War Time for Harold, Paul,
MEMORIES OF HAROLD STAYER
A little later as things got worse, the war was going further along, and then came the time when was called to go into the U. S. Army. In October 1944 I went to Ft. Sharon, Illinois. From Ft. Sharon, Illinois, I transferred to Ft. Hood, Texas. My training there consisted of paramedic training, small arms, and communications. Of course, being in communications it was harder for me to get a rank pin.
They transferred me from Ft. Hood to Ft. Ord, California, where I went into a different branch of work, and I trained there with what they called the Civilian Investigation Division, CID, to work for the MP's. I landed overseas in Manila, Philippines, and when we unloaded we went to Clark Field right away. That was where I was stationed for quite a while. I got in on the tail end of what was the end of the war in the South Pacific.
I was there when the war was ended, and I was there too when Japanese General Yomasheitia was still there — he was one of the Japanese generals in charge of the 8th Army, and was one of the Japanese generals who conducted the Bataan Death March. It was my pleasure, along with some of the rest, to bring him down out of the hills as a captive.
Later on I had the good fortune of being at General Homma’s and General Yomasheitia's trials. I saw them both convicted of war crimes, and saw General Homma be convicted to death by the firing squad. Yomasheitia was convicted, and executed by hanging. General Yomasheitia was called The Malayan Tiger. He was one of the worst of the Japanese generals, and was in charge of the Bataan Death March. That was the reason Yomasheitia was hung. The most shameful death for a Japanese to die. Took away all the honor they ever had at home.
Later on I was sent up to Clark Field with the CID — the Civilian Investigation Division of the MP's — sent up there to work on a black market ring. Finally we got hold of some of them guys and broke up that ring. The time James thought he saw me, and I'm not sure — but I think it was around March '46 somewhere there in Manila — I brought three men into the prison down there, after we broke up the black market ring.
Meantime, I was given orders to go to Pier 7 E down at the harbor and take a squad with me and take those prisoners over to Japan. Among those prisoners were five high-ranking officers. Our orders were to be careful and make sure they got to Japan. We didn't understand why, but they were high-ranking men who McArthur wanted to question later on about war atrocities in the Philippine Islands and all through the war. Found out later, some of them were later tried and convicted and executed.
In the meantime, we were waiting to come home. The way things went it was a little rough. Being an MP wasn't a good job, but nevertheless it was better than some of the other jobs on the island. I saw many things happen there, like the cleanup (and the return to Japan) of the remains of the Japanese Army.
At the time I was at Clark Field and the Fort Blanco Air Base, we came under fire by Japanese who were still up in the mountains, and we had to go and dig them out, sometimes blast them out of caves — however we could get them out. The interpreters could not talk these men out because they did not believe that the war was over. Many times we lost men, some men wounded and some men killed. We saw these things — this was after the war was over. People did not know much about what happened there.
About the time James almost saw me I was in March, I didn't know he was there. The ship I had was a pretty big ship, like James said it was, and surrounded with barbed wire. The five men we had were carefully locked in staterooms and were not allowed to converse with each other. We had to hold them where they could not get together. Sometimes it was a little rough. We had many fights aboard ship with the Japanese prisoners. They wanted to fight with each other, try to jump overboard. Some of them did not get to Japan.
When we got them to the port at Tokyo, in Tokyo Bay, we were met by Rangers from the 6th Battalion who guarded McArthur and the head men there in Japan. They took these prisoners into custody, and we had no more to do with them. I made about three or four trips that way before I came home to the States.
Finally on August the 19th, one of the colonels from the Inspector General's office came up and asked us what we were doing there. He saw me and said, “Hey, you guys are going home! Get your stuff and get ready, we're going down to the pier!” And down to the pier we went, ready to board the S.S. Brewster, an APA, which was an attack transporter. We were carrying our orders under our arms, and we were brought home that way.
As part of ship's company, coming home, I worked the radar room from 12:00 midnight to 4:00 in the morning. From then on I was free, and I could do anything I wanted while aboard ship.
We landed in California. There we were given $10, a clean suit of clothes and boarded a train headed for Ft. Mead, Maryland. When we got to Ft. Mead we were told to dump our barracks bags in a room. But I didn't, I sent mine home, what I had in it. Things were in there that I want to try to send home, and I did get them home. I was fortunate on that.
After coming home in 1946, I went back to work at Zenith. We bought a little house at 2123 Willow St. in Franklin Park. James and my brothers Virgil and Charles, they all came there and stayed with me at one time or another.
