My 704 Days In Combat

Interview Contact: Pearl Billings, Sr.

When I walked into my grandfather's kitchen I noticed the old yellowish clock, which I have looked at so many times when my fahter gets gabbing. Then I noticed Pretty, my Grandfather's tomcat. He has such a huge head and huge eyes that it makes him look like a tiger. He quickly scurried away. During the interview Pretty came out and started acting silly, like attacking my feet and that sort of thing.

My grandfather was involved in World War Two in Europe and Africa, never Japan or another place. He had 704 days in combat. During the interview I asked if he choce to be in the war.

"No, I didn't chose to go in. Uncle Sam chose for me." [Grampa and I laughed].

"Did you like the WAR?"[Right after I said that I thought what a stupid question!]

"No. I didn't care for it. I didn't like the damn army. I didn't like a lot of things there."

"Why didn't you go to Japan?"

"Why I didn't go was because we were on a point system if you had over a number such as 180, you would stay where you were, but if you had less than that number you went to another place."

My grandfather told me about all the countries he went to. He went to England, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, Sicily, Austria, and Czechoslvakia. Also he went to Africa.

My Grandfather said, "Germany was the worst [demolished and bombed] country."

I believed him.

Earlier he had told me he had gone to Paris for three days. I asked him, "Why did you get to go to Paris?"

He answered, "Everybody in the outfit is supposed to have a rest once in a while. And, I had not had one. That's why they gave me a special trip. I stayed at the Grand Hotel in Paris with [room] service and a suit all [to] myself."

"It must have been nice!", I say.

"Yes!", he answers.

"What did you have for weapons?", I ask.

He answers, "Oh, we had artillery shells, 105's, the projector [scope] weighed about forty pounds. We had long toms, [a large gun having a long range used on land.] we had 155 rifles, the projector weighed 98 pounds. Plus we had rifles, hand grenades, and smaller weapons."

"What happened to all the dead bodies?"

He replied, "People wore dog tags so they could be identified. On the dog tag was your name, and your special number. In Italy there was a huge cemetery that [had] about nine to ten thousand buried there. Also ther was a huge cemetery Southern France where thousands of people were buried."

"Did you meet any Jews?" I sat there thinking of all the concentration camps that I heard about.

"Yes, some!"

A couple of weeks later I met my grandfather at the store. I said, "I have to ask you another question about that interview. It's about Hitler and the concentration camps!"

He said, "Why I didn't tell you about the concentrations camps because you didn't ask."

I asked, "Did you find any concentration camps?"

"Yes, thousands! When we went in we shot all the Germans, who were running the place, there wasn't much we could do for the Jews. Because the Germans starved them to death!"

"Did you find all kinds of them dead in the camps?"

"Yes! Do you know how they killed them?"

"Yes. By gas chambers!"

"Yes, also they killed the Jews by starving them to death or almost, and then making them walk out in the fields were Germans had dug big holes. The Germans then machine gunned them down, then covered the dirt over them. See the Jews were only skeletons walking around."

"How many men died in your outfit?"

"There were 565 men in the outfit, and only 25 came home!"

I said in a low voice, "Oh my God!"

After I had shut off my tape recorder, my grandfather seemed to open up more. He told me about a nightmare he had once he was home in his father's house after the WAR. He said, "I remember screaming and then waking up with my furniture, [like his bed and bureau] upside down and I was on the floor trying to dig a hole. My father told me about it!" [I was surprised but thought his nightmares must have been terrible.]

My Grandfather had taken a lot of pictures of the war. His father wanted some copies so they sent them to a photographer and he, the photographer, never sent them back. My Grandfather wrote to him, but got no response. and he called but the man said they weren't his pictures or hung up.

After the interview my father and my grandfather started talking about their normal topic, fishing!

Kristie M. Billings