Oral history interview of Edward Jackel

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Edward Jackel
Creator:: Gardner, Robert D.
Jackel, Edward, 1917-
Date of Original:: 2003-10-02
Subject:: 88 mm FlaK gun
Metz, Battle of, Metz, France, 1944
M1 carbine
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Jackel, Ethel, 1920-1993
Hull, Johnny
Warshaw, George
United States. Army. Infantry Division, 90th
United States. Army. Infantry Regiment, 358th, Company F
Germany. Heer. Panzerdivision, 11th
German 88s
Germany. Army
Location:: France, Maginot Line, 49.4112748, 6.0834938
Germany, Diesdorf, 52.7521081, 10.8742215
Germany, Saarland, Dillingen, 49.3578831, 6.73626683276364
Germany, Siegfried Line, 50.9113244, 14.2503823
United States, Florida, Clay County, Camp Blanding, 29.94686, -81.97324
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, New Jersey, Burlington County, Fort Dix, 40.02984, -74.61849
United States, New York, Monroe County, Rochester, 43.15478, -77.61556
United States, New York, New York County, New York, 40.7142691, -74.0059729
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
hi-8
Type:: Moving Image
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Ed Jackel describes his experiences in Europe during World War II. He worked as an athletic director before the war. He recalls being drafted and the difficulties encountered in boot camp, including swamps, cold weather and deadly coral snakes. He describes using a forged pass to see his wife before he shipped out. He spent some time in radio school, and felt that it made him soft when he tried to dig a foxhole on his first night in France on Omaha Beach. He relates several anecdotes about his time fighting across Germany, including being hidden by a French family, marching in a parade for Patton, friendly fire incidences and how he earned a Silver and Bronze star. He continues to this day to recall the face of a German soldier he killed.
Ed Jackel was an infantryman in Europe during World War II.
ROBERT GARDNER: Born November 6th, 1917. Current address is 3833 Peachtree Road NE, Number 312. The interview is conducted by Robert Gardner. Mr. Jackel, what branch of service were you in? EDWARD JACKEL: I was in the Infantry with the Army and served with the 90th Division with the 3rd Army, General Patton's Army. ROBERT GARDNER: What was your rank and where did you serve, sir? EDWARD JACKEL: My rank was final rank was Staff Sergeant. And I served after my training the United States, in England for about two and half weeks. And then I fought through Normandy in actual combat through most of France, and then Bazaar Land where I got my final wound. And then later I trained men to become infantry men in England after I recovered from my wounds. And after the war was over they sent me to Frankfurt with the Army of Occupation. I was there for about six or seven months before being sent home because I had acquired a lot of points on the discharge system. And I was surprised that I hadn't served quite two years. So, that I got home gratefully. ROBERT GARDNER: Were you drafted or did you enlist? EDWARD JACKEL: I was drafted while I was living in the city of Rochester New York. And since my place, draft board was in New York City I returned to New York and from there, New York City, and from there I went into the service. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you recall your first days in the service? EDWARD JACKEL: I recall them very clearly. I think the most interesting thing was that I told the man that was interviewing me for the branch of the Army that I would go into, and I told him that I was a Physical Education worker, and an Athletic Director. And he said, great you're going into the infantry because you guys know how to fight. And so into the infantry I went. ROBERT GARDNER: Can you tell me about your boot camp or training experiences? EDWARD JACKEL: Yes I'd be glad too because I said to myself, hurrah I'm going to Florida. And we're on a train, a crowded train, for about two or three days shunted to the sidings for special stuff. And it took us two or three days to go from Camp Dix to Camp Blanding Florida. Camp Blanding was located in the middle of Florida, not to far from the small city of Starke, and equally distant from Tallahassee, St. Augustine, and Daytona Beach. I took sixteen weeks of training at Camp Blanding. I think that they gave us wonderful training. I don't think that I would have survived without the sixteen weeks of training that we received. I remember the name of the Captain of my Company. His name was Hinson, H-I-N-S-O-N. And he was a fair and square man. That was not true of the Cadre. The Cadre tried to drop beat us, or they took advantage of the fact that we had no rank, and bullied us in many instances. But in some ways we got even. ROBERT GARDNER: How did you get through your basic training? EDWARD JACKEL: How did I get to basic? ROBERT GARDNER: How did you get through the basic training? EDWARD JACKEL: Oh I got through basic training. They even considered me for Officer's Candidate school, but I know some the Cadre didn't like the way at times I stood up to them, and so while I wasn't really insubordinate I was part of a group of men in my cabin who evaded them when they hunted for us for extra duties, and dirty details. So, they made sure that I didn't go to OCS although you'll read later in my citation for the Silver Star Medal, was a “good leadership” or something like that. So, but that's the way it went. But the training was excellent. We were in the swamps and the bare grounds, and the snakes, and a lot of marching. And one other thing, it was one of the coldest winters that Florida ever had. That was the winter of 1944, when we were there, January, February, March, and it didn't warm up until April. Men got pneumonia in the big auditoriums where they were getting lectures. Men were coughing and going to the hospital. We were in a six man shack that was