LIFE STORY of PAUL HUMBERD
BACK HOME IN INDIANA, AGAIN
• I think it was in the fall of 1940 that I went back to Indiana and helped my Uncle Charles and Uncle Kenneth harvest their crops. That spring I worked for Ernest Sink until the 1st of July making $40.00 a month and that made it possible to pay off my car. After that I detasseled corn for Pioneer. While Bob Pearson was on vacation I delivered bottled gas and continued working for Pioneer until I left for the Army in October 1941.
FOUR YEARS IN THE ARMY, IN WW II
• In 1941, a couple days after my 22nd birthday I left from the courthouse in Delphi with a bus load fellows, going to Ft. Benjamin Harrison, near Indianapolis. After being there about a week I went to Camp Lee, VA. (a quartermaster camp) where I took my basic training. This was a quartermaster training camp and I was put into a bread baking school. I was drafted for 18 months, but of course Pearl Harbor Day, Dec. 7, 1941 changed that to duration plus six months.
I didn’t know about it at the time, but just a few years ago learned that my folks and my Grandparents, had saved all the letters that I had written to them and they were given to me. I sorted them by dates and years 1942 - 43 - 44 - and - ‘45. By reading through them I was able to straighten out a lot of things that I had wondered about.
• The first part of January in 1942 I had a furlough and went to Martinsburg, PA to visit the folks and then came back to Indiana and visited my Grandparents. While I was there Jesse Zinn, Charles, Orman, Kenneth and Grandpa Black butchered four hogs. Since I had just came back from the Army they insisted that I shoot the hogs. I must have done a good job because everyone of the hogs dropped.
As soon as I got back to Camp Lee we left for Camp Livingston, Louisiana. I was put in a Car Company and was only in it approximately three weeks when they reorganized the Division, so I wasn’t sent to Africa with them. Eventually I was put in the 28th Division Quartermaster Company and was given a truck to drive, which suited me just fine.
In October and November we went on maneuvers and drove around in Louisiana, and even got into Texas. After being in Camp Livingston a year, we left our trucks there and went by train to Camp Carribelle, Florida for amphibious training. Omar Bradley was our Division Commander, but he left in February to go to Africa.
CAMP PICKETT
• The last of April 1943 we loaded our trucks on trains and went to Camp Pickett, VA, near Blackstone, which was a nice camp, with nice barracks. We were there until the last of September. I remember one day, while at Camp Pickett, my truck was loaded with artillery shells, and there were two big red flags on the front of the truck. While driving this load of shells through downtown Richmond, VA, I had two policemen on motorcycles escorting me through town.
I MET A RED HAIRED GIRL !
• While I was at Camp Pickett, around the last of July, I got a furlough, and I went to Pa. to see my folks, and then on to Indiana to see my Grandparents. While there my Cousin, Wayne Zinn told me that some couples were going to Logansport to the Cass County Fair. He said if I wanted to go along, he would get me a blind date. I said yes, and so he got a red haired girl for me. I think it was on Thurs. night and I remember that we had a good time. Then on Saturday night I went to Delphi with my Uncle Charles Black and I saw that same girl there again. She drove me back home to my Grandparents and let me out, and that was that.
THE TRIP ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
• After going back to Camp Pickett we left our trucks and went by train to Camp Miles Standish near Boston and was there just a short time, then went to Boston Harbor and loaded onto a troop ship. We loaded on the ship in Boston and crossed the Atlantic with a big convey and 10 days later on Oct. 18, 1943 we landed at Swansea, Wales.
The Army had taken over the Caribbean Cruise ships, the “Santa Rosa,” “Santa Paula,” and the “Santa Clara.” I think I was on the Santa Clara. It was built to hold 500 passengers, but the Army put 3500 of us on it. Some fellows were sea sick all of the way across the ocean and stayed in their bunk.
The way I remember it, they fed us just two meals a day, because no one was doing anything but laying around. It took 4 or maybe 5 hours for everyone to get through the chow line each time.
They fed us hot meals and we had to stand up to a high bench-like tables that were built across the ship. The tables had a raised edge on both side to keep our mess kits from sliding off. Some times when it was rough, the floor would be slick from spilt food, drink, and fellows getting sick. I just remember sleeping on the floor of the promenade deck.
