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The recording of the interview with Walter John Walko was digitized.
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This is the oral history of World War II veteran Walter John Walko. Mr. Walko served with the US Army's 104th division, 415th Headquarters' company. He served in the European Theater including 195 consecutive days of combat in France, Holland, Belgium and Germany. He was awarded the Bronze Star with three battle stars and the Expert and Combat Infantryman's Badge. I'm Tom Swope and we recorded this at Mr. Walko's home in Mentor, Ohio, on September 13th, 2001. Walt's age at the time of this recording was 79. When did you go into the service?
December of '42.
Drafted?
Naturally. Only 20 years old you know, and what did you know about... that... and I stayed in until December of '45, almost three years to the day. I was with the 104th Infantry Division, 415th Infantry, Headquarters Company, I and R platoon. Intelligence and Reconnaisance, and we had, I think, it was about 28 or 30 people in our I and R platoon. We had seven jeeps so we were foot patrols, motor patrols, and operated OP's all over the, all over the country.
Where did you train?
I first trained with the, well, 1942, we were drafted we went to Camp Perry and while we were there they came up with the idea that they needed people for the paratroops and after training, they would get 50 dollars a month more. Which sounded good at that time, so I volunteered, naturally. And we went to Camp Toccoa, Georgia. I don't think anybody ever remembers about Camp Toccoa, any more, about 60 miles from Fort Benning. So I took basic training there. And the first thing when you pulled into camp, you dropped your duffle bags, and they had a tower that had to be about 60 to 70 foot high, so they asked you to climb the tower. And when you got up to the top they had a mockup of a plane fuselage. So they strapped you into a harness, shoved you out of the front door. You had to holler "Geronomo!" and slid down that cable. If you refused to jump off they kicked you out. So anyhow, I made that and completed basic training there. But, at age 20, I was against having somebody coming up and say, "Hey give me 10 pushups because your button's unbuttoned. Or, you dropped your rifle, give me 25." That to me was a bunch of baloney and I decided I didn't want any part of it. I asked for a transfer so for a whole week they had me doing exercise and tested my coordination. And all that. Even a general asked me "What's the matter with you? We need men like you." Blah blah blah, I still want out. I ended up in Camp Adair, Oregon, and took basic training over again {chuckles} and when we got to Camp Adair, they interviewed you. "Well what do you want?" I said I want anything other than a rifle company. So they were kind-heartedly put me in H Company. Heavy Weapons and I took basic training there. But, they had just started their basic training and I had completed mine so they really didn't know what to do with me, so they sent me to every school they could think of: messenger school, wire school, radio school...they made me company runner (I got my PFC stripes hot dog!) And during the course of training, why, we went through a three-day training period. Uh... yeah, who said, "I will return?"
Oh, Macarthur?
Yeah! He sent back a message saying that we were badly in need of scouts. So we went through a three-day training period and ended up being in what they call a Timberwolf scout. Then we went into...
What is a Timberwolf scout?
Well, we would go out and find out where the opposition was, you know, and come back and report what we'd seen and draw maps of certain areas and stuff like that. More or less, like I said-a scout-you know, go up ahead and see what the hell's going on and report back. But, so, as being nominated for being a Timberwolf scout we had our first maneuvering program and a call came up to division to send all the Timberwolf scouts to regimental headquarters to take the place of the I and R platoon they were the blue army and us replacements were going to replace them. And at that time they weren't jeeps...they were quarter inch amphibian vehicles-looked like a bathtub with wheels. We got a kick-four or five of us were asked after the maneuvers were asked if we wanted to stay with the I and R platoon well hell yes, it was better than walking, ride around in jeeps, so we all volunteered for the I and R platoon. Which was fine with me! But during the war, we did motorized patrols, foot patrols--
When did you go overseas then?
September of '44. I think it was 6 months after D Day.
Where did you land then, Normandy?
Yeah, I believe it was Utah Beach. We landed at the-the city the town closest to us was Boulogne, Boulogne, Germany. At that time we were with the Canadian First Army so, we went from France-where did we go first? Well, we helped the First Canadian Army clear the port of Antwerp, then we came back to France, and from France, Belgium, then into Germany. But after leaving Holland, our first tour was we relieved the First Army at Aachen. Then from Aachen, we went straight through. We had 195 consecutive days of combat. So we had a little bit of a record there. And our motto was nothing in Hell would stop the Timberwolves. And nothing did. We went right through. We went from Aachen Stolberg, Eschweiler, Weschweiler, Pier, Murken, Duren, Halle, Cologne. I think it was in the city of Halle , the town was complete. And from what I gathered, the fighting stopped, and a message was sent to the mayor of Halle to surrender the town. Otherwise they would, you know, more or less demolish it. And I don't know if he was the mayor of the town, but the fellow who came to talk to our commanding officers was a submarine commander from world war two, it's the Seawolf. I can't recall... Luckenburg, or something like that... Van luckenburg, or something like that... Like I say, he was a naval commander in the first war and he more or less surrendered the town. Must have cut a deal. And then we went on into Cologne. And we had an OP on the Rhine River. And our big deal up there was --up in the Cologne we would spot troops and then they would call in artillery fire.
