometime the next day.
After I came to, a nurse asked me if I would take some pills,
and I said, "I don't know if I will or not," and she said "Oh, yes
you will."
I took the pills, and went back to sleep and awakened
sometime after lunch.
I told the nurse that I was hungry and she
went to the mess hall and brought me enough food for three or four
people.
I
suppose i t was the circumstances but I believe those
nurses in that tent were the nicest, prettiest, friendliest of any
nurses I was ever around.
They just couldn't do enough for you.
The French people would come through the tent and give us
apples,
pears,
grapes
and other things to eat.
72
They were not
�giving
me
anything
because my
cot
was
in between
two
German
soldiers and they thought that I was a German soldier too.
After
they found out I was an American, they gave me more stuff than any
one else.
I suppose they were trying to make up for not giving me
any fruit at first when they thought I was a German soldier.
When
I left that tent I gave everything the French had given me to the
nurses.
On Monday the 25th of September I
left the 11th Evacuation
Hospital and went to the 52nd Air Evacuation.
They placed me on a
stretcher and took me by ambulance to the 52nd Air Evacuation.
There they put the stretcher with me on it on the ground in a big
tent.
Stretchers were lined up side to side and of course we could
not get off of them.
This meant you had to have a bed pan or a
duck every time you went to the bathroom.
They carried me on to a C47 Thursday September 28 and we flew
to southern France to another air evac ( It was the 52nd also. )
This was my first airplane ride and I couldn't believe we were off
the ground until I saw those small trucks on the ground.
Again
they carried me in a tent and set me down on the ground using the
same stretcher I left the hospital on.
I left southern France on another C47 Saturday, September 30
and flew to Naples Italy.
On both flights I was lucky enough to be
placed by the windows and I could see the ground.
We arrived at
the 45th General Hospital Saturday night around 10:00 and I had
been on that same stretcher since early Monday morning.
glad to get off of it.
73
I sure was
�I will remember my first plane ride for the rough ride we had
in it over the mountains.
We sure did hit some turbulence as that
old C47 would go up and down.
The pilot told us it was because of
the updraft and downdraft of the wind over the mountains.
Our flight from southern France to Naples, Italy was smoother
as we flew out over the sea to keep the Germans from shooting at
us.
We arrived in Naples just about dusk and as were gliding in to
land I was looking out the window and saw houses even with the
plane.
This scared me until we landed.
I just knew that we were
going to crash into one of those houses.
I could never get comfortable on that stretcher because if my
head was on the stretcher my leg where it was wounded would be
right over that cross bar on that end of the stretcher.
If I moved
up on the stretcher my head would be off and if I moved down, my
feet would be off and my head on the cross bar.
make beds,
They just did not
cots, or stretchers long enough for tall soldiers in
WWII.
They put me in
Hospital.
a
bed in a
big ward at the
45th General
This hospital was mobilized in Virginia and the original
staff came from the university of Virginia.
My bed had a bed up
against the side of it and beds up against each end.
have more beds in a big room.
This let them
There were around 100 beds in this
one ward and they were all full of wounded soldiers.
Each day they would operate on two or three wounded soldiers
out of my ward.
The reason for this was the evacuation hospital
just did what was necessary at the time to keep you living.
74
The
�big general hospital finished up, like sewing you up and giving you
penicillin to keep down the infection.
At the evacuation hospital they took the shrapnel out of my
leg and cut the area out of the flesh where the shrapnel had gone.
The shrapnel went through my achilles tendon and almost through my
leg.
The skin was sticking up where the shrapnel had stopped.
When the doctors discovered that my achilles tendon was cut in two
they just wrapped a bandage around my leg and scheduled me to go to
a general hospital.
My leg had been cut about four inches long,
one inch deep and about two inches wide.
It looked like you could
lay two fingers down in the gash.
A doctor by the name of Carter was my doctor and he was from
Memphis,
TN.
He operated on my leg October 10
achilles tendon together and closed up the wound.
and sewed the
He placed a cast
on my leg and foot which went about 3/4 of the way around my leg.
He wrapped it with gauze or something and then put tape over the
gauze.
I could not get out of bed for six weeks to two months.
had to use a bed pan or a duck for the entire time.
I
In fact, I had
been using them since the day I was wounded.
After I was operated on, they started me on penicillin every
three hours for 7 1/2 days (60 shots in the arm).
My arms sure did
get sore and I got grouchy along about the sixth and seventh night
at 3:00 and 6:00 in the morning.
6: 00 that she had
laughing.
3:00 and
I told the nurse one morning at
just given me a
shot and she
She said, "Look at your watch."
r
just fell over
She had given me one at
would have sworn at 6:00 that it had not been over two
75
�-minutes since I had the last shot.
They also started me on some pills and I took twelve pills
three times a day, for fourteen days.
All of the shots and pills
were to keep down infection since my cast would not be corning off
for a while.
While I was in this bed an Italian would come around and shave
us every two or three
days and cut
our hair.
hospital paid him as we did not have any money.
I
suppose the
We spent our time
reading and playing cards as we could move around in the bed.
They
fed us three times a day and we ate it whether it was good or not.
The Red Cross would come around and give us cigarettes and loan us
books.
The only time we had fun was on operating day.
When they
would bring the soldiers back, we would try to get them to talk.
You have never heard such language in your life that would come out
of their mouths.
shut them up.
Sometimes the nurses would give them a shot to
The funniest thing was they would put something like
a diaper on you unless you were wounded in that area.
They brought
one big old sergeant back one day and as he was coming to, he sat
up in bed and yelled, "Hey sergeant, come here and take these damn
diapers off of me."
funny after that.
We all just horse laughed and he really got
One day they were getting ready to take the
soldier at the end of my bed to surgery and I tried to be smart and
said, "Take your false teeth out," and about that time he took out
some partials and handed them to the nurse.
I apologized, but I
never dreamed one that young would have some kind of false teeth.