LANDING IN WALES
• After landing at Swansea, we went to Tenby, Wales right along the west coast, along the water, and stayed there for six months. I remember that we lived in a small hotel right along the sandy beach. We could look out our window and see the beach and watch the tide change, one hour every day. There was a castle on a little island just off shore. When the tide was out, we could walk to the castle, but we had to make sure we started back in time before the tide came back in. I think they said the castle and stone wall could be about 1,000 years old.
The best I can remember, I was sick only one time during the four years I was in the Army. One Sunday morning I was to be on KP We were in Tenby Wales and it was the Sunday before Thanksgiving. They put me in a room right close to where I stayed along the beach, and a Welsh lady took care of me. I got out Thanksgiving day morning, so I missed KP.
A VISIT TO LONDON
• In January 1943 two other fellows and myself went to London by train, on a seven day furlough. We stayed at a place run by the Red Cross or the USO, ate some meals in English restaurants, other meals were eaten at an Army mess hall close by.
The Germans bombed London a couple of times while we were there and there were blackouts at night. We didn’t take the bombing as seriously as the English did, but of course we didn’t stay in the street to watch it either. We saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Tower Of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral and went out to Windsor Castle. We traveled the City by Subway.
SWINDON AND D-DAY
• In April we moved close to Swindon, England, which was near to some Airborne Divisions. We didn’t know what they were doing. One night when the moon was right for them to practice for the invasion they had an exercise. All of the men were loaded down with about 100 lb.. of equipment. They were dropped so low and the air was so calm that when they landed some broke their legs. We had to go out that night and pick up the parachutes and haul them back to their camp.
One time we went by train to Lands End, England and practiced shooting the machine gun, at what they called a sleeve being pulled by a cable several hundred feet behind an airplane. One time as I was shooting at it, I hit the cable and the sleeve came down. The officers weren’t very happy, as that ended the shooting for that day.
D-DAY, THE SIXTH OF JUNE, 1944
• On June 6th, the morning of the invasion of D-Day I was driving somewhere when an Englishman hollered at me, saying the invasion had started. Each of our trucks were supposed to have ten 5-gallon cans of gas and a 5-gallon can of water, so the mechanics were busy welding brackets on our trucks to hold the extra gas.
Division Headquarters wanted some trucks fixed up for an office, so they asked me if I wanted to use my truck for that. They put on longer stakes, so the Sergeant could stand up in the back of the truck. They had their desks, typewriters, files etc. My truck was the G-2 Intelligence Office. My truck had a 50 caliber machine gun turret on it.
ACROSS THE CHANNEL TO OMAHA BEACH
• About the middle of July we moved down to Southampton and my truck and trailer was loaded on a ship. After being on the ship two or three days we landed on Omaha Beach. I have no idea which town we were near, but I do remember they unloaded my truck and trailer over the side of the ship on to a small narrow floating dock and I climbed down a rope ladder and drove my truck to the beach.
I remember on that ship they had big tubs full of hot water with what they called “C rations.” It was a meal in a can, and there were 3 or 4 different kinds of food and we could pick out the meal we wanted and use our can opener and use our spoon to eat our meal. Of course we always had coffee too.
• After we landed in France I heard the Lieutenant tell the Lieutenant Colonel that he had talked to a French farmer and had given him a whole carton of cigarettes for giving him information about the Germans. The Colonel really bawled him out. He said just a couple cigarettes would have been plenty for any information and at the very most just a pack.
• Soon after we were in France one nice clear day, about 2,000 airplanes flew over to bomb St. Lo. Their contrails made it a cloudy day. The first planes dropped their bombs on St Lo, then the wind blew the dust and smoke over the US troops. The planes then dropped their bombs in the dust and smoke, and killed and wounded some of the US troops.
HOW DO YOU KEEP ME DOWN ON THE FARM AFTER I’VE SEEN PARIS
• The way I remember it, I went for the first three weeks with the same shirt and pants on. I remember when we got to Paris and were going to the Liberation Parade they gave everyone in the Division a new outfit, so we would look nice. The night we got to Paris I was laying on the ground in front of my truck sleeping, when before morning it started to rain and I had to get up and get in the cab of my truck, for the rest of the night.
• The next morning, August 28, a few of us got to tour the Versailles Palace and saw the Great Hall of Mirrors, as well as the grounds. I think we could have been the first Americans to visit it, after the Germans left. We parked our trucks in a park near the Arc de Triomphe and walked to the Arch and watched the 28th Division march in the Liberation Day Parade. Of course we carried our rifles with us.
