Jay Ricks

              Eric Walz History 300 Collection
Jay Ricks – Life During WWII
By Jay C. Ricks
October 21, 2004
Box 6 Folder 23
Oral Interview conducted by Bethy Twitchell
Transcript copied by Bethy Twitchell April 2006
Brigham Young University – Idaho
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BT: ( As I thought the tape was going, but it wasn’t, the first few minutes have not been
recorded. Basically, I just asked him what he remembered about Pearl Harbor).
JR: Okay, the next day was, was school, and our principal brought in a, a radio. We had
an assembly and he, he tuned in to President Roosevelt’s talk, that he declared war.
BT: Okay.
JR: And prior to that, for years, you know that the British had been involved in Europe,
and, ah, the United States had tried to stay out of the war, but we have provided a lot of,
ah, assistance to the British, in the way of, ah, ships, I think naval vessels, and ah, and ah,
materials, arms and petroleum products. They were supporting the effort, but they… It
was quite an effort for the United States to stay out of the war. They didn’t want to get
involved in Europe.
BT: I heard that.
JR: Yeah.
BT: So - and you told me over the phone that it was ‘ 44 when you were drafted. Is that
correct?
JR: From Pearl Harbor on, the war didn’t go on very good, really. In the Pacific, there
were a lot of, a lot of dark days, and things weren’t going too good. And, ah, I spent those
years finishing high school. And also, my father had a farm. We… I didn’t realize how
great agriculture was then, and maybe we don’t know, but at the particular time, ah, it
became immensely important – food. Food, and actually, food was rationed. Your, your
butter was rationed, your milk was rationed, your sugar was rationed, all these. And the
need developed because all the people were being employed in defense, and they, and
there weren’t, there wasn’t the people available for growing food. They tried to do all this
defense work: build airplanes, trucks, tanks, and all this. And they just pulled everybody
into that. And the few that stayed in farming attempted to grow the necessary food. And
also Europe, in their battle, in Europe and England, it had destroyed a lot of the farming,
farms, and, ah, farms were mined, and the crops were not grown. So they were very
dependent on our country for food and I spent those years in school in the, the wintertime
and working on the farm in the summer. And, ah, I graduated from high school in May of
1944. And my dad, many of my friends, soon as they graduated went into the service. I
had five that went to the Navy on the same day. But my dad was in very poor health, and
he wanted, he asked me, he says, “ Jay, don’t you join, don’t you go until they draft you. I
need you on the farm” And that particular year they – any boys that would associate with
the farm – they deferred them. And, ah, I worked on the farm that year. In June was D-day.
We graduated in May, and just a few days later the troops landed on the beaches of
France. And this was, this was, this was a giant step forward but it was a long, we knew it
was long road.
BT: Yeah.
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JR: And at the same time we were con- the United States was conducting a war in the
Pacific.
BT: Right. I heard that.
JR: And it’s almost impossible to conduct war on those fronts and provide for the needs
of all those.
BT: It is hard.
JR: But, ah, we worked on the farm, and ah, we, ah, a great need, a real great need was
for wheat. Wheat was so easily shipped and stored. And, ah, this area, the farmers grew a
lot of wheat, and it was very much in demand, and all the, a lot of the boys stayed out to
work on the farm and grow wheat. As soon as the harvest was in, ah, we were all drafted.
The... I was sent to Camp Douglas in Utah – Fort Douglas. I went to Fort Douglas, and
then on to Camp Roberts in California, where I took the training, and we finished the
harvest in October and after November, and then, December, the Battle of the Bulge hit.
And they couldn’t hardly find enough troops. They were just taking everybody and
anybody and sending them over there to reinforce the troops. I got an opportunity to go
Fort Benning in Georgia and take additional training. And at that time we were being
trained to go to the Pacific.
BT: Okay
JR: At first, I guess, we were trained to go to the Atlantic and to Europe. And then in
June, let’s see, it was in June that the Germans surrendered.
BT: What year was that, ‘ 45?
JR: Five. In ‘ 45.
BT: Okay.
JR: In ‘ 45, yeah. And then in August, the Japanese surrendered. And I graduated from
Fort Benning on the 18th of August. And, ah, then we were to go to Europe in the army of
occupation.
BT: Okay, now, what is that?
