Oral history interview of Walter L. Bishop

Collection:: Veterans History Project: Oral History Interviews
Title:: Oral history interview of Walter L. Bishop
Creator:: Kyle, Glen
Bishop, Walter L., 1923-2014
Date of Original:: 2003-08-01
Subject:: World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Italy--Sicily
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France--Normandy
Landing craft
Icebreakers (Ships)
V-1 bomb
Ford Model T automobile
Lamborn, Charles Alonzo, 1912-1987
LST-309 (Ship)
LST-158 (Ship)
Philadelphia (Cruiser : CL-41)
Boxer (Aircraft carrier : CV-21)
Vulcan (Repair ship : AR-5)
United States. Army. Infantry Division, 3rd
Location:: Algeria, Oran, 35.69906, -0.63588
Bermuda Islands, 32.3078, -64.7505
France, Cherbourg, 49.6425343, -1.6249565
France, Le Havre, 49.4938, 0.10767
Gibraltar, 36.13333, -5.35
Ireland, Derry, 52.8021484, -6.4654951
Italy, Anzio, 41.4471008, 12.6285618
Italy, Gela, 37.0664363, 14.2502445
Italy, Licata, 37.1016361, 13.9376147
Italy, Salerno, 40.41944165, 15.3107562303225
Italy, Sicily, 37.587794, 14.155048
Mediterranean Sea, 35.0, 20.0
Tunisia, Bizerte, 37.083333, 9.583333
Tunisia, Tunis, 33.8439408, 9.400138
United Kingdom, England, Thames River, 51.5601534, -0.7793712
United Kingdom, Scotland, Argyll and Bute, Rosneath, 56.00985, -4.80151
United Kingdom, Wales, Vale of Glamorgan, Penarth, 51.4386, -3.17342
United States, California, City and County of San Francisco, San Francisco, 37.77493, -122.41942
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, Georgia, Muscogee County, Columbus, 32.46098, -84.98771
United States, Hawaii, Honolulu County, Pearl Harbor, 21.34475, -157.97739
United States, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, New Orleans, 29.95465, -90.07507
United States, Massachusetts, Suffolk County, Boston, 42.35843, -71.05977
United States, South Carolina, Charleston County, Charleston, 32.77657, -79.93092
United States, Texas, Harris County, Houston, 29.76328, -95.36327
United States, Virginia, City of Norfolk, 36.89126, -76.26188
United States, Virginia, City of Richmond, 37.55376, -77.46026
Medium:: video recordings (physical artifacts)
mini-dv
Type:: Moving Image
Format:: video/quicktime
Description:: In this interview, Walter Bishop discusses his experiences in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Before the war, he worked in a cotton mill and other jobs in Columbus, Georgia. He was turned away by most of the services because of a lazy eye, until he memorized the eye chart and the Navy accepted him. He was a diesel engineer on a troop ship, and participated in the invasions of North Africa, Italy and Normandy. He also recounts his post war careers, both in and out of the Navy.
Walter Bishop was a sailor with the U.S. Navy during World War II.
WALTER BISHOP August 1, 2003 WWII Oral Histories Atlanta History Center [Tape 1, Side A] Interviewer: Okay. We're here today. It is August first, two thousand and three at the Atlanta History Center and we're here with Walter Bishop. Just for the record, could you please state your name. Bishop: Walter L. Bishop. Interviewer: And where and when were you born? Bishop: I was born January thirtieth, nineteen twenty-three. Interviewer: You remember your serial number in the military? Bishop: Six three six five eight two one. Interviewer: Okay. Just to start with…when did you join the service? Bishop: June the thirtieth, nineteen forty-two. Interviewer: How old were you when you joined? Bishop: Let's see….twenty-three…twenty-two. I was eighteen years old. Interviewer: In the years leading up to the war and before your service, what did you do? Were you in school? Bishop: I worked for a cotton mill then I quit. Interviewer: Where at? Bishop: I had done all kinds of little jobs. I worked for a plumber helper and a carpenter helper. Just before I joined the service I went to work in a cotton mill and I worked there about two weeks and I joined the Navy. Interviewer: Was that in Columbus? Bishop: That was in Columbus. Interviewer: When Pearl Harbor was bombed, do you remember when and where you…where you were at and what you were doing? Bishop: Let's see. I was probably in bed. [laughs] I was at home. I realize that. I was at home. Within the next three days I went down to apply for the Navy and they turned me down. I had a lazy eye. So I went back continuously, about every week, reapplied. He told me to…the recruiting officer told me if I keep coming back, if they got short of men they'd take me even with the lazy eye. So in the meantime, I memorized the eye chart. And I went down and I read the eye chart off to him. And he said, “Well, if you want to get in that bad, I'll take you”. So on June the…I was sworn in on June the thirtieth in Macon, Georgia. Interviewer: What made you want to join the Navy so badly? Bishop: Well, actually I wanted to join, I wanted to be part of the action. I wanted to see the world actually, all that. Travel. That's about the reason, I guess. I just…I knew that I had a place in there, I had a place somewhere with the war on, so. And I preferred the Navy and so I kept right after it. I could have got in the Army earlier, but I was…wanted the Navy. That was what I wanted to be. Interviewer: What did your family…did they support you when you wanted to join? How did they feel about that? Bishop: They supported me. Really and truly, my father was dead and my mother was out working and I was living with my grandmother. So, my grandmother was my dependent at that time. Interviewer: After you enlisted, where did they send you for your training and what kind of training was it? Bishop: Well, we went to Macon from Columbus to be sworn in and from there they loaded us in a bus and carried us to Norfolk, Virginia. And I went through boot camp in Company three twenty-six. It was a…they taught us to march a little bit and how to handle guns and things like that. And I believe it was…ended at eight weeks, I believe, basic training. And then I came back to Norfolk, Virginia, in an outgoing unit. They tested me and sent me to diesel school. I went to Richmond, Virginia, and went through basic diesel. And then when I came out they assigned me to Boston, Massachusetts, and I went aboard the 309. Interviewer: LST-309? Bishop: LST-309. What happened then, we…on January the eleventh, nineteen forty-three, we started down