Don Evans | WW2 | Tank Gunner -- Becoming a POW

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well we hate we cross the Rhine River then you know the war is winding down but you don't think I'll ever be be over yes don't miss day after day and and there wasn't any solid line of defense with the Germans anymore from the North Sea and Holland to Switzerland a lot of that was broken up and it was just solid places you know and we crossed the Rhine River and I remember coming down the bank and one to that pontoon bridge and it was a way across there I think it was either 1,100 feet or 1,700 feet wasn't linked to that bridge and you should come down on that pontoon bridge and it goes down in the river a little bit and it's wide and it's deep and it's running and then you're afraid man Jerry's gonna shell a wire on the bridge but we finally got across there and then they gave us a mission to go on there was a big canal there called the Dortmund Thames canal it was in that part of Germany where s it is in Dortmund it's all built up a lot of manufacturing one town after another that's good and jury had blown all the main bridges not only the primary but the secondary most of the third-class bridges but our job was to go in this area they thought there was some bridges there that were wouldn't hold a tank or a vehicle but maybe the farmers bridge we get some infantry across once you get the inferior across then you can get a little landing place there and the engineers could put up a new bridging but there was three bridges that they had given us the first two we went to we're blown and then we went to the other area and I could see down along the canal that bridge was still intact but we then we started firing everybody starts firing in case there's some Germans around that bridge and when they see us coming to a blow it you kind of think that flyer and data or keep them down you know blowing but then we got all the ways onto it then didn't that thing blew up and then we called in and told them what had happened you know we didn't have anything else and so then they told us to come on in and wherever headquarters was that time was in another little town and it got to be dark and we were once you get into Germany you know when you're in France Belgium and Holland you know they're allies you treat the country nice and the people nice but when you cross that border into Germany it's different ten man what is chairman is German and what is know what is American is American what is German is American you take whatever you just want and when you first get into Germany the looks they gave you you know they left you know you're not wanted here you know and they don't smile or nothing and you just go into their homes and whatever you see you know you just take and like I say to gi's he's after everything that there was pots and pans hanging on tanks and vehicles and you saw the if if you're carrying this and that that they take out of German homes when you dig a hole in the ground you'd go into German house man get yourself a nice blanket to put in here on the dirt and stuff it was different then man mm-hmm and they couldn't believe it man you had come 5000 miles a final year in their homeland and some of them would we're kind of nice say it was too German there's American - you know he's always after the ladies so then they put out the non-fraternization law ever that heard the guys talking about that and that came out and so of course a lot of GIS they wouldn't pay any attention to that and I don't know what the fine was if you got quarters either $35 or $65 that they would take out of your pay you know if you're talking to a German civilian so that's the way it was when you when you got into Germany but then anyway they called us back and that night were in this German house there in part of the house and we just go in and but before that before we had gotten the Rhine River we got to the Rhine River when we were called back and we went into a German house big big house the house in the barn is under the same roof and we just take over the bedrooms in the big kitchen and the Germans they could have one of the kitchens in the other part of the house you know but we would take over so we'd have a place to sleep and we were cooking the kitchens that's what we were doing this night after we had got up there to the to the canal and then they do what her came down there was hollering stand to alert when they hollered staying to alert the Gi cuss was like he never cussed before this is one of the things out in Hollywood the guy said Gigi to cuss I said yeah we custard was the first language most of the time when they holler stand to alert it means get all your equipment together me and we're moving out and bad we thought we were gonna have a nice night and then the orders come down they said that now we're gonna be pulling out of here we're going on a mission tonight we're going behind the enemy lines and you know buddy's gonna be out there but jury and it's gonna be dark and with some kind they don't tell you what the mission is but they said time was that yeah the essence and he said if we run into any action till daybreak tomorrow whenever this mission is done if you can't not get out of it knock it off pull out and go just let it behind you don't