Return to Vere Williams webpage

 

I am Vere L. Williams

I was born Dec 22, 1920. I was born and raised at Snyder Colorado, a small farming Community in the northeast part of Colorado, north of Brush. I grew up on two different farms, I am the oldest and have 2 younger brothers and a sister. My Dad, Claude worked for the lumberyard in Snyder 'till the fall of 1924, when my Grandparents wanted to go to California, to see if the climate would help their arthritis. My Mother, Eva was a homemaker, and she worked on the farm as much as anyone.
That fall, my brother Lovern & I got chicken pox, and scarlet fever. Then I got an ear infection and had a mastoid. A doctor from Denver came to operate on my mastoid. My Grandmother was in the operating room with me at the time, because my mom couldn't stand to see her son being operated on. I was four years old at the time. My grandmother told me that somehow the doctor had to chip the bone behind my ear to get to the mastoid. After the operation, it weakened the hearing in my left ear, and overloaded my right ear.
When I started the first grade, the teacher put me in the back of the class, as I was a dummy (because I could not hear well). One time at recess I was busy doing something and the teacher asked me if I wasn't going out to play, as all the children were out of the room. There were 16 girls, and 10 boys in class. There were 6 to 8 girls that would really tease me because I could not hear well. So I pulled my self into a shell as far as girls were concerned. Away from school, my 2 girl cousins, Lucille and Lily did not make any difference, as they did not tease me.
When I was 5 years old, Mom would tell my brother and me when it was noon or quitting time, and we would run out to the field where Dad was cultivating. Heck, Dad could have hung the lines on the hames and the team would have come to the barn by themselves. But he let me drive them back to the barn, and boy! I was really somebody driving that team. When I was 6 years old at beet harvest, Dad had to hook 4 horses on the wagon to take the beets to the railroad station where there was the beet dump. They could pull the wagon up on the dump and unload the beets into railroad cars, or put the beets into a big pile. Dad hooked 2 horses on the wagon, and 2 horses ahead. When he was loading the wagon with a beet fork, I could grab 2 beets by hand and throw on the wagon. Dad said I could almost throw as many beets on the wagon by hand as he could with a fork. Dad would let my brother & I go to the beet station and when we pulled by the beet pile, Lovern and I could throw beets off faster than Dad would shovel off the beets. After we were unloaded and across the scales and out on the road, Dad would let me drive the 4 horses and I could drive them clear into the field to where we would start to loading the beets.
When I was 8 years old, in the Fall 1929, my Grandparents came back from California to take over and farm the next spring. Grandpa had a big Elgin pocket watch, and some nights he would take the watch out and have me keep moving back to see how far he could hear the watch, and I would get about 4 feet from him, when he could not hear with either ear. Grandpa was hard of hearing also. One time he said let's see how far you can hear the watch, and I could only hear it half as far as Grandpa could hear it.
The spring of 1930 we moved to the farm with 160 acres, 5 miles southwest of Snyder on Wildcat. I finished the 3rd grade in a 2-room schoolhouse and from the 4th through 8th grade in a 1-room school. From the 5th grade on, I was the only one in my grade although there were at least 30 other kids in the schoolhouse.
In 1929 I drove 2 horses cultivating the field; in 1930 I drove 3 horses; and in 1931 I drove 4 horses; then 6; and then 8 horses after that.
When I started the 9th grade, I went back to the Snyder High School and the same girls would tease me that did in the first grade, but my cousins would tell me what they were saying, so that really helped. In the 10th grade Dad had Muscular Arthritis and got so he could not raise his hands above his waist. We had to help him put on his clothes and feed him. They sent him to the VA Hospital in Cheyenne Wyoming for 8 months before he could raise his arms over his head and start shaving himself, etc. I had to stop going to school and start farming full time. I had all the fields planted when Dad got to come home on a two week furlough after he had been in the hospital for a month. I showed him all the fields I had planted. Dad asked me, "Who told you how to plant the fields?" I said, "Nobody, I just watched how you did it." Later Dad told Mom, "We don't have to worry about the place. Vere has planted the fields like I would have". I finished the tenth grade by going to the Superintendent's house 3 nights a week. The next school year that Superintendent got a job with a small college, and he told the new Superintendent that I had to do the farming. And he asked him to give me night classes for 2 hours, 3 times a week. The new Superintendent told me I had to go to school. I asked 3 of the teachers if they would let me take night classes and they said no, but one teacher said maybe 1 night a week, but I would have had to go 9 miles to her place. One teacher, who taught the 11th and 12th grades, lived in Brush, 11 miles from me so I didn't ask her. When my brother Lovern started the 11th grade the teacher asked him why I didn't come to school? He told her I had to work on the farm. She said she would have taught me at night, but by that time I was out of school for 2 years. But when Lovern would bring his books home, I would study them. He also brought books home from the Library for me. In later years, I had to take an IQ test at Camp Barkley. They asked me how far I went in college. I told them that I had completed 10th grade. They said I had scored at the 2 year college level. They were looking for officers at the time.
During the Depression years from 1930 on, money was really scarce on the farms but we never went hungry. We had 75 chickens to lay eggs, 17 to 18 turkeys that would raise over 200 more turkeys, and about 15 pigs that would also raise over 200 pigs. We would sell the turkeys and pigs. I can not remember how much money we
got from the sales but at the time the prices were cheap. We got our milk cow herd up to where we would milk 12 to 14 cows, we took the cream and the eggs to town every Saturday and sold them to buy what staples we needed. We would butcher 3 or 4 pigs and there was always a calf growing up to butcher. Also, we had 12 working horses and raised enough feed for all the animals. We raised corn, grain, alfalfa hay and cane - also about 20 acres of sugar beets. We always had a big garden, and when we plowed the fields we plowed the garden. Mom always made sure we planted enough seeds to have enough to can vegetables to last all winter 'till the next spring. The peas would come on first, then string beans. The reason they were called string beans we had to have a string from the ground up 5 feet to a wire above the row so the bean vine could grow up the string and not on the ground. Mom would can plenty of cut string beans and sweet corn. Carrots we buried in the sand in the corner of the cellar and we kept sacks of potatoes there as well. We also raised tomatoes to can and had tomato preserves to last all winter.
At Christmas time when I was 11 years old Lovern and I got leather belts and boy, I had the world by the tail. The next year we got pocketknives and I had that knife 'till I got wounded the last time - after October 31,1944. When they moved me from one hospital to another hospital I was in PJs and then is when I lost the knife.
I joined the Colorado National Guard, the 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division, "CO L" at Brush, Colorado. before I was 18 years old in the fall of 1938. We would go to the Armory every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. for 1 ½ hour for training. Once in a while we would go to the Armory on Saturday to do maneuvers in the field.
Every 3 months we would get $12.00 - I gave most of mine to Mom and Dad. When we would march in the Armory or on the street I was always out of step. I could not figure out why, 'till a tall sergeant, (he was 6 ft 4 in. and at that time I was 5 ft 10 in) showed me that I was taking too large a step. The marching pace is a 30-inch step and I had a 32-inch step. There was another man, Roy, who was 6 ft 2 in, but he had a real long body and short legs. He could not keep his shirttail in his pants and he took 28-inch steps. He was also always out of step and the Sergeant showed us how to take the 30-inch step. When I was 20 years old, I was 6 feet tall and weighed 175 pounds and wore size 12 shoe. Sergeant wore size 9 shoe and weighed 170 pounds.
In the summer of 1939, the "L CO" got on the train at Brush and went to Denver to Camp George West, a National Guard training camp. We got off the train into our company area, and were assigned to our tents and bunks. Another man and I were going up to the company Command Post (CP). As we walked by the supply tent the Supply Sergeant had a 6x6 ft box he wanted in the supply tent, and the 2 men could not pick it up so the sergeant asked for help. Joe and I stopped to help them. The sergeant said, "When I say lift, lift", so when he said, "Lift!", my side of the box was all that come up. Heck, I was a strong farm boy and was always pitching hay or shoveling or other hard work-like driving 6 to 8 head of horses. The Sergeant said, "Boy, you are a Tarzan!" and the nickname stayed with me all through my Army time. My buddies still call me Tarzan. Another time that this nickname was put to use was when we were in Camp Barkeley, Texas for 9 months. There were 6 men in each tent. The 6 cooks were in the tent next to the Kitchen Mess Hall and I was in charge of the next tent. Julio worked in the Kitchen all the time and he was in charge of the KPs. At mail call the Company Clerk would come out in the Company Street, (the company at full strength was over 220 men, I can't remember the exact amount any more) and they just wanted 1 or 2 men from each tent to come get the mail. Julio started out the door and I told him to get my mail, he said OK. He came back in saying we didn't get any letters and I said, "OK". Later when a man named Chris, who was in the next tent, and was in my section came in saying, "Here's a letter for you Tarzan". Julio said, "I didn't hear Tarzan called", and Chris said, "His name is not Tarzan!", Julio grabbed the letter out of my hand and I had to tell him what my name was.
At Camp George West we went on maneuver, hikes and firing ranges, we fired on the 200 and 300 yard ranges and I made Expert Rifleman. One afternoon we were on the 1000 inch range (that is just over 82 feet), I could fire a clip of 5 shells in the target and it would look like I fired, one shot. I had a lot of experience in shooting before I went into the National Guard. On the farm we had two .22 rifles and would go out hunting rabbits and magpies (birds).
Lovern always said I was a dare devil, but both of my brothers and my sister would always go along with what I would do. Many times 6, 7 or 8 of us boys would buy a box or two of .22 shells for 10 to 15 cents a box and get on a stripped down model T Ford. We would go out to the sand hills where there were a lot of rabbits. For every shell we fired, we got a rabbit. The man at the service station where we bought gas would give us 5 cents apiece for the rabbits. He probably got 10 cents a piece for each rabbit as it was used for Fox and Mink food.
The stripped down Fords we used were the Model T's that would quit running. When the family would get another car, then us kids would get the car that no longer ran. Two of the kids lived in town and had garages so we would take the car there and tear into the motor. Most of the time the rod would be burnt out and we would put a piece of bacon rind around the crankshaft and clamp the rod to the crankshaft and away we could go. For tires we put on the old truck tires without any tubes and that made a good sand dune buggy. Some times when we came to town 3 of the boys had striped down buggies, and we would get together to go out on the sand hills to play with the cars. Two of the boys always wanted me to drive their car. This one time I was driving one car and the wind had blown out the sand from a cut in the small hill. It had piled the sand about 2 feet high and about 8 to10 feet long, and where the sand blew out it was down about 3 feet. I was driving as fast as the car could go in the sand, and ran over the sand drift. When the back wheels went over the drift it threw the 8 kids up into the air, I drove out from under them and they fell in the soft sand. I had to turn around and pick them up. There were 4 boys and 4 girls on the car.
When I was 12, we started going to the Farmer Union meeting at the town hall once a month. After the meeting, they would have Square dances. Dad would call each dance and my Aunt Peggy taught me how to Square dance. After that I really loved to dance. I never did see Mom on the dance floor and I think that is the reason Dad never danced. Several of the girls from school came to the meeting and they would ask me to dance. I would dance every square with the girls. I never dated any of the girls but I liked all of them, but with the 6 girls teasing me in the lower grades I would not date. Lovern never dated any girls as long as I was with him - I guess because I would not date any. Rachel and Vivian teased me the most. Rita, Lela, Laura, Annamae, and Jean would not tease me. I can't remember the Garrett or Ray girl's names or the 2 sisters that were in my grade. There was also Theresa and Margaret. Their dad farmed one mile north of Snyder. They didn't tease me and were good dancers. Theresa's birthday was the 1st part of January and Margaret the last part of December close to my birthday.
In 1940 the 157th Infantry Regiment loaded on trains and went to the Camp Polk, Louisiana area (it's Fort Polk now). We maneuvered for three weeks. We were assigned red or blue ribbons and maneuvered against each other. I never heard which Division won the team battles. Each Rifleman had blank shells so the Umpires could tell which side had the most firepower. I would get small rocks that fit in shell casing and put a gum wrapper paper to hold the rock and powder in the shell casings. Then when a rabbit would jump up I would fire at the rabbit and knock it over but not kill it. We lived in our pup tents all the time. We came back to Brush and were home 'till September 16, 1940 when the National Guard was mobilized into Regular Army. We stayed in the Armory for 10 days and on Saturday, 10 of us men went to Snyder and everybody was there for the going away. When the girls went to hugging and kissing me that's when I started to pull out of the shell I put myself into.
