Oral history interview of Robert L. Harris

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Robert L. Harris
Creator:: Wallace, Fredrick C.
Harris, Robert L., 1925-
Date of Original:: 2003-10-01
Subject:: V-2 rocket
Hu¨rtgen Forest, Battle of, Germany, 1944
Browning Automatic Rifle
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Fraley, Dick
United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 78th
United States. Army. Armored Division, 9th
Flughafen Berlin Tempelhof
Location:: France, Le Havre, 49.4938, 0.10767
Germany, Lammersdorf/Eifel, 50.6209722, 6.2786293
Germany, Schmidt, 50.6616237, 6.4079353
Germany, Siegfried Line, 50.9113244, 14.2503823
Netherlands, Rhine River, 51.97198, 5.91545
Roer River, 48.6961101, 7.5470504
United Kingdom, England, Southampton, 50.9025349, -1.404189
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Georgia, Fulton County, Fort McPherson, 33.70733, -84.43354
United States, South Carolina, Richland County, Fort Jackson, 34.04757, -80.83335
United States, Virginia, Caroline County, Fort A.P. Hill, 38.07445, -77.3259
United States, Virginia, Nottoway County, Fort Pickett, 37.0497, -77.94626
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv
Type:: Moving Image
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Robert Harris describes his experiences in the Army in Europe during World War II. He was drafted and sent for military police training. When he learned that he would not be sent overseas, but would transport prisoners locally, he volunteered for the infantry. He recalls the journey across the Atlantic and his experiences in combat. He recalls going days without sleeping and eating, and what his first hot meal was like. He was an ammunition bearer for a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) man until the BAR man was killed and he had to take over. He describes crossing the Rhine River and his brief hospital stay for foot problems. He recalls the German people were elated to see American troops; he was placed in charge of guarding prisoners, most of whom seemed relieved to be captured. He also remembers that there were a few Polish soldiers with the German units. His unit was training to go to the Pacific at the time the atomic bomb was dropped. He describes the conflict in Berlin with the Russians. He sailed home on a Liberty ship. He describes reunions and how nervous he feels about talking about his experiences. He recalls how cold weather continues to remind him of foxholes. He displays a scrapbook of photographs and occupation currency, as well as some issues of "The Flash," his unit newspaper. He recalls the installation of a plaque on the bridge over the Rhine and expresses gratitude for what he has as well as the experiences he had.
Robert L. Harris was an infantryman in Europe during World War II.
ROBERT L. HARRIS WWII Oral Histories October 1, 2003 Atlanta History Center With Joe Bruckner [We have two Robert Harris veterans. This one is Robert L. Harris, 4019 Shady Circle, Lilburn, Georgia. The other is Robert Harding Harris., 44 Paces West Drive, NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30327.] [Tape 1, Side A] Interviewer: My name is Joe Bruckner. It's October first, two thousand three. And I'm with Robert L. Harris at the Atlanta History Center in Atlanta Georgia. Would you state your name, please and tell me where and when you were born. Harris: My name's Robert L. Harris. I was born in Fort Valley, Georgia, May the thirtieth, nineteen twenty-five. Interviewer: And where do you currently live? Harris: Live in Lilburn, Georgia. Interviewer: Mr. Harris, would you tell me a little bit about your upbringing and where you were born and just a little about growing up and your family life? Harris: Well, I grew up…was born on a farm between Fort Valley and Perry. And moved to Fort Valley when I was about nine years old and attended school in Fort Valley. I graduated from high school in Fort Valley. And [inaudible] when I was inducted in the Army I was eighteen on May the thirtieth and I got my induction papers on July the twelfth. And by the end of July was in the Army. And, of course, haven't really spent much time in Fort Valley since then. Interviewer: Did you volunteer or were you drafted? Harris: I was drafted. I knew I was going to be drafted soon after I was eighteen, so I just waited until I was drafted. Interviewer: What was your feeling about that and your family's feeling? Harris: Well, I was willing to go and my family knew that I had to go and it was…whatever…everybody else was going so I think it would have killed me if I hadn't been able to go into the Army at that time. Interviewer: Where was your first assignment and your training? Harris: Well, my first assignment was in Fort Jackson. I was, of course, inducted in Fort McPherson in Atlanta and they sent me to Fort Jackson and I joined an MP company. And I was still training in the MP company and they [inaudible] go overseas. One Monday morning, they lined us up and told us that we were not going overseas, that we were going to be transporting prisoners the port back to camp. So, after the meeting, I went down to headquarters and volunteered for the infantry. And [inaudible] five us of that had volunteered, joined the Seventh Infantry Division. Interviewer: Where was that? Harris: Camp Picket, Virginia. They were training to go overseas and of course, we went to [inaudible] in September. Interviewer: What was the training like at Fort Jackson and at Camp Picket? Harris: Well, the training at Fort Jackson wasn't too bad. It was mainly MP duties of directing traffic…the front line and moving supplies. Of course, they trained you at Camp Picket…they needed troops overseas and it was [inaudible] seven days a week. Interviewer: Did you have any experiences at Camp Picket