The next day we left Paris, but we could still see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. The city had very little war damage, as the Germans disobeyed Hitler, and didn’t level the city, as he had instructed them to do.
ON THE WAY TO GERMANY
• For a while we really moved a long ways everyday, up to thirty miles and we were running out of gas. I tried to keep my tank full every chance I got, and not use my extra cans of gas. We moved real fast by way of Rheims and Verdon, until we got to the German border. One day someone asked if I would let the Commanding General of our Division have a can of gas for his jeep, so I let him have it.
The General that headed our Division after Omar Bradley had to leave, was an old man by the name of Brown, but soon after we got to France they sent him home. The General that replaced him was killed the very first day and had to be replaced with General Norman Cota, who was with us the rest of the war.
We hadn’t been in France very long until one night the Germans bombed us. They dropped flares, so they could see, then dropped the bombs. They hit our company hard. One of the mechanics was under his truck and lost his arm and was sent home. I had laid in a slit trench and was shaking so hard that the dirt kept falling in my face.
LIVING IN A GERMAN HOME
• I remember one time when we got to the west edge of Germany, they had people move in with their neighbor, so we could live in every other house. I parked my truck in their back yard and saw a World War I Army Springfield rifle in the tree, above my truck. I took it and carried it in my truck for a long time, but could not figure out how to get it home so left it somewhere.
The house where I stayed was attached to the barn and you opened one door and there were the cows, and chickens. A girl would come back each day and take care of the animals. I remember it was one evening in October we were staying in a field and there where shocks of oats standing. At supper it was raining and I remember eating very fast so my food wouldn’t get too cold and float away. I thought it must be nice to be a Civilian.
We were not moving very much now, so they took the office out of my truck and I went back with my old company.
FIGHTING THE WAR, INCLUDING HÜRTGENWALD
• I remember one time when the fighting was really bad, we hauled replacements to the front. The new fellows just off the boat thought it was fun and were cutting up and having a good time. The veterans who had been wounded and were going back to the front were very quiet. We heard a shot and one veteran had shot himself in the foot. He may have done it on purpose so he could go back to the hospital and not go to the front line. He could be court marshaled, but I never heard what happened.
Another time the Infantry was being replaced at the front at the Hürtgenwald, a forest east of Aachen, Germany. I went up to help haul them back. They all were like Zombies, and they never said a word. They hadn’t shaved for a week, and they could hardly put one foot ahead of the other.
• I think it was late in November that we moved to what was supposed to be a rest area. Our Division was spread out over a twenty five mile area. We were living in a factory in Wiltz, a little town in Luxembourg. Since I had an office on my truck for Division Headquarters and the Prince of Luxembourg was with Division Headquarters, I saw him a time or two, but that was all. I remember one time we opened a big box of 10 in 1 rations. It had enough food for 10 people for one meal. I remember we all picked out the best things we wanted and then let the Prince of Luxembourg have what was left.
BATTLE OF THE BULGE
• About the middle of December they were telling us something could happen, so I was to be in one of the details to guard different places or blow up bridges. However, I was to go with several others about 40 miles north to get supplies. Over to the east we could see hundreds of artillery guns going off all the time, but we kept going.
When we got to the supply depot at Eupen, Belgium we were really worried, because there was a large prisoner of war camp near by. If the Germans would capture it and release the German prisoners, we didn’t know what might happen. So no one got much sleep that night.
No one knew what to do, so we loaded up the next morning and started back. The supply Depot at Eupen was a Corps or Army Depot and we picked up everything that was needed like shoes, clothes, toilet paper and what ever, but not food, fuel, and ammunition. We hauled very little fuel and ammunition.
We hadn’t gone very far when we could see German parachutes everywhere, so we knew something was going on. However, we kept going and finally got back to Wiltz. Wiltz was a rather quiet place, until Dec. 16 when the Germans started what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. I didn’t get to bed and get any sleep, until Dec. 21st. I really think the Germans had crossed our road in several places.
A NEW PAIR OF SHOES
• When we got back to Wiltz, Luxembourg, things had really changed. The groups had left and someone had taken my place and had unloaded our trucks. The next morning I went to a pile of shoes that had been unloaded and found my size and so I had a new pair. Late in the afternoon they decided to move, and since my truck had a machine gun they wanted me to be at the front of the line. As we went out of Wiltz I saw a couple of artillery shells explode nearby. We went through Bastogne and a few miles west and stopped at a small school house.
