Schwendiman, Mark

              Eric Walz History 300 Collection
Mark Schwendiman – Life during
WWII
By Mark Schwendiman
October 24, 2002
Box 1 Folder 20
Oral Interview conducted by Jonathon Salter
Transcript copied by Maren Miyasaki June 2005
Brigham Young University – Idaho
JS: Would you mind stating your name?
MS: My name is Mark Schwendiman.
JS: And where were you born?
MS: Right here… right here in this house. I have been here for 81 years, except for the
time in the army and time on a mission.
JS: So you were born and raised in Newdale. I noticed you live really close to the dam
here, were you around then?
MS: Yes, yes. We watched it go out.
JS: Did you guys have a lot of effect from that?
MS: Somewhat because we were planning on getting some water to irrigate my farm
here, which contains 360 acres. And after the dam went out there were four of us, no
there were originally six of us that was going to get water from the dam, when that went
out we put in some pumps down at the river and are and are pumping water from the river
on to our farms. So it did affect us that way.
JS: But no major flooding, I guess it probably went down towards town more.
MS: No it went west, instead of south.
JS: What do you farm here?
MS: 360 acres.
JS: What do you grow here, what is the crop?
MS: Grain and potatoes, for eleven years I had a dairy, well it was longer than that. Well,
we milked in the dairy barn but it burnt down in ’ 77, one year after the dam went out. So
we don’t raise any alfalfa anymore.
JS: Well, you said you where [ were] a World War Veteran.
MS: Yes.
JS: In what branch of the army, or the service did you serve in?
MS: Army.
JS: In Infantry or…?
MS: Yes, in World War II in Germany.
JS: So you served in Europe. What was your rank and assignment?
MS: I started out as a first class, and I got to be a staff sergeant.
JS: As a staff sergeant what were your assignments during that time period?
MS: I was a patrol leader for awhile; I was a messenger for awhile for the captain of the
platoon or the services that I served, of the Lieutenant and the Captain.
JS: How long did you serve?
MS: I was in the army for a year, nine months, and one day, and served about seven
months on the front line.
JS: I was just wondering did you enlist or were you drafted?
MS: I was drafted.
JS: You were drafted. What were your feelings on the draft back then? I know in other
wars we had some issues with the draft.
MS: I was in the mission field for one week when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor so I
was permitted to stay and fulfill my mission. And I joined the services or was drafted in
the spring of 1944, March of 1944.
JS: What was your feelings about [ it] when you were drafted, were you…?
MS: Well, I just figured it was my turn to serve, you don’t say no to the army. You have
to go along with it.
JS: I was just curious for the fact that because we have seen a different attitude toward
the draft previously in our nation’s history, that is good to see.
MS: There was a lot of opposition during the Korean War as well as the Vietnam War,
and probably during this Desert Storm that carried on but loyalty up till the time of
September 11 when they were destroyed, and now there is a little more support for the
government in getting these terrorists.
Lois Schwendiman: I think the patriotism is wonderful.
MS: Patriotism was there, yes.
LS: Out in the little town of Inkom where I lived 72 men went.
MS: There was a lot more patriotism then there is now except since the terrorism on the
towers I think there is a little more support now. At least Congress is behind President
Bush’s efforts to go in and get the Hussein.
JS: Did you and your wife meet after the war?
MS: Well, at one time she lived right over here when I was growing up and eventually
moved away, after I came back from the service we came back from the service I went to
visit her. They were not living here at the time, they was down in Pocateller [ Pocatello]
or Inkom.
LS: We wrote.
MS: We wrote.
JS: During the war?
MS: Yes.
JS: That is interesting. What was your experience on the home front, in this area? What
was it like having all the young men gone?
LS: In Pocatella there was Air Force and Army and everything else, there was not an
army station there, but it was just old men and those who were sick, 4F they called them.
We organized woman’s courses and woman’s events and sang and it was pretty much
you didn’t know when the war was going to end, nobody did. We would listen to the
reports some days and there would be a lot of causalities on our side. We just waited it
out, but it was… everybody was patriotic; there were a lot of songs written and sung [ by]
everybody… everybody had the stars in their windows.
JS: What was the communication like between the front and home did you hear a lot
about the war or was it pretty masked?
