- Collection:
- Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
- Title:
- Oral history interview of Thomas P. Bowles, Jr.
- Creator:
- Pahr, Marilyn A.
Bowles, Thomas P., Jr., 1916-2013 - Date of Original:
- 2004-12-08
- Subject:
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Slapton Sands, Battle of, England, 1944
Antiaircraft artillery--United States
Operation Neptune
Landing craft
Lightning (Fighter plane)
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France--Normandy
V-1 bomb
Messerschmitt 262 (Jet fighter plane)
Stuka (Dive bomber)
Bowles, Arlene Patterson
Andrews, Thomas Coleman, 1899-1983
Eisenhower, Dwight D. (Dwight David), 1890-1969
Patton, George S. (George Smith), 1885-1945
Tunney, Gene, 1897-1978
University of Richmond
United States. Army. Antiaircraft Artillery Group, 16th
United States. Army. Officer Candidate School
Ile de France (Steamship)
Queen Elizabeth (ship)
Junkers Ju 87 (Dive bomber) - Location:
- Belgium, Wallonia, Luxembourg Province, Arrondissement de Bastogne, Bastogne, 50.00347, 5.71844
France, Marseille, 43.2961743, 5.3699525
France, Saint-Lô, 49.1157004, -1.0906637
France, Seine River, 48.5697867, 3.5744855
Germany, Remagen, Ludendorff-Brücke, 50.5777587, 7.24407945742064
Germany, Ruhr River, 51.3972857, 7.4278368
Luxembourg, 49.8158683, 6.1296751
Netherlands, Rhine River, 51.97198, 5.91545
Switzerland, Saint Moritz, 46.4960592, 9.8386578
United Kingdom, England, London, 51.50853, -0.12574
United Kingdom, England, Weston-super-Mare, 51.3471927, -2.9778916
United Kingdom, Scotland, Glasgow City, 55.86515, -4.25763
United States, Alabama, Jefferson County, Birmingham, 33.52066, -86.80249
United States, Georgia, 32.75042, -83.50018
United States, Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 33.8498, 84.4383
United States, Iowa, Kossuth County, Algona, 43.06997, -94.23302
United States, Massachusetts, Barnstable County, Cape Cod, 41.6862, -70.24308
United States, Mississippi, Harrison County, Gulfport, 30.36742, -89.09282
United States, Mississippi, Keesler Army Airfield
United States, New Jersey, Burlington County, Fort Dix, 40.02984, -74.61849
United States, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Brunswick, 40.48622, -74.45182
United States, New York, New York County, Manhattan, 40.78343, -73.96625
United States, North Carolina, Onslow County, Holly Ridge, Camp Davis, 34.4993048, -77.5549097
United States, Virginia, City of Richmond, 37.55376, -77.46026
United States, Virginia, Prince George County, Fort Lee, 37.24694, -77.33442 - Medium:
- video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv - Type:
- Moving Image
- Format:
- video/quicktime
- Description:
- In this interview, Thomas Bowles recounts his experiences as an Army officer in Europe during World War II. He had been a student at college studying accounting, law and public speaking when he was drafted. After training as an aircraft mechanic and taking a series of tests, he was sent to OCS and became a communications officer. He discusses submarine alerts on his voyage to England, invasion practices, the great secrecy necessary to the planning of Operation Overlord and trips to London. He relates in great detail his experiences on Omaha Beach and his progress through France and into Germany. He describes meeting his wife, an Army nurse, on a train to Switzerland.
Tom Bowles was an Army officer in Europe during World War II.
Thomas Bowles Jr. Veterans History Project Atlanta History Center With Marilyn Pahr December 8, 2004 [Tape 1, Side A] Bowles: You know what you're doing, right? I mean mechanically you know what you're doing. Interviewer: Yes. Bowles: How do you know it's working? Interviewer: Says record. Good morning. My name is Marilyn Pahr and today is Wednesday, December the eighth, 2004. This is the beginning of an interview with Thomas Bowles, Jr. And Thomas was born on October the twelfth, 1916. Bowles: You got it. Interviewer: Good morning. Bowles: Good morning. Interviewer: Tom, could you tell us a little bit about your early upbringing, where you born, where you went to school? Bowles: I was born in Birmingham, Alabama, where my mother and father and two sisters lived. And went to high school there at Ramsey High School in Birmingham, Alabama. Went the day it was opened, a brand new high school. And then after two years, my father…all of the family moved to Virginia because—it was in 1930-31—and he went busted in the Depression and so moved back to his home in Virginia. And we lived in Virginia until later. Got married and moved to Richmond. I mean to Atlanta. Interviewer: So you were in high school. When did you graduate high school? Bowles: Graduated in Richmond, Virginia, from Thomas Jefferson High School in Richmond, Virginia. Graduated in 1933. Two years of high school in Birmingham and the last two years of high school in Richmond, Virginia. Then I started working, but I went to the University of Richmond at night taking courses. I'm in the quote class unquote of 1967 [must have meant to say 1937] since I started in 1933, four years later. Interviewer: What were you majoring in? Bowles: Well, I took accounting and law and public speaking. Those were my three major courses at the night school. It was the J.C. Williams Law School, which was a part of the University of Richmond and I went there for several years. Interviewer: So at that point then, you would have graduated. You finished. Graduated college. Bowles: I didn't graduate, you know, with a…I finished the course I had started on and started working. Interviewer: And who did you work for? Bowles: Life Insurance Company of Virginia. My uncle, my father's brother, was the commissioner of insurance for the state of Virginia. Matter of fact, he was a commissioner of insurance for probably twenty-five years. And he was a native of, of course, Virginia as all my family were, my father and so forth. And I started working at the Life Insurance Company of Virginia. And then continued my studies there. Studied for the actuarial exams and later completed the actuarial exams and became a fellow of the Society of Actuaries. After that, another fellow from the Life of Virginia and I left and organized our consulting firm called Bowles, Andrews and Town. Interviewer: About what year would that have been? Bowles: 1948. Interviewer: Okay. Bowles: And Town was as an actuary, too. Bob Town was an actuary. He was the senior actuary for the Life Insurance Company of Virginia and I