We were just getting settled down for the night, when we got word that they needed 15 trucks for a detail. We started to unload trucks on the ground but changed our minds and left them loaded to see what would happen. We drove with blackout lights on, and arrived back on a hill just outside of Wiltz, so we didn’t get much sleep that night. We sat there all day long and could hear the German burp guns and other guns going off all the time.
• One time some of our artillery guns were moved in a field right next to us and fired off several rounds. Then they hooked up their guns and were going to move. We asked them why they were moving, and they said the Germans would know where they were at and start shooting back. Of course you can imagine how that made us feel.
Finally just before dark they figured no one was left in Wiltz who would need to be hauled back, so we started back. We hadn’t gone very far until someone stopped us and said the Germans had the road blocked. We didn’t know what to do, so just kept going and got through to Bastogne again. We were going back to that school building where we had been the evening before.
A Sergeant was driving the first truck with an infantry person with him and next was a three quarter ton pick-up truck with the driver, a Lieutenant and two others riding in the back. Next was my truck with the machine gun and the fellows who were riding with me. Behind were the other trucks and one had a machine gun on it too. At the corner where we were to turn to go to the school house the road was blocked with other trucks, so we had to stop.
MY FRIENDS WERE CAPTURED
• Soon the two fellows who were riding in the truck ahead of us, came back and told us the Germans had the road blocked. I got out of my truck and walked around the pick-up truck to the back of the first truck. I saw that two Germans had the Sergeant and the other fellow riding with him and also the lieutenant from the other truck. I heard them say “Achtung” (attention ) and “Marsch” (march ) and marched them away. I just stood at the back of their truck and watched them disappear.
Soon the Germans started shooting with a machine gun. Since it was night I could see the tracer bullets, some on one side of me and then on the other, hitting all the trucks in the line. I think I was standing behind a truck when the bullets hit the truck instead of me. I soon got down in a ditch on the far side. The fellow with me laid on the hood and over the windshield of my truck and started firing back. Someone with the other machine gun fired back too and they started the German outfit on fire. It kept burning and exploding for quite a while.
I had just two short belts of ammunition for my gun, so the man laying on my truck ran out, and he came down where I was. All the other drivers disappeared and I have no idea what happened to them. The two of us were all alone. Soon we could hear artillery shells coming in. I think there were five of them, and they landed between us and the Germans and exploded, but didn’t hurt us. We could hear fellows that had been wounded crying and hollering for their mothers. They were in the back of the trucks that blocked our road. I think they were on the way to a hospital close by.
TO BASTOGNE, WITH TWO WOUNDED MEN
• Soon a jeep tried to pass our trucks, but the Germans opened up on them and wounded them, so they had to stop and were with us. After a while we figured we might just as well start walking toward Bastogne. We had not gone far when we met an officer in a command car with his driver. We told him what happened so they turned around and loaded the two wounded men in the back of the car and I sat on the front fender on the left side and the fellow with me on the other. We made it back to town all right.
Of course everything was dark and no lights of any kind. They had us go to a room to get some hot coffee and told us we could go across the street to a room and lay down. Soon more fellows kept coming and also an officer with his men. Soon someone came in and told the officer that they needed some men. They kept doing that all night until there weren’t many left. So the other fellow and I thought we had better leave before they sent us out some place.
So we went back to the place where we had got the coffee and sat in the dark. While we were sitting there I told the fellow with me that I thought the man across the table from us looked like one of our lieutenants. So he asked and sure enough it was. Here he had been in the last truck of our convoy and had got lost in town and also the last three trucks that were with him.
REPORT TO THE COLONEL
• When morning came the fellow with me got on the telephone and kept calling around until he found where our outfit had moved to. So with the three trucks we went out another road and soon found our company. There sure weren’t many left. I had not been to bed for three nights, so I ate dinner and went upstairs and went to sleep. Someone woke me up at supper time, I ate and went back to sleep again.
The next morning the Colonel wanted to question us, so I had to borrow a shaving kit to clean up. I told him who I saw being captured and marched away.
MY TRUCK AND MESS KIT, RIDDLED WITH BULLET HOLES
• I think it was the next day that I got my truck back. I have no idea how or who did it, but I think they had to take some tires off of other trucks to put on mine, so they could drive it in. Of course my bed roll and the machine gun and other things were gone. My mess kit was laying on the seat and a bullet had gone through it. I have often wished that I had kept it and brought it home as a souvenir.
