Oral history interview of Fred Louis King

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Fred Louis King
Creator:: Gardner, Robert D.
King, Fred Louis, 1922-2005
Date of Original:: 2003-09-02
Subject:: World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Anzio, Battle of, Anzio, Italy, 1944
Purple Heart
Bronze Star Medal (U.S.)
Operational rations (Military supplies)
Brown, Joe E. (Joe Evan), 1892-1973
King, William
Greenbrier (White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.)
United States. Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944
American Red Cross
United Service Organizations (U.S.)
King, Bill
Location:: Italy, Lazio, Rome, Rome, 41.89193, 12.51133
Italy, Sicily, 37.587794, 14.155048
Morocco, Casablanca, 33.5950627, -7.6187768
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Georgia, Bibb County, Macon, 32.84069, -83.6324
United States, Tennessee, Hamilton County, Chattanooga, 35.04563, -85.30968
United States, Tennessee, Knox County, Knoxville, 35.96064, -83.92074
United States, Tennessee, Unicoi County, Erwin, 36.14511, -82.41681
United States, Virginia, City of Newport News, Newport News, 37.08339, -76.46965
United States, Virginia, Fairfax County, Fort Belvoir, 38.7119, -77.14589
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv
Type:: Moving Image
Description:: In this interview, Fred King recalls his time as an infantryman in Italy during World War II. He describes hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor, and enlisting because it was "the thing to do." He describes basic training, how he was accustomed to physical training, but the men from Brooklyn (N.Y.) were not. He tells in detail both harrowing and humorous stories of combat. He relates being wounded and his treatment. After contracting severe trench foot, he returned to the United States; after his recovery, he worked in the Army's payroll office. He recalls working with British forces in Italy. He describes being able to visit with his brother while recuperating in Naples, as well as finding a nurse named Earlene from his hometown on his hospital ship. He describes C- and K-rations, being served a meal of steak and potatoes in the hospital and his remorse over not being able to eat it. He relates writing home using V-mail and how censorship worked. He describes shaving out of his helmet and wearing the same uniform for four months. He describes witnessing waves of B-25s, B-24s, and B-17s fly overhead all day long, not knowing it was D-Day. He discusses how his war experiences stayed with him awhile, and how glad he was to return to the United States after witnessing the destruction of European towns. He relates being interviewed by his nephew's fourth grade class and describes what it meant to them as well as to him.
Fred King was an infantryman in Italy during World War II.
ROBERT GARDNER: Today is September the 2nd, 2003. This is an interview with Mr. Fred Louis King, 2378 Shallowford Road, NE, in Atlanta. Birth date is 5/13/22. His wife is in attendance, and Robert Gardner is conducting the interview. Mr. King, what war and branch of service did you serve in? FRED LOUIS KING: World War II in the Infantry. ROBERT GARDNER: And what was your rank, sir? FRED LOUIS KING: I was overseas in combat and everything I was just plain old Buck Private. And later on I got stripes and stars. ROBERT GARDNER: Were you drafted or did you enlist? FRED LOUIS KING: I enlisted. ROBERT GARDNER: Where were you living at the time, sir? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I lived in Pearl, Tennessee. That's where I was born and raised, and at the time I started in college in August, so I went down to Knoxville, Tennessee 100 miles and enlisted. And he told me to go on back to school and he would call me when they're ready for me. ROBERT GARDNER: Why did you join sir? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, it was just – after Pearl Harbor that was just the thing to do. We were in war, so we all joined. ROBERT GARDNER: You mentioned Pearl Harbor, how did you find out about that? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I went to church on that morning, and I was dating a doctor's daughter, he invited me to lunch that day and we had the radio on and all of the sudden here started this news about Pearl Harbor and we didn't believe it so we sat there and listened to it all afternoon. ROBERT GARDNER: Why did you pick the service branch that you joined? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, really I wanted to get in the ground crew at the Air Force because I was pretty good with my hands and I wanted to work on the motors, but they said hey, no, we need you in the Infantry, so that's where I went. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you recall your first days in the service? FRED LOUIS KING: Oh, yes. Went to college, we got on train, went to Chattanooga to Fort Belvoir there the first two to three days and they gave us our uniforms and all of this. Then they sent me down to Atlanta, Georgia to the new camp that they had there, there was an infantry camp. So my first day there was pretty wild. [LAUGHTER] ROBERT GARDNER: What did it feel like? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, you really didn't know. Excitement I guess, and here are all these thousands of people going into service and you just went with the flow of the crowd and tried not to let it bother you. ROBERT GARDNER: Can you tell me anything about your boot camp or training experiences? FRED LOUIS KING: Oh, yes, boot camp at Camp [unintelligible] an infantry camp and engineering. I was there about eight months and I was in Company – I forgot what Company I was in there. About half of them was from Brooklyn, New York, never been out of Brooklyn before in their life. We had a lot of fun with them. And while the short while that I was in college I knew I was going in the service, so I went out every day on the track field and run a half mile, mile, and we had an army group there in the college, so they had the wall that you go over and all those things, so I did all of them. So I went in the service I was in great shape. And I'm telling things on I shouldn't say, but these little boys from Brooklyn, never been out before in their lives in Macon, Georgia middle of the summer, we'd go on a seven mile hike, everyone of them would fall out. But I kept going. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you remember any of your instructors? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, the first day the Sergeant got in there and he told you, he said, “Now, you're here and I'm the Sergeant, I'm the boss, and if anybody wants to say something about that step out right now.” He says, “I'll tell you what to do and I want you to do it.” Actually, he was a good fellow. So we went out and we started learning how to march and turn and this type stuff and they gave us a rifle and we went on the rifle range and tried to shoot the best that you could, and you just might have an all night hike you go on and all these different things, and you just flow with it. Some people think I'm crazy; I enjoyed it. I was in good shape and I knew I was going somewhere, but the training I didn't mind. ROBERT GARDNER: So, how did you get through it? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I got through it in great shape. When it was over with I was in good shape and they said okay, and they let me have my week visit home and then sent me up to a camp up in the other side of Washington then took me down to Newport, put me on me ship. ROBERT GARDNER: What war did you serve in, sir? FRED LOUIS KING: World War II and most of my duty was in Italy. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you remember arriving and what it was like? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, arriving in Italy – of course the troops in my outfit – I went over a as replacement, of course, put me in an outfit with 45th Division from Oklahoma and we landed in Southern Italy and had to drive the Germans, because they'd already been to Sicily – the [unintelligible] Sicily outfit had, and the Germans were waiting on us. And they almost drove us back off, but finally we were able to push them back and start up the Peninsula. ROBERT GARDNER: What was your job or assignment? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I was just infantry man and so mine was to shoot. Travel, shoot, do whatever they told you basically. They'd say let's go, we'd go on. Let's capture this house or let's push them out of there, so I did what I was told. ROBERT GARDNER: So, obviously you saw combat? FRED LOUIS KING: Oh, yes. ROBERT GARDNER: Were there many casualties in your unit? FRED LOUIS KING: Many casualties. My company, we had about an average of 115 men in and we say they were wiped out. They were wiped out three times. One time down we had 20 and the next time down we had seven, so I'm lucky. ROBERT GARDNER: Can you tell me about a couple of your most memorable experiences. FRED LOUIS KING: Well a German – of course, I'll bring it up – Anzio Beachhead. We had the beachhead and it was shaped like a half moon and the Germans came and were going to try to drive us off the beachhead. So they made the big drive and the first morning they came in they did the artillery like they're suppose to do and the tanks were coming in, here I was in the fox hole and the Germans went by me, they didn't see, but the tank stopped right there over my fox hole and at the end of the barrel just right above me that was there from about daylight to about four o'clock in the afternoon I laid there in that fox hole and watched them – some people say you're crazy, but I could actually after – I don't remember if I actually saw the shell but I could see the movement of the shell out of the barrel. Of course, our artillery was trying to get the tank and one of the shells landed right near me and made a hole big enough to put a jeep in, picked me up, the cushion did, threw me out six or eight yards. I crawled back in; the people in the tank still didn't know I was there. So about dusk they pulled back to house about a 150 yards from us and got out and had them a big time, so when it got dark I got out and went to the man next to me, and I said “hey, let's go and tell them that the tank's down here and we went and we couldn't find them. They had withdrawn that morning. They couldn't get to us. Of course, I didn't know it at the time but, you know, in company you have two platoons that in infantry and one of them are machine gun and the other heavy equipment they have. Well, I didn't know at the time that the other platoon was either killed or captured. Every weapon platoon was either killed or captured and there was about 20 of us left by the time I got back through the line. ROBERT GARDNER: Were you awarded any medals or citations, sir? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I got the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. ROBERT GARDNER: Can you tell me about your Purple Heart. FRED LOUIS KING: Well, after the Germans decided they couldn't push us off the beachhead we were just fighting for a particular house or something like this, and my group was back in the reserve because I always have to have reserve behind troops, and we got orders hey, the G-Company is about to be wiped out, let's go. So we just got our rifles and started running across this big field with all the shells landing around us. Something told me to hit the ground, just as I hit he ground a shell exploded in front of me and one piece about the size of a silver dollar went through my helmet and lodged in my head and a small piece went through my jaw and I was paralyzed. Shell shock [unintelligible] made me – I couldn't even move my eyes, I couldn't move my hands, I couldn't do anything. [RECORDING CUTS OUT] One of the men came over and looked at me. He thought I was dead. He saw the hole in the helmet and my eyes wouldn't open, so he left, so I don't know if it was two, three, four hours or what. Finally my energy came back and I crawled over to the ditch because I knew there was an aid station back about a mile, went back there and he cleaned up my head, my jaw and gave me something to make me sleep. So the next morning I picked up my rifle and went back to the front. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you get any other injuries, sir? FRED LOUIS KING: No injury, well, of course, I get trench feet later on. Of course I had it in my feet, but trench feet is when you're – when I went over we had shoes just like I have on with [unintelligible], of course there's no water proofing there. Later on when they're coming on the beachhead the GIs had boots that were water proof. Well, my feet stayed wet all the time, socks stayed wet all that time, so eventually it developed into trench feet. And I got up [unintelligible] room and went to sick hall and he says “Well, I can't believe this.” He patched it up and sent me back to the hospital on [unintelligible] which was about 25 miles away. So I spent there on the beachhead, hospital and they took me by hospital ship back to Naples, put me in a hospital there, and I spent about 2-1/2 months there then they shipped me back to the United States and I spent 4-1/2 months in the hospital there. I eventually got over it. They wanted to take off one of my feet. I talked them out of it. ROBERT GARDNER: Where was the hospital at that they sent you to here in the United States? FRED LOUIS KING: When we landed it was Newport News, Virginia and they had just opened new veterans' home and we were the first group to get there, and boy, they treated us like a king. They really treated us every way. Then they sent me to – since I was from Tennessee they sent me to the hospital in Nashville – well, they didn't know anything about trench feet there. So then they sent me to [unintelligible] West Virginia to Greenbriar, which was a hotel that was converted into a hospital, and I spent 4-1/2 months there and they worked on my feet trying to get my – there was like a block of ice in my legs down to my ankles and they were trying to get some feeling in it and went through several experiments and then they discharged me and I went on back out searched. ROBERT GARDNER: When you went back, where did they send you to? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, they sent me to Fort Belvoir outside of Washington D.C. They didn't know what to do with me. And of course, I was a walking patient and everything. I got through it and then a lieutenant came and interviewed me and the next day I went over to the finance office or bank as you called it on the base and there was a place where they fixed all the payrolls for all the companies in that camp. And we had people there that would go over the paper work. If somebody had been made a sergeant they'd put the price on there. And once a month then two days before the payroll here come MP's with machine guns and they'd bring money, put it in the vault and the next day they'd put out all the money on tables, they'd put all the twenty dollars in stacks, put the ten dollars in stacks, five right on down. And I set down in the chair just looking at all that money. People said “What [unintelligible]” I said, “It's the first time I've ever seen a half million dollars; I didn't know there was that much money in the world.” So the next day – now, the people we had working there on each company [unintelligible] things that they had they put how many twenty dollar bills they needed, how many tens they needed, right on down, so The lieutenant would count out the twenty dollar bills that need to go to that company, the sergeant counted it, somebody else counted it, they handed me the money and I put in the bag. And they did that with every one of them, and then I took a thread with a big tag on it for Company F and put in the vault. So we did that all day long. I got to handle a half million dollars in a day's time. [LAUGHTER] So, I did work there and they worked me, but I enjoyed it. It's the best duty I had. I had been there for 11 months. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you have any other combat experiences that you had when you were in Italy that you'd like to talk about? FRED LOUIS KING: Yes, I have had several of them. Of course I told you about the tank and told you about – here. This is a fun one. You'll get a big kick out of it. I didn't think it was funny at the time. We were pulled back in reserve, what was left of us, only about 30 or 40 of us left in the company but they said the British engineers were at a place where they were practically wiped and they need to come back so they can be reinforced, and they wanted us to replace them. But in order to get there we had to go across an open field and with the Germans sitting there on the mountain we didn't do that in the day time. So we stood there in a little wooded area all day long just pouring down the rain. Couldn't even sit on the ground; we just stood there. That night we went up, relieved the British and it was raining and the fox holes, of course, were