JR: Well, we, we took over, so the troops that had been fighting could come home.
BT: Oh, okay.
JR: And we stayed and... they divided Europe up in zones. The Russians had their zone,
the English had their zone, the French had their zone, and the Americans had their zone.
And each of these countries was responsible for those areas.
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BT: Okay.
JR: And we, ah, went over there and we worked, mainly, ah, the Germans had brought so
many people from other countries, like Poland and Hungary, Czechoslovakia. And after
the war, those people that just left, I didn’t know, worked for themselves, or do whatever
they could to stay alive. And we got there, we, we, we worked them up into companies
and provided for their needs and we used a lot of the Polish for guards, to guard the
German prisoners of war. We had the German prisoners of war and we took the Polish
and had the guards, and guarded them. We also had the, the Nuremberg trials.
BT: That’s right. Were you in Europe at that time?
JR: Yes, yes, I was there. I landed in the fall of ‘ 45. The war ended in June, and I landed
[ indistinguishable]. And then we were put on railroad cars, and I’ve got a picture of some
of these cars, maybe here.
BT: I’d like to see them.
JR: Railroad cars. This was... these were taken in Europe. Pictures.
BT: Are these all of you?
JR: No, these pictures, them I took.
BT: Wow. Now, in what part of Europe were you in?
JR: Okay, I was, I was, I’ve got a map here.
BT: Oh, good.
JR: I was stationed in Mannheim
BT: Oh, okay.
JR: I arrived in Mannheim on the day of General Patton’s funeral. You familiar with
General Patton?
BT: I’ve, I’ve seen bits and pieces of the movie.
JR: Have you? You got to see that movie. And I didn’t recognize the significance of that
funeral because we had been traveling for ten days in little box cars, and we hadn’t had
baths, and so all I wanted to do was to get into bed. And all the men from our outfit went
to the funeral, and they offered, invited me to go with them, but I missed this opportunity.
But this is a picture of Mannheim.
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BT: Okay.
JR: Can you imagine seeing that from the air for bombing?
BT: Oh, no.
JR: This, this is the Rhine river.
BT: Okay.
JR: And this is the Neckar river. The Neckar river? It comes down from Heidelberg.
BT: Okay.
JR: And joins at Mannheim.
BT: I’m really familiar with the Rhine.
JR: Are you?
BT: But not, well, not really familiar. I know where it is.
JR: Okay, yeah, it’s a great river.
BT: I don’t know much about the Neckar.
JR: We’ve got some pictures of locks.
BT: Yeah!
JR: Where the locks,...
BT: Is that the canals and...?
JR: Here’s a picture. There’s the confluence of the Neckar and the Rhine. This is the
Rhine. You can see it, like it shows on the map.
BT: Yeah. Oh, neat.
JR: And, ah, this is our headquarters in Mannheim, in the shaded area. And... this is a
picture of the Danube.
BT: Oh, neat.
JR: We took convoys to different places in Germany, and I got a chance to get south far
enough that we saw the Danube, the beautiful blue Danube river.
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BT: Is it really blue?
JR: No, I haven’t seen it that blue. And this, these were taken on a... a holiday, so to
speak. We had rest and recuperation. The Red Cross and this. We get time off and we’d
go stay at resorts and go skiing or something like that.
BT: Oh, fun.
JR: This was taken at a resort. This is the Autobahn. They destroyed the bridges. The…
there was a place we drove around.
BT: Wow.
JR: These are American flags flying, Old Glory flying at this resort. It was taken over by
the Americans.
BT: And is that in Germany?
JR: Yeah, this is, these are all in Germany.
BT: Okay.
JR: Okay, and this is the eighth labor, this is on the Rhine River. And this was we were
billeted there. And there I am, examining a German helmet, and it has a hole in it. It has a
bullet hole right through the German helmet.
BT: Oh, wow. Were you able to keep it?
JR: No, I didn’t. I don’t know why. I just, I can’t remember. But this is a Polish man. We
worked a lot with the Polish. We provided for their Polish needs. And this is, he, we had
a marriage, he married, he was a wonderful soldier, Polish soldier. And his whole desire
was to go to South America.
BT: Really.
JR: Yeah, they wanted to get in. They wanted to leave Europe, Poland, and go to South
America. And these are castles. On the Rhine...
BT: Ah, neat.