76
�I believe we had every kind of wound in that ward that you could
have:
leg off, arm off at the shoulder, burned, shot through the
balls
(testicles),
hand,
arm
leg
'
'
stomach,
lung,
and
still
everyone felt lucky to be alive.
After three or four weeks at the 45th General Hospital Joe
Elsea found out where I was located and came to see me.
There were
several big hospitals in this complex and Joe was working in one of
these hospitals just down the street from me.
We saw each other
several times after he visited me the first time.
Another man by
the name of Ed Shipley drove all the way across Italy to come to
see me.
Ed Shipley and I had worked together at the Kingsport
Press.
One day they took my cast off and I hung my foot down over the
bed.
It really turned blue.
only walk a few steps.
They brought me crutches and I could
I kept building up my distance until one
day I was determined to make it to the bathroom.
It really felt
good to set down on a commode instead of a bed pan.
I
finally built
physical therapy room.
up my distance until I
could walk to the
The first day I was there they placed my
leg in a whirlpool and when I pulled my leg out of the water you
can not imagine how much dead skin was hanging from my foot.
The
nurse said it was sickening.
After the whirlpool each time I would get on a table and she
would nearly kill me, pushing my toes up and pulling on my heel.
I would fuss and cuss and she would laugh and tell me I would thank
her after I was home and my leg was alright.
77
I told her that all
�she was doing was getting me ready to go back to the front lines.
I finally was
able
to
really use
those crutches
as
afternoons we would walk on those crutches to the movie.
four or five hundred yards from the hospital.
r
some
It was
remember the first
time I went to the movie I thought I would never make it that far.
After I arrived at the movie I could not enjoy it for thinking
about the walk back to my hospital.
They finally let me start walking with one crutch and after
about a week they took i t away from me.
Since I could walk to
physical therapy they moved me out of the ward into a tent and we
would have to go through the chow line inside the building.
This
was in December and it was cold in that tent compared to the warm
temperature in our ward.
We had stoves in the tent and we kept a good fire in at least
one stove.
As soon as I moved into the tent a couple of older men
took a liking to me and I was made one of the tent orderlies.
This
kept me out of having to go on any work details and all we had to
do was to be sure one of us was in the tent at all times.
The older man that got me the tent orderly job went on a pass
one day and when he and two other man came in that night they were
about 3/4 drunk.
One of the other men turned on the light and a
Guard came in and started raising hell with my friend for turning
on the light.
He started bragging about his combat record and he
laid his rifle down and was going to whip my friend.
About that
time r got out of bed and I told him my friend did not turn on the
light and for him to get his rifle and get out of there·
78
I guess
�he looked at me
( 6 feet
2
1/2 inches ,
limping and figured I was a combat man.
left.
19 0 pounds )
and saw me
He picked up his rifle and
At that time in my life if any one knew you had been in
combat they would respect you, especially people that had not been
in combat.
About the time I moved into the tent the doctor (captain) that
operated on me was sent to an evacuation hospital at the front in
Italy on a surgical team.
I
heard that he had requested that I be
sent home because of the nature of my wound.
Shortly after he left, I had to go and see another doctor (a
lieutenant colonel) and he just sat in his chair and looked at me.
The second time he saw me I
lines.
knew I was going back to the front
So on December 23, 1944 I left the 45th General Hospital
and went to the 6 7 0 7 Reconditioning Company (CO. B. ) •
There were
four companies of wounded men in this place trying to get back in
shape to go fight again.
We were about ten or twelve miles north
of Naples, Italy.
On Christmas day 1944 I caught a ride and went in to see Joe
Elsea.
We sat in Joe's tent and for Christmas dinner we ate fruit
cake and cookies that Ruby had sent Joe.
last time I
saw Joe until I
arrived home.
I believe this was the
I
went to see Joe on
January 18, 1946 and Ruby said she thought Joe was happier to see
me than he was to see her.
I am sure that it just seemed that way·
While at this 6706 Reconditioning Company, we took short walks
and played basketball.
Illinois and I
I
played some with an All- American from
really enjoyed playing with him.
79
He told me I
�really had a good shot as We used to play 21 .
One thing I remember
was a big lake and we would walk down to the end of the lake to
take a shower in a big tent•
You could walk into this tent and
pull your clothes off and hang them up through the middle of the
You would then walk down some steps towards the side of the
tent.
tent to the shower heads •
While you would be taking a shower the
wind would blow and the flaps on the side of the tent would go up
and let cold air into the tent.
Chill bumps would be all over your
body from being wet and cold from the wind.
I think the lake was
sea water and I never could figure out if it was the salt water or
the chill bumps that were
the reason
that the
soap would not
lather.
I left the 6706 Reconditioning Company and went to Caserta
R.T.V. January 26,
1945.
This was just another depot from where
they shipped you back to your company.
I arrived at Caserta just about supper time and as soon as we
arrived we went to the mess tent to eat.
After I had filled my
tray I started to sit down and I noticed the solder I was going to
sit next to as being from Church Hill.
Albert?"
and he
said
"Yes".
Tennessee?" and he said "Yes".
hole you,
11
and he said,
me a little
11
And
I
Then I
I
said,
said," Is
"From
weighed about 240 pounds.
Church Hill,
said, "You great big ass-
I don't believe I know you".
bit as Albert was
your name
six foot
This worried
seven inches tall and
I told him who I was in a hurry a nd he
said that he thought he knew who I was •
Albert was working at this camp and he said I would be th ere
80
�for a while·
We were there for one day and we left out early the
morning of January 28 , 194 5 and loaded on to an Italian ship.
ship was better th an the
American ships·
English ship but not as
This
good as the
We were going to Marseilles, France and on the way
we got a scare as some American destroyers were dropping depth
charges as if German submarines were in the area.
The last day on this Italian ship a crap game got started
and it went on all day.
crap game.
