US AIRBORNE

Many thank you to Jack Ariola for giving me access to his history, the numerous pictures and have responded to my questions.

Ariola Jack was born July 8, 1923 in a small town in Arkansas, Corning. His father, Monte Zuma was a cabinetmaker, he made furniture but also, he had a gift for making musical instruments. His dad was already older. He had the WW1. His mother, Georgia Raye looked after the children. Jack have two old brothers and two younger brothers and a younger sister too. Jack was born in Corning, but he grew up in St. Louis, Missourri.
His dad manufacturer of musical instruments, so it was normal for children to play music. The Ariola’s brother play to a band: “The Sunset Cowboy”. The Father would take to the Saloons and he would play for tips.

"The Sunset Cowboys"!

Jack is the banjo player.

December 7, 1941, the Axis Forces declared war on the United States when the Japanese bombed the American naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor.

“I never will forget that day, every ear was glued to a radio somewhere, walking down the street people were stopped in their tracks. They were shocked, it was hard to believe.”

“When war was declared most of the young men began to flock to the recruiting stations to join the Service.”

“My brother Bill was the first one in our family to join. He joined the Army and was in the Artillery. Monte was the second to join, he also went into the army, he was in the Infantry.”

“That left me, I was only 18 at this time and also I was supporting my Mother, two younger Brothers and a sister. My two younger brothers were going to school and my sister had married a soldier that was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, MO. “Juanita” was my sisters name and the man she married was “J.T.Bevers”, he was in the Air Corp.”

“At the age of 18 the last thing on my mind was war. I should have been out dating girls, and having a good time, not thinking about war, but here it was right at my front door.”

“I had decided that I was going to let them draft me, I had registered for the draft and was in class « A », I could be called into the service at any time, and although the job market had opened up and there was plenty jobs, if you were classified « A », most of the places knew that you could be called into the service and if they trained you for a job, and you were called, they would have to train another person to take your place, that made it difficult to find a job. Making living for my mother, brother’s and sister wasn’t easy but I was trying.”

“I finally found a job at « Bemis Bro. Bag Co.”. At that time they were paying 0.50$ cents an hours, but that was the best I could do so I took it and was glad to get it. That isn’t much money but consider this, bread was 0.05 cents a loaf, a gallon of milk was 0.10 cents and good steak was 0.15 cents a pound, the packing houses would give away certain cuts of the meat.”

“I was my Mothers sole support and it wasn’t easy to support 5 people on 0.5 cents an hour, but there was one thing about my mother, she was thrifty and could stretch a dollar a long way, she was a great lady, one of a kind and loved her family very much. This was 1943 and as I said my two brothers were already in the service.”

“One day, I got up to go to work one morning, I got on the street car, and needless to say I was disheartened and a little bit disgusted.”

“I decided not to go to work that morning, I really didn’t know what wanted to do.”

“I walked down the street and went into a liquor store, in those days they didn’t pay too much attention to age, I bought a pint too whiskey, I got about half snockered, the more I thought about the situation, the more disgusted I became.”

“With the booze inside me, I became real brave and decided that I was going to join the service, so I headed for the Draft Board. I went in and asked the gentleman when the next bunch of men were going to be drafted? He said next Wednesday! Told him that I wanted on the list. He pulled my file and told me to report back there Wednesday at 5:00 am.”

“On the way home I wondered how I was going to tell my mother what I had done? I decided that the direct approach was the best, so I just came out and told her that I had joined the service! She sat down and cried like her heart would break, but after I told her my thoughts on the situation she understood and calmed down. The next Wednesday morning I went back to the draft board, they loaded us on trucks and took us to Jefferson Barracks, Mo. This was an Air Base on the outskirts of St Louis, MO. That day they began to process us, we were given a physical examination. I had a heart attack a few years prior to that, so I was pretty sure they would reclassify me because of it, after I told them, they put me through some very strenuous exercises and passed me with flying colors.”

We were sworn in and the next few days, we were taken out to police up the area. I bet it was so clean you could eat off the ground; during this time “we were given our shots and then more clean up. One morning we were assembled in the theatre and told that they were going to give us a 7 day furlough to take care of any unfinished business, I couldn’t think of anything I needed to take care of but I took the furlough because I didn’t know when I would get back home again.”

“After my furlough was over, I went back to camp; they began to get us ready to ship out. But where?”

“A few days later they laded us on a train and shipped us out. When we got to our destination, we were in North Carolina. Camp Mackall to be exact although it hadn’t been officially named yet. It was named after the first airborne trooper that was killed in action against Germany.”

“After we got settled in, they called assembly out on the Parade ground, and told us what unit we were going to be, we were making up the 17th Airborne, big deal, we didn’t know what Airborne was, but they didn’t keep us in the dark to long after that. First we had to get in condition, and that was going to be very strenuous, we already knew that a regular Army Unit only 7 or 8 weeks basic training, and our basic training was going to be 13 weeks, still no big deal. We were young, and that didn’t mean a lot to us because at that age we thought we could conquer the world, after all we were Airborne Troopers. We still didn’t know what that meant, so finally they told us that we would be flying in gliders. That sounded like fun.”

“They gave us a shoulder patch to sew on our uniform, it was an eagle claw with Airborne printed over the top, the color was a field of black with gold letters. The eagle claw was gold. Very attractive patch. They issued us high top boots, we didn’t know it at that time but the Airborne was the only personnel that was authorized to wear that type of boot at that time.”

Jack with two friends during the time to Camp Mackall. Jack is in the center.

“During our training we ran obstacle courses, double times every morning before breakfast, did calisthenics, marched on the parade ground and took forced marches, that was only a small part of the training we went through.”

“I remember the first 25 mile march we took, the whole division took it, we were to march in rank, that was extremely difficult especially on a forced march, the whole division was going on this march, so there was a lot of competition to see who would return first, we all wanted to be the best, and we all thought we were.”

“After basic training they began getting us ready to fly in gliders, those gliders looked like a box with wings on it, they were a very reliable form of transportation, as we were to find out as time went on. Each glider would carry 13 men, pilot and co-pilot, or they would carry a jeep, trailer load of ammunition or a field artillery piece. The nose of the glider would lift up a like a door and we could drive or push equipment in. We were taught how to tie it down, we were taught all this in the next few months.”

“On the bottom of the glider it had skids, because if we landed anywhere but a solid runway, the wheels would break away and the skids would help keep us from flipping over. After we were taught all the basics of being glider troopers then we began taking flight’s. Every time we went up I got Air sick, those gliders would bounce around like a ball in the air, up, down, and sideways. As I said they were a very sturdy little plane, but they were just a steel frame formed into shape and canvas stretched over the outside. Once when I got in the glider and sat down. My shovel handle was sticking out behind me, it slipped over the seat and punched a hole in the side of the glider, I didn’t say anything about it but it didn’t seem to make any difference and they never did find out that it was me that did that.”

“Finally it came time for us to make a night flight ! We were taken to South Carolina, that was where the nearest Air Base was. This was December 31, 1943. New Years Eve. We were disappointed because we had planned to celebrate along with the rest of the world. We found out that the Army didn’t plan anything around holidays so all our gripping did no good what so ever. Anyway we went out on the Air Field and loaded in our glider. They were already on the field waiting for us, we sat there about 30 minutes and finally it was out time to take off. We headed down the runway, and before we got off the ground, our windshield split from one corner to the other. The pilot said, “This glider has had too many hours in the Air”, that sure made us feel good! We hadn’t got complete confidence in those gliders yet. Here we are, up in the Air, windshield split and no radio to tell the tow plane that we could be in serious trouble at any time. After we had been flying for about 30 or 45 minutes, it sounded like someone was in the tail of the glider with a buzz saw, our pilot flashed an SOS to the tow plane to let them know that we were in trouble and was going to cut loose. The pilot cut loose from the tow plane and we started down. One thing about being up, you can always go down. A little humor?”

“There were no windows in the glider but we could see out of the windshield where the pilot and co-pilot sat. We could see a field up ahead, so the pilot headed, for there. On the way down we missed some high wires, about 4 feet and landed in a fresh plowed field, across the rows, when the wheels hit, the wheels tore off, we came down on the runners, the nose went down, the tail went up and we plowed a furrow across that field about 200 feet.”

“The pilot and co-pilot had to raise their feet up to keep them from dragging on the ground, it tore the nose out of the glider. We all had a face full of dirt, but nobody was hurt, so we got out of the Glider. The Lieutenant that was in the glider with us, was supposed to fire a green flare so that the tow plane was circling overhead, would know that nobody was hurt. In all the excitement he fired a red flare! That meant that there was someone hurt. He immediately fire 2 green flares to cancel out the red flare. As I said we were disgusted because we weren’t going to get to celebrate new years.”

“We looked down the road about a mile and we could see some blinking lights, we had to get to a phone and call Camp to let them know where we were, so we headed for there.”

“When we got closer we could see that it was a bar! Boy were we surprised? Anyway we sent in and the proprietor was sure glad to see us, he said that it had been a slow night.”

“We didn’t have very much Money, but the pilot, co-pilot, the Lieutenant and Sergeant that was in our Glider had some money.”

“They started buying drinks, and of course the bar bought a few rounds, so we got to celebrate “New Years” after all. They sent a truck to pick us up about noon the next day, I want you to know, there was a bunch of drunk soldiers. Some of us vomited all the way back to Camp. It was a good thing it was a holiday because wouldn’t have been any good for anything anyway. The only thing that was missing from our celebration was “women”! To bad! We could have shown some luck ladies a good time. That is one experience I shall never forget. They said, we were lucky to be alive.”

“We were a little sore from all the bouncing around, but after a few days rest we were alright.”

“I first trained as a Machine gunner, I fired expert on the firing range and was first gunner in our squad, I was kind of proud of that. After I had been in the Army about 3 months, I was promoted to Private First Class that didn’t mean a lot, only that I had been doing a good job, and I got another 4.00$ a month raise in pay. By today’s standards that isn’t much money, but considering that we were only paid 50.00$ a month as a Private that was quite a substantial raise. I hadn’t mentioned it before but when we went in the service, I had an allotment made out to my mother. The government would take 23.00$ out of my check and put 27.00$ with it and send it to my mother, as I said that wasn’t much money, but I knew that mother could make it if anyone could. Food was cheep, I knew that mother could make ends meet if she had a steady income even as small as it was. My mother was a very thrifty lady and could stretch a dollar until Washington would scream! She was truly one of a kind, I always said that when they made my mother they threw away the Mold, I loved her very much, she showed the same affection for her family. She had 3 sons in the service and I know that she was hurting but to talk to her you would never know it. Anyway the 4.00$ was good for me, now I could go to town and have a few beers with the rest of the guys.”

“I was never promoted again, I remained Private First Class for the remainder of the time I was in the service, but I really didn’t want the responsibility of being a squad leader, if I had been planning to stay in the service after the war I would have tried for a higher rank. All I wanted was to do my job, help get the War over, so I could go home. I had never been away from my mother for any length of time and it was really hard for me. I remember when I would get a letter from mother I would go to the back of the barracks and read and cry, I was so lonesome.”

“In about 6 months in Camp Mackall, we had got through our basic training and some advanced training and were ready for maneuvers.”

“Shortly after this they put us on a train and shipped us to Tennessee, we went to a small town of Tullahoma, Tn, Camp Forrest to be exact.”

“Before we got settled into camp, we went on maneuvers. They told us that we would be on maneuvers for about a month.”

“TENNESSEE wasn't to much different than NORTH CAROLINA, except there was no sand, the HILLS were bigger and they had ROCKS instead of SAND.

