WWII oral history

Ultradog MN

Well-known Member
Location
Twin Cities
I came across this page a couple of days ago and found it very interesting.
It's a personal account by a former Marine who fought with Carlson's Raiders on Guadalcanal and then later on Iwo Jima.
He has a great attitude about his experiences, is humorous, articulate and tells a very interesting tale.
It's long - 2 1/2 hrs but definately worthwhile. So if you have a couple of hours to kill have a listen. I will be looking around on that site more in the future.
Click Here
 
Interesting ! Thanks for posting the link. Dad was a WW II vet and was in the Battle of the Bulge. He didn't talk a lot about it. I also grew up around a lot of other vets like that witch were a great influence on my life.
 
Thanks, I will check it out. My father was in the Battle of the Bulge which pretty well messed him up. I proudly support Veterans and for sure stand for the Flag, kneel for the Lord, and support playing of our National Anthem.

God Bless America

John T
 
Close to 20 years ago I was fixing a window in a house. The homeowner told me some branch of the government was sending people around to interview WW2 vets about their experiences, before they all passed away and the stories lost. Her husband was a vet and was in bad shape at the time I remember. Their interviewer was supposed to be by that day any time. I always wondered where those interviews ended up or if we can access them.

Another customer we had flew Devestators during the war. He had to be in his 90s by the time I talked to him but didn't look more than 70s. He acted like he wanted to talk but I couldn't think of many questions to ask at the time! I always regretted that. One job I was at, the gentleman started telling us about being on a ship and seeing what they thought were big trees along the shore. "But they weren't trees" he said. Just then his wife came in and says "oh honey let these men work don't bother them with your stories ". And he stopped, never said another word!
 
Father-in-law was in the Navy at the outbreak of WW2. He was stationed on the USS.Tennesee at Pearl the day that Japanese attacked. He was up next to his battle station reading the sunday morning paper when it started. He spent the entire war in the Pacific theater. Several years ago a local university came and interviewed him for a documentary that they were working on. We have the transcript to that interview. I sit down and read it every couple of years. Very interesting. Tom in Mn.
 
I had a great uncle who was in the Marines in WW1. He would never speak about it. At his brother's funeral, he came over and sat down with me and my oldest nephew. We were both in uniform, he in the Marines, me in the Army.
Rudolph began to tell us about his time in the Corps, about boot camp etc. He soon was telling about the fighting in the great war.
He was twice wounded. His children and grandchildren soon gathered and listened as well.
When he stopped to use the men's room, they wanted to know how we got him to talk. Those stories are lost forever if we don't share them.
 
That is the point where we should tell them now would be a great time to take a break. I'd love to hear about your experiences.
Sadly it's too late for that one, but it reminds us what to do next time.
 
MY daughter-in-laws grandpa was station at Guadalcanal. Never said what he did or I missed it, but they was always telling them a ship was arriving today with supplies and would not show up. He is still alive and mows his own lawn yet. And when he shakes your hand a grip you can't believe.
 
You're absolutely right. We told her, no we don't mind at all, but that didn't do it. Shoulda tried harder. Just like the pilot I met. I could tell he wanted to talk but I was drawing blanks. Thought of so many questions on the way home. I'm sure he's passed on now.
 

Thanks. Will see about listening while driving. My dad made the landings at Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. Didn't say much about it. Ended up in the hospital in the Philippines with trench foot cause of all the mud and rain they were dealing with. Only quote I heard from him was when they just captured the airfield on Okinawa. Always under attack by Jap planes, the AntiAircraft Artillery (AAA) batteries were shooting at anything which included shooting down our own fighters having to come in to land because of the kamikaze attacks on the carriers.

Had one uncle who was wounded and captured in Italy and spent the last nine months of the war in a POW camp. He never said anything. Heard a story later on from a guy in the POW camp with him who said Gene saved his life after the guy broke a rule that would have got him shot but Gene stepped up and claimed to have done it and since Gene was a sergeant they didn't kill him.

One uncle went from Normandy all the way to Czechoslovakia with Patton's third army. Delmar was a gunner on a jeep with a quad mount 50 caliber anti-aircraft battery. Only thing I heard him mention was the bombing at St. Lo where waves of bombers came in and because of all the dirt and visibility issues from the first wave, each wave began dropping their bombs earlier until finally bombing our own troops. He just said that they killed 800 of our own guys including a general.

Most of my uncles were in the war. One was training in the states and his unit was called into formation to go load on the train cause they were shipping out for one of the islands in the Pacific. They called him and said he wasn't going with them because he had 4 brothers who were missing in action in Europe. I kinda thought the Saving Private Ryan was a fake story but they did have that policy after the Sullivans were lost on a Navy ship. As it turned out, none of them were really missing in action as they were always with their units fighting except Gene who was captured in Sep of 44. Seven of eight uncles on my mom's side joined for WWII and the other was too young. My Dad and his three brothers all joined. My aunt on his side was a army nurse and her husband was a Navy radioman on a SBD Dauntless in the Pacific. My wife had a number of uncles in the war, one of which just died recently who was 95 and in on the landing at a number of the islands during the Philippines. On one he was driving a truck load of ammo that was just off loaded from the ship. His unit left without him as he was still getting loaded. He left and ended up taking the wrong turn and ended up behind the Jap lines. Since he knew he wasn't supposed to have driven that far, he turned around and headed back without incident except for being scared. After that he ended up on occupation duty in northern Japan at Otaru by Sapporo. Went through a bad winter with snow as deep as the trucks. We have all his pics and letters he sent home.
 