don't spend any time trying to find jury or knocking him out just try to get around him to go on with the mission we did find out later on what the mission was so then we mounted up and we had I guess that earlier that afternoon we went through some of them Barnes you're always scrounging around not only looking for something to eat or something to drink but maybe some juries are high now and you ran in a lot of alcohol home ruined stuff and some of it came in in jugs man that's high the basket looked around them and then you get in there and pour it out into some small and important little things and stacking never a little place in your tank you know and that's what we done we we had an interview spot in the tank man you know all the vehicles to man bottles of shops so we pull out this dark and no action yet mm-hmm and I'm sitting in this gunner seat we had lost a guy the day before so I didn't have a loader but the tank commander who were sitting down front came up and said in a gunner seat alongside me so we're gone almost missed about 11 o'clock at night I guess and here comes a German freight train coming down on the right side of the road coming out of Germany he didn't know how before the Americans were up there we didn't know that they were coming either but that train was coming down there and everybody just swung the guns around here and shot that thing up you know and somebody must have put a big shell in the boiler and it blew offered you could hear jerries screaming and hollering but we didn't go near there and then you notice big fires down there then the orders came to move on so we went on mm-hmm we stopped at 5:30 in the morning and we got out and thanks Larry why just piles out and just threw all caution to the wind it's just unbelievable it wasn't any action during the night we just didn't think there was gonna be any vision so we stopped to take a 15 minute break yeah the vehicle breaking them in to take a break so I pile out of the vehicle and Gunners hang out with Gunners and drivers with gunner or drivers and so forth you know I tell you buddy up and Carol get along so coming up alongside of my tank was a guy this guy's New Britain Connecticut fence and we were smoking there generally and it just started to get daylight barely daylight you know you're very careful if you smoke at night you know you're smoking like this covering the cigarette you know but I don't think that we hid wasn't really dark yet been but we we weren't paying any attention to it and so then you have little stoves in a vehicle but that I and if your gasoline you pump them up and put your canteen cup on there with the water in it make your coffee so that's what we've done we said well let's go back here and see Jim Jerry so we're walking down the road all our vehicles are lined up and everybody's out on the road it's a very narrow blacktop road and we get near Jim Jerry they had a big Sherman tank what a hundred five on it artillery piece they got the Sherman's when we got the late tanks before they had a light tank so I see Jim up on the turret and he's grabbing the 15 he swings that around you know when he starts firing and here comes a German truck up the side of the road he maybe he was in our column all night they have too dark no way painted mine I don't know and maybe he stayed in the columns of well I don't know but when he saw that that truck swerved over and turned over on his side well in all the GIS there they're over there root seams of trucks see what they can find the driver is dead but they pulled the assistant drive around so then they the trash is all over the road there I mean just crazy and so then the order had come to mount up we had to go on so I'm standing up in the turret of the tank my my loader who was a tank commander he said well you you got some sleep during the night now I'll take a nap down in front and the light tanks there's two seats for the driver and system driver they're like little stuffed chairs not very big but they're comfortable and you can sleep in those so he went down got in there I said I don't think we'll meet the way things are going John won't need you so then a jeep calls up one sided the our tank and it was out the Scout section in the Scout section you're your platoon is broken up into the armored car section with the tank and the artillery section and the Scout section they have Jeeps so the guys won it cheap stopped there's a guy sitting there in his sister's driver's seat his name is shorty Mercer shorty is the kind of guy he'd been in the Army a thousand years you know he'd never learned how to soldier but everybody loved him he was a little rotund guy his cigarette was always hanging down in his mouth you know and always smoking and his hat was always someone down over his face bumping on his nose he was like that wherever you'd seem and he would be what was singing uh he was from the south and he was always singing the big bouquet of roses or walking the floor over you something like that you know hillbilly guy and he said hey you need a gunner look at her up there don't ya I said I'm all right shorty he said I'll let me up there oh so what do you want up here for and he said I said it's cold up here like it isn't a Jeep he said yeah but I'll be out of the wind I saw come on up area