大象传媒

I was drafted at 18 years old and very na茂ve, after graduating high school I attended Newark College of Engineering where I took college math courses hoping to enroll there if I was not drafted for the service. I realized later while in basic training when unit assignments were announced that the IBM system of punch cards used at that time , June 1943 had selected me for the engineers. I had no qualifications except that I had worked part time in a box factory which manufactured wood products where I operated cutting machines and used a hammer. On that basis I was selected for the engineer corps.
My box making skills came in handy when I sent home two German rifles in wooden boxes that I had made just after the war ended in Europe. One of my fellow soldiers asked me to make a box for him so that he could send home a set of toy trains. He asked that I add a false bottom so that he could place another souvenir into it, which I did. It was a German m44 machine gun with a curved clip. My two rifles arrived intact. At this time we were informed that our unit was being shipped to the Pacific and that all the older men 28 and older would have the choice of going home or to the Pacific Theatre. My friend whom I made the box for was 36 years old and opted to go home. I lost contact with him until 2000 when I located his sons and grand son. He had passed away . One of the first questions I asked his son was if he had received a set of toy trains from his father. He answered no but I did get a machine gun. At last I knew that the box that I made did arrive in the USA. He told me that his dad would fire the gun into thr Delaware River near his home. He sent me a photograph of the Rifle.
I am not aware of where my friend got the machine gun but when we landed in Normandy almost all of the men in our unit had a German machine pistol or rifle.
I was in a special engineer unit which enabled us to collect souvenirs and store them in our trucks. Each bulldozer or crane had 2 operators and a heavy truck driver, therefore a place for storage, Unlike the infantry who could not carry anything extra, except German knives or pistols and as a result they sometimes destroyed things that they could not carry.
To explain our units function in short, we were a light equipment company, which meant that we were fast moving , able to transport heavy bulldozers and cranes, air compressors, rock crushers and road graders to any combat engineer unit that requested our services and equipment in a combat group. We supplied the operators and equipment and when a construction job was completed we were assigned to an other unit as needed. We were always on call. Our unit consisted of 119 men and officers and remained together through out the war in Europe and the Philippines except for those who were sent home because of age by their request. The combat units did most of the labor and fighting , mine detecting and guarded us while we worked our equipment at the bridge sites or on the roads.
Since I was from Newark New Jersey a big city I had never seen any engineer equipment and one day just after arriving in Camp Breckenridge Kentucky I saw my name on the bulletin board where I was assigned to 鈥淎NGLE DOZER鈥� and had to ask what it meant. It happens to be a bulldozer with a blade that can be turned to the fight or left instead os straight as a bull dozer.
Later I was sent to Fort Belvior, Virginia to the Army Engineer School to learn all about operating and mechanics of the equipment. Only the cadre were former civilian engineers some much older than the men in our unit who averaged 19 years old.
Gaining experience constructing an air field and building roads and bridges to no where we were later shipped to Boston to board the USS James Parker destination England.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.