just full of water, and I had enough I wasn't going to sleep in water. Right next to me was a big bale of hay and we usually didn't get near hay fields because the Germans would stick tanks and things in there, but I didn't care that night. It stopped raining, so I pulled out a big thing of straw and then pulled out a lot on top of me and believe it or not I went to sleep. I don't know how long I lay there, but out in no man's land, which was about 200 yards from us, near the line there was these animals and these horses. There was cow; there was sheep, and oxen. When a shell would land in one place they'd run down here [unintelligible] run down here. Well, one of the oxen came over and he weighed about 1500 pounds, he took – he liked the pile of straw so he laid down on it. Next thing I knew there was so much weight on my body I couldn't figure out what it was. Got my eyes open here was this tail right in my face. And I'd beat on his side a couple times [unintelligible]. I couldn't stick him. I'd beat on him; he'd just turn around and look at me. My buddy is on the other side of me, he came over, I said help me. He said [unintelligible] so he went back. Luckily, a shell landed close and he took off. So I was black and blue for a long time. At the time I didn't think it was funny, but wouldn't it have been something else if my mother had gotten a V-mail or something saying your son was wounded in combat by a cow. [LAUGHTER] And it's a true story. I can prove it. It wasn't funny at the time but it is now. Let me see, I was trying to think of some of the other ones. Well, of course, I may be telling again after a while. Going from troop ship when I had to over to Italy there was a British ship, and of course they were hard hit. They didn't have much food. So we all had two meals a day and so many troops [unintelligible] across the table. They gave us fish [unintelligible] and tea for supper – fish, [unintelligible], tea. After about two days when the fellow came in I said “Say, we know you don't have the food and everything, but can you give us water for a cocoa.” “Cocoa! Cocoa! The bloomin' queen don't get cocoa.” So that's one of the other things I thought was [unintelligible] about some of the things that – I don't know – with things down here and I was hit, all that. I think I told you all the funny things. [Unintelligible] I'll tell that later. All right. One day – of course this was after we stopped the Germans, the fighting, they couldn't push us off the beachhead. One day about – here came four German bombers. They were practically on the ground they were so close. They were flying low so they could get under the – whatever the Americans were using to take pictures of them coming in, so they knew they'd be under that screen, so they were going in to bomb Naples. Well, they started across out there every gun on that beach including mine – and you must remember it's a thousand rifles, several thousand rifles started shooting at the machine. We knocked three out of the sky and the other one left smoking. And I was telling this to an Air Force [unintelligible], what do you mean you knocked it down with rifles. I said, well, you let several thousand rifles shoot at you and see how much damage they can do. These things they happen. In fact, we had one of our own fighters going down through what he thought was the German side straight for us. Thank goodness he didn't hit many of us. So, we were just busy all the time. ROBERT GARDNER: How did you stay in touch with your family? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, once in a while we had pieces of paper and we would write, had a V-mail, or I guess whatever you call, we get paper and pencil, but I didn't take the chance to write too many, but I did. I wrote to my mother, to my girlfriend, and wrote it, and of course if you put something in there about what was going on or where you were, of course a lieutenant or somebody read all the letters, they would erase anything that would identify where you are, what's going on. So I didn't get to write too often, but I did when I could. ROBERT GARDNER: What was the food like? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, what food? [LAUGHTER] In the infantry we had two kinds. We had what we called K-Ration, C-Ration. C-Rations were three cans, one was pork and beans, one was hash, and I don't remember what the third was. That was for three meals a day. Then they have what they call K-Rations. It was in a box about two inches high, three or four inches across, and six or eight inches long, and inside of it they had cans about the size of two Vienna sausage, and for breakfast in the morning they had, believe it or not, eggs and bacon in that little can. They had a little fruit bar. They had a little coffee that – stuff you can make coffee. For lunch we had that same size can with cheese and [unintelligible] and you know maybe a cookie or two, and that night I'd forgotten what we had. It wasn't much but it had all the energy, all everything that you'd use for your body. So, I'll tell this, too, I ate so many of those K-Rations, I ate them more than I did the C-Rations, and the first night I was in the hospital they brought me a piece of steak, they brought me mashed potatoes. My stomach had shrunk so I could only eat a third of it. I cried. [LAUGHTER] Because that was rough that I couldn't eat it. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you have plenty of supplies? FRED LOUIS KING: At times. ROBERT GARDNER: Now sometimes we didn't have anything to eat. They couldn't get to us. We might go two or three days without anything to eat, and water. So we just had to wait until they could get to us. One time I told them I'll go back and get it. I went back and got the stuff that we needed. So, plenty to eat? Not really, but it was enough when we got it. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you feel any pressure or stress? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, of course you did the whole time because you didn't know what was going to happen. Like we used to say when artillery shells were coming towards us, if we could hear it we didn't worry about it. In fact, we could tell you if it was going to go to the left or to the right. But the one we worried about comes right toward you that you didn't hear, so you were always under that stress. ROBERT GARDNER: Was there anything special that you did for good luck? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I guess for me I had a lot good luck. I had – so many times I wouldn't be here now, as I mentioned two of them to you. But the Lord was with me, brought me through it. You make friends and then in three or four weeks they wouldn't be there, so when you come out when the war was over you didn't have any friends that you could go see or call or anything. They were either back like I was, not many of them; they'd been killed. So I'm one of the lucky ones. ROBERT GARDNER: How did people entertain themselves? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I don't call it entertainment. [LAUGHTER] As you lay in a fox hole and sometimes things were slack, and of course we'd talk and make a joke out of things, but as far as entertainment is concerned I wouldn't say we could do much entertainment. ROBERT GARDNER: Were there any entertainers, any USO shows or anything that you guys would see? FRED LOUIS KING: Oh yes, two of them. When they withdrew us back from the line from the beachhead I got to go – I had to hike two miles [unintelligible]. Joe E. Brown was there and there's one more, and I can't think of his name right now. But Joe E. Brown was great. And they had -- we were on the side of the slope at night. They had anti-aircraft guns and everything around us, and there must have been a thousand soldiers there while we were in the rest camp. But Joe E Brown was something else. I thoroughly enjoyed it. ROBERT GARDNER: What did you do when you were on leave? Or did you get leave? FRED LOUIS KING: I didn't get any leave. Not over there I didn't. Now, we pulled back though to get more people. We didn't have many left, we had to come back and get new recruits like I was, and I know when I came back the first one the Germans tried to drive us off the beachhead. They tried for five days, didn't do it. When I drew back [unintelligible] beard and once we needed replacements I said there are only seven of us that came back, and we got all these new replacements. I went to one of them and said, “Hey, do you happen to have a razor that I can use?” So I went over to the side and put cold water in my helmet, didn't have a mirror, and I shaved. When I went back to give him the razor he looked at me, said “Oh, you're young like us.” [LAUGHTER] I laughed about that. ROBERT GARDNER: Where did you travel while you were in the service? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, of course we were in those two African places, Casablanca and the other one and then the rest of it was in Italy. The rest of my duty was right there in Italy. ROBERT GARDNER: What did you think of your officers and fellow soldiers? FRED LOUIS KING: Ninety-five percent of the officers were great. Every once in a while you got one that could have done a better job, but most of them were great. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you keep a personal diary? FRED LOUIS KING: No way. [LAUGHTER] Because when you're in a fox hole and rain and all that stuff there is no way you can keep a diary on the front. ROBERT GARDNER: Do you recall the day your service ended? FRED LOUIS KING: Yeah, it was January – I'll have to see. About the 6th I guess it was they discharged me, and so I went home and happen to be I caught the quarter right after college and I started back to college. That was 1944 – '45; I'm sorry, '45. ROBERT GARDNER: Where were you when you were discharged? FRED LOUIS KING: I was working in the finance office at Fort Belvoir, Georgia. I worked there 11 months after I got out of the hospital. ROBERT GARDNER: What did you do in the days and the weeks after you were discharged? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I wasn't home but about 10 days until the college kept me back from Christmas holidays so I went back and started back to college right then. ROBERT GARDNER: Was your education supported by the GI Bill? FRED LOUIS KING: It sure was. I couldn't have made it. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you make any close friendships while you were in the service? FRED LOUIS KING: Oh, yes, made a lot of friendships, a lot GIs and GIs coming back all at once, made a lot. And Margaret's my second wife, and I met my wife there. We got married at college but she passed away with cancer at 39 and the Lord blessed me the second time. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you continue any of those friendships that you – relationships you made while in the service? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, not really because they were scattered all over the United States, so I can't say that I really did. I did one man for a while. He was a lawyer in Los Angeles and corresponded for a while and then I went out to Los Angeles on a trip, oh, three or four years after the service and called his office, and he wasn't in, so I missed getting to talk to him. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you join a veterans organization? FRED LOUIS KING: No, I guess I really didn't. I should have. I joined the Veterans of Foreign War for a while, but then I moved from one place to another. I was a teacher and I taught in Virginia for three years and then came to Atlanta, been here since '51. ROBERT GARDNER: Did your military experience influence your thinking about war about the military in general? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I'll have to say it did. It stuck with me for a long time. ROBERT GARDNER: Did you attend any veteran's reunions? FRED LOUIS KING: No, I wish I could. Of course, as far as people that I know, most of them are gone. I mean, they didn't come back, so no, I didn't. ROBERT GARDNER: How did your service and experiences affect your life? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, we did what we wanted to do. I was so glad when I got back to the United States after seeing those countries torn up, villages blown up, all the people killed, and all those type things. It made you do a lot of thinking that we were over there, thank goodness, and the United States doesn't know what they missed. I'm afraid they just never did. ROBERT GARDNER: Is there anything you'd like to add that we haven't covered in this interview? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, not really, other than just tell some of the things about the soldiers and how we tried to keep the Germans going, driving us out of there. There are a few things there that I might like to talk about. All right, Anzio, most of the people I'm sure hadn't heard about it, but it was something that they did because when we landed over there and landed – if I might, I'm going to hold this up. Now, this is Italy. Down on the bottom it shows Paris where we landed. Then next to it is Naples and that line across there is the front line. Now, the British had one half of Italy and we had the other half. We were on the east side; they were on the west side. Then they decided to do Anzio, which I'll tell you about, and of course Rome is there. I just thought it might give you something to see what point I'm talking about. So, there we were, we landed, went to Naples, and they really gave Naples a rough time. And I didn't know it but my brother was there in Naples after we went through. And the Germans they set these mind traps and everything for you all through the village, and he walked out the building at the post office – he worked at the post office – crossed the street and one of them set – one of those little mines tricked it and it picked him up set him across the street and he crawled under a truck. It was the only way to save him because the whole side of the building fell in. So we pushed on above Naples, hit the front line, which I just showed is clear across there. When they got up there there was two mountain ranges that came right down through the middle of Italy and a big valley between them and of course a land on either side. Well, in November of that year it rained the whole month. Because I was wet, my feet was wet. All right, in December, and I read a lot about it later on, they said in December we had snow. And they say that that's the biggest snow they had in quite a few years. Here we were at the bottom of those mountains, the river froze over, the snow was deep, the Germans were on the mountain. Every time we tried to go up they would drive us down. No motor vehicles could go up because it was so slick. We had rules if we did hike up the mountain that we carry our ammunition and things like this, but we never could push them out. We just drive and try to go up, and we had about a third of our men at trench feet had to cope because their feet were frozen. Of course, I was getting it, didn't realize it, and my feet was all but freezing is what trench feet is. It affects your nerves and everything in there. So, finally, all of the sudden they went through my outfit and eight or ten other outfits, Marines, artillery, and everything, even had the 700 Rangers with us. We pulled back to Naples, for about three weeks we didn't know what was going on. So they fed us good and then all of the sudden one day they gave us the hand grenades and put them on our outfits and the rifles, and we got in a truck went down to the bay there Naples and they put us on these LST Troop Ships and we traveled all night and the next morning – and I'll tell you a little about the Anzio in a few minutes – we had the Anzio Beachhead. I went in the second wave of that of the beachhead there. So we didn't know why they pulled us out from what they were doing. And what it was, because they could not push the Germans away from the line the top of the mountain there, the British and the Americans got together and they said we're going to have to do something because we cannot push them away. So, I think it was the British said why don't we have a beachhead of Naples, and we had this beachhead and the Germans would pull back. That's what they were hoping to do away from there and it would do it. So, the trouble is they didn't have a lot of ships – of course, I didn't know it, but D-Day Ingham [phonetic] was getting all the shipments. The British person says “I'll get you some.” So they got us this LST, and what they do they went up and let the men come back to Naples and pick up another group. I was in the second wave. So, we went in, we surprised the Germans, and that night while they were having a big party and we captured all the Germans, all the officers, had a little fight and we captured 200 Germans, and there were not too many in that neighborhood. So they pushed out about three [unintelligible] and the General – the General that we had there, I'm not going to mention his