like going to town or dealing with the civilians or were you… Harris: Well, we didn't really have much time off. There was a little town called Gaffney nearby that we…sometimes on Saturday night we were able to go. But we were pretty well training seven days a week. I think it seems like most of the time we spent at a training area called AP hill which we had to camp out and we spent a lot of time there training to go overseas. Interviewer: When did you ship overseas? Harris: We shipped over in September of forty-three and landed in England. Went to England, then from there we went across to LeHavre and up into Belgium. Interviewer: Describe your trip over on the ship. Harris: Well, it was a small ship. My company had the bad experience of serving KP every day. They didn't want to be switching KP because it was confined on the ship. So, when you learned a job, you pretty well had the job all the way over. I know that…probably the first time I'd been on a ship and I had a bad case of seasickness going over. I know serving KP, one fella and I had to switch off the serving line cause one of them was sick and then one got somebody else to take his place while he tried to get to feel better. But it was pretty rough going. Because you couldn't have lights. We went [inaudible] and at night you would go on deck and there were no lights. The weather was fairly favorable, but it was quite an experience. Interviewer: How long did it take you to get from coast to coast? Harris: Well, let's see. It seems like it was about ten days. I'm really not sure. I believe it was about ten days, the trip over. Interviewer: Where did you land? Harris: We landed in…let's see…South Hampton, England. Interviewer: Tell me what happened then, after you landed. You know, what was it like once you first got on land. Harris: Well, we bunked in some houses in South Hampton and I guess we stayed there probably two weeks. And we got our orders to go across the channel. We went over on a foreign ship. And that wasn't a very pleasant experience. It wasn't such a clean ship and the food wasn't very good. But we landed in LeHavre and I remember when we landed the weather had been rainy and we had to camp in a big field. It was full of mud and it was…we waited for our train, to get on the train and go to Holland and Belgium. Interviewer: And approximately when was this, when you got to LeHavre? Harris: Well let's see. I'd say it was probably in October, the middle of October of forty-three. Interviewer: Of forty-three. Okay. Describe what happened from that point forward with you and your unit. Harris: Well, the unit got a train and we went to Belgium. I remember the first experience we had we were in a camp in Belgium and a U2 bomber flew over. And we were standing in the chow line and we saw this thing coming and it flew over and just as it was over the camp the motor went out. You know, these U2s were flying and the motor would stop and they would come down and it hit…I understand it hit a hospital not too far from us. But we slept in a hayloft in Belgium. And from there we into combat in Herken [phonetic] Forest just out from Belgium, between Belgium and Germany. Interviewer: Describe your feelings when you found out you were going into combat, that you were actually going into the…start fighting the Germans. Harris: Well, we…my first experience in combat…of course, I'll never forget that day when you first hear the bullets and realize that you really are in combat. Even in training, I didn't realize when you to combat you just stayed there day and night. I thought you'd go out and you know, you'd have a battle, then you'd come back to your camp. But once you're on the front line, you're there day and night living in a foxhole. But the first experience, we went and moved up into some woods at night because the Germans heard us coming and they shelled us for several hours that night. Day broke the next morning, we'd passed over the hill and I was in a group, I was an ammunition [inaudible], the VAR man. There's VAR man and there's and his assistant, an [inaudible]. And my VAR man was the one in the company to be killed. And the assistant was also hit in the chest and [inaudible]. But when I [inaudible] in combat and you hear the bullets go by and people are getting killed, it's quite an experience. Interviewer: What was your role? What was your job in your unit? Harris: Well, the first job I had, cause I was ammo [inaudible], called the VAR man cause I carried a rifle and just was a regular rifleman but I also carried that extra ammo. I don't know why they picked me cause I didn't weigh but a hundred and twenty-five pounds at the time. And of course, I was nineteen when we went to combat. But I did pick up the VAR. So, I carried the VAR for quite a while. Interviewer: Describe what the VAR is. Harris: Well, the VAR is an automatic rifle that fires about twenty-one rounds a minute. It has a tripod. Of course, the tripod is so heavy that they usually…I didn't carry the tripod with me cause used it so seldom, it just added additional weight to it. And usually you just carry it. You wouldn't aim, but you would shoot it from the hip. You know, sort of strafe the bullets. It was easy to get clogged up. And nobody particularly liked to carry it. But every squad always had a VAR cause it added firepower to the squad. Interviewer: Going back to your unit mates getting killed, were you there? Did you see that happen? Harris: Oh yes. I was right with them. We were all together. Interviewer: And what was your emotion at that time? Harris: Well, you know, of course you expected things like that to happen on the front line and you really don't have too much emotion about it. But I when…I picked it up and the lieutenant told us to follow him up a road. And I followed the lieutenant