A Soldier’s Story of Life During His WWII Years 1943 to November 1945
I was a young telegraph Operator for the Northern Pacific Railway here in Tacoma just before Pearl Harbor and also interested in radio code operation. I was deferred for a while handling troop trains and war materials for the NP Railroad, but ready to enlist by July 1943.
My military training began at Camp Roberts, CA. with the big guns, 155mm Howitzers. I was good at math so they made me “gunner.” It was Thanksgiving day and training over, put on a train and unloaded a few of us at Camp Adair, Oregon. We were placed in HQ Battery, 91st Infantry Division. This was a communication Battery for the Division gun batteries. We had a Brigadier General in our outfit, General Hospital. General Ralph Hospital. (Oh, Come on) No, That’s the truth. He was in WWI, a Native American and commander of a field artillery regiment in France.
Little did we know that we were going to be stationed about two miles in front of our division gun batteries when we went on line in Italy.
We left Camp Adair, Oregon March 9, 1944 by all Pullman sleeping car trains, of about 20 cars each heading North. At Tacoma, Washington we took an East bound direction over Stampede Pass on the old Northern Pacific rail line and continued East through Chicago and Washington D.C. to Camp Patrick Henry, Hampton Road, Virginia. We were there in an assembly area by the docks. On the mirrors of the rest rooms was the message in dark crayon, “KILROY WAS HERE .” My gosh, he seemed to be every where.
We were transported to the deportation dock the evening of March 15, 1944. Our HQ Battery consisted of 125 men. 110 enlisted men and 15 officers. We were the communication battery for the gun batteries. Message section , wire section, metro section, radio section, and the officers. The Brig. General, a couple Cols, Majors , Captains, Lts. and two Chaplins.
We were lined up on the dock in front of our ship at “ Parade Rest” and Captain Hunter made a farewell to America speech. I remember it all too well.
Men, we will be going into Combat. and as Headquarters Battery for our firing batteries, many of our positions will be in front of our gun batteries. It is up to our unit that they are effective. We know we are going to lose some of us, some killed and some wounded. I can even give you a prediction of about ten percent. So we don’t know who, but we do know how many, pretty close. So your chances of getting back home are not all that bad. Now form a double line and we will board the ship.” Below deck we were stacked five high, and jammed packed in the hold.
We left Hampton Road, VA. March 15, 1944 and arrived 18 days later at Oran, Africa. Oh man, it was a rough ride and one storm we went through the waves came up to the bridge. Our Liberty ship was loaded down to the gunnels and water washing over the deck most of the time. Most everyone on board was sea sick. I never have been sea sick so I positioned myself at the bow almost every day.
Our convoy consisted of 125 ships at 8 knots. We finally entered the Mediterranean Sea and calmer water, past the Rock of Gibraltar debarking at Oran, Africa. The country and air smelled musty.
The Arab kids hung around our camp and would steal anything they could get their hands on. One item they all wanted was our blue laundry bag with the tie string on top. They would cut two slits in the bottom and make trousers out of them.
We did more training in Africa. We were there a month. Then boarded an old Polish ship and headed for Italy. The ship was awful and dirty. It had been used to transport prisoners to different parts of the world. A lot of us came down with ring worm. The bread was full of worms. We had C rations on board. Thank Goodness. We were to be sent to Anzio, Italy, but on the way the 36th (or 38th) division broke through and we were diverted to Naples, Italy, and put in the line just north of Rome the first week of July.
Our radio truck, and the kitchen truck , were moved into the combat position first. We moved too far forward and were under German observation and they were watching us setting up. Our radio truck sat on a knoll and a couple hundred yards to our left the kitchen truck and crew were setting up. It was a better target than our radio truck. The German gun batteries waited for a bunch of men around the kitchen truck then threw in a couple rounds of 88s. Our kitchen truck was destroyed, the water barrels for washing mess kits were full of holes, the lister bag all shredded, equipment in the area full of shrapnel, but amazing not one of us were hit. Our first move was a SNAFU thing. This was our baptism of fire, our General told us. Thanks a lot, General. What was left, we moved out and further behind real fast. Our first day of combat did not go well at all. Our HQ battery, and our radio truck set up camp further back in a more secure position, but still in front of our gun batteries.