the coast, down to Bermuda. And went to Bermuda and spent two days and went from there to Gibraltar. And I got out at Gibraltar overnight and then we headed down the Mediterranean to North Africa. We went to…when we got outside of Gibraltar, we were attacked by torpedo planes. But LSTs don't draw but very little draft, so torpedoes didn't seem to bother us too much. They left us alone. We went on down to Oran [phonetic]. We stopped at Oran, North Africa. And then…when we went over on the LST, we had a LCT, which is a smaller landing craft on the top deck. We went into a little place in Africa, Tenis [phonetic] I believe the name was T-E-N-I-S. I believe that was the name of the town. And dumped that LCT. And then we continued down the coast of Africa and we stopped in small ports along North Africa coast there. I remember well because I got a tooth ache real bad and they sent me to a field hospital. And when we got to the field hospital, they had one dentist and one man to pump the machine. Had one of the pump machines and he drilled my teeth. And while he was drilling, we could hear the gunfire. It was not too far behind the line. And they called this technician, whoever. I guess his helper, the dentist's helper. And then the dentist had to pump the machine and drill my teeth at the same time. That was a horrible experience [laughs]. And then we continued on down to Lake Bazurdi [phonetic], North Africa. That's one of the largest, man-made lakes at that time in the world. And we continued…we loaded with different troops and things and some supplies and we ran up and down the coast of Africa for a while. And then we started training for the invasion of Sicily. And we stayed in Bazurdi harbor most of the time and pretty soon the Germans found out we were there building up for an invasion. So every night they came over and bombed us, high-altitude bombers and then dive bombers came under the high-altitude bombers. So I believe it was…best I remember…I can't remember the date, but we left there going…from there to Sicily. And we carried the third division Rangers, sitting on top of sixteen hundred and forty tons of ammunition and high-test gasoline. And our destination was Gila in Sicily. When we got to Gila, we couldn't get the ship with all that ammunition up close enough to unload it. So we had to come back to Lacotta, Sicily, and we pulled into a little loading ramp there and unloaded that sixteen hundred and forty tons of ammunition and high-test gasoline with all hands. Everybody responded, officers and all of them. Wanted to get out of there and get that ammunition and gasoline off of there. Well, as we pulled out of Gila, cause we couldn't get to the beach. We had to pull our anchor back in and come up…back up to Lacotta. Well, just as we come out, another LST--and I believe the number was 158, the best I remember—pulled in our slot and we hadn't gone out of sight when a German bomber came over and dropped a bomb right in the middle of 158. So I know that somebody in Africa had told them which ship was carrying ammunition and gasoline and where it's berth was at Gila, cause that blew it up pretty well. And then we went back…after we unloaded all that ammunition, we stayed under just about constant attack there at Lacotta till we got all that stuff unloaded. Let's see. Before we got into the beach there, they had some guns, big guns on railroad cars and they were running up and down the beach firing, you know, to keep us off the beach. Well, a cruiser, we had one cruiser in the convoy, and I believe it was the Philadelphia. I'm not sure. And it knocked that gun off of that railroad car after about three shots [laughs]. And so we eased on into Lacotta and unloaded. And then after that we came back and we made trips, just backwards and forwards, until we got those soldiers supplied there. And we went up and down the coast of Sicily and different ports. Followed the soldiers in. And then we went back to Bazurdi again and then started to reforming. And the, I don't know if it was September. I believe it was September. We went to Salerno, Italy, and landed there and put the troops ashore and then carried supplies. Kept supplying them until they moved up. And then they made the ship at…behind the lines, jumped to Anzio. And we left there [coughs]…excuse me. We came back to Bazurdi and we just kept carrying supplies to those ships that had already landed. I mean the soldiers that already landed. And we…after we left there we came back. They sent us to Falmouth, England. We got to Falmouth, England, on Thanksgiving Day. I remember that. In the meantime, we got rammed in the night by a freighter. And so when we got to Falmouth we had to go to…let's see, we went to Londonderry, northern Ireland, to be repaired. And then we went to Roseneek [phonetic], Scotland. I don't know why we went there. While we were up there, we went to Roseneek and then we came around by Penarth, Wales, and came back to Falmouth. And they we started training for Normandy. And we made the trips up and down…the English Channel to different places to carry supplies and get soldiers set up for the invasion. We went to London and to Pillsbury Docks in the Thames River there. And we came back and that training for…well from…when I say training I mean we carried troops to the beach and let them practice, you know, getting on and off the LSTs. And then we loaded up to go to Normandy. And the first day was canceled, I think. [Inaudible] the weather canceled it there. And we…next day we [inaudible]. We went to Normandy. We landed on Omaha Beach. We were the second LST in to unload on Normandy Beach. And then… Interviewer: What type of day was that? Bishop: Well, it was just at daybreak we was getting there with our load. And I looked up and there were…you couldn't hardly see the sky there were so many planes up there. I felt pretty safe with all those planes up there. And then we…then started moving down around the coast of…after we got those supplied at Normandy, we started moving down to…well, we went to Le Harve and Cherbourg, on that part of France and we went backward and forward there. We had a lot pictures, but that ship was so small we didn't have nothing on that ship but just us and the few guns that we had. But we had a boy there that had a camera and he was a photographer in civilian life. But our