Even the depth charges did not stop the
Just before we got off of the ship two soldiers had all
the money and they laid i t all down in one pile and rolled high
dice to take it all. I learned my lesson at Fort McClellan, Alabama
and I never would gamble after that.
I don't think I lost over $2
in Alabama but it was all I had.
We landed at Marseilles, France February 1, 1945 and stayed
just outside the city for five days.
We went into town a couple of
times but I don't remember anything significant about the city.
We
left Marseilles by train February 5, 1945 and stopped in St. Joines
a while on February 6.
I went on by train to Epinal where I stayed
until February 11 and from there I was taken to the 143rd Infantry
Regiment Headquarters .
Two or three boys I knew had gone over the
hill and they were working as prisoners at 143rd Headquarters.
They told me that my company had tried to take Oberhoffer that
morning and had been wiped out.
I began to wonder how many of my
buddies were still with the company when they went into Oberhoffer.
r was the only soldier from company E, so a truck dropped me
off where the kitchen was
located in Bischwiller the night of
81
�February ll.
The mess sergeant said I could sleep in the kitchen
and I laid down on the floor and went to sleep.
The next morning, February 12, what was left of the company
came in to eat.
After breakfast the captain called the roll and
there were several boys names called that I knew who didn't answer.
our company usually had 180 men it it:
platoons;
50
headquarters.
in
the
weapons
40 in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
platoon;
and
10
in
I think five riflemen from the 1st,
company
2nd, and 3rd
platoons and half of the weapons platoon survived.
At this point
I had been in the company longer than the other five riflemen.
We stayed in Bischwiller several days waiting for replacements
to come
in.
While
there
we
could
hear
the
Germans
240MM
projectiles going over and sometimes you could see them they were
so big.
One day one hit in the street of Bischwiller and it made
a big hole and almost destroyed several houses.
We were staying in houses and one night we found some beds on
the top floor.
Just about the time we laid down in those beds 88
artillery shells
houses.
started
coming in
and hitting on
top of the
It did not take us long to get to the basement.
I heard
later that one of the boys struck a match in one of the rooms and
of course, the Germans saw the light.
One night I was helping Steve Prazak in the kitchen and we
were cooking pork chops.
to see if it was good.
He told me to let him cook one for me
He did not let it cook but just a minute
and put it on a piece of bread for me•
I ate three or four pork
chops just barely cooked and I was sick all night·
82
Every since
�tnat night I have wanted my meat cooked wel 1-done.
Steve was one
of the cooks and he was from Caldwell, Texas.
While at Bischwiller I went on a few night patrols to make
contact with the enemy to see if he was still there or had moved.
p.s soon as we would contact them they would start shooting at us
and they would shoot flares up in the air trying to spot us.
When
you would hear a flare go off you would stand still because if you
moved they would see you.
You felt like a sitting duck standing
tnere, but it was the best thing to do.
They would also try to
figure out your return route and start throwing mortar shells at
us.
The road we would go out on was dry but the fields had water
about ankle deep.
We would never go back on the road as they had
it zeroed in with their mortars.
I went to see the battalion medical doctor after my first
patrol and he looked at my leg and said, "What in the hell do they
mean by sending you up here with a leg like that?"
He told me that
if he sent me back then they would just turn around and send me
right back.
He told me to hang in there awhile and he would send
me back later.
Sometimes I would be out on patrol all night or helping the
engineers lay mines at night and I would stop by the aid station
and show the major (medical doctor) my leg.
One time he put an ace
bandage on it, and another time he shaved my leg and taped it, but
nothing kept it from swelling and hurting•
we moved from Bischwiller to Haguenau about the 1st of March
1945.
They put us in a big school building and our artillery was
83
�dug in all around the building.
We knew if the Germans could
figure out where our artillery was located they would be shooting
at them, and they did.
I remember one night twelve of us were going on patrol to try
and capture the German artillery pieces and place thermite grenades
on the breach of each gun.
I had all afternoon to think about this
patrol, and this was the only time in combat that I ever considered
shooting myself in the foot.
But after thinking it over, I decided
to take my chances with the Germans.
Before we left that night they were having church in one of
the rooms.
They were singing all the old favorites like,
"Love
Lifted Me", "The Old Rugged Cross", "Shall We Gather At The River",
etc.
During one of these songs we had to leave.
This was one time
I wanted to stay for the entire service.
Before going on patrol you would check to see that nothing on
you rattled or made a noise.
as quiet as you could.
You would go by hand signals and keep
We stayed on the road for a short distance
and then we moved into the fields and waded water.
smart enough
to
know
that
the
guns
would be well
We were all
protected.
Whoever dreamed up this patrol should have had his head examined.
Later in the night we received machine gun and rifle fire and we
pulled back without firing our rifles because if we had fired them
we would have been sitting ducks.
we made our way back that night, always looking for a German
patrol that might be trying to cut us off from our lines.
Flares
were in the air all night with the Germans trying to spot us·
84
We
�went over some rugged terrain that night trying to stay away from
the Germans.
Luckily no one was hit that n1.· ght and JUS
· t a b out d ay
break we arrived back at our lines.
About the first week of March 1945, we received three new
platoons from the states.
When they dismounted from the trucks
they looked like they were going to a parade.
new and clean and they
sleeves.
Their clothes were
had all their ranks sewed on to their
I wonder what they thought of us with our dirty uniforms
and shoes, and no rank showing on anyone including our captain and
our lieutenant.
We did get to go back every once in a while and take a shower.
When we would get to the place to take a shower we would put our
personal belongings in our helmet and put our dirty clothes in the
dirty clothes piles.
After we would get a shower we would go
through the clean clothes pile and find something to fit us if we
could.
The company did not know it at the time, but they had only
about seven days to get the three new platoons ready for combat.
The first thing they did was to get
rid of all
the different
patches that were sewn on to their uniforms, like sergeant stripes•
All we ever wore into combat was just a plain shirt, pants and coat
with nothing sewed on them.
The next thing they d .1.· d was to check their rifles to make sure
they would shoot.
