Old Hickory Recon, Memories of the 30th Infantry Division 1943-1945 - Marion M. Sanford

Posted for Old Hickory by Slipdigit.


I want to talk a little bit tonight about how it was in Normandy. Most of the houses, other than the ones in the towns, and there wasn’t very many towns in Normandy, were country living. The barn and the house was all one building.

All the buildings had walls made out of sticks and mud. The floor of the house was dirt. There were no wooden floors or anything in the house. Many times you’d see a cow with its head sticking in the kitchen window. They had a kitchen down stairs. What they sat on in the kitchen was split logs with pegs driven in them. They must have used them for hundreds of years. That’s the way the living conditions were. They had the hay upstairs and that’s also where they slept. I don’t know what kind of beds they had, I never did see those. It was something that we weren’t used to.

It was apple and milk country. There were apples and cows everywhere. The only modern things there were the milking machines. They crushed the apples and made juice and put it into big barrels, 8-10 ft high and 15 ft long. They drank apple cider all during the year. The French don’t drink much water. They even had barrels hanging up in a tree when they were working. They raised wheat and some kind of hay.

They worked hard with the dairy. The artillery killed so many cows, horses and other animals. It was so bad at times that you could hardly stay there because of the smell. The Americans and Germans would have a truce so that the French could bury their animals.

Both sides were losing people everyday. And we weren’t advancing worth anything. Finally, when that guy put the metal teeth on the front of the tank, they could knock a hole in the hedges. We could advance a little bit better, but we still weren’t advancing much. St. Lo was the biggest city that fell [to us].

One day, somebody told us that we got some prisoners and to pick them up and bring them in. We went out there late in the afternoon. One American was standing there. We asked him where the prisoners were. He had made them cover each other up with wheat, where the French had cut the wheat. He told them that he‘d better not see any straw moving. That was a pretty good idea for a single man who had 7 prisoners.

About the middle of July, Gen Bradley came up with the idea called “Cobra”, where he was going to get the 8th Air Force to bomb us out of Normandy. On the 23rd of July they sent 8000 planes. Our clothes shook from the bombs for almost three hours. Some of the bombs fell short and killed and injured some of my division. They said the wind changed and they dropped the bombs in the wrong place.

The bombing went on and on, plane after plane. After it was over, the infantry tried to knock a hole in the German line. It took the rest of the day to fill the holes with bulldozers that the planes had made, so we could advance. That’s when a lot of people said that it was Bradley’s secret weapon. He turned loose Gen Patton with a brand new army through the line that the 1st army had knocked a hole in.

About the 1st of August, they called us out of the line. We got a bath and new clothes. I remember we went back to a wheat field and a chaplain came and we had a worship service there. I remember part of what he said. He said, “There’s not a person in the sound of my voice that doesn’t believe in God or you would not be here.” He said, “One of these days this war is going to be over and many of you are going home. Just remember one thing that your faith is as good as anybody’s. Go home and practice it.”

We also had a singer to came and sing for us. It could have been in this same field. The singer was
Jane Froman. She was real good. She sang the songs that were popular then: “I’ll Walk Alone”, “The Bluebirds Flew over the White Cliffs of Dover” and a lot of American songs. She sang for about 2 hours. She had been injured in a plane crash in the Azores. She was getting over that, but she still came and entertained the troops and we never forgot her.

We enjoyed the 5 days we were off and then went to the Battle of Mortain where we lost so many people. Even before the Battle of Mortain, my division had lost over 500 men.

 

I am doing research on my father-in-law's service in WWII. He served in the Company A, 120th Infantry, 30th ID. I have a short audio of him being interviewed by his grandson. He passed away eight years ago. I am reading through hundreds of letters he wrote to his wife all through his basic training all the way through April 1945. I am transcribing the letters by date. It is fascinating.

This thread is of great interest to me. I can't wait until the next post. This is a history that cannot be forgotten.

Thank you, Old Hickory for your service and for taking the time to put your experiences here for us to see.

All the best.

d1carter

 

d1carter

I am researching the history of a property here in Normandy: the 120th Infantry (30th ID) 'camped' up there in July 1944. I am researching this in more detail and have more info but it is a little off topic for Old Hickory (?) If so, maybe you could reply to my thread on this site with the info you have on your father in law and his action with Company A around this time? I think we may be able to help each other a little.

Regards.

 

Field Hospital:
Thanks and I have read your posts. They are very fascinating. I am sorry, my father-in-law was suffering from scarlet fever and in the hospital during that time. He finally joined the 30th ID sometime in September, 1944. He got scarlet fever on the troop ship over to Great Britain and was in a hospital for over a month.
All the best.

d1carter

 

It looks certain that the HQ was located at Chichester Barracks. I often visited there in the 1970's for training as a member of the Royal Military Police ( Territorials) abit like your National Guard. The Barracks appear to have closed down and are now being redeveloped as new housing. Swords and ploughshares come to mind.

I would like to find out where the encampments where around Chichester but not much information has been kept about that part. Most likely has been built on by now.

Looking forward to the next instalment. Regards Richard s.

 

Posted for Old Hickory by Slipdigit

We went on then. Ten days later [14 September] we went into Holland, to Maastricht, the beautiful old city of Maastricht. The Germans were trying to wire a bridge to blow it up. The Holland people told us about it and we captured them before they could blow the bridge. We went around Holland, around to Heerlen, Holland. We stopped in Heerlen, Holland one afternoon. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were going to stay there almost 2 months.

