WW2 Soldier Who Fought in the Same Division as Audie Murphy Talks About His Time at War

when i turned 18 i was drafted and then what happens to you once you got your notice well i went to uh they shipped me down to camp robinson in little rock arkansas and i had 17 weeks of basic training and uh and then after basic training i uh i uh i got to come home for about a couple of three days for a little furlough and then uh then i got then we got a rush order and then i had to uh we had to go back to the i think we went back to wichita wichita i believe and and they had the planes waiting for us and they flew us to fort meade maryland and that's where we get you ready to go overseas and we were there probably three four five six days to get in our overseas equipment and and and and after we got that we will they load us on a boat i think the constitution was the name of the ship anyway we were uh we uh we uh took off and we were on the and we uh uh on the water for ten days and then we landed in la harv france and uh that's where we're marseille france anyway we laid there we picked cats and stayed there for a few days and and all of a sudden they picked the the uh finally the old 48 trains over there finally picked this up and and took it to the front line and and and see we went to a repo depot for just overnight and then the next uh the next morning they took us up to the front line and when we got up there [Music] we walked over uh probably 15 20 gi's laid there dead they got ambushed and jeep blew up a jeep and a lot of them laying there dead so we took us up to the company and and there was only about four or five people there at the company and we said well where's all the rest of them said that's all that's left so this one old boy there he come over and handed me a b.a.r and said that's your that's your present for being here and so i told my i'm not much on that but he said you you you'll learn and i did and so we stay that uh next month at the next morning my uh next next morning they told us that uh we're moving out tonight they said the germans got a house up up the road about a mile so oh so that night we we got got ready and and uh we had three we had three tanks and you know i don't know maybe 15 or 20 people uh guys with us and so we uh a lot of and us guys some of us got their heads again and said let's uh let's uh let's uh get behind those tanks so so but it didn't take us five minutes to get away from the tanks because they knocked those three tanks out boom boom boom like that the germans did so we all run and jumped in the ditch and uh and we started firing at this farmhouse and and i i shot i had 17 clips and i shot my 17 clip and my shoulder got so sore i had my buddy my buddy laying there and he handed me his m1 he said you drive you'd uh you shoot this a while and he took my ba i went and fired it while so finally that early in the morning while we finally we finally got into the farmhouse and and about that time we had been trying to we had a bunch of assets in there and and and they wouldn't give up so so we had to they were still some in the house so about that time we were standing in the kind of courtyard and about that time he threw a threw a grenade out there and kind of lifted this off the feet and then we then we have one oh god run up the stairs and run up the stairs with a grenade and threw a grenade up there in that room where he was and and next thing we knew the old boy come flying out the window and the german fly out and and that was the end of that so we finally got that taken care of and and uh and we just kind of mopped up around there and and we finally got the house taken how many ss roughly would you say we're in there oh god there's probably six or seven or eight of them they just wouldn't give up so and you remember firing the bar into the farmhouse oh yeah yes i'll never forget that as long as i live what do you remember distinctly about it huh what do you remember about firing at the farmhouse well it's just this well you just i just used a spray nuts kind of you know spraying out the windows or where they were firing back at us and i don't know what while we was getting anything you know but at least we got in there so after that german was thrown out the window by the grenade what happens well yeah oh obviously i think we got we got one guy got wounded a piece of piece of shrapnel by buy a grenade i think that's all we lost was that one guy but he was i think he took him back to sick call and got him packed up and sent him back and then uh i see after that i guess we drew back for a while for a couple days rest and so anyway uh we just uh uh then our then our next encounter was that uh uh uh we were we were going to attack the uh the siegfried line so we all went they moved us back into the woods a bunch of us and and they got us up at uh stayed there that night and about seven o'clock in the morning there was just an open field with these uh with the and where these the germans had their bunkers up up in there and and i don't know why they sent us down there but open fields or anyway we all started down the hill but uh they could knock them they knocked a few of us off and some of them got wounded but we kept it going and we finally ended up in a you know in a moat you know with mud and water and we jumped in that to keep from getting hit and and we all had our guns up up up overhead so they wouldn't get muddy