JR: And, ah, this is...
BT: The Triumphal Arch?
JR: Yeah, Arc de’ Triomphe.
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BT: Yeah.
JR: And this is, well, a German tank that would have been...
BT: Wow.
JR: And this is, ah, Notre Dame, Napoleon’s tomb, in Paris.
BT: Oh, cool.
JR: And this is the way they worked their fields over there– with oxen.
BT: Oh. Wow. I guess if that’s what they have there...
JR: And this is Maginot Line, the Siegfried line. Between France and Germany.
BT: Okay, and what were they again?
JR: The Maginot Line was the, was the two lines between France and Germany
BT: Oh, okay.
JR: And they thought they could never, ever be penetrated, and they, the German overrun
them, just made an end run, and run around them.
BT: Right.
JR: And France gave up.
BT: It’s been awhile since I’ve took any classes or read up...
JR: This is a family in, Gonginnigans. They had a castle, and they lived there, and they
invited us up to spend a weekend with them.
BT: Oh, cool.
JR: This is on the Rhine River. And this is an underground factory. All you see is the
smokestacks, and the whole factory was underground for...
BT: Probably so it wouldn’t get bombed, right?
JR: Yeah, yeah, so they wouldn’t get bombed. Yep.
BT: Wow, neat. How well did you like Europe? I mean, beside that whole army thing,
but...
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JR: I beg your pardon, how?
BT: Beside the whole army thing, how did you like Europe?
JR: Oh, it was a tremendous experience for me. I got to see all the country and did some
really interesting thing. I wouldn’t have missed any of it.
BT: Ah, wow.
JR: It was a wonderful experience.
BT: I’d like to go there someday.
JR: This is our trip to Switzerland, and that’s a Swiss bus. And in 1945, so it’s a beautiful
bus. It would even be a beautiful bus today, wouldn’t it.
BT: It would. Very long.
JR: This is our company. I was a motor officer. This is... I took care of our motor pool.
BT: And there you are.
JR: Yeah.
BT: Now, what did a motor officer do?
JR: Well, he’s responsible for all the transportation, all the vehicles, and, and ah, all the
transportation in our, in our unit.
BT: Okay.
JR: This was a good friend of mine that I met while I was over there. I, we had gone to
school together, and then we had met before I came home. And this is us with a tour, we
took a tour to Switzerland. And this is our Swiss guide. He later came and visited us here.
This is, this is our Swiss guide. He was just a college student, but he spoke English. And,
ah, he later became a, well, he got his law degree and became influe– , ah, an executive in
Opal. Opal Motor Vehicle.
BT: Oh, okay.
JR: Opal is General Motors.
BT: Oh, oh, okay.
JR: General Motors in the United States, they have Opal over there, and they also had,
there was also a Ford outfit going on, so you can imagine that these companies were
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involved in Europe. This Opal was the General Motors from the way I understand it. And
this is our, the group, that we... And this is a, I tried to visit cemeteries wherever I could.
And this shows the crosses.
BT: Where are these at?
JR: That was in France. Luxembourg, I think. Luxembourg.
BT: Beautiful.
JR: And this is digging potatoes in Germany. That’s what their potato digger looks like.
BT: Wow.
JR: And this is my company commander. [ Long pause.] More castles. And this is the
Siegfield and the Maginot Line.
BT: How were the people there?
JR: Well, the people were great. The German people are wonderful people. We had, ah,
some of them that took care of us. One elderly lady was our cook. We called her the
“ groß mother.” Groß mother? Grandmother. She took care of us.
BT: That’s right. German.
JR: They were very hospitable and very clean, and...
BT: Were there any prejudices there? Because I know, you know, that sometimes people
see them all as just Nazis. Were there any things like that, racism there?
JR: There was. In fact, it was, it was a long haul. But the United States were very
influential in helping to build back Germany. They had what they called the Marshall
Plan. Have you heard of that?
BT: Yeah.
JR: And it was very effective. The people responded, and it was hard at first, because you
were dealing with the Nazis. And when you think about it, see, the German people were,
what, forty million?
BT: Something like...
JR: Something like forty million. And here, they were, conquered all of Europe, virtually
conquered all of England. And here America, all these, you can imagine what kind of, ah,
organization they had.
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BT: Yeah.