We got on the train and went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma (10 miles from Lawton, OK), an artillery training camp. As the train pulled into camp, . . . there was 3 story brick barracks. Boy, that will be good to live in! The train kept moving. . .we went by a two story wooden barracks - that will also nice to live in! The train kept moving . . . on the other side of the tracks were warehouses (that would have worked as good barracks! . . . The train stopped and we got off and were looking to go to the barracks. There were officers and men to take us to our areas. Where did they take us?. . . When we started moving, we went in front of the train engine, then out into a big open field with grass knee high and chiggers!, [(Chiggers are small bugs that get through your clothes and bite). Some people say the chigger will burrow into the skin, I never saw a chigger, but when they bit me there was a big red spot. I am allergic to them. While we were in Texas, I had to go to the hospital 3 times with chigger bites. We were on maneuvers for 4 to 6 days and could not take our clothes off. My pant legs would rub the red bites and make water blisters; then the blisters would break and cause infection.]
There were stakes for each Company in the 3rd Battalion and for each tent in the company. There were 6 men assigned to each Pyramid tent and canvas bunks for each man. We had to put up the tents for the company CP (Command Post). the two tents for the supply sergeant, the cook tent and the kitchen tents. The cooks were setting up the stoves to get our supper. We also had to dig a latrine trench to use for several days just like when we were in maneuvers out in the field. The next day we had to dig a 4x16 ft long trench 6 feet deep. Then the carpenters came to make a 2 ft high bench and put a 6 inch board on top so you could sit on the board to go to the bathroom. About a week after the bench was built, we put up a 6-ft high canvas all the way around it, but didn't have anything over the top to keep the rain out. One day, when it was raining, a man had to go to the Latrine. He didn't want to sit on the wet board so he stood up on the board with his muddy shoes, took his pants down and squatted down, but he lost his balance and fell into the pit on his back, in the shit. (Heck, shit is a good word for it!) He went to hollering and we ran to see what was wrong. We found him lying on his back in the pit. He wanted someone to get in the pit to help him stand up. The sergeant that came to see what was going on said he had to go and he took his pants down and set right over Mac's head and it didn't take him long to stand up. The sergeant got up also. We helped him out then had to get 5 buckets of water for him to get cleaned up and to clean the bench also. Later, whenever he would go to the latrine, everyone would call out. "Watch out Mac so you don't fall in."
We started right in with our training. The construction crews were building the Regimental and Battalion Headquarters before they got to build the company kitchen, mess halls and bathhouses.
When the infirmary was built, the company went through the infirmary to get Small Pox, Tetanus and Yellow Fever shots. When "L CO" went in to get the shots, we stripped off our shirts and left them on the ground in front of us. Then we went in the front door into the 2nd door and 2 medics put alcohol on both arms. Then I went up to where the doctor put the Small Pox serum on my arm. He was scratching the skin when something hit my left arm and hit the bone. I felt the jolt in every bone in my body (even my teeth!). I fell over against the doctor and he thought that I had passed out. He tried to catch me, but I knocked him over also. Then we fell against a tray full of glass and knocked it over and there was broken glass everywhere. I looked at my arm and there was a full hypodermic syringe sticking straight up from my arm, with enough serum for 10 men. A big woman nurse was astraddle of me reaching for the syringe, when the doctor said, "Get the hell off of us so we can get up". I got up and helped the doctor up as he was on his back and there was broken glass everywhere. The nurse tried to push the serum into my arm but none would go in. So she went to pull the syringe out and the needle stayed in my arm. The doctor had a hard time pulling it out. The nurse put the same needle back on the syringe and really hit my arm with it again! It felt like she was trying to push a ten-penny nail in my arm. She could not push out any serum, so she had to pull the needle out again and this time there was some of my muscle on the end of the needle where the point was turned up like a hook where it hit the bone. She had to get another needle. I asked the nurse if she thought I was a pincushion? The man behind me said the nurse filled the syringe and walked up to me and threw the syringe like a dart.
Then the construction started on the water and sewer lines and it was really hard to get around, as trenches were everywhere for 2 months. I was a Corporal when we went to Fort Sill, OK, so I was in charge of a tent. By November 1940, the kitchen, mess hall and latrines were built. The last of November it was getting cold so they issued the Old Stibby stoves to each tent. The stove looks like a big funnel turned upside down. It stood 3 feet tall and had a 4 x 6-inch door to put the fuel in, and on the bottom was a 1-inch half circle to let air in the stove. We had to keep the ashes away from the opening or the stove could not get any air for the fire. We had to raise the stove every 3 to 4 days to take the ashes out or the fire would not burn. The men in the tent next to mine let their fire go out during the night. One of the men found a big cardboard box and took it in the tent so when they woke up cold they tore up the box and put it in the stove, lit the paper and then went back to bed. When the cardboard really got to burning, sparks went flying out of the stovepipe and the sparks blew over onto my tent. When I woke up the whole top of the tent and one side was burning. I jumped up, woke up the men and moved the 2 bunks where the side was burning. We got the fire out - I thought!! There was still small sparks coming out of their tent so I woke the man in charge of the tent and asked what he had done. He said, "Nothing." I said, "Your stove is sure hot!" We were afraid our tent would fall over so we took it down, folded it up and tied the ropes around the bundle. We went in another tent and slept on the floor 'till morning. At reveille we jumped up and got in line and of course the Company Commander had to say something, then we ate breakfast. By that time it was getting daylight. We went to the supply sergeant to get another tent and then we saw smoke coming up from the tent we had taken down. So I untied the ropes around the bundle and I could feel the heat so I raised the top layer and it busted into flames.
Our equipment was WWI vintage, the trucks were 1928 2x4 Chevys, I think. Our helmets and leggings were from WWI. The leggings were made out of torn 2-inch strips of army blanket with a 1-inch strip 3-foot long sewed on the end. We would wrap the 2-inch strip around the calf of our leg to our ankle and with the 1-inch strip, we would slip the end under the last wrap to hold the strap tight on our ankles. Our rifles were 1903 Springfield Bolt action and when the rifle was shot it would really kick. Talk about rifles! We went out to the Rifle Range to fire the rifles 3 different times. When we were at Camp George West, I learned to take a bath towel and fold it, put it under my field jacket on my shoulder to absorb the shock from the gun. I would have all my men in my squad and platoon take their towels and do the same. By noon the men, who were without towels or padding, would have sore shoulders. They could not shoot without flinching and would stop firing their Rifles. So, I went up on the line and started firing on 2 targets, then 3 and it wasn't long before I was firing on 5 targets. I noticed my barrel getting hot. When I fired that time I missed all 5 targets. (Pretty unusual for me.) I put another clip of 5 shells and fired 3 rounds, when my partner said, "I saw the bullet land about 200 feet in front of us". I lowered my rifle down, fired again and the bullet landed 50 feet in front if us. On the 5th round my partner said I could fire his rifle. So I let my rifle cool and went to firing his. When I was cleaning my rifle I looked in the barrel and found that I had burnt the rifling (groves that turned in the barrel to make the shell turn to travel straight) out of the barrel. The next morning I got another rifle.
The reservation had a small creek running through it and there were Pecan Trees along the banks. When the nuts started to fall my cousin, Gordon, and I went to the creek and picked up about 20 pounds of the nuts and took them back into camp. All that week, most of my platoon enjoyed the nuts. The next time we went to the creek 10 men came with us and we took more pecans back.
On the first of January 1941 the first men were coming to the 45th Division for one year training. The Headquarters, Medical and Service (the truck drivers) Companies did not want to have to train the new men so they got men from the Rifle Company to do the training. My cousin and I were transferred into the medics, my cousin was a PFC and I was a Corporal. The Division was preparing to move to Camp Barkeley, Texas close to Abilene. The service company did not have enough trucks to move the whole Regiment, so the service company took all their equipment and headquarters to Camp Barkeley. Then they came and got 6 companies and 2/3 of the medics. The medical detachment did not know anything about Army Regulations. We had to show them how to make beds, march, etc. We also had to teach them things they should have known as medics, such as rolling bandages, & general field medical information, etc. The first thing I did when we got settled was to show the men how to make their bunks. It took half the day to get them to make the beds to my specifications. Later if any one's bed was not made right, I would pull off the blankets and pile them on top of the bed. One man would not make his bed. I piled his covers off the bed. The next morning his bed was not fixed, so I piled his covers off, and even took the mattress off the bed and told him if he did not make his bed tomorrow, I would take all of his bedding and he would have to sleep on the bed springs. He made his bed after that. We would have Reveille at 6:00 a.m. every morning, the first morning at Barkeley six men in the tent next to mine did not come out. I told the sergeant "Give me one minute!" I went in their tent and flipped 5 bunks over on top of them. The 6th man jumped out of bed and I told the men to get their asses out on the line by the time I got there or I would report them as absent. Boy did you ever see men scramble out from under the beds! They grabbed their shoes and overcoats and when I got up to the line, here came the six men running. The next morning I just had to rack one man.
On Saturday morning there was a Regiment Parade. We were all ready to go out on the parade ground and Captain Combs, a dentist in charge of the medics, said we didn't have to go on the parade, and I said everybody has to go. Combs said, "We are not going." I said, "Call Regiment." He did and he came back saying "I guess you are right." The men in the Medics were like new recruits as they did not know how to march and neither did Combs. When we got on the parade ground and it was our turn to pass in review, as we came up to the reviewing stand, I told Combs to salute and he growled at me, "You don't know what you are talking about". I gave the command "Eyes right" and saluted as we passed the stand, Colonel Ankcorn and two majors were laughing at the way the men were walking. When we got to the Company area I got my Soldier's Handbook and showed Combs he was supposed to salute when we passed the reviewing stand. Combs started to say it was not necessary, when Major Hart said he needed to salute all higher officers and said, "By the way you need to salute me". Major Hart was in charge of the all the medics, and had been in the Army before during WWII.
There were three captains that were doctors, one for each Battalion. Monday morning I had to work at the Infirmary, but the other two corporals started the men marching. The next day I was on the line with them marching. After 3 days, the men were complaining their feet hurt, and that we were working them too hard. So I told them let's talk with Combs, and he said they didn't have to march. Major Hart was at his desk and he jumped up saying, "these men are medics and first-aid men but they are not soldiers 'till they know how to march. You leave the three corporals alone, and they will have the men in the Medical Detachment 'fighting first-aid men'." We kept marching and the men kept saying their feet hurt. I asked if they changed their socks and they said yes. About 2 weeks later we went on a 10-mile hike and over half of the men had blisters on their feet. I asked what size shoes did they wear, one man said 8 ½ but his feet looked bigger. That evening when all my men got back to the Company area I asked each man what size his feet were and what size his shoes were. Most of the men had shoes one size smaller and a few 1 ½, and one man had 2 sizes smaller. I went to the supply tent and got the shoe last and measured everyone. The next morning we went to the supply sergeant to get shoes the right size. The men had tried to see who could wear the smaller size shoe! I still can't understand why they did that!
The last part of March or first of April 1941, we were on the Parade Grounds again and Combs gave the order "Go Right". I gave the order "Column Right", Combs saw me step forward with my left foot and turn with my right foot. He yelled at me "Corporal Williams you started off with your right foot first." I didn't say anything until we got back to the Company area and got my book again and showed him all movement started with the left foot. Combs said, "You started off with your right foot." That's when we three corporals went to Major Hart to see if he could get another officer in charge of the medics. He told us to go to Regiment Headquarters and see Colonel Ankcorn and he said he would see about it. Three days later Combs broke all three of us corporals and the all of the PFCs that had been transferred into the medics, out to other Companies and I was put in "K CO". My cousin went to "F CO". I was put in the 3rd Platoon and was a yard bird; it took me 6 weeks before I made PFC. I tried to transfer back in to "CO L" but the captain and three lieutenants were transferred out and the new captain would not say yes. "K" Company's aide said he could not transfer me this soon.
Colonel Ankcorn called me to his CP (Command Post) along with the other two corporals that were transferred out of the medics. He said he had a lieutenant for the medics and wanted to know if we wanted transferred back in the medics. The men from the medics that came were Captain Coombs, the First Sergeant, the Company Clerk, and even the Supply Sergeant (he talked like Donald Duck when you could hear what he was saying), 3 sergeants, and 3 acting corporals. One of the sergeants was getting promoted and that's the position I wanted. The medics really set up a big howl when I said I wanted to be sergeant, and the other two men said they wanted to be corporals and work up to sergeant. I told Colonel Ankcorn that it would be a fight the whole time we would be in the medics. The Colonel kept us outside 'till the medics had left. Then he had us come in and he talked to us saying that he could keep the fighting to a minimum and he would make sure that we were sergeant and corporals, but he could also see our point about the fights. I had to go to the Infirmary for some reason and I got to talking with the men in the medics. They said they were really glad when we corporals were busted and transferred out of the medics but the new lieutenant was just as hard on them as we were.