and water in them so there's a little fiery lieutenant we had some back east lieutenant graham he said uh we still laid there for a while and there was a great big haystack oh probably 50 yards way a big haystack so he said we got to get the hell out of here so we started running 10 15 yard intervals and and we all got back we started back to the haystack this is in broad daylight and of course we all got back except one guy he lost his cool and he stayed out there and we tried to any uh any he was firing his gun trying to shooting those guys up there's those bunkers and and we begged him to get him but you know they finally got him and i mean so we lost him yeah he killed him yeah he is a big swede from up in minnesota so anyway we stayed there behind that uh uh haystack all day and then about four o'clock in the evening finally they finally they uh start shooting uh tracer tracer bullets into the haystack and they and it was getting getting getting kind of dark and and of course we we uh the radio radioed up the up to the woods where our buildback was and and uh told him was told him i told him what our situation was and and and finally finally about midnight i think we they finally got the haystack on fire and about that time they they they sent a patrol down and and and and and got us out of there and then uh finally the next day they called in some more troops and finally got some tanks up there and opened a uh i had a bulldozer or something like that to knock those big c c mat sticks out of there so so we get through there so we finally finally got got that job done so and i think that there after yeah they did they did they let us go back and and uh rest a while for a few days to get clean clothes on and shower once in a while so we and see our and uh and our next alberta was our neck counter on our next deal but well we started i think we started up through uh [Music] i think next morning i think we got up and we went to we were headed for uh uh uh nuremberg and when and and uh so we got up early in the morning and we went to augsburg and then we were we were headed towards nuremberg and so we finally got got up there without too too much of a problem and when we got into nuremberg and we were trying to searching for what to do and and then one of one of the commanders says i believe we're surrounded and we we're we were surrounded he said and it's kind of i put the fear in god in us and so finally we finally we finally got out of that mess and and finally we kept moving up and and of course they had nuremberg tore up pretty badly with bombs and and so we finally started cleaning going from house to house and building the building cleaning it cleaning out searching for germans and so so we would finally run into a to a hospital because we opened this door and and i like a cave and looked down there and there was a hospital there was a hospital down there so we went down through there and of course the germans i had a lot of otter of our prisoners in there and got wounded and they were taking care of them and well they had five or six surgeons there working on working on some of their own and some of ours and and and after so long we they finally moved the mood us out of there and we kept kept day by day going through nuremberg taking to cleaning up searching for germans and and things kept right on going and uh can can you tell me more about some of the specific fire fights you got into at oh nuremberg didn't we had we didn't encounter too much uh we didn't encounter too much uh fight uh because the the the bombs it kind of cleaned them all a lot of them out we didn't run into too much far we didn't have too much trouble in nuremberg just cleaning out and at night and going in houses and checking them out and finding people in bed and that of course they they just they were scared of death which i don't blame them we go in their rooms and people in bed and these are civilians yeah civilians yeah and so anyway we uh let's see then and then they uh finally uh after that uh we moved into uh the next day i think the next day we we uh we are getting ready to cross the crossroad uh the rhine river so they got us ready to cross the rhine river at worms germany and uh when we and uh and they had little little canoes for us to get in and of course i had that 17 clips of ammo with me and and lieutenant told to come and told us to unbuckle them because in case those canoes would turn over and so so we did and we so well we got to go we got across the rhine river without any uh a dew and so then we finally got across there and then we started uh then we started into uh to the black forest and this was nighttime and and and we walked all night long going through the black forest and uh and of course we every time we run across a stream of water well we fill our canteens with this little water and put a lot of stuff in it so it's purify the water and and and the next morning we get we finally well i think we walk about about 20 25 miles that night walking through that forest and and all of a sudden after next early in the morning while we were we come out there and out of the forest and about that time they were waiting on us and uh the germans were waiting on us and anyway they they we got out there in the open and they pinned us down and i remember i was so tired i could hardly go so i just laid there i just laid there and and and i and i i didn't know what to do