I will never forget the time I spent in the field, it rained almost all the time we were on maneuvers. The Army would send us some make believe enemy and we would go out in the field, locate and beat up on them. They always sent enough to last us either 3 or 4 days. We would work on a problem 3 or 4 days and have the next 3 or 4 days off, that way we had time to rest and clean our equipment.”

“We were only allowed so much food and sometime we would go 2 or 3 days without anything to eat, combat conditioning, they Called it.”

“As I said before we were only getting $50.00 a Month, the Paratroopers were getting $100.00 Dollars a Month. They called the extra $50.00 Dollars "Jump Pay", or hazardous pay.”

“We figured we were taking just as big a chance as they were so we started bitching about it, I guess they heard it all the way to Washington because pretty soon they sent out a Directive saying that if we wanted the extra Pay? Take paratrooper training and earn it.”

“One thing we learned about our Government; They never do anything without a good reason. Their reasoning was, that if we qualified as paratroopers, they would have immediate replacements for any paratrooper that got killed in combat.”

“That was O.K. with us, because we figured that we were in as much Danger as they were anyway. The nearest training facility was in "FORT BENNING, GA." so we had to build our own Training Facility. We built our own towers and everything we needed for our Training.

I guess I went through some of the most Rigorous Training that I had ever been through up until that time. We started Running one mile every Morning and Gradually increased it until we were running 5 miles every Morning before breakfast.”

“I might add that all the men in the Company didn't want to take the training, it was only for the ones that wanted to earn the Extra $50.00 a month, paratroopers was strictly a volunteer outfit, they would not Draft anyone into the paratroopers. Those of us who took the Training was very proud to be jumpers.”

“The Raise in Pay meant a lot to some of us, It meant more Money to spend, and for some of us, more Money to send Home.”

“We were already in as good a shape as the Paratroopers, the only thing we needed was the jump training, that didn't make any different to them.

We had to go through all the Training that the Paratroopers went through, and if anyone fell out for any reason, they were disqualified.”

“I think there was about 75% of the Company, took the Training and about 90% of those Qualified as Paratroops.”

“After we got through with the Jump Training, we had to make 5 jumps from a plane in flight.”

“It took 5 jumps to qualify as a paratrooper. The question has been asked many times. Why Jump out of a perfectly good Plane?”

“In those days we were a bunch of young men that wasn't afraid of anything, and thought we could do just about anything, plus on top of the extra pay, it was going to be a thrill to jump.”

“Finally the day came when we were to jump out of a plane in Flight, now we were scared and a little apprehensive, but at this stage of the game we weren't about to back out.”

“We would be jumping from 2500 to 3000 feet and believe me when you look at people from that high up they look like ants crawling on the ground.”

“Finally it came time to jump, I think my heart was beating a mile a minute in anticipation, the order was given to "stand up and hook up". That meant that our static line had to be hooked up to the line that ran from the front of the plane to the rear.”

“It would automatically open our chutes after we fell about 60 feet, at least that's what it was supposed to do, it worked good, unless the chute was improperly packed. That happened a few times but there was a saying that if your chute don’t open, take it back and they would give you another one.”

“We also had an emergency reserve chute that we could use if the main chute didn't open, but it had to be opened by hand, lucky I didn't have to use it.”

“When I got to the door of that plane, I wasn't sure if I wanted to jump or not, it was scary as hell looking down at the ground. By this time I had learned, what an AIRBORNE TROOPER was, you can believe, there was a lot of pride in us, a little arrogance also?”

“We were an elite outfit, anyway I wasn’t about to let a little thing like fear stop me, so out I went. I couldn't have stopped even if I wanted too because as we moved down the isle we were actually pushing each other and when we got to the door the guy right behind you would push you out.”

“After falling about 60 feet the chute opens and it isn’t so bad, Gently falling to earth, at least it feels like you are gently falling until you hit the ground.”

“They say the impact is like jumping off a one story building. It was quite a thrill though.”

“They told us that one jump was like working an 8 hour day so they gave us the rest of the day off. We had to make 5 jumps to qualify and then we would get the $50.00 a month jump pay.”

“After our initial 5 jumps we didn't have to make any more jumps. Later on they finally gave all the AIRBORNE TROOPERS the same Pay even if they weren't jumpers.”

“After we had completed our jump training, and got our wings, we got back in the normal training program.”

“Well we packed everything up and got ready to ship out. We went to the train station and got on the train. Sometime later we got to our destination, CAMP MILES STANDISH "BOSTON HARBOR". That is where our ship was anchored. The ship was the "USS WAKEFIELD" it was capable of carrying quite a few troops.”

“I don't know how many but we had about 6,000 men in our division, and it was to carry all of us overseas.”

“It wasn't long before we got the orders to board ship. The "USS WAKEFIELD" was a luxury liner that had been converted to carry troops overseas. In those days, there wasn’t much travelling by plane, anybody that traveled overseas did so by ship.”

“After we boarded ship, we were assigned our bunks, we were curious so we wondered around the ship, We stopped at the commissary, we couldn't believe our eyes, cigarettes were only $.50 cents a carton. Needless to say we stocked up on them, because we didn't know how much we would have to pay for them when we got to our destination.”

“They told us that there was no Tax on them after we got aboard ship. As I said earlier I always got air sick when we flew in gliders so I was prepared for the worst when I got aboard ship. I didn't get sea sick, but I figured that it was because the ship was so heavily loaded, and we didn't run into any bad weather. We took what they called a defensive course

of action. The captain would change course every four minutes, they said that it would take a submarine four minutes to zero in on a target.”

“This way there was very little chance of a torpedo hitting us. When we finally reached our destination, we were in Liverpool, England.”

“The trip overseas was very uneventful, we played cards, that is those of us that had any money. We went on deck and watched the Dolphins following us, they followed us clear across the Ocean to England.”

“They put us on a train and transported us to "Swindon, England.”

“Actually we were a few miles outside Swindon, that is where we went, when we were on pass.”

“When we went into Town for the first time, we didn't know what to expect because we had never been in a foreign country before, and believe me England is a lot different than the good old U.S.A.”

“One of the first things I noticed was a street vendor selling fish and chips, I always did like Fish so I bought some, and I have to say it was some of the best I had ever tasted.”

“We searched for the nearest pub, (that was what the English called their Bars) and of course "women" there was plenty of both. England, like the U.S.A. had recruited the biggest part of their young men, they were fighting somewhere! So there was a short supply of men. We Replentished their supply, for a short time.”

“The English people were very nice to us! I think it was because they thought they had to be, we were there to help them fight the Germans, and keep the Germans from over running their Country.”

“After we got settled, we began to do, basically the same thing we did while in the U.S.A. Where we were stationed the English country side was very beautiful, there was rolling hills and fields of green, as far as the eye could see, on top of some of the hills there would be a cluster of trees. It’ was truly a beautiful sight.”

“After I was there for awhile, I heard that my brother Monte had been wounded, and was somewhere there in England. I went to the American Red Cross, and asked them if there was any chance that they could find him? I realize that was asking a lot but I figured that it wouldn't do any harm to try. There was a lot of Hospitals there in England. The Red Cross worker said that they would try and if they found him they would give me a call. I was sure that would be the end of that, but I got fooled, that very evening I got a call, they said not to get my hopes up, but to come over to the office. When I got there he told me he had a man on the phone, Named Monte Ariola, but it might not be my brother, I was saying to myself, how many "Monte Ariola's" can there be in England? I got on the phone and sure enough it was my brother Monte. We talked for about an hour. He was in a hospital about 20 miles from where I was stationed, and had been there nearly as long as I had been in England. I went back to camp and asked my Company Commander if I could get a 3 day pass, so I could go see him?”

“At that time they were giving out a 3 day pass, to each squad every week, and when the guys in my squad found out why I wanted a Pass, they told the Platoon Leader to give it to me. For the next 5 or 6 weeks I spent the weekend with him, when it came time to go to bed I would just find me an empty bed there in the Ward, and go to sleep, I also ate in their Mess Hall. When I first started doing this, it was kind of funny, the ward nurses would start their bed check, when they found out that they had one too many patients, they would go back and check the bunks, when they found out that I was sleeping in one of their empty beds they would just raise hell. They didn't really care, but it was a lot of extra trouble for them.

The times I spent with my brother gave me some food for thought, because there was soldiers in there, that had lost their arms and legs, some that was just barely in this world. I have never saw such a sight in my life, until I got on the front line, but that is farther on into my story.”

“One time while we were still in England, the U.S.A. and England got together and decided that it would be a good idea for us to trade Glider rides.”

“The english glider was quite a bit larger than our gliders, their glider would hold 32 men and our glider would hold only 13 men Pilot and Co-Pilot. After they got everything arranged, the British needed one more glider to accommodate all of our troops. I heard that it was between our Platoon and one from another Company, so our Platoon Leader got together and flipped a coin to see who would fly, we lost.”

“I might explain that the English Glider opened up in the center, like a door, although it did have a door in it, after landing there was an explosive charge in the center of the Glider that they could set off, and the glider would break apart, this way they could exit quicker. As I said we lost the coin toss so the other 2 squads got to fly in the glider.

As I said there was 32 men, Pilot and Co-Pilot. I heard that after they had been flying for about 15 minutes, the glider opened up like a ripe watermelon and dumped all 34 men out of it at about 1500 feet up in the air. All 34 men fell to their death.”

“That cooled our enthusiasm for wanting to fly in an English Glider. I didn't see all this happen but it is a matter of Record. I know that I didn't have to fly in their Gliders. I had already been in one crash landing in one of our Gliders and if I had been in this one I wouldn't have been so lucky. Those that saw this happen said it was a terrible sight. Any way we never did trade Glider rides with the British again. There must have been a lot of people Praying for me while I was in the Service, because as I tell my story, there will be a lot of incidents happen, where I could have been killed. Back to the good side, I did get a 3 day pass to go to London, and one to Reading, England while we were there. When I went to London, I went into a Hotel to get a room, and when I walked up to the clerk, she looked at me and said, "You have the most beautiful blue eyes that I have ever seen”.

“Remember I was only 20 years old at that time, and to have an older women say something like that to me was very embarrassing, but it was also nice.”

“The Army rented a large Ballroom type Building in a small town not too far from where our Camp was, and threw a party for us.”

“While this was all going on, the Germans decided to make a push through the Ardennes forest, "Battle of the Bulge" they had been loosing the War so as a last ditch effort they concentrated all their troops in this push.”

“They did wipe out a lot of our troops, and lost more of their troops, but made one hell of drive through Belgium. When this happened, they needed more troops to replace those they had lost when the Germans made that drive. So we were committed to combat. It seems like everything happened to me on holidays, like the glider crash on new years eve 1943, and now on Xmas eve, almost one year, later, we were going into Combat.

That Xmas Eve, in 1944. They took us to an Air Base, in England and put us on C47 Troop Carriers and flew us across the English Channel into Rheims, France.”

“We landed in Rheims and ate Xmas dinner, Guess what they gave us for Xmas dinner? C and K rations, there was no turkey dinner for us, but we were on the front lines so we were too busy to worry about Something like food.”

“One morning we got the order to attack the Germans.”

“The only Black Army Unit that I ever saw on the front lines was a tank unit. The morning of our attack, they were sitting out and waiting for the order to attack, and there was a Black guy with his head sticking out of his tank, one of the guys said to him, "Hey boy what are you going to do in this war?" His answer was "We is going to lead that parade in the morning". There was other Black troops there but they were mainly used for Quartermaster units, that way they didn't have to fight.”

“They were used for Truck Drivers, clerks in the supply room and Kitchen help.”

“I remember one time when we were being transported up to the front lines and we had a black guy for a driver, when we got close enough that we could hear the big guns, he pulled over to the side of the road and refused to take us any farther, that meant that we were going to have to walk about 3 or 4 miles to get to the front lines. If it was now I would shoot the S.O.B.”