You started to describe some of the things you did over there in the northwest. What kinds of things did you do in I and R?
Well, our first taste of uh - corpses - was in Holland. One day we were-our I and R was called and told to make a motorized patrol from this point on the map to--whatever. Our basic deal with I and R was the three F's: find 'em feel 'em and fix 'em. You found 'em, you decided how many were involved and you did not try to force 'em into a fight. We just found out our information and got the heck out of there. Reported back to intelligence. But this one night, we just-that afternoon we pulled into a rest area we thought we going to stay for the night and were told we had to make a patrol. There were seven of us. Lucky me was in the first vehicle so as we were going down this, darker then pitch, a vehicle comes from the opposite way, and tells us to watch what we were doing because they had the main intersection zeroed in. So, anyhow, we proceeded down that road, and I don't know how far we got, but I happened to look over my left shoulder, and here I see this-form-standing there, so I stopped. And the guys in back of the vehicle jumped up and grabbed him. It was a German soldier fallen asleep on guard duty. So this one fellow in the patrol, name of Gluck, he used to be an orchestra leader for a big band in New York. But he could speak German. New York German. He questioned him and found that there was another sentry in the dugout. So Gluck went over and called in to the dugout to "Come out and surrender or we throw a grenade in!" So that fellow come out. Our leader of our patrol at that time was Major Dean. His father was a general. I forget what his...anyhow, Major Dean. Anyhow, he was leader of the patrol. So, he and another soldier named Clark were questioning these two troopers. And they decided to make a getaway. Well they started to run and they were both shot in the back. That's when the Major Dean hollered, "turn those vehicles around head 'em back." So, turning them around, I was the last vehicle. One of the jeeps was so excited that the gun with-- the jeep with our 50 caliber went down a little grade, down in a hollow. All the vehicles were turned around, heading up there. Then the fire starts- fight started. I'm sittin' in a vehicle waiting to go, and I said, "Let's get the heck out of here!" I heard this dingggg-ricochet! I thought oh my word that's close! So I laid down alongside my vehicle I can't tell you at this time, I probably blacked out. What's going on? All I could hear was these two guys on the side, you know, moaning, and groaning oh my God! The following day, or that night even, when the firefight stopped, we all got back in our vehicles and headed down. A little farther down the road they picked up another German. He had been transferred from the air force cause they had no planes. He was standing on the road watching what was going on, they picked him up. (laughs) The following morning, that night, we got into our rest area and went back to get some gas for the jeep. And- I noticed-on the jeep you have these-posts. Well, in mine this sucker had me-if the bullet had come through the bracket it a got me right here. But it went through this part of the rail, angled off at an angle, and hit the glove compartment. That's when I heard this riccochet...and that's when I slid down. But whoever was behind me had me pinpointed. It was unconceivable that it went in this way, and angled-but then we had camouflage nets in front of our, on top of our windshields. And, in that thing there had to be three spent bullets-I don't know who they were from, our troops or theirs. But, I wish I'd have brought them home, but I threw them away. {laughs} My son was always fascinated with the German army and he's got quite a collection back there. And I thought well, if I had known I was going to have a son, terrified I wasn't going to live through this, I could have a ton of paraphernalia...and I didn't get nothing but pictures. No, our basic job was foot patrols, motorized patrols, and observations. Most of the time-I think it was the battle of the bulge but, what town was it-?
You were talking about battle of the bulge?"
Yeah.