and i looked around and some of my buddies had had the foxholes dug so so i ran over and jumped in the foxhole with them so we sat there for a while and [Music] so the so so we so yeah so we we got out of that mess pretty good and uh any anyway we had to the next uh and pretty soon you know that time was getting pretty chilly at night and of course we had those old uh rubber boots on and god's feet were soaring and that's that and finally finally uh we got stopped about somewhere along the way and we had to rest and and i took my boots off those little rubber boots my feet were sore and the guys said put those boots back on your feet thinking i said i know they do so i put them back on so anyway we got after that we had a couple days rest so uh i said well i showed that to my company commander he said well you better go you better go go to sitco and get those feet taken care of and i think i got my feet cold and kind of had frozen feet and so we all went back and they were you know a sick call and they washed my feet and and put some barbara saw on it and cooled them off and gave me some clingy socks and and i said well what am i supposed to announces was going back to your company so i had to walk back over a few a few feet of my company and and that was a mess and and and i see where where should we go then anyway well we went we went up in the woods and dug in waiting for i was waiting to see see what our next goal was and and of course we saw some germans there but germans down the bottom of the hill there but we kept quiet because we didn't want to disturb anything and that we didn't know we didn't want them to know we were up in there or they probably bombed us or something so let me finally assign where the next where we go then and i think that's the time we're getting well anyway we were anyway we got a we got a few days rest and pretty soon uh the we were a couple miles behind behind uh the division was a couple miles behind on schedule and so the general wanted to wanted to get 40 40 40 volume and 40 volunteers to he wanted 40 volunteers to do a job so myself and a bunch of guys got to talk and i said well let's i said to him i said let's let's volunteer this deal coming up so we don't know what it is but i said maybe we can get a little get a little breaker so a few of us got our heads together our buddies so we so so so the next next morning uh we got to what we were supposed to do we went to we had a little railroad station there we went up the railroad station there and and it had about uh 10 10 a little pump uh player called pump pump cars or rail little engines so they loaded us all on that on those cars 40 of us so we started up the tracks we were supposed to supposedly we were going to go go behind enemy lines to so we could get caught up and and and as soon as we started out was they see us coming and they blew up the track and and take off and then we finally we had to go uh go fix the track to patch it up so we get through and we kept going and they blew it up about three or four times and then we finally got through and and then and when we got there it was uh where it was it was a bunch of high high class german officers office officers camp got over the big shots a lot of the officers lived there and and so we uh and that was just when president roosevelt's birthday was i no oh he died he got yeah he died so we had to we had to go outside and shoot our guns in the air to to take care of president roosevelt duty and so and then we started rounding up all the big shot officers there and of course they gave up they they knew they was whipped and of course we met the we met the russians the russians were coming in on the other side coming up the other side so we met them and of course they they were most of them were drunk they were drinking vodka i guess and so so after we got that taken care of they said well you're on your own now so we went back and found us a nice nice little nice clean bed and those big fancy buildings back there and stayed all night there for and they said well your your company will be coming to pick you back up well anyway they didn't they didn't come so we stayed for about we stayed there for about three or four days to live the life of luxury for a while and we needed the rest we were all pooed out and they finally come and got us that 40 men who went behind enemy lines did you guys engage the germans at all oh we had a we had a little not not much just that one spot with the they pinned us down there it wasn't too bad and and i think we were i think we were getting pretty close to this was getting pretty close to the end of end of the end of the day war you know and and uh and then then we started moving towards we just we used we were headed for munich then and that's and so we finally got into munich and and uh things were things were calming down then and that's then that's when we wanted to go up to hitler's hideout bursa's garden so then we finally got to go out there and see what's going on and that was that was about the end of the end of the deal what do you remember about burch's garden what did it look like oh it was a pretty fancy place and but it didn't impress me too much a lot of guys were picking up rocks and stuff and taking home souvenirs and and that and and and oh and then we run into on our way to munich we run into the uh the prison uh that a doc i think a deco adaco prison camp and they funny