World War II
A Worm's Eye View
by
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That same day tanks and infantry broke through to us. We now had ammunition, hot food and hand grenades. At this point I looked around for a way to amuse myself. For some reason I decided to check out the basement of our building. I was astonished to find that the basement was full of people - maybe seventy to eighty people. They must have decided that this was the safest place in town, but they did not want us to know they were there. When the children saw me they began to cry out with terror. I must have looked very frightening with my rifle, helmet, etc. They, of course, had heard all the gun fire and shouting of the previous night. I had just received a package from home, and mother had sent me some things for Halloween. I held up a Halloween skeleton and the children cried even louder. I had an inspiration to sing. It was December and would soon be Christmas, so I started singing "Silent Night, Holy Night," " Stille Nacht, Hillega Nacht." All the people in the basement joined in, and best of all the children stopped crying. I would start a Christmas Carol and they would join in. We must have sung seven or eight Christmas Carols. They knew every Carol I knew except one, "O Little Town of Bethlehem." This is an American Carol by Phillips Brooks. The church choir was in the basement, and they sang the different voice parts. Their music was classical church music. It may have been Bach. This whole episode was an unexpected and moving experience for me.
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About the Book
This book is about my experiences during World War II. The book records the amusing side of the war as well and the serious side. In the beginning I explain why I wrote the book. I paint a verbal picture of conditions before the war, and I discuss how it felt to be inducted into the Army and to undergo infantry basic training. I was a private in the infantry, so my view of the war was a view from the ground or A Worm's Eye View. After basic training I was assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program or ASTP at N.C. State College. In January 1944 the army canceled ASTP, so I was sent to Louisiana Maneuvers with the 44th Infantry Division. In March after Maneuvers we moved on to Camp Phillips, Kansas for six months of desert or flat terrain training. In early September 1944 we shipped overseas from Boston to the town of Cherbourg on the Normandy Peninsular. This was three months after D-Day. In October 1944 we went into action east of Luneville in the French Province of Alsace-Lorraine. During 1944 and 1945 my unit was in combat and in contact with the enemy for two hundred and five days. We started our war in France, and we ended our war in the Austrian Alps. I was a heavy weapons crewman and a radio operator. I also had part of the responsibility for our military maps In the Leintrey Saga I describe our first major battle. After the breakthrough at Leintrey we were the first troops to reach the Rhine River where we captured the ancient city of Strasbourg In the Weislingen Saga I describe how we engaged an enemy armored division. After the battle I discovered sixty to eighty people hiding in the basement of our headquarters building. The children were very frightened of me, so I started singing Christmas Carols. It was December and close to Christmas time. The church choir and the rest of the people joined me in singing Silent Night and other Christmas carols. As a part of the Battle of the Bulge we fought a protracted winter battle near Volksberg, Montbronn, Bitch and Sarreguemines. I was wounded in action on Christmas Day 1944. During January and February we endured very cold weather near Woelfling and Gros-Rederching. I played chess with the mayor of Gros-Rederching, and the mayor's two daughters baked me six apple pies. Near Gros-Rederching we fought the elite 17th SS Division, and occupied the Bandelfingerhof Farm. We captured an SS Captain and twelve SS troops. In March 1945 we crossed the Rhine River near Heidelberg, and discussed making Heidelberg an "Open City" to protect the university and the art treasures. We fought one of the last battles of the European War. It was during a snowstonn in the Austrian Alps. Our opponents were the ski troops of the famous Austrian Mountain Division. We were part of the army of occupation for one month, and then we were selected to go to Japan to fight the Japanese. The war ended in August 1945 while we were still in the States. I received a discharge in October, and returned to school at Georgia Tech.
About the Author
I was born in Florence, SC July 8, 1924. I grew up
in Charleston, South Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia. At an early age I was
encouraged to read and prepare myself for college. My father had attended the
University of South Carolina. My mother was valedictorian of her high school
class. Mother’s father was a minister. One thing my family did not have
was a military tradition.
At Atlanta Boy’s High I was a good student and
involved in athletics. World War II started in December 1941 when I was senior
in high school. I was interested in the war news, but it seemed vague and far
away. In June 1942 I graduated from high school, and started classes at Georgia
Tech. At Georgia Tech I volunteered for the regular army. The Dean of Students
said that I would be allowed to stay in school, get my degree and then I would
be an officer. It did not happen that way. Three months after I volunteered I
was called to active duty. I was in the regular army from March 1943 until
October 1945. A regular army soldier
was very rare in those days. I was a volunteer at a time when most men were
either drafted or from the National Guard. I went to France in September, 1944,
and I was in infantry combat continuously from October 1944 until the end of
the war in May 1945.
After the war I graduated from Georgia Tech and
attended theology school. I later studied landscape architecture at the
University of Georgia and received a BLA degree. Since 1963 I have worked as a
landscape architect, military base planner and technical writer.
As a military base planner I have worked on projects
for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines
and the Nigerian Army in Nigeria. As a landscape architect I worked on site
plans for companies such as: General Motors, Honda, Sony, General Electric,
Merck, Union Shale Oil plant, the Nuclear Breeder Reactor, Cape Canaveral – the
satellite testing facility, The Pensacola Naval Complex, Mayport Aircraft
Carrier Base, etc.
I also worked in Saudi Arabia three times. The main
projects were the Aramco Community Center, Dhahran and the King Abdulaziz
University Hospital and Medical Center at Jeddah.