· Battle Drill.
Bas1c
Then they started teaching them the British
One day wh1.'le they were training, the Germans
shelled our artillery.
This opened their eyes a little as th ey
85
�were in a field close to our artillery.
As I said earlier, we were in the town of Haguenau, France in
a big school building.
especially at night,
I
When we did not have anything to do,
would go into the new men's room and we
would sit around and talk.
same thing.
The other five combat men would do the
I believe maybe we were told to do this, to try to
tell them what it was like in combat.
I never did get too friendly with anyone but I tried to be
friendly with every one of them.
I guess at this point, I did not
want to get too close to anyone again.
One thing they could not teach you was how to survive in
combat.
Since the six of us had been in combat we would try to
point things out to them every time we talked to them.
One of the
things we pointed out was that you did not go across a field, up a
hill, or down a road with your head up your ass.
At all times you
were looking for any low ground, a ditch or someplace to go, when
they started shelling and shooting at you with small arms.
Another thing you did was to keep looking in front of you and
try to pick out places where you thought the enemy might be dug in.
After a while you could spot fresh dirt and you would know that
there would be fox-holes in that area.
I tried to point out to them not to freeze and bunch up but to
find cover if they could and keep shooting in the direction of the
enemy.
Another
thing
was
to
organize
your
grenades,
your
ammunition and your digging tool so that you could get to them in
a hurry if you needed them and to carry only what you needed.
86
�They were told to
dig deep fighting holes,
to know their
weapons, take care of themselves by learning the ways of combat and
water discipline.
Also to figure out where Jerry had his mortars
zeroed in and stay away from those areas if you could,
like in
draws, crossroads and trails.
The more experience you had in combat the better chance you
had of surviving.
The morning of March 15, 1945 the British, French and American
armies started the last big offensive to end the war in Europe.
We
pushed off that morning and we finally got the Germans retreating
after a day or two.
I remember one day we had been in the rear and we were moving
up by truck.
I was on top of the kitchen truck and we were going
through a small town when German artillery shells started coming
in.
The shells would hit on top of houses and slate and shrapnel
were flying all over the place.
I mean those truck drivers put the
pedal to the metal because we were really hauling ass through the
rest of that French town.
We
pushed up to
the
Wissernbourg and Schweigen.
Siegfried Line and we
crossed it at
There was a big stone gate at Schweigen
and someone put up the Texas flag on the balcony.
Line had big dragon teeth made out of concrete.
The Siegfried
There were three
rows of these teeth to keep tanks from going over them.
There were
pill boxes every little bit and anti-tank ditches.
One thing
r
remember about getting to the German border, it
seemed every town inside Germany was on fire.
87
I don't know if we
�set them on fire or if the Germans did.
I suspect we hit them with
phosphorus shells and set them on fire.
After we broke through the Siegfried Line, tank columns plus
infantry raced to the Rhine River.
the Rhine River at Liemersheim.
The 143rd was first to reach
We established outposts at the
Rhine and everyone started digging a fox-hole in case they started
shelling us.
You could look across the Rhine River and see the
Germans on the other side.
They were just walking around until we
started shooting at them and then they hauled ass to their foxholes.
I was digging my fox-hole when I saw the white cross of the
battalion aid station going up on a building down the street.
I
told the lieutenant that I was going down to the aid station to see
the doctor.
When I walked in the major said, "Where in the hell
have you been?"
I told him that was the first time I had seen him
since we started the push.
He told me to take my boot off and when I did my leg looked
awful.
It was swollen
infected.
and the scar
looked angry like it was
He told me to go turn in my equipment and I told him all
I had was my pack and Ml rifle.
He said, "Go turn it in.
Someone
might need it."
When
r
arrived back at the aid station, he had my papers ready
to go and he had written a letter telling what he had observed
since I
had been back
from the hospital•
He had written two
copies; one for my records and one to keep in my pocket in case
they lost his letter.
I left my company for the last time on March
88
�27, 1945 for th e hospital.
36th Infantry Division.
The following shows the record of the
I
remember being in six of the seven
campaigns .
The
36th Infantry
Division participated in
seven European
Campaigns:
NAPLES-FOGG IA
ANZIO
ROME-ARNO
SOUTHERN FRANCE
RHINELAND
ARDENNES-ALSACE
CENTRAL EUROPE
I
participated in all of the campaigns except the Naples-
Foggia campaign.
The
killed,
36th Division
suffered over
27,000
casualties -
19,052 wounded and 4317 missing in action -
3974
the third
highest of any World War II Division.
The 36th Infantry Division was activated 25 November 1940 at
Camp Bowie, Brownswood, Texas. (A Texas National Guard Unit)
The
36th were the first American troops to invade Hitler's Europe at
Salerno,
Italy on September 9, 1943.
The 36th Division made two
other amphibious assault landings at Anzio and Southern France.
They took me to the 117th evacuation hospital at Brumath.
I
pulled my clothes off for the first time since November to go to
bed.
I couldn't go to sleep so I got up and put my clothes back on
and slept like a log.
I was at the 11 7th from March 2 7 until March
89
�29 when we left Brumath by train for Nancy, France.
While at Nancy I was in the room with a soldier with his leg
off and he had only been over seas for four weeks.
He told me the
first week he received a flesh wound and received the "purtiest
11
medal (The Purple Heart) and when he lost his leg he only received
a star to go on his purple heart.
He said he thought he would
really receive a "purty" medal for his leg.
I left Nancy, France by plane (C-47) on April 1, 1945 and flew
to England.
We were invited to go up in the cockpit if we wanted
to and several went up and stayed a few minutes.
ride and several got sick.
It was a rough
I went up in the cockpit and stayed
until we were ready to land.
We broke out of the clouds over the
English Channel and it sure did look beautiful from the air.
When the pilot landed he bounced that plane a few times on the
runway.
He told me that he would kid them about being sick but was
afraid to after that landing.