Bastogne
Well, the Battle of Bastogne was going on. We had an OP in Murken, Germany. we were right by the Ruhr River. Not the I and R, but mostly the rifle company would, every evening, would send out patrols. They would open up the flood gates and flooded the whole area. And the Germans too would send troops out to feel us, and we would go feel them. This is a picture of what our OP was. There was a tower on the opposite side that we would stand up there and look towards the Ruhr River. This is what they called the Elizabeth High home. It had to be a nursing home. Cause in here was the chapel we cleaned out and lived in this chapel all the while the Battle of the Bulge was going on. Prior to the Bulge, we had just been sent to Reviers, Belgium, on a three-day pass. And while we were there we were called back, because the Bulge had started. So then we stayed in our OP position on the Ruhr. Up until they decided to go over. The day before we crossed the Ruhr river, they had the- we had the OP in Murken. We had a building at the end of the street. We walked down every morning to operate the OP from a different building. It made me so damn mad! The day before they were going to jump cross the river, the Air Force pilots came in to our observation post standing up there with their glasses, looking, they're trying to pick out targets across the river. I thought you bastards, once you leave, they'll shell the hell out of us. Cause they're standing up there in the open. But, in the following morning, they did the bombing deal, then we crossed the Ruhr and we went into Duren. Then one building- it had to be a bank of some kind. We were in a room with all the deposit boxes everybody there with a bayonet tried to pick them open. Find out what's in 'em. I didn't get anything I couldn't find nothing. I'm not sure who did, but I'm sure a lot of them came home well heeled. You better believe it. We- like I say, we went to Stolberg, Eschveiler, Westveiler, Duren, Pier, Murken and basically that, it was just- driving through. But, you wouldn't believe- the first farm I saw in Boulogne: It was just a-more or less-a thatch house. It had a dirt floor up on the back of the building, the dirt floor was up about a foot, they had their bed there, they swept the floors with a piece of stick and twigs. That was their broom. They had ducks in the house, chickens, and- Oh God! But at first, before we even got our equipment to go into combat, we would go around to all the farms trying to find cognac. They what they gave us was a big bottle of white liquid. It was calvados. Potato! Oh my word! It would tear your eyeballs out. Whew! We didn't know any different, cognac. We thought it was cognac. In this one town we went into, the German people squealed on this one fellow had a stash full of wine in the basement. Me, three others, with a jeep and trailer. And we had a German speaking feller. He had been with the Hitler youth, but he and his mother got out of Germany before everything got too bad. So he helped us, going down the basement, I stood there with the tommy gun to keep the people away. They were all anxious to get that wine too. So we loaded that trailer with all the wine. And this German speaking fellow, he would pick up all of the good bottles. We'd stash them everywhere in the jeep we could, to hide them. Because one hundred percent of that wine went to the officers. We had cream of the crop. Oh my God! I can't drink wine to this day. {laughs} But, we went to Cologne and had the OP at Cologne and what we would do at Cologne, at night, we made motorized patrols around the whole city of Cologne. At this one spot, the river went this way, and at one spot where you had to make a left turn and you were exposed to the whole waterfront, that was the spookiest part. Nothing really happened. No, if I had known I was going to come out of it all right, I would have enjoyed it! But, you stood up in that OP and you had 4 hours on and 4 hours off. And, we would be bivouacked in this building, and maybe two or three hundred yards down the road we would have the OP. So, you would be up there alone for four hours. We would look out. Snow. Who knows I am here? Goes through your mind. Does anyone know I'm here? What's going on? Spooky feeling. But we made it. About five of the ones in my platoon that I called, have passed away already. Not too many of us left.
Do you have any real close buddies that you {inaudible} from your platoon?
One! One of our drivers he, he drove for Col. Cochrane. Apparently, one night the colonel had to go to a meeting at some villa. Gosh! I'll think of his name in two days from now. He had parked his jeep in a courtyard. I guess he was sitting or standing there smoking a cigaret. Shell landed and killed him. That was our-I think we had three fatalities in our platoon. That was why we didn't have advancement in rank, because nobody in the higher eschelon got hit. We had-Clark was our platoon leader he was staff sergeant. We had two buck sergeants, I think we had two corporals, the rest of us were privates or PFCs. I think it was 21 or 28 men. Well, we had seven vehicles and there was four in a jeep, that would be 28. I know one time in Holland the convoy going down and we had to stop because the engineers had not cleaned the road of mines. So the road went this way and then there was a left fork. So we took the left fork. I was the second vehicle. Lt. Pruitt was in the first jeep, and as we made the turn, the mine exploded under Pruitt's car, flipped it over on its side. Nobody was killed, but he ended up with punctured eardrums, so he had a ticket to go home right then and there, but he decided to stay. And I was the second vehicle. So they told me, well, go to that house, turn around and come back the other way. Can you believe my foot was on the gas pedal like this {laughs} Went down, made the turn and come back. We headed back this way where they cleared the mines. Everybody got out the sandbags, they were digging up, filling up the doggone sandbags. I had one on the gas tank, one on the floor board, We didn't care, sat on the darn sandbag. There was one episode-I never saw it-but a jeep was up on a tree from hitting a mine? Blew it up into a damn tree! On the way to Holland, I know, looking out from a field, you could see a soldier standing there, with no head, but he was still standing there. God almighty, what are we getting into you know? In Holland we were going on a convoy, and they started shelling on the left of us. Everybody stops. They jump out of their vehicles. There's a great big ditch on the right hand side. Everybody's jumping in the ditch. Three guys jumping in, I was the last one to get in. I more or less straddled them. I was lucky, it was a ditch full of excretement. {laughs} But then again, I was the only one clean, so I was elected to drive the colonel who's driver had just been killed, to another meeting. I didn't enjoy that a bit!
