War stories from the old pluggers at coffee time

Yesterday at coffee time they were several war veterans. They got to discussing their war experiences. I kind of stayed in the background as they were talking amongst themselves and starting to use terms like 1st Louie, 2n Louie, Short Arm Salute and I had a pretty good idea what inspection required the latter term and I kind of liked hearing the more reserved old guys loosen up a little.
There was a younger farmer who was in the National Guard in between wars. I would say he missed Korea somehow. He said he didn't want to drive truck so he tried to miss most of the questions on the truck driver test. Of course he ended up being a truck driver. He did not like doing this because that mean you had to sit around all the time and didn't get to walk around during war games.
He then asked this older gentleman who comes to coffee time every Saturday about his WWII service.
Mr. C is not in such good shape, his younger friend brings him out and they bring doughnuts on Saturdays.

Mr C responded.
I was 26 when I got out of the infantry.
When I got to Germany we were all lined up and the officer asked if anyone spoke German.
I spoke up and said I did. I was the only one.
The officer asked if I spoke it well.
I said I did.
The officer said, "C stand right there and don't move"
The other soldiers were dismissed and the officer came out with a German woman. He told me to interpret what she said. I understood her but it didn't make any sense so I asked her to repeat it.
The officer asked me if I understood. I said I understood the words but I didn't understand what she was saying.
He said, tell me what she said.
I said, she is saying the Goose is finished.
The officer clapped me on the shoulder and said, "Well then, lets go eat!"
They had found some fat geese in a pen and had them cooked for dinner. I ate pretty well.
My Uncle (fellow WWII vet) asked what his rank was when he got out. Mr C said he didn't want any rank and he didn't remember. I can't remember exactly what he said and other people were talking but it was going to lead to something interesting.
Then other coffee time participant ask him if he did any interrogations.
Mr. C noted that he was one of but a few German speaking US Soldiers.
"Sometimes I was with a couple prisoners and sometimes I was the only one with 6,000 prisoners. I have some bad stories and some good stories," he said.
He was quiet a while, and then told this story,

There was another soldier who spoke a little German. We  found a fish hatchery. It was in a pond in the middle of a big field. We didn't tell anyone but in the evening or at night we would go and catch a mess of fish. We just used a worm and a hook and it was great fun.
Finally the officers wanted to know where we were getting all the fresh fish. We said we got them from the creek that ran through town. That was true, we just didn't tell them we found the hatchery.
The officers had a big lunch packed and they spent a full day fishing the creek and caught nothing.
That night we went back to the hatchery and caught out share. We never did tell.

He went back tot he rank discussion.
"I tried not to get any rank. they tried to promote me but I thought if I had rank I would have to stay there longer. Finally they made me a corporal(didn't hear this exactly). I guess that was ok."

That lead to talking about rank and the offenses of second lieutenants.
My Uncle had a short story. He was in Germany in the Headquarters Battalion at the time of the Battle of the Bulge.  (I'm assuming this was during this time.) One time I met an officer in the woods in. I didn't salute properly and so he made me salute him repeatedly until I got that right. After about eight times I kept thinking that was a pretty crazy way to win a war. Soldiers were off fighting and I was saluting a 2nd Louie in the woods.

Mr. C told a short story about being assigned to find what women in town had "the clap" and to get them treatment. "I only found three but I got some soldiers pretty worried," he said.
Someone threw out a comment asking how he tested them and the discussion changed.
Another coffee drinker told how a 2nd Louie called for a VD inspection in the chow line. Another fellow piped up with the term "short arm inspection" and all the vets laughed. It was quite a coordination act between holding the tray, standing at attention and being inspected.
The instigator of that inspection got in a lot of trouble for that.

My Uncle told how he got to be a sharpshooter.
My other brothers where the target shooters, he said. I never did that much but I was the one in the Army. I was trying to hit the target but I wasn't much good at it. The instructor wanted us all to be good shots as that would make him look better. He got down there with me and told me I should let him show me how. He finished my shooting for me and hit the bullseye every time. I ended up with a sharpshooter's medal.