JR: But, ah, it was kind of a, kind of a cool organization. If you couldn’t work, you didn’t
have any... I mean, they never took care of their, their elderly. They just, they had their
extermination camps that you heard about with the Jews, but they did the same thing with
their own population. If people weren’t capable of working, they didn’t, they eliminated
them. They also eliminated a lot of the, oh, I’m trying to think here. The Gypsies.
Gypsies, and people like this.
BT: Yeah. I heard about that. I didn’t know about the ah, elderly.
JR: Oh, well, they did. The insane too. See, there was no room in their society for
anybody that couldn’t produce.
BT: Yeah. That’s too bad.
JR: You can see a rodeo, they had, they got while I was in Germany, they got together
this rodeo. The GI’s did.
BT: Oh, wow.
JR: And this, here are some German airplanes. There’s your, these are British Spitfires,
and this is ME 109, and here is a Stuker bomber.
BT: Where they just sitting out there in the airfields, or just abandoned? Or did they have
it like a museum type thing?
JR: Yeah.
JR: This is, this is one that has been shot up.
BT: Oh, okay, yeah, I see that.
JR: This is a picture of the Rhine River. This is how the locks work. It’s amazing; you
had that river, the barge comes into the lock, the doors close here, the barge stops, the
water is pumped in, the barge goes out and on up the river. The whole river from
Switzerland clear to the ocean is all set up for water traffic.
BT: Did the, ah, the Europeans do that, or is that an American...?
JR: That’s Germans. The Europeans, you know, they had their... [ long pause].
BT: Is that one you, here?
JR: Yeah, that was a picture...
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BT: Wow. Good looking guy.
JR: Here is the Mannheim, that was Mannheim. Shows the confluence, the big industrial
area. This city was just leveled. You know, it was just virtually leveled. It was really hit
hard. And it wasn’t very far to Heidelberg. It was known, Heidelberg was known as a
university town, and the only thing that they blew up there was this one bridge. It was
virtually untouched. But Mannheim was hit pretty heavy.
BT: Did you... were you stationed here?
JR: I was stationed right here.
BT: Okay.
JR: I was stationed in a little place called Viernheim and another place called Wienheim,
which was around in this area. And Viernheim and Wienheim and Heidelberg were
virtually untouched, but Mannheim was just leveled. This is a map of Paris.
BT: Wow.
JR: I helped [ undistinguishable] to take a convoy to Paris. We drove right down Champs
Élysées.
BT: It’s big.
JR: Here’s, here’s another map of Mannheim. You get this, you can figure this, this deal
here. Notice that on the one?
BT: Yeah! Yeah, I did. Is that a road?
JR: Yeah, yeah, these are streets. And here’s the bridge across. Big industrial area. This
next one is Mannheim again, a different part of Mannheim. And this is the Rhine. Rhine
river.
BT: Yeah. I see it.
JR: And this is Heidelberg. Heidelberg was on the neck of the river. And here’s the
Neckar. It, it comes out of the mountains.
BT: Yeah.
JR: Goes, goes across the plain, and joins the Rhine over here at Mannheim.
BT: Okay. And where... did you get stationed in Heidelberg as well?
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JR: I was never stationed there. Our army headquarters was in Heidelberg. Our army
station was quite nearby. And I had a lot of occasions to go to Heidelberg on business.
And this is Mun– Munich. Munich?
BT: Yeah.
JR: We got to Munich a little when we were out there. And ah, here is Basel. Basel?
Basel? Mul– Mulhouse? That’s France.
BT: Oh, okay.
JR: Basel is just up in, I think, Switzerland. This is Zurich. We got an opportunity to take
a leave down in Zurich.
BT: How was that?
JR: Oh, wonderful. That’s where that picture of the bus was.
BT: Oh, yeah.
JR: Our tour group and we met some wonderful people. Made friendships that we still
have.
BT: Would you like these [ the maps] stacked in this way?
JR: Whatever.
BT: Okay. I’ll do whatever you do. I have a roommate from Germany, so I get to hear...
JR: You have a roommate from Germany? What part of Germany?
BT: Dresden.
JR: Dresden? Okay. This shows [ undistinguishable].
BT: Okay.
JR: There’s that... You can always tell Mannheim.
[ undistinguishable]
JR: They dropped their bomb, because that place was just leveled. Yep.