so he gets up and he sits and gets into the loader seat which is to my right I'm sitting on the left and we go through to think about loading a gun he didn't have to do anything really when I would fire the big gun I just pulled the handle the breech would pop open this empty would come out and all he'd have to do through the other one in I'd go like that yeah so he got up and again got in here and we talked a little bit and if we're still sitting on the street when a the road and here comes up a tune later from the head of the column and I see him coming eyes I didn't even know what he wanted and I knew that he didn't want me so he gets all inside our tank and you know he looks up and he said we're sorry to Selby I said down front okay city wants to take a break and he said well that's okay Evans he said now we're just going down here is little bridges down here we want to see if they're gonna be heavy enough or strong enough to hold the tanks he said and now he's sitting and I said he said then he said you know everybody gets a chance to go first he said now it's your turn to go first well nobody wants to go first nobody and I said yes sir he said Haggard try ever get out and go to the head of the column so I hollered down to the driver was how Harold Lassiter was from chaos City Michigan I said did you get the good news then he started swearing I said do what he says go to the head of the column we pulled out went to the hunt head of the column then we started out we hadn't gone Andy OH fifty feet I guess and I saw a big red flash on the right side of the road it just big ball of fire lit up I dropped down drop down into in my seat and you do like you always do you lean forward to look into this ice your right hand left hand goes here switches you grab the turret switch it's like a pistol grip if you turn it left and right that's the way the turn will go but the more you turn it left and right the faster it'll turn plus for your two guns in your turret you have the triggers on top of that in other words you can grab that thing you have two triggers and press down with the thumb so just about I'd lean forward that thing it hit that turn lit up the inside that turret man that tarragon got cherry red and right away our guy started firing one of the Germans and a lot of firing along the Germans are firing back and then when there was a couple of minutes our guys then what we were told to do to break it off so they broke off the fire and went on so that's her the driver had bailed out so I bailed out and I knew I was hurt but I did know that I couldn't see and but I knew pretty sure for that certain chill intent it had killed shorty I jump out on the sponson and shuffle for as I could to get away from the tank the tanks burning and down in the ditch and a sure it's in the ditch and now the ammo is starting to go off in the tank and the Germans aren't even coming to us I hear the Germans talking and I'm laying there in the ditch and I really thought I was gonna die and I just felt like this side of my face was going so I was reaching in my jacket pocket like this was they going in there for I was going in there to take something out but no that was a little bit later but I thought I was gonna die and and I I really wanted to die I thought if I looked that bad the way I thought I filmed you know I didn't want to go back home and then I thought we are behind the lines and our guys are going nobody will find our bodies nobody my family I'll never know what happened to me so then we're laying in a ditch in a German still haven't come forth but everything's quiet except the fire burning in the tank and I knew we were going to be taken prisoner so I'm going with my hands in my jacket pocket here pulling out some medals and had taken off a jury today before I knew it they call me what that stuff will be bad news but before that I was caring I had been wearing a German p38 pistol and when we got the orders at night I took that pistol off by the way my weapon was a Thompson sub but I would carry this German p38 in my pocket when I'm behind the German lines when there wasn't any shooting going on but that I didn't want to be carrying with the the tommy gun but you're in the Germany you want to have some kind of weapon so I would wear that on my belt but the night before that when he said we're going behind the German lines I took that off and I laid it on right behind me solvers glad that I didn't have that on there wait my fingers where I had never been able to get it off so then just the Germans are still talking but nobody's coming for us and so I said yeah sure how do I look I wasn't hurting not much and he didn't say anything I said how do I look and he said you you look lawful or something to that effect the first time he went answered then I asked him again so then he's I said well going my first aid kit and take my you had a first aid kit on your belt it had a little pack of the sulfur powder in there and besides couple one of the thing I said whoa get that sulfur powder and sprinkle on my face so he'd done that and then we laid there and and then I then I didn't want to die I just had to desire me and for some reason I thought I wanted to live but I just couldn't figure out why aren't the juries common force our guys are going so then I