When we moved to Camp Barkeley everything was built. The tents had wooden frames with plywood sides 4 foot high and screen 3 feet higher and the sides of the tent would come down below the screen and fasten on the sides of the plywood. Each tent had a gas stove - boy we were really up town!
The Regiment started getting the new 1½ ton 4x4 trucks with the front wheels having power also if needed (Actually front wheel drive). We got ¾ ton pickups, then later the ¼ ton jeeps. The Division sent down orders that there was a 1½ ton rating on the truck, and that 1½ tons was all the truck could handle - even though the truck really could handle 6 to 8 tons. When the 2½ ton 6 x 6 trucks came in, the rating said they could only handle 2½ tons, and they could really handle 15 tons - but that's the Army for you. Overseas the trucks held 15 tons or more.
We got to taking longer hikes and got to making 30 to 35 miles a day with full field packs. Later they sent down orders to carry an extra pair of shoes. We went on 2 to 5 day maneuvers and to the firing range. In August, the Division was issued the new M1 Rifle, a recoil Rifle that held 8 shells in a clip (with the recoil the Rifle would not kick). The Platoon Sergeant gave me the BAR Browning automatic rifle - the clip held 20 rounds. You could hold the trigger down and fire all 20 shells. I could take down and put back together both the BAR and the M-1 Rifles. I made Expert Marksman on both rifles.
The 45th Division would maneuver against the 36th Division, a Texas National Guard unit. We were part of the 8th Army. We would go close to Camp Bowie in Texas to maneuver for two weeks against the 36th Division two different times. We went in to the town of Brownwood. The 36th Division men said that Brownwood was "our town" and for us "to make sure we got out of it". We told them they had to show us that it was their town. Later they left with their tails between their legs. We really showed them.
In the summer of 1941 the 45th Division and the 36th Division went to western Louisiana for a 2-month maneuver. One Army against the other. For 2 days we were maneuvering against the Cavalry, and the 3rd morning we got an early start and moved about 3 miles. We came up on the Cavalry and they had their horses staked out. They said they had to let their horses rest. We told them to get on their horses and get out of here. They rode off and we never saw them again. We were the Blue Army the other was the Red. We were in a sham battle and the umpires said that 8 of us were captured. So two Reds walked us back about 10 to 15 miles and the guard left us out in the open. I don't know where they went, so I said "Let's start back". It was getting late, and we came up to a kitchen and told the cooks we were from some Infantry. They said, "Yes, they are up ahead of us". They fed us and we got a good night's sleep. Next morning, we ate breakfast and then headed out for the front lines. We never met any Red soldiers and when we heard gunfire to our left, we took off our red ribbons and put on the blue ones. (We had been issued both colors.) We came up to the Blue Army and it was the 36th Division that was beside the 45th Division. We were taken to the 36th Division and gave the information we had, then we went to the 45th Division with the information. The 45th Division made the next move we told them about and got the credit of taking part of the information that we told them about.
During this same time, I was on the water detail with a truckload of empty water cans. When the driver came up to the water station, there were 12 trucks waiting. The driver said, "I know where we can go to get a load of water". We went about 4 miles south and 2 miles east and a guard stopped us. The driver said where he was going, and the guard let us go on. We stopped to take off the blue ribbons and put on red ones then went to the red water station where there was only 1 truck ahead of us. The driver said he was some Regiment from the Red Army that we had seen on the way to the station. They wrote it down, we got the water and came back. We went by the first water station and there were still 9 trucks waiting. I never did know which Army won that war.
Once we were camped beside a river for 2 days and some men went swimming. There were cottonmouth water moccasin snakes swimming in the water also. Four of us were standing in the grass when I saw a 6 foot Green Racer snake. One man said, "Watch this" and he started running. The snake went after him, then he stopped and chased the snake. They went back and forth about 4 times before the snake crawled off.
The 45th Division went to Camp Bullis Texas close to San Antonio. The Cedar trees grew in clumps of four to nine trees. The needles that fell off the trees would be up to a foot deep and it was like flopping down on a mattress. We were infiltrating through the area. I jumped up and ran 100 feet and dropped down. Covey ran up and dropped down too, but he bounced right back up and turned white as a sheet. I jumped up and ran over to Covey and said, "Something is wrong with Covey". When I got beside him all he could say was "sssss--nn--ake!" I had to move to where I could see 2 big coils of a rattlesnake. A man in my squad, Brad, asked if any one had a loaded Rifle. I had shell casings with rocks in them so I gave him my weapon. He held the end of the barrel right next to the snake's head and pulled the trigger and blew the snake's head off. Then he reached down and picked up the snake. The jeep was ready to take any heavy equipment in to camp. Melvin, the jeep driver, said to put a handle on the snake so Brad found some wire to put around the 2 coils of the snake. Melvin took the snake to camp. Cliff, our cook, asked Brad what he was going to do with the snake. He said skin it and send the hide to his brother in St. Louis, MO. The skin was 7 ft. long. Cliff said, "Help me dress it out. I will put it in salt water over night, cut the snake into steaks, then fry them, and feed it to the men". Boy! Now I could find out what rattlesnake will taste like. The next evening when we came in we always checked the bulletin board because there was always details for KP and Regiment detail, like going with the trucks to different places to pick up supplies for the companies. Then there is guard duty every 13 days and here I was, on guard duty and had to hurry to get ready. I caught the first guard shift. The other 2 squads got to go to supper but we had to wait 'till after our shift at 2000 hrs to come and eat. Cliff had something fixed for us saying "I tried to keep some steaks for you boys but those hogs had to eat all of them up."
Right after that the Regiment was issued the M1 Rifles and I got the BAR. Then for a month it was to the firing range or the simulated city streets.
At Camp Bullis the wood ticks were so bad in the spring that when we would fall on the cedar needles the ticks would crawl on us. Every evening we would have to strip all our clothes off - even our shoes and socks looking for ticks. We would need some one to look at our backs also. One evening I had 63 ticks on me! One man went to sleep on the needles and when he woke up he brushed the ticks off his clothes, but that evening 4 men picked 254 ticks off him! They were in his hair and even under the foreskin in his penis. If you missed any ticks and they swelled with blood, the medics had Witch Hazel to put on the tick and it would back out.
When we got the new canvas leggings we did not need the old wrap leggings. Three different times when we were on maneuvers, I could not take off my leggings, and every time I got a chigger bite it would raise a red welt, then a water blister would form and with the leggings rubbing they would break and cause infection. I had to get to the Hospital once just before we left Camp Bullis and another time when we went to San Angelo, Texas for two weeks maneuvers with a tank Battalion.
In the evening the Lighting Bugs or Flies (they are called Lighting Bugs because at night they give off a light like a florescent light) would come out. I don't know where we accumulated the glass jars and bottles - maybe the soldiers ahead of us left them, but we would catch as many bugs as we could - 6 to12 bugs - and we would have light in our pup tents. The bugs put out enough light that I could see to write a letter home. As soon as we would go to sleep we would pour the bugs out of the jar so we could get them again the next night.
We went out on two over night maneuvers and I got a good case of chiggers and I started getting blisters and took off my leggings and put them in my pack. We went by a major & he stopped me because I did not have my leggings on. I told him about the chigger bites, and he said, "Let me see." So I pulled up both pant legs, when he saw the blisters, the major pulled me back and we went to his jeep. He told the driver to take me to the hospital to see some doctor. So here I went to the hospital in the major's Jeep. When I was discharged from the hospital a truck driver from the 157th Regiment asked me if I was Vere Williams and I said yes. He said, "Come on, I came to get you". He had a 6 x 6 truck and I got to ride in the cab. Most of the time when we rode on the trucks we would have to sit on wooden benches along the sides of the truck box.
While we were in Western Louisiana, we had to wash the glue off the envelopes and stamps, as the humidity was so high that the envelopes would seal shut and the stamps stuck together. So, we would buy a bottle of glue to seal the envelopes and stamps. This was also the case at San Antonio that spring.
When we went on maneuvers with the 36th Division at Camp Bowie we went in some tall grass and I got the chiggers but I waited 'till we got back to Camp Barkeley then I went in the Hospital with the chigger bites.
I never went out much with girls at Abilene, but there was a Christian College there. Four of us buddies in "K Co." would go to town but we never looked for girls. I had a buddy, Cully, in "L CO" that really had a line of bull with the girls, but I never did see him keep a girl long. I think the longest he kept a girl was a month. He would be out of money and would come to me and say, "Tarzan, I have a real nice girl I want you to meet". Every time Culley would want me to go to town, I had to pay the way. He would have 2 girls there, but with the line of bull Culley would put out, I could tell the girls were ready to drop him. Culley talked in his sleep. When I was in "L Co" he was in my tent so when he got to talking, we would ask him questions. He would tell us everything, as long as we did not call his name he wouldn't wake up. I did like one girl, and she was fond of me, but she'd had an uncle killed in WWI and when we left Camp Barkeley, she went to dating a man in college.
In October 1941, the Rifle Company made up the Weapons Platoon with 3-60 MM mortars and 21 men, 7 men to the squad, and two .30 caliber air cooled machine guns with 14 men- also 7 men to the squad. I was put in the machine gun squad as the second gunmen. The second gunman had to load the belt in the machine gun, watch that all the shells in the belt were even, (if one shell was pulled out even ½-inch it could not feed into the gun), and also have another belt ready when the 250 rounds were fired in each belt. Mel Browne was the First Gunner. When we would go out on the firing range and with the machine guns, the target was at 1,000 inches, which is 82 feet 4 inches. There were 22 one inch squares on the target and we got 66 shells in the belt and were supposed to put 3 rounds in each square. Most of the time, Mel could hit the squares that ran up and down or straight cross, but he would fire from 5 to 7 rounds in each square, so he would run out of shells about ½ way through the target and with luck he would get a score of 55 - 60. I would make expert with a score of 98 to 100. One time Mel was on KP, and the way he could suck ass, he got the first cook to put him as a second cook, so I was moved up to first gunner. Mel loved to eat, and when he gained up to 260 pounds, he would come back out on the line. There in Texas we would go on hikes a lot. One time we went on a forced march with full field packs, and in 24 hours we covered 54 miles. On that march, we did running as well as marching for over 36 miles. Mel lost 26 pounds. As soon as he would lose down to 175 pounds he would go back in to the kitchen.
On December 7, 1941 when the Japs hit Pearl Harbor I was on guard. It was Sunday night and I was on the first guard squad. I had to walk around the motor pool where all the trucks, ¾ tons, and the jeeps were parked at night, along with the civilian cars that some of the boys had. The motor pool was 3 blocks long and 1 block wide. The corporal of the first squad was bucking to make sergeant and he didn't like the men in the weapons platoon as we carried pistols. I was walking from midnight 'till 0200, and the corporal came some time after 0100. He did not see me. The motor pool did not have any lights and I was on the far side. The corporal went back to the guardhouse and got another man, while I had walked around the motor pool. He had him walking back and forth on the 1 block length, so when I came around - here a man came meeting me. I challenged him. He said that the corporal got him to walk the guard because I was sleeping while on guard. I told him to get the corporal. He went to the guardhouse and here came the lieutenant with the corporal. The lieutenant said, "The Corporal said you were sleeping on guard, and we are taking you back and locking you up." The corporal started to take my pistol and I stopped him. The lieutenant said, "You better give the corporal your pistol or you will be charged for not surrendering your weapon." They locked me in this room with nothing in it to sit on, so I had to sit on the floor. On weekends we were on guard 24 hours, but on weekdays the guards would walk from 1800 hours to 0600 hours, so we walked for 12 hours. The guard that replaced me finished the shift and went back to the company. Sleeping on guard duty was a serious offence which resulted in court martial. Well, I didn't get to eat breakfast. The court-martial was in the same building as the one the guards stayed in. Three majors were hearing the court-martial cases and did not get to me 'till after dinner. When they came and got me, one of the majors said "The corporal reported you were sleeping on guard. What do you have to say for yourself?" I said, "I was walking around the Motor Pool, and I never did see the corporal 'till after I had challenged the man that the he put on my post. The replacement had gotten the corporal and lieutenant." The majors had the orders of each post and said, "You have to take 10 minutes to walk around the motor pool if you walk fast, as you have to walk 8 blocks." I said, "That's right." The majors wanted to talk to the corporal and lieutenant but they were out in the field so a sergeant went in a jeep and got them. When they got back to the court martial room they saw me. The majors asked, "What happened?" The lieutenant said, "The corporal reported Private Williams sleeping on guard." The major asked the corporal how long he waited and he said, "Well, I didn't have all night." The Major said, "How many minutes?" The corporal said, "2 or maybe 3 minutes." The major asked, "Have you read the rules on walking the post?", and they said, "Yes." The Major said "How long would it take to walk the post?" and the corporal said, "2 to 3 minutes." "Where is the man supposed to walk, Corporal?" "Just up and back on the 1 block side." The Major said "You never even read the rule book. The guard has to walk all the way around the motor pool." The corporal and lieutenant really looked at each other and the majors gave them orders to memorize the rules for all the posts and come back in the next court-martial date. I said "I want my pistol before I leave here". The major told the corporal to "Bring his pistol here, I want to see it." The same sergeant took them back to the company and said it took the corporal 10 minutes to get my pistol. The corporal gave my pistol to the major and he inspected it and said it was all right and gave me the pistol and, told the corporal and the lieutenant that they had to know the rules word for word. As we were walking to the company I told the corporal that if I was ever on guard with him again, he would wake up with a knot on his head.