Why didn't you enjoy that?
They had to go up front all the time, you know. No, we had a nice colonel. I guess he had quite a money making deal. He knew horses. And I guess he had a good system, so he won quite a bit of money while betting on horses. I was telling when Pruitt's jeep blew up with the jeep we pulled up to where the engineers were clearing the mines. And there was a big ditch. And as we looked into the ditch you could see three dead Germans soldiers. That had been...I guess they'd had a fire fight that night and they were coming, sneaking through the ditch. They were all, those were the first dead soldiers I saw. It took three days before I could swallow my spit. Ah! But, we got used to it. Bodies all over. There was one place...lieutenant came up and asked me if I wanted to see what's going on. And I was, "nah!" They had an underground factory underground they were making bombs, their planes and, like an idiot, I didn't go down to see it. I didn't want to be in a hole someplace. {laughs} But we had a...there was a Kodak factory - cameras and film- and several of the guys got to go in it, and they brought back rolls and rolls of film- which I used to take these pictures. When we left, and I wish I'd had a camera then, because what the Germans soldiers did, they had these bodies of dead Poles who-whatever, but-they had them stacked up in front of this building like sandbags. With their striped suits, I wish I'd a had a picture, but, people don't want to believe it, but-
You talked about putting sandbags on the floorboards. Was that for mines?
Yeah, yeah! Yeah! When the mine, you know, running over it explodes under your car, flips it over. We did put sandbags down there because in case we did hit a mine the bad one, shrapnel would not come through the floor boards. No, I had 'em, I put them on the gas pedal, the clutch pedal, sat on one, got awful wet at times. {laughs} This was a little book they gave us. With our, with ...tells a story about us. I think our... Even our platoon has a little story in there. {pause 14 seconds}
Cherbourg is where you landed, right? 104th became the first...landed {inaudible} directly from the states.
While we were over there. This is a Black Forrest wolf that the German people gave us. That was our mascot, supposedly.
Did you have a girlfriend or a wife at the time?
Yep, ...I got married on my first furlough. I was in for 11 months, and they decided, Walko, you need a vacation, so I got a 15-day furlough. And it was November, November 10th, 1943, I got married. We had 56 years together. She passed away, it'll be three years, since she's been gone.
Did you get letters when you were over there?
Oh yes, oh yes.
What kinds of things did you write about? {inaudible}
Nothing more than, "Miss you. Wish I were home."
That's all you could write back, right?
They censored your letters. While overseas, I couldn't even write and tell them where I am. If you did, it was cut out. So, you couldn't tell them what the heck's going on. All you could tell them was bed check Charley was around this evening. Well we had, it was Stolberg Germany, I forget what company it was, was advancing up the road. The Germans had machine guns set for cross fire. I can't remember the lieutenant's name. He was leading, the machine guns fired. They said that when the firefight was over he had scraped all his fingernails off, trying to get into a hole because of the cross fire, you know, the machine gun fire {sound of thumping} digging. Digging to get down under. Closest I ever came, we had a patrol in Holland. {coughs} We parked our vehicle in a grove. And, in Germany, there were rows and rows of what they called hedgerows. Each hedgerow separated a plot of ground. The farmers would farm their ground. These hedgerows were five to six foot high or even higher. These great big mounds from here to this wall. Just heaped up. You couldn't see what was on this side or that side. Anyhow we went into an open stretch, and over here was a big wooded area, maybe oh, maybe the size of our front yard, just a thatch of trees, and in the middle of that was a real dugout about the size of this kitchen and as deep. The roof was covered with logs and dirt. The Germans had that, but they had pulled out. We were supposed to take charge of that position and to hold it until the next infantry division moved in. I am looking out of this foxhole up front and I am in a foxhole a good 1000 yards out ahead of me you could see this soldier standing there. I thought I would love to take a shot, but at a 1000 yards, no way. No way. We knew the Germans were up there looking our way. There was a big clearing, in our woods and then another strip of woods. The infantry was marching down in the open. Lt Pruitt told Clark to scurry back, to warn the ones coming, that there were troops up ahead, to watch. Well, then the Germans opened up with machine gun fire. And they dispersed. Another company came in, moved in on us to relieve us. We decided we left. We got to the edge of our clearing, the edge of the woods, we all stopped. Pruitt didn't know which direction we should go back. So, while we stopped the Germans threw mortar fire. As that happened, everybody flattens out. They had a drain pipe. I don't know how the hell they got in it, but a couple of them got into that drain pipe. I was carrying a bazooka so I just dropped forward. But I was standing up and I would say from here to that fire plug across the street, you could see this great big explosion, white, red yellow smoke and then I dropped down and that was the closest I came, other than being almost hit in the back. That was the closest I ever come. But, they had figured that they knew we were in that position. They figured gave us enough time, if we hadn't stopped, we'd a been in the middle of that field, that they'd a had us. Fortunately we stopped and that was it. Yeah! But basically we ...on our first foot patrol we went out there like it was like hunting rabbits, for cripes sake. Guns pointing down, looking around, open field. Nuts! We learned! Lord, did we learn!