I’ll pick up now in Heerlen, Holland. We had no kitchen and we were trying to prepare our meal. I looked up and coming across the field was a beautiful young lady and a little boy. They came to where we were and they were hungry. They ate with us. After they ate, the young lady took me by the hand and said, “Come.”

I went home with her. She lived a little ways from there. I found out then that she was 16 years old and married. She introduced me to her mother-in-law. I spent as much time as I could with that family for the next 6 months, until we crossed the Rhine River. Every chance I’d get, I’d come back to see them. I became real good friends with the family. This girl was named Philamina Duster, but they said I named her Meg. I don’t remember doing it. The mother-in-law was so good to me. She’d see me coming and she’d come running and called me her American Bebe. She took me in and I really enjoyed that family.



Here is a photo of Megie Duster made in Sept 1944

Most of the time we went out on patrols because we didn’t have much gasoline. We patrolled the area nearby. When we finally got gasoline, we took the city of Kerkrade. Half of it is Germany and half of it is in Holland. The Germans made 30,000 of the citizens go out in the road to slow us up. It was still in the winter time and it you got off the road, you’d mire up in the mud. The Germans knew we wouldn’t shoot the Holland people, but just before we got there, the Holland people got off the road and lay down in the mud and we were able to get through.

We went to end of Siegfried Line The pill boxes, the dragon teeth and some of the engineers figured out that rather than trying to blow the dragon teeth to build a bridge over them. They built a bridge over the dragon teeth.

We’d take the pill boxes and weld the steel doors up or pile up a big pile of dirt with a tank with a dozer on it against the door where they could look out and they couldn’t shoot anybody. And they’d leave the Germans in there. Just before Thanksgiving, the 119th Infantry took pill boxes one day and that night they were relieved by the 102nd division, who were brand new, they’d just gotten there.

The next day the Germans took the pill boxes back. On Thanksgiving Day, they sent the noncommissioned officers from the 119th Infantry down to work with the regimen of the 102nd Division. They took it back and that time they kept it. I think the 102nd became a good division after that.

The first big city of any size was Aachen. We had a hard fight for Aachen. We finally took Aachen. We kept on plundering around and taking cities. The worst torn up place I’ve ever seen was a little ole place in Germany called Ulish [Jülich?]. There wasn’t a building standing more that 6 or 8 or 10 feet high at the most.

One little town there was a fight for everything you got. One little town [we fought over] changed hands 5 times. Old Hickory had it last. I forgot the name of the town, but we stayed there.

The Germans had a time of day when they wouldn’t throw in any artillery so the German people could go and pick up supplies they needed during that time. I was standing in the door of a house one day and saw an old German woman walking down the street. Just about the time she got even with me, her panties fell off. She bent down, stepped out of them, picked them up, wadded them up and stuck them under her arm and gave me the dirtiest look I’ve ever had in my life and walked on down the street. I don’t know why you remember things like that, but you do.

Other cities fell and we crossed several streams and went on trying to get to the Rhine River. We were pulled out of the line on or close to December the first. We were pulled back to Heerlen, Holland. We lived in a coal mine and it had hot showers and everything. They told us that we wouldn’t have anything to do until New Years. The Holland people were giving us a party every night and we were really living it up. I’ll leave it at that.

Thank you and goodnight.

This is the last installment I have for right now. Old Hickory has sent more recollections to his friend to transcribe. As soon as she finishes, she will email it to me and I will start posting again - Slipdigit

 

As promised I've taken a photo of the church at St Jean de Daye. It appears that the top of the spire has been rebuilt (at the time I took the photo I couldn't find anyone to chat to and ask in more detail about this). The rest of building seems to be original. Will be interested to read Old Hickory's recollections of it.

 

Interesting photo. Thanks for posting.

Some things don't change - the 'caves' (wine cellars [although not usually under the house], pronounced 'cav') are just the same now. I've got a few bottles of homemade cider in mine...

Is there a pic in the book showing Col Birks?

 

Lest we forget. God bless you and your comrades Old Hickory.

 

Hello Slipdigit, It's a great thing your doing for Old Hickory. When you get a chance let Old Hickory know my Father was in the 120th Infantry 30th Division (Old Hickory). I posted on my new member forum a Christmas Greeting from 1943 from Camp Atterbury, Indiana. The 120th Infantry autograph the inside covers with there Home State. My Dad kept a record on everyone & wrote next to there names if they were O.K.,sick,shell shock,Prisoner,wounded & killed. I have his photo album from the war & mostly every picture has the names of the soldiers written on the back. It is sad seeing a smiling soldier in a picture & looking up his name from the Christmas Greeting 1943 & find out he was either wounded or killed. My Dad was 20yrs old when he went in the Army & survived 5 Major Battles & Campaigns.
1) Normandy
2) Northern France
3) Rhineland
4) Ardennes-Alsace
5) Central Europe
He was discharged 10/16/1945 at 23 yrs old. It is just amazing what these men did during WWII. I just wished I knew then (when I was 20yrs old) what I know now!

 

Please send OldHickory our best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery, thank you..richardS.