was the associate actuary for the Life of Virginia. We teamed up with a well-known character in Virginia, T. Coleman Andrews. And, T. Coleman Andrews had been auditor of public accounts for the City of Richmond. He'd been comptroller for the State of Virginia, or vice versa, however the titles were. And he had own accounting firm, T. Coleman Andrews and Company. And he was a real star. He had been president of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and quite a star. Handsome, tall, bronzed, white-haired guy. [laughs] When he walked in people would, you know, look. But… Interviewer: So in between this time frame, we've talked about 1933 to 1948, there's this thing called a war that breaks out in between of all this. Bowles: That's right. Yeah. Interviewer: So in 1941 with Pearl Harbor and it just was yesterday's anniversary, where were you and what were you doing then? Bowles: Well, the Pearl Harbor occurred on a Sunday morning as I recall and I remember it, of course, quite vividly the announcement, the radio announcement and President Roosevelt speaking. And so, I was still with the Life of Virginia on December the seventh of 1941. And then of course, I went into the draft. I was drafted and…drafted actually first of April, 1942. I tried to get the draft board to defer my draft date for a couple of months so I could take another examination for the Society of Actuaries, but they denied that. So I was drafted. Interviewer: So at that point, you were already twenty…twenty-six? Bowles: Well, let's see. Subtract from 1942, 1916. I was twenty-six. Interviewer: Twenty-six years old. Were you…had you expected as it seemed like the war was breaking out that you would have had to serve? Being twenty-six. A little bit older. Bowles: Yeah. Interviewer: Did you expect that you would have been drafted and have to serve? Bowles: Well of course, we didn't expect Pearl Harbor. Not expecting Pearl Harbor, of course, we didn't expect the war, of course. So…of course then, you know, everybody's working, making…digging, trying to eke out a living for himself and so forth and so. Interviewer: What were you thoughts when you got the draft letter? Bowles: What were my thoughts? I don't recall. This is it. I gotta go. [inaudible] Just another experience and you don't look much further beyond just that particular day. So, I was drafted and went down to Petersburg, Virginia, to Fort Lee and went through the process of being brought into the Army and the armed services. Stayed there for a while, then they shipped me down to Gulfport, Mississippi. And I became a soldier for Uncle Sam in the U.S. Army. Went to anti…went to aircraft mechanics school. Can you imagine that? Didn't know one bolt from another or a screwdriver from pliers, I reckon. Interviewer: Had you ever flown at that point? Bowles: Oh no. I'd not flown. Interviewer: And was this something you were just…you were assigned to aircraft mechanic? Bowles: Right. To the school. Right. And let's see. I was drafted in April. I went to Keesla [phonetic] Field in Biloxi, Mississippi, in basic training there and then, that would be in late April of '42. And then, taking all these exams they give you, I was later offered the opportunity to go to officer's candidate school in Wilmington, North Carolina. Anti-aircraft. artillery, which was then part of the Coast Artillery, I believe, but later became separate. So I went to Camp Davis in Wilmington, North Carolina, and became, after the usual ninety days, a ninety-day wonder, which is…[laughs] which means I became a second lieutenant in Uncle Sam's U.S. Army. Interviewer: Tell us a little bit about what that was like, just the whole basic training. You had gone through college, so now you're in a different environment… Bowles: Well, yeah. But… Interviewer: Basic training and… Bowles: It was different. Because you were thrown with people from all over. I heard language I'd never heard before [laughs]. Seen people doing things I'd never been exposed to before. So, it was a beginning of a new life, I suppose, really. And being just a shy sort of a guy working as an actuarial student in the Life of Virginia, I didn't have much exciting going on until that happened. Interviewer: During all this time of your training, of course the war is going on, North Africa is getting to be planned, that campaign, how much did you follow what was going on and what were your feelings about when it was going to be your turn to actually go? Bowles: Well, not really. Didn't even think about that. You just played it, you know, by ear. Day by day doing the best you could. And then when I got my second lieutenant bars, became a ninety-day wonder, I was given two weeks leave and I went back to Virginia where my family, of course, were living and went back and displayed those second lieutenant bars like a real king, you know [laughs]. Interviewer: How did your family feel about you being in the military? Bowles: Oh, I don't know. The usual emotional reaction to having one of their children go off to the war. So I don't suppose…felt like anybody would have felt. Any other parent. Interviewer: So you were in the States until when? When did you actually ship out? Bowles: Let's see, we've…I went from…when I finished my leave, I went to Fort Dix, New Jersey, and part of the…was assigned to the 16th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Group and with the headquarters company. And I was a communications officer in the 16th Artillery Group and also involved in communications and operations. Well, communications really were part of what they called S2 or G2 operations. And studied and took part in all the training exercises. And then we got exposed to the weapons we'd be using, the 50 millimeter machine guns and the 40 millimeter anti-aircraft weapons and the 90 millimeter guns that we had in the war, I mean, in France. So Fort Dix and then let's see. That was in…I became a ninety-day wonder, I believe, in September of '42. In '43, let's see '43 until about the first part of June of forty…I get confused. That'd be… Interviewer: No, that's okay. [inaudible] when you were in the States and then when you shipped overseas. Bowles: And then we went to…I remember vividly the transfer from…well we…from Fort Dix they sent us out to Cape Cod, where we entered into a lot…had a lot of training, both of the weapons and the deployment of units and anti-aircraft defense. And then from Cape Cod, we were to be sent