We left by bus and this was my first
time to be in a vehicle that drove on the left side of the highway.
I just knew that every time we went around a curve we were going to
hit someone head on.
We stayed overnight at 130th Station Hospital on April 1,
1945.
I was admitted into the 94th General Hospital April 2, 1945 •
As soon as I got to my bed some soldier came over and said he was
in the engineers and that he was out in front of the infantry one
time.
time."
I thought "Big deal,
He made the
.
just one t .1.me
- I was up there all the
mistake of
inflicted wound. "
90
·
say.1.ng,
"Oh you
have a
self-
�Two soldiers, one on either side of me
f
, were rom the 3rd and
d F
45th divisions and we had fought together 1.· n It 1
a y an
ranee. One
of them said, "We will make him pay for that
II
and we did.
He went
to town on Sunday so we short-sheeted him and put crackers, sugar
and anything else we could find in his bed.
By the time he left he
was glad to get out of that hospital.
The 94th General Hospital was located just outside of Bristol,
England.
As soon as I found out where I was located
r
wrote
s. L.
Taylor and A. B • Akard and they got together and came to see me on
a Saturday.
They stayed all night with me in the hospital.
On
Sunday, I got a pass and went into Bristol with them to catch a
train.
I remember we were eating in a bar and grill just about the
time church was over.
What surprised me was that all the little
old ladies would come from church and stop in the bar and get them
a shot of whiskey before going on home.
The first doctor I had at the 94th General was a captain and
after reviewing my records he was going to send me home.
Then the
doctor that was in charge of the hospital called me into his office
(a full colonel, I think) .
He told me he was going to reclassify
me to 2B or 2C or something like that,
home at that time.
but that I was not going
He said that I was worse then a 4F because if
I was in civilian life the army would not take me.
He said I was
SF because the army was going to keep me for awhile·
He assured me that I would not go back into combat a nd th at
they would find me a job where I d 1'd no t
After being in combat as long as I was,
91
have to march or stand.
this sounded like a good
�deal to me.
r left the 94th General Hospital April 19 , 1945 on a seven day
pass or delay in route·
I rode a train to London and then rode my
first subway through London to catch another train.
I
rode this
train to a town where A· B • Akard was stationed and I
spent three
days with A. B .
A.B. was in a maintenance group that worked on airplanes that
had been shot up.
Everyone that worked on the plane had to go
along for the test ride.
ride in a
B-17
bomber
A.B. asked me if I would like to take a
and
I
said,
"Yes".
We
checked out
a
parachute and went looking for a B-17 that was going up for a test
run.
We climbed up in the front of the plane where the bombardier
sat so we could look out and see the countryside.
We took some
pictures out of the nose of the plane and they are in my German
album.
The pilot made a 360 degree turn and when we hit the propeller
wash the plane shook all over.
He then took it up and stalled it
out and we fell about 2000 feet as I was sitting in the nose.
checked out some other things then we came in for a landing.
He
Just
before we got to the runway he gave it full power and we went
around again.
A.B. went back to find out what was wrong and it
turned out that the wheels were not down.
A.B. and the crew chief
cranked them down and we then landed•
I left A.B. and rode a train to another town to spend three
days with S. L. Taylor.
After spending three days with S. L.' I rode
92
�a train to Birmingham, England and reported to the 10 th
Replacement
Depot.
Soldiers going through the 10th Replacement Depot were treated
mean by the officers and sergeants in charge of the camp.
They
would put them down in a hole and turn water hoses on them or draw
a circle on the side of the building and make them stand on tiptoes with their nose in the circle and several other things.
The soldiers they were treating this way were all wounded
combat men who had done a little something wrong, like not getting
to camp on time or getting drunk while on pass.
They made the
mistake of doing this to some senator's son and the senator found
out about it and had them all court-martialled.
I left the 10th Replacement Depot and boarded a ship to go
across the English Channel to France.
The only thing I remember
about this ship was I was on the top bunk and I was full of gas.
There were two soldiers down below me and every time I would expel
gas they would nearly get in a fight blaming each other.
They
never did think about me on the top bunk.
We crossed the English Channel and landed at Leharve, France
and from there we rode 40
&
8 's to the 19th Replacement Depot.
The
19th Replacement Depot was a tent camp and it was located juS t
outside of Paris.
I remember this camp being located in a valley
· h a stream running throug h 1.·t •
wit
was green.
At this time of year the grass
I stayed here three or four days·
While at the 19th Replacement Depot a group of us soldiers
were sitting under Some trees b eside the road when a big tractor
93
�trailer came barreling down the road.
When the driver saw us he
s l id his truck to a stop and said, "The war is over.
"Go peddle your rumors to someone else."
11
We all said,
When we said that,
jumped up on the hood of his truck and said,
11
he
I will be a son of a
bitch if i t isn't over."
We
al l
saw that
he was serious
so we walked over to the
command post to see what they had heard and sure enough, the war in
Europe was over .
They immediately put guards on all exits so we
could not get o ut a n d go to Paris.
Some people had heard about the
war being over a nd they l e ft before the guards were placed at the
exits.
On May 10 I went b y truck t o Ver sailles, France and stayed
there for a week.
I
Versailles because
at
actually seeing.
I
wish I h a d known more about the history of
the time,
I
did not realize what
I
was
visited s e veral of the buildings and later
learned what they were, e.g. the Ha ll o f Mirrors.
While at Versailles , another so l dier and I had a one day pass
to Paris.
We left early in the mo rn ing by train and r eturned back
to Versailles late that night by train .
of Paris as you could see walking.
We walked and saw as much
We rode t he subway out to the
Eiffel Tower and walked back to the center of t own.
h.
The on 1 y ting
I reme mb er •·•al
" k i·ng back to t own was statues in
front
of
every
building
· asses .
dresses up to their
and
girls
riding b i cycles with
After we arrived back to the center of
town we went inside a hotel looking f o r a bat hroom.