BT: Yeah.
JR: Well, I have these souvenirs. This is a German army rifle that they carried.
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BT: This is German?
JR: Yeah. It’s a German Army rifle. A Mauser?
BT: Wow.
JR: Nice gun. And this was a, a pistol that the police carried.
BT: The Germans?
JR: The German police carried this pistol. And this is a, a sword I picked up. And on it, I
think it says 1902.
BT: Wow.
JR: They used to fence. I cannot understand why anybody would do this, but they had
a.... In fact, they, the Germans, the military, the scars they received from fencing was
considered, oh, you know, very...
BT: Honorable?
JR: Honorable. The scars they received from when they were fencing.
BT: Wow. Where did you find these things?
JR: Well, I don’t know. I can’t remember exactly. This was just in our outfit, and it just,
in our billets where we stayed, and I picked it up.
BT: Cool.
JR: And this, I, I got this, this gun, we had lots of these. They were just all over.
BT: Yeah.
JR: The German armament. And then I had this, ah, made, this is a what they called a
Bavarian coat.
BT: Okay.
JR: And I had this made. And this was made a German army blanket.
BT: So it’s wool, right?
JR: This, this was the color of their blankets. And this tailor made this coat for me.
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BT: Oh, cool.
JR: And I had one made for Beverly [ his wife]. We had twin coats.
BT: Nice. So this is warm, I take it.
JR: It’s very warm. It’s beautifully done.
BT: It is.
JR: The Germans some of the tailors, the tailoring, you know, can you imagine that?
BT: Is that all hand?
JR: Yeah, well.
BT: Wow.
JR: And that’s almost sixty years old.
BT: And it’s beautifully done.
JR: Yeah, and it’s almost sixty years old.
BT: Do you still wear it?
JR: Yeah, yeah. Do you want me to model it for you?
BT: Yeah! Absolutely!
JR: Okay. Yeah, I don’t wear it a lot. I never had. But, but it, it fits so good.
BT: It does.
JR: It fits, feels fine.
BT: Nice.
JR: Probably the only thing tailor made that I ever had. But they, they, I went several
times, and they fitted me. And they make their adjustments, and they’re very... People,
you know, are very skilled, the Germans.
BT: They are.
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JR: I spent a year there, and at the end, I didn’t think they’d ever do much. It was, so little
progress in that year. So I’ve always marveled how the German people came back in the,
ah, the society they have now.
BT: Yeah.
JR: The democratic society. It’s just... I wonder if the same thing couldn’t happen in Iraq.
BT: It’s true.
JR: You know, when we look back. Hopefully...
BT: And then on the phone you had mentioned about the Japanese interment camps.
JR: Oh.
BT: So...
JR: Around here?
BT: Yeah. I wanted to get your thoughts on that, your remembrances. Memories, I guess.
JR: Well, what, after Pearl Harbor, they were very concerned that we could be invaded,
and even sabotaged. So they took all the Japanese from around the coastal regions and
moved them in and put them in camps. And Rexburg had one. They worked on the farms.
And, ah, some of them are still living here. Some of the families, like, ah, I’m think of
Albert Wada. His dad was in an interment camp. This Wada, is a big potato...
BT: Okay.
JR: Beverly will know. She’s so good.
BT: But you had mentioned that they were in your high school.
JR: Yeah, the students.
BT: Were there, were they, did they, how do I phrase it? Because I know that, was it a
high prejudice thing? Again, like with lots of racism toward them? Did they...
JR: They were very accepted, I think. We, we were used to Japanese. You know, there’s
always been Japanese in this community.
BT: Oh, really?
JR: Oh, yeah. In Beverly’s, she lived in a country ward, or a country school, and I think
there was two or three in... I went to school with two or three Japanese, and they also
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came in, they come in from... their families had come years ago. In fact, I think they
came with the beet industry. With the sugar beets.
BT: Yeah, the sugar beets.
JR: Sugar beet industry, and they were very energetic people, and very good. Good
citizens. And these people that came in during the war were the same. They were
wonderful people. I don’t think there was any... In fact, you see, a lot of those served in
the military. There was the Japanese unit in Italy. Fantastic unit.
BT: Really.
JR: It was, they were fantastic. The Japanese. I mean, they fought for this country.