porous and the cold air of that winter just poured through. So the army relented and put a stove in there, because normally they don't. And instead of wearing kaki's we wore our OD's, our dark OD's. And they also after a while issued every man a comforter believe it or not, sort of a quilted blanket. And we were very cold. The camp and the surrounding area were loaded with all kinds of snakes. And we'd go out sometimes and we'd be riding to an area for training, we'd see dozen of snakes killed all along the way. And the deadliest one was the Coral Snake. And it was reported that several men were bitten by that snake and died within an hour. ROBERT GARDNER: Which war did you serve in? EDWARD JACKEL: Pardon me? ROBERT GARDNER: Which war did you serve in sir? EDWARD JACKEL: I served in World War II. ROBERT GARDNER: Where exactly did you go? EDWARD JACKEL: First I went to Camp Dix again, and then I went to England. And when we landed in England, they lined us up and then they called out a lot of names. And my name was among them. So I parted from my buddy Johnny Hull, Johnny Hull [PHONETIC]. Johnny and I got acquainted at Fort Dix and by a crap game, and he later became my foxhole buddy by shier coincidence, which I will relate later. And he went on to become an infantry man and I stayed in England to take in the radio school, because some how they thought I had the ability to learn the dots and dashes of Morris Code and all that. We were in the training for the radio school, and I was going to be about five weeks. I already sent home a letter to get money so I could buy a bicycle so I could ride into town. And then some ship went down in New York harbor, sunk by a submarine, rumors said, or just disabled in some way, and they didn't have enough replacements to go help with the army and the fighting in Normandy. And so they broke up the radio school, some of the men had two or three days to go. I had about two or three weeks to go, and they just took it apart and everybody was shifted into the infantry, and went across the English Channel in a boat, and great many of men got sick. I felt kind of queasy at times. And then we landed at Omaha Beach, and I went past the fortification and wondered how we ever got up those hills. How we ever got through there with the troops. And then we got on a truck, and the first night they told us to dig in. Because I had been in radio school, I had softened up. And I couldn't dig deep with my foxhole. My hands were hurting, my arms were hurting. I must have had a whole maybe one foot deep. It could just barely cover my body. And they had a bomber come over there; they called “Bed Check Charlie.” And he deposited some bombs that must have landed a quarter of a mile or a half a mile away. It shook up the ground and it scared the heck out of me. That was my first day of combat, and I wondered how I could actually take real fire myself by guns and other lengths. And then the next day we traveled on by truck to another replacement depot. And then I finally came to the 90th division to which I had been assigned. I'd like to relate one interesting thing that happened to me at Camp Dix. I was married I had a wife and a child. And I wanted to see them, so I got someone to sell me a pass. But the question was how do you get out? Out to make sure that they don't look at the pass to thoroughly because it was not a good forging job. And so I knew that ever fence had a hole in it. So I walked around and sure enough there was a hole in the fence. And I told my buddy Johnny that I'm going through, and here's the number where I can be reached in case they start looking for me, and I can come back as soon as I can. And during the time that I was there I went out four different times through the hole. And soldiers that day, well service men in that day, easily got a ride. And I got a ride from Princeton New Jersey where Camp Dix was, into New York and saw my wife and my son. Then finally they told us to stay in your bunks and in your barracks because tomorrow you're shipping out. And if you're caught out, you're going to get sent to prison and some of you might even face the firing squad for desertion of “in the face of the enemy”. And I realized that they were not telling the truth, but at the same time I was very cautious, but I was determined to see my wife. And I went there and I saw her, and I came back early in the morning about 5:00 on the train. That's the way I came back, on the train to make sure I got there. And so I was sitting on the train and there were other service men in the train and about two stations before we get to Dix, MP's come on the train. And they look around and they look around. And one of them, a sergeant, comes over to me, and he say, “Uh-huh, where's your pass?” I said, “Here” and I showed him my pass. And he said this is not worth the paper to wipe my butt with. And I said well that's the one I got. He said, “Forget it, you're shipping out tomorrow and I know it. You're a lucky guy.” And he walked away. But I wondered why he had picked on me because there was a whole bunch of service men in the train and the only one he walked through was me. So I walked up to him just before the train got to Camp Dix, and I said, “Sergeant, why did you pick on me?” He said, “If you want to live in the front lines where you are going, you have to be more alert.