[Jims5543]

During Basic Training, he was preparing to be an Army Ranger, which are the soldiers that go before the main units in battle, usually. He learned to dismantle live land mines, and later in the war, his unit saved many lives, by being able to detect and dismantle such devices.

George’s army career brought him into almost every phase of the Second World War against Germany. While in Basic Training, he became attached to the 9th Infantry Division. The 9th had a lot of charismatic leaders. One General designed a helmet logo for his troops that resembled the cattle branding logo used on his family’s cattle ranch in Texas. It was and it means, “anything, anytime, anyplace-Bar-nothing”. AAAO. It became known world wide as it was seen on the 9th’s soldiers as they advanced across Europe.

While at Fort Bragg, the 9th was addressed by the now famous General George Patton, who was destined to lead the 9th to many victories in the years ahead. George was there when Patton gave the now famous speech to the new recruits in which he said, “If you’re in my outfit, you’ll see action, but at the end of the war, when they ask you what you did, you’ll be proud to answer and you won’t have to say well all I did was shovel ***** in North Carolina”. He also said, “I don’t want you to die for you country. I want you to make Germans die for their country”. Many of the men George trained with at Fort Bragg stayed together through the whole war and many of them did not come back.

In December, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and Germany declared war on the United States. All of Europe, but England, had already fallen to the Germans. George was in the first group of trained men ready for the war. In early 1942, the 9th was in a troop convoy going to England. From England, the convoy sailed to the West Coast of Africa, through the German submarine infested Atlantic.

The convoys were being protected by the navy, and my brother Jack was in a destroyer escort (sub chaser), protecting the Atlantic convoys at the same time that George was in one of those convoys going to Africa. Western Africa as a French Colony, and the French were now conquered by the Germans and allied them. The French were Defending Casablanca and Tunisia, when the Americans landed. The French put up a “Token Resistance”, but then surrendered and became allied with the Americans.

After the landing, George was moved from the Rangers to a group that maintained the military equipment, trucks, tanks, etc. He headed such a unit until the end of the war. In Africa, the sand created havoc with the motorized vehicles, and they needed people who understood and could keep the equipment going more than they needed Rangers.

After the landings, the Germans moved from the Easter part of Africa, to engage the Americans and the fighting became very intensive. The Americans incurred many casualties and at the Battle of the Caserine Pass, the 9th sustained very heavy casualties. George lost one of his closest friends there.

Gradually, however, Patton begun to get the upper hand over General Romel and the Germans, and pushed East. The English under Montgomery, who were in Egypt, won a major battle at El Alamein and started pushing West to link up with Patton. There were sill major battles fought in Africa, such as Tobruk, but gradually the Germans army under Romel were defeated, and many Germans surrendered.

By September of 1943, Africa was in the hands of the allies, and the 9th (and George) was preparing to leave Africa and land in Sicily, a large island off the southern end of Italy.

The landings in Sicily were more difficult, with the Germans basically taking over the war from the Italians, and fighting very intensively. The 9th, under Patton, and the English forces, under Montgomery, ultimately took Sicily, with Patton, the 9th, and the Americans leading and winning the major part of the battles. George passed through the town in Sicily where Rita’s ( his wife to be) father was born.

It was in Sicily where Patton slapped a wounded American soldier, who he accused of being coward. The outcry at home was incredible, and Patton was removed from the Front and sent to England to help prepare for “D-Day”.

The Americans and English invaded Italy, but the 9th Infantry Division, and George, were sent instead to England to prepare for the “D-Day” invasion of Normandy, in France.

George spent time training in England and did a little traveling. I think he got to London once and he told me about visiting old English castles and the English countryside.

Finally, the invasion came. It was June 6, 1944. The Americans landed at Omaha Beach and Utah Beach, in Normandy, and the English landed at the other beaches in the Normandy area.
It was the largest amphibious invasion in the history of the world. George landed at Utah, which was “bad”, but not quite as bad as Omaha. From Utah Beach, the 9th fought it way West to the Cherbourg Peninsula, and ultimately took Cherbourg, which was a major deep water sea port.

George remembers that in Cherbourg, some of the German units fought quite frantically and had to be driven out of the city house by house. Now the beachhead was secure from Cherbourg to Caen, but the English, under Montgomery, could not tak e Caen, which was the main park of the allied battle plan. Along the whole beachhead front, the Germans had dug in behind 100 year old growths of Hedge Rows and the fighting was fierce, with the 9th, again, taking many casualties. George lost several close friends here.

There was a fear that the allies were bogged down and would be stuck in North Western France for a long time. By September of 1944, Patton convinced Eisenhower to allow him to return to the Front and head the 9th again.

In September, the 9th under Patton broke the German lines and went down the South Coast of France. “The Great Breakout” was under way, and the 9th (and George) liberated many French towns. He sent my mother a scarf with the 9th insignia and a list of all the towns liberated (Vendome, Nantes, and many others). George’s unit visited the Great Cathedral at Nantes, which was totally bombed out on the inside, but the outside structure remained. I visited the Cathedral in the 1980’s and it was still heavily damaged even then. George remembers going to mass in the bombed-out cathedral when he was there.

The 9th then turned East and headed across France to Paris. The 9th started toward Caen from its rear and Montgomery finally broke out of the Caen line, took the city and headed North toward the low countries, Belgium, Netherlands, etc., where the English got bogged down again. (A good book about this in Cornelius Ryans “A Bridge To Far”) The German Casualties were enormous, especially at the Battle of Falaise Gap, Northwest France. Finally the allied armies were at the gates of Paris. Eisenhower decided to let the “Free French” under Charles DeGaule, liberate Paris. This angered George and many of the Americans, because the French hadn’t done any of the fighting for France, but were given the honor of taking Paris, which the Germans surrendered rather that having it destroyed. The French “underground”, which fought all through the war against the Germans, were in fact helpful to the allied cause, but General DeGaule and French army had little to do with that.