BT: Yeah. Well, that’s... Did, did you have any really good friends that were Japanese?
JR: Yes. Yeah. The Sakotas. And the Bingos, and the Hadenmies, and the Wada. Good
friends.
BT: How did, did they ever tell you how they felt about the interment camps?
JR: It varied. I think some of them people, they accepted. They had to. But a lot of them,
you know, felt like they were mistreated. And they were. They were. Yeah, they were
mistreated. It was kind of, one of those things that... Ah, I think, ah, people realized, most
of the people in the community, they accepted it, but, there were certain... they been
taken, their property along the coast had been taken away from them. And so, this wasn’t
right.
BT: Yeah.
JR: I don’t know. I think there’s ah, maybe a debt to repay them in some way, haven’t
they? I think there’s some...
BT: They might have. They should. Personally, I think. Then, also talking about the
Japanese, when the H- bomb was dropped, the atom bomb.
JR: In, ah, Hiroshima.
BT: Yeah.
JR: In, what was the other one? Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
BT: Yeah, I even did a report on these.
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JR: Yeah, that ended the war, fortunately. It would have been a lot.... Truman made that
decision to drop that, and it sure ended the war in a hurry, because we, we could see it
going on for years.
BT: Were you, let’s see that was in ‘ 45, right?
JR: Yes.
BT: So you would have been in Europe at that time?
JR: No. I was still training, in the United States, in August.
BT: Okay.
JR: I finished my training the eighth of August.
BT: And then he, ah, dropped it.
JR: The first part of August. The two bombs.
BT: How was the reaction at the, ah, place you were training at? At the fort? Was it
Bennington?
JR: Benning. Fort Benning. Well, you see all the newsreels in Times Square, in New
York. But, it was straight. It never changed anything. I mean, we still got up the next
morning and went to work. But, it was great to know that the conflict was over, but we
knew that there was a lot of work to do.
BT: So - and there are some other questions he just suggested on there I thought were
good. Did you want to sit?
JR: Why don’t you sit down. Sit down. Relax.
BT: Let you get off your feet. Okay, so, in your training, what did they train you, or how
did they train you? What kind of things did you learn?
JR: Well, I was trained in infantry. Infantry training, and with mortars and rifle. Trained
for a rifle company and I never did serve in one. I served in motor, which I had very little
training in. But I had a lot of farm experience. So, it kind of... I fit in pretty good there.
BT: Oh, good.
JR: And, I had very little training in the military. I trained in the infantry with machine
guns and mortars, and, ah...
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BT: Was there anything that you wish they had taught you? Snipers, or anything like
that?
JR: Oh, when I was over there, I served in court martial. I served in a, in a court as an
assistant trial judge advocate, which was prosecution. I served on that for years. Well,
months, I should say. From the first occasion they have courts come up, and then we
could be called to serve on those courts and prosecute, and I did a lot of investigating,
getting evidence for those cases. So, it was a wonderful experience, doing that work. I
didn’t feel qualified, but we had a lawyer that worked, and we assisted him as was
needed. I didn’t, I hadn’t been qualified in anyway to do it. In fact, I found out most of
the jobs I did in the service were jobs that I hadn’t been qualified to do. I was trained for
the infantry, and there wasn’t the need for that after the war, and all those guns and stuff.
All the need there was suddenly a no need, so we just fit in, and...
BT: Yeah, is this your certificate?
JR: This, well, this is my record, my war record, my record of service, service record?
BT: Oh, okay.
JR: And I served as an executive reinforcement, an executive officer and company
commander in supply and motor officer. I served in those capacities. And those were the
dates. I served in December of ‘ 45, and...
BT: Neat. What was the highest rank you ever made?
JR: Second lieutenant. I think...
BT: Is that pretty good? I’m not up on my army ranks.
JR: It’s the bottom, of the officers.
BT: At least it’s not private. Aren’t those lower, the privates?
JR: Yeah, you have your enlisted men, and then you have your officers. And I served as a
private, and then I went to what they called Fort Benning, which was, they called “ 121
day wonders.” They took 121 days, try to teach us enough to be officers.
BT: Wow. That would be a cram. A lot shoved in a little time. Oh, I wanted to ask you
about - from 1941 to about ‘ 44, when you were in school about just like life here, you
know, about... Did you see any propaganda? Posters? Because that’s a field of mine too.