overseas. So we went to New Brunswick, New Jersey, which was a staging area as I recall it. Then they took us from New Brunswick to the port at Manhattan. We got on the ship, the…what's the name of the ship, the…I always remember that. I can't think of it now. But it was…but we stayed on the ship for a week and then they announced that we couldn't go on the ship because the ship had sprung a leak [laughs]. So they took us off the ship, sent us back to the staging area in New Brunswick, New Jersey, cross the Hudson River and stayed there. Then we came back. Interviewer: Same ship? They fixed it? Was it different? Bowles: No, we came back. And on the ferry, I never will forget this. I've told this several times to my kids. On the ferry, on these advertising placards they have up on the side of the boat, the ferry boat, a picture of a beautiful gal and she says, “Ask yourself this question, is this trip really necessary?” [laughs] Interviewer: [inaudible] Bowles: So they put us on the…they put us on the Queen Elizabeth. Interviewer: So you were on the QE. Bowles: No. The boat that sprung a leak was the Isles de France. I-S-L-E de France. And then we swapped that, of course, for the Queen Elizabeth. And they had about fifteen thousand people on it and we took off overseas. Interviewer: How long was the… Bowles: About four or five nights. And one night about two o'clock in the morning they rang the alarm and everybody was aroused, of course. Put on your lifejackets cause there was a submarine alert and they wanted to get people, you know, out of the bunks in case there was an attack against the Queen Elizabeth. The Queen Elizabeth, you know, didn't go in convoys. It sailed alone. Right interesting. I mean, it was to me that most of the troop ships were part of convoys but the Queen Elizabeth was a fast ship, could outrun submarines if she could anticipate their approach. So we went unscathed and landed in Glasgow, or the port at Glasgow, Scotland. Interviewer: Do you remember when that was? What year would that be? Bowles: Oh, it was in forty…forty…spring of '43, I reckon. No, it was in '43. Because, let's see, '43. I reckon… Interviewer: Springtime, so that it was…you trained then for additional year in… Bowles: Yeah, we went…till they put us on the train in Glasgow and we were…the train took us down to Western Supermare [phonetic] which is on the Bristol Channel in England. And we stayed in Western Supermare for the rest of the time that I was in the…we were there. I mean, in England. Then one thing is right interesting. I didn't ever see anything published about this until relatively recently. There was a practice invasion. I don't know whether people are aware of this or not, but I saw it written up once. But it was sort of a really hush-hush, I reckon. There was a practice invasion down on the southern shore of England they called Slapton Sands [phonetic]. Does that ring a bell with you, Slapton? Interviewer: I have read about it, but tell me about it. Bowles: At Slapton Sands. So we went from Western Supermare with all the troops and down to participate in their practice invasion at Slapton Sands. Boarding the…you know, the troop carriers and so forth. And then later…then when that was over we went back to Western Supermare. And right interesting, one of the…fella who was the major and was the…I was the assistant operations officer and he was the top dog. But he had been drinking a little [laughs]. And he wasn't in the best shape the morning we left to go to Slapton Sands. So a few days later they shipped him to Iceland [laughs]. Interviewer: So were you…you were part of the exercise? Bowles: Yeah. Interviewer: Did you see what had gone wrong? Bowles: Oh no. I was not aware of what was going wrong. No. Interviewer: How did you begin to hear about that. There have been [inaudible]. Bowles: Well, I don't really remember. I never heard of any details about the casualties. You know, the Germans sank three or four of our troop ships in the rear. You read about this probably [inaudible]. Interviewer: Quite a number died. Bowles: Oh yeah. Yeah. And they hushed it up because it'd been really sort of a disaster. To widely spread the news about the ignominious defeat we suffered at Slapton Sands. So we went back… Interviewer: So you were aware of it. Were you told not to talk about it? Bowles: Well, I wasn't even…I didn't what…no, we were not told anything. We didn't know what was going on except we did what we were supposed to do from the beach and boarding a landing craft, a LCT and so forth. We weren't…I wasn't…I don't know anybody was aware of what really had happened in that whole exercise cause it was spread. It was in the British…in the channel, of course. And the Germans never did…I read in…I think in National Geographic or something, the Germans had had some PT boats come up in the rear and sank three or four of our troop carriers that were going down the channel as part of the exercise. But I…nobody in our unit ever talked about it, knew anything about it. It was…we just…we were oblivious to the whole thing, really. Went back to Western Supermare. Interviewer: So your day-to-day was a lot of training. But when you did have some time off and went into the towns, what was your impression of England? Bowles: Oh, we loved England. I loved English [inaudible]. Occasionally on weekends we'd go to London and we'd stay, a couple of fellas and I would stay at the YMCA and get up on the roof of the YMCA at night, watch the bombers come over, drop bombs. The British pilots knocking them down, the airplanes out. Quite an experience. Interviewer: Front seat. Bowles: [laughs] Yeah. Then they sent us up to some special training exercise. They sent our unit up to the northwest of England to some special training in the employment of 50 millimeter machine guns and anti-aircraft defense for, you know, low-flying planes and whatnot. So. But finally they…by the way, they…one of my real fine experiences was as an operations officer. They gave me a BIGOT, B-I-G-O-T, classification, which is, you know, highly secret. BIGOT classification. And I'd go from Western Supermare over to the headquarters of Eisenhower, where the planning staff was, to be a part of the group planning the anti-aircraft defenses of the landing beaches. And I have [inaudible] a lot of the diagrams showing where we'd plotted the guns to be and so forth. I got a big file of a whole lot of stuff that includes a lot of