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Look around you.” And I did. He said, “What do you see?” I said, “I don't see anything different with them and me.” He said, “Look at your grade on your cap; it's a blue infantry grade. Everybody in the car is either, yellow, green, or other colors. You're the only infantry man in the car. You should have taken your cap off.” I smiled and my face turned white I think, and I thanked him, and I got off the train. And he said, “I knew you were going over tomorrow anyhow, and you're coming back, you're not trying to get away. So, you're a lucky guy.” Anyway getting back to where I was, the truck deposited me with 90th infantry division, and that's called the “Texas Oklahoma Division.” It's a “T” and an “O” on a green patch, the “T” and “O” are in red. And they had landed on D-Day and most of the men there were veterans, and to my surprise but who greets me but Johnny Hull from New Jersey. And he persuades Sergeant Burton [PHONETIC] that was his real name, to take me into the squad. So Johnny and I wound up sharing a foxhole from the time I joined the division until Thanksgiving Day of 1944. And we were inseparable, at times we were insubordinate. We were the typical wise easterner. And Sergeant Burton retaliated by giving us the dirty detail, carrying the water jug, the big two gallon or something like that jug. We went for ammunition; we had to go on special patrol. If he didn't like where we dug our foxhole he made us dig it in another place. And we retaliated by snickering and giving him baleful looks, which he ignored. And one day, he had enough of this, and he took us to the Captain. First he said as he approached our fox hole, “the Captain wants to see you.” The Captain had a foxhole that somebody had dug in a remote area away from the General, and the rest of the Company. The Captain had his carbine in his hand. And he said Sergeant Burton, “beat it.” And he said to us, “You men have been insubordinate.” And we both said, “No, sir.” Because we never had been directly insubordinate, but we had dallied where we should have hustled and things like that. And he said, “I don't stand for any insubordination in my company.” And then he raised the carbine to his shoulder, put his finger on the trigger. And we thought we could see that the safety was off, but till this day I'm not sure. And he said, “I could shoot you and get away with it. And no one would say a word, because you've been insubordinate in time of war. If I have any more trouble with you two men, you will regret it.” And he never did have trouble with the both of us. We were really good soldiers. And then we became cannon fighters. We became men that you would be glad to follow or associate with. Anyway most of the men in our platoon and the Company were Southerners. We were the few Yankees. Southern boys bragged about who first parachute who shoot the [Unintelligible]. And we couldn't believe it. We helped men read their letters. They said they couldn't read handwriting. They could only read printed letters. And then we also wrote letters for them, I especially. And they thanked us. Since I had a certain command of the French language and also a little of German, I managed to secure wine for them by the swapping process. And to many extents they were grateful. But they were still saying, “You're a damn Yankee.” But we got along and several times Johnny and I saved the company. Are we doing all right? ROBERT GARDNER: Sure. EDWARD JACKEL: Several times Johnny and I save the company. One time for example we were with a Lieutenant, who was known—lieutenants were frequently replaced because they were either wounded, shot, or killed. And they really lead well and they were great men. But not all of them had the smarts that we had acquired in several months of combat. I was in combat for a total of a hundred and forty days, from the time I got with the 90th until I received my last wounds. And I must have had four or five different lieutenants. So, this man was leading us to a small town, and he was supposed to come in the front way of the town and check it out to make sure that there were no Germans in the town with supplies. And as we went along through these woods, he was consulting his compass frequently and I told Johnny, “I don't think he knows where he is going.” And Johnny said, “I agree, it looks like he's lost.” And finally we arrived at what we presumed was the town, we had to redirect. And suddenly Johnny and I, or rather I think it was me, we saw a box of yellow crates empty. And the word Minen, M-I-N-E-N was on the boxes. I said Johnny the Mines have to be somewhere, we came through the back of the town and where the lieutenant got us lost. We didn't come through the front of the time. So, evidently the Mines must be in the front of the town, it was that simple. We go to the Lieutenant and we tell him what we think, and he's there with Sergeant Gross [PHONETIC] our platoon sergeant, and he doesn't want to listen. I said, “Sergeant, Lieutenant if you don't listen, a lot of men are going to get killed.” And Sergeant Gross says, “Listen to these guys, they're smart New York cookies,” something like that. And the Lieutenant said, “I can't break radio silence.” And the Sergeant said, “If you don't break radio silence, you're going to be responsible for a lot of deaths and wounded men.” He finally broke radio silence and told the Captain their circling around the town, and sure enough the Captain was about to approach the front of the town, and he circled around and joined us. And then later the engineers confirmed that the front of the town of this small city was thoroughly mined, and we saved our company from being devastated by the mine. And there were other instances where our abilities as infantry men as it developed did good things for the Company. We were inseparable, we shared foxholes and we shared foods. We shared Cognac one time. We captured a big warehouse full of Cognac and Johnny and I, I told him its great booze. And neither one of us were big drinkers but the Cognac was so tasty, and we were thirsty and tired, and neither one of us were big, big drinkers but they had us in a barn that day in this town. And we were drinking, and I drank about a third of a bottle, and Johnny drank about the same amount. And then we lay down and we fell into a drunken sleep, or tolfer [PHONETIC] whatever you want to call it. And when we woke up both of our bottles were empty. I said, “Johnny, you've been drinking too much.” He said, “Oh, no.” And then someone