JR: Propaganda.
BT: I love those posters.
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JR: There was propaganda. That was a good word. Everything. I don’t know, you know.
There was a lot of propaganda. The Germans had a, a propaganda system. They were the,
they, mastered the art of propaganda. Black is white, and so on. And we changed, we
changed every week. See, when we started in ‘ 41, ah, see, ah, Germany, was allied with
Russia.
BT: That’s right.
JR: And they took Poland. And then they broke up, and we become allies with Russia.
Now that’s a big change. It takes a lot of propaganda to do that. And at the end of the
war, when we got there, Patton, he was ready to go fight the Russians. And it was just,
Eisenhower was the brains that kept that thing... I mean, it was, this was, we think it’s
tough now, and the way we’re fighting Iraq, but it’s always been that way. Now when I
see the... Course, the thing about now, in Iraq, is those suicide, and they blow themselves
up. When you got people like that, it’s, but they had the same thing with the kamikazes,
in Japan. Those guys, but they give them an airplane, and, and they kept it in the military.
They didn’t fly into our cities. General Doolittle flew a bunch of bombers over Japan. Do
you remember reading about this?
BT: I don’t know who...
JR: It was one of ours, I told you those days were tough, into the, the forties there. And
we didn’t have any victories. So, one, this General Doolittle, he took off from, from, ah,
ships, he took off from ships and bombed Japan and flew on to China. So... but, ah…
BT: Yeah. Were there any, like, propaganda, were there any messages, like on the radio
you remember, posters you remember seeing, or anything like that?
JR: Say that again.
BT: Do you remember seeing any posters?
JR: Oh, posters.
BT: Or hearing them on the radio? Or maybe like the radio shows?
JR: Well, there was a lot of propaganda. In fact, they had individuals that would express
themselves. In fact, now, you remember Lindbergh?
BT: Mm- hmm. Yeah.
JR: See, uh, Lindbergh, he went over and visited Germany, and he felt like that they had
a very progressive society. And we all know what they did now, but a lot of this
information wasn’t readily available. Ah, but he probably didn’t see it, but he saw a lot,
and, and, but I think later he changed. Lindbergh, reversed himself. He was against war,
and he tried to convince Roosevelt. Fortunately Roosevelt could see through it. But there
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were some terrible things happen, like all these Jewish people from Europe, you know,
these refugees came to the United States on that ship, and we turned them away. We
turned a whole ship of those Jewish. We didn’t want to take them. And, you know, they
sent them back to Europe, and they were probably exterminated in those camps. Most of
them are, I’m sure. There’s things, I mean, when you’re, it’s easy to look back and see
your mistakes.
BT: Yeah. Yeah. I think that was all the questions I had. If there’s anything else you
wanted to tell me about?
JR: Paris was virtually untouched by bombs.
BT: Oh, I always thought it was bombed pretty bad too.
JR: What?
BT: I always thought it was bombed, too.
JR: I don’t think they were bombed, well, you know, there was some, but I recall that trip
to Paris. I couldn’t believe it. We were just, we had been driving through landscape of
bomb, trucks and stuff like that, and in the distance we could see all these lights. And, ah,
the next day, we got there, and it was a beautiful city. And, but the only thing they had to
eat was that American bread. That wheat you know the Americans gave?
BT: Yeah!
JR: They had wheat bread. And they carried their bread, if you noticed, if you know, they
don’t wrap it or anything. They just...
BT: Yeah, they just... Big, long things.
JR: And, you know, as a kid, I had worked on the farms, and they told us we need wheat,
but I couldn’t understand it. And here, today, I say they ought to, should give all those
guys who grew wheat, they ought to give them a big medal.
BT: They should.
JR: But, you know what, in the, they got what they called the Harvest Brigade going, and
they, they built combines, and they start those combines out in Texas, and they’d cut all
the way to here. We’re the end of the... and get that wheat, they got that wheat, and
provided a need that was just, the need was so great. There was actually cannibalism in
Europe when I was there, that winter. That was one of the toughest winters.
BT: Wow.