“We didn't know it but the Germans had came through a draw, and dug in on the slope that we were to advance down, now ordinarily they would have dug in on the forward slope across from there. We started the attack and we walked right into the trap they had set for us. They let us get right in the middle of the ambush, and opened up on us, needless to say it was a slaughter.”

“That was our initiation into combat, we lost almost half our troops, after that assault it took two company's, to make one Company.”

“I have never understood why the Germans didn’t just come on in and finish up the job, I can’t say what we would have done if they had.”

“It was told that some of the guys dug into manure piles, some dug into snow drifts, me I just took off running, Lucky to make it back to safety. At this time in life I can’t put it all together like I used to and besides that, it is all like a dream, or I should say a nightmare.”

“After that day you can bet we were a lot more cautious.”

“For the next few weeks we chased the Germans across the Country.

They would retreat and stop long enough to pin us down, after we stopped they would take off again. They always left some Troops behind. The Troops they left behind we had to fight door to door to get to them.”

 “On One incident, we came to a barn.”

“Laying all over this barn yard was dead germans. I don't know how many but there was a lot. There was several Pistols taken off the dead German officers.”

“There was a young german soldier sitting against the Barn with blood running out both sides of his mouth. We checked and he was shot in the stomach, it looked like he had just sat down to rest he had unbuckled his belt and unbuttoned his jacket, and was sitting there with his eyes wide open. He looked to be about 16 years old.”

“Several things were taken off the Germans in this Farm yard, especially from the German Officers, we took their Money, rings, watches and anything that was valuable. We knew that we would need the Money when we reached Germany and we knew that at some point we would be in Germany, we just weren't sure when it time would be.”

“There was so many thing happen while we were on the front lines, it would take a long time to tell it all, and of course I am just relating the things that happened to me and around me.”

“Also some things that was told to me. At this time I might explain that it was one of the worst winters on record for that part of the country. It stayed in the low teens most of the time and the wind blew almost all the time. We walked down roads and on both sides of the road there was a sheet of ice on the trees and bushes. Needless to say the moral was low.”

“I heard that one soldier was so fed up and tired, (He probably felt like we all did at that time) I guess his mind had just snapped, he wrapped his arms around a tree and pulled the pin out of a grenade and blew his hand off so he could go home. If the truth was known I bet there was a lot of the guys had notions like that but were too scared to do it. On that first attack we made we lost our Company Commander, they didn't find him until the snow melted in the Spring of 1945. While we were in England, the Company Commander that we had trained with, got acquainted with a nurse in London, and had gotten Married, and some how he had pulled some strings and got transferred to another Camp, somewhere in England. So this New Captain was sent to us to be our Company Commander. We didn't know very much about him but we all liked him, and he was a good Commander. They said, when they found him, he had a bullet hole right in the middle of his forehead. We thought the Captain that we had trained with was pretty chicken shit, to leave us on such short notice, but maybe it was all for the best.”

“We went into one small village, after we had ran the Germans out, and I must say the French people were very enterprising. When we had cleared the Village, almost immediately the French began to set up a "still" on the bank of a stream just outside of town, they brought in truck loads of Potato’s, fruit of all kinds and sugar and started to run off what we call "white lightening" It is hard to believe but after they got the "still" in operation, the booze was running out the nozzle like they had turned on a water faucet. Needless to say the GI's, were lined up for two blocks catching the stuff as it ran out of the Faucet.”

“We weren't there very long, until we got the order to move out, as I said earlier, we would run the Germans until we caught up with them and they would stop and start shelling us, we would Dig In and after they had shelled us for a time they would take off again. After taking a break and getting a little rest, we would take off after them again.”

“On one engagement we had with them. We had just went through a small Village and there was about 4 feet of Snow on the ground, Cold as it could be, we didn't have sufficient cloths for this kind of weather but as long as we kept on the move we didn't get too cold, there was however a lot of guys that had frost bitten feet, and colds.”

“We moved out of this village about a mile or two, when the Germans began to shell us. We hit the ground and started to dig in, as I said the snow was pretty deep, When the shelling stopped we looked around and all we could see was holes in the snow where everybody had fell.

The Germans had an Artillery Piece that would fire about 20 shells one right after the other, we Called them "screaming meemies". This was because we could hear them the second they left the barrel of the gun, and it had a loud scream like a women screaming, until it landed. Only about 50 times louder. That was the most demoralizing weapon the Germans had, it scared the hell out of us.”

“My foxhole buddy and I had dug in and our squad leader sent us word to go back to the village where the kitchen was, and get something to eat and then go to the cross roads and relieve the men at the machine gun position, so they could go eat.”

“We went to the village and ate, and talked to our old Platoon Sergeant, he had been with us from the beginning but had got busted for something, I never did know why. Any way when we told him of all the guys that had gotten killed, he started crying like a baby because there was some of them that he had came to the 17th. AIRBORNE and were good friends to him.” 

“After we got through visiting we headed back up front, my fox hole buddy had to go to the fox hole for something, so we cut across-the field and picked up what ever it was that he needed and then we cut across the field to get back to the road. We didn't know exactly where the cross roads were but we figured that we could find it.”

“There was another Small Village about 4 or 5 miles ahead where the Germans had been shelling us earlier in the day, we could see them, running from place to place, before it got dark. When we got to the road we didn't know it but we had passed the cross roads, we walked and walked, it was a black night and we couldn't see very far in front of us.”

“After we had walked about 3 miles, and hadn't found the cross roads, we decided that we had missed it somewhere, now we had gone about 3 miles into "NO-MAN'S LAND" when we finally realized this, we were Really scared. We did an about face and started back. When we got to the cross roads, the machine gunners challenged us.”

“We gave them the PASS WORD and they asked us where we had been? We made a joke out of it, we told them that we had been up to the village to find out if the Germans had left yet, but you can believe me it wasn't funny.”

“The next day we started out again after the Germans, in a few miles we could see another village up front of us a few miles in the distance, we were walking down this road and all of a sudden all hell broke loose. The Germans had stopped in this village and set up their guns, they started shelling us again, we scattered, there was a Jeep coming down the road and as it went past me I reached out and grabbed on to it and climbed aboard,

the sergeant in the jeep looked at me and said "Welcome aboard" I rode with him for a little way and then I got off and went to where my squad was to assemble. By the time we got to the village the Germans had pulled out.

We stayed in the village over night and the next morning we moved out again.”

“We ran the Germans all across France, Belgium and Luxembourg this way.

There was one thing good about this, the German used slave labor to dig their fox holes and every time we would run them out, we would use their fox holes.”

“We found some of them that they had bunks built in. They would sleep 4 or 5 men, covered with logs and well camouflaged. We were glad, that at least on some occasions, we didn't have to dig fox holes. We had to be extra careful, because if they had time, they would body trap the fox holes before they left. Sometimes we surprised them and they would just get a few things together and leave the rest behind.”

“We found a lot of things they had left behind, like watches, guns and ammunition, Pictures.”

“We went into a pretty good size town and along side of the road we saw a truck that had been hit with an artillery shell, there was two Germans laying beside the overturned truck, one of the guys went down to investigate, one of the Germans had a wedding Ring on, he took his bayonet and hacked the finger off, so he could get the ring. They were burned to a crisp.”

“Sometimes when we captured Germans, and we didn't have time to transport them back to the rear for interrogation we would just shoot them and leave them for the burial detail to pick up.”

“On one occasion we had been chasing the Germans for sometime and our Platoon Leader told my Squad leader to cut across a patch of woods and meet them in a village over on the other side, He told us that these woods hadn't been cleared. He said clean it out and be careful. We cut across and I would guess that it was about 5 or 6 miles across it.”

“We had walked a few miles, and up ahead we could hear german voices so we slowed down, and spread out, the first thing we ran across, was a bunch of Rifles stacked against a tree. We disabled the Rifles and headed toward the voices, when we got to them, there was 16 German soldiers waiting for us, no Weapons, and when they saw us they threw their hands up and told us that they were surrendering. They were just sitting there laughing and talking, waiting for us to pick them up.”

“No problem, we just Marched them ahead of us into the Village where we were to meet with our Company. We turned them over to the Company Commander, he detailed a couple men to march them back to the Interpreters, they were following a few miles in back of us. They were the only German Soldiers we captured in those woods.”

“Later we got into a Fire Fight with a German Panzer Division, our Bazooka Man had fired a shell at a Tank, it hit the Tank at an angle, bounced off the Tank and didn't even Explode.”

“The Bazooka Man told his Ammunition Bearer to load the Bazooka again, when he didn't get any response, he turned around and his Ammunition Bearer had took off. He laid the Bazooka down and started to reload. The Turret of the Tank began to turn.”

“Most German Tanks had an "88mm" field Artillery piece mounted on them, they pointed it toward Private James Crisp and fired, His head just disappeared.”

“I don't remember who the Ammunition Bearer was, or if they ever did anything to him for deserting his post, but indirectly he was responsible for Private James Crisp getting killed.”

“All of these Stories actually happened. I don't know how I came through all this without getting killed or badly wounded but here I am, none the worse for the wear.”

“We fought the Germans all the way across France, Belgium and Luxembourg this way.”

“It was hit and run, when we caught up to them in those small Villages, they would shell us to stop us and then they would take off. They always left a bunch of Soldiers behind to slow us down, they would fight us from Basement Windows, Church towers, any place they could get out of the line of fire.”

“We had to dig them out of their hole. When we began to make it to hot for them they would raise a white flag asking to surrender.”

“Soon after that they would come marching out. We never did know what to expect when we went into one of those Villages, sometime they would leave 4 or 5 men and sometime they would leave more, we either Captured or Killed them.”

“There was this on Village that we stopped at, and we weren’t expecting to move out right away, so we found us a nice comfortable place to sleep started a fire and went to bed. About 3:00 Am. suddenly there was a knock on the door, we picked up our Rifles and went to the Door. There was two German Soldiers standing there wanting to surrender, they said they were Cold and Hungry and just wanted to quit. We were cold also, I don't believe I was ever this cold. We told them to come in and the next morning we turned them over to Headquarters.”

“The Germans would leave snipers behind and we never knew if we were going to run into one of them or not. I saw many of my Buddies get shot, and wonder why it wasn't me, and thanking my lucky stars and God that it wasn't. I for one, did not take any foolish chances.”

“When I thought about some of my friends getting shot, I would get Mad as Hell. My friend “Robert Mills”. He was a Golden Gloves Boxer, we got acquainted when we first went into the service and were good friend until the first day in Combat when he was wounded.”

“I never did know what happened to him.”

“We had went to bars, picked up women, fought together and had been friends for about a year Then all of a sudden a Machine Gun opens up, he almost gets his legs shot off and he is no longer there. That's how quick it happened.” I had a lot of close calls as you will see as I tell my story.

Watching all these Soldiers getting killed or Wounded all around me scared the hell out of me, and gave me a lot of food for thought. I was so close to Death sometime, even now when I think of it, I still get shook up.”

“To show you how close some of the guys were to death, one of the guys was walking along and a bullet hit him in the head, he had his helmet on, the bullet penetrated the Steel part of the helmet, went through and hit the Helmet Liner. It stopped at the Liner and rolled around between the liner and helmet and dropped out. Lucky man !”

“When the German Artillery shells explode, all the shrapnel goes forward.

One of our guys was lying in a prone Position and his legs were spread apart, A German artillery shell landed between his legs, he wasn't hurt but the impact from the explosion turned him upside down. "Another lucky man" !”