told us that some other guy came over and swapped their empty bottles for our full bottles. Among the information I have is a—shows pictures of me in combat in a photo studio. I'm wearing my combat hat; I got a small combat pack on my back. I have a rifle with a bayonet and I'm wearing leggings, the old fashion leggings, and there are flowers in the background. So, it's odd that here's a man in combat regalia and there flowers in the back where they took the picture. What happened is we were going through a small town, and all of a sudden Jerry [PHONETIC] started pulling in a lot of artillery 88's on us. Everybody ran for shelter. And you get separated from your buddies and everybody else, but you want to live so you run to where you think the strongest house is. I went to the strongest house, the door was open. I ran in and looked around for a place to hide in the house. And all of a sudden a trap door opened from the floor. And a man with a mustache, typical French mustache, beckoned me with his finger. And so I followed him down a rickety ladder to a basement. And in the basement were his wife, two children, and his mother-in-law. And we talked and I shared my “K” Rations with him. I had my compact pack with me. I had some candy which I gave the children. Oh I gave him most of a pack of cigarettes. Although I didn't smoke much, because I was a jock most of my life, and I didn't inhale, but I had to smoke because other wise the guys would say, “Hey he doesn't smoke, what kind of guy is he?” So I used to light up cigarettes but I never inhaled, and I carried them. And most of the time I'd give my cigarettes to my buddy Johnny. But I gave the cigarettes to the man and he said you are “Jonte” [PHONETIC], and you are very nice. And in appreciation I'd like to take your picture. I said, “What good is your taking my picture if I won't get a copy of it?” He said, “I can mail it to you.” I said, “How would you know where I would be?” And then I suddenly remember that GI's would be coming through the town probably following us, the guys in the service command and so on. And I said here is my address, so Private 1st Class Edward Jackel 42570916 as APO90ETO. And the envelopes were franked; you know we had three franking permits. I said you can take this, if I spoke in French, and sometimes I wrote words down on a pad so he could understand it better. And you give it to any service man, and he will be glad to mail it to me at this address. He said [Speaking French], and things like that and kissed me on both cheeks, and the old lady kissed me on both cheeks. And I found my way of the rickety stairs because the shelling had stopped, and I had to get back to my company and see how Johnny was making up. And finally I come up to Johnny, and Johnny says, “Where you been?” I said, “Johnny you won't believe it, I was getting my picture taken.” He said, “You're always telling stories.” I said, “Johnny it's true. One of these days I'll get the pictures, the guy is going to mail it to me and you'll be surprised.” But I never showed those pictures, I finally received the pictures in January of 1945 when I was in the hospital bed in England, a town called Wallace, but I couldn't show them to Johnny. So I mailed the pictures home to my mother and my father. And they are here on some of the articles, and this is not the picture, this was taken in England. But there was another picture without the regalia which shows my face in just an Army shirt and no cap or anything else. And I still have the pictures. Well after the war I did see Johnny in New Jersey. I visited him and I showed him the pictures, but more about that later. ROBERT GARDNER: Could you hold that picture up for a moment so I can zoom in here for a moment. EDWARD JACKEL: Okay? ROBERT GARDNER: That's wonderful, thank you. EDWARD JACKEL: Okay. ROBERT GARDNER: Could you tell me about any other combat experiences or any medals or awards that you received? EDWARD JACKEL: Well I can tell you briefly, as briefly as I can. Well I have other pictures by the way; I have all kinds of pictures. I can tell you stories are you interested in humorous stories as well as combat stories, because this took place in combat area. ROBERT GARDNER: That's fine too sir. EDWARD JACKEL: Okay we were always hungry in our drive through Normandy. When you're in combat tension makes you hunger, but in addition to being hungry you desire sweets. And we were always hungry for sweets. Now we had K Rations at that time, and they were good. And we'd eat them with a spoon that we kept in our pocket. We never carried knifes or forks, when we went into a rest area maybe once every two and half weeks. Then our truck would come back, our company truck would come back up, and we'd eat hot meals, and then they'd give us mess kits and knifes and forks. But mostly we ate with a spoon, K Rations, C Rations, and B Rations. And the thing we talked about in all the time was not food but candy. We wanted a Hershey bar, Milky Ways, Snickers, [Unintelligible], Baby Ruth's, you named it, and we never got any of them. When I was in Blanding they told us that the good candies were overseas, but I never saw them. We had the cheap candies and some British candies that had no sugar what so ever. So all we talked about was sweets. And I would tell them that instead of a candy bar I would like to have just one of my momma's ruvalas [PHONETIC], and they could have three candy bars, and I wouldn't swap them. And they had me hollering. I told them the ruvalas were a Jewish type of cookie, which was made with [Unintelligible] dough, and inside it, and I won't go through the whole process, is cinnamon, brown sugar, and raisins, and all kinds of chopped up nuts. And when you bite into one, it's crunchy like a normal cookie, but also you have the inside ingredients which add to the flavor and you really go out on it. And my mother was a noted baker and so on. The true story of it is that I never asked my