War Stories
| Sid's
Story |
Historical Context |
|
Induction,
Boot Camp and Training
 Sid - Ben,
John, and I were of draft age. The draft was held at
the
time we were living at 2266 E. 7th Street, Brooklyn, NY. We
received
our draft notice. We went down to the draft board, and John
and I
were taken right away. Ben was told if he went to work for the
ship
yards they would hold him off, until he was needed. Robyn - all three of you went to the draft board together? Sid - I don’t remember Ben going with us. I remember John and I going together. ... Ben was already gone. He was already working at the shipyards by then. Robyn - Did he get his draft notice before you and John got yours? Sid - He may have but I don't recall that. He went to work for the ship yards before we were drafted. I think that was it. He went to work with some of the guys from New York. He went with some of his friends. They all worked there. When we were drafted John and I left the house, we got the notice to report to camp Upton. We were drafted from New York, all of us were... I’ll never forget what my brother John said to me. He says "What will happen if they don’t take us?" You know, because we were being drafted. He was so worried they wouldn’t take us. ... We left the house together after we were drafted and we were told to report to camp Upton, New York. John and I. Robyn - Where was your mom? Your siblings? Sid - She was upstairs in the house crying. She was crying bitter tears. Yeah she was crying. I remember her saying as we were leaving the house. Of me. "You are so young. How can they take you? You're a baby." I remember her saying that. She felt that I couldn’t take care of myself, but the other two could, you know. Robyn - Was anyone else at home - around that day when you left home. Was Sam? Sid - I don’t remember seeing Sam. I think Sam was in school. The kids were in school.. I was inducted in December. Robyn - Here.. Dec 3rd date of induction, Dec 10th date of entry into active service. Sid - I remember when John and I were walking to get on the train to go to camp Upton. My father who could barely walk, was tagging behind us, you know. He walked out of the house and was tagging behind us.... He could barely walk , we turned around "Pa go home , go home." ... walking behind us maybe two, three blocks behind us while we were walking to go to the railroad station. We kept turning around and yelling "Pa go home, go home" and he wouldn’t go, he kept walking. He made us cry, you know. ... It was too far, he walked about a block, and then he turned around and went home. We went to the train station and reported to Camp Upton. Robyn - What was Dec. 10th? The date of entry into active service? Sid - Induction was at Camp Upton, when we were officially inducted into the service... At camp Upton we were given physicals and army uniforms. When I took my physical I was officially in the Army. From the time I arrived at Camp Upton - I didn’t go back home. From there we were shipped out. On the 10th I was sent to Camp Leonard Wood. And John was sent to Camp Belvoir. We were both in the Corp. of Engineers. Camp Leonard Wood - I was in basic training. You know when you are in training they work you pretty hard. You’re gone all day, practically all day. You’re on the go and you build up a pretty good appetite. I'm a pretty good size guy you know. We sat down to eat in the mess hall and they fed us family style. They fill up the bowls with food, and they blow the whistle. Sid - "Soldier stand at attention!" - So I stand at attention. He looks at me. "You know this is the army - you guys from New York think you know everything. I could have you shot for what you did." I said "What did I do?" He said "You are a chow hound - you ate so much food the guy at the other end of the table didn’t get any". I said "I ate everything I took. Its not like I was doing something ..." He says "Shut up - you listen to me. Stand at attention!" So I stand there and stand there. He takes out a book and he is reading me the articles of war. Jack- There isn’t anything in there about eating too much Sid - Well he’s reading me that I disobeyed an order. Jack- There wasn’t any order. Sid – Well anyway that is what he was claiming. I was so glad when that was over but they put me on KP the rest of the time I was there. But I was glad to get the hell out of there. They wake you up on K.P. at 2 o'clock, 3 o’clock in the morning you are out there peeling potatoes, which I didn’t mind. I like to peel potatoes. Sid - The barracks were two levels, and we were on the second level. We had a corporal there - he thought he was god you know. He  says “all
you New Yorkers" he says "Who do you
think you are? " He made slurs
about the Jews and all that. One guy in our outfit was Jewish
says ”If he keeps talking like that I’m going to beat the hell out of
him." The next time the corporal came in... he comes in there
blows his whistle and everyone is half
asleep. He yells" Get up!". the he tips you out of the
bed. The first
thing he says.. "All you blankety, blank Jews from New York." And
he
wouldn’t let up. This guy next to me who was Jewish he says "the
bastard
I’m gonna get him." I said to him "Don’t do anything crazy. He is
a
corporal. He is god here"... He was smaller than me he ran over
to the corporal grabbed the
corporal and threw him out the window on the second floor. He
threw
him right out. And this guy got up and the Jewish guy says to him "You
better watch what you are saying because the next time I'm not going to
be so easy on you." He wasn’t
hurt. I don’t know why he wasn’t hurt,
even though he was thrown out the 2nd floor window. He never
reported it or anything. He knew he was out of line. After that he let