MS: Yes.
LS: The letter the v mails were checked before they were sent so they could not say what
there were up too. But I think the people [ that] were news reporters knew what they were
doing.
MS: All of the mail we sent home had to be censored incase we said something we
shouldn’t have heard then it was deleted out, black markered, to black it out, any
movement we’re about [ to] make was never mentioned in the letters.
JS: So they blacked out things about movements and security things.
MS: Yes.
JS: You were serving your mission when you heard about Pearl Harbor, where did you
serve your mission?
MS: In the western states, around Omaha. Its reduced now considerably compared to
what it was then, but I served in Omaha, and Council Bluffs, Harlan Iowa and Trinidad
Colorado and Cortez Colorado.
LS: Can I interject here and say that his two brothers all served over in Germany and
Switzerland because his parents were born over there. But at the time he was called
there were no more missionaries sent overseas.
JS: That is really interesting. So what was your reaction when you heard about
December 7th or Pearl Harbor?
MS: Well, I was kind of taken back of course. That is what got us into the war and it was
a terrible thing. We were dumb founded about why it happened and why there was not
more security at the time.
JS: Where were you?
MS: I was in Harlan Iowa. I remember very vividly coming over the radio in the old car
we had or maybe it was before we left, but I think there was a radio in that car we had,
we called Agnes. It belonged to the senior companion at that time we were headed from
Council Bluffs Iowa to Shenandoah Iowa to hold a cottage meeting.
JS: Oh, [ how] old were you when you served in then army?
MS: Well, I was probably 22 or 23.
JS: So you served on the western front. What about… did you ever hear about the
German Concentration Camps?
MS: Oh yes, I was held prisoner for about seven days during the Battle of the Bulge.
And after the Battle of the Bulge I was held there, and the American forces came and
liberated us from the Germans because Germans pushed in quite a ways, and the
Americans cut them off, but in the mean times they still held us and they couldn’t get out.
And so the Americans, the Armed Forces came in and liberated us, and we were happy to
be liberated rather than to have to go into a concentration camp or prison.
JS: What was it like being a prisoner?
MS: Well, we didn’t have any food ‘ cause they couldn’t get out to get any for us or for
themselves even, ‘ cause they would have had to have gone through the American forces
to get that. So we just [ had] a few raw potatoes that were in the basement of the house
we were in.
LS: How many was in the basement?
MS: Well, as I recall there was about 172 of us.
JS: In one house?
MS: In one basement of the house, there was two rooms about half the size of this and in
fact the two rooms would probably have equaled this. We were just crowded in there and
in order to sit we just had to sit down with the person’s legs between us. And that was
how we sat and even slept during that time. We had a chance to get outside of the room,
they called for volunteers, and I was one of the volunteers. And two or three others
fellas just decided to get out and of course there were German tanks in the town, it was
just a small village about like Newdale. They had a church there and a steeple some of
my buddies… and one of my buddies was in that. We got out and carried ammunition
from one tank to another because they did not have fuel for the tanks. We carried 88
shells that is 88 mm shells one on each other, one on each shoulder and take from one
tank to another, to the tank that needed ammunition for the Germans. We just got out for
a little bit of exercise and then went back into it.
JS: Was that like a regular thing for those seven days?
MS: What do you mean regular?
JS: Did you get taken out every day as an assignment?
MS: No it was a one- time assignment, just to get some air. I happened to have in my
pocket a candy bar the morning we were captured. Well it, tell this in the history here.
Can I just read it?
JS: You are more than welcome just to read that.
MS: If I can find it here.
JS: I will just check the tape. It is probably going to click off while we are in here so I
will just stop you.
MS: The Battalion Commander didn’t believe the report and so I didn’t prepare for any
action. We awoke at 4am and ate K rations and were preparing deployment. As soon as
it was light, the Germans started to come into town. They had tanks, half tracks, and
infantry. We had only infantry and two tanks and a 90 mm gun. They knocked out: one
tank and the gun and the other tank ran out of ammunition so it left. We started to pull
back, but it was too late. I was captured because of two German tanks that had a cross
fire of machine guns that would have been suicide to run through. They shoved us out of
the building and lined us up making us put our hands on our heads. As soon as we did
this our shelves come down, and before I knew it some German had my wristwatch.