- One time at the OP in Murken, bastards brought a captured field piece. And they fired, right alongside of our building, they fired about three rounds, picked it up and disappeared. And it wasn't five minutes later after they left, that they shelled our building. So it was my next turn on third floor to the OP and as I went up there was a bunch of rubble where they hit our building. You had four hours off and four hours on. I know one time, well, one reason I got out of the paratroops. One night we were called for formation. You had a steel helmet and you had what you call a helmet liner and the helmet liner had a little strap. So, at formation I didn't have my strap, well I had it over my liner, but I didn't have it, off the liner, over the steel pot. So they come around and check you and order arms, and all that. No, helmet liner ain't right. I got four hours... I got guard. So they put you out in this field or woods with you standing there with a bayonet. So what do you do? This jeep comes by. Check whether you're on guard or not. What do you do? Yell, "halt and be recognized!" What do you do? Stab him with a bayonet? Like I said 20 years old. And I wasn't about to let other people tell me when I could go take a leak. ... Baloney. Blessing I never did, from what I understand, the 501st was annihilated. They were one of those that landed over there in Holland, I guess.
Battalion?
Paratroop infantry. Yeah 501st parachute infantry.
But they weren't part of the 101st Airborne, were they?
Screaming Eagles?
501st? Screaming Eagles? {inaudible}
It might be. I really don't know. It might be what I'm talking about, but like I said, I decided I wanted out. For about a week I didn't do anything but lounge around waiting to ship out. For about a week I shipped out. Our outfit made a forced march of 60 miles. A forced march to Fort Benning. They were going to march the whole 60 miles to Fort Benning and complete their training. Up until you made 5 jumps you were allowed to quit. After that you were in for life. The only jump I made was off the tower. Like I said I - at age 20 and I wasn't about to-put up with that bullshit...
{Inaudible} While you were overseas did you and the guys in the platoon do anything for entertainment?
Oh yeah! Every company had what you call a day room we had a radio in there, we had a ping pong table. And we had baseball bats gloves, everything, you know, card tables most of the time the day rooms-everybody went to town. And at six o'clock in the morning, what the heck, I forget, but at six o'clock we had our breakfast then we lounge around for a while, then at eight o'clock they called for formation, then they started our classes: map reading, compass reading. Five o'clock we had retreat, six o'clock you had supper, then you got a pass and went to town. Or you went to the PX. Most everyone went to the PX. The beer drinkers would buy a case of beer. I had a pint of ice cream. I didn't drink beer while I was in the Army. Until I went overseas. After I got back I could drink everyone under the table. It didn't matter. My wife's girlfriends decided to take me out to get me bombed, but they never made it. {laughs} I was feeding this one girl what they call French 75s. There was cognac. I don't know what was in it. But she complained for three days, god damn. She complained to my wife that everytime she went to drink some water she got drunk again. {laughs}
I heard that overseas, this one I and R platoon they had a phonograph record. Did you have a record player or anything? Did you make up songs, or anything like that?
Oh yeah we had songs. "Roll me over in the clover."
So you rewrote some songs too?
Oh yeah we did. I don't think they would be {laughs} very well received.
My dad said they made up new words for paper doll, he never told me, did you --? BREAK IN RECORDING
First off, do you remember VE day? Where you were?
Oh yeah. Basically the war wound down...yeah, it was in May. I know one time, we were in this little section, two Russian planes came in and landed. Two Russian-I don't know if they were MIGs at that time or not, but anyway- but two Russian planes. And there were more or less scattered pockets of German soldiers all over the place, that were by-passed in battles. What happened was, we would go out on patrol with the American flag hanging up above the jeep. We would go through these towns and all these people had their windows open with white sheets hanging down signifying they surrendered. The first thing you would hear, going through, "Ruski, Ruski?" Because they were scared to death of the Russians.. "No, Americanski!" "Oh Boy! Happy!" We never got the credit for it, I and R platoon, but we did, our platoon did meet the Russians at Torgau. We had a German speaking, a Russian speaking fellow in our platoon. And the Russians came across in a boat, and talked to the I and R platoon. The ones who got credit for it was the 104th Recon. See individually, they had, each company had its own I and R platoon. The 104th division had its own, what they call recon company, now they didn't have much there, but they had armored cars and all the fancy bullshit. They-they are the ones that got the credit for meeting the Russians. Our platoon did meet them at Torgau. I had some pictures of them, I don't know what the hell happened to them-
Did you have a celebration of VE day?