In March, I was on guard duty again, and so was the corporal. He really looked to see what squad I was in, and I was in the 2nd Squad. So when we got to the guardhouse, I changed with his last man, and he did not notice 'till we were at the motor pool again. When he saw me he turned white as a sheet and stammered that I was supposed to be in the 2nd squad. I just said "OK". When the corporal was supposed to come around in 1 hour, the corporal of the 2nd Squad, Jack, came, and I asked him why he was on this first squad. He said the corporal (I cannot remember that corporal's name) begged him to take his place. So I told him, "That the corporal said I was sleeping on guard and I said he would wake up with a knot on his head". Jack said, "That's the reason he was so scared." At 0200 when we changed guards, I told the guard that was supposed to relive me to go back with my squad, and I would walk in his place. The corporal didn't notice that it was me and it was dark. They had flashlights and when they got back to the guard house, the men laid down on the bunks. Soon the corporal saw I was not with the men. He tried to get both corporals to change with him and they would not do it. At 0300 hours I was watching for the corporal to come. I could see Post #8 and I could see him with his light, but he sure did not come to Post #9, the Motor Pool. When I got in the guard house at 0400 hours, I asked the him why he didn't check Post #9. He said, "Oh, I did. Just ask the men." "The man at #8 said, "You checked my post, but then went back to the guard house." The next morning he was at the Company Commander asking to get transferred out of the Company. Later I asked the Company Clerk what happened and he said the Captain told him the only way he could transfer him was to bust him down to a private and the corporal said, "That's better then getting a knot on my head". I am a good-natured man but when somebody does me dirty I get even, and it doesn't take me long to do it.
About the last of March 1942, the Division was loading up the trucks and equipment on railroad flat cars to get ready to move to Fort Devens, Massachusetts. I think "K Company" had 5 coaches and a baggage car, and 2 or 3 more baggage cars - part of either the medical detachment or the service company. Then we had 24 flat cars with trucks, jeeps, and ¾-ton trucks. When the train come in to pick us up it also had a caboose. While we were loading on the train, the Engine unhooked from the coaches and backed onto the next track to get the 2 baggage cars to put in front of the coaches. When everybody was on the train, it pulled ahead then backed up to the 24 flat cars then got the caboose. They wanted 24 men to ride on each flat car so I volunteered. I got the first flat car, and we got to set in the cabs of the vehicles.
It seemed like the train would stop as much as it would move. The train stopped for 3 passenger trains and 3 freight trains coming west. The train even stopped for 3 freight trains going the same direction we were going. What I think, was that the railroad had a too small of an engine for our train. It took 6 days to get to Massachusetts - 2000 miles. When we got to St. Louis, Missouri they unhooked the engine and caboose and a little switch engine started moving the train. We came to the Railroad Bridge across the Mississippi River. The Bridge was built high enough so ships could pass under it. The Engine just got over the top of the bridge and was starting down, the last car just cleared the switch when the engine spun out and the train stopped. The engineer tried several times to get the train to moving but no luck. There was a switch engine with 4 cars a 100 yards farther up on the west side of the river. Finally, it backed up to the switch then moved forward to the back of the train. The engineer blew the whistle to let the engineer in front know he was ready to help move the train. So when the train started moving, the back engine got to spinning it's wheels & the engineer had to cut the power to the wheels 'till they stopped spinning & then put more power to the wheels. When the train was half way over the bridge they cut the engine loose while the train was still moving. They pulled us into another railroad yard then put on another engine and caboose and we were on our way again. The man that had the last flat car was bitching that he had to walk so far to get to the car so I traded cars with him. On the morning of the 5th day of our journey, I just got to the last car for guard duty and was standing beside the track, when here came 2 men to get on the caboose. The conductor asked me if I wanted to ride in the caboose with them. I said sure. I got to talk with the men, and when the train got to moving, one went to throw a switch. The flagman has to throw the switch to line up with the main line and then had to run to catch the caboose as the train never stops moving. Then he said "Let's climb up in the cubicle on top of the caboose". When the train made a curve to the left, the flagman said for me to wave my arm up and down so the fireman could see me and tell the engineer so he would blow the whistle twice. I rode there 'till we got to the next railroad division where they changed crews and guards. Why we had to guard the cars I will never know. Of course when we left Pine Camp by the middle part of January with snow 4 feet deep on the level, if the wind had not blown, we would have froze riding in the trucks.
Fort Devens, Massachusetts was the first barracks we got to live in. Before we left Camp Barkeley the trees had bloomed. Then as we went through the Mississippi Valley the trees were blooming, and at Fort Devens the trees started blooming. I got to see the trees bloom 3 times in the spring of '42. We went right on with our training and maneuvers. That summer there was a tower out in the wide open space that was 20 feet high and 16 feet across the top that had rope nets dropped over each side to simulate a ship. With full field packs we would climb up the rope net cross over and down the other side. There was a wooden box 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and 3 feet high about 1½ feet away from the edge of the tower. When 4 men came down the net at the same time the 2 men in the middle would have to step on the box to get out of the way as there was 4 more men coming down right after you. This one afternoon we had been climbing for 3½ hours and they let us rest a few minutes. The 4 lieutenants said let's climb the tower and swing over the side. The first and second lieutenant swung over OK, but the third Lieutenant - he was a little over weight, probably 200 pounds - grabbed hold of the rope running up and down, with his left hand. Instead of the rope running across, so that when he swing over the side and his weight coming down on his left hand, it pulled the rope out of his hand. As he swing on to the right, his right hand slipped off the rope he fell, side ways onto the box. It was a bad accident. The second lieutenant ran over to where we were yelling, and commanded "Fall In. Fall In". When we were in place, "Right Face, Double Time, March" and he ran us one mile. By that time we were getting tired. We were carrying our full field packs and we were slowing down. It made the lieutenant mad that we were not keeping up with him and he kept us running for another mile. The lieutenant was not carrying a field pack, he only had his pistol and pistol belt on. By that time the ambulance had come and we had walked back to the tower. As we got there he gave the order to go over the tower. The first lieutenant, Cooley said, "Just a minute, you have run these men 2 miles, walked them back and you want them to climb the tower?" The second lieutenant did not talk back. He was the Athletic Director for the 157th. Regiment and he tried to make long distant runners out of us. One day, right after we ate dinner, this same second lieutenant called us out and we ran 1½ miles to a small lake, stacked our rifles stripped down and jumped in the water. Well, we were hot from running and only about 50 men went in to the water and 6 of those got the cramps. That made the lieutenant mad and he ordered every one out of the water and dressed. He left 2 men with the 6 men that got the cramps. Then he took us on a 5-mile forced march. I told the men in my squad that the lieutenant would get what's coming to him.
During the summer the 3rd Battalion of the 157th Regiment was first to go from the 45th Division, to the Cape Cod area on the Horn off Massachusetts, on Buzzard Bay close to Martha's Vineyard for amphibious training with the Navy as they had the new Higgins boats. The New Higgins boats came to a point on the bow. We had to climb over the sides to get in and jump over the sides. When we got out, with a full field pack, we had to drop down over 6 feet to the sand. We pitched our pup tent and that evening we got passes to go into town. It was a regular summer resort town. It had about 12 beer Gardens along with the curio shops along the beach. The first Beer Garden we came to was the biggest of all and we went in. The song Deep in the Heart of Texas was just a new song, so I went to the jukebox and I think it was 3 for 10 cents. Anyway, I played Deep in the Heart of Texas and went to sit with the rest of my buddies. There were several people in the Beer Hall so when the song started playing all the people stood up, but I could not figure out why 'till after the song was over. Two men came over to our table saying, "You fellows are not very patriotic". We asked "Why?" They said, "The National Anthem just played." I asked, "Who told you that?" They said "The soldiers that are here." I guessed I was more or less the leader of the men so I showed them my shoulder patch - The Thunderbird, an Indian Design of an Eagle with spread wings, which is really a Phoenix bird. "What patch do they have on their shoulder?" I asked. One said, "It was a Green Arrow with a darker "T" in the middle." That damned 36th Division - they want everybody to think Texas is the United States! I told them, "The National Anthem is still the same, and if you stand up when this song is played, I will make sure you are sitting when the song stops." That put a bug in our ear. We went to all the Beer Gardens and told the bartenders to shut down the jukeboxes. I showed everybody we were from the 45th Division and told them that the 36th Division was having everybody stand up for the song Deep in the Heart of Texas and that it was not the National Anthem. The 36th Division men were on overnight maneuvers to Martha's Vineyard and would be at the Beer Garden the next evening. The next evening 8 of us big men (I am 6 foot, 175 pounds) each had something to put in our hand when we hit somebody. I had my knife. We went to the first Beer Garden and there were 22 to 24 men around 2 big round tables. We kept our shoulder patches covered, I laid my cap over my shoulder and went to the jukebox and played Deep in the Heart of Texas. When the song started playing, the men jumped up yelling "Stand Up, Stand Up". We yelled "Sit Down"! They yelled "Stand Up" again, so we yelled again. Here came the men over to our table saying, "What do you mean sit down, don't you know the National Anthem?" Instead of spreading out they came to us in a tight group. I had my back to them but was watching. When they got 4 feet from me I swung out of my chair and really swung a hay maker punch in the leader's chin. The blow on the chin lifted him off his feet and he fell back against 9 men that fell to the floor. He grabbed his jaw and was saying something I could not hear. He said, "Get them, the sons of bitches!", and the fight was on. It was not long 'till we cleaned house and the men from the 36th were on the floor or back at their tables. I told them "Let this be a lesson to you." One man said, "Damn that's the 45th Division!" After the fight there was a chair broken and we asked the bartender what we owed him for the chair. He said, "Nothing it was those men's fault.", indicating the men of the 36th. My buddy, sitting beside me said he heard bones break when I hit that first man. We went all the way through all the Beer Gardens cleaning house. We went though about 8 gardens when two of our men were drinking in the garden. They were short-5 feet 6 inches - but were really built, as they were coal miners here in Colorado. They wanted to know what we were doing. We told them that we were cleaning house because of that song. They jumped up saying they had to stand up twice when the song was played and they were ready to fight also. As they fought they would work together. One would try to get a man from behind and the other would hit him above his belt and one of the men, Sweed, really had a punch, so when the man bent forward Sweed really cold cocked him. As he was falling, another man hit Sweed on the side of his head and it staggered him. Sweed shook his head and said, "You SOB!" The man was ready to hit again when Sweed kicked him on his chin and it's a wonder he did not kick him between his legs. While bent from being kicked Sweed cold cocked him. Before we left to go to the next Beer Garden, Sweed said "I want to tell you men - Do not under estimate the 45th Division!" (Sweed's parents came from Sweden and his name was like Slevinasky but that was not his name and everybody called him Sweed.)
We went on to the end of the Beer Gardens then went back to the Company area and told our men that to watch out, that the 36th Division men may coming after us as we really had a fight in all the Beer Gardens, but everything was quiet. To say we came through with out a scratch wouldn't quite work - 4 men had black eyes, one of them had both eyes black, and all had bruises. My knuckles were all skinned. We went to the Captain and told him we were in a fight last night. He said, "I can see that, what happened?" So we told him. He said, "I wish I had of known that, I would have called out the Company and we would really have shown them!" Breaking someone's jaw is really an offense from fighting and when we told the Captain, he said if anything comes of it he would take it to our Major to straighten out, but we never heard anything from the 36th Division. We finished the maneuver then and went back to Fort Devens for more training.