name. They told him that he was supposed to go and take those mountains, get on top of the mountain, put his tanks and his artillery up there and they couldn't take supplies down to the soldiers and they withdrawing back from the beach down there, so he said “No, I don't have enough troops.” He said, “I want to wait until I have more troops and everything.” So he waited – we landed on January the 20th, 1944, so he waited nine days until he got all kinds of artillery, tanks, and everything. And he said “okay, I'm ready to make an attack.” So on the 30th of January he made an attack against the Germans. The only thing is waiting those nine days it shifted the Germans when the beachhead. In Rome they had all kinds of men in uniform. They took cooks, they took truck drivers, they took everything, gave them guns, took them down there, and then they went back up in northern Italy and up in European countries and brought down a lot of divisions instead of bringing them back from down below there. So, they built a big build up and of course on the 30th he made a drive in and all they could do was move in nine miles. It was 20 miles to the mountains. But here he was a half moon, just like a half of a moon because you had to see to your back and you had a round moon, and we were nine miles deep, 12 miles around the perimeter of that. So, they decided – all right, by that time the Germans had gotten all these troops in there. We had 100,000 troops and they brought in 150,000. They said well, we're going to try to drive them into the water. So, the first drive was when I was talking about the barrel over my fox hole. That was the first big drive. They did push in about three miles. And what I didn't tell you earlier was we found out all the other troops were gone, we knew we was back behind the German line, so we said well, we're going to have to get out of this somehow. So somehow we made our way through the German line, got out in no man's land, and we were worried because each night you had a password like apple pie, Babe Ruth, and if they said apple and you didn't say pie, you were gone. So we ran into a recruit, a boy that had just been put on – it was his first day in combat. He got lost from his outfit so he was trying to find them, but instead of going back where they were he was out in no man's land. He did know the password; five minutes later we were challenged. So I had my [unintelligible]. So we got through there and we got back to our lines and of course I didn't know where my outfit was. As I said earlier, they had all been wiped out with the exception of a few of them, so I knew where the kitchen, so we hiked about two miles back to where our kitchen was. We never did see the kitchen but it was back there. And why were – they fed us good and about the time they got an order for all the cooks, all the truck drivers, and everything, we need you to front; bring your rifle. So they got out 40 people, we went back to the front. And that night while they – lieutenant said “come on, they're going to put us 40 people over here in a certain section.” Just as we started to cross the field there was an airplane up there in the sky and it was German. We knew that; he was always dropping bombs; usually they're the big ones. But this night he had, I call them personnel bombs because when they drop them it may be a 100, 200 yards that they're dropping. We all hit the ground, and as things settled the lieutenant said “let's go.” That's when seven of us got up and went out to the place where we were supposed to be. And here we were supposed to be a place where there is 40 – there's supposed to be a whole Company. So we just did what we were told to do. We could not – they couldn't get the food to us and everything. I volunteered that night to go back and get it. I go back and get the food and the water and bring it back. After about five days they brought a whole company of men in there to take the spot where we were, seven of us. So, we came back. Then the Germans tried for five days to drive us into sea. Well, what it is they'd lost so many men, like some of their Companies wouldn't have but a hundred – I mean, battalion, whatever they call them, wouldn't have about 100, 200. They had two big tanks left. [Unintelligible] because I don't know what the Germans call them. So, they said this has got to be the drive. Well, the section we were on is British Engineer with British troops and the 45th Division, then the rest of them are scattered all along the half moon shape, and they made this big drive that day and of course they put in the artillery and they must have been a quarter a mile from us, and they came in not just in one wave, there would be one big wave of it and it there would be a few minutes here would come another wave of them. They were just coming at us by the hundreds. And our artillery, bless their heart, they saved this Company. They were shooting into them, getting them, but they would get close to us and we'd just I'll use the words we mowed them down. Finally – when you're in combat you can be a hundred yards, two hundred yards, a quarter of a mile from the front, but when they get close enough that you're throwing grenades, that's close. We ran out of grenades so we fixed our [unintelligible] and fought them. We stopped them. All right, there was a newspaper man from New York and I read his article later on, and he said that when he got there that he tried to walk right there at our lines and the Germans. He said you couldn't walk without stepping on an American or a German for a hundred yards. He said that's how many were killed. They lost – in the five days they lost 19,000 men and we lost about 20,000 men for those five days. Then