Mark IV Posted March 5, 2000 Share Posted March 5, 2000 Pardon the "made you look" headline, but I just talked with my old gray-haired dad on the phone about some of his ETO experience and learned a few interesting things. He was an anti-aircraft gunner in the 404th AAA Bn. under the First Army. Each 15-man section was comprised of a quad .50 cal rig, and a 90mm anti-aircraft cannon, and section members were cross-trained in operation of both. In England prior to the invasion they were near Weymouth, shooting at V1 buzz bombs (not very effectively). His unit went over on D+3; he remembers ships full of wounded, screaming with pain all over the deck, coming back from the continent as they were embarking. Interestingly, all members of his section carried M1 Garands, not carbines. While in England they had practiced with bazookas, "the old ones" he says. The troops had a low opinion of their accuracy, and he said you aimed 30 feet high to hit a tank at 100 yards. As they were literally disembarking in France from a large ship into a small landing craft, he was handed a tube and told that he now was the section's bazooka guy. (Something to keep in mind when your zook team misses a golden opportunity! They might not have been a zook team last week). Said he just dropped the 4-foot tube into the landing craft, because they were all just trying to avoid being crushed as they scrambled down the net from one ship to another in 15-foot swells. He remembers the bocage country well. American dozers were very effective on the hedgerows, but no one was shooting at them when he got there. They built forward fighter bases and his unit guarded strip A7 for a time. Being part of 1st Army he was on the outskirts of the Bulge, southwest of Liege, and they were issued AP rounds for the 90mm at the time. They had no idea if they would stop a German tank (I assured him they would, 56 years too late) or whether they could fire horizontally without the recoil tipping the guns over. They had no AT training at all. He was still carrying both the M1 Garand and the bazooka tube; someone else had the rockets. His section was not directly engaged, but others in the 404th were. They never found out if those units got any tanks. They went along with 1st Army after the Bulge and ended up in Eschwegge, Germany (near Cologne) guarding an airstrip there. There had been a "concentration camp" for Polish POW forced labor there, and when they liberated the Poles they tried to kill every German in town, so they were forced to put them back in the same camp. 2 days before the cease-fire a JU88 approached their field with flaps and gear down, clearly trying to land. The AA gunners requested instructions and were ordered to shoot it down. He said they "didn't shoot very hard" but hit it with some .50 cal. The pilot was able to crash land uphill, and to their amazement 17 men were inside- they had opened up the fuselage and stuffed it full of troops, all wearing flak jackets. It turned out the JU88 was from Finland and the Germans preferred to surrender to the Americans, and this was their escape. The flak jackets saved most of them- he clearly remembered .50 rounds (apparently deflected by the aircraft body) sticking into the flak jackets. This was supposedly the last German plane shot down in the ETO, though I take that with a grain of salt. So anyway, if you read this far, thanks- and that's how my dad won the war. Now he's puffing around his emphysema, 76 years old, playing on his computers (but no CM- just can't get him interested in war games). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Babra Posted March 5, 2000 Share Posted March 5, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Mark IV: They had no idea if they would stop a German tank (I assured him they would, 56 years too late<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> ROFL... ------------------ Floreat Jerboa ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tss Posted March 5, 2000 Share Posted March 5, 2000 It turned out the JU88 was from Finland and the Germans preferred to surrender to the Americans, and this was their escape. Not that I question your dad's story, but I'd like to point out that the plane couldn't have come from Finland as the last German airfields in Finland were closed (IIRC) in October 1944. However, it's possible that the plane and the troops had been positioned in Finland before retreating to Northern Norway after Finland was forced to declare a war against Germany. Thus, the 'from Finland' part could actually mean: 'flew here from Norway, but fought in Finland for most of the war'. - Tommi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark IV Posted March 5, 2000 Author Share Posted March 5, 2000 Tommi: It could indeed. I doubt if anyone in the section spoke German, and they only knew what they were told. His whole story is about going places and doing things without anyone ever really knowing what the hell was going on. Somewhere back in Detroit he had quite a few photos from the war, and I believe this plane is among them. There was also a great picture of him sitting at the quad .50; my brother and I were delighted as kids by the "naughty" picture on it (babe in a bathing suit). I have to scan these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted March 6, 2000 Share Posted March 6, 2000 MarkIV, I'd be interested in seeing this pics. WW2 pics with pictures of identified people in them are really cool. ------------------ Visit my webpage! http://cm4mac.tripod.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gen. Sosaboski Posted March 6, 2000 Share Posted March 6, 2000 Mark IV said:There had been a "concentration camp" for Polish POW forced labor there, and when they liberated the Poles they tried to kill every German in town, so they were forced to put them back in the same camp. HA HA HA HA! ------------------ Sosabowski, 1st Pol. Abn. Yes, I know my name is spelled wrong as a member! [This message has been edited by Gen. Sosaboski (edited 03-05-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark IV Posted March 6, 2000 Author Share Posted March 6, 2000 Found a cool online first person source: ]http://www.tankbooks.com/tanksfor/tanks.htm] Tommi, come to think of it, to a twenty-year-old from El Paso, Texas (where my dad was from at the time), Norway and Finland are pretty much the same. I will seek clarification. Sosh, I knew you'd like that story. As a kid I heard bits and pieces of most of these but I'd never heard about that one before. Colin, I might try to talk my dad into scanning those pix(I live 3000 miles away). And all, my dad is like most of the real vets I know; no brag, just fact, and none too eager to talk about the details. He told me once about jumping into a truck one frozen day outside the Bulge; it was full of frozen US bodies. He jumped right back out. He didn't do any Sgt. Rock stuff but like that whole amazing generation just plodded along doing "the job" until it was over. [This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 03-05-2000).] [This message has been edited by Mark IV (edited 03-05-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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