that. Interviewer: So how early on can you remember before the D-Day invasion were you made aware of it? Bowles: Oh, probably…let's see. Probably…June six was the invasion, right? And it was probably April? Interviewer: Okay. Bowles: Yeah. I knew about it in April. Of course, it was…[laughs] Interviewer: Hard not to talk about it. Bowles: [laughing] Oh. Occasionally you'd hear stories about somebody had been drinking out, you know, and stuff and that some word slipped and wham! He was away, shipped to Iceland, for example. Or somewhere. I've gotten out of that. But it was…well, it never occurred to me, you know, we were told what it was and don't talk about it and what the dangers were. You never thought about it. I mean about telling anybody about it. Interviewer: Did you get the sense though that for others who didn't have as much information, I mean people still knew the invasion was coming. It was just a matter of when. I mean, all the men who were in England and they're all preparing, they know they're going [inaudible]. Bowles: Yeah. We knew that…the troops…couldn't even talk about it in my own unit. I mean with that BIGOT classification, you know, your mouth was shut as soon as you left the area, the stage of the area down at Eisenhower's headquarters. He wasn't there, but that's where they did all of the planning for…a lot of the planning for the invasion. As I say, you have to go back from know and look at all the stuff I have showing…the maps we made and the deployment of guns and troops on the beach and up on the…the land above the beaches and so forth. Very interesting. So anyway, that was in April. And then the time came to go for the invasion. And they moved the troops down into what they call the staging areas. And I never will forget, of course I won't forget any of it, but I remember one thing particular. The time came about, I reckon, two days before we were to get on the invasion craft. We had a meeting of our troops, 16th headquarters. The others were doing the same thing. And I had to present to them the map showing where the invasion was gonna be and so forth and discuss it with the rest of the people who didn't know anything about it. But I had a big board there with a map, had a cloth draped over it. And the map showed the whole invasion land and the beaches and whatnot. And I remember so vividly asking the assembled troops, said, “Where do you think the invasion's gonna take place?” Nobody guessed Normandy. [chuckles] It blew my mind. Interviewer: Which beach were you actually assigned? Bowles: I was at Omaha. Nobody guessed where it was gonna be. Interviewer: What were some of their guesses? Bowles: Well, they guessed Pas de Calais and all up on the…Cherbourg and…but at that…nobody had…I remember pulling that cover off the map and whew! [laughs] It was right fascinating. Interviewer: Were they convinced though once you presented the case? Bowles: Oh yeah. It wasn't a sham. They knew…it was a couple of days before we were gonna get on the boats and go. And then they moved us in and got on the boats. I was on an LCT and we had 40 millimeter guns on it. And I got on…it was foggy and rainy and I know I pitched my sleeping bag up on the poop deck of…I forget what you call the rear of the LCT, up a level. And all down in the main level where the guns and the troops were and where the gate falls down in front of LCT. And went to sleep. [laughs] Interviewer: How many people were on this LCT, roughly? Bowles: I don't know. Roughly there was…I reckon it had…I really don't know. It wasn't a…you've seen the LCTs. With the guns and the Jeeps and the…there wasn't a whole lot of people but the ones necessary for the initial…for what we were doing. We were taking over the ones required to actually establish 40 millimeter anti-aircraft guns on the beach and up on the land above, assuming we could get there. And I don't know how many people were there. Interviewer: You would have had to transfer off of the LCT as you got closer to shore? Bowles: Oh yeah. Well, they're right interesting. Put my…this was the night of the fourth of June. And I put my sleeping bag down on the deck and went to sleep. [laughs] The next morning I woke up and there we were. Hadn't move an inch. [laughs] The morning of the fifth. Well you know the story I mean. Interviewer: They had a one-day delay. Bowles: They had a one-day delay. So I woke up the fifth, “My god, what? This is the way it's gonna be on the invasion, that's terrific?” [laughs] But it ah…and they…there were some announcements. See, the ship was a part of the Navy. The Navy ran the ships. I won't forget the night, on the night of the fourth, the Navy invited the officers of that ship, whatever they were, lieutenant or ensign, invited some of our officers staff down to the mess dining room and we had steaks and ice cream. [laughs]. But anyway, so we didn't go. And we stayed there all day and went…the next day, went back to sleep. Interviewer: Now this whole time, everybody else has to stay on [inaudible]. Bowles: Oh yeah. Stayed on the ship. Nobody got off the ship. When you think that if we hadn't controlled the air the invasion never would have taken place. Think of that mass of armor and personnel all over southern England. But we had absolute control of the air. And of course, obviously that was the plan. And the British soldiers with their Spitfires and the Americans, too. But it [would have] been hopeless without the control of the air. And when we landed on Normandy….well, we were…I was in…our unit's schedule was to land at H-hour plus…start to land. We'd disembark, we'd leave our ship at H-hour plus…I think it was H-hour plus two hours or something. It was all precisely planned. But we didn't leave until about H-hour plus eight. The thing was…there was, you know, the delay of the…well, fascinating thing to me was the…on the deck of that LCT watching the U.S. destroyers going up and down parallel to the beach. Boom! Boom! Shoot, try to blow those pillboxes out. That was a gorgeous [inaudible]. Beautiful. But to sit there, fascinating to watch that. You don't see much of that in the…I mean, the movies were made, you don't see that part of it. But they'd just go up and down, parallel to the beach with their guns. Boom! Boom! Trying to blow those pillboxes out. Then finally, came time for our ship to…our LCT to move into position and let the thing down, the gate thing, the bow, down. I was in the Jeep with a driver and I