They marched us back about a mile and there they searched us more thoroughly and lined
us up again. And took us back another two miles and put us in the basement of a house.
While marching back we saw our jeeps and half- tracks. They had captured in our drive,
and they were using them.
They put 172 of us in this basement with only two small windows and a door that
was closed most of the time. We could only sit down by spreading our legs and having
someone sit between them. In the basement was a pile of raw potatoes, which was all we
had to eat for five days. The Germans couldn’t get out, to get us any food because they
were in a pocket surrounded by our forces. I went out of the basement on a detail mainly
to get some fresh air. I carried 88 shells from one tank to another.
During the 5th night in the basement and the morning of the December 24th 1944,
the Americans really turned loose with the artillery, which set fire to tanks and building.
During all this shelling one of the fellows suggested that each of us offer a silent prayer
for our deliverance.
We were lucky to have been put in a basement of a building. It probably saved
our lives. The Americans who were not captured then liberated [ us] and we returned to
our outfits thankful to be free and to see our old buddies. This was a wonderful
Christmas present.
JS: You are more than welcome to actually read this.
LS: Why don’t you read about how you got the Silver Star? Isn’t that near the
beginning?
MS: Yeah, it’s close to the beginning. The first action I saw was early morning at 4am.
It was still dark. We were moving up a road with a platoon on the right and left, ahead of
us. On the right was an embankment and 100 yards ahead the road made a right turn. A
German guard, who was above the road-- on an embankment-- hollered, “ Halt.” We
immediately crawled against the embankment. He opened a couple of bursts of machine
gun fire down the road. I just laid there parallel with the road with my Browning
automatic rifle. There was a house ahead at the turn of the road. It was starting to get
light, and a machinegun started firing from the house. This firing killed three of our
soldiers lying against the embankment of the road. Ronald Stone from Rexburg was
lying along side of me. He borrowed my shovel and started digging. As he threw a
shovel of dirt up another burst of fire came from the house and a bullet hit his left hand.
I finally got nerve enough to fire on the house, placing a burst of fire in every
window, one after the other, until it was daylight and a tank come up and destroyed the
house. For this I received a Silver Star Medal.
The next day near Kolshied, Germany, we captured several prisoners. We went
through a forest that night passing German pill boxes and stumbling over road mines to
surround the city of Aachen. That was the blackest night I have ever seen. We had to
hold hands with each other to keep together. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your
face. Soon after this I was advanced to a Private First Class. Then goes on into the battle
of the Bulge, the previous story I told you.
JS: Okay.
MS: Do you want me to continue reading?
JS: Sure.
MS: After the recapturing of us by the Americans we came back into the area of Aachen
again and rested for a few days, until we moved to Hamback. This town was taken at
night. The next day we moved to the outskirts of town and set up defenses. On the way
back to the command post I saw some Germans out in a trench off the road. I, under the
cover of a ditch called for them to come out. They hesitated for a minute, and then come.
I was only armed with a Carbine. I searched all ten of them and then lined them up and
took them back to the command post. Later, I and another fellow went back to the trench
where the ten German soldiers have been. There was a machine gun nest well
camouflaged. They could have given us trouble if they had wanted to.
Three days later we made an attack on Rodingen using our whole battalion and
seven medium tanks. We crossed an open field a mile across. When we got within 500
yards of town the Germans opened up with gunfire. Some of us made a dash into town
and captured a house. Only 11 of us made it at first. We commenced clearing houses.
Only one tank made it into town. It was getting dusk and the Germans pulled back,
allowing us to advance. I was looking for a good command post while clearing houses.
Ronald Stone and I returned to a particular basement that I had noticed. It was dark now,
and we had only a flashlight and a carbine. I noticed a tunnel leading from this basement
so I got the flashlight and crawled through. A table was against the door so I pushed it
away a little and shined the light in and I saw four German soldiers in the corner of the
room. I didn’t know what to do, but I told them not to shoot, but to surrender, which they
were happy to do.