My Dad was in the army in the Pacific theater. He was trained as a medic because he was a big guy and could carry the wounded. He also set booby traps around the camp at night to prevent infiltrators and then get up in the morning to defuse them for the day. Until our guys started to get entangled by them when wandering off drunk so his Captain told him to stop. Then our guys started to get killed again around the edges of the camp. So the Captain told him to start setting booby traps again and Dad told him to get someone else to do it. I believe this story because my Dad was 6'4" and when he told you something; you believed it. He was on Leyte and then Okinawa waiting to invade Japan. During some down time he also helped unload bombs with a dragline. One bomb got loose but did not explode!
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I am nearly half way through Rick Atkinson's "An Army at Dawn" about the green US Army invasion and campaign in North Africa. Atkinson does a lot of character development.
 
Another story my brother told me was when Dad enlisted into the Army. My Dad had scooped ear corn into the corn crib all fall before he enlisted so he thought he was in pretty good shape. Basic training helped him find a whole lot more muscles than he ever thought he had! He was miserable.
 
I read an article once about the Marine Raider Battalions in WWII. Something like 4% ever returned to a normal, productive civilian life after the war.

They were trained to kill to a point where they couldn't be untrained, and the ones that survived the war were alcoholics, etc., and just never again fit into a structured society.

That being said, I once landed at Naha AFB on Okinawa. A Master Sergeant in our group who was a WWII vet said, "The first time I saw this G** D****d place was over the bow of an LST.
 
I used to go to the Round Tables at Fort Snelling. They are archived,
but I don't see some of those I attended. I hope they aren't lost.

During the war they understood a command to maintain silence. A lot of
them didn't know that the order, in most cases, expired when they were discharged.
They kept it inside until they were so old, they didn't think the punishment would
be a deterrent.
Fort Snelling Military Round Table.
 
My dad was WWl. A pvt at age 28 and did what he had to do but didn't take much crap from anyone. After the Armistice was signed, President Wilson was supposed to inspect the troops. Dad said, I'm not going to see that man.

Was threatened with a court martial but when they saw how it was handled, it went away. They made the men that went all disarm, and then the President rode up on a white horse on top of a hill well out of range . He wasn't about to get near the troops. Guys told dad he was the only smart one in the bunch.

Other wise he never talked much about any action. Told my wife more than I ever heard about using one of his dead friends body for a pillow to keep his head out of the mud in the trenches. Of course, he did get the gas like a lot of them did. When ever he went to a different Dr., even late in life, they always told him to quit smoking. He never smoked.
 
Oral is spoken word, as opposed to written word. "Aural" is associated with the ear so you would aurally hear something that was orally spoken.
 
My dad served in WWII. He told me a lot of where and what he did but not until I was grown and on my own. He was in north Africa, Italy, France. Was in 591st engineers boat regiment.
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My great uncle, Army National Guard, 27th Infantry Division, 105th Infantry Regiment, fought with the Marines in the Pacific. Going back to civilian life, it took a year or more to happen for him. He fought in the worst of it, hand to hand etc. and only shared glimpses of what he went through with a scant few people, his sister who raised him after their mother died, my father US Army 7th SFG ABN Civ. Affairs detachment, and my grandfather, a Navy veteran of WWI, and Merchant Marines in WWII survived getting blown out of a ship in the Atlantic after a U-boat torpedoed his ship.

Interestingly enough, he worked until he was 86, had several patents with the company for his designs, raised a large family, built his own house with salvage materials, was the best family man there was, it was always great to see him. He was a boxer in the Army, played and coached basketball, and was awarded 2 Bronze Stars.
 
Lots of good stuff at the Library of Congress. My Father in Law did an interview and submitted some written stories. He was a D-day survivor. USS Corry DD-463. Ship was sunk by German artillery, 26 Men lost. I met a lot of the survivors at the annual reunions that we attended for several years. May they all Rest in Peace.
https://www.loc.gov/vets/
 

Another good source of records is the Eisenhower presidential library in Abilene, KS. As of a year ago they had all of the unit records for the European theatre and about 3/4 of the units in the pacific. Messages, morning reports, sit reps, etc. Some hospital and supply records as well. Available online too.

When I looked a year ago, they didn't have my Dad's yet. The 50th Combat Engineers Battalion.

As an example, you can go in to Audie Murphy's unit records and see the reports they wrote on him and medal recommendations.
 

Hi everyone / bc, Went online to Eisenhower center in Abilene. Say's their shut down for the virus. Were you able to view online military records for individuals on there? Trying to help my wife find her dad's army WWII records. If anyone could help us, sure would appreciate it.
 

Hello KD. They were open over a year ago and you could search online from what I remember. They have a form that lists all the records they have by units. I will go look now. Well I looked and now I'm not sure what they have available cause they cut staff hours. Look under the research tab. They had a whole bunch of oral histories available. A section on the battle of the bulge and D-Day but I didn't see the unit histories I mentioned.

If you are wanting his personnel records that has to go through the records center. They had a big fire there years ago in St. Louis and a bunch of records were lost. There is a form you can go on as a relative and get them. Not sure of the charge now but may be 25 or 50 bux. Took them a month or two or more back in the day to send them but is probably longer. If his records were burned then you may only get his DD form 214 discharge record which will have a lot of info in it regarding rank, awards, etc. After WWII and when I was in during the Vietnam war, they always told everybody to go file their DD form 214 with their local county register of deeds when they got out. You can probably go get that tomorrow if you are nearby his post war home. They will sharpie over his SS number if on there but probably not for WWII as they were given a serial number.

At some point they will release them for public search for ancestry research purposes like they do the census. My wife does that and I don't remember if they have released the 1940 census records yet or not. I know you can find civil war personnel records on line but they didn't have much back then except for a monthly muster report.
 

thank you so much for the help bc, we will keep searching for her dad's history. Reads like a lot of government military records centers are shut down for now. I read about the '73 fire, sadly, lost many vets records. thanks again!
 

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