There were at least twenty bullet holes in the truck and since my truck was loaded with Christmas mail, they told me when they unloaded it, the bullets had chewed up the mail, like mice had been in it. I have read in three books about this, but of course none of the authors were there, so they did not tell it like I remember it.
CHRISTMAS, 1944
• We moved again on Christmas day. I was in another school house, and watched the 4th Armored Division tanks go by to help retake Bastogne. The most important trip each day, was what we called ration detail. Some of us would go to the supply depot and pick up the food for all the Division units, and then some one from the each unit in the Division would come and pick up their rations. During the Battle of the Budge, at Christmas time, several units could not use their supply of turkey, so we ate turkey till after New Years Day.
So this was my experience in the Battle of the Bulge.
THE WAR WINDS DOWN
• Sometime in January we were to move all the way down to Colmar, France, south of Strasbourg. We had to put chains on all our tires, even the front tires. Our trucks didn’t have heaters or defrosters and it was freezing rain all day. I had to keep changing hands on the windshield to keep a small spot thawed out, so I could see. The Germans thought they had completely wiped out our Division and were surprised to see we were still fighting.
From Colmar we went back up north and I remember I crossed the Rhine river the first time on Good Friday, on a pontoon bridge. I don’t remember exactly where we crossed the Rhine, but I think it was a little north of where the Remagen bridge had stood. On Easter Sunday morning I had to fix two flat tires. Easter was in March that year. We kept going east until we got the Kassel Germany. They then had us go back to Kaiserslautern to work with displaced persons. Our fighting days were over.
VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY
• One day in early May, just my truck and a Lieutenant in a three quarter ton pick-up truck with his driver went up to Brussels, Belgium to get a load of liquor for the officers. We were almost to Brussels on May 7, when a British soldier hollered at us and said the war was over. The people celebrated all that night, all the next day, and all the next night. Yes James we got to see the little boy fountain.
• After the war was over we loaded the displaced people on trains so they could go home. We didn’t have much to do the rest of the summer. I hauled rations in the morning and went to baseball games in the afternoon. Some fellows went along on the trains as guards. I think the Russian people knew that Stalin would have them shot when they got back, because they had been with Americans. One guard said that a Russian man jumped off the train and ran, so the guard shot, but not at him.
• Soon we got word that our Division was to go to Japan, but us older fellows would be transferred to another Division that wasn’t going to Japan. So the younger men got to go home first and we had to stay. Of course before they left the US for Japan, the war was over.
Several of us were transferred into the 106th Division and stayed in some nice places. Finally we moved to Karlsruhe and they gave me another truck to drive. It was the only truck like that, that I ever saw. It was a cab over engine, with an extra long bed. Every other day I would drive up the Autobahn to Mannheim about 40 miles and back. While I was in the army I had 4 different trucks and figured I drove about 45,000 miles all together.
THE BRONZE STAR
• I think it was sometime in early March they had a special company meeting and presented me and the fellow that was with me with the Bronze Star Medal. We were the only ones in the company to receive that Medal for Heroic Achievement against the enemy.
CROSSING THE ATLANTIC, GOING HOME
• Sometime in late September we loaded into the back of some trucks and it took two days to get to camp near Le Havre, France. We were there about a week, then loaded on a Victory Ship and started home. It took us 10 days to come across, but I don’t remember anything about where I slept, or how we ate, on this ship. The ship rolled and rolled from side to side. I was laying on the Promenade deck and the ship dipped enough water, that we had to keep moving our blankets to find a dry place to lay.
I didn’t get sea sick on either trip, coming or going. It took us 10 days to come home and we were all by ourselves. This time we were going into the waves. First the front of the ship went way up and then the back of the ship was out of the water and the propellers would really make the whole ship vibrate. One time when the doors were closed, the front of the ship came up so high and came down with a bang. The engines stopped and the lights went out and it seemed like we were just setting still. Fellows were calling for their mothers.
IN THE UNITED STATES, AFTER TWO YEARS AT WAR
• We finally got to New York City and passed the Statue of Liberty and were given a hero’s welcome, with fire boats shooting water into the air. We stayed there a couple of days, so I went down town and saw some of the sights. We stayed at a camp there for three days. I don’t remember how I knew that Johnny was taking Merchants Marine training in New York. I found the right place, but he was out on a ship.