Later on while in a house, we set up a road guard and sent Ronald back to bring
up our tanks for support. While he was gone a German tank came up the street and
stopped just outside our door. They crawled out of the hatch and looked around a bit and
then got back in and backed down the street. I first thought it was Ronald, but when I
was [ realized], that it wasn’t, a lump came into my throat. I couldn’t get the Commander
on the radio. We were about to leave when the tank pulled away.
LS: When they went into a village the people were gone… they just left so the allies took
over their houses.
MS: From here we went to Sittard Holland for a rest. This is where I received my rating
as a Sergeant. Three days later Ronald Stone was wounded. We were out in the woods
about ready to attack when a stray shell landed in an open field and exploded about 50
yards in front of us. A piece of shrapnel hit Ronald and broke his leg. I was only about
three feet away from him at the time. This is the last time I saw him until I returned
home.
Soon after this experience we got on tanks and trucks and really rolled through
Germany. One day we captured 11 towns and an airfield. It was at this time that we
learned that President Roosevelt had died. April 14th 1945.
The last town we captured was Magdeburg on April 18th, 1945. The whole 30th
division was in on this move. It was at this time we learned that the War was over. I
visited a concentration camp in Buchenwald near Wiemer. The things I heard and saw
made my blood run cold. They had six large vaults at the crematory and a torture
chamber in the basement. Marks were still on the walls made from fingernails while
being tortured.
I felt that I was truly blessed to have fought on the front lines for 7 months and
come out of it alive and healthy. I was in the army a year and nine months. I returned
home August 1945.
JS: Thank you for reading that. I made a couple of notes. Ronald Stone, does he still live
in Rexburg?
MS: I think he is up in Island Park; he has a house up there or a cabin.
LS: He has a home in Rexburg.
MS: I guess he does. He used to have one there, whether he still goes back and forth I
don’t know. I haven’t seen him for a couple of years.
JS: Just to clarify [ to] the listeners, you mentioned the word ‘ pillboxes.’ The Germans
had pillboxes.
MS: Well, it’s a cement fortress, it was a big cement building with openings so that they
could fire through and of course if we had to shoot them we had to go through this little
opening to get to them. It was just a fortification, they called them pillboxes, concrete
pillboxes.
JS: So you received the Silver Star for your actions?
MS: As well as the Bronze Star for the capturing of the Germans.
JS: What was the difference between them?
MS: The Silver Star is for gallantry in action and the Bronze Star is for meritorious
achievement.
JS: And you mentioned you also went into a couple, or one concentration camp.
MS: Yeah, that Buchenwald. That was soon after the war was over we just went in there
and that was terrible experience to see the crematorium and to see the vaults where they
would shove the bodies into cremate them, the torture chamber.
LS: The Silver Star is for the burst of fire… It wasn’t even daylight was it?
MS: No, in that first day in combat.
LS: The Bronze Star was for, was, Sergeant Schwendiman was taking an important
message to the rear when he was pinned down by a machine gun. Alone and armed only
with a carbine he coxed the enemy into believing if they did not surrender they could be
subjected to murderous fire, causing ten of them to surrender. He then took the prisoners
to the rear and delivered the message. The Silver Star, let’s see, the United States Army
is delivering the Silver Star for Gallantry in action on the 15 of October 1944, in
Germany. Severe enemy fire halted the Attack of Sergeant Schwendiman’s company and
caused severe casualties. Displaying outstanding valor, he crawled out into the fire swept
terrain and each time the enemy attempted to fire he forced them to seek cover by his
aversive fire. Sergeant Schwendiman held his position until supporting tanks were able
to over run the enemy strongpoint. He had interesting things happen when he took the
prisoners. He had them hold up their hands too, and he got his watch back.
MS: I got several watches back.
LS: It was army issue. You know US army issue, it was on a prisoner.
MS: Well, they had several watches on their arms so I went ahead and got me several
watches.
JS: You got several watches back.
MS: A couple pocket watches and two or three wrist watches.
JS: You talk about the Germans surrendering. Was that common towards the end of the
war?
MS: It was after the Battle of the Bulge in the spring, March and April and they knew
they was defeated, and they was ready to give up.
JS: Was that pretty common in those months.
MS: Yes, that is why we went through these towns like I mentioned here. We went
through 11 towns without any resistance because they gave up.