“We were in a wooded area when the Germans started shelling us, when the shells started falling I fell behind a tree. Just behind me there was one of the German foxholes that I talked about. It was filled to capacity with GI‘s, I asked them if there was room for me, they told me that it was full. I lay there for a few minutes, shells were falling all around me.”

“A tree fell not 5 feet from where I was laying, other shells were landing all around me with no let up, I turned around and told them to make room because I was coming in, they made room for me, I made a dive for that hole, there was 15 people in there.”

“I might take this opportunity to explain, an artillery shell we could hear, and as long as you could hear it there was no immediate danger, when you couldn't hear it anymore, it was going to hit real near you.”

“The mortar shell, we couldn't hear until it hit the ground and exploded. They were shelling us with mortar shells that day. Since I was the Last one in the Foxhole, I had my head sticking out and one of our buddies ran up to the Foxhole and fell down beside it, one of the mortar shells hit some branches of a tree overhead, This guy got what we called a tree burst.”

“When the shell exploded overhead the shrapnel spread out and covered a large area. The shrapnel hit this guy and it looked like someone had got on him with an ax and chopped his legs up, they were just man led, he had a big hole in his jam, his back was nearly as had as his legs.”

“We called for the medic’s and gave him a shot of morphine, while he was lying there, he was laughing and talking with us, he was in shock and the pain hadn't hit him yet. Shortly the Medic's came and took him away, I am sure, that was his ticket home.”

“He had said just a few days before, that he didn't want to just get crippled, he would rather get killed outright.”

“We don’t always get what we want.”

“When we started moving again, we were on a road walking through a wooded area, there along side of the road was an american soldier, he was lying on his face, his right hand was under his head and there was a first aid packet in his hand.”

“The back of his head was gone. We turned him over and he had got shot right between the eyes. We thought about it, and could come up with only one explanation, when he got shot, his normal section was, knowing that he was shot, put a bandage over it to stop the Bleeding, he evidently took the first aid packet, unfolded it and put it up to the wound before he died. It had to be a normal section because his brains were scattered all over the ground.”

“Some of these stories are quite graphic but I don't know any other way to tell them.”

“We had been in a fire fight one day and we thought the Germans had moved out, we started on the attack, one of the guys that was on point was walking along, and all of a sudden the middle finger on his right hand unfolded and dropped off.

He took a few steps and finally when the pain hit him, he screamed for the Medic's. This goes with the old saying, you never hear the Bullet that kills you. The Bullet had hit the finger that was wrapped around his rifle stock.”

“On another occasion one of our troops had went over to a barn to relieve himself, while he was sitting there, a sniper shot him through the hip, it went through his hip and through his testicles. That was the last time we ever saw him. All these incidents that happened gave me plenty to think about, and to thank God for my good fortune.”

“There had to be some hard praying going on for me and the rest of the soldiers.

I fought the Germans all through the "BATTLE OF THE BULGE“ and watching all these things going on all around me, I never even got a scratch, you can believe this, I was in some awful tight spots on a lot of occasions.”

“One of our Medic‘s, a little guy that wouldn't weigh 110 pounds soaked and wet, got hit in the stomach with a Machine Gun, it hit him from left to right and it looked like someone had cut him open with a knife, his guts dropped out on the ground. He picked them up and walked about a mile with his entrails in his hands. Back to the medic station.”

“Unbelievable, Yes, but then there was the most unbelievable things happen while we were fighting that War that I have ever saw.”

“We moved into the village of Wiltz, Luxembourg. I think it was, I saw a brick building that was on fire, I thought I had saw some Germans go in, I asked the rest of the squad to cover me. I went up to the door and tossed a couple Grenades in, then I went in. I searched and I never did find the Germans, the only thing that I could figure out, they must have gone out the other side of the house where there was another door. I noticed a room all LIT up with candles; I went in and there was a dead man all laid out, candles all around him, It looked like someone had gotten him ready to bury. I found two picture post card albums, one of them had pictures of beautiful women, the other one had land scape pictures in it. I kept the one with the beautiful women in it.”

“When we got to the kitchen truck, I asked the driver who was a friend of mine, if he would keep it for me until we got to a place where I could mail it?

He said he would and just as soon as we got to where we could post mail, I mailed it home I still have the album.”

“We finally pushed the Germans back until we got to the "Our River", this was the German, Luxembourg border. We were near the Village of "Clervaux, Luxembourg." OD the "Our River". We knew that we were going to have a Hell of a fight on our hand because we now had the Germans in their own country.”

“While we were there, we made several attempts to cross the "Our river" only to be pushed back. One of our Combat Teams made it across the river but it wasn't my Company, I never did get to Germany until we invaded Germany later. On the East bank of the Our river they had Built "pill boxes" and "tiger teeth". The pill boxes was large rooms, Constructed out of cement and reinforcement steel, the walls and ceiling was about 4 feet thick.”

“It was almost impossible to get them out without a direct hit with a bomb. In those days the accuracy of our artillery and bombers weren't as good as it is today, the AirForce could drop a bomb in an area but they couldn't guaranty a direct hit. We finally had to get them out by throwing hand grenades, through the windows they used to shoot at us from. Once we got them out of the pill boxes it was all over.”

“We also used flame throwers.”

“The tiger teeth was a pyramid structures, built so close together that our Tanks couldn't go between them, around them or over them. Solid cement.”

“My Foxhole Buddy and I dug our Foxhole, and cut down trees to put over the top of it, we cut pine bough's and put on top of the logs and then threw Snow on top of that for Camouflage, we also put pine Bough's inside to sit on.

We would get in our Foxhole, pull a blanket over our heads, light a can of canned heat and set it down between us, we stayed as warm as if we were in a room with a fireplace in it.”

“It was hidden so well that we couldn't hardly find it ourselves when anyone from the Company wanted us for anything, they would come in the Vicinity and call out to us.”

“Out front of our Foxholes there was a clearing several Hundred yards wide leading all the way down to the River.”

“We had dug a forward outpost a couple hundred feet out there and would send a couple guys out there early in the Morning and change them out at night after Dark.”

“We were close enough to the Germans that we could snipe at them, and they in turn could snipe at us, so naturally the foxhole change out had to be after dark.”

“One of the guys got disentery, he kept telling the company commander that he had to be relieved but there was no way we could get to him, he would have to wait until dark.”

“He had that foxhole so fouled up, inside and out, and it smelled so bad that we had to dig another foxhole that night. This is just one of the funny things that happened.”

“One evening after dark, we were told that they had brought the kitchen trucks up to within about a mile of the front lines, and for us to go back and get us a hot meal.

One other time we got a hot meal while we were on the front lines. We went back and got in line, all of a sudden our artillery started shelling the germans. We could hear the shells as they passed overhead.”

“I got to the dessert and there was no one to serve it, I asked who was serving the dessert?

A Corporal stuck his head out from under the table and said; I am! I told him that he didn‘t have to worry about those shells because they were ours, he didn't look to happy but he crawled out from under the table and started serving again.”

“Those of us that had been on the front line very long, knew that the shells that you could hear weren't going to hurt you, when you could no longer hear them then you could Start worrying, those were the ones that were going to hit real close to you.”

“We had to duck quick.”

“We had to watch our lines very closely because the Germans would put on American uniforms and penetrate our lines. It was known for them to do that and when some of the guys got kind of relaxed. Maybe dozing they would slip up and cut their throats, We were so tired most of the time, that if we stopped for five minutes and sat down we would go to sleep.”

“We did very little sleeping in those days, just cat naps.”

“We caught several of them inside our lines, with American uniforms On.”

“When they were caught, they were interrogated and taken out and shot.

That was the penalty for getting caught in an American uniform, we knew that they had got them off of dead soldiers or prisoners. When a soldier was caught in enemy territory with an enemy uniform on they were shot as spy’s.”

“I have talked a lot about my foxhole buddy, everybody had one, they were a very important part of our lives. They served two purposes, one; There was almost always someone to back you up in a tight spot, two; There was someone to talk too when you needed a friend, Believe me, at that time we needed all the friends we could get. ' There was hardly a time when we were paired with someone with the same "ethnic background" but in the long run we had a lot in common. We were fighting for the same cause, we shared everything Coffee, Food, Clothing, just about anything we had. Women excluded of course.”

“Most of the time we could depend on them for whatever was necessary.”

“If we got in a fierce fire fight and it got too hot, some of the guys would just take off, they just couldn't take it. We didn't blame them too much because there wasn't a one of us that hadn‘t had those same thoughts at one time or another. When this happened, they would be court marshaled or shot while they were running. I never did see it, just heard about it.”

“I remember while we were on the Our river, watching the Germans run from pill box to pill box, they did a pretty good sprint, if they didn't, someone would put a bullet in their hide.”

“While we were there, a young Lieutenant came up and wanted a closer look across the Our River, I told him not to get out where the Germans could see him. As I said, my buddy and I had our Foxhole right at the edge of the tree line.”

“This Lieutenant was very young and hadn't been on the front lines very long, he paid me no mind at all. He stepped out in the clearing to get a better view, I jumped in my foxhole and hollered for him to get in with me.”

“He jumped in and asked me what was wrong? I told him to just wait!”

“About thirty seconds later the Germans had our position zero'ed in, they laid five "88"mm. artillery shells, almost at the very same place that he had been standing.”

“After the shelling stopped, he got the hell out of there, I bet he never did do that again.”

“He had a very red face when he left, very many Stunts like that and I know that he wouldn't last very long up there. I never did see him after that, he was lucky that time.”

“As I said we had made several attempt's to cross the Our river with no success. I found out later that another one of our Combat teams had made the crossing successfully, but I wasn't with them.”

“Across the river the Germans had a stronghold in a small village, we had called for air support to wipe it out. One morning there was a squadron of fighter planes came. We watched them as they peeled off and strafed and bombed the village.”

“They peeled off one at a time, fired their rockets and then strafed the village. After about 30 minutes of this, the Village was flat as a pancake, not a creature was stirring. That's when the other Combat Team crossed the Our river.”

“Not to long after that they sent another Division up to relieve us. I don't remember what Division it was, but you can bet that we were really glad to see them. We didn't know it at the time but we were being relieved, to get ready to invade Germany. We walked about five miles to the rear, where they had trucks waiting to transport us back for some well earned R&R. At that time we had been fighting the Germans for about 30 days, I might add that we were fighting as infantry foot soldiers, that isn‘t what we were trained for.”

“Airborne was trained to be dropped behind enemy lines, take and hold our objective at all cost until our troops broke through, then we would all go on the attack.

I guess, the time we spent up on the front lines was a good thing, because by the time we were pulled back we were battle hardened troops, when we did invade germany we were ready for it. Well as ready as could be under the circumstances. We loaded on the trucks and were taken to “Chalon Sur Marne" in France.”

“When we finally got to Chalon, it was a pretty good sized city. Like most of the Cities and Villages that we had gone through, it was all shot up and had been Bombed on several occasions, but as a whole it was in pretty good shape, the Germans hadn't been there for some time, so they had started to rebuild their City. We were taken outside the City and given Tents

to pitch, we were told to start clearing ground. We had to wade in about 6 inches of mud.”

“The tents that they gave us were squad tents, they would sleep about 6 or 8 men.”

“We took the tools they gave us and cleared enough ground to pitch our tents. Having just came off the front lines we were pretty tired, all we wanted to do was get a place to lie down. We hadn‘t seen anything this elaborate in well over a month, just to have a warm place to lay down and something to sleep in besides a Foxhole and a mattress to lay down on. We also didn't have to worry about the germans penetrating our lines, in other words we were worry free for a change. They let us rest for a couple days before we started any kind of training at all.”

“They let us rest up for a few days and then we had to clear the rest of the ground. There was trees and grass to cut to make room for our tents.”

“Weekends and evenings we would go into town and blow off steam.”