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JR: And they, the fellows from our outfit used to go to England on leave, spend a few
days there, and they, and we were in Germany, and they said things were a lot better in
Germany than in England. And the English was the victors. I don’t know how anyone
ever survived. Hey, hey, this isn’t bad. I mean, we got all those in Iraq, and it’s terrible,
but the British sure took theirs, and the Germans, they took all of them in the military and
they sent them to the Russian front and the Russians killed them. They did the same thing
with the Poles and those people. We used to get, in our labors, we had this labor
supervision, which we supervised the Polish and we also guarded the Germans, and we
did all this. There came the time when we were ready to send these Polish back to their
homeland, and a lot of them, you know, they had left and gone to work for the Germans,
and had been gone for years. They went back, and, and then the Polish killed their own
people, because they considered them traitors. So then, we send some back, and pretty
soon they would be back in our outfit. They told us what happened. They wouldn’t go
back, and a lot of those people became Germans. You know, Germans kind of accepted
everything, you know, they’ve been through everything. And a lot of them went to South
America, as you well know.
BT: Yeah.
JR: But, ah...
BT: Wow. So many things they don’t tell us in history classes.
JR: Well, I think, you, you dig, you find it.
BT: Yeah.
JR: And like, we know the Jews were treated very inhumanly, but there were, and I like
to see contrabase (?) of this maybe you know it, maybe you hear of it. But it wasn’t
always the Jews. We know the Jews, but like I said, the, the Gypsies.
BT: Yeah, I heard about them.
JR: You heard about the Gypsies and then others people that couldn’t, couldn’t produce,
they were eliminated. Well, you can imagine, they took that twenty million people that
they had and built it into, ah, an enormous military. And it, it was kind of, after World
War I, their whole economy just collapsed.
BT: Yeah. I heard that too.
JR: And their money just become worthless. You know, they tried to print it, and they
were in a terrible thing. And that’s how Hitler got into power, and people, you know, they
just, they were grasping at straws. But it’s a beautiful country, it’s a productive country,
and the people over there were so wonderful.
BT: Oh, good.
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JR: Yeah, they were, and they have proven themselves.
BT: I think so.
JR: I think Europe has. And the Polish, they, it was, you know. You know. Have you ever
heard these Polish jokes?
BT: Yes.
JR: We used to have those going around when I was a kid. And I got over there to
Germany, and I was in this unit where we had all these Polish, and I got invited to a
Christmas party. We were invited to this Christmas party. And do you know who they
make jokes about?
BT: Americans?
JR: No, about the Jewish. They made always the Jews, they, they were the butt of all their
jokes. Everybody’s got to have somebody, haven’t they?
BT: Oh, yeah, I think so.
JR: Everybody’s got somebody. But the Jews, I couldn’t understand it. When all, all the
Jews had been through, and everybody knew it, and yet those Polish, they hadn’t
changed. They, all they’d been taught all their lives is to kind of hate the Jews. And hate
is a funny thing. It just, it destroys you. The hater.
BT: But not the hated.
JR: Well, it destroys everything, both the hated, the hater and the hated.
BT: Yeah, it’s too bad.
JR: And it still goes on.
BT: It does. So much. I hear about it.
JR: It’s wonderful that, ah, Germany and Japan have become our staunchest allies, you
know.
BT: Yeah.
JR: And even Russia. Oh, man, it’s. You know, I think we had an affinity for the Russian
people. We always, kind of, I’ve always been interested in Russian life.
BT: Me too.
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JR: I hate to see what’s going on. And you know, at the end of World War Two, when
they wanted to keep on going, into Russia. And Russia, they don’t back down. They were
doing some dumb things. And you know, they get a little bit trigger happy, and this what
happened in Cuba. That could have led to a very serious thing. And then, to see, I never, I
never thought though the Russian form of government could break down, you know.
They had holes. Countries, enormous, a whole another hand, and for all those to break
away. Russia started with Hungary. You know, they were always trying to break away.
And for Poland to break away like that, and then for the Russians to say, hey, this thing is
working, you know, this is history, and it’s fantastic.
BT: It is. Well, thank you. I appreciate it so much.
JR: Do you think we did okay?
BT: I think we did.
JR: I don’t know. If you have any questions, I would sure try to answer them.
BT: Oh, I don’t know...
JR: You ask good questions.
BT: Thank you. I try.
JR: You do. You have some...
BT: A lot of them came from Brother Walz, so, from, I guess you would know him as
Eric, but...