JS: Just because they were willing to surrender.
MS: They did bring some of those Germans over to the Pocatella area, out at Tahee there
was a big group of them, and I think there was a group of them up here somewhere. I
went out with my brother, pick up potatoes. We did it in the buckets, and we would run
the baskets, and they went out and worked, and we ate our lunch with them a lot. They
were just kids, just young boys; some [ of] them were only 15 years old German boys.
JS: Were the Germans, as a whole, younger men?
MS: Yes they were, there were all sizes though, all ages of Germans. Like I say towards
the end they recruited all of the young kids 14, 15, and 16- year- old kids. They didn’t
know they didn’t have any training. They was ready to quit fighting like I say in March
and April, that in the Battle of the Bulge.
JS: Speaking of training, you had to go through a boot camp of some sort I am sure.
MS: I was down in Camp Rollins California in San Lu Lu Obispo. I think that camp is
still open for training at least it was the last time we went there.
JS: When you shipped out of there did you feel prepared or…?
MS: Well, we went through some pretty rugged basic training, marches, and training that
gave us the training to go into war.
LS: Was Camp Kilmore, New Jersey…?
MS: Camp Kilmore was just the port of embarkation, where we sailed from, to go
overseas to England, to England to Liverpool and then down to South Hampton and
across the English Channel into France. The Armed Forces had already gone through
Omaha Beach and Normandy Beach. And it was at the border of France and Germany
where I joined the forces. Like I say the war had been going on for three years previous
to that.
LS: It was about five years wasn’t it?
MS: Well yeah probably five years, it was really about 1940 when it really started. But
the United Sates government hadn’t been into it till after Pearl Harbor. Because the
British and Russians where still fighting, but the Americans…
LS: You have that you sailed on the El Di France, a French ship with English sailors. It
was about the 5th largest ship in the world at that time.
MS: It was a big ship. Well it was smaller than the Queen Mary or the Queen Elizabeth
at that time. Oh I imagine there was two or three thousand passengers, German soldiers
and American soldiers going over.
LS: Did they have mines in the ocean so you had to zig zag?
MS: Yeah, if they had mines or not or submarines that was the reason we was ziggin’ and
zagging because of submarines perhaps in the ocean.
JS: How long did that trip take you?
MS: It was about ten days, going from New Jersey all the way over to England.
JS: After the war, I had a few question, did you notice any major changes after the war
when you came home?
MS: Well, food was still rationed at that time. As well as other, gasoline, tire, and farm
equipment, cars, you couldn’t just go out and buy it. You needed to have ration stamps.
You collected so many, it took so many to buy a gallon of gas, it took so many to buy
tires, there was very little car sales, very little machinery that was being manufactured at
that time.
JS: How did that affect your livelihood being farmers without being able to get gasoline
for the farm equipment?
MS: At that time most of that was done by horses. So it was not much to do with tractor,
most everyone was farming with horses at that time. There were a few tractors, and gas
was supplied to farms because they needed the food and that was the only way to have
food was to have gas to the farmers so that they could raise the crops.
JS: How long did rationing go on?
MS: I don’t know when it started.
LS: It was at least five years.
MS: I am sure it was at least that long.
LS: You couldn’t buy tires, or sugar, any kind of linens, sheets, or tablecloths, towels or
anything at all; it all went to the military. If you wanted to go anywhere you saved up
your stamps. I think they were issued once a month. There were lots of tires patched
because you couldn’t buy them.
MS: Of course they had interludes at that time, and now there is no interludes in them.
LS: It was because of the war the other tires were made. There use to be real rubber in
them and now there synthetics in them.
JS: So it went on five years after the war.
MS: No, I don’t think it went on that long, maybe a year after the war until they got back
into building and manufacturing.
JS: Did you notice much change around the town as far as the way people reacted?
MS: Not really, it was just patriotic, patriotism was still good at that time. We just got
along with what we had.
JS: So there was not much of an adjustment after the war?
MS: No, not really. I don’t know of any. I was glad to be out of it. I was glad the war
was over. That was an adjustment there. We just got along with what we had till we
could get more. Of course wages was not too great then either.
LS: Well all the soldiers were just so happy to be back.