had another fella who was on another, his name was…forget his name. But he and I had comparable assignments. We were to go to the beach and we had on a map where we'd establish our what they call the report center. From that point on with the radio, we would control the incoming anti-aircraft weapons. But let that thing down and our Jeep and the driver and I and the Jeep drove down into the water. We were submerged. Of course, they'd waterproofed all the Jeeps. But…breathing tubes above water so they could run under water. Right fascinating. [laughs] So we went down to hit the bottom, which was maybe…water was…I reckon maybe two feet, three feet deep or something and drove into the beach and god, all hell broke loose everywhere. You could see it. Ships blowing up and…the USS…I think it was the Alabama, battleship, way behind the destroyers. It was lobbing shells way over the beach back into the rear to disrupt communications and transportation there against the Germans. Quite a show. Interviewer: We know later that there were a lot of problems at Omaha, but did you have a sense that things weren't going well when you landed? Bowles: Not really because our group was only concerned with and the where of what we were supposed to do. We didn't know anything about, they didn't instruct us on and how the infantry was moving here and there. We knew all hell was breaking loose and we…first thing we did when we got there, seeing what the problem was, we dug a couple of foxholes in the sand on the beach. And we stayed there that first night on the beach and the terrifying thing about that was they had what they call the lone…the lone Charlie or something. A German bomber. You could look down the beach and you could see him coming at night, dropping his bomb. Boom! Boom! Boom! Right along where we were. Scared the living daylights out of you, of course. And one of the bombs hit about, I reckon, oh fifty yards from us and was killing people, of course, and blowing…knocking sand all over our dugout. Not our dugout but our foxhole. But then we stayed there all night. I know was in…some fellow soldier came along and he was pretty much distraught and sort of beginning to lose it a little mentally. We pulled him down into our foxhole, squeezed him in and he was in bad shape really. Not physically, I mean mentally he was…well obviously, you've seen the movies. It really did affect… Interviewer: Can you describe for us a little bit about what it looked like for you? What were you seeing and hearing? Bowles: Well, we were hearing…we were only hearing what we could hear from the battle there. And we weren't aware of what the assignments were, the goals were for the infantry. All we knew about was our limited anti-aircraft defense deployment. And when we got ashore, the other fella, who also was a…he was a…both of us were already captains at the time, we made contact with the coming…incoming guns and we knew where they we gonna be. That's…we had short vision really. We didn't…we weren't aware of…you see the movie “The Longest Day” and what's it…”Rescuing Private”…what's the… Interviewer: “Saving Private Ryan”. Bowles: “Saving Private Ryan”. We weren't aware of any of that at the point of [inaudible]. We were just exposed to and concerned with that which we were supposed to do with our anti-aircraft activities. So we were living…you might not [inaudible] but we weren't aware until we… Interviewer: How many men were you responsible for? Bowles: Well we had…in our…I wasn't…commanding troops. I was only in charge of controlling the emplacement of anti-aircraft weapons. So it wasn't how many men was I in charge of. We had them put up 50 caliber machine guns on the beach in places where we planned it. We'd also been trained to use the 50 caliber for anti-personnel, too, not just for anti-…low-flying anti-aircraft. So we had a rather narrow vision of the global activities. We were only concerned with staying alive and being sure we were deep enough in the foxhole at night [inaudible] came along they wouldn't be blowing our heads off. We weren't aware of that. Until I saw “The Longest Day”, I didn't know what…at that time, I mean I didn't know what was going on at that time. Interviewer: Did you anticipate that there would be a lot of enemy aircraft? Bowles: No. Interviewer: That was what you were prepared for. Bowles: Well, we were prepared for it. But I'll never forget the first day. One of the most comforting sights of all was to see the sky almost black with lightning P-38s coming across from England, giving us a cover so it gave you a good warm, comfortable feeling. So we didn't…and that particular part, we didn't…we weren't exposed to much…any enemy aircraft at all except for this lone bomber at night. And occasionally we'd…somebody would slip through and our outpost observers would [inaudible] and we would fire on them. But there was very little aircraft contact. Interviewer: The one that you mentioned, was anybody able to shoot him down? Bowles: No. At night? Coming about a hundred feet above the shore? It'd cut you down. Interviewer: So you made it through your first day. Bowles: Made it through the first day. Then the second day we went…got up on the…not the cliffs but the…what do you call it. You know, behind the beach. And we stayed there with…stayed there really until the…I reckon, St. Lo breakthrough. And before that time, during that time, I was assigned to…by the colonel, my boss, to accompany some of the…go into the front lines and observe what was going on. We were using 90 millimeter anti-aircraft guns, now at that time for anti-tank guns. And I went with a group of 90 millimeters and we went down the road and German…what was the…the eighty-one…German eighty-eight came around the bend and boy, a 90 millimeter just blew him to smithereens, a tank. [laughs] Then they would occasionally send me up to be an observer, report to the colonel, our commander and I spent one night up there in the hedgerow and [inaudible]. Boy, it scared the living daylights out of me. Get up there. You're in the hedgerow digging down deep and guns popping everywhere, people getting shot. But finally, next morning, things eased up some and I get back to where I'm supposed to be. But it was interesting. Interviewer: Did you…where you surprised each day that you…I mean, you survived that first day, you survived that second day. Was there…did you think about it much? Bowles: No, you don't. No. Just everyday you [knocking sound]. Tomorrow's another day. Let's get going. I [inaudible] think that…in this article I told you I wrote, the thing that I remember so vividly, when you got up above, the fields were covered with signs, German signs. “Achtung, minen!” You know, “Attention. Mines!” Mines all…anti-personnel mines all over. And you'd see a lot of cattle had been killed and they were on their backs all bloated and you know. It was quite a…we…another fella and I, about our fifth or sixth day, decided it would be nice to have a little milk to drink. So we went to a farmhouse which had been partially shot. People, the French folks were still living in it. And we would say to… “Chocolat pour du lait.” “Chocolate for milk.” [laughs] We'd take a canteen, we'd give them some chocolate and they'd give us a canteen full of milk. Lay back and drink milk. Of course, the Army wasn't serving any fresh milk as part of its diet. [laughs] Interviewer: So how many candy bars did you have to negotiate with? Bowles: [laughing] Oh, I don't know. Interviewer: Were you well-supplied in candy bars? Bowles: Yeah. I didn't…none of…I didn't smoke and never have, so I didn't have the lure of cigarettes. Interviewer: Were you able to trade your cigarettes for chocolate and other things? Bowles: Sometimes, yeah. Of course, the chocolate you got in your rations and I saved some of those for bartering. But quite a… Interviewer: [inaudible] Bowles: Until they…oh, say one thing about the St. Lo breakthrough. One of the great…they didn't talk about this either. We knew about it, but nobody ever talked about it. We were gonna have our anti-aircraft…80 millimeters to lay a smoke screen, not a screen, but a smoke above a certain position we were attacking at St. Lo, with smoke bombs. [inaudible] we'd blow them up. And the aircraft were to use, planned to use our smoke that we put as a point of dropping the bombs. And wind came along and blew the smoke and we dropped a lot of bombs on our own troops. Killed a lot of people. And that was, of course, you could say it was anti-aircraft fault, but we did what we were supposed to do, or they were supposed to do. Interviewer: How soon were you aware that that happened? Bowles: I wasn't aware of that until maybe two or three, couple weeks later. It'd be from some of our commanders or the colonel, I think, told me about it. But none of those things that, you know, published right away would be bad. Interviewer: You were awarded the Bronze Star. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Bowles: Well, I was awarded for my…just said for my participation in services on the assault on Normandy. It was, of course, a surprise to me but when the colonel announced that the Bronze Star had been awarded to me and captain whatever his name was, who had gotten off a LCT at the same…and moved to shore. So I didn't…I wasn't…you know, I didn't deserve it. [laughs] Interviewer: How was that presented to you? How much later? Was it in the field? Do you remember? Bowles: Oh, it wasn't in the field. It was…I don't know, how late it was. The colonel told me about it and in due time I received a certificate and I have it home in the file now. They gave the Bronze Star to one of my sons. Had two and had one and so gave it him and he still has it, the Bronze Star. I didn't do anything heroic. I just…as they say, “I just done my duty.” [laughs] Interviewer: And you kept on doing your duty. After St. Lo, do you just…you moved along as the troops moved along. Bowles: Right. Interviewer: Can you tell us where you went after…you were in France and then where did you go? Bowles: Well, we went to…after the breakthrough at St. Lo, then Patton landing at [inaudible], down south of the Brittany Peninsula, we just moved through fast like a plague. I didn't get into Paris. My unit went south of Paris going east and crossed the River Seine. Forgot the name of the place. South of Paris. But I didn't get into Paris at all. Interviewer: Not at all. Bowles: Not during…later I was in Paris. But not during the hostilities. Cause we were moving so fast. We were to go this way and that's where we went. Interviewer: So you were part of Patton's 3rd Army. Bowles: Oh, no. No. No. Not Patton. No, I was 1st Army. Patton…didn't get involved in Patton until the Battle of the Bulge. We were in Luxembourg. I never will forget the…we were there at Luxembourg on about Christmas. What a beautiful place it was. And then the Battle of the Bulge started and Patton was…with his 3rd Army was south. And they moved north to…up to the Battle of the Bulge and came through Luxembourg and we were then assigned, taken from the first army and assigned to the third army. After the Battle of the Bulge was over, we went back to the first army. But…we…I was in…we were going north towards the Baston, that area. But I was in a Jeep in a tank column. We were…tell somebody, I can get a Purple Heart, but we had an accident crashing into tanks or something and it threw me in the ditch. They took me to the field hospital and sewed up my eye. But that was not a, you know, a war injury and so I…they said, “Did you get a Purple?” I said, “No. That wasn't a Purple Heart thing.” It wasn't in combat. [laughs] Interviewer: Did that German offensive surprise you? Bowles: Oh yeah. Of course it did. Yeah. Yeah. Luxembourg City, which is where we were. By the way, our headquarters unit was stationed right outside of Luxembourg, a little north of the city in a chateau. Loved the chateau. And that was about the time the Germans had started deploying their buzz bombs, their…the first buzz bomb. And I reckon the most frightening thing to be is to be out, particularly at night. They used a lot of them most of the night. You hear them coming. [makes noise] You know, the [inaudible]. Then they'd cut off. The noise would cease and you'd know that was the end. It was gonna plummet to the earth and then whatever's in the way it's gonna blow ‘em to smithereens. Once near where we were stationed, our headquarters, I was out there at night and I heard the buzz bomb coming. So you freeze. The engines cut off. I suppose it exploded maybe a hundred yards from where we were at the time, but they were frightening, those buzz bombs. And then later what they did, the longer range ones. What are they called? The buzz bomb two or something. They'd fire those and it'd go over the channel and go into Great Britain. You know, by just a hair, just by a veritable hair, we could