ship didn't carry a slot for a photographer, so the only time he could take pictures was, you know, when it wasn't general quarters cause he had a general quarters station just like the rest of it. But otherwise, when things were slack, he'd take pictures of movements and things like that. I think some of them…and afterward…let's say, we had loaded up to come back to the States and they had the breakthrough there at the Black Forest. We had to unload what we had loaded and reload and start supplying the soldiers again. So that kept us there about another month. And then we came back to the States. It'd taken us thirty days to come across the North Atlantic in that LST. Some days we lost mileage. We posted each day…they posted the mileage to…how far it was to New York. Some mornings you'd get up, you'd be ten, twelve miles further than you were when you went to bed. So it'd taken us full thirty days to get back to New York. Interviewer: Is that because of the tides and the [inaudible]? Bishop: Yeah, it was rough weather. The North Atlantic in that part of the year was rough and a LST just sits on top of the water like a cup or something you throw in there. You know, it just bounces that way. And top speed, I think was…best I remember was ten knots. And we didn't never go top speed. We did about eight knots a day and that ain't too much. We came back…we went to [inaudible] Houston, Texas, to Brown Shipyard and then they started working on the ship, getting it back in shape and we had some shrapnel holes and some places where we'd been near misses and things like that. But we never did have a direct hit on the ship. Shrapnel killed a…well, it knocked the back of a boy's head off and that was at Salerno. But as far as injuries, we didn't have a whole lot of injuries on there. One of the boys…they had to take him off after that boy got his head blowed off [sic]. They had to take him off and that's about the only two that we lost in the whole shebang. Interviewer: Let me go back. If it's all right I'll ask you a couple of questions about what you've talked about so far. What did you think of your shipmates and commanding officers on your ship? Bishop: I was well-pleased with the companionship. We were rather close knit. Being that few a people on a ship, we were real close knit and had one of the best skippers in the world. Interviewer: What was his name? Bishop: Lambert. Charles Lambert. He's dead now, but he was some kind of fella. And let's see, we had didn't have a whole lot of…we had a gunnery officer, engineering officer and I think a personnel officer. Oh, we had a pharmacist mate. We didn't have a doctor or nothing. On one of the trips…on the trip to Sicily, we had a boy get appendicitis and when we landed at Sicily, that ship was just rolling, just continuously. It was…the water was so rough we couldn't hardly get into the beach. And we didn't have a doctor or nothing, a surgeon or nothing, but one of the Army doctors put that boy on the chow table just like…had never operated on nobody and he took out his appendix. And he was at the last convention we went to, so he done him real good. I didn't know that doctor's name. I don't know his name, but he was…he must have been some kind of doctor. But at…they had to hold the table, chow table, to keep it from rolling out from under him. We had [inaudible] trying to hold him down. Didn't have the proper equipment, but the boy came out mighty well, I guess. Interviewer: Speaking of chow [laughter], how was the food and rations you all got? Bishop: We never did do without nothing to eat. We were…we had…our skipper wouldn't let us eat when we had soldiers. You know, we carried solid masses of soldiers when we move. And Skipper wouldn't…what we ate, the soldiers ate. They'd take their rations and mix it in with our chow, whatever we had and feed everybody. You know, they didn't have to eat the regular…I mean, their food, their rations. They didn't have to eat just their rations, their cold rations. We had a hot meal while they were on the ship we us. He'd seen to that. Interviewer: Of all these landings that you made, all these different…the big invasions like Salerno and Anzio and Normandy and all that, does one stick out in your mind more than any of the others? Bishop: Well, really the…let's see. Well, naturally the Normandy one was because we were the second ship in there and the battle was going full blast when we got there. So that was…and planes…like I said, when we got on that beach, we were there till the next tide. So sometimes we were sitting there…we used our re-circulating water to run the engines and the generator. That's what we had. We had to wait till the water come back in [sic] to be able to maneuver it out. And it was an exciting time. You'd sit there and watch what was going on around you and dive bombers were running up and down that beach. Every once in a while I was hitting one [laughs], so you didn't know when the time was gonna come. But it was a…that was the most interesting, I'm sure. The others were small hash to that. Interviewer: What…when your LST was approaching the shore at Omaha, what was going through your mind? Bishop: Well I tell you, we were so busy at that time. We were getting the small boats with the soldiers in them. We had to load the soldiers in the boats and get the boats on the beach. We didn't have time to do much thinking. We were kept busy up till that last boat-load of soldiers left and then we thought all hell broke loose [laughs] is what we thought. But that…the one at Normandy now…others was done under…all of it was darkness. We'd been off of the beach at Sicily and Salerno. Just before we got into Sicily, some way or another, there was a mix up between the soldiers and the pilots and the paratroopers. And they dumped a bunch of paratroopers before we got to the beach. And that kept us busy fishing them out of the water. The ones that weren't actually on the guns were out getting those boys out of the water. That was a…that was an exciting time because you'd pull one of them out of the water and the first thing he'd done was cussing. [laughs] Interviewer: What got the [inaudible] that [inaudible] the ship during the Salerno operation? How did you come to have that…this [inaudible]? Bishop: Well, they're supposed to be destroyed. I guess you know that. And the