MS: Well yeah.
JS: I can only imagine. How long after the war were you two married?
MS: What was it, a year? After I got home in ’ 45 I worked on the farm here and we was
married in ’ 46, about a year.
JS: And these are pictures of your children?
MS: We had six, six living. We lost one daughter; we lost one son at birth.
JS: Do they all live in this area?
LS: No.
MS: One daughter lives here behind us and the other are scattered from Saint George to
Arizona and California.
JS: Well, Mr. Schwendiman, you both have a great story about this we really appreciate
the time that you have given.
MS: Happy to give it.
JS: Is there anything else you would like to say? Anymore stories you would like to say.
MS: Not unless you ask me.
My Experiences as a Soldier in World War II
By Mark Schwendiman
I was inducted into the army, March 22, 1944, at Fort Douglas, Utah. I was later
sent to Camp Roberts, California for my basic training. It was pretty rugged. There was
no part of it that I liked. After a few weeks training, I was sent to Ft. Mead, Maryland
and then onto Camp Kilmer, New Jersey to a Port of Embarkation.
We sailed from New York on the “ Ill de France,” a French ship with English
sailors. It was about the 5th largest ship in the world at that time. I didn’t get seasick. It
took about 8 days to go to Glasgow, Scotland where we landed and immediately took a
train to South Hampton, England. There we boarded a ship and went to Omaha Beach in
France at the Ziegfried Lines near the Aachen Area, which was the Front Lines. I was
assigned to the I Company, 3rd Platoon, 119th Regiment, and 30th Division of the First
Army. I was later put in the 9th Army.
Out of the 16 men that joined “ I” company, only 5 of us was alive when the
fighting was over.
The first action I saw was early morning at 4a. m. It was still dark. We were
moving up a road with a Platoon on the right and left, ahead of us. On the right was an
embankment and 100 yards ahead, the road made a right turn. A German guard, who was
above the road on an embankment hollered, “ Halt.” We immediately crawled against the
embankment. He opened a couple of bursts of machine gun fire down the road. I just
laid there, parallel with the road with my Browning automatic rifle. There was a house
up ahead at the turn of the road. It was starting to get light and a machine gun started
firing from the house. This firing killed three of our soldiers lying against the
embankment of the road. Ronald Stone from Rexburg was lying along side of me. He
borrowed my shovel and started to dig. As he threw a shovel of dirt up, another burst of
fire came from the house and a bullet hit his left hand.
I finally got nerve enough to fire on the house, placing a burst of fire in every
window, one after the other, until it was daylight and a tank come up and destroyed the
house. For this I received a Silver Star Medal.
The next day near Kolshied, Germany, we captured several prisoners. We went
through a forest that night passing German Pillboxes and stumbling over road mines to
surround the city of Aachen. That was the blackest night I have ever seen. We had to
hold hands with each other to keep together. You couldn’t see your hand in front of your
face.
Soon after this I was advanced to Private First Class.
At a rest center, we had Thanksgiving Dinner for breakfast because we were
alerted to move out. We were fighting by noon the next day. It was December the 17th,
and we were on trucks joining a convoy of vehicles about two miles long. A German
plane flew over dropping flares, but he flew on by. We traveled all night and the next
day. The whole 30th Division was on the move. We learned that we were headed for the
Bulge. We traveled until we come to a small town that the Germans had left. We
stopped there and we were too tired to even dig foxholes so we curled up and went to
sleep in one of the houses. Patrols were sent out to see what they could find. They saw,
a short distance from this town, several German vehicles and armored tanks. The
Battalion Commander didn’t believe the report, and so didn’t prepare for any action. We
awoke at 4a. m. and ate K rations and were preparing deployment. As soon as it was
light, the Germans started to come into town. They had tanks, half- tracks, and infantry.
We only had infantry and 2 tanks and a 90 mm gun. They knocked out one tank and the
gun and the other tank ran out of ammunitions so it left. We started to pull back, but it
was too late. I was captured because of two German tanks that had a cross fire of
machine guns that would have been suicide to run through. They shoved us out of the
building and lined us up making us put our hands on our heads. As soon as we did this,
our sleeves come down and before I knew it some German had my wrist watch. They
marched us back about a mile and there they searched us more thoroughly and lined us up
again and took us back another two miles and put us in the basement of a house. While
marching back, we saw our jeeps and half- tracks they had captured in our drive and they
were using them.