mother to send me cookies. But one day my sister wrote me a letter and said that mama baked up a big batch of cookies and they're on the way. And that the mail man said that the box would come there about ten days after you received my letter. And my story which I wrote up part of my book, I am compelled to write to mother to ask for cookies, but that was not the fact. I wasn't the type of boy or man to ask my mother to send me something like that. Anyway when the men found out that the cookies were coming, their mouths were watering, and they were salivating. And of course I was thinking of them, and Johnny was in ecstasy, he couldn't wait. As a matter of fact, he woke me up one night and said, and we're in a foxhole, and he poked me and he said, “You're talking about your mother's cookies again.” I said, “Johnny I can't help it. I keep dreaming about the cookies because they're going to get here any day, and oh you've got some good eating ahead of you.” And he said, “shh”, and we heard other “shh's” from the other foxholes around us, “you guys keep quiet you're in a combat zone.” And then the next day, morning, they asked me while were having our K Ration eggs they asked us, “What were you guys talking about last night? Don't you know there's a god damn war going on?” And Johnny said, “He was dreaming about his mama's cookies again.” I said, “Listen those cookies are coming.” And everybody was high anticipating them. Everyday we'd all gather around but no boxes came. And two weeks went by and no cookies. Men who went into the hospital for medical reasons or because of wombs would come back and say, “Did those cookies come here yet?” And everybody says they're never going to get here. Well one day when we had just about given up hope, a big box matted and a little torn was delivered along with the other mail, and it had my name on it. But the boxes were dented, torn in places. It looked like it had been kicked around and mended, and thrown in from truck to boats and boats to trucks, and throwing around but I was glad to see it, because I knew my mama's cookies were there. And the men gathered around and I borrowed Sergeant Mullins knife, cut the corner lifted up the lid of the corrugated box and shoved aside the wrapping paper. And I put my hand in, and I was so disappointed, because all it was, it looked like some sand with pebbles. And I said, “Fellows the cookies were all banged up, they're not worth anything.” And all of us had a look of dismay on our faces, and then Sergeant Mullins took his spoon out, dug it into the box picked it up put it to his mouth, and he crunched it, and he faced me. And he quickly put his spoon back in there, but we weren't slow either we put our spoons back in there. Honestly, in about ten minutes that big box was empty of every speck of cookies, and it was delicious. And everybody was wiping his mouth and said, “Your mother sure can bake.” Well I wrote my mother a letter and I said “Mom I want you to know the cookies finally arrived. And I'm glad to tell you we enjoyed them thoroughly. As a matter of fact we ate them down to the very last crumb. And that's the end of that story. ROBERT GARDNER: Can you tell me about your medals or citations that you got? EDWARD JACKEL: I got the pictures; I'd like to tell you one other story. Is that permissible? This is another story that I've told a number of times. It's called the “Mozelle Chicken”. One day as we were going through Normandy, Johnny told me, and this is a true story. And so is the ruvalas story, absolutely true. We're going through Normandy, and you know marching on towns, either side a row of rifles on my shoulder, slugged on my shoulder, and Johnny said, “See that cow over there? I bet it would make good eating.” And I said, “Johnny it sure would make good eating, but how could we cook them? We don't have any stoves.” And he said, “Well we just shoot him and cut him up.” And I said, “Johnny that's impossible.” But a little later on we took a break and were right near a farm. And in the courtyard we could see some chickens. And Johnny said, “Let's go get us some chickens.” And I said, “Well we could get some eggs.” He said, “Let's get the chicken, I'm tired of eating eggs, we get eggs anyhow in our K Rations, and we fried some on tin cans haven't we.” I said, “We sure have.” He said, “What I'd like to do is eat some chicken.” I said, “Well how will we do that?” He said, “Look we get the chickens, we take them into town, and our next break maybe we can get someone to cook them for us. We'll pay them money and we'll give those cigarettes and candy, and coffee.” We had those thin packets of coffee; George Warsaw [PHONETIC] called it aluminum foil. And I said, “Okay.” So, we got a break and we went into the courtyard and we tried to catch a chicken. And we couldn't catch them. They were two fast for two clumsy men. We had put our rifles aside, but we still had our helmets on. And we had leggings and brogans and we weren't used to running, and they were agile. And we couldn't catch them. Then we heard Sergeant Mullin saying, “That ain't no way to catch them chickens, you stupid city boys.” And I said, “Well you show us.” He got a big stick and knocked them off their feet. And then we grabbed them while they were on the ground and each of us carried one chicken as we got back into formation to march to the nearest town. As luck would have it, we walked down the road and each of us had a chicken under the other arm, and on one arm was the rifle, and the chickens would squawk and make all kinds of funny sounds that we weren't used too. And everybody was laughing, but we didn't care because those chickens were going to be our dinner. We were determined to get some chicken. And consequently we come to a town and the Captain said we're going to have a three hour break, and the word was passed down three hour break. And so, the civilians came out to look at us, and we got together some cigarettes, some