quartermaster…me and the boy that was quartermaster [inaudible] at the time were good buddies. And we'd run around a little bit together and all. He was going to burn it. That's proper procedure for it. Some way or another I tricked him out of it. He never did get over it. He told me, he said, “You liar, you could have got me kicked out of the Navy”. I said, “Ah no”. But that's how I come about it. It was trickery. It wasn't a presentation. [laughs] Interviewer: Did you keep it with your stuff or send it on home then? Bishop: I kept it with my stuff until we got back. And then I'd taken it out and put…some fifty years it's been in a cedar chest at home. I hadn't taken it out of that cedar chest for that long. And when you mentioned any mementos, that's about the only one I had. [laughs] Interviewer: The Normandy landings, while you were training for that and while you carrying them out did you know then that you were part of something very historic? Bishop: Oh yeah. We knew…we knew what was coming on. See we brought…we were in the Tiger Operation and that's where we were carrying LSTs. There were I guess twelve to fifteen. Now, I might be wrong in these figures. It's been fifty years. But I think there was about twelve or fifteen LSTs in the convoy. And we had an English destroyer, I think, as a convoy…as an escort. Two German E-boats broke into the convoy and sunk several ships. Two or three ships. And we were the second ship in the convoy. So they came in behind us. They got toward the end of the convoy to sink the ships. And we knew right then we were in for something big. But we didn't…we train with…they didn't know whether they were gonna be able to get pontoons into the beach or not and they built a contraption that they…that we trained with for a while so if the weather was too bad and we couldn't get to the beach that we could use to…I forget the name of it. Interviewer: Is that the Balbarius [phonetic]? Or am I thinking of the wrong thing? Bishop: That's possible. I know that General Montgomery came and watched the training. I remember that. And that's about all the special training that we had other than just going into the beach and dropping the soldiers and then getting back off. Interviewer: When they canceled the invasion that first day, how did you feel about that and what sense did you get from the soldiers you were carrying? How did they feel about it? Bishop: Well, they were ready to go. They were honed to a fine point and they were ready to go ahead and get it over with. Most of them were discontented because they had to spend an extra day on those ships. [Inaudible] asked me, he came up and he said…I said, “Soldier”. He said, “Tell me something”. I said, “What is that?” He said, “How do you dig a fox hole in these things?” [laughs] I said, “Well, it'd be rather hard”. Interviewer: VE Day, when you all got the word that the Germans had surrendered. What was it like on the ship? Bishop: Well, I was back at [inaudible] ships when VE Day came. After the invasion and after the time that they made us unload there, that was…we cleared about four more trips across the English Channel and then we started back to the States. Well, when we got back to the States and all, when the Germans surrendered, I was in Norfolk, Virginia, in a little town right there on the LCT. They were waiting to load it on a cargo ship to go to Japan. So I was real pleased caused they trans…cancelled the trip to Japan for me right them. The LST that I was on went on to the Pacific. I got off of it in New Orleans, Louisiana, and I came back home for leave and then I was reassigned. Interviewer: When you came home after the war…after World War Two was over, and you came home, was life more difficult? Did you have trouble adjusting and getting back into civilian life? Bishop: No, I worked. I worked all the time. Soon as I got back I got me a job and went to work and I was involved with my job. But I worked there for two years. Interviewer: Which job was this? Bishop: I worked for a battery plant at that time. I was foreman of a line in the battery plant. I was still single and I got kind of edgy and me and a friend decided to join the Navy again, re-enlist in the Navy. We enlisted and thought…our name both started with a B, so we thought, “Well, when they start drafting, we'll have a chance of being on the same ship”. So when they called his name they sent him to San Diego and they called my name and sent me on shore duty in Charleston, South Carolina. So I was on a yard tug and a yard oiler in Charleston for two years. And then they sent me to…well, I got married while I was home on a weekend leave and stayed…I was married three days and I got a telephone call to come back and don't bring nothing I couldn't take to the Far East. So they sent me…when I got back they had a plane there and they flew me to San Francisco. When I got to San Francisco they put me on an aircraft carrier in, I believe, Boxer [phonetic] aircraft carrier and carried me to Yokosuka, Japan. And I stayed in Yokosuka for about a year and then I got on that icebreaker I was telling you about and we came back to Boston to re-equip that. And I got off of it in Boston and got on a repair ship, a Vulcan. And that's where I got discharged from there the second time. So I spent two years in…two years and five months in Charleston on shore duty on the second one. And I was on a yard tug and a yard oiler. We kept…the ships in mothballs? We kept them…the fuel level up to ninety-five percent. And that was pretty good duty. [laughs] I was real pleased with that. Interviewer: And after you were discharged the second time, that's when you went back and joined the fire department? Bishop: When I came out, yeah. That was…well, I went to work for the railroad. And I worked for the railroad about…I guess about two months. And I already had my application in for the fire department. That's…I had taken fire training in the Navy. So I got back on the fire department and…let's see. Now when I left…I was working for the railroad and they told me that I had been selected to go before the personnel review board for a job in the fire department. And working with the railroad I worked five days out of town and then came home on the weekend and that's all the time. So I decided I wanted to be home. So when the job came for the fire department, I