They put 172 of us in this basement with only 2 small windows and a door that
was closed most of the time. We could only sit down by spreading our legs and having
someone sit between them. In the basement was a pile of raw potatoes, which was all we
had to eat for 5 days.
The Germans couldn’t get out to get us any food because they were in a pocket
surrounded by our forces. I went out of the basement on a detail mainly to get some fresh
air. I carried 88 shells from one tank to another.
During the 5th night in the basement and the morning of December 24th 1944, the
Americans really turned loose with the artillery which set fire to tanks and many
buildings. During all this shelling, one of the, the fellows suggested that each of us offer
a silent prayer for our safety and well being. I don’t think there was any who didn’t offer
a prayer for our deliverance.
We were lucky to have been put in a basement of a building. It probably saved
our lives. The Americans who were not captured then liberated us, and we returned to
our outfits thankful to be free and to see our old buddies. This was a wonderful
Christmas present. A Christmas never goes by, but what I think of this experience and
thank my Heavenly Father for my freedom.
After a few days rest we were on the move again and we captured the town of
Malmady in Belgium. For about 5 days we moved steadily through the snow driving the
Germans back.
We came back to the Aachen Area and rested for a few days and were moved to
Hamback. This town was taken at night. The next day we moved to the outskirts of town
and set up defenses. On the way back to the command post, I saw some Germans out in a
trench off the road. I, under cover of a ditch, called for them to come out. They hesitated
for a minute and then come. I was only armed with a Carbine. I searched all ten of them
and then lined them up and took them back to the command post. Later, I and another
fellow went back to the trench where the ten German soldiers had been. There was a
machine gun nest well camouflaged. They could have given us trouble if they had
wanted to.
Three days later we made an attack on Rodingen using our whole battalion and
seven medium tanks. We crossed an open field a mile across. When we got within 500
yards of town, the Germans opened up with gun fire. Some of us made a dash into town
and captured a house. Only 11 of us made it at first. We commenced clearing houses.
Only one tank made it into town. It was getting dusk and the Germans pulled back
allowing us to advance. I was looking for a good command post while clearing houses.
Ronald Stone and I returned to a particular basement that I had noticed. It was dark now
and we only had a flash light and a carbine. I noticed a tunnel leading from this basement
so I got the flashlight and crawled through. A table was against the door so I pushed it
away a little and shined the light in, and I saw four German soldiers in the corner of the
room. I didn’t know what to do, but I told them not to shoot but to surrender, which they
were happy to do.
Later on while in a house, we set up a road guard and sent Ronald back to bring
up our tanks for support. While he was gone a German tank came up the street and
stopped just outside our door. They crawled out of the hatch and looked around a bit and
then got back in and backed down the street. I first thought it was Ronald, but when I
saw that it wasn’t, a lump came into my throat. I couldn’t get the Commander on the
radio. We were about to leave when the tank pulled away.
From here we went to Sittard, Holland for a rest. This is where I received my
rating as a Sergeant. Three days later, Ronald Stone was wounded. We were out in the
woods about ready to attack when a stray shell landed in an open field and exploded
about 50 yards in front of us. A piece of shrapnel hit Ronald and broke his leg. I was
only about three feet away from him at the time. This is the last time I saw him until I
returned home.
Soon after this experience we got on tanks and trucks and really rolled through
Germany. One day we captured 11 towns and an air field. It was at this time that we
learned that President Roosevelt had died on April 14, 1945.
The last town we captured was Magdeburg on April 18, 1945. The whole 30th
Division was in on this move. It was at this time we learned that the War was over. I
visited a concentration camp in Buchenwald near Weimer. The things I heard and saw
made my blood run cold. They had 6 large vaults at the crematory and a torture chamber
in the basement. Marks were still on the walls made by fingernails while being tortured.
I feel that I was truly blessed to have fought on the Front Lines for 11 months and
come out of it alive and healthy. I was in the Army a year and 9 months. I returned
home August 1945. Freedom isn’t free.