Spearheading Across Europe with Patton's Third Army

Patton had the uh Air Force bomb and shell that area so bad at Saint Lo in France we busted through it and I can't believe the sight they could see it was just scary seeing so much destruction and death animals and men tanks equipment that we went by crippled it was amazing you are about to Embark upon the great crusade to meet this mounting aggression and make no mistake about it good will prevail my name is Robert Lewis Chennai early on in life get to be called boots for some reason or other people like that because I used to wear boots once in a while you know so they call me boots and I accepted that I I kind of like that better than Robin yeah anyway who's during the Depression when I was born and it was I was the youngest of eight children I had six older sisters and a brother and we didn't do much together as a matter of fact my mother and father were so occupied they didn't do much with us either I didn't remember doing hardly anything with my parents that we never went any place we didn't have a kind of course hardly anybody had a car so we stayed in the neighborhood the first shanad was born in Normandy as a matter of fact and strange when I was in Normandy with a the army my father wrote to me said Son you have relatives here well I said that's fine but anyway let me ask you where were you Arbor Day December the 7th well of course uh it was a Sunday and we had been to church like we always did and you know people were church people in those days everybody went to church and we had to church we got word that Pearl Harbor get bombed well of course this changed everything everybody's plans up until then not being a good student didn't deter me from wanting to go to college and play football that was my goal I would pray as a young boy to God please God help me be a college football player and as it turned out it happened that way but I had no idea all the athletes in those days I was the end of an era that went to a prep school at the high school would go to high school for four years and instead of going right at the college playing football or Sports whatever we went to a prep school for two years it was marvelous and that was my goal and I think well I'm not a good student but maybe I'd get better and I get more mature learn how to study and I was really looking forward to it but the war broke up and it's kind of put the crimp on everything and all the guys that I knew all jumped into the service they wanted to get in there and they were they quit high school and everything I didn't that wasn't a good student I should have done it you know but my goal was to go on and play football so I stayed in school as it turned out my coach took three of us players into Boston College to visit the athletic Administration and so forth and we had quite a time there of being interviewed and they wanted us all they wanted the three of us and they said look we want you guys but you got to go to prep school but wow that's what I want to do anyway they said we have a list of prep schools when I knew of those schools because I followed the prep schools for years but they said we have one new school on that list it's a military school whoopee the watch is standard a military school there was a frosting on the cake so he says wow it was the school in Virginia a prep school in Virginia a military school called Massanutten was an Indian name it was in the Shenandoah Valley well the three of us went down there and and we went there for one year and after the end of that year we couldn't go anyplace but the service the service is going to take us so I cut one year in in that one year helped me so much it just made me it made me a better football player because we played against teams so much better than we were we're playing against like college freshman teams we played against the Indianapolis plebes and military press it was quite an experience so it helped me tremendously so I wanted to go on the Marines when we came home one of my friends went into the Marines I wanted to go in the Marines and the other fellow wasn't so hot on it I told my mother when she was in a hospital I would visit her I said my I'm kind of calling the Marines she says oh please don't do that and she cried and cried and begged for me not and I wanted to be a marine I said you know I love their uniforms and they want to be in one of those uniforms and I want to be a macho guy take me so I got the uh in the Army I went alone and the next thing I know is sent to Texas and I was introduced to a 90 millimeter gun in a brand new outfit all guys my age brand new outfit 128 AAA Gun Battalion if you're enjoying this video you should join our exclusive patreon Community to receive Early Access to videos each week the chance to send questions to our heroes and much more we scour the country to identify film share and preserve these first-hand Battlefield accounts and time is of the essence to join our mission visit patreon.com American Veterans Center or click the link in our description it's up to each of us to guard their legacy and honor their sacrifice thanks and now back to the interview we went through great training went to Maneuvers and the next thing I know we're in New Jersey we're going on a boat the next day after being there and I looked at that boat we were one of the first ones to get to it and I could see the name Queen Mary we're going to style get on that ship with a with my battery and they put us right on the stern of the boat in a stripping compartment was a the old pool they had a pool swimming pool they converted that to a dino a bedroom my bunk was the top bunk like the eighth one up against the ceiling but we spent our time going over from New Jersey to Scotland zigzagging all alone we didn't go with the corn boy now here we were ten thousand soldiers on this ship I thought to myself the Germans wanted would be a prize that they sunk us and we went to Scotland then to England we got to England on a we were on a on a field in England on the coast I don't know uh much about England but uh if you have a chance to be like much of a Taurus we stayed in a field my battery was was one