“Being a large city there was plenty of young women and plenty of booze.”

“We were in Chalon for about a month and a half, they kept us in shape by going on marches, doing calisthenics and of course there was the camp to keep clean. We picked up trash every day that we were there. The army was famous for that.”

“Finally they told us what we were really doing in France! We were getting ready to invade Germany.”

“Before we left there, I was called into the Adjutant’s office, it seemed like I was in trouble and I didn't know what for.”

“I always kept a low profile, and tried to stay out of trouble, believe me that wasn‘t easy. He didn't say what it was all about, he just started eating out my ass. He had been a lawyer in civilian life. After about fifteen minutes of chewing me out, he finally explained to me what it was all about.”

“I don‘t care to go into details at this time because it isn't something that I want everybody to know, and certainly isn‘t something that I want to talk about.”

“After he got through eating me out, I told him my side of the story, I guess he believed me because finally he apologized and said; "Soldier I think what you need is a pass to Paris".

“Good thinking on his part, was I going to disagree with that?”

“I figured the pass to Paris was just a “pain killer" for the ass eating he had gave me.”

“I went back to camp to try to forget all about it.”

“A few days passed and the company commander called me in his Office. I was thinking; What the hell have I done now?”

“Imagine my surprise when the company commander told me that the Adjutant had recommended that I go to Paris and blow off a little steam. He handed me a three day pass.”

“At that time they weren‘t giving out very many passes especially to Paris, so I considered myself pretty fortunate when the rest of the guys found out about my pass to Paris, they wanted to know how I rated?”

“I made a big joke out of it, I told them that you had to know someone in the upper echelon and they didn't have a chance so just forget it!”

“End of Conversation.”

“One of the squad leaders went to Paris also. The next day we loaded on trucks and they took us into Paris. They took us to "Rainbow Corners" that is where we could get a hotel room. We checked into the Hotel and went back down stairs, I walked out on the street and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

The French prostitutes were walking down the street like Saturday evening traffic in New York City.”

“Beautiful women every one.”

“I never saw the like, if you had the price, the women were ready.

That's all I am going to say on that subject, Just let your mind run wild.”

 “Now London was a nice place to visit but it was nothing like Paris.

I have never been to a City like Paris since then, even in War time, that city was wide open and alive twenty four hours a day.”

“Bright and early we loaded on the truck and headed back to Camp.”

“When we got back to Camp, they were getting everything ready for the invasion of Germany.”

“We spent the next four or five days getting re-supplied with all the equipment we had lost, and getting oriented for the Jump across the Rhine river.”

“They had been taking Pictures of our Landing, and drop zones, for months.

They also had Pictures that they had taken the last few days, we knew every Blade of grass by its first name. Every Farm House, ditch, canal, fences and anything else that was important to our Assault It surprised us all, at how efficient they had been.”

“Most of the other Glider Landings that the other Airborne Division’s had made, the Germans had put post's in the ground, close enough to tear the wings off the Gliders when they landed, I don't know what happened.”

“Unless we were taking them by surprise, set they didn't have those Posts in the ground when we landed, they were known as anti glider posts.

Of course we didn’t know this at the time.

Any way as I said we were outfitted, issued fresh ammunition, and oriented on our landing field, we were also told what our objective would be.

My Squad was to attack a Farm House about a mile from where we were landing.”

“In the vicinity, there was a Canal ran right across where we were to land a few yards from there was a dirt road. I will get back to this later!”

“March 24, 1945 was the day we were to invade Germany.

They took us to the Marshalling area on Marsh 21, 1945, there we were oriented on our landinq area, the morning of March 24, 1945 they got us out of bed two or three hours before daylight.”

“When we went to eat, I couldn't believe what I was seeing, there wee crates of eggs stacked as high as a man's head.”

“We hadn't saw an egg since we had left the States, all they had given us was powdered eggs, they weren't too bad but nothing like fresh eggs.

I stepped up to the cook and he asked me how many eggs I wanted? I asked him how many I could have? He said as many as you want, so I told him to cook me a Dozen. He looked at me kind of funny, but he cooked them for me, I sat down and I ate every one of them.”

“I had forgotten that every time I got in a glider up to that time, I had gotten air sick, if I would have remembered I probably wouldn't have eaten so much. After Breakfast, we got all our Equipment together and headed out to the Air field.”

“That was truly a sight to behold! Gliders and C47s. were lined up on the air strip as far as the eye could see. I believe if I am not mistaken that this was just one of nine or ten airfields that they were using in France and England.”

“The British 5^th Airborne was also going with us. There was a total of more than 16,000 Airborne troops in that invasion, and the armada was over 500 miles long. It was the largest airborne invasion of the 2^nd World War.”

“We were marched out to our respective gliders or planes for the paratroopers.”

“I can't recall exactly where we were in line but I think we were about the middle. We sat and waited for the armada to start to move and finally we boarded our glider.”

“The day before this, my platoon leader, Lt. Dillon, came and asked me if I wanted to carry a machine gun across the Rhine river? I told him hell no.”

“He was a good Leader and a fine man, we would do just about anything for him. He explained to me that Lt. Webb refused to load in his glider unless there was an automatic weapon in the glider.”

“I told him if he ask me to I would, on one condition, that just as soon as we landed I could leave the Machine Gun and return to my Squad, He said O.K.”

“Earlier I mentioned that when I went through Basic Training, I had Trained as a machine gunner and I was the only one qualified for that job, so I was elected.”

“Well reluctantly, I went over to the other glider and got the Machine gun and a belt of ammunition, I threw the belt of ammunition across my shoulders and got ready to load on the Glider. The Glider Pilot took a Picture of us while we were waiting to take off.”

“Finally we loaded on our Glider and took off. The Glider I was in, had a plastic bubble or glass in the top of it, we could look up into the sky.

I looked up and I saw a bunch of Fighter Planes flying overhead.”

“Sometime later I found out that there was 523 fighters planes protecting us on that trip. It took us about three hours to get to Germany.

We got to the Rhine river and just before we crossed, the Pilot Cut us loose from the tow plane.”

“This was also the first time they had used a double tow on an invasion, (one C47 was towing 2 gliders.) I think at this time it is only appropriate

that I get something clear. Some of the things that I am going to be talking about is graphic and seem cruel, and I suppose that they are, but this was war, and the United States didn't start it, that don't make it right but that is the way it was.”

“The killings that take place seem to be unfair and unnecessary.

If you consider that we had found some of our boys hanging in trees by their feet with there testicles cut off and put in their mouth, the Germans had dropped Leaflets stating that; they would not take American Airborne troopers prisoner.”

“From that day forward we were known as, the Germans called us; "butchers with baggy pants".

“We had found many of our boys dead with Bullet holes right between their eyes, clearly we could see that they had been Executed, two wrongs don't make a right but we were mad as hell, we had saw so much Death that another

dead German was just another good German.”

“We didn't feel like it was cruel or unnecessary. We did what was necessary to stay alive.”

“One more dead German didn't please us at all. If it was one of our Boys it was different. I will be telling about some of the guys that was cold blooded and merciless. You could find them in every outfit. I mentioned before, I always got sick on a Glider ride, well this is one time I didn't

get sick. I think it was because I didn't have time to think of it or because I was scared half out of my wits.”

“When the Pilot cut loose we started down, the ACK, ACK, was so thick, I believe we could have got out and walked on it, bullets and flak coming through the glider, and every time one hit the bottom of the Glider and went out the top, it sounded like the crack of a whip only ten times louder, very demoralizing.”

“All around us we could see planes shot down, gliders falling from the sky, nose first, Wing shot off and tails gone. Every one of them had 15 good men inside.”

“After we had Glided about 8 miles into German territory, we landed, we jumped the Canal I mentioned, went through a Barbed wire fence and came to a stop about 50 yards from the road.”

“I was sitting next to the Door so I was the first man out, I opened the door and I started firing the machine gun at a farm house off to my left, I didn't know if there was any Germans in it or not but I meant to make them

keep their heads down and not be able to fire at the guys as they unloaded out of the Glider.”

“I guess it worked because we didn't receive any fire from that house.

I headed for the Canal and set up the Machine Gun Position.

While I was lying there I saw a women running down the road like her house was on fire, there was small arms fire and gliders still coming down and ACK, ACK, still in the air.”

“I saw one glider coming down and it was on fire burning from one end to the other. Later I learned that one of our Lieutenants was in that Glider. "Lieutenant Loomis”. 

“A wing of one Glider fell off as it passed overhead and down came the Glider, it was horrible, knowing that there was a bunch of men in those Gliders. I could see C47's catching fire and crashing to the ground, but there were fewer men in those C47's than there were in the gliders.”

“After everybody had unloaded and all the guys had gotten over to the Canal, I Hollered at Lt. Webb and told him that here was his Machine Gun and I was going to take my leave, He didn't seem to like it too much but that was the deal I had made, he just nodded his head and I walked away.”

“I headed down the Canal to where my squad was supposed to assemble when we landed. It was only about two miles, and when I got near there, one of my buddies hollered at me, he was carrying my Rifle.”

“I joined the gang and we headed for our objective, we were to "Clear" and take a Farm House about two miles from where we landed. There was no way for us to know if there was any Germans in this house or not.”

“We got to the Farm house and my squad leader, Sgt. Coddington, told me to go in the back of the house and he would come in from the front, I said OK. and headed toward the Back. We hadn't received any fire from the house as we approached it, but we had to make sure the Germans were all cleared out.”

“I went to the back and there was a carport like structure on the back and about 4 steps up to the door. Either Sgt. Coddington was fast or I was awful slow because when I raised up and looked in the window, Sgt. Coddington had his 45 automatic pointed right between my eyes.” 

“I said: Don't shoot Sgt. He kind of smiled and said: Come on in ARIOLA.

We checked all the rooms on the first floor and went upstairs, we checked the rooms on the second floor, we didn't find any Germans, but not too long after we had gone through the house a young girl, maybe the Farmers Daughter or wife, she was about 18 years old, she came in and she was as mad as an old wet hen. She began to read us the riot act, she was mad because we had invaded her country.”

“We smiled at her for about 2 minutes and let her get everything off her "chest, and what a chest it was" and told her to get her ass out of there before we put a bullet in it, She didn't like it but she left.”

“We landed near "Wesel, Germany. Our first 24 hours we took about 3000 German prisoners. As near as I can recall during the first 24 hours we lost about 394 killed and several hundred wounded. That was just in our Division, I don't know how many people the British lost.”

“Considering that there was over 8,000 troopers from the 17th. Division alone, that was an acceptable loss, that was what the upper echelon said, of course they weren't out there getting shot at, so it was easy for them to say.”

“I found out at a later date, General Eisenhower, Wiston Churchill and General de Gaulle were, sitting on the Netherland side of the Rhine

River watching this all going on, they had literally had a platform built to sit on. I have often thought, what a stupid thing that was for them to do.”

“All the Germans had to do was lob an Artillery shell in on top of them and they could have got all three of them at once. There would have been some Turmoil in the Upper Echelon if that would have happened.”

“That evening after every thing had settled down we were given an assignment, we were to go into this patch of woods and dig in. We headed over that way and all of a sudden a Jeep stopped at the head of our column and this Colonial stopped our Squad and told our squad leader that the Germans were sending up a division of their crack panzer troops, and they would be coming in, right where we were to dig our foxholes.”

“Well after he told us that he got in his Jeep and took off, but what the hell he was going in the wrong direction! I was thinking, if what he said is true, we were going to need all the help we could get. But what the hell

we had been fighting Hitlers crack troops ever since we landed, and all through the Battle of the Bulge, what’s a few more.”