Our 91st Division went right down the middle of Italy and we kept pushing the Germans further north taking Florence, San Gimenano, Pisa, Laverno and dozens of smaller villages on our way up Highway 65.
We had one too many radio operators in our section and that was me. I was a spare. Captain Hunter sent me down to Florence to our Piper Cub air strip that was set up in the race track. They needed another cook. I still had a PFC rating. We did well with what we had to work with, and the boys had lots of beans, French toast and what ever we could put together. I was there until about the first of September. One day Bill Mauldin, the Stars and Stripes army newspaper cartoonist stopped by and had the chance to meet him.
Our radio truck took a close miss, within a couple feet by an incoming 88. Our driver, Paul Clark, was killed, radio operator, Chester Horton, got a piece of shrapnel in his back Sgt. Sercie also hit and our truck, an oversize pick up 4X4 with a canapé and seats on both sides in the truck bed was blown upside down and totaled. So I was called back up to the front for the duration of the war. I was also awarded Horton’s T-5 rating as he was sent back to a hospital in the States.
October 1944 our 91st division kept working up highway 65 further North and driving the Germans into the Alpinien mountains, about 35 miles North of Florence. There, 5th Army, General Clark, ordered that we hold that position for the winter. Our HQ Battery dug in to some shelled out stone houses. We were on the South East side of Mt. Adone, right along highway 65, and behind some hills so we were not in the German direct line of sight but we were to be target for the German guns all winter.
Our gun batteries were a couple miles to our rear and were holed up all winter in their dug in and camouflaged positions. We backed our radio truck up to a hole in the wall and we radio operators were on duty 4 hours on and four hours off, every day and night. We had a fire place in the little room we occupied, but couldn’t use it. We rigged up a five gallon GI gas can, drilled a hole at the bottom and rigged up a copper tubing to an empty two quart coffee can, filled it with sand and we managed to get a little fire out of it. We got that idea from some Limies. That’s how they made their tea.
Fifth Army Hi Command HQ wanted the German Divisions kept in Italy, and we were the bait. The purpose so the opposing German divisions would not get in to France. We were under artillery fire almost daily day, but only near misses. One day the Krouts threw in a couple 88s into us and PFC Green and I dove into a pit down a few stairs. A hunk of shrapnel went thru an Oak door and hit Green in the helmet. I was standing right next to him. It made a big dent in his helmet but didn’t go through. That one was too close.
One day some of our men that the General thought were not doing enough were given a duty of filling sand bags. They were under observation, and the German artillery threw in an 88. One of the wire crew boys had his jacket shredded but just a very small wound across his back. Can’t think of his name right now. Told us in private that the General could fill his own sand bags
Our radio section was to always monitor the radio, night and day, and especially to maintain contact with our observation planes, Piper Cubs, and forward the fire missions to our Captain, Capt. Hunter, who would select a gun battery to fire the missions. Our radio transceiver was VHF and every night we changed frequencies, around 170MHZ with plug in crystals. At night we used Morse code for our Metro section for windage and other information pertaining to our gun batteries.
Sunny Italy was not sunny at all . We were in mud most of the time and when not in mud, snow. We were in three feet of snow at this winter position and during January it got down to zero for a few times.
April 12, 1945, the day President Roosevelt died, Was the day our Infantry boys were to make the big push up Mt. Adone and our drive to get those Germans out of there. Around midnight every big gun we had opened up on the mountain. We dropped in 3,911 rounds of 105, 155 and 8 inch rounds. The Limie boys brought in twelve 8 inch guns to support our barrage. This was awful, and so close to the end of the war too. The next morning. Captain Hunter, (our Captain) Said to us, “You Radio Section men take the radio truck up to the top of Mt. Adone and let us know what’s up there.” “The engineer crew have swept some of the rut road for mines.” Sure, our radio truck was always on the point. We were the first truck to go through there. Somehow we missed the mines, but our wire crew truck behind us wasn’t so lucky. They were blown to pieces and the crew either killed or arms and legs blown off. Our Infantry boys killed were all over the mountain, and so were the German boys. When we got to the top and there was a crew stacking our boys on one side of the road and German boys on the other. Pretty ugly sight. One infantry boy was dead and hanging over a barbed wire fence. Hard to forget sights like that.