This, I have a picture, I should get it blown up. We were in this little town and boy, we were all set. We had all the girls lined up for that evening. And here, this is a horse-drawn wagon, with a spare horse on the back. These were Russians coming into the town. And with the Russians coming into town, the bigwigs decided they're going to rob us blind we'll get the hell out of here and let them have it. You know. But we were all set to...we were all set to... one of our cards from the uh, one of the uh...
Reunions?
Reunions we had-these were all pictures my wife's cut out. {Pause}
So you say you had a big old celebration on VE day or not?
Not that I recall.
Accepted it? How much longer did you stay-in Germany after VE day?
It ended in May, had to be maybe two or three weeks. 'Cause I think my last place of employment there was I think what they called Camp Chesterfield.
You had enough points-
Chesterfield.
After VE Day, you had enough points to go home?
Well, basically, when it was over, we were destined to go to Japan. But when we were on our way over, they decided they had enough troops in Japan for what they needed. But we were sent directly home. Otherwise we would...yeah, what we did actually, after the war we were really training to go over and occupy Japan, that's what they were going to be training us for. But like I said they decided they had enough troops there for the situation, so we ended up getting discharged. So I got discharged in December. I was in almost three years to the day. Went in just about four days before Christmas. I was so mad that I couldn't get a pass to get home for Christmas. When you went in, you spent three days there going through all these kind of tests, checking your IQ and all that. I was fortunate my IQ was enough, they came out with the training section. ASTP, I think they called it. Army specialized training program. Stupid first sergeant of ours decided I would go. "You're going to go," "I don't want to go." "You're going to go." "Oh, Okay" I ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah at the university they gave a test. One was in math I was never any good at math. I said the hell with it. I wouldn't complete the test. They said, if you don't want to take the test, go back. Okay fine, there were quite a few of us decided to go back. Got back just in time for a period of maneuvers. Maneuvered for damn near a good year and a half. That's where we became known as the night fighters.
When you got back home, do you remember anything specific about your reunion with your wife?
Truthfully, no, no, Not really. This was our paper, Timberwolf--
Did you have any trouble adjusting to civilian life when you got back?
No not really. I stayed, well first thing I did was get my car fixed up and within two weeks I was working at a gas station with my uncle. And then I decided to give up on that, and I went into business with my cousin who was a mechanic and had his own two car garage. I went into business with him and stayed with him for maybe three years. Got another job in 1950 I got a job with Downtown Chevrolet at 1935 Euclid Avenue. In the parts department. I was in that business up until I reached 65. It was almost 25 years in the parts department. Then two weeks before I decided to retire, I lost my left leg. Two years ago I lost the other one.
When you think of the experience overseas, does anything come to mind as your strongest most vivid memory? That you haven't mentioned?
Golly, {pause} it would have been Christmas of '44 I think we were in the town of Stolberg. We had our platoon in, a what I would call the electrical department of some factory. It had to be about this wide. But on this wall there were all the electrical gauges and everything, a whole row of electrical dials and everything and we had maybe nine or ten bunks. Bunks were like three foot high, I was on the top one. I say it was December, just before Christmas, December of '44. The German army sent out paratroopers dressed as American soldiers to infiltrate. And before they dropped the doggone paratroops. They bombed. And I remember distinctly laying up on the top of the bunk, hearing whisssssstle getting louder and louder. I dropped from the top bunk down. And hid under the bottom. I even beat the two guys in the middle down. There was an explosion. It missed our building by about 50 feet. But you wouldn't believe the hole it left in the ground. If it had hit us we would a been gone. All in all there were a lot of times, when the Canadian First Army would bring in their 150 millimeter guns. Right outside where you we were trying to sleep. Boom boom boom. Then they, one night we were in a OP we called the whispering OP. Cause we were in one section of the building and the Germans were in the other side, and they could hear. That's why they called it the whispering OP. It was so cold in our part of the building, you had to sneak out to in the alleyway, they had a coal pile there. So between the Germans reaching for coal and you reaching for coal, they had a little stand off. {laughs} One night they were up there, they actually shelled our position. The shells were landing on top of the slate roof. I don't think they had what we call HE. We had two different types of mortar shells: one was a HE light, which explode on contact, the other was HE heavy, which would penetrate before it would explode. Theirs would explode hitting this shale roof. Inside, they had a center pillar that would have been a fireplace or furnace, anyway, a great big square. When they started to shell, I crouched up against this chimney. In a few minutes it was over. Then someone hollered, "here's a body!" I can still remember his name: John Boss. He had been standing close to me, a piece of shrapnel went through his neck. Killed him outright. They took his body out, put it in a room. When my tour of duty was over, I wandered past the OP and I heard the first sergeant call, "Walt! what size shoe did you wear?" I said, "seven and one-half." He said, "these won't fit, they're size nine." They had the body dead man's shoes that they fit. "That son of a bitch." His name was John Boss. What size shoes do you wear? No thank you. Basically, in my opinion, it was more or less a clean war outside of that Malmady deal-but ...
