My time around the US Army during WW2
Creators: name: Project Team, Their Finest Hour
Publisher: name: University of Oxford
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 430304
subject: British history
classificationCode: 430308
subject: European history (excl. British, classical Greek and Roman)
classificationCode: 430316
subject: International history

description: (My Dad told this story a few times when my sons had Veteran day honoring vets at school)I was born in 1919 and raised in Bridgeton New Jersey. My parents had very little. After high school I got a job as a bank teller in Bridgeton. Eventually I saved enough to buy a car, a 1936 Ford. When the draft was going for the Army and in early 1941I tried to sign up for the Navy as I had been in Sea Scouts and would rather be in the Navy over Army but they would not take me because I was color blind and could not read the colored signal flags between ships. (Couple years later they stopped that color blind rejection because once the war started and with losses they would take anyone able bodied) So in the spring of 1941 I received a letter that said congrats your friends and neighbors recommended you for the draft and to report for 1 year in the US Army. After I showed up a Officer asked the group to hold up hands if you had ridden horses before. I had not. Then we were sent into different groups and the Officer told my group, you are going to Ft. Riley Kansas to train for the US Calvary. I went up to him and said there must be a mistake I have not ridden horses before. He said yes we dont want anyone that think they already know how to ride a horse, we will train you the Army way. I went to Ft. Riley Kansas and was in Troop A 2nd training squadron and learned to take care of horse, ride, shoot from horse back, use a saber, train in calvary tactics etc....then Pearl Harbor happened in December of 1941and the US was now officially at war. After training was over, for a short time I was sent to the D.C area to be part of the Calvary doing military funerals at Arlington with horses. Then I received a new letter from the War Department that said we are informing you that your 1 year draft assignment in the Army has been extended, "for the duration of the emergency" (Which turned out to be 5 years for me!!) We went to Tennessee to do training as Calvary against mechanized units and although we did well in the rougher country, not so much where there were roads and when it was over we were told the Calvary unit was being disbanded and I and many others were sent to Camp Atterbury in Indiana to train for a new division, the 83rd. I was by then a Sgt. and at Atterbury initially there were only Officers there, but then the drafted soldiers started arriving to train. I was assigned to the 331st D company of the 83rd as a Staff Sgt. After training we went to Ft. Cambell Ky for more training. There was not much around there so for weekend pass you would hitch hike to Evansville Indiana. (I met my eventual wife Carol there in line to to into a USO club).Eventually we were sent to New York and sent overseas to England to prepare for D Day. We were in a big convoy of ships and there were several submarine scares/alerts on the way over. After training in England D Day came. My Company was a heavy weapons company so we did not land on D Day, we had to wait until docks were built/secure. The first time I had seen dead people were soldiers in the water. We were in the channel on ships for awhile and every once in awhile a German plane would fly in and everyone, ships, soldiers etc...would shoot at them it was quite a show. Then we landed D day +16. We went into combat on July 4th and our Company Cpt. was killed the first day. We were not well prepared for hedgerow fighting and lost a lot of soldiers at first to that. We relieved the 101st at Carentan, and then were in other places in France, St. Malo and so on. Eventually I had been in England, France, Belgium, Luxenbourg, and been in the Battle of the Bulge, Hurtgen Forest, Market Garden. Are unit at one point was part of Patton's 3rd army and part of the Divisions that made the big turn and dash for the battle of the bulge. We stole every vehicle we could find to get us all mobile, including a lot of German vehicles. Almost got shot by a patrol one time because we were in a German vehicle. We came upon a internment camp called Langestein. What we saw there was really bad.Near the end of the Battle of the Bulge I was on a hillside looking down on a long line of German vehicles that had been trying to retreat but were cut off with no place to go, probably a mile or more long it seemed. The artillery fired a thing called tot, time on target, designed to have all the guns, larger and smaller fire in sequence so that all of the shells came down at the same time. I saw that whole column of vehicles go up in explosions, trucks, tanks, soldiers, all of it destroyed. Eventually we reached into Germany and reached the river and could have been in Munich in a few days but were ordered to stop and wait. (For the Russians) for 3 days we did nothing. During that time my best friends and some buddies took a jeep to explore the country side as it was beautiful. I did'nt go with them and they were killed when the struck a mine. At another time in Germany we came upon an Austrian taking care of a beautiful black stallion that he said had belonged to a German high ranking Officer that was gone. He offered to let us ride and no one in our group knew how to ride but me and I took it out and galloped it around. It was a beautiful horse and I have some pictures of riding it. Then the war was over and I was in Germany for awhile before finally be sent home. Saw many terrible things, but also as a young man from a poor family in New Jersey, I had been to Kansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, New York, England, France, Belgium, Luxenberg and Germany. Saw Paris, and the Eagles Nest, Hitlers resort in the mountains. Places I am sure I would never have seen/been otherwise. Was in all 5 Campaign stars, combat infantry badge and, a bronze star with cluster. Division recognized as liberating a the concentration camp at Langestein. I returned to New Jersey and got my 1936 Ford out of my parents garage. It had been on blocks for 5 years as my Parents never had a car and did not know how to drive. Drove to Evansville Indiana and got married to Carol whom I had met in the USO line there back in 1942 and wrote back and forth to all through the war. Worked for Shane Uniform Company and eventually became Vice President of purchasing, based on the skills I learned in the Army as a supply Sgt.<br>Al. R. Shrawder SSgt. U.S. Army 83rd Division 331st D company.