“They hadn't been to much trouble, they weren't easy but they weren't as bad as we had heard they were. However one squad isn't enough to stop a complete Division.”

“But if they had came we would have given it our best shot. We went in the woods and began digging our Foxholes.”

“About half way through we heard something over on our right flank, we stopped, quieted down and listened, you can imagine what we were thinking, here comes the Division the Colonial had told us about?”

“We waited and pretty soon a little Deer came out from some bushes.

We were happy about this because the least little thing would spook us.

We never did see the Panzer Division the Colonial had told us about, as a matter of fact we never did see the Colonial again, it may have scared him so bad, he may be still running.”

“After we had captured all the Germans they had left behind, things began to settle down, we stayed there until the next morning and started on the Attack again.”

“Right from the start the Germans used the same tactic's on us that they did all during the Battle of the Bulge, they would stop and throw every thing they had at us and take off again, and as always they would leave some Soldiers behind to slow us down.”

“They took off and we went on the Attack. We had a constant Battle all the way to Munster, Germany. Every small village we had a fight on our hands to drive the Germans out of the houses.”

“The next City we came to was Dorsten, Germany.”

“Before we got there we came to a Farm House. We had it surrounded. we had been firing at it for sometime.”

“There was an English Tank pulled up in front of the house.”

“Standing on the Porch was a German Soldier with his hands up, the Tank had his Big Gun pointed at him. I know how that German Must have felt, because

when my Sgt. had that 45 Automatic pointed at me, it looked like the Barrel was large enough to crawl into.”

“All Hell broke loose and that German looked like he didn't know what to do, all of a sudden he turned around and went back in the house. I was the nearest one to the front door so I went up on the porch, took a grenade, pulled the pin, pushed the door open and threw the Grenade in after him, after the Grenade Exploded I went in with my Rifle Blazing. We searched the house but we never did find that German, I don't know what happened to him, but he must have had a real good hide-out. We did find a Wine cellar, we could always find a wine Cellar and plenty to drink. Everybody that wanted a bottle of wine took one.” 

“We never did find that German Soldier but we didn't look to hard, because we were moving pretty fast, we didn't have the time to waste on one man and we didn't want to let them get ready for our coming. Then we would have a harder time digging them out of their holes, and we were having enough of that kind of trouble.”

“We were to find out that driving the German Soldier across Germany wasn‘t going to be a picnic, but that was what we were there for.”

“Right down the road was another Farm House. We saw some Germans in it so we started shooting into the windows.”

“I was laying down about a hundred feet from the house and shooting through the windows. On my side of the house was a hedge, running the full length of the house, Lieutenant Dillon was behind the Hedge and I couldn't see him.”

“About the time I fired a shot through the window, he raised up from behind the Hedge. It missed him about a foot, glass fell at his feet, he looked at me and grinned and went on, soon we dug the Germans out of the house

and went on down the road. Shortly after that incident we captured a German

"SS" Officer, they were supposed to be Hitler’s toughest soldiers. He was a belligerent so and so, they still thought they were the Master Race.

We told him to take off, back to where our Interrogators were, he looked at us and spit, one of the guys walked around behind him and very casually put his Bayonet on his Rifle, when he got right behind the "SS" Trooper, he stuck about 4 inches of that Bayonet up his Ass, that German took off and the last time we saw him, he was headed toward our Interrogators, we don't know if he made it hack there or not, it sure was funny, watching him run down the road screaming his lungs out and blood running down his back side it was funny.”

“At this time we didn't take too many Prisoners, we didn't have any place to put them and they were more trouble than they were worth.”

“One day we were advancing on the enemy and they had been firing at us for sometime, finall we dug them out of their holes. Our B.A.R. (Browning Automatic Rifle) man was walking past a Foxhole.”

“He walked over and looked in, there was two German Soldiers backed up in a corner, hoping we would go on past them, when he saw them he pointed the B.A.R. at them and started shooting, he just blew them away. I will never forget the crazy look in his eyes while he was firing in that hole. Some of the guys got that way, I think they went a little Crazy for a time, just lost all since of direction, and didn't know right from wrong, and then there was that rare breed, that just didn't give a Dam. Some of them stayed

that way and some of them, after getting out of the Service was allright.”

“We were still pushing the Germans deeper into Germany, we came to a Farm House, we went in to check it out, it was hard to believe, Hanging on the ceiling was row after row of good German Sausage. we knew what to do with that! One of the guys started a fire in the stove, I went down in the Cellar and found about 6 or 8 Dozen Eggs. I took them up to the fellow that had started cooking the Sausage and he started cooking Sausage and Eggs. Every time a Soldier passed by the house we would call him in and cook him some Sausage and Eggs. Down in the Cellar I also found lots of wine.”

“My Regiment was fighting over on the Left Flank of our Division, the next town we got to, was Wulfen, it was a small City but there was a lot of resistance, we went in and started fighting them from Door to door.”

“It was a lot different fighting the Germans on their own soil.”

“Before when we were fighting them in France, Belgium or Luxembourg they didn't care what they shot at.

But now that we were on their soil, they were careful where they fired their shells, they didn't want to tear up any more houses than they had too.”

“At this time the Germans had almost ran out of planes, hut there was a few of them still around, as we found out when we started through a small Village. We were walking down the street, and suddenly we heard the Drone of a plane, we didn't think much of it because we hadn't had much trouble with Aircraft before. Out of the clouds came a fighter plane. He started strafing our column all the way from the front to the rear, we scrambled over to the side, into doorways and let him get through with what he had to do. When he took off our Anti-Aircraft started shooting at him, he climbed for the clouds and our Anti-Aircraft Guns picking at his tail as he climbed, He got away. He killed one man.”

“We crossed the Issel River, went through Dortsten, Wulfen and into Haltern, all the way through these Villages we had to fight the Germans House to House. We left a lot of dead people behind us, not only Germans but a lot of our own.”

“There was one thing about War, there was never a day without incident, it wasn't all bad but we were always sitting on pins and needles, we never knew from one day to the next if we were going to be dead or alive. There was so much we had to watch out for.”

“The Germans had a lot of Anti-Personnel mines, they would bury them in the Roads and in the fields, if they had time, that was another reason not to let up on them, as long as we kept pushing them they didn't have time to bury them in the ground, or set up any kind of Ambush.”

“There were two mines that we feared more than any of the rest, and the Germans used more of them. One was called a “Bouncing Betty", it would jump up about three feet after being stepped on, and explode, it would wound or kill you. The other one was an Anti-Personnel mine that, when stepped on, it would just Blow your foot off. Almost all the guys agreed, they would rather get killed outright than loose an Arm, Leg or eye sight.”

“These are the things that we had to look out for besides the Germans.”

“The Germans grew a large turnip, they called a cow turnip, they would bury them in the ground and come winter time they would use them for feed for their cows. Just before we got into Dulmen, Germany, I was lying on one of these Turnip Mounds out in an open field, all of a sudden I felt a tug at my shoulder and heard the whine of a bullet go past my head. I looked at my left shoulder and the strap on my jacket was cut, it looked like someone

had cut it with a pair of scissors.”

“My Canteen was right in the middle of my hack, I turned over on my back to see if I could spot the guy that was shooting at me. I was lying on my Canteen, it raised me up off the ground about 4 inches, I heard the thunk of medal and felt water running down my back side.”

“I pulled my Canteen out of the pouch and there was a hole in it. After the second shot I began to get a little nervous. Even at a time like that I could always think of something funny, and this time I was thinking; Boy a guy could get killed up here! I was also thinking about what they say in the Movies, "fire at will", but my name isn't. Will, I really couldn't laugh at those thoughts but they were there.”

“After the Second shot, I got up and started running toward the Germans just as fast as I could run, Running in a zig zag fashion, hopefully they wouldn‘t have time to zero in on me while I was running.”

“I had about a hundred Yard to run where there was a rise in the ground and a great big tree, behind this tree there was a Lieutenant lying there with a pair of Binoculars, he was an Artillery Observer.”

“I fell down beside him and after a few minutes I spoke to him. I lay there Snipping at the Germans who had a trench dug about a hundred feet from where we were.”

“Suddenly a Bullet Ricocheted off the tree, the bark hit the Lieutenant in the face. He looked like someone had cut his face up with a Razor Blade, he was blind and bleeding like Hell.”

“I took him by the hand and told him to crawl with me, a few yards to a burning Farm House.

It had already burned out and was still smoldering, the walls were still standing so we would be pretty safe inside.”

“When we got to the house, I patched his face up as best as I could, and called for the Medic I went over to the door looking over the trench where the Germans were.”

“At the time, I didn't know it but the bullet that ricocheted off the tree, had gone through two clips of ammunition on my belt.”

“I was lucky, because if there had been any tracer bullets on my belt or if he had been firing tracers, it would have set off the bullets on my belt and I would have been blown apart.”

“I didn't find this out until the war was over and I was in "Duisburg, Germany".”

“I'm afraid if I knew it at this time I would have really been shook up. Three times in the space of less than an hour I was almost killed.”

“If any one of those bullets had been an inch lower or higher I would have been killed or badly wounded.”

“The Medic's came and picked up the Lieutenant and I never did see him again.”

“I went back to shooting at the Germans in the trench, After the Lieutenant got hurt and I was shooting at the Germans I made it so hot for them they began waving a white flag wanting to surrender.”

“There was two Soldiers still alive in the trench. Three more in the trench were dead. I still wonder how I came out of all this alive. But here I am, a little shook up but alive.”

“Shortly after that! It was getting close to time to take a break and we came to a Barn, there was a dead German lying outside, he had a hole in the middle of his forehead, his Brains were scattered all over the side of that barn. We sat down and started eating our lunch. In those days we had seen so much death, that one more dead German was just another good German and we didn't pay too much attention to them. I would think; my God they are so young. Some of them didn't look like they were over 15 or 16 years old. Of course, when you think about it, the average age of our guys was only about 19 or 20. So there wasn't really that much different in our ages.”

“There was a funny thing happened while we were on the move through Germany.

I am sure everybody has heard about the English and their Tea Time? One day we had been fighting the Germans and there was a couple British Tanks with us, it got to be Tea Time for them so they nosed there Tanks together, they stuck their heads out of the Turret, and one of then said; "I say old chap, shall we have a spot of Tea?" They climbed out of their Tanks, got down between them, built a fire and started Brewing tea. That was crazy, there was shells flying every where, Bullets flying through the Air, it was nothing to see an Artillery shell explode right near there, the Germans would always lob Artillery shells at Tanks. After they had their tea they got back in their Tanks and took off.”

“The 194th. Glider Infantry Combat team was shifted to the Northeast of Dulmen and the preparations were made for the final assault on Munster.

In our assault on Munster we captured 1500 prisoners. That was April 2nd, 1945. We Attacked Munster, Germany and the fighting was fierce as we fought from house to house.”

“Just before we got into the City, the Germans had almost ran out of Ammunition, they were firing at us with an Anti-Aircraft gun and had us pinned down, we crawled forward until we got in range and started shooting at them.”

“As usual when we got within range, they threw up their hand and surrendered.

Just on the outskirts of Munster, we came to a large building, we went in and there was 300 Germans in there sitting down to eat and waiting for us to take them Prisoner. The building turned out to be a Mess Hall.” 

“It took us about 2 or 3 days to take Munster, it was a very large City, bombed out and lots of places to hide, up until that time, that was the toughest City to take.”

“When I said , the Germans were running out of Ammunition I meant small Caliber, Large Caliber they seemed to have plenty of, (at least here in Munster) but then Hitler had been planning this War for sometime.”

“We were to find out as we got deeper into the City that there was no shortage of ammunition. These things I am telling you are like a dream, and I have just woke up and am remembering them.”