The Middle of September 1942, the 45th Division loaded on trucks and went 400 miles to Pine Camp in New York, near Watertown. Pine Camp now is Fort Drum. It was nice when we first got there - then here came the snow. We were issued fur lined parka coats but the fur lined parka pants, were sent to Arizona for Desert Training (that's the Army for you!) and we never did get any pants all the time we were in Pine Camp. One night in December, I was on guard, and had the midnight to 0200 hours shift. The moon was shining and there was no wind but the frost was flying through the air and it was 42 degrees below zero. I had on my long johns, 2 pair of fatigues, and 2 pair of woolen pants and my legs still got cold. (I think that's the reason I can not stand any cold on my legs now.) You could not blow your breath straight out in front of you and walk in to it as it would stick to your coat and face. One man who would blow his breath in front of him and then walk into the frost had his face was all covered with frost. When he came into the guard house the frost melted off his face, but it was frosted so bad, he had be in the hospital for 2 months. We had to blow our breath to one side and still the frost would be all over the front of our coats. When we went in to the guardhouse we did not dare take off our mittens and touch our coats or we would frost bite our fingers. We had to wake the men up that had been in for 2 hours to unfasten our outer coats. As the snow got deeper we would go out on hikes, and when the wind would blow, the hard winds would come out of the northwest, and blew up to 70 miles an hour. The snow would drift everywhere and we would have to shovel out the paths for the trucks that brought the coal for the furnaces.
When the snow was 2 ½ feet deep the Regiment had an overnight maneuver and we had to put 1 extra blankets in our pack. About 1530 hours, we stopped maneuvering and pitched our pup tents. We had to shovel the snow out first. Being down below the top of the snow, it was not so cold. After dark the trucks brought supper out to us. That night we did not take any clothes off just our parka coats and lay them over us. About 0200 they woke us up saying. "Break camp, we are moving out". Here it is pitch dark, as it was cloudy and the stars were not shining either. You could not see your hand in front of your face. We tore down our tents and when we went to roll up our blankets, I found 8 tent pegs and I'd only had 5 to begin with. I asked my buddy how many pegs he had and he said 6. We got our packs together and they took us to our barracks as they said it was too cold to stay out all night. We had unrolled our pack to get our blankets and we really had a lot of snow in the blankets. When I got to the tent pegs, I had 3 pieces of branch of a tree. The next morning at Reveille one Sergeant was short two men so the Sergeant and the jeep driver went back out in the field and found the two men. They were still sleeping in the pup tents.
One morning in December we were going for a 10 mile hike. The second lieutenant that was the Athletic Director went to see the Major to have the Battalion run for a mile to start out with. The Major said, "So you want everybody in the Battalion to be in the hospital?" The lieutenant said "Why?" The Major said "With the men sucking the cold air on their lungs." The lieutenant came back to the company mad. After the hike, we came back to the barracks. One of the men in my squad had his feet sweat so bad that when he started to take off his shoes, they were stuck to his feet. We had to loosen the shoe laces all the way so we could get our fingers down under his foot to get his shoes off, then his socks were frozen to his feet. When we got his socks off there was ice between his toes and on the bottom of his feet. Boy, I was never so glad to get away from a camp!
The 10th of January, 1943, the Service Company had loaded all the trucks on flat cars, we got in the coaches and they hooked the truck on behind to go to Camp Pickett, Virginia by Petersburg, just outside of Richmond. Camp Pickett is now Fort Pickett. There were snowdrifts everywhere. Where the trucks were loaded on the cars, the wind blew the snow underneath them so when the engine tried to move the cars, the train just moved a few feet. The engineer had to back the train up to the loading dock, and then he moved the train about 25 feet this time. He backed the train up again and this time got the train moving. The railroad sure took us a long way around to go 600 miles. The train left Watertown and went to Utica then headed west and I am not sure how it went but we got into Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania then some way east going to Baltimore Maryland. Seemed like we went all over western Pennsylvania. After we left Baltimore we went south to Camp Pickett, we left Pine Camp on January 11th and got to Camp Pickett the evening of January 14th 1943. We just got settled in our barracks, when it started raining. It rained for 3 days and when the rain hit it froze. Sometime after midnight the electricity went off. The next morning we did not have Reveille because it was still dark, and the cooks did not have gas for their gas lanterns so breakfast was late. That afternoon each floor of the barracks was issued 2 candles, the 2nd day each got 4 candles, the 3rd day 8 candles, and the cooks got fuel for their lanterns, the 4th day we got 12 candles, and the 5th day they got the electricity back on.
While we were training, I think it was the Regiment, went to Newport News and got on 3 ships for 2 weeks for amphibious training. The ships went a few miles from Norfolk and we started making landings from the ships with full field packs. Of course, the Higgins boats had a 4-foot ramp in front so when the boats hit the beach and the ramp could be let down, 2 men could go out at the same time. At night the ships would drop anchor about ¼ mile from the beach. One night our ship was on the right of the others and all of a sudden the loud speaker went to blasting, "Man your Battle Stations!". The ship was dragging anchor and floating toward the other 2 ships. In no time, the sailors were all over the ship. By the time they got the ship to moving forward it was getting close to the #2 ship. It turned its lights on so it would be seen. Our ship got to moving and raised the anchor and moved about 300 yards then dropped anchor. Then it backed up to see if the anchor would hold this time. We were there for 2 weeks making landings everyday and some nights.
We came back to camp, then later went to The Blue Ridge Mountains in the Appalachia Mountain Range to maneuver in the mountain area. We were there about 18 days. About every 2 or 3 days they would have us on a simulated Battle and the umpires that checked our movement had Piper Cub airplanes and would fly over us. This one day, we had been maneuvering for 2 days and came up on a clearing with no trees on about 100 acres. The house was next to the trees on the north side. Whenever the Piper Cub would fly close to the house the woman would come out and wave her arms. So when the maneuvers stopped for the day, and we were close to the house, as the plane flew over the woman came out yelling for the flying machine to go away, we asked her what was the matter. She said she was afraid that flying machine would knock off her chimney. We told her the plane had to fly high enough to clear the tree tops, but I don't think we convinced her as when the plane flew over again she still waved her arm and yelled.
One day we were out on the field with live ammo. There were men under the level of the ground that would raise a target - I think for 5 seconds but it could have been 10 seconds-then drop the target. There were 50 targets for the Rifleman to fire on. The machine gunners were on the right side of the course and there was a set of 5 targets that would come up. I was the Machine Gunner and had to flop on the ground setting up the tripod pod. The 2nd gunner set the machine gun on the tripod. The first ammo carrier brought the box of ammo so I could load the machine gun. As soon as I got lined up with the 1st target, I would hold the trigger to cover all the targets, or 'till the targets dropped. There was a captain that looked like the Athletic Director that walked beside the machine gun section beside us with a radio telling the men when to pull the targets. A Platoon of 54 Riflemen would go through the course at a time. The men in the pits would count the number of hits on each target. We were on the last round for the day and were just about through the course. I had just fired on the last target and the Captain had walked ahead of my position about 30 feet. When the Riflemen were firing on the last target, someone fired at the Captain, just as he turned to walk back, and wounded him. It didn't take an ambulance long to get there to pick him up and take him to the hospital. When we got back to the Company area, before the Captain dismissed us, the Second Lieutenant that was the Athletic Director told us he know that bullet was meant for him and he apologized for what he had done with us. The next morning he transferred from the Company.
Just before we want to Camp Patrick Henry, the Rifle Company were practicing with Bangalore Torpedoes and Bandoleer Torpedoes, a two inch pipe that's six feet long and fixed so we could put one end inside the other pipe and turn it a ¼ turn and it would lock in place. We could put several torpedoes together and there was a cap to put on the end of the pipe so it could be pushed back on the ground, sand to or through the barbed wire entanglements without getting stopped. There were 11 pounds of dynamite in each torpedo. To set the torpedoes off, there was the detonating cap that was as big around as a pencil and three inches long, then a cloth covered fuse with powder inside, then a striker that fit over the fuse and crimped the end over the fuse. When the wire was pulled out of the striker sparks would fly into the fuse to set the powder on fire and it would burn to the detonating cap exploding the torpedo.
It was getting close to time to come to the Company area so they let the Weapons Platoon come on ahead so we could clean our weapons (the machine guns and mortars). We got about 3/8 of a mile when we heard an explosion and figured they were going through the drill again. When the company came in they said there was an accident. What happened was that the three lieutenants and the three platoon sergeants got to betting which team man could set off the bandoleer first. Instead of saying which one could set up first. Each sergeant and lieutenant was with the man to set off the torpedo. The torpedoes flew out the side and not the end. One sergeant, when the man put the cap on the fuse, cut the fuse 2 inches from the end of the cap and put on the striker. It takes some pressure to put the cap in the end of the torpedo. The man had his arm up over it and had a hold of the end and had his face too close to the pipe so when he pulled the wire, the spark jumped to the cap and it exploded. There went his arm and face. The lieutenant was standing close and the concussion broke his right eardrum. The army sent that man home in a box.
The first part of May, 1943 we got the orders we were going overseas but we did not know where. I had a footlocker that I had to send home. The men that were married had to make arrangements for their wives to be sent home, many of them pregnant. The Division got on trucks and went to Williamsburg to Camp Patrick Henry close to Newport News. My barracks was right next to the WAC Detachment and that was the first time I had seen any WACs (Women's Army Corp). I think there was one kitchen for each Regiment. The building was real big and the kitchen area was in the middle with the mess halls on both sides. When it was time for a meal the Company would fall in on the Company Street then march over to the mess hall. By the time "K CO" got in the mess hall, here was "L CO" or "I CO" ready to come in behind us.
I never did date girls much in any one of the camps. While we were in Barkeley, my buddy Culley from "L CO" would come saying he had a girl he wanted me to meet. The worst part was that I never saw him have a girl over a month, and the girl he would have for me, figured that I was like him - Full of Bull S---. Or he would want to borrow $5.00, then half the time he would forget that he borrowed the money.
At first the 45th Division had 4 Regiments: The 157th, 158th, 179th, and 180th. When the Division went in to the triangle, the 158th Regiment pulled out to another camp and I heard they went to Panama. Culley got transferred in to the 158th before they left the 45th Division. At Fort Devens, my buddy Jim and I would go to Boston and would pick up girls for the day but nothing serious.
At Pine Camp, Jim and I went to Watertown USO Club and two sisters picked us up. They lived a few miles east of Watertown and that night they took us to their place then brought us back to camp Sunday evening. They would pick us up 2 to 3 times a month on weekends, one time Jim and I was on KP (Kitchen Police help). The cooks had 2 cases of "C" rations that had been opened with 2 cans taken out of each box, one box had the cans with the meat and the other had the crackers. Every time they cleaned the floor, they had to move the boxes and they wanted to get rid them. I told Jim, "I bet the girls would like the rations." So we asked the cooks, and they said to take the boxes, they were tired of moving them. So we took the boxes up and put under our bunks 'till Saturday when the girls came. We put the boxes in their car and they had to go back home and try the rations. We told them to heat the meat cans up some, as they tasted better. They got a can of meat and potatoes hash and vegetable stew to heat then. They said, "You fellows eat like kings." We never did go to Watertown that weekend. When we left Pine Camp the sisters were engaged to two brothers in the same Air Force Company from Cheyenne Wyoming. When their unit moved to Watertown they had a double wedding.
At Camp Pickett, I don't know how, but we met two college girls going to school at Roanoke. Every time we could get a weekend pass we would go to Roanoke. That June, the girls went back to Wisconsin and married their high school sweethearts. The new husband of the girl I was seeing was drafted into the Army and I suppose he went to OCS as he went to collage also.