have been defeated in that war. Interviewer: What do you think was the turning point? What do you think made the difference? Bowles: Well, I think…well, after the Battle of the Bulge, of course, everything fell to pieces. Interviewer: What do you think made that successful for us? Bowles: Made what successful for us? Interviewer: The turn around in the Battle of the Bulge. Bowles: Well, just the sheer guts and determination of our soldiers and the planning of our leaders and controlling the movement of troops. And like moving the third army south into the Battle of the Bulge. We hadn't done that, we'd probably…and then the [laughs]… the classic response, you know, for…demanding that we… [Tape 1, Side B] [note: Side B has a low sound quality with loud “dead air” noises] Bowles: [inaudible] demanding that we surrender. Nuts! [laughs] Interviewer: You would have felt the same way? Bowles: Oh yeah. The [inaudible]. Interviewer: Hold on just a second. Bowles: That's all right. Interviewer: We had a brief interruption to change the audio tape and we are now continuing with interview with Tom Bowles. We were talking about the Battle of the Bulge being over and now we're moving forward. Bowles: In the…I remember the next big battle, not battle but march towards the rear. [inaudible] operation was crossing the Ruhr River. And I remember we had, of course, the regular field artillery. We had the 90 millimeters there, too, part of the artillery. And someone said or I once read later, the artillery barrage at that time was probably the biggest artillery assaults and barrages in the history of the world. You could almost read a newspaper there at night instead [inaudible]. It was something. And then [inaudible] I'll never forget, when we got on the cliffs beyond the…and moving through the roads. First time I'd ever been exposed to real tragedy of war, seeing dead soldiers lying in the ditches. [inaudible]. Something you never forget. They were German soldiers. But after the Ruhr [River], the interesting…one of my interesting experiences was the crossing of the Rhine. About three o'clock one morning we were west of the Rhine. The colonel woke me up and said, “Tom, we've got to get some anti-aircraft weapons up to the Ludendorff Bridge at the Rhine, at Remagen, because the infantry, [inaudible] looked like they captured intact the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen and it's going to be viciously attacked by the German air that was left to destroy it. So we've got to get some anti-aircraft.” So we move some 40 millimeter anti-aircraft weapons up to the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen. Brought them on each side of the bridge to get ready for what we knew was [inaudible] attack by the Sukikas and Messersehends [German plane, check spellings]. Of course, [inaudible sentence]. So I was…I had my headquarters [inaudible] operations control for [inaudible] down on the lower level below the bridge where resident buildings were. And the next day, it was a thrill to see our guns shoot out Stukka dive bombers coming in to the Ludendorff Bridge. I don't know how many…we shot down quite a few Stukka dive bombers. The infantry moved across the bridge and boy, I tell you, that saved a hundred, thousands of lives to be able to capture that bridge. And move our infantry and establish a beachhead on the eastern shore of the Rhine River. It was the only remaining bridge crossing the Rhine and man, [laughing] right interesting. Where we live now there's a…I live in a…in a complex, which is an independent living apartment for old folks like us. And there's a German there, German fella, who, when he was about fourteen years old, was sent by his…he's Jewish, sent by his folks from Germany over to Texas because they knew that he was gonna…he would perish, too. Being a Jew. And he grew up in Texas, went to school and later got into the Army and became an interpreter. And I discovered that he was one of the first persons to cross the Ludendorff Bridge. And I said, “Peter, I saw you up there.” [laughs] “You were crossing the bridge and I was down below keeping track of our guns and getting ready to [inaudible] the next day. And you were one of the first ones [inaudible].” Interviewer: That's amazing. Bowles: [inaudible] Interviewer: [inaudible] at the same time. Bowles: Now we live in the same apartment [inaudible]. So we got across the…and that was the beginning of the end, of course [inaudible]. Interviewer: Do you remember where you were when Roosevelt died and hearing about the news? Bowles: No, I don't. I have in my big box of things, I have the Star and Stripes newspaper that…headlines, “Roosevelt Dies”. I've got a lot in my files, a lot of old Stars and Stripes and all the publications, samples of publications that were…I have that one, “Roosevelt Dies”. Interviewer: How far into Germany did you go? Where were you when the war actually ended? Bowles: I was in just east of…I was in Muchen [phonetic], Muchendorf [phonetic], which is just east of Nuremberg. And when it was over we were [inaudible] beautiful chateau on the hill of some German industrialist [inaudible phrase]. Interviewer: Did it feel good, the war was over? Bowles: Huh? Interviewer: Felt good, the war was over? Bowles: Oh yeah. And then we were [inaudible] we were sent…our unit was sent, given an R and R leave to go to Switzerland. And we had orders to go to the Pacific. Before we went, we had an R and R leave. And we went on a [inaudible] train, went down to St. Moritz. And on the train to Switzerland, there was a group of nurses, Army nurses, who also were going on R and R leave before they also shipped. And I met my wife [inaudible]. Interviewer: Met her on the train or in Switzerland? Bowles: Met her on the train [inaudible]. And we stayed…our group, the group of junior officers stayed at the Palace Hotel in St. Moritz. Of course the nurses, they stayed at some crummy place I imagine. But that's where I met her. And when we went back to Fort [inaudible], she was stationed up North somewhere and we would occasionally be able to see each other. We finally got married at her home in Iowa. Interviewer: You were there until April of '46. How long was she there before she came home? Bowles: Well, she came…no, I wasn't there till April. I came back to the U.S. in…oh, about Christmas of '45. And then my leave permitted me to be, you know, still on payroll until April. And she came about…back about