http://www.skylighters.org/history/airfields/
The next morning we were sent out to start an airfield. We had just started to work when the first shells started coming in on the field. We all dove for cover. Me and a friend and a medic headed for the same place. After the shelling was over, we got up and looked at the hole we had been in and it wasn’t big enough for one person. You can sure make yourself small when the conditions are right.
That night when we went back to camp, the officers had moved out to a different place and had dug in with a bulldozer, so we weren’t the only ones who were a little bit afraid. We finished the airfield, and the planes started landing and then we had fighter planes close to the front lines which we needed bad. They gave us 24 hours to start and finish the field and then took us to within one half mile of the front line to start another field. I guess the hardest part was to relax and sleep at night because the machine guns and the shelling didn’t make for a very comfortable night’s sleep. You couldn’t tell if the enemy was coming for you or going the other way. It sure taught me to pray to God to get me through the night. I must have been a coward, because I was afraid of not getting through the night and getting back home. My training as a boy growing up in the mountains was the main reason I had it easier than some of the others. I had boy scout training and also mountain training as a kid. I was always able to keep dry and fairly comfortable by using nature methods to my advantage. I’ve always been in excellent condition as a boy and man.
After about a month of this sort of thing, we were relieved for a week and pulled back for a rest. During this time, we were left alone for a while, except the officers decided it was time for inspections again, so they looked in on the foxholes. These couldn’t be kept very good. So some of us would get K.P. After about a day, I found out that if I left a couple of hand grenades exposed by my foxhole, they never looked at it again.
This rest didn’t last long. We were soon alerted to move out when General Patton broke out and made his offensive from Saint-Lô to Reims, France. We were building airfields to keep gasoline going to the tanks and trucks. I remember our first visit in Reims on a pass after the run had stopped. In town, we went into a big coffee shop that had plenty of champagne, music and women. After drinking until midnight, a Frenchman came to us and tried to tell us something. After about five minutes, we got his message. He said a friend of ours was out on the sidewalk, passed out, so we went out to see who it was. We tried every way we could to get him to come with us. Finally, we got him up and walked him around to bring him, too. The problem was he weighed about 300 pounds. The four of us would get him on his feet, two of us would get under his arms and start walking, take about four steps, and all go down. After doing this for a while, we all got to laughing and couldn’t pick him up anymore. Finally, the MPs came by and we talked them into taking him back to camp in a Jeep. We all had to get back because we were moving out in the morning. The MPs wanted to take our buddy to the brig, but we talked them out of it and it was good for everyone. It’s rough getting up at five. The big guy came to enough to get up, but made the mistake of drinking a lot of water and he was drunk all over again. What a night that was.
After 40 years, it is hard to get this in sequence. I hope you will enjoy reading this. One thing that did help me, my one thought that I insisted on was that I would make it back home.
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“…you engineers have the vital job of paving the way for the air cover to back us up all the way to Berlin. Each base you build will be a stepping stone toward victory because the faster you move and work, the faster ‘the air’ moves and gets at the enemy — up close where it counts..”
“I should say that the Aviation Engineers, along with the Combat Engineers, were among the most important people we had in the European War.”
-General Dwight Eisenhower Talk to 925th Engineer Aviation Group Fort Richardson, Alaska July 30, 1947
Thank you for posting these memoirs to the web. So little has been written about the important work done by the men of the engineer aviation units. Please pass along my best wishes to your grandfather and I look forward to more memories.
Thanks, David. Unfortunately, my grandfather passed away a few years ago. I’m fortunate to have his words to remember him by. These are things he never spoke of, so it was good to read them and learn what he went through, and I’m glad I’m able to share them with more people.