I'd said - sure we ought to try to get out of here and he said no we can't get out and event that time he says here comes the tournament officer so all drivers carry 40 flies and shoulder holsters so of course when he bailed out he had his 45 so he says here comes that German officer and when the German officer is coming then I hear him challenge him put up his hands handy Hawk is the word you don't pronounce it like that I guess that's not the German furnace but the jury knows what you're saying as soon as he says handy Haupt I guess the jury went for his gun or something Harold Harold a she shoots him he kills him and still they don't come for us and now I know we're dead he shot that German officer I know there's no way out man we're going to die right here but we laid there a few minutes that's still no juries tanks burning I said yeah sure we got to get out of here the tanks going to blow up I said I'm gonna stand up and I said if I knew was a blacktop road I said I'll take one step at a time but my hands in the air my hands here maybe they won't shoot me so he said well I'll go with you so then we both get up and he gets ahold of me and we just took a couple of steps and when he ran into some Germans you know then they took us off to another guy that was a German officer was a different story and he spoke a little about bamboo was he stinking rotten mad boy see I can't see and I'm like this now start really starting to hurt and I'm sure Asher had his hands up too and they take us to this German officer happen I was telling me that he's an officer and this German officer shouts and hollers and a national really screams at him you shot and killed a German officer and Asher says I did not I did not and this guy has really made you know if the shoes on the other foot you know we're supposed to be getting shot by this time that's what you do good thing I didn't turn him pistol and he he said we saw you we saw you and then I just knew then they were getting ready to kill us and then finally he says you can put your hands down I guess that's war you know when I dropped my hands I wasn't a Christian that time but I knew about God and these are two words I said thank you Lord so they took her son they loaded us in a I don't know if you ever seen pictures of them the cool of loggins the german wagon so they loaded us in that in the backseat and I believe this was one I'm gonna had the roof on it I thought they'd load us in the back and but one the floor was the body of that German officer that I sure killed so they'd load us in that truck and we drove a little bit and then the car stopped German civilians gathered around the car and and then they're talking and then I could hear one German speaking like swipe ons or swipe on sir second or but he saw my facts you know and then there's our planes were sailing out our planes are flying around up there and I just knew that they were looking for some something down there that's moving you know it already had come down and strafing then I said - your head sir next thing here we're gonna get killed by our own planes so then we move on and then we're slowing down again and Gnasher says it looks like it's a military something or other so we're ordered to get out of the car so we get out of the car and then we go into a little building it just some kind of a military thing I she was telling me so I'm sittin over there Asher sitting over here then there comes the German in there and he's talking of course I don't talk because I can't see what's going on so then he said something Asher in English so then he he said something about I have to go I'll be right back so I'm sitting over there on the bench really hurting now man well just can't hack it I said nasha when he comes back asking me if he'll give me some morphine so he comes back Asher approaching were said to him he's really hurt and he's having some pain a lot of pain do you have any morphine this guy is arrogant on loudmouth to a point a very good English man this is what he screamed out he said you Americans are supposed to have everything where's your morphine till the war was over till that this Dave when they write about losing the war they tell us about the material of the Americans yeah and he said you Americans are supposed to have everything so he goes and he comes back with the morphine and he shoots me in the arm here then I laid out back on the bench I started feeling pretty good then I went to sleep when I wake up you know I'm on a litter ash was going I don't know where I am I don't even know what time it is I'm being carried up a flight of stairs I want a litter two guys and they set the litter down on the floor and then I hear some girls walking and I don't know why I fought this but I thought they were probably nurses but they're talking between the two of them the four of them so then they take me off to lift me up off to the litter and stand me up they take the litter and I hear I'm going down the stairs and then the girls are talking in German I don't know what they're talking about but they take all my clothes off and put me in a tub and gave me a bath just leave that and then put a nightgown on me I mean I hadn't been tonight damn man since I was a kid and then they put me in bed and all the time they're talking and and what