gladly accepted it. And I worked thirty-three years. Interviewer: Did…how often, between that second discharge and now did you think about the time in service that you'd had? Bishop: Constantly just about. I'd, you know, get thinking about it. Had a bunch of pictures of the fellas and the places we'd been and all. And I…I thought about it a lot. I think if I hadn't been married, I'd went back in. [laughs] But I didn't. She made that as one of the…the things that I couldn't get back in the Navy. Interviewer: Did you ever talk about it very much during those thirty years? Bishop: I didn't talk about it…only when I started talking to my son-in-law about the service. That's the only time. In fact, all that stuff was…pictures and all…didn't bother with them too much. I just…I had a family then. I started a family. I had to make a living for them. I worked…while I was on the fire department I worked a lot of…I worked one day on and one day off and that day off I worked. I had another job. And then…they uh…switched us to twenty-four on and forty-eight off. So I had a job two of those days for a while. And then I finally broke down to one job in the fire department. But most of the time I was in there I worked an extra job too. So I had my time pretty well taken up. I didn't have time to get lonesome. Interviewer: What made you willing to talk to us today? Bishop: My son-in-law. Interviewer: Do you…did you make any really good friends in the service that you kept in touch with? Bishop: Yes, I had quite a few friends but most of them are dead now. They…I'm one of the very few that still…out of the bunch I ran around with, you know, during the war I'm one of the very few that's still living. There's one other that's lives out in Oregon. So we don't ever see each other. We…one time at one of the conventions, we saw each other. That's the only time. But there was…for years there we didn't have no contact [sic] at all. And then one day I was reading American…um…oh…American Legion Magazine. And I seen where…[sneezes] excuse me. [Tape 1, Side B] Bishop: …where they were having a convention. So right I away I called and made connections with them. And we started…just about every year we had a convention after that. Well, I've been to about five or six, I guess. Had one in North…two in North Carolina. Asheville, North Carolina. One in Las Vegas. One in New Orleans. And one in Nashville, Tennessee. So we…[inaudible] we got together about every year. And we got one scheduled this October, I believe it is for New Orleans. Interviewer: Going to that one? Bishop: Yeah, I think so. Interviewer: There was, you know, [inaudible] the United States involvement in the war was very costly. Was it worth it? Bishop: Well, undoubtedly it was cause we'd probably be doing the goose step now if we hadn't cause the Germans were thinking power and they were moving as fast as they could, in my opinion, to conquer the world. And if somebody hadn't had stopped them they would have because they had the, I guess, best fighting force. I'd say the next-to-the best fighting force in the world. And they had been building for years and year. And just like at Normandy, they were dug in to fight off just about any kind of attack, they thought. And it would have seemed as if they were. I don't know if we hit the time just right or what but…to overcome it. But they were well fortified. Interviewer: With that in mind and you know, also the sacrifices and everything that your generation went through, in your opinion, why do you think it's important that we remember the sacrifices that were made during that time? Bishop: Well, strictly one of them for the reason that we're still a free country. And another one is that we're looked up to with most of the nations in the world because of our power that we built up. I was just proud to be a part of it. I wouldn't have missed it for nothing. [laughs] Interviewer: Do you feel like it made you a better person? Bishop: I'm sure it did. I'd never been out of Columbus, Georgia, but short trips. I didn't know nothing about the world or what was going on until I got out and had to fend for myself. I learned to take care of myself and saw the country, knows how the other half lived. Interviewer: Is there…is there one memory more than any others that's sticking in your mind? Bishop: In the battles or… Interviewer: Any…during the whole time in service is there just one memory that just sort of comes to mind first? Bishop: Well, at Salerno, we were in a convoy laying off and we tried to get in and they had eighty-eights lined up, fortified to keep us off the beach. So we had to lay out for a while. They said they didn't want to lose none of the equipment that we had, so they didn't want us to push on in there, force our way in and land. They wanted to wait till the opportune time. So we were laying off the beach and it was a moonlight night. Big, bright moon up there. We were on the outskirts of the convoy waiting to get in and undoubtedly a German plane had made a bombing raid and had one bomb left cause it came around and got us lined up with the moon. And it sounded like it was fixing to land on the ship. It'd come right down, that motor grinding, you know, coming…diving down. That was burnt in my memory. He dropped that one bomb and it hit just off the bow. And I was on the bow. So that's the first thing that flashes in my mind usually when I think about the war. There wasn't…if he had had two bombs, he wouldn't have missed that second one, I know. And he probably would have hit us with that one if it hadn't been for the quick thinking of the skipper of the ship. He had all engines reversed just about the time he felt like that plane was going to drop that bomb. And undoubtedly the pilot had us figured just right, cause it would have landed about the middle if all of a sudden the ship hadn't started backing up out there in that…he was a smart skipper. I think, if I'm not mistaken, he was a gunnery officer on the California at Pearl Harbor. And I believe he was a gunner chief and they promoted him to an officer and he took over an LST. They usually used officer's, you know, that had come up through the ranks, some of them, most of them. And this…he was a Lieutenant Commander and he had come up through the ranks and he was…he was sharp. He was…I don't know whether he ever went to