Our infantry regiments pushed the German 65th division down the mountains and on to the flat lands and to the other side of the Po River. Our HQ battery was not too far behind, but as usual, our radio truck, the four of us, was right in front with the tanks. The whole town of Bologna was out to greet us and we got the flower and wine bit and the whole grand entrance thing.. I remember our little radio truck, always first again, was sandwiched in between two tanks inching our way through people going through town. We tried to pass a tank in front of us on the right side when we got out in the open and the tank pushed us off the road and we almost rolled over in the ditch. Scraped the driver side up a bit, but we pushed on.
We got our truck in with the Infantry boys. This was real messy. There were scattered Germans laying around, dead, dead horses, shot up German vehicles and some just out of fuel. Our HQ Battery and all of our gun batteries were, I guess, a mile or so behind us. German soldiers were in groups surrendering to our Infantry and we drove our radio truck forward and parked it in a grape vineyard on the South side of the Po River and threw a camouflage net over it.
The Germans blew up the bridges over the Po River, so we were stuck until the engineers could put some pontoon bridges together. During the night a battery of four 155mm long tom rifles moved in about 100 yards or so from our position. We did not know they were there, and they were not our 91st division guns. Never did find out what outfit they belonged to, but they surely came in handy in the morning.
The next morning, I was on duty in the radio truck. It was April 25, 1945. Our observation Pilot, manning a L-9 Piper Cub plane, came on the air, very excited and said , “Net Control, We have a German truck convoy, bumper to bumper, on the other side of the river and we can take out the whole convoy. Looks like they are about ready to take off.”
Real quick, I got on the phone with the battery commander, Capt. Hunter, “Capt, we have a German truck convoy just across the river,. about ready to leave.” He said to me, “We can’t fire that mission, all of our guns are on the road behind us. “ I said, “Captain, there is a battery of 155mm Long Toms just a hundred or so yards from our radio truck.” So from there our Captain took over and got in communication with the gun battery and with my getting things going with the observation plane we took out the whole convoy. Two days later the German division surrendered. I have pictures of them being marched up four abreast when we got on the other side of the river. We totaled out their trucks, guns,. Ammunition and horse drawn artillery. I have one picture of the convoy that we destroyed, not a very good picture, but some proof. Most of the Germans scattered to live another day. The Germans were surrendering by the hundreds, eight hundred just in one bunch. And we had to round up Italian men to help us keep them under control.
Our 91st Division and the 10th Mountain Division got in behind the remaining German Divisions and the whole of the German army in Italy surrendered on April 29th, 1945.
When we got on the other side of the Po River, and with our infantry regiments busy rounding up the German division. Our Captain asked us, Our radio section, to…. “Get out there and see what’s out there.” Here we go again, out front. And I mean really out front. Our radio truck was the first American vehicle to go North of the Po River. We expected to get blown up at any minute. After a few miles North, maybe ten or twelve, We drove into a farm yard and the farmer msn came running out of his house, yelling, “Veni Qui, Veni Qui,” He motioned us over to a hay stack and pulled it apart. Here was a viasco of Vino, about 10 gallons hidden in the hay stack. So the four of us got out our mess kit cups and he said, “No, no, per voi”. And he loaded it in our radio truck. He saved it for the first Americans. We were they, the radio section, 91st Infantry Division Artillery, HQ Battery.
We got in touch with our battery by radio and let them know everything looked clear up this way and that evening the rest of our battery pulled up with us. Next morning we pulled up and headed North. Every 55 minutes of on the road our HQ Battery convoy would make the required rest stop. This was known as the “piss stop” regulation convoy stop. We would all unload and standing next to our vehicle on the right side, with Peter in hand, relieve ourselves. Might as well throw that little item in. It is a regulation thing with army convoys.
Not much opposition until we came into Travaso and a little small arms fire there but no damage. We holed up in some empty houses. There was a trail of fresh blood from an upstairs window and down the steps. Someone got shot just before we arrived. We were told to hold our position there at Travaso and wait for instructions. We were there until May 8th waiting for further instructions from Division headquarters. War was officially over on that date.
We loaded up and took off for our new HQ site. Capriva, Italy. We moved into the “Castle,” the former German High command Headquarters of Mediterranean theatre of operations.. The place was fantastic. Had about 30 rooms and we stayed there for the duration of our occupation duty which was, July 25th 1945.