There were some other interesting short stories but I didn't get all of them. Then a customer showed up and coffee time was over.

More war stories

Had a talk with my uncle today. Sadie needed to ask him some questions about his war experiences. She was late for school so didn't get in on the whole talk. I would have been good for her to hear. I think. Need to get her to talk to her grandfather also.
My uncle was in the US Army from 1943-45. Said he spent a lot of time peeling potatoes and digging latrines... Uncle was a clerk. The clerk title was accounting, record keeping, administration, inventory, really general business management sorts of things. He made it to the rank of Sergeant Major. He said when he went in he kept quiet about being a farmer. The Army was looking for farmers to use in the infantry. He said he certainly did not want to drive a tank.
The disiclipine from the farm helped my Uncle. In basic training many people couldn't take directions or get ready on time. He would get up early and shave before anyone else. He kept quiet and did what he was told in basic and he did pretty well. "I was used to Grandpa or Uncle M. telling me what to do. When they said to do something you did it. It wasn't so much different in the Army."
He had been attending college and training as an accountant. He went to accounting school in Wyoming and then on to Texas where he was assigned to the third army headquarters staff. Then shipped to Europe. He said they moved pretty fast with General Patton. Every couple days they would pack everything up and load into trucks and head down the road. Then unload and setup really fast. (I thought he said 15 minutes?) Said that in the beginning they never spent more than three days in one spot. Everyone had a job. Latrine detail dug latrines, cooks set up to provide meals. Uncle was involved with messages. Messages would come in from different places and he would log them in to a book, then take the messages to the different tents. Said it was hard to do in the dark. No lights.
Said you could always hear the rumble of gunfire. You could see the bombing runs after dark. This was pretty spectacular. Said he couldn't believe there were that many planes in the whole world. He watched them bombing France from England. Said it was an amazing fireworks display.
He said the continual stream of Army traffic was unbelievable. Tank after tank rumbled by. Said when moving ahead there were dead bodies all along the road. "You hoped there were Nazi's but it wasn't always that way," he said.
Battle of the Bulge was a bad situation. He said it shouldn't have happened. He had a pretty profound experience at that point. I don't really think I ought to write about it. He doesn't know I write this.
The stress was pretty great in his group. They kept track of everything. Gas, ammo, materials. There was never enough gasoline. Patton was always yelling about that. Uncle's commanding officer had a breakdown from the stress. Had to be replaced.
It was a very interesting discussion.
After talking to him I was thinking about it. Uncle plays it all down. It was no big deal. Just doing my job. Never had a chance to be a hero. I've read about the 3rd Army's rush through Europe. He was pretty close to the action. Close enough that I would think you would be pretty worried at times. Not only that but all the logistics went through the headquarters people. He was in charge of logging and distributing messages. I'd say that was pretty stressful work. Now, I will admit that there is a difference between being on the front lines with an M-1, but I have a lot of respect for my uncle. He is really someone who always tries to do the right thing. I was looking at the two uncles and my dad today. They don't have that many years left. Hard to think about...
No- I did not get my switch wired today.
I got it almost finished and then my other uncle wanted to go down to check on the river. He left his little pickup and his bulldozer down there and was a little worried it would flood. I said we should just go down there and move everything to high ground. So I went with him.
Got back at dusk. I had everything hooked up and I turned it for the test. I have a windshield wiper delay wired in so that the foam marker runs for a short time and then pauses. There seemed to be a pretty heavy load and it didn't sound right. I did some checking and found out the air pump was locked up. I guess that would account for the fried wiring. Not enough to trip the circuit breaker but enough to fry the relays and the wiring.
I took it apart and oiled it. Think it will get me by. Now I need to tidy everything up. Not very happy with everything. But, kind of out of time. I have to make some money somehow.