We were at Camp Patrick Henry 5 or 6 days while the 5 ships loaded all the trucks and equipment of the 157th Regiment and their attachments, the 158th Field Artillery Regiment, etc. Early one morning we got on the train and went 30 miles to Newport News and came along side all the ships. The reason we rode the train was that all the trucks were loaded on the ships. As soon as everyone was off the coaches the train backed up to get another load of men. By evening the 5 ships were full and they dropped the rope moors off the dock and we went out in the Bay between Norfolk and New Port News for several days. We would climb down the nets into the Higgins Boat and go around the other side of the ship and climb back on the ship. That was the first part of June. The 5 ships that the 157th Infantry Regiment was on, were the USS Charles Carrole, the USS Thomas Jefferson, the USS Susan B Anthony, the USS Procyon, and the USS William P. Biddle. The USS William P. Biddle was the ship that I was on. More ships came and dropped anchor among us 'till there was 15 ships. At 0800 June 8 1943, the rattle of anchor chains were heard all throughout the 15 ships, whistles blew and the armada slowly got under way. As we neared Norfolk more ships joined the convoy. There was an USS Navy cruiser and another large ship (there were 3 Navy ships), 2 oil tankers and 5 ships with cargo and a small harbor tug boat. Then there were 14 Escort Destroyers surrounding the convoy of 26 ships. It was not long 'till we could not see land. As soon as we left the bay they told us we were going to North Africa. It took 14 days for the convoy to get to Oran, Algeria, N Africa. It did not take the ships long to make the zigzag course. The Skipper let the men sleep on the top deck, as it was so hot down below deck. At night the water would have aluminum spots from the size of a Silver Dollar to 400 or more yard areas. As the ship went through the patches of aluminum you could look back and see the water light up gold dollars where it cut through. About 4 days out, the escort destroyers could come to one oil tanker to take on fuel. Many times I have seen a ship tied up on each side of the tanker, and sometimes there was another ship (a total of 3)tied up getting fuel. If the Destroyers dropped any depth charges they would go to the Supply Ship to get more depth charges. The 3rd day the Company Clerk came to me, asking if I would go in kitchen mess the same as KP. Al (Al was in the 1st platoon I think) and I worked for 3 days and they would feed the sailors first and then the army men. We asked to work for 3 more days and the clerk said he would have to get other men after that. There were Flying Fish that would fly away from the ship. One day there were about 20 flew up at the same time, they would fly up to 200 yards. One night one was on the deck when we woke up. It was 16 inches long and had a wingspan of 18 inches.
The porpoise would play around the ships. They would swim in front of our ship going over to the ship on our left then swim back and they would swim for hours at a time. Once there was a school of fish beside the ship and when porpoise came by they sure made the water boil and in a minute they went to swimming again. Sometimes the porpoise would get one behind the other and would come up out of the water 4 feet then dive into the water and come up again and they would do that clear across both ships. It was really something to see. They kept us entertained most of the way.
The 21st of June 1943 we went by the Rock of Gibraltar, then the 22nd into the Harbor of Oran Algeria, North Africa where we spent three days. The sailors went on pass to Oran and we stayed on the ships. The 25th the ships moved out of the Harbor out to sea and went to St. Cloud, a small village just east of Oran where we climbed down the nets into the LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle and Personal). The New Higgins boats had a ramp all the way across the front of the boat so jeeps and trucks could drive off. We landed on the beach then went in and pitched our pup tents. The 36th Division was over there before we got there and had places for us to march on hikes. There were charges of TNT that would go off as we moved through an area. There was also a firing range to fire our weapons. It was about time to go back to camp. In the last belt of machine gun ammo in the can of 250 rounds, I had to take out 25 bent shells. So when I went to firing the gun I was at the end of the belt, there was 6 to 7 rounds left. I gave the trigger another burst of 3 shells, when one shell went into the chamber, and just the cap came off leaving the casing in the chamber. The next shell fed into the chamber, but could not go all the way in. The machine gun is not supposed to fire until the bolt is in place and locked. But that shell exploded and blew brass and powder in the back of my hand and fingers. A man took me to one of the 36th Division first aid station and two captains went to picking out the brass and powder. One would pick while the other wiped blood. Soon they got to cussing, they were missing out on their supper. I told them to go eat but they said they had to get my hand fixed. It took them 2½ hours to be able to wrap my hand. Then the man took me to our Company area. I had to get Cliff, our cook to give me cans of C-rations. On the ship I went to the ships medics, which our 157th Division medics helped. I had to tell the ship's doctors what had happened and they put my report in the ship's records. All four fingers had large cuts on them and the doctors said the 36th Division doctors should have put stitches on the cuts but it was a good thing they didn't as there were still brass and powder in the cuts. So they picked out more powder and brass and put on new bandages. We were on the ship 8 days and by that time the back of my hand was pretty well healed but my 2 fingers needed more bandages so when we landed on Sicily I had the first aid man bandage my hand and finger. I never went to our first aid station so that injury didn't get on my record. Two years after I was home from the army I still got brass out of my hand and fingers.
The first of July, 1943, we loaded back on the ship. On the 5th the ships left the Harbor and headed east. We were issued books on the Language of Sicily. On the 9th we landed on the southern shore of Sicily. At midnight the 9th of July a bad storm hit and there was rough water trying to get into the Higgins boats. We were in the 7th Army under General George S. Patton. When he found out the 45th Division was a National Guard outfit he didn't want those '2nd rate soldiers' and was told by Eisenhower that he had to take the 45th Division. The 1st and 3rd Divisions were also in the 7th Army and made the invasion on Sicily. We landed close to +San Croce, Camerina and moved inland. The 2nd day we came to the +Comis and by 1700 hours the airport was captured along with ammo and bomb dumps, 200,000 gallons of aviation fuel, 450 prisoners, and more than 120 planes. When the first bullet was shot at us we were not really in to fighting but when the second shot was fired it was "Kill or be Killed!". The fighting was tough. With the Germans 88mm shells falling all round us. On the 15th of July, the British pulled through our Regiment. So we went further west to +San Caterine with heavy fighting. The Germans would pull back a few miles and set up a defense so when we would get up to them, there would be another big battle. The whole time we were walking north across Sicily, the sun came up in the west and set in the east for me 'till we got to see the ocean on the north side of the island and then everything turned around straight for me.
While we were going across Sicily it would be so hot in the middle of the day, we began to move out early in the morning, then stop about 1100 hours 'till about 1500 hours. We were along the coast and just stopped to rest when here came a jeep with two stars on the bumper. We stood up and I stopped the Jeep. There was General George Patton. I told him we were the leading element, that the Germans were somewhere ahead of us. He got out of the Jeep and talked to us before asking to see our officers so I took him to our Captain. The next morning when we stopped, here came four trucks pulling 105 mm guns. They set up on an open area on the right side of the road. We told them we were the leading element and they said they had orders to set up here. The four guns were in a line about 50 feet apart. There was a building that we could see up on top of the hill that was back of us a 100 or so yards and there was a road that came down along the side of the mountain to about 250 yards then it made a sharp turn, and come toward us for 125 yards and then turned toward the highway we were walking on. We heard a motor start up and we could tell by the sound that it was a German vehicle. Soon a tank started down the road. All the gun crew bore sighted their guns on the road where it made the turn and loaded shells in each gun. The man on the 3rd gun said "It's my turn to fire the first shot". So when the tank made the turn he pulled the lanyard and when the shell hit the tank - right under the 88 on the turret, the turret went flying up into the air end over end and landed on the side of the road. The tank was on fire and rolled down to the turn in the road and ran into the ditch before it stopped. Some of the our boys went to see the tank and they said that just the driver was all that was in the tank.
When we went up through +Callanisseta, we had climbed over rubble in the streets. We went on up to +Canipofelice, and on to the north coast through +Cebalu on to +St. Stefano. There, one of the most fierce Battles in Sicily was Bloody Ridge. After we took Bloody Ridge there was a small mountain range running along the north coast with the road, the railroad, and then the beach. There was a tunnel the road went through, and the Germans blasted out the road past the tunnel, which was 6 feet deep and 12 feet long. We were walking farther then our artillery could fire and as we came around a hill there was an inlet where the water came in about 3/8 of a mile and there was a village on the other side. The German artillery opened up on us. We dug in on the hillside where there were olive trees on the terraces. Every time someone would get out of his foxhole, the Germans would lay in a barrage on us and would fire on us every hour. The second day the engineer had a bridge strong enough for the Jeeps to cross but had to make it stronger for the 6x6 tracks. The jeeps brought us rations and water. The next morning the Germans really laid in a barrage on us. I thought the German riflemen would be coming after the barrage, so I kept looking out of my foxhole. To the left front of me about 20 feet, God and Jesus were floating in the air right level with us. I told my buddy Don to look there, "God and Jesus." While the shells were coming in we waved to them; they had flowing white robes with belts and collars flowing red and blue. God turned toward the Germans and waved his arms, the shelling stopped right then. We waved again and they waved back and just like that they were gone. We told the other men we saw God and Jesus but they did not believe us, as the two of us were all that had seen them.
Then here came a Navy Destroyer. It lowered the seaplanes off the ship's fantail and into the water. They would take off and fly over the village. The pilots would locate the guns, then the ship would pinpoint the area and start firing. The ship turned around firing 4 times then the plane flew back to the ship and the ship went back to Palarno. Then here came the 3rd Division to relieve the 45th Division.
There was a building up farther on the hillside and I told Don, my buddy, let's go up to the building. When we got there the door was locked on the inside so we walked around the building. We were standing by the door when I saw it open a crack and I could see somebody's eye. I said we are American Soldiers. The door flew open and two young women came out and hugging and kissing us. They had pallets on the floor but I couldn't see any food anywhere. We took the girls to the "Company CP" and they got some rations to eat. One of our men was an Italian and the girls said they were working at the olive grove when we came so they went to the building. When we moved out the girls went back to the village.
We went back to +Termimi Inerse close to +Palarmo and boarded the ships to make the invasion by +Falcone to get to +Messina. When the Third Division met up with the 45th Division, the Germans were leaving Sicily. We got back on the ships and went to Palarno+ then to Travia+ to the rest area 'till we made the landing in Italy. On the 2nd of August, 1943 we were through fighting in Sicily.
About the 1st of September the Company Clerk got 16 of us men. One second lieutenant, 3 sergeants, and 12 men to guard three railroad bridges for four days. The cooks gave us four boxes of 25 and 1 rations - that was enough food for 25 men for one day. A truck took us a few miles to where the bridges were. There was a farm building that we stayed in. It was a 3-story building. The farm animals were on the first floor, the 2nd floor had the feed for the animals, and the people lived on the top floor. We put our bedrolls on the hay or straw on the 2nd floor. We gave the woman a box each day and told her what to cook for each meal. After the 16 men got to eat the family got to eat the rest. I think there were 8 in that family. They had a girl that was 20 years old and she would sit by me on the bedroll and we would talk using the Hand book of Sicily. I had the 2000-2200 hours guard shift. The second night the girl would go out with me to the bridge. As you know, I didn't do much guarding at that time. After we got to fighting in Sicily, I got to thinking I better start living it up or I was liable to be pushing up daises any minute!!
The 8th of September 1943 the 179th Regiment and 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 157th Regiment boarded on ships to make it to Salarno+ Italy. When we made the Landing on Salarno we were in the 5th Army with General Mark Clark in change. The reason the 2nd Battalion and the 180th Regiment were left behind was there weren't enough ships to take the entire Division, as the ships were being pulled to England to prepare for the landing of Normandy in June of 1944. We got to the Salarno area the 10th of September and were supposed to be floating reserves but there wasn't any floating done . . .we went right on in. The 36th Division was supposed to make the initial landing but the Germans almost wiped the riflemen out, and the Army was giving the artillerymen rifles to try to hold the line. We went ashore by Paestum+ and went inland ¾ to 1 mile and came up on 36th Regiment where 54 men were all killed with German bayonets. We couldn't see where any rifles were fired. The Germans took all of their rifles and ammo. We moved ahead about 200 yards and dug in. There was a rifle platoon and 14 machine gunners when dug in when here came (I figured a German Regiment) with bayonets on their rifles, figured to stab us like they had the 36th Division. The lieutenant said to hold our firepower 'till they get closer. They got to about 125 feet from us when we opened fire and the Germans fell like ten pins. Each wave kept coming 'till about the 7th wave before they finally hit the ground and started firing back. The men that were down in front of them were no protection for the Germans as they were on a gradual sloop on a small hill and we could pick them off. The men that jumped up to run back we shot in the back.