up a road and the Germans…there was a break in the hedge rows and the lieutenant was hit and a sergeant behind me was hit. We didn't…we were going to go up that road and try to get out of the town. There was a small village we were trying to take. Interviewer: What was the name of that village? Harris: Well, I don't remember what the name of the village was. It was out from Lammersdorf [phonetic]. Interviewer: Continue with what happened then from that point forward. Harris: Well, after we went through…been up that road the lieutenant was hit and I was trying to…there was a sniper off to the side that kept shooting. That was from the road [inaudible] down in the ditch. It had been raining. It was full of water. I was trying to find the sniper. And it was about dark. So that night, they took me back. I went back and got some dry clothes and came back up the next morning. But, they captured the town that night. They surrendered, then we captured the town that night. And the next morning, we went through the town and dug foxholes the other side of the town. We were there for quite a while cause soon after that the Battle of the Bulge started. And we knew that something was going on [inaudible] Battle of the Bulge. We could hear the tanks moving up. Interviewer: And this was nineteen forty-four. Harris: Yes. Well, this is about December, forty-three. I think the Battle of the Bulge was in January of forty-four. We were in this particular position for, I guess, about three or four weeks. During the Battle of the Bulge, we kept complaining that the Germans…our artillery started throwing short and they told us that Germans were shooting at us from behind and they had surrounded us. They came about two or three miles from us. Interviewer: And this was about six months after D-Day, is that right? Harris: Yes. About six months, yes. D-Day was in July and it was about six months after July, after D-Day. Interviewer: So, continue on. Harris: Of course, we started out…we were gonna take a bridge…Liethendoff [phonetic] Bridge across the [inaudible] River. After the Battle of the Bulge, that we…we did take off and we took a town called Smit, Germany, which is just outside of this bridge, [inaudible] dam. And I think that was probably one of the worst battles we had. We lost more than half our company. There was several companies involved and we had to [inaudible] taking Smit. And we did finally take Smit and moved on over to the bridge which…I mean this dam which is on the outside of town. And during the…after this we, I guess, we were there about a week. And the Germans were on one side of the river and we were on the other. And my job was…I had a foxhole overlooking…a cliff…overlooking the bridge on the cliff. And if was my job to…they gave me a…what you call a thing that [inaudible]. And it was my job to watch for artillery fire and movement across the other side of the river, cause under the…of opposition. And I reported back to the [inaudible]. They had a little thing I could tell…estimate the distance and tell them what latitude and longitude that the activity was and they would try to shoot out there in that direction. So we were there about a week. So finally after that we loaded on trucks and went to Cologne [phonetic] Plains for the next two weeks. We rode tanks and walked [inaudible]. Literature from the division says it took twelve days to cross the Cologne Plains and we averaged twenty-one miles a day for the twelve it took to cross the plains. At a recent reunion, I asked everybody if they remember sleeping and eating during these twelve days. Nobody could even remember sleeping or eating during that time. It seems we were on the move all the time. Either riding tanks…we were assigned to the ninth [inaudible]. During that time, if we ran into resistance…it was an opportunity to clear the resistance so the tanks could move forward. Of course, we didn't encounter too much opposition. If we'd catch the Germans they would try to slow us up. [Inaudible] most of the grueling, grueling task of, you know, keeping…staying awake and trying to keep up with the tanks. At this time the snow was beginning to melt. During the time that we were at Lammersdorf, the weather was so cold. And that's one thing I remember, staying in the foxhole…in the foxholes day and night. In fact, I didn't see a fire the whole time…that whole winter. Just sat in the cold the whole time in a foxhole. But at the…when we finally crossed the Cologne Plains, they kept telling us that when we reached the Rhine River, that we would dig a deep ditch to take a rest about six months because it would take six months to get the [inaudible] up so that we could attempt to cross the Rhine River. We were taking our last town, going to the Rhine River [inaudible] I was lying in a ditch next to a tank. I heard the message come over the tank to pull back. And so we pulled back. We were put on trucks and we were taken to a school house and given a hot lunch. And from there, we went over to…we got back on the trucks and we rode for…till about two o'clock in the morning. And we unloaded on some trucks. Interviewer: You were pulling back now? Harris: Oh no, we were going forward. The Ninth Army had found…it discovered a bridge open across the Rhine River. The Germans were supposed to have destroyed all the bridges and that's the reason we'd have to wait six months to get boats up to be able to cross the river. But the Ninth Army had found a bridge that had not been blown up. So they thought we might be able to capture that bridge. And so they pulled us back another tack. At two o'clock in the morning, we unloaded from the trucks and started up the railroad track. And when we reached this bridge, I was in the back on the squad. They called me up and I had [inaudible]. They said, “Come