school, you know, military schools or what but he knew navigation and all. He was…and had a feeling for his men. Interviewer: All right. Is there anything that we haven't covered that you'd like to talk about? Anything you'd like to say? Bishop: Well, let's see. One of the big moments is we carried Patton's troops into France. I remember that. We carried them into Cherbourg, France, just before he made the run to cut off the Germans before they got the [inaudible], the submarine [inaudible]. And this third division Rangers, you know, they're stationed at Fort Benning now. And I didn't realize that until just lately. I think I'm gonna go out there and see what they got written up about the…about that. We carried them into Sicily. That was a fine bunch of men. Interviewer: I have just one further question and if you don't want to answer that…this, that's perfectly fine. The time you were under fire and be in combat [sic], in your own words, tell me and future generations what that's like. What's going through your mind. Bishop: Well, I think anybody with any feeling at all would be scared, afraid. And naturally I was. But it's just tense and then it's just like you've got confidence in your buddies. Just like I was on the anti-aircraft gun and them planes didn't bother me near as much as it would have been if a bunch of fellas gathered up there and started shooting that gun. I had confidence in them. And all the men that were in my gun crew. And see, being in the engine room, I would run…I was in the engine room during travel time and at combat I had a gun station. So, I was busy between the two. I'd be in the engine room. If we had an attack, I had to come up and get on the gun. It did a lot of damage to my ears. I still can't hear. But other than that I was might lucky. I never, never received any injuries other than the tooth ache [laughs]. Interviewer: Well, all right. I think that's about it if you feel comfortable with that. Bishop: Well, naturally we had a photographer and he didn't take any action pictures because he was always at his general quarters station. So my pictures and all…I did not have…we didn't have a whole lot of action pictures, you know. We had a few, but if he'd been assigned a Navy photographer so that we could have…you know, he didn't have to go to general quarters, we would…he was a quartermaster and he had to leave whatever he was doing naturally during general quarters. But other times he was taking pictures. But most of them were leisure pictures. During the Korean part of it, bringing the icebreaker back? You know, icebreakers rose more than an LST and I didn't think that was possible, [laughs] but it does. We ran into a typhoon in the Japanese sea. I ate split pea soup for three days. That's all they could fix was split pea soup. I can't stand the sight of that stuff. But most of it was just general…naturally I wasn't on a war ship. I was on a landing ship. Our job was landing troops and supplies. The fact of clearing that six…we didn't really realize the importance of carrying sixteen tons of ammunition and high-test gasoline to Sicily till we seen that ship get hit. And then everybody turned out to unload that stuff. We didn't have no trouble getting that unloaded. Naturally, we had a regular run of submarines and things like that, but submarines that…or I guess they'd already found out they couldn't do much with an LST because they had such a shallow draft. We ran into a lot of Frenchmen and…now, when we went to Normandy, each time we'd go to Normandy, we'd bring back…right after the landing we brought back paratroopers, you know, that…a lot of them had missed their mark and all. And then other times we brought back German prisoners and things that they carried that we had captured from them. We brought them back to England. We went up one side of England and down the other. We just…[inaudible] time. Interviewer: Actually, let me ask you…talk about having Germans and I'd like to ask this question for the English, French and the Germans. What was your impressions of each? Bishop: Well, I didn't have any close contact with the Germans other than when they were prisoners of war. But I know one thing, the Englishmen were…they were good sailors, good fighters and…we never had much personal contact, but you know, working and the things that they accomplished during the landing at Normandy and clearing out the coast of France over there and all. They…I respect them for that. They were good fighters. Naturally, we worked with some British troops, you know. We carried British troops sometimes like we carried American. Now we went to…they sent us to Gold Beach on the trip and we had to take the British. They were either the British and the Canadians, or one of them. We had to take them off of Le Havre Beach because the Germans had…I mean, off of Gold Beach because the Germans had them zeroed in with those eighty-eight guns and we went in there and evacuated them off of that beach. And there were a lot of exciting times along. It wasn't just constantly going and coming. I remember one time we were going down the coast to Cherbourg and there was a…had a destroyer as an escort. And most of it was quiet that far down and we passed a little peninsula stuck out in the water and the Germans had a gun emplacement there. And they started firing and the destroyer escort fired back. Well, finally the Germans hit the back of that destroyer. It hit the water level. Didn't do a whole lot of damage. But that skipper of that thing turned that thing and nosed it in at that peninsula and fired everything he had at it and blowed [sic] that peninsula out of the water. [laughs] That was really amusing. Naturally we were on the ship. We were watching it all. We carried twenty millimeters and forty millimeters and for the…the Mediterranean operation we had one three-inch gun. But I don't think we ever…we didn't learn how to shoot that three inch. [laughs] We couldn't depend on it anyway. Interviewer: The…an LST is landing ship tank? Bishop: Yeah. Interviewer: Did you ever carry any tanks? Bishop: Carried tanks constantly. One time we carried…they said they were the secret weapon. And they had them covered up. Didn't nobody get to see them. But I think it was a tank that floated. And we went up the Thames River. Let's see…the Thames in France? Unknown: Thames [pronounces