“There is several times I have almost stopped writing this story because of the has feelings it has brought back. I said it was like a dream, but I think I said it before, it is like a nightmare. Those three times I almost got killed in that one day is enough to make me want to sit down and cry.”

“I remember walking down the streets of Munster and looking at all the devastation, dead body's laying all over the streets, body's, not only of people but dogs and cats, on the outskirts of the city there was dead cows, sheep and you name it and it was lying there.”

“We found a cellar in a building that was still intact. We made our squad headquarters there, it was a fairly decent place to bed down. We knew that we weren't going to get to stay long but as I said, we stopped so we could

lie down and catch 40 winks.”

“Right across the street from there was a Catholic Church. It was a large construction and very beautiful, it was made of Brick, with a steeple and bell in it. The reason I know there was a bell in it is because, we had forced some Germans out of there and the bell was struck several times. The Church was the only building that I saw that was still in one piece, everything around it was bombed out, the city had been bombed on several occasions.”

“When we got inside the city, we were the victor, and you know what they say; "to the victor belongs the spoils". Well we looted some of the stores and shops inside the city, I took a couple items for a souvenir out of a jewelry store, we took things that would be of use to us while we were in Germany.”

“I think I mentioned, we took all the German marks that we could find, we even robbed the dead for money.”

“One of Hitler's German "SS" oficer's was running around inside the city, as I said, they still thought they were the Master Race. He shot one of our boys with a German "P38" pistol 3 times and didn't kill him.”

“We finally captured him and Lieutenant Brown who was with us at that time, took him in a room and closed the door. We were standing right on the outside of the door, Lieutenant Brown asked him if he could speak english? He said yes, a little bit. Lt. Brown's words were; You shot that American Soldier 3 times with your "P38" and you didn‘t kill him! We heard the German sneer, Lt. Brown said; I bet I don‘t shoot you 3 times with this 45

Automatic before I kill you! The first shot hit the German in the stomach, he screamed and the next shot hit him right between the eyes.”

“For years I have tried to figure out why some of the German soldiers were so belligerent. They had lost the war and were in the hands of the conqueror, and yet you would think that they had won the war!”

“He fell over dead, things like that weren't supposed to happen. when we captured a Soldier we were supposed to take him back to he interrogated.”

“But Lieutenant Brown was mad as Hell over the loss of another one of our men. I think this German "SS" officer thought that he was safe after he was captured, but he should have taken in consideration, that like their own Soldiers, some of us never took prisoners, I don’t think I have mentioned it yet.”

“It was Hell in that City, we never knew where the next bullet was going to come from. They would Snipe at us and kill as many of us as they could.”

“From one day to the next it was easy to forget, because there was so much in front of us. We might forget about a buddy getting killed two days ago but just let us see a German soldier and all the bad memories came back.”

“Sometime a couple of us would get together and just Talk about one of our friends getting killed, it kind of helped relieve the pressure.”

“After Munster, we were trucked from there through "Lippstadt", we had a little resistance there but it wasn't a big deal, only a few hours.”

“The 17th Airborne Division was shifted to the South West where we took up positions on the "Rhein Herne Canal" and made preparations to attack.

We were dug in on the autobahn highway.”

“In this area they were just starting to excavate where we were, they had dug out a lot of dirt and piled on the side of the road, this is where we were dug in.

It was dark and we had decided to spend the night, we set up cross fire with machine guns and had our riflemen posted between them, we thought we were pretty well protected, and we were, but for one thing, after dark that night, the Germans attacked our position and were coming so fast and there was so many of them that they broke through our cross fire.”

“My foxhole buddy and I were returning their fire, when one of our own artillery shells hit to the right of our foxhole, I was standing up, firing at the Germans, I never did hear the shell.

There was an explosion and I was turned wrong side up in my foxhole. I got up and there was a stream of blood shooting out of the side of my head.

My Foxhole buddy was so nervous he couldn‘t even find his first aid packet.

I finally got mine off of my belt and unfolded it and put it up to the side of my head to stop the bleeding.

Before I got it stopped, the right side of my cloths were soaked with blood.”

“I don’t think my squad leader thought that I could make it back to the Medic's by myself so he told my foxhole buddy to take me back. When we got back to the medic’s, the medical Captain and some of his men were standing around talking, he told me he would be with me in a minute.

When he finally came to see about me, he took some gauze and started wiping the blood off the side of my head, the more he wiped the funnier he looked.

When he finally got the wound clean, it was a small cut over my right ear, right at the temple.

It had cut the main artery, that's where all the blood was coming from.”

“He patched me up, put a large bandage around my head and told me to go see the company commander. I was told later that the shell hit 18 inches to the right of our foxhole. We got to the command post and the artillery observer was there, I told him that he had better lift the fire because he was killing our own troops! He told me that it couldn‘t be helped. The Germans were attacking in such force that they were breaking through our cross fire.”

“They were having to shell our positions to get the Germans. There was a Second Lieutenant standing there, he said: "Ariola" you can go back up front with your squad! My Platoon Leader was standing there and he said; Hold on a minute, Ariola can't go back up there with his head bandaged like it is, he would be a perfect target, he told me to go back with the medic's until they could take the bandage off my head.”

“The next morning, we couldn't believe our eyes, there was dead Germans laying all over the place, hundred’s of them, it had been a slaughter, we lost a few good men in that battle.”

“The next day we moved out.”

“I was with the Medic‘s, we came to a small Village and there was quite a few Wounded Germans and some American Wounded.”

“We had captured two German Medic's and they were helping our Medical Captain with the Wounded, after he got through with them, he told me and one of the other guys to take them back to the interrogators We had to walk about two or three miles and it had began to get dark. We dropped them off and started back, when we got to the Village.”

“We turned down, what we thought, was the same street where the medic's were, it was like walking into a strange village. We were lost? The other guy told me that he was going on ahead and try to find his outfit. I told him that I was going to wait until daylight. He left and I went in a Barn and found me a soft place to lie down. I hadn't been laying there very long, when I heard the loud roar of tanks, now that made me come alive.

The tanks pulled up right in front of the Barn where I was and stopped, I was sure hoping that it wasn't the Germans. They stopped and I heard an American say; alright you ass holes, lets find a place to sleep.

I was sure glad to hear an American voice.”

“I reported to the Sergeant and explained what had happened, he said not to worry I could ride with them until we caught up with my Company. The next morning we took off, if I remember correctly it was a couple days later before we caught up with my Company.”

“After I could take the Bandage off my head I went back with my squad.”

“We were on the attack when the Germans started dropping 105mm, artillery shells in back of us. As long as we were on the move we were O.K. so we just kept moving toward the gun. The shells kept exploding right in back of us. when we finally came upon the 105mm. it was just across a clearing, maybe 100 feet across. Lieutenant Brown (the same Officer that shot the German “SS” officer in Munster) told me to give him a W.P. (White Phosphorus) Grenade.”

“I took one off my belt and tossed it to him, he pulled the Pin and stepped out in the clearing to toss it. A sniper put a bullet right between his eyes, as he fell he let go of the grenade, it Explode about 20 feet in front of us. Doing no damage to either the Germans or us.”

“That grenade had alerted the German so we had one hell of a time capturing that 105 mm. Finally we made it so hot for them that they surrendered. Now we had lost another one of our officers and that was another account we had to settle with the Germans. This all became personal after awhile, It was like loosing one of your family.”

“We fought the Germans through Ruthen, Hamm, right on into Essen, there was some small villages around Essen and Duisburg There was Merxloh, Oberhausen, Bottrop, and Werden. Mulhiem was between Essen and Duisburg.

We attacked these Villages one at a time to clear them of Enemy troops, this wasn't an easy job, considering the opposition, we took everything in stride and got the job done.”

“We Attacked Duisburg and Essen and after they were cleared of the enemy, that is where we became a defensive team. All we did was sit on the lines and take Prisoners. "Battle of the Rhur pocket". The Germans were whipped, we knew it and they knew it.”

“While we were there in Mulhiem I met a young lady, Her name was Irene Berkin.”

“We stayed around Mulhiem for several days beforewe moved out. We finally moved into the city of Duisburg and was billeted there. Our billeting area was a group of homes, like our trac houses.”

“We made the German families move in with family or friends and used their homes to live in while we were there.”

“We had the Germans surrounded in the Rhur pocket, we just pulled Guard, duty. The Germans were coming in a few at a time.”

“There were times when the Germans would get together in a group and decide to attack but they were always repelled.”

“The Rhur valley was the richest part of Germany, it seemed like that they had plenty of everything.”

“After we moved to Duisburg which was a few miles from Essen, Irene used to come and visit me, Her cousin and her would ride over on their bikes and send one of my buddies in to find me. We weren't allowed to fraternize with the Germans but as the old saying goes, "Where there is a will a here is a way”.

Jack and is German's girlfriend Irene.

Pfc Richard "Dick" Holland

“One night when I was on guard duty at a cross roads, right down the road there was another crossing where a couple of my friends were, all of a sudden all hell broke loose, tracer bullets flying all around.

We had a Telephone connected from my post to theirs, I got on the Phone and called them because it sounded like a new War had broke out down there.”

“The two guys name were "Richard Holland and Hoyt Hull”

When I got them on the Phone I asked them what was going on down there?

Dick Holland was an old Country Boy that talked real slow, he answered the phone and said. We just shot some S.O.B. you want to hear him grown?

They said that this German Soldier had attack them and they had shot him 8 times, he was just lying there dieing. I could hear him in the background.”
“There was a curfew for the Germans, they had to be off the streets at sundown and couldn't come out until after sunrise.”

“On another occasion the same two guys were on Guard duty right down the street from where I was, and it was shortly after dark, there was a German Man came out of his house for something and these two guys saw him, they started shooting at him, the tracers bullets were pecking all around him and he was scrambling for the door, it was funny but they weren't trying to hit him, just put him back in the house.

Mission Accomplished!”

“Just outside of Duisburg there was two Bunkers, these were large Buildings 4 stories tall. This is where we housed all the “Polish and Russian" D.Ps. (Displaced Persons.) These were the people that the Germans used, to dig their Foxholes on the front lines.”

“These buildings had walls of about four feet of cement. It was really a bomb shelter.”

“We would stand guard there, I got acquainted with the Russian commandant, he couldn't speak English and I couldn't speak Russian but he came to me and asked if I wanted a drink of German schnapps? Well I could always use a drink so I said sure.”

“He took me over to a small cubby hole and took out a bottle of schnapps.

He took two cups and poured them both full, I thought he was just going to sip on it.”

“Instead he turned it up to his head and down the hatch it went.”

“Well I thought if he can do that so can I, I turned it up and drank it all, I turned around about twice and I couldn’t hardly see. He poured them full again and we drank them, Now that is all I remember until I woke up the next morning.”

“The Russian’s had put me to bed so I could sleep it off, the only thing they took was my cigarettes. That's the last time I pulled a stunt like that.”

Jack photographed in the company of "Russians".

“While we were there we would go on Guard duty and when we had time off we would just roam around.”

“We got a good look at a country that had started a War and the devastation was something to behold.”

“There wasn't hardly a building standing, except on the outskirts of town where there was no industry. This was the way with almost all of the cities. Especially the Cities where they manufactured war material. I would look and wander why anyone would start a war that-would devastate a country so completely. Thousands of their boys dead and thousands of ours, either dead or wounded.”

“May 8, 1945. Officially the War was declared over.”

“We were some of the happiest guys in the World. The Germans were just as Happy as we were. We were celebrating, the Germans were celebrating, but not together. There was still a lot of bad feelings on both sides. We could still see our buddies a bullet in them, or an or leg missing Dead or dieing, blood all over the place where they had fallen. It was truly a Horrible sight, but now we could start thinking about going home. Finally getting to see the Family.”