on up front. We knew your firepower up front.” And we went across. It was a railroad bridge. And we walked across this bridge. It was dark and we went on the other side. But before we crossed, three members of our company, the Captain Begia [phonetic] and Sergeant Heaton and another, a Jeep driver, went across and they watched the Germans unload dynamite from a train. They were gonna blow the bridge up. They were standing nearby and a German soldier saw them standing over there in the darkness. He walked over to investigate, then they shot him. And that's about the time that we came across. That's when we started fighting the Germans to cross the bridge. Early the next morning we climbed up the mountain, crossed the bridge and went…we were gonna take a town nearby on top of a mountain. We were [inaudible] that morning and…in position. We just couldn't move. We stayed there just about all day. But capturing that bridge shortened the war about six months because it would have taken that long to cross a bridge [sic]. And that day…well, the next two or three days, troops were coming across the bridge and they finally knocked it down. That day on the mountain across the bridge, the planes were firing…they were dropping bombs on the bridge. Anti-aircraft. They had the largest [inaudible] of anti-aircraft in World War Two at this bridge at that time. And we were on this hill and the anti-aircraft [inaudible] coming right over the top of the hill. Planes were diving, trying to destroy the bridge and finally they did weaken the bridge enough that it did fall at three days. But by then, they had put a pontoon bridge across so that troops would continue coming across. But we got…that first day, several companies in our division went across and some other divisions also came. So we were able to form a big beachhead across the Rhine River and maintain the position over there. Interviewer: What was the name of that bridge? Harris: Remagen Bridge. Interviewer: Did you realize the significance of that when you were actually involved in the action? Harris: Well, no. In fact, we weren't sure what we were gonna do. We didn't know that we were going to cross the bridge because I guess nobody was really sure what our objective would be until, you know, you saw the bridge was still standing. Because, in fact, it was about to be blown up at any time. In fact, like I said, they were unloading the dynamite at night to blow the bridge up and members of our company went there and stopped it. Interviewer: What was your feeling when you realized you'd taken the bridge? Harris: Well, I knew it would shorten the war cause we were so tired and we'd had to keep going. I think that was the main thing in my mind. We were just exhausted. And we didn't [inaudible]. When we crossed the bridge, our last officer in our company was hit with a shell early the next morning. So we didn't have any officers in our company. So we were real low on personnel. Interviewer: What happened after you took the bridge? Harris: Well, we took the bridge, we just kept going inland. I think our company, after we crossed the bridge, I went back to the hospital for two weeks with frozen feet. Back at the dam they brought snow shoes. We had snow shoes on because it was real cold weather. They were heavy boots that came up to your heels…I mean up to your knee. They were padded boots and they'd keep your feet warm. So combat boots weren't my size, so I kept those snow shoes on. Of course, wading rivers and going through creeks, they were wet the whole two weeks that we were on the Cologne Plains. And my feet split open. So when they had us stand down that day because of the lack of activity, my feet were swelling. So I went back for two weeks and came back. But during that time, my company was the first one to cross the Autobahn highway and then from there went into the Arua [phonetic] pocket. And I joined them back in the Arua pocket. But we…there was one time that we took…what the name of that town was…I guess that was Roensroff [phonetic], it's a little town that we took after Lammersdorf. And there was a little town called Williswiss [phonetic] on the Oeuf [phonetic] Canal that was company took. It's the first town we took on the Cologne Plains. When we moved on after the town that night, German patrols kept shooting at us and we'd…near the time that they would shoot at us from the surrounding woods. Then the next morning…well, during the night we dug into foxholes right at the edge of the woods and this town. On the other end of a field…there's a long field and it went down to a canal and there was a sort of mountainside or steep hill and the town was on this hill beyond that canal. We dug foxholes along that…along the woods that night. Then early the next morning about daylight, there was…it was pretty. It was in March. And it was pretty. Like today. Sunny morning and we all lined up on the edge of those woods and started running to this town across the field. And the Germans started shooting at us. I think that was the only time during the war that I really felt like I was going to get hit. But I didn't think I had a chance of getting across that field. But we did lose about half our squad going across that field and we had to go down [inaudible] and then up into the town. But I know a lot of the guys [inaudible] at these reunions, they don't remember that [inaudible] put too much emphasis on that, but to me that once was one of the worst battles we had as far as I was concerned. But the first time I fell I thought I was really going to be hit. Interviewer: What was your feeling when you got across the field and realized you made it? Harris: Well, I was really surprised. I remember looking up and seeing a good friend of mine, Dick Furlick [phonetic] who was my squad leader, going up