the same time. Matter of fact, when she came in I met her in New York. I have a picture of us at the…taking the dinner at the famous dining club in New York. [inaudible sentence]. But no, we were…we met in August of forty…forty… Interviewer: Forty-five? Bowles: Forty-five. Interviewer: And when did you marry? Bowles: In May of…no, August of '44. The invasion was in '44. [inaudible] Interviewer: [inaudible] so it should be August of '45. Bowles: Forty-five. And then we married in '46 in Iowa, which was her home. [inaudible] Then we moved to Richmond to work at the Life Insurance Company of Virginia and became a…by examination became a fellow of the Society of Actuaries and then, after I got my fellowship, [inaudible] and organized Bowles, Andrews and Town. Interviewer: Children? Bowles: We have…we had four children. One deceased at age ten, a boy. Douglas Bowles. And three children, all grown up and married and each has children. One of our sons is now divorced and married again and he acquired two additional children. So we have five blood grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. They all…one of the sons [inaudible] three girls, three granddaughters. Lives in Seattle, Washington. But that's the story, I reckon. Interviewer: Was there anything you wanted to talk about that we didn't cover. Bowles: Well, I haven't thought about what I wanted to talk about, so. Interviewer: Because when we talked about this in the beginning, you were on a career path that was interrupted with the war and then you went back to it. How do you feel that the war experience may have changed you had it not happened and you'd gone on down what you eventually did? Bowles: Oh, I don't think it changed my career. The war was over and when we shipped back, I went to…I wrote my mother and asked her to send me some textbooks I could read till my next actuarial exam. And one of them was [inaudible] Life Contingencies, which was always a tough exam. She sent it to me in Germany. Then we went to Marseilles to get on our boat to come home. I spent most of my time on the boat studying for that examination. The rest of the fellas couldn't understand why the hell I would be doing that because I got to do it to take the exam. Interviewer: You were ready to get on with your life. Bowles: Yeah. Get on with my life. And came back with the Life of Virginia. We were married. And then a year later…we married in…[inaudible] we were married. And then when I got my…the year I got my fellowship in the Society of Actuaries, I resigned from the Life of Virginia and us chief actuaries, we organized a firm and went into consulting. And a lot firms…it was called Bowles, Andrews and Town when they organized it in October of '48, I reckon. And then we…let's see. Later T. Coleman Andrews, who was…Andrews, he had been president of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants [inaudible phrase]. He joined our firm and then we were gonna open a new [inaudible] office. We were having a reception at the Biltmore Hotel. I never will forget this. They had one of the rooms where you threw parties. Coleman Andrews was there. He had…was a very good friend of Gene Tunney, the boxer. He had friends all over everywhere. While we were in the reception there at the hotel, the telephone rang and I answered, and he said, “This is…is T. Coleman Andrews there at your reception?” I said, “Yes, I'll let you speak to him.” And so, this was the year that Eisenhower was elected president. Coleman took the phone and they put [inaudible] became Secretary of Treasury [inaudible]. He said that, “Eisenhower wanted me to call you and ask you if you would be Commissioner of Internal Revenue.” So Coleman accepted the job. He became Commissioner of Internal Revenue of the U.S. and resigned from our firm because it'd been a conflict of interest. So [inaudible] Gene Tunney and all those bigwigs, White Sulphur Springs in West Virginia. And get those wealthy guys [inaudible] with a badge saying, “[inaudible] people [inaudible]”. But as the old saying goes, “Them were the days.” Interviewer: Do you ever keep up with any Army buddies or go to reunions? Bowles: Never went to reunions. No. Our folks were scattered, you know. Our headquarters was relatively small. One we stayed in touch with and my wife and I would see him and his wife. He married a girl from Great Britain and they moved, of course, moved back to the States and he's now deceased. He was the only one we maintained contact with over these many years. Interviewer: Well, I'd like to thank you very much for taking the time today and sharing your thoughts and your memories with us. Thank you. Bowles: Thank you for the opportunity. Interviewer: You're welcome. Bowles: Okay. Real emotional experience with my grandson [inaudible] Normandy. Got pictures of him. The three of us together, some Frenchman took of us there when we went to Normandy Beach. Then we…and Paris. And took him to the top of the Eiffel Tower. And then we went to the top of the…what's the big thing on the Champs Elysee? Interviewer: The Arc de Triomphe? Bowles: Arc de Triomphe. Went to the top of that and took pictures of him looking over there to the Eiffel Tower. Quite an experience to… Interviewer: You showed [inaudible] to your family, to be there and see where you were. Bowles: [inaudible] my grandson, too. He was about thirteen years old. He was in [inaudible]. And my wife and I, some of my family, went to the fiftieth reunion, which was in ninety…four, ninety… Interviewer: Ninety-four? Bowles: Ninety-four. Fiftieth reunion, fiftieth anniversary. Then I went back…my wife went back on the sixtieth anniversary. Then I took my son and grandson later to [inaudible] quite an experience. They'll never forget and neither will I [inaudible]. [end of tape] Notable pages: p. 10—D-Day practice p. 12—D-Day planning p. 14—briefing the troops prior to D-Day p. 16—landing at Omaha Beach p.18—night on the beach p. 25—buzz bombs p. 28—the bridge at Remagen - Metadata URL:
- http://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/cdm/ref/collection/VHPohr/id/400
- Additional Rights Information:
- This material is protected by copyright law. (Title 17, U.S. Code) Permission for use must be cleared through the Kenan Research Center at the Atlanta History Center. Licensing agreement may be required.
- Extent:
- 1:01:00
- 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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