There were rules that you sort of played by?
They had what I called what was more or less a clean war.
The Germans were in the other part of the building and you were in the other?
Yeah yeah.
Well why wasn't there any --how did that happen?
Well, there were partitions. You know what I mean. Well, just like we're in here, and this was a solid wall, and Marion's on the other side. And when you were talking, they could hear, and when they were talking, we could hear. What they did, in German, you had to see the town. The buildings were all together you know, like one great big wall with doors for each place. And, what they did, the Germans, they all had basements. They what they would do they'd dig a hole in the wall of the basement, so they could go from this basement to that basement to that basement and keep on going. When the infantry came in to clean houses, they could fire from this room, then sneak to another room and keep on going. We had, we were called up one night to relieve this company and we went down into the basement, the people occupying it had it blocked off with mattresses so the Germans couldn't come back in. You know. One morning they called us out for a foot patrol there were seven of us. We took our jeeps to a certain point. There was this great big wooden barn but when you opened the door to this wooden barn, inside the wooden barn, there was this huge massive concrete pillbox, disguised as a wooden barn. From there we were given instructions to try and capture any German soldier we could. So we went out on a foot patrol. I was supposed to be the getaway man in case anything happened. But lieutenant, then a sergeant up ahead, saw this German in a fox hole. But before they could do anything about it, a runner came to us and told us to evacuate the area because they were going to be bombing shortly. So we got the hell out of there and then they did bomb the area. That time I was a getaway man. But there was another time in this town they heard vehicles coming up the road so we were trying to stop them. "Anyone with a grenade launcher?" Well I am an idiot, so I said I got one. So I fumble around and on the end of your rifle they had this round cylinder to slip down and clamp around your gun muzzle as big around and shaped like your microphone was a grenade, but in order to fire it you had to have a blank. So I fumble around "who's got a blank?" empty your clip put in a blank , slide the thing on. "Okay, Walko, you take a position up there and when it comes in you let 'em have it." So here I am hiding behind a shed, with my rifle with a grenade on it. Crapping my pants, and oh oh oh hearing this stuff come. Once I fire, what do I do where do I go? Then the all clear came and then they find I was the sacrifice man. Thanks a lot! {laughs} Can you imagine being up there with a gun with a grenade, a damn German tank coming up and firing at it? Scary scary scary! All in all I came out of it unscathed. The worst thing I ever got was poison oak from Oregon. Well, that was quite a deal.
Yes it sure was.
But like I said most everybody in my platoon is basically gone. I've called like one two three, like five of them. For years and years I got cards. I'm still getting Christmas cards, but the big majority of them are gone.
So because you were in the I and R you got a camera?
Well,
Or you just had one?
So it just so happens we went into, oh it was a beautiful town. Clean, the one house we went in, Marion would have loved it, because everything in the bathroom was all glass. And, the house had a driveway that went down, under the house. And they had a car in there. We all tried to start it but we couldn't. But then, in one of the rooms was all kinds of trunks and suitcases. Naturally, every suitcase got opened up and we all leafing through. And I found this camera it was flat but it telescoped out. The lens was a Zeiss Icon 1.6 lens I believe. I put it on my shoulder and went upstairs, outside on the street. Some of the members of the platoon were standing there, and a whole lot of civilians. "Boy, look what I got!" The people that owned it, standing right there I got the dirtiest looks you wouldn't believe! Your tough luck, lady, I've got it now. That's what I used to take all these pictures. We had a fellow in the company who was more or less a photographer. So he developed all these films. But when we came back from overseas, we were told not to bring back any developed film. We were told that the minute we reached Camp Kilmer that they were going to inspect all of our luggage. And any weapons and ammunition we brought home was going to be confiscated. So like a dumbass I buried all of mine at Camp Chesterfield. Well, I'm not going to {inaudible} .45 buried. When we'd got into a certain town the first thing we do, we called the burgermeister, or the mayor. We told them to have the people bring out their guns. And they would pile them on this spot. You wouldn't believe: rifles, pistols shotguns, knives. We picked out what we wanted, the rest were scrapped, somehow. I know one time we found a stash of brand new Mauser rifles. We made a huge fire, put in all the barrels, took them when they were hot, put them between two trees. We bent them into a u-shape. And threw them in a pile. I wish I would have taken the doggone things... They said yeah, they would confiscate all our weapons, so I buried mine. I had a beautiful, little, what looked like a pirate pistol but it was only .22 caliber. I was going to bring it home for grandpa. Son of a gun. I had more guns...