the bank from the river and I was really relieved to see him. And he looked back and saw me and he hollered back at me. It was just a…well, like it was a miracle when got across the field. Cause the Germans had machine guns and rifle fire. That was one engagement we had that we didn't use any artillery and just strictly [inaudible] firepower. Interviewer: Where did you go from there? Harris: Well, of course that was at the beginning of the Cologne Plains. That was the most resistance we had in the march of the Rhine River. And that was the first attack we made in the Cologne Plains. The rest of the time was mostly just chasing the Germans. They were retreating beyond the Rhine River. Occasionally, we would catch up cause they would, you know, leave troops behind to slow up down and we'd have to fight them. We didn't have any resistance like we did at this town. Interviewer: And about when was this? I know it was nineteen forty-five. Harris: You mean this particular battle? It was in March of forty-five. Interviewer: Okay. Where did you go from there? Harris: Well, of course, from there we continued across the Cologne Plains. And like I said, we captured the bridge at Remagen and then the company they crossed, they [inaudible] the highway and from there we went on to the Arua pocket. The Arua Pocket was an area that the Germans had been surrounded. It was a large area and we went in and captured all the Germans. Surprising, we lost…even though it was limited engagement in the Arua pocket, we lost quite a few men during that battle. They called it the Battle of the Arua Pocket. That's when I joined the company and went back with my company. That's when…I was promoted to sergeant during the Battle of the Arua Pocket. I was carrying the BAR most of the time up to that time. But the Arua Pocket was…it was sort of funny. They didn't have any front line, so to speak. The Germans would be in one town and we'd be in the next. I know the…[inaudible] once before he was a captain's Jeep driver and said he and the captain took a wrong turn in the Arua Pocket and went through a town and saw German soldiers walking up and down the street with rifles on their shoulder. And so they went on through the town. He said they knew that they had to go back. So they just stopped and said they just went back through the town as fast as they could. They were fired at a couple of times but they got back through the town. But that's the way it was. They would have one town. No defined front lines or area that they had. They might have one town behind us. They'd have another town. So we were just taking town after town until we met the other division and the Arua Pocket was over. In fact, the war for us ended…before the war ended. Because the Arua Pocket…we captured them. We didn't go back into combat. I think it was probably about two weeks before the war ended that we completed the Arua Pocket. The last town we took was on the German river. Let's see, I can't think of the name of it right now. I don't remember the name of that town right now. But we didn't the war was over until the next…one morning they told us that we were meeting up with another division and the fighting was over for us. Interviewer: What did everybody do when they heard that? Harris: Oh, they were really happy, but not like it was when they found…the war…a few weeks later when the war was over. Then the Germans had surrendered. That's when everybody was happy. Because we started training to go to Japan. I understand our division was slated to invade Japan. And we were training to go to the Pacific. Interviewer: Where did you train for that? Harris: Well, a lot of it was in…outside a little town called Sand [phonetic], Germany, it was near a castle. We were doing extensive training for…to go to Japan. Interviewer: What was your feeling about that and the feeling of your… Harris: Well, I felt like I'd done enough of the fighting. In fact, evidently it was in the paper at home, cause my mother wrote me and told me to that be sure the next time I saw the general of our division, tell him that I didn't want to go. [laughs] So evidently, it was well known that our division was slated to go to Japan. Interviewer: Were you still in Germany when the bomb was dropped? The atomic bomb was dropped on Japan? Harris: Yes. I guess…let's see. I guess we were in Sand, Germany. I really don't remember the day it happened. Interviewer: How did you find out about that? Harris: I really…I don't really don't remember what…how we found out about that. Interviewer: What was your feeling when you realized you weren't going to have to go to Japan? Harris: Well, it was really a relief. We realized then that the war was finally over. Interviewer: Tell me a little bit about the reaction of the people in the towns as you would go through Europe; France and then Belgium and then, of course, Germany. What about the people once you got into the towns? What their reaction was and what interrelationship you might have had with them? Harris: Well of course, we went to the Herken Forest, we didn't see any people in the town and then in the Seigfried line…we stayed at this town, Lammersdorf and Rollinsbroth [phonetic] was in the Seigfried line and nobody, in fact there were no houses standing. Lammersdorf wasn't so bad, but Rollinsbroth, it was completely destroyed. It was in the Seigfied line. So the first people we really encountered was this little town called Williswiss on the Oeuf Canal. That was the first town we took where there were people involved. And they acted like they were relieved that we were there, that we had come. Of course, you don't know what there true feelings were, but they acted like they were glad to see us, the civilians. Williswiss, we took all the people…we thought the Germans were gonna