NORMANDY INVASION: D-Day's DIRTY JOB that No Soldier Wanted | George Ciampa

you know Normandy you had a stench of death in your clothes that you slept in you're spitting all the time some guys Chew Tobacco some guys got their hands on liquor somehow and when you're seeing bodies every day like your age and and you look at the condition that many of them are in you don't freak it you don't forget that you are about to Embark upon the great crusade to meet this mounting aggression and make no mistake about it good will prevail I was born June 16 1925 in Boston Massachusetts and we moved to California when I was nine years old nineteen thirty four and a 32 Chevrolet nine people mother father seven kids we didn't stop for for food or motels we slept in the car we pulled a flatbed trailer before we left we visited the relatives the Italian relatives oh you're going to die crossing the desert no water I was a frightened little boy before that I was a nervous little kid you want me to tell you why yeah okay uh we were at a funeral for my little cousin Teresa eight years old and my mother who had lost her voice before this it suddenly came back to her when they were lowering the casket of Teresa she screamed Teresa as they're lowering the casket I'm just a little five-year-old I had a fear of death after that for a long time there's another incident in my grandfather they had wakes in the homes so it went to the wake in the home in Boston and the casket was in a bay window and it was open and I was standing very close to him about for hearing that wall everybody in the kitchen speaking Italian English laughing crying drinking eating I was a bewildered a little kid so I had that experience when I was five and again seven with death and so uh that's why I was a nervous look at on the way to California two of my brothers drove one was uh 18 and the other one I think was 20. and my dad and he had a 32 Chevrolet this was a 1934. so my dad lost a lot of property during the Depression had all he could do is scrape up that money my grandfather his father kept saying go to California money grows on trees there so anyway we did okay uh I got drafted in uh in October of uh 19 43. and uh I tried to get in the air I wanted to be a pilot my brother was a pilot my brother-in-law was a pilot it looked like a very glorified thing to do and so I went down to sign up my eyes were 20 22. and uh I flunked they told me eat a lot of carrots and come back I was working at Douglas aircraft on SBD dive bombers I get in the cockpit of these airplanes and say oh my God I'd love to fly one anyway that didn't help the second time still flunked I cried the doctor said well just think maybe you get killed being a pilot they sent me a Cheyenne Wyoming in the winter as I arrived there I had I had a flu I was in a hospital there about a week when I found out I was going to be in Graves registration I thought what the hell is that I don't like the word Graves but they made us feel like we're going to have a white collar job staying in hotels and stuff well the training was a regular infantry basic training in the winter of November December January February cold windy we did all our basic in that weather we also were sent to Denver to a hospital called Fitzsimmons it's no longer their healthy but anyway we were sent there to toughen us up mentally to see an autopsy and I stood in the back of the room well the assadness guys head open you know in the on the corners out white smoke so it's just before lunchtime so that's the mental training we had about bodies so what was I thinking about yeah I was thinking about I can't do that I can't be around dead bodies so what I did one day luckily next to us was the fort Warren Air Base we're the Fort Francis Warren Fort Warren next to us one day recruiters came over recruiting for the Air Force guess what they lowered the eye requirements to 20 30. nobody knows that except me 20 30 because I told him I can't pass up 2022. oh no no 2030 no glasses so I took the physical whole deal had right home to teachers for references anyway they accepted me they notified my company Commander and he hit the ceiling so guess what he did I was in a 610th Graves registration and so he moved me out of there sent me home on furlough when I came back the 607th grades registration was readying to go overseas they were short one guy I was a replacement I got on that ship all the guys were older than I was they're all kidding me don't worry shop but they're going to turn a ship around and take you home Roosevelt said no 18 year olds will set foot on foreign soil that's the other speech and so uh I got kitted quite a bit so now I was part of the 607th and they broke up our company into four platoons and headquarters 124 guys all together and they sent us to Bristol and the other guys went to different places now I want to tell you something my first Escape of death you ever hear about exercise tiger a German E-boat station and sure board for us torpedoed sunk three of the four 800 guys we lost six 18 of our guys first lieutenant first sergeant I'll let non-com commissioned officers you know it was they were all killed except six privates but anyway if they had selected my platoon I wouldn't be here talking to you now that was my first escape with death second Escape was on a ship going to Normandy we're down in a hold you know what a hold is when we keep equipment we're sleeping down there the night of the fifth and it and uh in the middle of the night it was a huge explosion our ship just rocked like crazy we all scampered up a deck and found out what happened it was a Navy Gunner that shot down a torpedo plane he's getting that was the explosion that Navy Gunner was 19. I had met him during the day found out his name what he did took me into his court as a show me where he lived in the galley and all that Dennis Reed from Ohio if if he didn't shoot that guy down I wouldn't be here now we did hit a mine cable but that was no big deal the ship just rocked a little bit I worked two I wore May West sleeper Observer and a belt both I couldn't swim and I didn't take any chances not to swimming did you any good over there and I'll tell you why because when we finally landed