My dad..... Elmer 70 years ago today - June 1944 - Elmer was just 20. He had been drafted into the army in 1943 – at 19. His Military Occupation Specialty was “Motorboat Operator” his job was supposed to be to supervise river crossings etc. and he was assigned to the 172nd Engineer Combat Battalion, which had no boats. But they did have outboard motors – and a bunch of other specialists – bull dozer operators, electrical specialists, demolition specialists, bridge building specialists, etc. They were part of the 4th Armored Corp which had infantry and tanks. And a Heavy Equipment Battalion – which had boats. They sent him to England. At some point they were assigned to VII Cops . vii-corps.org/WWII/WWII.htm Just before D-Day in 1944, he was aboard some big troop ship as one of the two assault corps for US First Army during “Operation Overlord” heading towards, targeting Utah Beach, Normandy They made him a corporal and they told him and about 10 other Motorboat specialists that they would be driving the landing craft ashore. (Not sure if they were LCVP’s or LCMs (landing craft, mechanized),LSIs or LST’s> Need to investigate). He had never even seen one before. . They were given basic instruction on how to drive the boat; how to lower the ramp and what to tell the troops.- (Lie down – put your arms out in front of you – because we are going full speed ahead until we ram the beach or run aground and if you are in any other position you may get jammed forward – when the ramp drops run like hell to cover in the hedge rows.”) On D-Day (I now believe it was D-Day although at one point he thought maybe it was D+1) The Navy started the boats and then turned it over to him. (Point it at the beach – floor it…He drove the boat. They started before dawn. The boat next to him was blown up. They hit the beach, dropped the ramp and everyone – including Elmer - ran for cover. He ran into the hedge row. More at vii-corps.org/WWII/Chapter02.htm For the next 7 months they moved inland fighting Germans through France, Belgium Luxembourg and the Netherlands –October 1944 - Vaals, Netherland Lemiers, Netherland. for a while he was in Holland near Mazrigarten cemetery – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margraten. he re called the towns nearby Niswilla and Val villa? At some point they entered Germany near Aachen Germany . en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aachen And then back into Belgium/Luxembourg December 1944 – January 1945 Battle of the Bulge… en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aachen Sometime between Feb 10th and Feb 18th 1945 Elmer was in the back of a truck going where the boats are going to be. The truck blew up blew up. Was it Artillery? Bomb? Dunno - He woke up Feb 18th 1945 in the 12th Field hospital in Aachen Germany . He had massive internal bleeding and maybe shell fragments. He spent a year in hospitals… archive.org/stream/corpsofengineers00beck/corpsofengineers00beck_djvu.txt See around page 527
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 23:09:53 +0000
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