the Germans decided well they could not drive us into the sea, so it was just a stand still. They were on the mountain and we were down there. So from the month of March through May we just had these little battles. We'd go out and we'd take a village and they'd push us out. We take a thing and they'd push us back. It was just – well, it shouldn't have if the General had done what he was supposed to we wouldn't have been going through that. They say for a small space that we had the hardest battles in the war just for a small area. Some people say well, France and all that, but that was big things. But they said that we lost more troops there and fought harder than any other place during the war. So, finally, the first of May we got the order to push out because down there on the front line above Naples they'd finally made a hole, got through the hole and started driving the Germans back. So we fought and we walked just about 25 miles from Rome. So we'd fight and night time the British – the engineers would go along because they're mine fields everywhere, they'd get the mines out and there are two white tanks on either side of them. You didn't dare get over because we could do that at night. So finally, I know I never will forget though one night we'd gone and there was a British soldier with – he stepped on a mine and blew both of his legs off, and he said “shoot me, shoot me!” Well, we couldn't stop but they knew that the medic was behind us. So we got to Rome – when you're on the mountain you're looking over to Rome, that's when I said earlier that my feet started bothering me. And I said “I can't go any more.” So that's when the put me in an ambulance, took me back to Naples and in the hospital there when we got back – of course went to Naples [unintelligible] ship came up – hospital ship [unintelligible], took it back to Naples and as we're getting off the ship – they were carrying me off – I saw the sign Second Base Post Office. I knew my brother was there. So they carried me on to the hospital and of course Army life, when you get into the hospital they have somebody interview you, writing down all this stuff. He said “Where are you from?” I said “Irwin, Tennessee.” He said “I'm from Elizabeth.” And that was nine miles from my home. And he said “oh, we have a Nurse here named Earline [unintelligible].” He said “do you know her?” I said “I sure do; it's my home town I know everybody.” I said “you tell her I'm here.” So the next morning I heard somebody running up the hall and she came in there, and I said “good thing I'm [unintelligible] I'd be around your next.” And the other GIs in the ward, their mouth fell open. All right, also I asked for a Red Cross person, she came and I said my brother's address is Second Base Post Office and I saw the sign as I got off the ship. Two days later here he came. Now, how can you beat that? So, I got to see him quite often. I got to be a walking patient – I got to walk around the hospital and all that, so I stayed in the hospital there for about two, two and a half months I guess. And as I said before, that's when they put me on a ship; brought me to the United States and I told you how I ended up at Greenbriar. How's that? ROBERT GARDNER: Wonderful. I also noticed that you're wearing a uniform. Is that your original uniform? FRED LOUIS KING: That's my original uniform. My mother put it in a cedar chest. When she passed away I got it and brought it and put it in my cedar chest, and I'd almost forgotten. And I belonged to a club called World War II Round Table, and you do not have to have been in just World War II. You could be under Vietnam and all of them. They formed an organization of about 200 people, and one day they had a celebration and a school wanted us to come in and talk to the kids and so forth, and I happened to think about my uniform. I went and got it – believe it or not, I put it on after 58 years. So, how we doing? ROBERT GARDNER: Real good. Would you mind standing up and we'll take a real good picture of you with this uniform on. FRED LOUIS KING: You want to break the camera, huh? ROBERT GARDNER: Oh, no, sir. FRED LOUIS KING: [LAUGHTER] ROBERT GARDNER: I think this is wonderful. Is there anything else you'd like to add, sir? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I believe I told you I got out from the hospital went to college and I was going to be an architect. Junior year my professor got a hold of me and said “Fred, I think you ought to be a teacher.” I said, “Who me?” He said, “Yes.” He said “Why don't you go on and you can graduate and if you don't like it come back another year and be an architect.” Well, the day I graduated I was offered a job at [unintelligible], but I went on and became a teacher and I went through it for 35 years, so I guess it was what I was suppose to do. [LAUGHTER] ROBERT GARDNER: I think that's wonderful, sir. Is there anything else you'd like to add? FRED LOUIS KING: Well, I'm trying to think. I didn't even have to look at my notes. I did pretty well doing all that. See, one thing – I think I got everything. People, you'll have to forgive me. I tried to memorize most of it and I did. I think I pretty well covered it. I could have put in this and that, but I think that pretty well tells you what I went through and how I'm lucky to be here. When I made this speech at the roundtable I said “I'm here and I got both my feet. What more could I ask?” ROBERT GARDNER: Thank you, sir. We really appreciate your time and the stories are wonderful. [END INTERVIEW] [KS]
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Extent:: 50:51
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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