there amongst I've heard four thousand ships that's what the LA Times said in their headline in fact they have that plaque on my wall in my office uh 5 000 ships they say four thousand whatever it was four or five thousand ships a lot of ships out there we were anchored when we got there broadside to shore and uh I thought how stupid that was because it was a big Target and they were shooting the 88s you know the artillery hitting ships all over the place saw a tanker blew up bodies of the water debris in the water we all got on the standing next to the book head opposite Shore hopefully get some protection of it his ship got hit so the ship was listening in the water like this I don't know how long I did that seem like days but I don't know how long maybe maybe an hour or two I don't know all I know is uh I knew there was a war on and so anyway now it's our turn to go down to rope ladder did we practice a rope ladder no the guys fall off and drown yes so I got a rope letter and you know look I'm scared to death and I I get in a I think I was sitting in a jeep going in the artilleries we could hear it going over it you can see ships getting hit all around us starting to go you went in turned around came out went in again turned around came out I figured it was because we the guy driving that thing thought we were going to get hit well I blocked I blacked out from fear I don't actually remember the landing but one of our first jobs our job was to clear the beach of the Dead pick up the dead on the beach pick up the paratroopers that landed the channel in error that drowned because their parachutes came down over them and all their gear on they drowned so we picked up those guys and we picked up guys on the beach and uh and we had black service troops digging the graves then when we got the prisoners they were digging the Grays and then we had prisoners of the rest of the war digging Graves and they thought they were enormity they thought they were drinking digging their own grave and his guys would say oh me checked me polsky and and they were telling the truth because you know the Germans conscripted a lot of guys in those countries that they they took over and they had to go in in the German army or else we buried them with one dog tag on their body in the dirt six feet down and one on a wood marker I handled bodies 18 19 20. I broke down about two weeks after you know Normandy you had a stench of death in your clothes that you slept in you're spinning all the time some guys chewed tobacco some guys got their hands on liquor somehow but but uh we did that every day for 11 months except one day in Paris that was like the end of the war that was a break good other than that the seeing bodies every day and when you're seeing bodies every day like your age and and you look at the condition that many of them are in you don't freak it you don't forget that and uh and then we left Normandy the last Cemetery we had there was in St Louis and uh but that's when I saw the patent come through with his tanks because they landed at Sherborn you know the port and boy was great seeing them uh and while we were there The Eighth Air Force not to condemn them but in their bombs they killed General McNair we picked up his body I didn't personally but we did so anyway uh from Saint Lo we went to Paris so Paris was liberated in August 44. and so we were there at it and we went right through Paris when all action was going on people with flowers and I mean it was like the war ended and we were so we were in this little town called Solaris about 40 miles south of Paris so we had a temporary Cemetery there and then from there we went to Belgium and we went through Char Roy and went through no mirror and we had a cemetery called Foss f-o-s-s-e-s temporary Cemetery there a temporary cemetery is no longer there I don't think so we left there and we went to uh Henry Chappelle I almost said a little Henry Chappelle Henry Chappelle uh is the second largest uh secretary over there actually Normandy is not the largest the largest was seed of old which is uh just inside France from Germany that was the largest and uh and Andre Chappelle was about the third largest when we left Henry Chappelle temporary Cemetery we had 17 300 buried there we went into Germany from there When The War ended the cemetery we had at eisenach Germany those bodies have only buried there for maybe a month or so and we had to re-identify those bodies that be disinterred and re-identified by looking at at the dog tag they're buried in mattress covers and bodies are already decomposed maggots all over them terrible stench and uh put them in boxes and they were shipped to Belgium or or the or Hong uh to be buried again in a temporary Cemetery in the dirt again they didn't get in a casket until two years after the war which was 1947. and at that time the next Akin had a prerogative of having that having a remains set home to any Cemetery they wanted at no cost to them or remain there the ones that they're looking in those primitive cemeteries they figure that's all that was killed no that's 40 percent of what was killed the other 60 percent were sent home with an executed as I said requests the cemetery for them to be sent to they're put in lined caskets just like the guys are put in now except the guy is now getting killed they're they're embalmed and they're putting their uniforms and they're set home so that's the kid can actually see the body but with us it's just bones so they you know that's all they get what I talk about is understanding the high price of freedom and the only way you could really understand it is doing what I and other guys like me and even the medics well we did in my company We buried 75 000 that's not just Americans we handled a German Dead Two we put them in some separate temporary cemeteries you've got to see it many you understand the high price of freedom other than that it's just a term

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 768,366

Keywords: AVC, American Veterans Center, veteran, veterans, history, army, navy, air force, marines, coast guard, military, navy seal

Id: 3ZacR0dBlE4

Length: 16min 25sec (985 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2023