In the conference room were hung Michael Angelo and other masterpiece paintings. We had a relaxing time and did a lot of sight seeing day trips in Northern Italy. One day we had a visit with Primo Camero, the heavy weight boxing champion of that time. He lived in Udine, a short distance from our location. I put my hand in his and my fingers didn’t even reach up to his. He was a giant of a man.
Being a Radio operator, I set up load speakers in the courtyard and played records of The Andrew Sisters, Frank Sinatra, and other great records of the times to pass away time when not busy doing chores. One day we were all ordered out in the courtyard in our best uniforms, and two star General Livesay drove in. What’s going on? We all stood at attention while General Livesay pinned the Silver Star and Bronze metals on General Hospitals tunic. Geez, big deal. Here all of us were taking care of this guy all this time. Sand bagging in his motor home on every location change etc.
I had a nice girl friend in town that did our laundry, sewing and pressing our uniforms. I paid her with soap and candy bars. One day when I saw her by the town water pump, she had a bad cut on the heal of her foot. I hauled the water buckets up to her house and then went back to the Castle and got some sulfa powder and bandages for her foot from our Medic. After that she called me Doctoro Allando. Real sweet girl. Spent a lot of time with her.
About 10 of us were selected to spend 10 days at the Lake Como resort. This was great and a first class and located near the Swiss boarder and in the Italian Alps. Others in our Battery were sent to other resorts in Northern Italy. On another occasion we had a truck go to Venice. That was a great day too. Lots of pictures and toured the canals in a Gondola just like tourists.
July 25th. Time to load up. Our 91st Division was selected to go to Japan, as we were a full strength Division, of 15,000 men and equipment. Some of us were to go by train and the rest by trucks to Volterno, in Southern Italy for departure to the USA.
Three of us radio section men were assigned as guards on one of the passenger baggage car heaped with duffle bags. No bunks or windows. We were just to do the best we could and a couple boxes of “C rations” tossed aboard. As our train slowly moved out of Udine, a young girl running beside our baggage car, yelling Napoli, Napoli , Grazi. Well now, we hauled her aboard. Not supposed to do that, but you know. She was great company on the way down though. Think she was pregnant…If not probably was when we let her off at Naples. Hey, not me.
Took a couple days to get down to the lower end of the boot. There killed a little time waiting for our ship. Spent some days on the beach. One day I was assigned to stand guard over a couple German prisoners that were digging a sump hole for us. Couple of nice boys. I tossed them each a coke and couple cigarettes. And for the first time, the thought went through me, “Hey, these are nice guys, I wonder why we killed so many.”
August 8th and the headlines in the “Stars and Stripes” newspaper, “Atomic bomb destroys Hiroshima”. What ever that is, we didn’t know.
We were boarded on our ship, The LaCross Victory, about August 30th, 1945. We were so loaded that there was no room for a couple hundred of us to get in the ship so we had cots top-side. All the way across. September 2nd as we were passing the Rock Of Gibraltar, it was announced over the ships Speaker system that Japan had surrendered. We arrived in Boston Harbor September 8th to a big fan fair dockside. Well, I guess so. Girls were handing out ice cream. That’s the first we had in a couple years. We were transported to Camp Miles Standish outside of Boston to await our rail transportation to Fort Lewis, WA. That was a wild ride. We were loaded in a sleeper, war time, Pullman car with vertical bunks. Not much better than a box car. Guess we had about 7 car consist in our train to the west coast. I remember out of Chicago we were 12 hours behind the Empire Builder and we came into Seattle on their block. At Fort Lewis we were allowed to go home for a month leave. Then we were sent by train, this time in genuine Pullman cars to Camp Rooker, Alabama for a formal discharge by our Division Commanding officer, Major General Livesay. All 15,000 of us. All lined up on the parade grounds as the General said good bye. We were there three days and given our Honorable Discharge and three hundred bucks in cash, and told us to find our way home. I made it home by train, no Pullman this time, to Tacoma, WA. November 23, 1945.
I’ll be 88 Feb 27, 2008. Have had a great life. Wouldn’t have missed the army experience for anything. but was awful lucky to have made it all the way back home. Lost some of my good army friends. It’s always a shock when one is killed..
Allan G. Emmons, (Buddy) T-5 US Army, 39210505.
Hon discharge, Camp Rooker, Alabama Nov 19, 1945