Colonel Ankcorn had us move to another place. The navy gave orders for the troops ships to come back and pick up survivors that came to the beach. Colonel Ankcorn gave the order to put ammunition and rations behind the 157th Regiment - we were not pulling back! The ships went back to Sicily to get the rest of the 45th Division. We moved 3 times the next day and dug 3 different foxholes to make the Germans think there were more of us. We walked across a bridge on a dry creek that the Germans could see. Colonel Ankcorn had the company walk across the bridge then go back below the bridge, then walk over the bridge three times to make them think there were more of us. The 4th day we walked by where our 105 mm guns were, a battery of the 158th Field Artillery, was firing. They had stopped firing for a few minutes. They had fired so many shells that the casing and cardboard were in a 'U' shape behind each gun. They said they would have to move the guns ahead because the men couldn't throw the casing any higher. While we were still there, here came a man driving DUKW with 105 mm ammo. A DUKW is a cargo boat that is set on a 6x6 truck chassis that goes out to the ships in the water to bring supplies into the beach area. The driver ask "Where is the ammo Dump?" they said, "It's right here". The driver said he was supposed to go to the dump and said, "Where is the Ammo Dump?". The Captain said " You better unload right over there, if you leave with that load you will only get to the bend in the road". The driver said "Why?" And the Captain said, "You will have a 105 shell in your hip pocket". It didn't take long to get the DUKW unloaded.
We moved up to where we first came on to the beach but we didn't stay, as all the 36th Division men still laid where they were killed and the Germans didn't move any of their dead. The smell was so terrible. Later after we broke through the beachhead the gravedigger had to bury the 36th Division's men and the Germans also. The 36th Division had to pull back to Sicily or to North Africa to reorganize. The Division lost most of the riflemen as the men thought that this was like maneuvers back in the States. For their foxholes, they just dug out about four inches deep. (Thunder! I dug a deeper hole when I went to the bathroom!)
After we got to moving from the beach head, an artillery shell hit a tree and something hit me under my right eye. I told the first-aid men that were attached to the 1st platoon to put a patch on my eye and I didn't go to the first-aid station, so that wound didn't get put on my records either. Here I was wounded two times. I think we were on the beachhead three days when the corporal and sergeant in charge of the machine gun section got wounded. The corporal got wounded on his wrist and I don't know what happened to the sergeant. On the third day, here came in 12 P38 fighter planes - the planes that have the twin fuselage and two motors. The engineers laid steel plates down on the sand so the planes could land and take off. There was a crew to put ammunition and bombs on the planes and to add fuel. The planes never climbed over 500 feet and would strafe and drop their bombs, then right back to the landing strip. They said they never had to put fuel in the plane - just the ammo. They would fly back to Sicily at night. The men that put in the ammo on the planes could see the targets the P38s were firing on.
All the rifle companies got two more machine guns, and being I was a first gunner, I was made Sergeant-in-Charge of the first section and Otis was in charge of the second section. So each platoon that would be on the line would have two machine guns supporting the platoon. For some reason, I was with the First Platoon that was to be the lead platoon, as they would rotate the 3 platoons and that would be the platoon I would be attached to. About all the men in the section know how to handle the machine guns, so we took eight men for ammo carriers, and four men for the guns in each section. One man that was in my squad, Casey, didn't want to work with the machine gun and wanted to stay an ammo carrier. There was one replacement that came in to my section from Kentucky and he couldn't read or write. Every time he got a letter he would come to me to read it for him. So when we had some time off, I wrote letters home. I asked Clay if he wanted me to write a letter to his wife. He said "Boy I would really like that!". He knew his address then said "Dear Faye, How are you? I am fine. I love you. Clay". I said, "Wait a minute have you told her you were in Italy?" "No" " Have you said what outfit you are in"? He said "No". " How about being in the front line in a machine gun section carrying two boxes of ammo?" I wrote that, then I told her I was his Sergeant and he brought his letters for me to read. In her next letter she thanked me for writing for him. I don't know what happened to him, as I had to go to the hospital for two months with an ear infection. Another man in my section showed pictures. Every time his mother sent pictures. One time he said they were of his twin sisters 7 years old and then the next time he said they were his daughters. One time we were in a foxhole for two nights, he told me when he was 6 years old his Dad died. Right after his dad passed away, his Mom had him sleep with her. When he was sixteen years old his mom got pregnant with twin girls. He was 24 years old when I knew him. I don't know what happened to him either.
When we would dig our foxholes if I was a even man I would dig with one of the ammo carriers but if I was a odd man I would dig one by myself. There were 15 men in the section two squads of seven men and the sergeant in charge. (Each squad had the First Gunner and Second Gunner and the 5 ammo carriers.) So I would count up all the men and myself, if the count was even - 10, 12, or 14, there would be two men to a foxhole. But if the number was odd 11, 13, or 15, there would be two men to a foxhole, and one man to a foxhole by himself. If there was a odd number, I dug a foxhole myself.
At night when we were on the front lines, the Supply Sergeant would bring up our rations, water, ammo, and many nights-cigarettes. I didn't smoke but I sure gave gum thunder, as I would have a stick in my mouth 24 hours a day. If there were any cigarettes left over I would take them, and most the time there would be one or two packs. I have seen times when there were over five packs. I would carry the extra packs in my pack and when any of my men would run out of cigarettes, they would come to me and ask "Tarzan, you got any cigarettes?" Like one time on Anzio, the Germans were trying to push us back and we had our artillery firing shells in front of us, along with all our weapons. The Germans made three counter attacks that day. Talk about being nerve wrecking! I only had ten men in my section as four had gotten wounded. When the Germans finally stopped pushing, those 10 men came to me asking if I had any cigarettes as they were out. I had one pack so they all took a cigarette and smoked it. The ashes fell behind their lips. Later they wanted the last of the pack and I said "That all I have." And they said, " We know that". That night we got more cigarettes.
The 11th of September 1943 the 2nd Battalion of the 157th and 179th Regiments got to Italy. The 15th of September the 15th Division and the 34th Division came to Italy and the Germans were trying to push us off the beachhead. One night or evening the German Luftwaffe and ME-109 fighter planes came over to attack the beachhead. The British Spitfires and the P-38 planes intercepted them and after loosing several planes the Germans turned for home.
I can not remember the towns and cities we went through but I do know there was a tobacco warehouse factory that the Germans were fighting for. At night, our fighter planes would go back to their base and the German planes would come and bomb the harbor. When we got to moving we crossed the Sele River. On September 19th the Regiment got to Eboli then on to Oliveto+. The 24th of September Colonel Ankcorn's Jeep hit a land mine and his leg was badly mangled. He was sent back. He was a good soldier and a good man. I really liked him.
When we stopped moving for the night, the ground was so hard that it was hard to make a dent in the soil. I had a pick mattock and could pick the dirt then take my helmet to scoop out the dirt. I would let my men in the section use the pick also. At one place we stopped, I was the odd man so I dug my foxhole alone. After we got our hole dug we were standing around, having a BS session, probably about girls, when the Germans laid in a barrage on us. We dived into our foxholes. A shell either an armor piecing one or a dud landed 1-foot beside my hole. A dud is a shell that does not explode. The prisoners in Germany had to make the shells and sometimes they would fix the shell so it would not go off. Sometimes, there were notes in the shells. When the shell landed it broke off a layer of dirt 1-foot wide and 6 feet long on top of me along with the dirt I had piled from digging my foxhole. I could hardly breathe with all that dirt on top of me. When the barrage lifted the men got out of their holes and said "Looks like Tarzan got it". I was able to say, "You SOBs! Get this dirt off me so I can get out of here!". In no time they had the dirt off me. A few years ago at one of our 157th Infantry reunions we were talking about that and two men said "If we had known how mean you were with us, we would have thrown more dirt on you." (I wasn't mean!!!)
As we moved in up the mountain ridges, we would be walking up the road and the Germans would have delaying action. They would have from 2 to 4 machine guns set up on top of a little hill and they would start firing on us. When we would get set up to fire on them they would crawl back and get on a truck and go tearing up the road. Twice, there were gullies to the right side of the road, and one squad of riflemen and the machine gun section went in the gully and got ahead of the Germans. When they came crawling to get their truck they gave up without a fight - even the truck drivers. Everyday the Regiment would have so far to move forward and if we didn't contact the enemy we would stop at that line for the night. After we dug in - I had a first gunner, Rico, that anything I would say to him, he was all for it. One evening we walked up to a barn and looked it over. It had a loft and we went up and were looking out the door where they put the hay in the loft. fI spotted some 81 mm mortar shells. I said let's throw the shells out of this door to see if we can explode any. We knocked the pins out of the shells and carried them up to the loft. It took three trips to get all of them - there were 36 shells. We threw the shells and all but five went off so we got them and threw them. When we got back up to the crew, they asked us, "Where were you when the Germans threw in the barrage?". I said, "We didn't hear anything." I looked at Rico and he never said anything. If he had opened his mouth I would have decked him. The next evening, he went into some bushes - I think to go to the bathroom, and when he came out, he tripped a personal land mine. As he turned to see what it was, the mine jumped up 1 foot and he got shrapnel in his right calf on his leg. I never saw him after that.
There were two Negroes that were in the DUKW Company or Battalion that brings supplies from the ships to the beach. One DUKW was filled with cans of gas I think, and they had ten to fifteen gallons of wine. They were going to drive the DUKW back to the States. I think they were at Bezerte+ and went though the Straite of Gibraltar+. They were two days out in the ocean when a plane spotted them. A ship picked them up and brought them back to Africa. They were charged with being AWOL and stealing GI equipment. I can't remember what the third charge was for. They got sent to a Federal Prison. It was a good thing there was no storm or the DUKW would have taken on water and sunk.
One day we were in reserve and when we came to a fork in the road a small city was off to the left. Our Major had "K CO" go to check out the city. How come my section was clear to the back of the column, I don't know, usually I was up close to the front of the line. There was a road that runs east and west and the road we were on curved into the straight road. There were bushes along the side of the road so we couldn't see anything coming, but my men said that they heard hobnailed boots. Then I heard them! They came out in the open on a dead run right for us. We tried to set up our machine guns and they were on top of us before a shot was fired. There were 46 German soldiers. They put their rifles on the ditch bank and took off their belts and helmets and put on caps. They surrendered; there was no fight in them. Here came a jeep with an officer a major - I think - and they took the prisoners back. The weapons platoon stayed at the Town Square while the rest of the company scouted the rest of the city. I got to looking around as usual, and I looked up this doorway a woman motioned for me to come up the stairs. I asked if there were any Germans there, and she said no. She wanted to thank me for getting the Germans out of the city and she led me to her bed. When we left there to get back to the highway the 3rd Battalion was supposed to be just past the fork in the road but they were not there. So my two first gunmen and I walked back about 100 yards. We yelled "Are you bastards up ahead?" and waited for an answer. "Who in the hell are you?". "We are the Katz n Jammer Kids." "We are Ike.". We told them we had to go back to get the company. Then we pulled through "I company". The 157th Regiment knew where the Germans were set up about three miles ahead of us.
This was one of the few times four tanks were assigned to go with us. We were walking in a open grass field and were spread out, so when the artillery shells were coming in we would stop and run back to get out of the range of the artillery shell. The tanks would turn and come back with us. We told them to keep those Iron Coffins away from us as we didn't have any protection, and they said we could crawl under the tanks. When we made contact with the Germans, they started firing on us and we went to firing on the Germans, the tanks turned and went behind a little hill. I counted 7 machine gun nests. I think there were 3 guns in each nest and one shot from their cannon would have knocked out the nests. I sent my carrier back after more ammo. At the time I only had 3 ammo carriers for each gun. When I saw one gun only had 100 rounds and the other had 150. I said I would go to the tanks to see if I could get more ammo. I got to the first tank and they had the hatches buttoned down, I pounded on the tank, the hatch opened and a periscope poked over the top and wanted to know what I wanted. I said, "I want machine gun ammo." "We don't have any." I said "What's that gun up on the turret and by the assistant driver." He said "Oh that kind". The hatch on the 2nd tank open and the lieutenant looked out and asked the same question, than asked how much I wanted. I told him "Could I have 8 boxes?" Each tank threw out 2 boxes from their hatch. I ask the Lieutenant "How come you didn't stay and fire on the nests?" He said "There were no tanks and with bullets hitting the tank they couldn't stick their heads out of the tanks." I told him, You better have a guard out in case the Germans brake thorough our line. They would drop a Molotov cocktail down your hatch." I carried 2 boxes back to the guns and by then they were out of ammo. I got the two - 2nd Gunners to come with me to get the boxes. By the time the Germans pulled out we only had part of 2 boxes left. One of my first gunners name was Cosso and a man started trotting back and Cosso started shooting at him, he got to running faster each time Cosso started shooting. Cosso fired 'till the man was out of sight. He turned to me saying "What's the matter with me, I didn't even hit him?" I told him, "Every time you hit him he got to running faster!"