“I had been Overseas for a little over a year and I was lonesome for the Family. It took them about a month to get fresh Troops into Duisburg to relieve us.”

“June 15, 1945  Moving to Luneville, France.”

 “We were shipped to Luneville, France.

There we set up our Headquarters and they started assigning details.”

“My Platoon Sergeant was a real nice guy and a friend of mine. He called me into the office one day and ask me if I wanted to go on detached service to the MP.s? I was never one to volunteer, but he said it was good duty, so I said O.K. ”

"The next day I reported to the MP.s and the first day, they assigned me to a "house of prostitution", now that was what I called "good duty”. I reported to this House at 10:00 AM. and it didn't open until 2:00 PM. More good news.One of the Prostitutes informed me that "M.P. NO PAY" Now, "that was more good news"! They had some of the best Champagne in France and since "M.P. NO PAY" I tried to see how much I could drink until they opened up. I drank a lot. I was on duty at that place one more time before we left Luneville." 

“Most of the time we just roamed the streets trying to keep the GIS. out of trouble, that was a job within itself. They would get drunk and then, they dealt us some headache‘s. After we slapped them upside the head a couple

times, they got the message.”

“I was on Guard duty at a Carnival one night and had met a nice little French Girl, after I got off duty I was walking her home. We were strolling down the street and an M.P. Jeep pulled up along side of us and a young Lieutenant got out and started telling me that I was supposed to be in the Barracks at that time of night.”

“They had a curfew for the GI.s, we had to be in the Barracks before 12:00 AM.”

“He said: Only M.Ps. are allowed out after Midnight. When he finally slowed down, I told him I was an MP. He said; Why didn’t you say so, and drove off. The French girl and I continued on to her house. There was no restrictions for the M.Ps., that is one of the reasons that made it good duty.”

“While I was there in Luneville I had my 22nd, Birthday. That day I didn't get a Card or Letter and it depressed me a little. I don't know what I expected because we were on the move most of the time and mail came very slow. I guess I shouldn't gripe about it because I really think the government did a pretty good job with the mail considering the circumstance's?”

“It seemed that when most of the Guys had a bad day or got a little depressed, they would get a bottle and get drunk That seemed to ease the pain at the moment, but when you sobered up, the pain was right where you left it. So it really didn‘t solve anything.”

“I may have said this before, but I think that is one of the reasons that so many GI's were alcoholic’s. Most of us had never been away from home for any lenght of time and everybody was lonesome for their family’s.

I could never explain what the feeling is like, being away from loved ones for the first time and not knowing when or if you were going to get back.”

“Not too long after that they began to get us ready to ship out again.”

“This is when they began to break up the 17^th Airborne Division.”

“Some of the guys went to Berlin and some of us was transferred to the 13th. Airborne Division.”

“I was sent to Le Havre, France to the point of Debarkation. I was assigned to "Company H..515th. Parachute Infantry Regiment 13^th Airborne Division”.

Although I served in the 17^th Airborne Division from day one, I was discharged from the 13th. Airborne Division.”

“While we were waiting for orders to board ship, I got trench foot, my feet were so sore that I had to walk on my heels. I went to the medic’s and when the medical Doctor looked at them, he said: “Soldier, I am going to have to keep you here until we clear that up!”

I said Doctor; We have just received orders to board ship, you can't do that to me! He laughed real loud and said; I was only kidding, when you get aboard ship, report to the ships Doctor and he will take care of you,

I sure was relieved.”

“I found out that I was supposed to be shipped back to the USA for furlough and then shipped over to Japan to help fight that war.”

“The ships were at the port and just waiting for us to load. I can't remember just how long I stayed there, but while I was there waiting for the orders, the U.S.A. dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan.

That ended the War with Japan.

We were assigned the ships that were in the Harbor, so rather than change the orders they let us ship back home.”

“These were small ships they called “Victory Ships”, we loaded on the ships and in a few days we started toward the good old USA.”

“I spent the first three days in the hole, so sea sick I couldn't hardly get out of my bunk, I didn‘t eat anything, all I could do was vomit, after everything is gone out of your stomach, it's the dry heaves. That's even worse. On the fourth day I got up feeling like a human being.

I Went down to the mess hall to eat breakfast, I had to wait about an hour before it became our turn to eat, the Cooks helper was passing by me carrying tubs of pealed potato’s. Every time he came by I would get one and eat it, I must have eat about 3 or 4 of them before they called us to eat, boy was I ever hungry.”

“After I got to feeling better I would go upon deck and shoot crap’s, I got a lucky streak, playing black jack and shooting crap’s I won about $200.00 the next three days.”

“We finally pulled into "New York Harbor", We passed right by the "Statue of Liberty".”

“There wasn't a dry eye aboard ship, that was truly a beautiful sight, the "Statue of Liberty" standing there as if to say; "Welcome Home".”

“It was dark by the time we docked so we spent the night aboard ship. Bright and early the next morning we were taken off the ship into a camp nearby.”

“We went into camp and they called assembly on the theatre, they told us that they were going to get us out of there and on our way home just as soon as they could.”

“I can't remember the name of the Camp all I remember is that it was on the outskirts of "New York City".”

“At that time, there were troop ships coming in from overseas, almost every day. So they had to move us out just as quickly as possible.”

“We were discharged on the point system, we were given so many points for years in the service, overseas service, combat service, each medal was worth so many points and so on. I don't know exactly how many points were given for each of these except the Purple Heart, it was worth 5 points.”

“Discharging, By the Point system meant that the high point men would be the ones that had been overseas the longest or was in the service longest, would be the one's that were discharged first, which is the way it should

be.”

“The next morning we were loaded on Trains and shipped out. I was shipped to “Jefferson Barracks, MO". They sent us back to the same place where we were inducted.”

“When we got to "Atlanta, Georgia", we had a brief stop in the City.

After we stopped, there was a guy standing on the corner by a Liquor store, we called him over and stuffed a bunch of money in his hand and told him to go get us some Liquor!”

“We finally got to Jefferson Barracks and was assigned our quarters.”

“Some time before we got on the Boat to come home, the news papers in ST. Louis went on strike. They would print the name of the unit that was coming home and what ship they would be on and the time of arrival, but being on strike, nobody knew that we were back home.”

“My Mother had moved recently and I didn't know where she lived, so I went to the commanding officer and asked him if I could get a pass to try to find out where she had had moved to! He gave me a pass and I went out and hailed a Cab, the driver asked me where I wanted to go? I said; Take me to the nearest place where I can get a beer. We went to a bar and I invited him to have one with me.”

“We had a couple Beers and I began to try to find out where Mother had moved, to no avail.”

“I went back to camp about 2:00 AM. slept a few hours and after breakfast they gave us a furlough. I got in a cab and told the driver to take me to an address on South 9^th Street. This was where the Pastor of our church used to live, and her and Mother was real good friends. I was lucky she still lived there, she and her Daughter were there and they knew where Mother had moved. Mother had moved to Eureka, MO. That was a small town about 40 miles out of St. Louis. Her Daughter "Doris" said she would take me there, so we got in the Cab, I asked the driver if he knew where Eureka was? He said he did so I said, take us there. When we got to Eureka, we didn't know where Mother lived, so we went to the Post Office and asked them.

They told us how to get to Mother's house. On the way Doris said; I better go in first and prepare your mother! I said O.K. The Cab pulled up in front of the house and I let Doris out. The Cab went down to the River Bridge and turned around and when we got in sight of the house.”

“My Brother Monte and my Dad was standing in the road waiting for me.”

“After we said our Hello's I went up to the House and was greeted by my Mother. She told me later that Doris ran in the House and said; Mom Jack’s home! That was some Preparation alright.”

“For the next 30 days I just laid around and talked to Mother and the rest of the Family. Doris stayed until I went back to camp and she and I went back together.”

“When I reported back to Camp, they gave me another 15 days Furlough so I went back Home and spent them with the Family.”

“I went back to camp again and they told me that they were lowering the point system to 40 Points for Discharge, the first of November.”

“The Sergeant looked at my record and told me that I only had 38 points so I wouldn't be eligible for Discharge in November. This was about October 6, 1945.”

“I asked him if he had me down for a Purple Heart? That was worth 5 Points.

He said no! Do you have a Purple Heart? If so, do you have your special orders?”

“I had been given these special orders while I was in France and I still had them in my pocket. I showed them to him and gave me another 22 days Furlough and told me that when I came back they would give me a Discharge.”

“I went back Home and spent another 22 days with the Family.”

“When I went back to Camp on November 3, 1945 they gave me a Discharge.”

“It seemed like it took them an awful long time to get me out of the service, it sure didn‘t take them that long to get me in.”

“That is my story.”

“I till this day can't figure out how I could go that long in combat without getting killed. The only explanation that I have is; that a lot of people was praying for me, I am thankful to god that I came out of it in as good a shape as I did. Many, many of the guys weren't so lucky.” 

Metals Received:

Expert Infantry Badge, August 13, 1944

Combat Infantry Badge, January 11, 1945

Rifle: Sharp shooter Badge, June 16, 1943

Good Conduct Medal

3 Bronze Stars for the Campaign’s, 1945

Purple Heart, June 8, 1945

One Bronze Arrowhead for Germany invasion.

I didn’t receive these medals until 1984.

OVERSEAS TIME;

SHIPPED OUT, AUGUST 20, 1944.

RETURNED AUGUST 23, 1945

Inducted: APRIL 7, 1943

Discharged: November 3, 1945

Time in the service: 2 years, 6 months, 27 days

Foreign service: 1 year, 4 days.

“When the USA dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan, a lot of people were horrified at the thought, but let me say this: this was one soldier that was glad to see it happen.”

“I was sitting in "Le Havre, France" waiting for shipment back to the States, and then we were going to be shipped over to Japan to fight another War.”

“When they dropped the Atomic bomb on Japan that ended the War with Japan and I got to go home. I am not so cold hearted that I like to see innocent people get killed but dropping the atomic bomb saved a lot of lives, maybe mine. How could I have been as lucky in Japan as I was in Europe?”

 

“I want to say this, after a war, nothing is the same as it was when it started.”
“I changed, my family changed, all the world changed. It is hard to get back into civilian life after Being in the service and seeing all the devastation in the foreign countries.”

“I have told some horror stories, that I am sure some people will be a little skeptic about, but I have told it as straight as I know how, the English isn't perfect, the grammar isn't perfect and the punctuation marks aren't always in the right place, but you can bank your last dollar on the stories being true.”

“I would like to take this opportunity to say; it wasn't easy for the American G.I. to get back into the swing of civilian life. A lot of the parents didn't realize that we had a lot to think about and it wasn't going to be easy.”

“I think that we all realized that we were going to have to go to work to make a living, but a man like myself who didn't have a trade to turn to and I had only an 8th. Grade education, well it wasn't going to be easy.”

“My mother was the exception; she never once told me that I was going to have to do something besides lay around the house. She let me work it all out of my system and finally I found a job there in "Eureka“.

After that I hardly lost a days work.”

“My hopes and Dreams are that People in the world will see how useless war really is and will take a stand against the world leaders to stop the useless destruction of mankind.”

“After the War I travelled to different places following the money I worked in Texas in the oilfields and eventually moved to California.

There I worked as a Carpenter and eventually went back to work in the oilfields and when they opened up the Alaskan oilfields I transferred there and worked there for the last 9 years I spent in the work force. I retired on 1 February 1985.

I am now 88 years old and living in my home town of Corning Arkansas.”

“I have five children, eleven grandchildren and I'm not sure how many great grandchildren.”

“I met June, on the internet and were married on December 7, 1999 (Pearl Harbor Day).”

Jack et June - 2007