part of the field and on the other side of the field was an infantry outfit a huge infantry outfit they had a sign out 29th didn't mean much to me but we trained we could see them working out with we would preparing our guns our guns had to be Greece to the ultimate prepared for the worst scenario in case we landed on the beach of nominee and we had to go through water the Kansas wouldn't malfunction so we had to they had to be done thoroughly move we didn't realize it we we thought we were doing a good job and an inspection team came along to inspect the guns they looked at him and they said not good enough you got to keep doing these they're not good enough also we kept doing them well a day later that infantry outfit pulled out we could see him having a powwow in the field they pulled out next thing you know it was D-Day they were the first wave to hit the beach if our guns were ready I don't know we probably would have been with him but I don't know what wave could have been third second wave I don't know but we we didn't make it we didn't go until five days later that was soon enough for me going across that channel with all those lsts and it's LST had a big balloon attached to it floating above it had a cable attached to the LST so they would stay there and they had cables hanging down off that balloon to prevent planes for coming in strafingers all you can say when we get out in that Harbor to cross over to France with ships we get out in position in an LST and looked around and all I saw was ships and balloons of course I had a big lump in my throat I said holy mackerel how come I'm here well anyway we went across the channel and we hit the tide wrong so we have to stay there for the tide to be right and of course the wolf several beaches we were at Omaha Beach and it was like three other beaches along the way so there was a lot of chips ready to go under the Germans came over and bombed us hey but while I was sitting there and so that was a first introduction to the the war and uh we survived that all right everyone is frightened to death hey well anyway okay time to get onto the beach the tide was right we dropped off in front of the ship down and I was on a a tractor that pulled out a gun we had four guns and each had a big caterpillar that was like a tank it had tracks like a tank it was boxy it was metal I sat in the front seat with a driver and the sergeant I was a corporal I had space my gun crew went so well off they sat behind me in a compartment no windows they couldn't see anything their backs against the wall and the knees touching and that's how they had to sit one guy had some space who stood up to man a machine gun on a turret so luckily I had a better seat but the seat wasn't comfortable of course it was a little wooden bench about four inches high off the floor I could get my feet out but my gun crew sat on a bench like that and then these were practically touching they had no space at all if somebody got a cramp everybody had to get out of the way so I I avoided that well anyway that's how we traveled so we got on that Beach I thought we were heading up to the back of the beach where I read where there was a stalemate and it was all hedge Road fighting I thought was that we were heading but we didn't go that way so we didn't know where we were going we have nobody tells you were you what happening next you didn't even itinerary or anything so the next thing you know we traveled along and stopped we stopped in Convoy for quite a while then finally we got the word to move in online well why we were stopped the Americans had just taken over a German gun outfit a German 88 gun outfit a battery just like ourselves all dug in and they just captured it and they were cleaned out the Dead the American Dead wounded so when we got in there the German dead the place their weapons blown up pieces it was a terrible sight that was within a few hours of me being in Normandy Beach so it was quite an Awakening while we're waiting at that gun position where we took over we protected sherberg and I think that's what the Germans were doing protecting sugar bombing things that Americans were sending there so we were to stop Germans for doing the same thing because General Patton's third Army was due to come there at sherberg and it was our purpose to protect them that was our first job well it took probably five or six weeks after the invasion for that to happen the next thing you know that outfit the third Army get all going and they get onto Omaha Beach and that still made was still there but the dream is deep patent didn't waste any time Bradley who was our general before it says so aggressive but Patton had the Air Force bomb and shell that area so bad at Saint Lo in France we busted through it I was in a convoy with I don't know how many people and we went through there and I can't believe the sight they could see having a vision in my position on that caterpillar it was just scary seeing so much destruction and death animals and men tanks equipment that we went by crippled it was amazing well anyway we got through it and we kept moving they kept moving it was great we'd take a town the people would be out there greeting us hugging us you know shaking our hands Thanking us you know it was wonderful and we're heading for Paris I said oh my God I'm going to be in Paris liberating Paris this is going to be tremendous couldn't wait we got to Paris was recapted it but they sent my guns Battalion around and outside of it they got a bridge I missed it all I missed all that fun I don't know if this is proper but they said that for guys it didn't get laid down and then he was a and so from there I'm we went through to Nancy France in the front stopped they needed to get supplies they told us we're going to be here for a couple of months excellent provisions so that you won't have to just stay intense so we gathered each kind of crew gathered what materials they could get and made a little makeshift buy our guns so we slept in a makeshift Hut instead of our pup tent and you know it got to be winter in the Battle of Bounce started around the end of December and we were still in this field and we could wear