K Ration cans, and the instant coffee packet. And we tried to make the people understand that we'd give them all these goodies if they would bake, roast, or cook or however they could, the chickens. But nobody seemed to want to take our offer because we were sort of dirty, and some of us hadn't washed for a week or maybe two weeks. And I don't think we were—we looked anything but desperadoes. And so, out of the corner of my eye with my good peripheral vision, I saw an old lady looking at us. She had an apron on her arm and she was looking at us. So, we walked over to her with our chickens and explained to her. And then to make it good I took out some of our French Army money, the army had given us money every payday so we would buy things instead of taking them. And so we had what they call “American Frank”. And we piled about maybe $10.00 worth on top of pile of things we were about to give, and she nodded her head. She took all those things and put them in her apron. And then she grabbed one bird and grabbed it by the head and snapped it and killed it instantly with one snap. She did the same with the other one. And I told her by pointing to my watch; we've only got two hours. I didn't want to say three hours, I said two hours. And I said it in French, and I showed her the number. And she said, “Wee, wee.” And she hurried away to a house that was about a block away. And we could see her going into the house with the chickens, but they weren't hacking anymore. And then we said, we want to get a good meal and we're going to share it with you guys in the squad, we told the fellows in our squad. We were both private's but the army for once didn't stay longer, they cut the break. And before the two hours were up we were on our way. And we said, “I guess it wasn't meant to be for us to get any chicken.” And we're marching toward the sound of artillery fire on either side of the road, us and army men, VI. And suddenly we heard whistling back in the direction we had come from. Guys were whistling, guys were laughing and there comes this old lady on a bicycle, and the smell of the aroma of the chicken was walking to us through the air. And in the basket as she's riding wrapped in newspapers we could see as she approached. We could see and smell the chicken, and she was looking down the line of soldiers, and she found us. And she gave us the chicken. And we wanted to give her more money because she had delivered them, but she wouldn't take it. And we told her merci [Speaking French], and we grabbed the chicken and we started tearing them apart. And we gave—passed it up and down the line. And we ate the chickens and they were delicious. To this day, it's been the most tastiest chicken I've ever eaten in my life, and that's an absolutely true story. I'll give you a copy and you can keep it if you want too? ROBERT GARDNER: Okay sir. EDWARD JACKEL: And now you asked about combat. Well we fought through the imaginable lines [PHONETIC]. We fought through the C-free Line [PHONETIC], the German C-free line. We helped capture the undefeated fortress of Metz. And right after we captured the fortress of Metz, it was sometime around the middle of November, and they finally stopped our march and we came into a town and to our surprise they gave us showers. And we took showers. And they gave us clean uniforms, and overcoats, heavy army overcoats. And also combat boots, and we could get haircuts, one, because General Patton wanted to parade us in through the town of Metz that we had captured the town, which we had. But actually we hadn't fought in the town; we had fought around the areas of the town. Anyway my company hadn't fought in the town of Metz. And that thing hadn't ever been captured before in the history of Europe. So we get to the town and we start parading through with our new overcoats on, our new combat boots. We were glad to get rid of those leggings. And I want you to know we felt great. We look different; you couldn't recognize some of the guys, because rarely shaving was an ordeal and getting a haircut together. And sometimes we wouldn't get a bath in maybe three or four weeks. Occasionally we would wash in a nearby river or creek, or something like that. But this is in November, and all of the sudden while we're parading in nice formation, the whole division is on parade, we hear the sound of the 88's. They had a whistling noise, and everybody hit the dirt on either side of the road. And we were covered with mud. And then we looked awful. And then finally we heard that somebody attacked [Unintelligible] to come by and got the tank that had shielded us, and we continued the parade. But we didn't look half as good as we did when we started. I had one of the most memorable things that I ever saw in the war was one day we were going across the C-free line, and they had tunnels, or not tunnels sort of walkways where they walk from one pillbox to another pillbox. And we were going across and we're about to knock out a pillbox, and all of a sudden they open up on us. And so we all ran in different directions. So, I'm running one direction, and I come up and I'm on the back side of a pillbox. So, I go across the pillbox and I must have made some noise, but on the front of it a door opens. And there am I on top of a pillbox and three Germans come out. And like I said, I had been crawling on the ground and I had two grenades attached to my straps of my pack, and I try to pull the ring out of the grenade so I can chunk them down there. But my hands were muddy and the ring was cinched in so it shouldn't open by error, and I couldn't open it. So, the only thing I could do was, take a chance and top them with my M-1. And their backs were turned to me, but I knew that if they had a chance to do it me, they would do it to me. So, I fired, I nearly emptied my clip, and all three men went down. And one man, helmet flew off and he had blonde hair and blue eyes. And to this day, I still remember the