·
1eaving
t he
ho t e 1
I
their
saw my basic
94
training
When we were
company commander,
�Captain Harold L. Fillmore, and talked to him a few minutes.
He
was excited because he was meeting his wife whom he had not seen in
three years·
As I said earlier, Captain Fillmore was wounded three
times and his wife was a nurse and was wounded on Anzio.
After we talked to Captain Fillmore we went to a theatre and
saw a stage show or a variety show.
We were sitting so far back
that I don't remember too much about it.
On May 17, 1945 I rode a C-47 airplane from Versailles, France
to Frankfurt, Germany.
Allied
Expeditionary
I joined S.H.A.E.F. (Supreme Headquarters
Forces)
in
Frankfurt.
This
was
General
Eisenhower's Headquarters and I was in the Billeting section under
Colonel Brown.
They gave me 62 apartments to look after and these apartments
were filled with officers from full colonels to second lieutenants.
They hired German men to mow the grass, keep the hedge trimmed and
repair anything that needed it.
the apartments clean.
They hired German women to keep
The men and women were checked in at a gate
every morning and out every afternoon.
When the Americans arrived in Frankfurt they sealed off a big
area by putting up a barbed wire entanglement and placing gates at
three or four places
leaving the area.
so they could check who was entering and
In this area was the Big I.G. Farban building
that General Eisenhower used for the SHAEF office building.
There
were lots of apartment buildings to house the SHAEF officers and
other personnel that needed to be in the area.
When I first arrived at SHAEF
95
r
had to ride a bicycle three
�times a day about two miles to a mess hall outside the SHAEF area
for my meals.
In fact,
I rode a bicycle everywhere I went for the
six or seven months I was at Frankfurt.
After about a month they
started feeding us in the area in what used to be a night club.
It
was only four or five blocks from where I lived and it was really
a fancy nightclub.
Shortly after that, they made an officer's club
out of it and built several mess halls just across the street; one
for the enlisted men, one for the ladies, and one for the officers.
Everyday at lunch a German band would play and they would
always play "Sentimental Journey" for us.
I heard the Germans sing
this song so much I knew it by heart before I left Frankfurt.
One
morning in August we were eating breakfast and we heard some G. I. 's
at the next table talking about the war being over in the Pacific.
We thought they were trying to start a rumor but when we went by
the off ice to turn in our reports we found out that the war was
over.
Several of us rode our bicycles out to a canal to go swimming
and I thought I was in good shape until I started swimming.
in good shape when I
July.
I was
left the front lines in March, but this was
I started swimming down the canal when I realized that I was
·
going
to have to res t .
r
J·ust di'd make it to the side to hold on
to some bushes for a few minutes.
After I rested I swam on down
the canal to a place where I could get out.
This really shook me
up and I did not go swimming again while I was in Frankfurt.
While
in
Frankfurt
I
shared
an
apartment
soldiers who had a different job from mine.
96
with two
other
Since I looked after
�the apartments, the officers would always come to me if they needed
anything.
One day the officers on the fifth floor did not have any
water and a first lieutenant came down and asked if he could use my
bathroom to shave.
I told him that would be fine and he came down
later and shaved.
I was in my bedroom lying on the bed reading
when he opened the door and said "Thank you for letting me use your
bathroom."
This is when the fun started.
He closed my bedroom door and
then he closed the apartment door that went out into the hall.
Then I heard the apartment door being opened very easy and then my
bedroom door opened and there stood this first lieutenant with his
shaving equipment in his hand.
I knew he was a queer from what I
had heard and I knew he was going to proposition me.
He started
talking and as soon as I got a chance I told him if a man ever laid
a hand on me I would knock his teeth out.
hit someone for that would you?
11
He said, "You wouldn't
and I told him that I was not
kidding.
I believe to this day that my size and my being in combat
scared him off.
If I had been smaller I know he would have tried
something for he was
a
big man.
I
have never seen anyone so
disturbed as he was and I thought that at any minute he was going
to grab me.
1 kept telling him that I would not tolerate any man
making a pass at me.
After maybe an hour (I don't really know how
long) he calmed down and left•
After that I made sure he did not
catch me by myself.
While at Frankfurt I had three German men and 25 or 30 women
97
�Wo rking
for
me
and
somet1.·m
es
th
1
wou d
ey
prisoners to do work around the building.
them
and
prisoners.
they
all
thought
H1.· tl er
was
give
me
some
German
I would talk to all of
wrong,
even the German
I suppose at that time they really did think he was
wrong.
One morning one of the maids came down all disturbed and told
r
me to come and look in one of the apartments.
could not make out
what she was telling me so I went with her.
apartment door and someone said, "Come in."
r
I
knocked on the
opened the door and
there in the bed lay a beautiful woman with her nightgown on.
really
shook me up
for
a minute
as
I
thought
I
This
might get
in
trouble.
She told me that she would send her husband to see me as soon
as he came back.
At noon she and her major husband came to see me.
It turned out that
Colonel Brown had told them to come to my
apartments and spend the night.
She was French and they had just
gotten married.
On November 19, 1945 I left Frankfurt, Germany on a train and
went to Marsburg, Germany to the 3rd Replacement Depot.
a German army camp with several big building.
This was
While we were here
there was about eight to ten inches of snow on the ground.
One day
we were told that some General wanted us to have a parade.
In the
first place, there was not a good place to have a parade.
They took us out to a fl.. eld and you never heard such cussing
and bitching about trying to have a parade in ten inches of snow.
The colonel in charge sa.1.·ct h e agreed with us but if the General
98
�wanted a parade we would try to give him one.
He also said if we
would cooperate with him we would get in and out of the snow that
much quicker·
The General must have called it off after he arrived
because we did not have a parade.
we were at Marburg.
It was awful cold the whole time
We left there November 27, 1945 on 40
&
8's
for Antwerp, Belgium.
This trip on 40
never forget.