counterattack, so we got all the civilians and put them in an air raid shelter at the outer edge of town and made them stay in there during the day. But we captured a lot of prisoners that night. They put me in charge of guarding the prisoners. And I was in this house and it had a huge glass window on one side, the side that the bombs were coming…the Germans were shelling us during the day and during that next night. And I was standing there at the door, making sure that none of the Germans got out, the prisoners. Some of them were wounded. And there was huge living room and they were lying around the living room. And I thought sure a shell was going to come through that window anytime, but…I stood there guarding the prisoners all day, then we left the next morning. We pulled out of the town. Interviewer: What was the demeanor of the prisoners? How were they acting? Harris: Well, I didn't have much contact with them. I didn't, you know, I guess they could speak, I just really didn't have any contact with them other than just, you know, [inaudible]. But usually, when you capture the prisoner they were relieved that the war was over. Because by the time we got in combat, I think they all realized that it was a useless situation, so. And then, they had a lot of Polish soldiers and they contributed…they had constricted to [inaudible] in the army. In their army. Of course, they were waiting to be captured. They were, you know, relieved. In fact, one time we took…one time on the banks of the Rua [phonetic] River, we moved in about three o'clock in the morning. And I remember it was cold that night. And we used our own artillery and some of us were killed because are own artillery fell short and confused us. What they call rolling artillery. They would shell just in front of the troops that were moving into the town. And we took the town. We found that there was nobody there. Of course, it was a town…all the houses had been destroyed. We found a German officer there with a bullet in his head. And the rumor was that he had some Polish soldiers and they shot him and, you know, just left the town. So we didn't have any resistance in that particular instance. But it was cold weather that you really remember cause it was constant. There was no way to get out of it. Interviewer: Did your feet fully recover? Harris: Yes, I never…haven't had any problems with it. It wasn't trench foot. A lot of the troops had trench foot and frozen feet. But this was just from being wet so long. Wet a long period of time and walking so much. Cause we wanted to go to a little town that was twelve days across the Cologne Plains. We wanted to go all the time. Interviewer: When did you come home? Harris: Well, I left LeHavre in…let's see. I believe it was April. Interviewer: Of forty-five? Harris: Forty-five, yeah. In Berlin, you know, they'd point…you'd get so much points for being in Sicily at the time and extra points for combat and so forth. And I had points before. I'd been there…we shouldn't have stayed that long. But when you were in Berlin, you couldn't be replaced, so. The points really didn't mean too much there. Interviewer: What was Berlin like right then, the people and the surroundings? Harris: Well, the only trouble we had in Berlin was the Russians. They didn't want us to carry our guns in Berlin. Of course, the Russians carried theirs, so. It seemed like every night we would ask somebody…there'd be conflict with the Russians and that soldier would get killed by the Russians. But we were stationed near [inaudible] airport in a big apartment complex. Interviewer: What kind of conflicts did they have with the Russians? Harris: Well, at night I think they'd…we weren't supposed to socialize with the German girls. Of course, some of them did you know. [laughs] And there was an area between our barrack and the [inaudible] airport that was sort of a no-man's land that didn't belong to the Russians or the Germans. They'd just have…just conflicts. They'd have fights and occasionally there'd be some fire…they'd shoot somebody. But as far as the German people, we didn't have any trouble with them in Berlin. Interviewer: Were you released from the Army after you got back to the States? Harris: Yes. Interviewer: How did you come back? Harris: We came back on the liberty ship. Of course, since I was a sergeant I didn't have to do KP on the way back. I was happy about that. Interviewer: What was you welcome when you got back? How did your family feel and your friends? Harris: Well, they were all glad to see me, but you know, nobody would ever ask me about war experiences or anything because they all had been told, you know, that we didn't…in fact, you didn't like…didn't talk about it. I didn't…really wouldn't talk about it. In fact, when I married, my wife didn't even know I was in combat till I started going to Army reunions. My company, we have a reunion every month…I mean, every year. And the division has one every other year. And I didn't start going…well, the company, we didn't start our until about ten, twelve years ago. And when I started going to those, that's the first time she knew that I was in combat. Cause you just didn't like to talk about it cause [inaudible]. My family never asked me about it because they'd been advised, you know, not to bring it up. Interviewer: What convinced you to start talking about it? Harris: Well, I think getting together with the guys that knew about it. You know, that's…you feel like when you talk about it, you know, believe wouldn't really believe you. They'd think you were exaggerating because you just didn't feel like…well, it would make you nervous to talk about it. Interviewer: What was the most memorable experience of the war for you? Harris: Well, I…I think like you mentioned before, when I was first on the front line