it to move out well in the meantime they were so destitute for men in that battle they took guys from all the outfits around they took guys from my outfit I lost some guys in my gun crew we had to send them there ill-prepared the next thing you know they're an infantry freezing cold weather I don't know how any of them survives but we went from there to Mets France the Battle of boats had happened and it was sort of being controlled a little bit but we were somewhere near Boston and I slept we on a field next to a a fort admits that was on the marginal line well I remember reading in history about the marginal line how the French put up forts along that area to protect themselves and to stop the gym and some coming in here of course the Germans went around it but we were on a by a fort with snow on the ground couldn't see anything didn't know what the heck was going on and uh Battle of bells was just winding down and we stayed there for a few days freezing as a matter of fact we were sleeping intense and it was so cold that I finally went out at night and I brought my little thin sleeping bag that I had into a ditch and I slept in a ditch like a grave three nights because it was a little warmer than laying on the ground so that helped me a lot but anyway we finally moved on and we moved towards Germany and then it hit us hey wait a minute we went through that battle of uh of the invasion going across that channel which was a scary damn thing and here we are we're gonna cross this rain river the dramas are going to be deep be a bloodbath it was a big worry we're going along with I was ahead of I was with like the 10th I'm at Division and an infantry outfit and the lead tanks came across a bridge that had been blown but was still standing there at ramagan it saved us it was a savior because of that bridge not going down the Germans tried desperately so he did it down and we were there to shoot at the planes to stop them and we didn't know how successful we were I didn't really know till later on many years later I read that we were quite successful we knocked down to a lot of planes but anyway the bridge lasted for five days in those five days they got thousands of troops to cross it was such a blessing they had to spread the Germans out so we have to make another Crossing because of that bridge we moved down south of it oh a couple hundred yards Maybe no Bridge or anything they going to have to evade make a Crossing there it was that open line I remember and uh we pulled into this area in the Infantry outfit was right next to us between us and the Rhine River we were on a narrow road I could see all the Infantry guys dug in they're all sitting in their foxholes they didn't look at us we had we were parked there for quite a while we could see them but they didn't even look at us they they had the strangest lookings on their face no smiles just looking out in the space and some of them reading their Bibles it was such a sad thing while we were sitting there the Germans were across the river and he could see us ordinarily would have pulled right into a field all four guns and set up in this field but we couldn't do that right now we have to go in one gun at a time one gun would go into that field they'd quickly set the gun down get the gun all set take a foxhole in the next gun would go in and it took a while for all four guns to get in there we're under the view of the Germans it was scary as hell about nine o'clock that night I read them Slater and because I didn't know of time or anything the Infantry is not moving across that River on boats they went across on boats those boats we can hear the machine gun firing we could hear the guys hollering guns were shooting there was so much shooting going on over our heads guns behind us shooting over after we're all firing the ground was shaking it was that way for a little while didn't take too long it seems like it all quieted down the Infantry made it they got a cross with not that much resistance because the chairman said they were so spread out what a break it was so many breaks the breaks that I had going over the Normandy harassing that channel was a big now here I'm going across that rain river this happened and we survived it we did it it was we had troops to cross that's both sides that broke the backs of the Germans the war from there on in wasn't bad but we didn't realize it you know we had no idea it was after a thoughts you know that we realized that things got better we anticipated things to be the same so we went across that at the open Hind spearheading like we were at the end of the war and we traveled from there to Munich then from Munich down into Bavaria to Austria and I was at Lynn's Austria in uh when the war ended how did you feel well you know we we get word that the war was over we are awesome such a relief you know it's just so happy but we had nothing to celebrate with you know I can remember it was early part of May the weather was pretty good three of us went down away from the county got into the woods and came to the Danube the river Danube going by there I said the guys look I've got to get my clothes off I've got to get in that water I've got to say I swam in a Danube and here it was around the first of May freezing and the sun was out and a couple of us together got naked and get into the water yeah and it was so freezing but I says well at least I can say hey swimming at the end I wish I could say I swam at the rain but he didn't have that chance but anyway uh well there's so much to talk about you know I never talked about it with my family or my kids but a few years ago I started writing articles for the local paper and uh people like them and I would rate one a month well they started writing about my work experience and my kids said geez dad I didn't know you did that they read about it I didn't tell them anything about it well it was a lot yeah well thank you very much for telling your story today oh I'm proud to do it

Channel: American Veterans Center

Views: 143,314

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Id: r2-8qB2S3Co

Length: 29min 44sec (1784 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 07 2023