&
8's was really an experience that I will
They put so many soldiers in each boxcar that when
we laid down across the floor, we covered the entire floor from one
end to the other.
It was really cold and our boxcar had a board
off the front of it and cold air came in all the time.
One day we were stopped in a small town and we found a barrel
and some wood.
We punched holes in the bottom of the barrel and
set it up on the rocks in the middle of the boxcar.
We placed the
wood in the barrel and set it on fire and about that time,
train started to move.
the
It wasn't very long until the smoke was so
thick we could not stand it so we opened the door and kicked the
barrel out of the boxcar.
If you had to piss you just opened the door enough so it would
not blow back in the boxcar.
Even at night and with the train
moving if you had to take a crap you opened the door just enough to
stick your ass out the door.
You would hold on to the door with
one hand and the boxcar with the other and hope that you would not
pass anything close to the train while you were in that position.
I
would share my blanket with
other soldiers or we would
combine our blankets and sleep together many times in th e army·
99
�Sometimes I would not even know the soldier I was sleeping next to
but we would all be in the same predicament.
On the 40
&
8 train
I slept between two soldiers that I had never seen before but we
got along fine.
In all the times
that I
slept next to other
soldiers in the army, I never found any of them to be queer or gay.
We arrived at Antwerp Belgium, Camp Top Hat on November 29,
1945.
The worst thing I remember about being at Camp Top Hat is
that they gave me a cold or flu shot and I was sick for three or
four days.
I could tell I had a fever so I didn't get out of my
bunk for about three days.
bought a souvenir.
I did get out in town one day and I
It was a miniature statue of the little boy in
Brussels, Belgium standing up holding his pecker and pissing into
a fountain.
We left Camp Top Hat and loaded and sailed on the Joaquin
Miller December 19, 1945.
The Joaquin Miller was a liberty ship
and it was not the most comfortable way in which to make a North
Atlantic Crossing in mid-winter.
It was a long slow voyage as a
liberty ship does not move very fast.
After a couple of days at sea we hit a bad storm and we could
not get out on deck for four days.
We would lay in our bunks and
that ship would start rolling from side to side and you just knew
the next time it was going to turn over.
would go up several
again.
feet
Instead the front end
an d come back down and start rolling
I was up three bunks high and I just knew it was going to
throw me out of that bunk while I was asleep·
This storm was so
bad that it wrecked the front end of an aircraft carrier which
100
�turned around and went back to England.
We were so slow we just
had to ride it out and some days we would make 80 miles in 24
hours.
We hit one or two other storms but they were not as bad as
the first one.
The men were betting and laying odds on the exact
day and hour the propeller would fall off, or the ship would crack
open.
This liberty ship was made to haul tanks and supplies from the
U.S. to Europe.
U.S.
They converted it to haul a few troops back to the
There were only 600 soldiers on this ship so I don't think
there were many men dissatisfied with the quantity or the quality
of the food on board.
Of course,
they were a few that were sea
sick and could not enjoy their chow.
A poker game started in the middle hole of the ship almost as
soon as we boarded.
I
don't think this poker game ever stopped
until we arrived at Boston Harbor.
When one man would get sleepy
or lose his money and get up, another man would take his place.
It
looked like four or five men had all the money when we got to
Boston.
We were going to have our big Christmas dinner just as we
passed the mouth of the St. Lawrence.
Everyone lined up early to
go through the line and about that time we hit a big storm coming
out of the st. Lawrence.
By the time they started serving, over
half of the men had dropped out of line and I had moved up close to
the serving line.
I felt sorry for those that had to lay in their
bunks and watch us eat.
We landed in Boston the morning of December 24, 1945 and while
101
�we were going into port, a ship came along side of us and they had
a band that was playing old familiar songs.
a few minutes and nearly froze.
r
stayed on deck for
So I went below and put on my long
handles and went back up on deck.
The first thing they gave us
when we got off the ship was a pint of sweet milk.
We boarded a train and rode out to Camp Miles Standish.
The
temperature that day was below freezing and the snow was ten to
twelve inches deep.
We had to carry our equipment and walk to the
barracks, but they did have a path cleared off.
While they were
getting our papers in order all we had to do was get cleaned up and
go to the mess hall.
They really had good food for the five meals that we ate at
Camp Miles Standish.
We had steak and turkey and all the trimmings
for the noon and night meal on the 24th.
For breakfast on
December 25 we had fresh eggs any way we wanted them with pancakes
made from scratch and bacon, sausage and ham.
we had
the
wanted.
usual
Christmas
dinner
and
For lunch and dinner
just about anything we
This was the first time in two years that I had fresh
meat, eggs and vegetables.
we left Camp Miles Standish by train around 7: 00 or 8: 00 ,
December 25,
1945.
All we had to sit on in our car was wooden
seats and we were on these things for nearly 48 hours.
just ahead of us had better seats
soldiers.
The cars
and they were full of black
This didn't set too well with a bunch of combat men.
we stopped in Cleveland about 6:00 p.m. on the 26th and they
fed us in the train station res t auran t •
102
The mistake they made was
�to let us roam around until about 10:00 p.m.
By the time everyone
arrived back at the train, they were drunk so they got in a fight
with the blacks.
They had to call out the police to break it up.
Someone from the army called ahead to Cincinnati and had a
company of M.P.'s fall out to meet our train since we were going to
stop there for a while.
let us leave the cars.
The M.P.'s were mad as hell and would not
They acted real tough until they found out
we were a bunch of combat men and they cooled off real quick.
One
M.P. pulled his pistol on a soldier and this soldier told him to
put it up or he would stick it up his ass and I mean the M.P. put
his pistol up in a hurry.
We arrived at Fort Knox,
about 5:00 in the afternoon.
Kentucky on December 27,
1945 at
Nothing much happened until December
29 when they sent everyone who had been wounded to the hospital for
an examination.
Some old doctor made some remarks about my wound
that I did not like and I must have said something to piss him off.