and we kind of looked at look that over and and finally they told us to to go along the highway and sit there and wait and they were gonna they were gonna let these prisoners out at least they let the prisoners out of there and and we kind of kept an eye on them and god does that was a sorry looking mess what do you remember with the with the prisoners of dachau what did they look like oh well they were skinny and undernourished nothing but skin and bones and numbers all over their arms and this and that and but they were smiling you get out of there and and but that was a that was about the end of that and of course we saw a few of those bodies stacked up in there before they burned them up and stacked them and bought in stacks of you know i had picture i got pictures of that stuff but but oh so he so we wind up so we were finally finally got it was getting pretty close to the end of the war so they're letting the prisoners go and and so we finally got into munich and and and that was so we finally stayed there a while i think we stayed there quite a while and then and uh and then about that time and that's a that was about to about the end of it after we got then we left after we got we got her to go up to the birch's garden well the thing was about over with then what do you remember how did you hear about the official surrender oh oh oh i'll say yeah i said i think it come down from the headquarters just as it was just about over with there we're going to sign a peace treaty and and uh so oh about that time like we didn't know what was going to go on about that time uh or president truman dr uh oh then they they then they were going to get us ready to ready to go go to japan and uh god and about that time oh truman bombed here hiroshima and and and that that put the icing on the cake and that was the end of that so so we told the they decided that we didn't have to go go to japan because you would join the combat later in the war you your life was on the line when it comes to japan because you would have been one of the first ones they sent to japan yeah yeah they would have yeah they would have sent us yeah because we were because they were we were getting ready to to go and but anyway well anyway after that uh we since we didn't have to go then we moved over to uh we went to uh austria uh oh well we went to wildflucken germany we were and we garrison air we stayed there for a while and then they moved us to uh a little town of rhoden germany road in germany we called it uh cow that's where they probably count a cow cow manure in the street we call it a cow cowboy manure rodent and let's see after that let's see what what else would you would you well i think i think that was about it for a while so we were really relieved when they when they when we heard they bombed japan the atom bomb and the enemies they said well i guess well i guess you won't have to go over there so the war is just about over so they moved us over to salzburg austria and and so they told us that they were going to make us a occupation occupation they wanted us to go over there and make a show show place for for for our company and and of course that was a that was a that was a bad deal and and we kind of cleaned this place up and and and we had to pitch a bunch of tents we sled sleeping tents and and of course we didn't have anything to sleep on he stepped the ground and and one of the officers said well there's a bunch of german stretchers over there in the stacks so we went over there and got them out of the outer stacks and and then so we moved them in and and in our tents and and that was a big mistake that was one of the biggest mistakes we ever made in our lives and and so we all we all woke up the next morning and we were full of crabs uh crabs all over our body and so they called a called a big shot the big stock generals in and and we had to stand inspection and he says i don't know what senator i said i don't know what what we're going to do about this but he says oh he says we're going to move in a bunch of showers and you guys are going to have to trim your hair off off of your body to get to get rid of them so did they get there in the first place well they were in with a they were you know you know those uh stretchers step into outside this and you know how stuff accumulates bugs and stuff and anyway they had full of crabs and and we all got the crabs so we finally they finally moved in the shower and got us cleaned up and we finally got we finally got rid of them and they said well he said this is when you know they caught you with having crabs they would they would give you a dishonorable discharge or something like that and say i just just happened he says we won't we won't put that on your record so we got cleaned up and and so anyway we there quite a while after we occupied that for a while and uh i don't know where we but we was glad we were glad that was over with then we just want to move from town to town doing occupation and then after and then and and and that was about it they signed the treaty there's no more wars

Channel: Legends of WWII

Views: 249,918

Rating: 4.9010277 out of 5

Keywords: world war II, veterans, world war II veterans, world war 2, combat veterans, heroes of world war, heroes of war, soldiers, marines, navy, airforce, combat, army

Id: xjp_-Iyqzas

Length: 32min 41sec (1961 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 24 2020