Tims]. Bishop: Thames River, yeah. We went up the Thames River to some [inaudible] France. Way up inland and carried those tanks. When we started to come back the tide was going out and the tide in that river was so strong and it was so narrow that we couldn't make all the turns in that thing. We had to go…we reversed the engines all the way down that river. That was…when that tide went out over there, buddy, it went out. [laughs] I'm telling you. We had a lot of submarines tried to break into the convoy, but usually the depth charges and all from the escorts took care of them, so undoubtedly [inaudible] one submarine. They weren't too active in the English Channel at that time. Now when the [inaudible] started coming over from Germany…the first one we seen, we were going up the English Channel. We could see it, but didn't know what it was. Looked like a little small airplane or something, you know, making a heck of a noise. And so we asked the captain could we fire on it. We went to general quarters and I asked him if we could fire on it. He said, “No, sir”. He wouldn't let us fire on it. But we didn't know what it was, you know. We thought it was a plane. And then we made all them runs with them coming up and down there. One time we were going across a yard in Pillsbury Dock on the Thames there and we were just out messing around more or less, just looking around. We were in the dock at Pillsbury. And there was a bunch of English fellas sitting over there eating their lunch. And one of the [inaudible] come over, and me and the boy that was with me, we ran and jumped up on the box car. You know, and it didn't even phase them. They didn't look like they thought nothing about it. And we jumped up under that box car. And when we come out they were just a laughing. [Inaudible] laughing at. Come to find out that box car was loaded with ammunition. [laughter] Interviewer: Sounds like you had a lot of close calls. Bishop: We had a lot of time it's…look back on it it's funny, you know, in memories. But… Interviewer: Would you use the word fun to describe some of your experiences in the war? Bishop: Oh sure. Some of it was. Some of it was fun. And you know, we were over there two and a half years on that tour of duty. The LST…the word was that the LST was made for ninety days. That's all they cared about using it for ninety days. And that was the landing at Sicily. And when they made the landing at Sicily it worked so good they decided to keep it. And then they made the landing at Salerno and behind the lines at Anzio. And then they carried it to Normandy. It worked so good they carried it to Normandy. And all together that ninety days wound up being two and half years. That's how long we were over there on that tour of duty. Interviewer: That's a good while. Bishop: It sure is. Half of that time you didn't have no liberty and what you did have was in those African towns down there, you know. We had…finally we got over to Italy. We had some pretty fine [inaudible] there. Now they had a big…in Palermo, Sicily, it was just a little round harbor like that and they got a bunch of ships in there at one time. And we were on our way to there and the Germans sent dive bombers in there and they come over the mountain. And that little old harbor down there, so many ships that it couldn't maneuver. They come around, they were cutting out power lines and stern lines trying to get out of there. It was a big mess. I don't know if people in America read much about it or not, but they lost two or three ships in that thing…were hit. And we were…I guess maybe we were half a bay from there. Interviewer: Talk about people in America hearing things, when you were on board the ship, or actually anytime during the war, how much information did you have as to what was going on and what you were…your ship was doing? Bishop: Well, really more…the most information we got was from the ship itself. We didn't, you know…everything was quiet then. Hush-hush. We didn't get a whole lot of news on there. I know in Palermo, Sicily, I mean in Mercado [phonetic], Sicily, when that landed…the soldiers went in there and pushed Italians and what Germans were there on out. So we went over and looked over the town and all. And there was one…one fella there found a tape…not a tape player…a record player and a radio, console set. And some way or another he bargained for it, brought it back aboard the ship and it had a bunch of Italian records and one American record. It was going on, on that record. We wore that thing down into the pad there. [laughing] Interviewer: Did you get, on your leave, did you get ashore as often as you would have like? Bishop: Well, our skipper was real lenient. Anytime he thought it was safe and he could, he let us ashore. Now I think actually we got more than most ships cause like I say, usually you get a man that came up through the ranks. He's been through it all. He knows. And every chance he got, if he figured it was safe, he would let us go ashore. And of course, he put limits on it. We could…you know, around the docks and all. We had to be close to the ship in case we had to leave in a hurry. Usually LSTs didn't have to leave in too big a hurry [laughing] because they…but I…really and truly, looking back on it, I wouldn't have missed it for nothing. Interviewer: So you'd do it again? Bishop: Yeah. But [laughing] I don't know. After I got married, all that was…I forgot all that then. But I would have actually…I'd intended to make a career out of the Navy when I went in. While I was stationed in Charleston I met my wife and we got married and then…that put a halt to that. Interviewer: Well, let's see. We've got about an hour on tape if you're comfortable with that. I know I don't want to keep you too long. It'll wear you out. I could keep…personally, I could keep you here all day. Bishop: Well, anything that you want to know that I know I'll tell you. Of course, it's been fifty years. I forget a lot of dates and probably… Interviewer: Well, one thing that's good too, we've got your information here as other things come up, you know, [inaudible] get you in here again too, just to do a follow up. We do that sometimes. But the questions I've had you've answered pretty much all of them and then some. [paper noise] So, that's it. Like I said, if you've got anything else. Bishop: Well, let's say as far as I know…I know that Japanese…on the Korean part of it? That Japanese icebreaker that we got there, all of the writing was in Russian. All the writing was in Russian. No, you didn't know…didn't have the pipelines, you know, they hang tags usually what the lines are. We'd be in engineering down in that…in that engine room trying to figure out which was our oil line and which was the water lines [laughs]. That kept me busy for quite a while. But when they rushed me off to Japan…when I got over there they didn't know what I was over there for. And they had flown me across the country and put me on the boxer and that's when that boxer made that speed run, you know. It broke a record or tied a record. The trip between San Francisco and Yokosuka, Japan. I thought, “Man, they really…they really want men in a hurry”. And I got over there and I went to report in. I asked the fella what my duty was gonna be. He said, “Well, I tell you. According to this record you were sent here to make a…to help establish an emergency diesel station. And according to this thing it ain't due to start in two years”. I said, “Man, I ain't got but seven months in the Navy”. He said, “Well, I don't guess you can help there then”. Nope. So what they done, they extended me a year. I was on a three-year tour of duty, so President Truman signed a letter than would extend me for a year and I had another year to put in. Interviewer: That was good of the President. [tape stop] Bishop: Yeah. Couldn't wait. I hadn't been married but three days, by the way. Three days when they called me and sent me over there. And then him hang a…well, I had seven months to do when I left…when they called me. I was stationed in Charleston. And I talked it over with the commanding officer. I said, “I think I'm gonna go…I think I'm gonna get married when I get home”. And I said, “If there's any plans to send me anywhere, I'd like to…you know, I'd like to know if you have any information on it”. He said, “Let's see. You've got seven months to do? Ah, no. Don't worry. They ain't gonna send you overseas for seven months”. I said, “Okay.”. [laughs] I come back. I went in his office and me and him went round and around for a while. He said, “Look here. Don't you say another word to me. Look at this paper”. He had been sent to Guam. [laughs] Interviewer: How you'd break the news to your wife and how did she take it? Bishop: Well, we were together when the telephone call came. And I said, “What?” They said, “You report back immediately”. I said, “Well, it'll take me a…you know, another day to get there. I'll leave in the morning”. And they said, “Well, we want you within two days”. So they drove me to Savannah and I caught a bus in Savannah up to Charleston. And six o'clock the next morning I was on that airplane on the way to San Francisco and I stayed out there about two weeks, I guess, before they put me on that aircraft carrier. So, I thought when they put me on that airplane, man, I was gone. I thought, “They're gonna send me straight to Japan”. [laughs] But they didn't. The LST I was on, it went on to the Pacific and it participated in another two landings. I don't know. They were other there for quite a while before they decommissioned it. Interviewer: Under the same skipper in Japan or in the Pacific? Bishop: No. Uh-uh. We changed skippers in…I believe in New Orleans. The skipper went ashore in New Orleans and we got a new skipper. And we weren't near as pleased with him…that's…[laughing] you don't get to chose, that's one thing. But…they said at the convention that they had a letter than the skipper had passed away. He…he wasn't an old fella. He was fairly young. But he'd been in the Navy a while at Pearl Harbor. He might have been a little older than I thought. He was real active. I guess that's about all unless there's something…something you know that you'd like to ask me about. I'll tell you anything I know. Interviewer: No, that's perfect. Like I said, I've got your information here. If something comes up, I'll just give you a call or something and get in touch with you that way. Bishop: When I got to Japan, they put me on another LSU that they'd taken over from the Army. And we scurried around in that round the harbor there. We ran up and down the coast of Japan taking supplies and all. It was LCT in the Navy. In the Army just taking them over, I guess, after the conflict in Germany. Started using them as supply ships. So they moved the Navy crew in there on them and we started making the ships around to Oklahoma…Okinawa. We went to Tokyo. I can't think…three of the biggest cities anyway. That's what we did, the time we were there until they brought this icebreaker in. Being just married three days when they said that thing was going to Boston to be refinished…put back in service, I started working right there to get on it. [laughs] And I did manage to get on it and we brought it back. The engine broke down in Pearl Harbor and we went in there and stayed two weeks in Pearl Harbor while the Hawaiians redid the engine. Then we came on in to Boston. Interviewer: Did you have any leave while you were in Pearl Harbor? Bishop: We had…we didn't do nothing. The Hawaiians were doing the work. We had free time there. One of the boys that I ran around with had been stationed there and he had friends…he was in the motor pool and he had friends there. And one of his friends had a model T Ford with a rumble seat in it. And since we didn't have nothing, he told him anytime he wanted to use it during the day, he was welcome to use it. So we…he got it and we would ride all over the islands and all in that model T Ford, just so we were there the time he got off work. [laughs] And it was really nice. I got a buy in my ear over there. And they plundered around in there. Wasn't nothing open but a sick bay when it happened and they wallowed around in my ear trying to get it out and they never could get the bug out of my ear. So I had a lot of trouble with my ears since I've been out. [Inaudible] need a hearing aid. I can't hear a thing without them. I'd be… Interviewer: Well, all right. Thank you very much. Bishop: You're welcome. [end of tape]
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Extent:: 1:10:35
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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