and in combat, realizing that you were out there and you were either going be…you were going to be there till you got shot or killed. And then, of course, the thing I remember most is that attack we made at Williswiss, when I thought I was going to get killed running across that field with bullets kicking up dirt all around you and people dropping all around you. Those are probably the things that I remember most. But the cold weather really is what you recall because every time it gets cold you think about those cold days in the foxholes over there, day and night. Interviewer: When you were over there going through all this, did you have any idea the significance of what was going on, you know, what World War Two was and the affect it had on the world? Harris: Well yes, I think everybody, you know, pretty well realized that it was going to change the world. But I guess the German people, you know, they…we lived in a little town called Sand, because we took over some of their houses and you got to know the people pretty well. We lived in a house and they were likable people and we didn't have any trouble with them at all during the occupation. They didn't realize that…I think most of them they just had…were getting jobs that the war provided and they really didn't realize the consequences of what was happening. Interviewer: Over the years, Remagen Bridge has been one of the more famous battles of the war. Harris: Well, it's been…yes, they made a movie of it. Interviewer: And you kept that…you watched the movie… Harris: Yes, that's the only war movie I've seen is the at Remagen Bridge. [“Bridge at Remagen”, 1969] Interviewer: What was your feeling sitting there watching that? Harris: Well, it wasn't realistic really what happened. There was no fighting on the bridge itself. In fact, going across the bridge…I still argue with some of the guys. There's a tower on each side. And going across the bridge, I know there was a sentry on that tower that told us to halt cause I instinctively heard it and I halted. But others kept going. There was two guys in front of me. Of course, when they didn't stop, I just went over with them. And across the bridge we encountered a machine gun nest by the bank of the river. Cause there wasn't too much resistance there that night until the next morning, when they started counter-attacking, you know, the middle of the next day. But that was a big, turning point of the war. Cause you know, Hitler killed some of the generals responsible for it. And it was really…they really goofed up not blowing that bridge down. That was a big decision. We were going to these meetings, the guy assigned a lot of us to cross the bridge, signed a permit, I guess you'd call it. Had to…for all of us to go across the bridge. About [inaudible] talked to somebody at the reunions. He was in our company. And of course, to have a…the guy that wrote the book, he was a reporter over there and he was there at the crossing, too. Interviewer: You brought some materials with you. Excuse me, go ahead. You started to say something? Harris: Well, no. Well, when I got back I started a scrapbook [inaudible]. Some of these papers from the beginning from before I went into the Army. There's my immunization register and Army exchange ration card and so forth. Then some German money that…in Berlin. Money's no good anymore cause it was our occupation currency. In Berlin…this money was used, as I understand, was used strictly in Berlin because it was called occupation currency. And the French and English and Germans…uh Russians all used this money. We had currency control and couldn't send it home or do anything with it, so I still have some of it. Then I have my…where I was inducted in the Army. My [inaudible] auditor report of induction dated December the twelfth, nineteen forty-three. And I have some interesting articles from…we had a publication in our company called, “The Flash” and that's some publications from it about our division. And some pictures during the war. We moved into Berlin in September and remained there until the company was dissolved. And I have a lot of pictures of some of the troops in Berlin. And I also have some pictures of some of the locations, some of the [inaudible] in Berlin. Our truck would try to get a picture of that location taken before the war and then I would take a picture… Interviewer: Did you take this picture? Harris: Yes. I took the after-the-war pictures. And I tried to get pictures of the same…I'd get a picture of the same place, I'd go take a picture of it after the war and I would put them side by side. So there's several pages of that. Interviewer: I think I noticed some World War One pictures in there. Where did you get those? Harris: I don't know. Which ones? I don't know unless there may have been some German World War One pictures. Interviewer: Right. Harris: These pictures were taken by the German Army, I understand. I don't really know where I got those. But there are several pictures…several pages of pictures of the German Army. I thought maybe if we were to start a museum or something that these pictures might be of value. And then I brought…also have a publication about crossing the Rhine River. It has maps and a picture of the bridge. Everything in it. This is a plaque that they put for my company on the Remagen Bridge. I believe the real name of the Remagen Bridge was Lucindoff [phonetic] Bridge. It was a railroad bridge that we crossed. As I understand, it had been bombed quite a bit. There were holes all in the bridge but I don't know why some of us didn't fall through the holes going through that night. At three o'clock in the morning, they probably wouldn't know if somebody fell in any of the holes or anything. I went over to Europe with some of the…well, two of us from our company went