About 14 years ago a man came to my place, he had just lost his wife and wanted to visit. We got to talking about the war and he said he was in Italy. I said I was in Italy with the 45th Division He said he was with 191st Tank Battalion. He told the story about some man knocking on his tanks wanting machine gun ammo. I told him that man was me! After that he came to talk with me 'till he passed away about 8 years ago.
We were up on this mountain range and we could look to our left and see the ocean in the distance. We saw 32 German Fighter Planes in formation flying south. We thought they were our fighter planes going home for the night, as it was about one hour before sun down. We watched the planes go south then turn left then come up the highway we were on. We dived in our foxholes. The planes were low enough that one plane fired right over my foxhole knocking the loose dirt on top of us. It dropped its bomb right in front of our hole. The planes turned around and finished firing their guns when we heard a louder noise and looked up and here came 12 P38's - they had twin fuselage fighter planes - diving on the Germans planes. I saw one plane fire on one German plane; level off; fire on the second plane; then on the third; than made a loop up in the air; and went to firing again. But by that time they were on the other side of the hill, then we saw them flying back to their base. On this side of a hill about 1½ miles ahead of us there were 16 planes that hit the ground, we could see smoke coming up on the other side of the hill. The 45th Regiment put out a newsletter on 2 sheets of paper. When we got the letter it said 32 German MES 109 planes bombed and strafed our position and that a squadron of 12 P38s intercepted them. There were 25 or 26 planes destroyed and 5 or 6 damaged so all the German planes were hit.
When we first went into the mountains the company went up this pretty steep road and on top it was flat. About ¾ mile across, there was a company of Germans and a tank, so we walked around the edge of the mountain. The sides were so steep that the loose dirt we kicked, as we walked, would slide down 2 to 300 feet before it stopped. When we dug our foxholes we threw the dirt down the steep bank - we even dug the machine guns down so the barrel was just above the ground. When we would fire at any German movement, their tank would fire the 88 gun at us. The shells would either land right out in front of us or go over head and go way down into the valley below us. The tank must have run out of ammo because it quit firing on us. About midnight the tank started down the hill so the next morning we were standing out over our foxholes and here came 12 P 51s and made a big circle, heading right for us, we dived in our holes. That's one time I wished my foxhole had handles as the plane bomb strafed us, one bomb landed 8 feet to the right of our hole and the concussion lifted us out of the hole and threw us 10 feet from the hole. We had to scramble to get back in our holes again. Two men weren't as lucky, as one bomb lifted them out of the hole and another bomb blew them over the side of the hill. One man went head over heels down the side about 200 feet before he spread eagle to stop himself. Then he had to climb up on all fours to get up to the top again. Our Major called the squadron, and they said we were not supposed to be there for two weeks. Another time we contacted the Germans and our objective was ¾ mile farther. We were really in a battle, when the men in front of us pulled back so we went to moving, when an artillery shell landed about 20 feet to my right. Something hit me under my left eye. It looked like someone took a razor blade and cut all the skin off my right kneecap. The first aid man patched me up and we went on to our objective. We just about had our foxholes dug when we got orders to move back. We were walking in two columns; I was to the back. Soon the Germans went to lobbing mortar shells 200 yards to our right, next it was 75 yards. I knew the next it would be right on us so I yelled up the lines to walk at a left oblique. The next barrage came, it was right beside us but still 75 yards away. The Germans fired four more barrages their shells landed 75 yards from us. After the barrages stopped I gave the command to "walk straight". When we got back to our line they told us that "I CO" on our right and "G CO" on our left couldn't break through and we were up where the Germans could get behind us. The 34th Division relieved us and we got 6 days rest. The next day after I was wounded, one of my 2nd gunners had a swollen ankle and could hardly walk. He had to carry the machine gun, so I took him to the first aid station. I had a patch on my eye when the first aid man said "Tarzan, what's the matter with you." I told him "I have a man with a bad ankle." He said "No, you have a patch under your eye." So I told him I had been wounded yesterday and he chewed me out for not coming in when I got wounded. Did the Captain ever chew me out for not coming in when I got hit?!? He said I could get lead poisoning and could be pushing up daisies. They put another patch on my eye then asked if that was all. I was afraid to show him my knee but went ahead and pulled up my pant leg, I got another chewing out, I thought he chewed all my butt off. That time my wounds got on my record for the first time even through it was the third time I was wounded. When the doctors saw my 2nd gunner's ankle, they sent him back to the hospital and I never saw him again.
My other second gunner came to our company while we were still in the States, he was from eastern Ohio, was married and 34 years old. He worked for the city and during the summer he worked at a lake where there was swimming. He took care of the grounds. He had some venereal disease but it was negative. The Doctor told him his mother may have had the disease when he was born but he couldn't give anyone the disease. He said his mother died when he was young. His wife didn't have the disease. While we were at Camp Pickett he got two shots of penicillin and was suppose to get a third shot. Then we went over to Oran. When we were in Italy we had a three-day rest period, the First Sergeant told him to be at the Regiment Headquarters at 0800 hours to go to the hospital to get a shot. He forgot about needing the Penicillin shot. He said there were 16 men that went to the Hospital. While they were waiting for the two captains to get ready, two nurses came in wanting shots, they said they were supposed to be working. When the doctors were ready, they told the nurses to bear their skin. The first nurse said, "What in front of all these men?" The doctor said "If you had not have showed your ass in front of men you wouldn't have had to take these shots", so she unfastened her pants and just showed some top part of the cheek on one side. The doctor that had the needle raised her shirt in back and the other doctor pulled down her pants and panties clear to her knees. She went to jumping trying to pull her pants up. The doctor told her she better stop or he may hurt her more giving her the shot, so she stopped moving. The other nurse saw what they doing so she dropped pants almost to her knees. He said the girls put on a good show. His wife would send him packages when we were in the states and he always shared it with us. So when he got a package from her when we were in Italy, it was a foot square. He opened the package and here was a tin can that 5 lbs. of cooked meat came in, he took it out of the box saying, "What did she send Spam for?" and laid the can off to his side and went to getting the other stuff out. I saw the can was open so I raised the lid and could see paper, I moved the paper and there was a top of a bottle. I put the lid back down and asked if I could have the can. "Hell yes! I don't want any Spam". I put the can over on my side of the pup tent, after he had looked at everything in the box and gave cookies to all the men in our section then he asked me to let him see the can of lunch meat. I teased him saying "You gave it to me." Finally I gave it to him and when he saw the top was open, he raised the lid and took out the paper and saw the bottle. He pulled it out of the can saying "My wife sure knows what I like!" She had opened the bottle and filled it clear to the top then put it in the can so it wouldn't slush any. It was a quart of Seagram's Seven. We nursed that bottle for two days and when we were going to move out he let the crew have the rest of the bottle. At Christmas one man got a tie and he said "Just what I need on the front lines". I think he gave it to an Italian.
When we would be at a rest area, it didn't take long for the kids to bring 5-lb. pails to get what food that we would take to the garbage pit; to get what food was left over. The cook would put the food into each one's buckets. Some even brought a second pail for the coffee that was thrown out. At times there would be men coming with cans, sometimes women would also come, as soon as the meal was over the kids would hurry home.
The people there were really poor. They had patches on top of patches on their clothes. If they had a teenage girl or several girls they would pick one girl to service the men for a dollar apiece. If they didn't have any girls the wife would service the men. We were in an open field and across the road was a corn field, after dinner a girl came to the "CO" area and showed her wares and that she was ready to service the men. She had a blanket to lay on the ground and when we left there were 53 men in line. Right where the Companies were close together 8 girls had set up camp and had a big canvas over head for shade with bunks to lie on. One of the girls had an 11-year-old sister and she would perform fellatio and only got half as much as the girls got for intercourse. She wanted more money, so the girls told her what she had to do. When she serviced the 6th man she passed out. A buddy and I went to see her, and the camp. A man was on her and she didn't even move. The man said that she was really tight but it was like jacking off. I have had girls from 12 years to in their 60's and the older woman had the most experience. Another time about 1000 hours. one morning I saw this girl pass our area, then that evening I saw her walking toward town. The next morning a jeep driver saw her lying in the ditch and she was dead with $309.00 cash in her handmade purse. We never did know how she died. The army found her parents.
Talk about Death! I saw my share throughout the 16 months I was on the front lines. Now I have tried to forget all those deaths I've seen, but twice it sticks to me like it happened yesterday. The first one was we were walking on this road when we contacted the enemy, the platoon I was attached to spread out to make the firing line. I crawled up between two men to see where to set my machine gun and each man on both sides of me got killed at the same time. Why I didn't get hit I will never know (I just had good guiding or should I say guarding angels looking over me). We rolled the two men over and set up our guns and went to firing. The second time was when our Company was walking on this road when here came a German column walking toward us. We set up our guns and started firing, after about the seventh wave of having men fall, the German company finally started spreading out and firing back. They had just kept coming and walking over the dead, and fallen men. I think we got all the German men in that column. I don't know how many boxes of ammo went through each gun but soon the gun on my left stopped firing. I looked over and my first gunner was killed so I crawled over, moved him over, and went to firing his gun myself. Just before the Germans pulled back I ran out of ammo with that gun. As the men turned, my other gun ran out of ammo. I had 8 ammo carriers and that was 16 boxes, I carried 2 and both gunners carried a box, so that was 20 boxes for the two guns. That was the second time we ran out of ammo.
Every time we needed a new gun, the supply Sergeant would clean the Cosmoline Grease off the guns with gas, as each gun was shipped in the grease to keep the moisture off of it. Meanwhile the Supply Sergeant got killed, so the man that took his place sent the gun up in the packing crate. So we had to scrape all the Cosmoline off the gun, so we could finally get something through the barrel. We took the gun out to fire it. With the first 10 rounds, we had to pull the bolt back to pull out the empty casing before the bolt would pull the shell out. Then, it would fire on a delayed action 'till after 100 rounds went through the barrel and started warming up the grease. Then the grease put up a white smoke. We ran a belt though the gun - 250 rounds - then wiped all the grease off that we could. After that, the supply man would clean the guns with gas before sending them on the front lines.
The 26th or 28th of October I got up that morning with a real earache. So I went to the first-aid station and the two doctors gave me eardrops. That afternoon they were waiting to send us back to the front. My face was hot so I asked the sergeant if I had a temperature. He found I had a 104-degree temperature. So he changed my orders to go to the Field Hospital. I got there that evening, but the ear doctor was not at the hospital so a medical doctor gave me a pain pill and sleeping pill so I could get some sleep. The next morning the lieutenant looked at my ear and said to put sulfa salve in my ear for four days. The salve didn't stop the pain. I had an Acute Otitis Media. Another man had the same thing in the same ear. We were moved into a ward that had wounded men, and the nurse was as busy as a cat on a tin roof. The first time she put drops in my ear the oil was cold, I could not ----- say anything it hurt me so bad, the same thing happened to other man. The next time we asked her if she could heat the oil up as the cold really hurt our ears. She said she was sorry she never thought of that. My bunk was right next to two men, one had his chest bandaged and the other his stomach was bandaged. Within the six days we were there, both men passed away with in a hour of each other. A fighter pilot passed away that night. The morning of the seventh day we were there, they took us to Maples to either the 21st or the 23rd General Hospital (as I would be in both). We got there at noon, after we ate we saw a major and he looked at our ears and said "How long have you had this?" I told him "For seven days". "What hospital were you in?" I told him. He said he had trouble with that lieutenant before and would do something about that. He scraped my eardrum for 30 minutes it seemed, then put medicine that made my ear stay warm. I could touch the tip of my finger on the cotton and my finger would stay warm for up to 30 minutes. The next day he put more medicine in my ear then the third day took out the cotton and scraped my ear again and more added more medicine. Sunday night I got sick and tried to throw up my heels. I had Yellow Jaundice. Monday the Major told the Medical Department about me. I couldn't eat anything 'till Wednesday morning, I started drinking orange juice so the ward boys kept bringing all kinds of juices and later canned fruit. The Major asked if any doctor came to see me. I said "No". That night there was a bomb raid and everyone went to the basement. I was still too weak to walk very far, so I just stayed in bed, later a nurse came in the ward, saw me, and asked why I wasn't in the basement. I told her I was too weak to walk, she said the litter bears should have taken me down. So when all was clear, and the men came back up, she really gave the litter bearers hell for not taking me down. They said they thought everyone was down. Friday morning the Major really got on the medical doctors for not coming to see me. They said they thought I had gone to see them. Here came three doctors to see me and they gave me some medicine and said it was a good thing that I was