We went by train to Camp Atterbury south of Indianapolis. I was there 3 or 4 days and then was discharged. I lacked just a couple days being in the service four years. I then went to Indianapolis and got a train to Flora. I remember Mama being there to meet me, but I don’t remember you being there James.
OUT OF THE ARMY, THEN A TRIP TO PENNA.
• I soon moved back to Grandpa Black’s and started working for Charles and Kenneth. Late in November I bought a car, a 1939 Oldsmobile. Cars were very hard to get, but Kenneth knew about this one, so I was lucky. The last of April I went back to Pennsylvania. James I don’t remember you going with me.
MEETING SOME OF MY ARMY COMRADES
When I was going through a town close to Pittsburgh I saw a fellow crossing the street, who had been in the Army with me. I stopped and we talked for a little while.
Several of the fellows that were with me all the time in the 28th Division, had been in the National Guard and were all from Huntington, PA., which was just about 25 miles from Martinsburg. One Saturday I drove to Huntington and found 4 or 5 of them. They didn’t have jobs yet, and of course no car. They told me where the Sergeant that I saw being captured, was working. I found him and we talked. I was told that there would be a meeting that night at the VFW, so I went, but the fellow at the door would not let me in. However a couple of the fellows that knew me happened to come by right then and I was let in.
• It must have been while I was at Huntington Pa that the fellows I was talking to told me about one of our fellows who was captured. He was a jolly big guy and everything was always funny to him. After he was captured he still kept laughing about everything, and the Germans kept telling him to stop laughing. Finally they made him put a hand full of rocks in each shoe and when the blood started oozing our of his shoes, he wasn’t laughing any more.
• I have never seen nor heard from anyone I was with since I met those fellows at Huntington, and never heard of any reunions, except for the car company I was in for a short time. I used to get letters telling about their reunions in PA but I never went.
A FEW MORE THINGS
• There are a lot of things that I have not written about, that I have since remembered about. Like while I was at Camp Livingston, Jesse was at Bryan College in Tennessee and he came to visit me one week-end. Then while I was at Camp Pickett, Va. Jesse was in the Navy at New Port News or Norfolk, VA. He was married and Laura was with him, so I went to visit them one week-end. There are other things too, but this is sure more that I ever thought I would write when I started this.
TYPIST COMMENTS ABOUT “PAUL’S YEARS IN THE ARMY.”
• The Army portion of the above story was told in four editions. The first was in 1993, then a several page document that Lelia typed in 1998. Steve and Shirley (I think I know which one, but I’ll spread the good will) typed it into their computer, then sent it to me via the Internet on January 29, 1998. Thanks a lot, Shirley. That way I didn’t have to type it into my computer.
(Some people! I received a note from Steve that said, “She did not! I typed the whole thing with my two little fingers.”)
After getting that story formatted for the Chronicles, I had some questions that Paul answered by a five page handwritten letter. A day later I received another two page handwritten document. I incorporated those two letters into the original story, then edited the Army story in with the story originally told in 1993. Paul’s second letter ended with the comment: “This is it, that’s all, there will be no more.” Hey, I can take a hint, and I can issue a thank-you, too.
Jim’s Comments on Paul’s Story
These comments are not in any particular order, and they are not of any particular value, either. I didn’t want to mix them in with Paul’s Story.
But I couldn’t resist adding them.
This first story is not in chronological order, but I believe it is the most important, most interesting comment.
• When I was the Battalion clerk at Fort Sill, Okla., the Battalion Commander was Colonel Bernard P. Major (his last name was Major), a very nice man. During WW II he was in the 28th Division as a Sergeant (he was Sergeant Major Major). He said he remembered Paul’s (and my) last name, but could not remember why, until I looked through a book he had and found that Paul was one of the two Bronze Star winners in the 28th Division. The Colonel remembered that very well.
Why do I think that maybe Paul was awarded that metal for action above and beyond what is described above. And that is understandable.
• After you three older boys left, I had to do the work of all three of you, both at home and at the neighbors. Years later I found the Army was much easier than that. Cove High was a girls school until it snowed, the younger boys had to replace the ones who had already left for the war. I remember when they extended the noon hour to two hours so there was time to play ball, but the parents would just come and pickup the boys so they could plow for two hours.
• Didn’t know you were at Fort Benj Harrison. I was stationed at Ft. Monmouth, NJ in 1951, and discovered a school that was held at Ft. Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis. Somehow I persuaded the Army to send me there. I wasn’t interested in learning anything, I just wanted to be near enough to Chicago to spend each and every week-end visiting with Emmy, until we were married on June 2.