first man I saw that I killed. Previously I would, you would kill a man from a hundred yards, two hundred yards, three hundred yards, and you wouldn't even know if you killed him or wounded him, because other guys were shooting at him at one time, which is the story of the bravest thing I ever saw. One of the greatest things I ever saw, I saw a lot of great things was we had a guy called George Warsaw, he came from Milwaukee. He was a big burly guy; he was about thirty-one or thirty-two with a big gun on him. And when I joined the Company they were still talking about his speed a foot. I said, “What do you mean, he can't run well.” He said, “He sure can when someone's shooting at him.” He said “The other day we were behind some [Unintelligible], by the way that was a nasty fight, we were behind some [Unintelligible], and we saw a tank approaching. And right behind the [Unintelligible] George loaded his bazooka, and his bazooka man, assistant, stood behind him and attached it, and then George aimed at that tank. And I swear that it wasn't more than fifteen yards away I was told, and his bazooka shell went under the tank, and when the tank heard that it opened up on all of us. And boy everyone ran, and George dropped his bazooka and his ammunition, and believe it or not, he was the first one back to a safe area, []. He was the first one back and therefore everyone constantly talked about his fleetness of foot. But George always kept saying, “One of these days I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you that I'm good and I really can shoot the thing.” Well we went in to a town called Bestroff [PHONETIC], by the way this is written up in some books, and General Patton commended my battalion for this thing. We cleaned out about a dozen of men that we're just a delaying group. And took a couple of prisoners, and then we got ourselves into some nice houses to take a break, and to spend a night. And we were told—the whole Company spread out around this house, half of Bestroff and various houses. And we knew that the Germans would counter-attack. And I think the counter-attack was by the 11th Panzer Brigade, but I don't remember the exact number. And sure enough the next morning they counter-attacked. And it was a big open field, and they came of course and they were brave. And we just mowed them down from the buildings windows that were in small buildings, one or two story buildings. We hid behind the building and they came across the open field just as day was breaking, and it was really murder. You never knew whether you killed a man, but you'd see his body shakes from the bullets and things like that, because they were all crawling along the ground anyhow. And I don't know if I killed anybody, but I remember my ears were—I couldn't hear well for awhile, and one or two of the men lost their hearing for a couple of days because of all the firing we did. And so rifles got so hot that the front sights dropped off. And you see these movies where the guys fire a lot of rounds, and then they hold the rifle by the barrel, you can't do that. The rifle gets hot. But anyway the Germans got wise and they sent some tanks. They sent some tanks around, and one came from one side of the village, and one from the other. And as they approached the house where they knew we were in, the 88 you could hear it rattle. And the tank and they blasted the house. And we knew that we were going to be blasted in a few minutes. And every body ran to the side of the house, away from the street that the tanks were coming down, except George and another man. And we could hear the treads of everything, and we could hear the muzzle, the whole rife being moved, it was creaking. And we expected a blast at any minute, and then we heard a blast, a real loud blast. And we thought we got it, the house is going to topple down. But all we heard was George's voice saying, “I got the son of a bitch, I told you I would get a tank.” And out from the tank jumped three Germans, and we didn't kill them we just captured them, because they were wounded. And in the tank, from the tank, I got a pair of field glasses and a P-38 Walther, and some Nazi banners which I sent home. But that was the bravest thing I have every seen, one of the bravest things I've ever seen. How George stood there in the face of that tank, and he aimed his Bazooka and he saved our hide. Down at the other end of the town somebody must have seen that this tank was disabled, and they disabled the other one with a Bazooka too. And they gave up and we kept the town. Another brave thing I saw once, an American tank was firing at a bunch of us. And I remember this guys name, his name was Walker, Sergeant Walker. And everybody ducked in the ditches and was in the hedge hold fighting, but he stood up there and he yelled, “I'm American, I'm American.” And he took his helmet off and waved it. And he stopped the tanks from firing. As it is that friendly fire that hit a few other guys. And one other thing, never in World War II, did anybody ever talk about what happened to GI's in friendly fire. On Thanksgiving Day of 1944 we, 90th Infantry Division, had to charge across an open field, and it was cold. I think it was first an early Thanksgiving. I think Franklin Roosevelt made it an early Thanksgiving that year. And we went across an open field and then we had to walk through a pond with water almost up to our necks carrying our rifles above our hands. And then we went across this open field, and all of the sudden all hell broke loose. People were shooting at us with rifles and machine guns. And then someone said, “They're killing us.” And there were guys falling all over and men started to run. I want you to know Johnny and I didn't run. Somehow we kept advancing and all of a sudden Johnny disappeared, and suddenly I ran but I carried my rifle with me. I went back through that pond, or that stream, and I never saw Johnny again until after the war. But it was