It was the officers could load up a foot locker.
Oh yeah, they could confiscate a car and have the damn car shipped home. It was ridiculous. They got their, they always got their liquor ration we got beer, cigarettes, once a month we had our choice, we had cigarettes, pipe tobacco, cigars. I don't know, I never drank beer over there, so I don't know, but I'm sure they had a beer ration, but, I was more into the cigarettes, yeah.
I talked to some guys said they could get chummy with the guys in the mail room and they had ways to get stuff shipped back.
Yeah yeah yeah I'm sure! After the war and we were in these camps getting ready to come home, apparently you could take your confiscated weapons up to higher headquarters. And get permission to bring something home. You know, but I didn't hear that end of it, all I heard was that once you landed they were going to go through your barracks bags. They never did. First thing we got off the boat, we went to the barracks, put your bag down, then went down to the mess hall. We had steak, all the milk we could drink. The following day give us our papers, sent home. They should have sent me to Cleveland, but they sent me to Indian Gap, PA. So I was three days later getting my discharge. No, can't, I really can't tell you what I can remember what went through my mind, when I first saw the wife. I remember going out of a terminal, going up the stairs, seeing my mother and my wife and giving them a good hug too. But uh, Too far back. {laughs}
Well all right! Think that covers it?
What's the second thing you did after you got home? {laughs}
What's the second thing? {laughs}
Oh, joy! {inaudible} Well I know you can't see this picture, but-and I don't know where it would have been-but the I and R platoon and some we went and we liberated a- I wouldn't say it was a concentration camp, but there were all different prisoners there: Gherkas, French, British, American. We captured the compound and freed them. And this was a blown up bridge that and we let them across to our area. We had our vehicles parked in back of the building. These suckers, and I don't blame them, saw the vehicles and tried to get whatever they could off of them. And I went upstairs and got my tommy gun and stand guard, and say no way no way. What we did, patrolling before we started patrolling in Cologne we got word back that we had to put up these pole cutters on our vehicles just a-it was just a V-shaped brace with a center post and a hook. We were getting reports that the German soldiers and civilians were stringing wires between buildings-and motorcycle drivers would go by and cut your head right off. I didn't come across any wires, but it was nice to have. I did see, one time at the OP at Stolberg, I looked up at the sky. A piper cub artillery observing, and he was there and all of a sudden-a puff of smoke and he was gone! Wrong place at the wrong time. One minute he was there and the next - With our vehicles. We had two duffle bags one was an A and one was a B, I forget what was in each. Clothing in one. We were carrying so much stuff, confiscated stuff and that, and our rations and stuff, we ended up building racks behind the jeep. Be about this wide-width of the jeep and maybe that high. Put all your paraphernalia in there and... Carried it around. My favorite was the chocolate. They called it a D bar. I came home from service. My normal weight was 140. I came home on my first furlough and I was 151.
Eating D bars?
Yeah!
How'd you eat them, you had to whittle them, didn't you?
Oh boy! Yeah but they were good. I remember we went out in the field, our first problem or whatever you want to call it. We went over to the truck they gave us rations we were used to these cans they gave us several boxes. The first thing we did was grab the boxes. There was pack in there with four cigarettes, Nescafe, you had gum, toilet paper, a can of bacon and cheese you know we were all tickled with that. Half an hour later the order come through to turn in all your rations. {laughs} But in the field they had a 50-gallon pail with hot water in it you'd go by and reach in it and you'd grab a can. You never knew what was in it because they had no label. But I enjoyed it. They finally ended up with spaghetti and meatballs, wieners and beans. Wasn't bad food, when you were hungry.
Exactly!
Canned butter, God-oh God, like grease. You had 1 gallon can. You walk into the mess hall watch 'em make coffee they had a great big pot, you had a clothes pole on it and a great big bag of coffee. Must have had 50 pounds of coffee for the company. The only thing I didn't like was their chicken and what else, oh, fake eggs! Oh God. Have to laugh, up in Oregon, Camp Adair, it rained 365 days a year. They were called webfeet. A lot of sheep grazing. It was comical, every time. Well, you would be out in the field for a couple of weeks and you'd be marching back to camp. You'd see a heard of sheep. First thing you'd hear, attention! Forward march. But you could always tell when there was lamb stew cooking! Nobody went into the mess halls. Nobody went in. Nobody wanted lamb.
Hey, that probably covers it huh?
I hope so, I don't know what more I can tell you.
You told me plenty! I think I'm just about of tape anyway.
Oh.
Perfect timing.
All right!
[END OF INTERVIEW]