• I remember watching Paul walk to the train after his furlough in Martinsburg. I remember Papa was the saddest I ever remember seeing him. Papa was almost crying.
• We visited Tenby, Wales in 1980, and remember it as a pretty little seaside resort town. We remember the castle on the little island off the coast, and the stone wall with a gate of five little stone arches at the entrance to the town.
• Those docks, where Paul landed in France, were called “Mulberry.” Some still exist in the water, and are still rusting away, at Arromanches, at the east edge of Omaha Beach. We’ve been there four times. The “Mulberry” docks were built in England, floated across the channel like a barge and then were sunk near the coast, so vehicles could be unloaded and driven to shore, just like Paul did.
The Allies unloaded 9,000 tons of supplies each day, nearly 500,000 tons of supplies by the end of August 1944, when other ports became available.
• I remember eating the C-Rations, in 1946-47 when I was in the Army the first time. The “Beef and noodles” and the “Ham and lima beans” were my favorite. Of course I never had to eat them under the same conditions as you did. My conditions were all made-up, just for fun, during training.
• In 1980 while we studied the commemorative brass plate in the street just below the Arc de Triomphe, two Paris policemen stood at attention and saluted when Jim explained that his brother had a part in that great occasion.
• Concerning the battle at Hürtgenwald: “Wald” means forest, it is just a few miles east of Aachen, Germany near the border with Holland. I once talked to a man who was there, and he said it was the worst battle he had ever seen or heard of.
• Emmy’s cousin Hugo (a solider in the German Army), a most wonderful man, was wounded in the cheek by an American hand-grenade in Luxembourg. At one time he said he, and another solider, were walking through the forest in Luxembourg and met a couple of British soldiers. They all immediately decided they did not want to shoot each other, so they all just turned around and went away. I can’t even imagine what something like that would “feel” like. And I don’t want to find out, either.
• Near the end of WWII the US Army requisitioned the house where Emmy’s relatives have lived in Mettlach, Germany for over a hundred years. US soldiers lived there for a few months. We were pleased to learn that when the Army finally left town, a note was written to the family, thanking them for the use of their house. We hope no one got into trouble for leaving a couple of “GI shovels” in the attic. One is now displayed with my cane collection.
• We’ve driven through Bastogne, Belgium (at the center of the Battle of the Bulge) a couple of times, but it was raining both times, and we didn’t spend any time sightseeing. Somehow we bet Paul didn’t do a lot of sightseeing there either.
• The area just north and west of Colmar (and of course Colmar itself), is just about our favorite area in Europe. We have been there a dozen times, at least once on seven trips, and two or three times on some. A really beautiful area.
• Paul said he crossed the Rhine midway between Bonn and Koblenz, near the remains of the Ludendorff Bridge, at the town of Remagen. During WWII, as the German Army retreated, they tried to destroy all bridges across the Rhein. Only part of the explosives on this bridge exploded, and it stood long enough for several divisions of the US Army to cross the Rhein. The Germans concentrated artillery fire on the bridge and it fell on March 17, 1945.
• Stalin even killed his own soldiers who had been German prisoners. Even though this was war-torn Germany, they had been exposed to a better way of life than was to be found in Russia.
• I remember that in Calcutta, in 1946, my troop ship was loaded with GIs for the trip back to the USA. Just as we were about to leave the dock, a convoy of Army trucks came speeding to the dock and yelled for us not to leave yet. Their commander had said if they could get on the ship, they could go home right now.
Well, our ship was already loaded to capacity, but the Captain announced over the loud speaker that if the troops didn’t mind sleeping on deck and standing in longer lines to eat their meals, and eat a little less, they could get on. Everyone already on board yelled their approval, so on came the extra men. All day long, and most of the night, there were lines of people waiting to eat. The chow lines lasted from sunrise to after dark. Come to think of it, we had a few war brides on board also, and the married couples had a special deck for their own use! And they did use that deck space. There were also a lot of Army nurses and Red Cross workers on board.
• I remember that someone told me (thought maybe it was Paul, but he says no) that during an Atlantic storm on one of these Victory ships he could see welding rods just laying in cracks between steel plates. They had not taken the time to put it together right, and the troops were afraid the ship would break into pieces in the storm.
Tidbit by Jim and Emmy HumberdSimilar tidbits in: Humberd Chronicles, Travel Tidbits
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