over for this presentation of this plaque that they put on the bridge. It mentions it's March eight, nineteen forty-five. That's when we crossed the bridge about three o'clock in the morning. And it mentions Company B. Interviewer: What was your feeling when you went back and were honored like that? Harris: Well, it…it did…it really didn't seem like the same place that…the bridge fell and it's never been rebuilt. The only thing standing is just the towers on each side of the river. And it really didn't…the main thing that I was interested in seeing, is seeing that the hill where the Germans had us pinned down that couple of days after we crossed the bridge. I was interested in seeing that hill again. But we didn't go over the hill. We just…pulled the bus up to a vantage point so we could see the top of the hill where they had us pinned down. [Tape 1, Side B] Harris: And that was the hill that I said we were on when artillery shells and anti-aircraft shells would come right over the top of the hill trying to keep the German planes from knocking the bridge down. But the Germans had us pinned down. They had us…I guess they had…had the distance, had the guns distance so that they could shoot us if anybody moved. They could pretty well hit us. I think everybody…probably just two of us were on top on the hill that had not been hit that [inaudible]. But they'd reach the top of the hill. There were some coming behind us that didn't get hit. They had to reach the top of the hill but…on top of the hill, Dick Burlick [sic] and I on top of the hill and I think we were the only ones that weren't hit. But they kept shooting at us all day. And there was a…looked like an apple tree up there and I was near it and they would keep shooting twenty millimeter shells at that apple tree and of course, it [inaudible] down and you could get hit from it with the shrapnel. And in our company…this is a book of…well, showing the history of the division. I [inaudible] shows the…where we went. We started out at Portsmouth, England, and then crossed at LeHavre. Went up into Brussels and went into Herken Forest, just right out from Brussels. That's where we went into combat. Interviewer: Have you been back to the Herken Forest? Harris: Yes, we went back to parts we were in when I went over for that dedication on the bridge. We, in fact, we took in some of the sights that…D-Day sights. [Inaudible] followed the path we took. We didn't go to the town on the Oeuf Canal, which I would have like to see. But we went to most of the…we were over there ten days, so we took a tour of the battlefields. I understand they take a tour every year, but that's…because of that dedication that was the biggest group that we've had to go over in Europe. But that's the only time I've been over. That was in eighty-nine. Interviewer: Was that quite an emotional experience? Harris: Yes, it was. I thought I would go back, but I haven't been able to. Interviewer: Looking back on your experiences when you were in the Army and when you were particularly in the war, how did that affect your life? Harris: Well, I really don't know how it affected my life cause…but I think it probably affected it to the good, I think, cause it gave me, you know, an appreciation of a lot of things that we have over in this country. Of course, being overseas, seeing how people live and seeing how repressed that people can become, this gave me really an appreciation of this country. I think it really enriched my life being over there. And then there's some of the people [inaudible]. Of course it's hard to see, you know, how anybody can go into battle like that, like we did at [inaudible] and run across the field knowing you're being shot at and keep going. But I think with every company there's always these few that seem to put more regard into doing their job than they do their own life. Now we had several like that. I can think of five or six that just seem to be examples of…that everybody followed. And they were the ones…real heroes of the war, I think, is people that really [inaudible] do their job then be concerned about their own safety. But we had several like that. I know this fella, Dick Furlick [phonetic], he's my sergeant, he's a platoon sergeant. He was that way. We'd have to call him back because he was so determined to do his job and do it well. I think every outfit had people like that in it that kept the others going. But I think, you know, knowing the people in my company, I think that's helped me a lot. Interviewer: Is there anything that you'd like to say before we conclude our talk? Harris: Well, the [inaudible] I can't…don't think of anything. I know I wouldn't give anything for my experiences over there, even though I volunteered to go in the infantry, go overseas, in order to go overseas. I had friends over there and I was determined to go over there and do my part. When I was on the front line, there were times I didn't expect to live, but I was never sorry that I had volunteered. I don't recall one time looking back regretting the fact that I volunteered to go into the infantry instead of staying behind with this MP outfit and guarding prisoners. So, I just think it was good that I did that. It was just the thing I wanted to do. So, that's really about all I have to say. Interviewer: Well, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview and thank you even more for everything you did… Harris: Well, I'm glad to do it and I enjoyed doing it. Interviewer: …in World War Two and saving the country. Harris: Well, thank you…Is if off? How long did we go? [end of tape]
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Extent:: 54:26
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
Holding Institution:: Atlanta History Center
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