After I arrived back at my barrack they told me to get my stuff
together, that I was going to the hospital.
I went back to the hospital and stayed there until January 12 •
This doctor was supposedly examining me but he was giving me every
detail that he could think of.
This was one time that my mouth get
me in trouble and I could not do anything about it.
On
the
day we
were
·
· d to
building
and tr1.e
to b e
·
harged ,
d .1.sc
talk us into
they took us
J. oining the reserves.
in
a
They
signed up everyone but abo ut ten of us and then they went one on
telling me all the
A captain started talking to me,
one.
103
�advantages of the reserves.
I told him that I was a PFC with a
rifleman MOS number and that I was not going to sign up.
I
told
him that they could keep me or turn me loose but that I was not
going to go half-way about it.
Before I received my discharge we went through a building that
would take your jackets and shirts and sew all of your insignias
that you had coming to you on to your clothing.
They were using
German prisoners to do this work and when this one saw my T-patch
he said that my division had captured him at Anzio.
The sergeant
in charge told this German prisoner that if it were him, he would
jump over that counter and hug me.
I have often wondered if he was
one of the men we captured.
I received my Honorable Discharge from the army about 4:00 in
the afternoon on January 15, 1946.
I
got with a group that was
going to or going through Knoxville, and we caught a train which
arrived in Knoxville about 2:00 in the morning.
I caught a taxi and rode out to my Uncle Winfred and
I rang the door bell and my Aunt Laura came
Laura Roadman's home.
to the door.
Aunt
I was expecting my uncle.
I
said,
"Where is Uncle
Winfred?" and she said, "My goodness, son, when have you heard from
home.
11
I left Frankfurt, Germany on November 19 and Uncle Winfred
died November 29, 1945.
r
I had not heard from home in two months.
remember getting a hair cut before I
wanted to look good when I arrived at home.
noon and arrived in
Church Hill,
left Knoxville as I
I
caught a bus about
Tennessee about 3 :oo p.m.
caught a ride from Church Hill to Carter's Valley in a truck.
104
I
He
�let me off at Poe's Store about a fourth of a mile from home.
I
went inside the store for
Bellamy said,
11
just a minute and Mr.
I thought about you over there.
George
Do you remember
telling me about Sherman's march through Georgia and how awful it
was.
I thought about you over there in Europe doing the same.
11
He
sure did have a good memory.
I picked up my barracks bag and walked on home, and when I
arrived home, no one saw me leave the road and walk up to the
house.
When I got to the front door of the house I dropped my
barracks bag and it made a big thump.
I heard my mother yell as
she usually did at noises.
I
walked
grandmother,
in
the
living
room
aunt Margaret Taylor,
cousin Mary Francis Price.
and
there
sat
my
mother,
great aunt Bertha Smith, and
The next few minutes I spent hugging
and kissing all these relatives.
The next month and a
half
eating good home-cooked meals.
spent sleeping,
resting,
and
I did get restless after a couple
of weeks
and I
hunting.
I was sitting on a stump on top of a hill when it started
to rain.
r
took
I
Bob Lee's dog and his
shot
gun and went
looked out over the valley and thought,
doing up here?
"What am I
This is what I have been doing the last 30 months
and I hated every minute of it.
11
That was the last time I went
hunting.
sometime the last part of February 1946, I left home again to
go to East Tennessee State College in Johnson City, Tennessee·
105
�
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Description
An account of the resource
The Edward R. Feagins Memoir, held by the <a href="https://www.etsu.edu/archives/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Archives of Appalachia</a> at East Tennessee State University, consists of a photocopied 105-page typescript reminiscence of the donor's experiences as a private soldier in the United States Army during World War II. The reminiscence documents Feagins basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama (October 1943-February 1944); his journey on a transport ship from Newport News, Virginia, to North Africa; his combat experiences in Italy and France (May 1944-March 1945) as a private first class in Company E, 143rd Infantry, 36th Infantry Division (Texas National Guard unit); his wounding in France (September 1944) and subsequent medical treatment in Naples and Caserta, Italy; and his non-combat experiences in France, Germany, and England (March-December 1945) prior to his discharge from military service at Fort Knox, Kentucky, on January 15, 1946. Written about 1993, the reminiscence covers the period from December 1941 to February 1946. The current digital collection contains PDF file surrogates created in 2022 of the complete memoir.
Title
A name given to the resource
Edward R. Feagins Memoir, circa 1993
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Feagins, Edward R. (Person)
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://archives.etsu.edu/repositories/2/resources/280">Edward R. Feagins Memoir</a>, Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
Circa 1993
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<p>The Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University provides access to the materials on this website for the purposes of research and education, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. [identification of item], [identification of collection], Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University). Any commercial uses of the materials or any uses that exceed the limits of fair use and other relevant statutory exceptions require the permission of the Archives of Appalachia and the copyright holder(s). It is the user's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials.</p>
<p>Compressed (low resolution) files are available on this website. Requests for accessing uncompressed (high resolution) versions of this material can be sent to the Archives of Appalachia.</p>
<p><strong>Items in this collection are presented for their historic and research value. They may contain content that some viewers will find objectionable.</strong></p>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
ETSU Archives of Appalachia: AppMs-0431
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Edward R. Feagins Memoir
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://archives.etsu.edu/repositories/2/resources/280">Edward R. Feagins Memoir</a>, Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<p>The Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University provides access to the materials on this website for the purposes of research and education, provided that proper citation is used (e.g. [identification of item], [identification of collection], Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University). Any commercial uses of the materials or any uses that exceed the limits of fair use and other relevant statutory exceptions require the permission of the Archives of Appalachia and the copyright holder(s). It is the user's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials.</p>
<p>Compressed (low resolution) files are available on this website. Requests for accessing uncompressed (high resolution) versions of this material can be sent to the Archives of Appalachia.</p>
<p><strong>Items in this collection are presented for their historic and research value. They may contain content that some viewers will find objectionable.</strong></p>
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
0431_F1