is sad about it man the only language being spoken is out of the enemy and they put me in that bed and I just didn't know what to do I had no idea where I was laid in that bed but you know you get the feel of things everybody does not know any situation like that I know over there on my right that's where I came up and over here I know it's a nurse's station because I hear some activity and over there there's some Germans talking men and then I kind of didn't I didn't know for sure didn't get much thought but a turn about out that they were five wounded Germans but they put me in that bed and I started coming and I thought man then then another German because in speaks good English that's what happened and he sits over here by the nurse's station he tells me who he is he said I'm a medic he said you're in an aid station we don't have anything here we can't help you medically we don't have anything we don't have much to eat the girls are doing their best to take care of you then he says that he girl me anything about my unit or anything like that then he said that that he had been a met a medic he was a medic and he had been in the Battle of the Bulge and he's speaking pretty good English and he said down in the Bulge he said I was in a neighborhood a bus with a lot of medics and they were taking us somewhere and we thought we were going to be strafed even with the Red Cross on the bus he said we all got out started scattering and he said you know your fighter planes came down he said there was so many American fighter planes they were straight from one German soldier and you know general generally dude you just strafe a batch of them you know then you start talking to ask me questions about the Russians because they knew you know when the Russians went and Germans went into Russia they they said that the Russians were subhuman you know you know how they haul them well like kind of stuff they pick and then they knew now the Germans were already on in their land and they were concerned about what the Russians were heard the Russians what the Russians were going to do to them so then he left and then they fed me something I don't know what it was wasn't bad and I was totally exhausted and II from the day and then I thought about the Germans over there I was up me and what's gonna happen tonight when the lights are out some of them guys might get out of bed man come over here and kill me blaming me for their wounds but it never happened I guess finally maybe I did fall asleep a little bit then daylight came it was Easter Easter Sunday 1945 then the nurses were in there come over to the bed do this on that around the bed you know him and speak it to me and then the German didn't come in and he'd sit there and you know nod eat and he talking and that went on for I guess six or seven more days then the German comes in one morning and I was starting to hurt man oh and my face was just a Meza affection said in man I couldn't live with self but they would come in and put wet patches or something on me you know so then he came in one morning walk excited you know what he said your comrades are coming your comrades are coming and then I set up on a big man sort of crime Eddie man fly like once a year here are some Americans and he said the civilians sauce Scout car outside of town alpha male scout cards were we couldn't reconnaissance maybe it's my guys man he kind of got me ready just get rid of me in order sent me out man was their old day man every moment every minute passed by man they didn't come man I came and still they didn't come man I was just discussed us wouldn't discuss that I'd started crying form a man maybe there's nothing to it that's like me maybe everyone died here so I went to sleep and next morning was a 50 caliber machine gun going off I knew it was 50 and I get here Americans talking on the street down below on his feet then my concern was that they don't shoot through the wind up there then they came running into in the building it was for fire all my hair running up the stairs and I guess the Germans told him I was in there you know then they want to know what name and serial number and my unit and did I need anything and how did they treat me and well listen that and then what a long after that and the ambulance came line load me up took me out of there then I went back to I think Paris to a total hospital and I stayed there two or three days then I flew me to England but it was quite an experience

Info

Channel: American Veteran Project

Views: 273,266

Rating: 4.8790803 out of 5

Keywords: Tank (Invention), World War II (Military Conflict), War (Quotation Subject), gunner, Don Evans, American Veteran Project, World War II, 2nd Armored Division, Hell on Wheels, oral history, veteran, Ww2, Boom, Prisoner Of War (Film Subject)

Id: BIyOepPrG_A

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 30min 37sec (1837 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 05 2015

Reddit Comments

I was looking for music when I accidentally came upon this. I was basically waiting for the moment when I'd had enough, but I watched all the way through to the end with a big smile. Super interesting. I wish I could have had such talks with my grandparents before losing them.

👍︎︎ 6 👤︎︎ u/HaightnAshbury 📅︎︎ Mar 12 2019 🗫︎ replies