the 30th Infantry Division's first day on the line, and it was sort of a cloudy slightly foggy day. And they shot us by mistake. And I've never seen any account of World War II including my division's book written by an officer. And that was another experience. After the war I was in a hospital in England for a while and then I was used to, I was a Staff Sergeant by the way, became a Staff Sergeant. And I how got my medal was simply, we were in azar land [PHONETIC] in a town called Dillinger [PHONETIC] and we went across some—we knocked down a lot of pillboxes with Bazooka's and rifle grenades, and then we came to a big railroad marshaling yard, maybe eight or ten, or fifteen tracks, must have been all kinds of tracks. And the town of Dillinger was on the other side of tracks. Well anyway it seemed more buildings were on the other side of the track. And the Lieutenant said, “I'm going to make..” we went about a hundred yards from the railroad tracks, he said, “This is going to be my CP Sergeants, you Sergeant Gross , you and somebody Jackel, recon to the town of Dillinger and see what the strength of the enemy is, he said. And so we went across and went looking through the houses, and all of a sudden we found in one house a German soldier hiding. In another house we found another German soldier, he was on the crapper. And all together we picked up three Germans. And then we heard the sound of marching feet and tanks, and all of the sudden we knew it was Germans because they were not coming from our direction. We were able to track by coming from the other direction, toward the railroad tracks. So, we hid in the buildings, and then we played hide and seek with those German tanks and the German infantry. And I told General, “Whatever you do, don't look to fire.” I told my squad, don't fire. But somehow one of the guys thought that he saw somebody looking up at one of the windows of the house that we were hiding in, and he fired and he killed two guys and wounded one. And this guy crawled in a ditch, and he tried to shoot that guy, and I tried to shoot that guy, and we couldn't do anything. He was safely in the ditch. And we were about to go out of the house and take care of him when all of the sudden we hear the tanks. The tanks came and they didn't talk to the guy, but they put him on the top of the tank. They picked him up and put him on the tank, and then they went away. And we knew that duration in the house was short, and sure enough they came back with a lot of infantry and we heard them coming and we picked other houses, other than the one we had been fighting in before. And we played hide and seek with them, and took the German prisoners with us. And I told the men were going to get out. But most of them wanted to surrender. They said, “We've done enough, we fought enough.” And this was December 9th or 10th of 1944. But I said, “No, no I am not going to surrender.” And I took over; Sergeant Gross let me take over. And I said, when dusk falls we're going to use the prisoners to get us through, and I could speak a little German more like a Yiddish German, and we're going to get them by their front lines. They know the password and we're going to escape. And some of the guys deferred but I told them “No were not going to be captured.” And meanwhile these prisoners are going to give us valuable information, and I was adamant. And so we started then at dusk, but somehow we passed through the German lines. And after we pass through the German lines somehow we were silhouetted against the sunset, and they could then make out better the shape of our uniforms and our helmets, and also somebody had told the German prisoners, not me, to put their hands on their heads, which is the way you usually escort prisoners. And all of the sudden they opened up. And some of men, we were on the railroad tracks then, some of men laid down on the tracks. And I realized that sooner of later they would zero in on the tracks, they were firing light artillery pieces and machine guns. So, I went over and I actually picked some of them up, and said, “You've got to keep moving, you've got to keep moving.” And all of the sudden I got whapped in the leg by several pieces of shrapnel. And my combat boots started to fill up with blood, and the guy that I helped pick up, put my arm around his shoulders and they helped me get to our lines. And they kept shooting on us, and then we heard voices saying, “Keep going, keep going, keep going,” and then other guys in the line from other companies encouraging us. And that's how we got away. And that's for what I got the Silver Star medal. ROBERT GARDNER: We really appreciate you sharing this with us. Wish we had more time, but this is the limit that they'll allow us. EDWARD JACKEL: Well let me state this? ROBERT GARDNER: You can do those real quick. EDWARD JACKEL: This is a postwar picture. ROBERT GARDNER: All right got that one. EDWARD JACKEL: You got it? ROBERT GARDNER: Yes sir. EDWARD JACKEL: Okay and this is a post war picture too. ROBERT GARDNER: Got that one. EDWARD JACKEL: And this is a picture of my wife and family when I came home from basic training. And I had all my rifle medals and all that. ROBERT GARDNER: Okay. EDWARD JACKEL: And that's about it. Oh and this is the Bronze Star Medal, and the Combat Infantry badge, which I'm proud of, and a Bronze Star Medal. And there's my hero, one of my sharp shooter thing. Oh and this is my ribbons. I had three combat stars and the medal that goes with each of them. ROBERT GARDNER: Wonderful. EDWARD JACKEL: Oh and here's my divisional insignia. I managed to throw it in there, Texas Oklahoma. ROBERT GARDNER: Got it. [END INTERVIEW] [CJ]
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Extent:: 1:01:09
Original Collection:: Veterans History Project oral history recordings
Veterans History Project collection, MSS 1010, Kenan Research Center, Atlanta History Center
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