us alone, he didn’t bother us. Sid - You know in basic training - one thing that that they made you do in training was they had this house and you had to go through the house and they dropped tear gas in the house. Do you remember that? Jack- Yeah sure..we all did that. - Only it wasn’t tear gas. It was… It wasn’t tear gas. Sid - Well what ever it was it completely blinded me and I could not get out of that house and I kept yelling get me out of here. Some guy came in and took me out. But I couldn’t see for about an hour afterward. Jack - You just go in one door and out the other. Sid - It wasn’t, it was a room a divided room, I was blocked in, I couldn’t find the door to get out. Jack -You just follow the guy in front of you. Sid- Who could see? it was so thick. It was terrible. Terrible. That was my worst experience in Basic training. Jack – I didn’t find it that difficult at all. |
Camp
Upton
 "Upton was a two-hour train ride from New York's fabled Pennsylvania Station on the Long Island Railroad. For the average recruit, the journey from Manhattan to the camp was a rude awakening, especially during the Winter months. They boarded the train amidst the urban bustle of America's most famous city and disembarked in a place that must have seemed as remote and barren as another planet. The tiny wooden station at Yaphank was a far cry from the classic marble architecture of Penn, and once off the train, there was nothing but wind, sand, and pine trees. The scrawny pines offered no shelter from the wind, which blew the coarse yellow sand particular to Long Island everywhere. Soon, the sand was in clothing, duffel bags, and shoes. Many veterans who were inducted at Upton (especially those who were there in the Winter of 1942-43) all share the same memories of frigid winds, the stinging, ever-present sand, and the stands of thin ragged pines that surrounded the whole place."  Fort
Leonard Wood"The history of one of the Nation’s largest military reservations began with a modest ground breaking ceremony in December 1940. Constructed as part of the Army’s Expansion Program in 1940, the 71,000 acre fort was named in honor of Major General Leonard Wood. Major General Wood was a graduate of Harvard Medical School and later the commander of the Rough Riders during the Spanish American War. Wood later served with distinction as the Governor of Cuba and as the Chief of Staff of the Army from 1910 until 1914. Between December 1940 and the spring of 1941, new construction at the fort continued at a hurried pace. Before long, enough buildings had been erected to house the new Engineer Replacement Training Center but when the United States entered the Second World War on December 7, 1941, the post was thrust into the lime light. Between 1941 and 1946, over 300,000 soldiers trained at Fort Leonard Wood. At its peek, the post housed over 50,000 soldiers at one time. In addition to Fort Leonard Wood being a premiere basic training facility, it was also a Prisoner of War (POW) camp for captured German and Italian POW’s." - From
"Camp Leonard Wood - The Ghosts of Bloodland"
Other Links: Fort Leonard Wood Home Page Army Corp of Engineer Museum Fort Leonard Wood Museum  Postcard of recruits exercising at Fort Leonard Wood  Postcard of Fort Leonard squad barrack interior - circa 1942  Postcard of Fort Leonard barrracks - circa 1942  Postcard of chemical warfare training Fort Leonard - circa 1942 |
|
Convoy
Sid: "They moved us at night. We were put in trucks. We left Shenango, Pennsylvania and we headed to Boston Harbor. When we got to Boston Harbor there were no lights. Everything was dark. They didn’t put any lights on. They marched us up there on board the ship. We got on board a Canadian ship. The first thing they told us was "No lights!" You could see a light for miles and it would be an attraction to a submarine. Nobody was allowed to put any lights on at all, under any circumstances. They didn’t want you to open a door and have a light on from behind you. No lights! The next morning we were on the high seas. When we hit Newfoundland, we docked at Newfoundland in the night. The next morning when I got up and I looked out. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. As far as the eye could see were ships. There were aircraft carriers, and every type of ship you could see. We all steamed out of Newfoundland Harbor together heading for England. I didn’t know where we were going. They were heading for England. As far as we knew we were heading for England. After the first night on the high seas, when we got up the next morning, and looked out. It was such a scary sight. We were all alone. You go to sleep and as far as you can see there are all these ships. You wake up the next morning and you are all alone with this little Corvette hanging around you. You say "Oh my god what happened to all the other ships?" We were all alone. I said "Where the hell are we going?" We never knew where we were going till we got to Greenland. Of course we got a hint of it. They issued us parkas. They issued us heavy clothing before we got on the ship. (but we got the real heavy parkas when we got to Greenland). After one day, evidently we went one direction and they went in another. They all went on to England. I think the guys who were headed to England got to England before we got to Greenland. And it was only a third of the way to go to Greenland But we were by ourselves, and we were zig-zagging. It took us 7 days of zig-zagging around to get from Boston Harbor to Greenland. There were a lot of German submarines at that time. They were shooting our ships down. They were looking for strays like we were. We had this Corvette tag along with us, because we were unarmed. We were just a passenger ship. A corvette is a small ship that is very fast and carries a lot of ammunition and stuff. One time during the night we could hear them dropping depth charges. You know boom, boom, boom. We were all terrified..because here we were - sitting ducks. One guy in the hold of the ship really cracked up. He ran to the foot of the stairs going up to the deck. He screamed back at us "You’re crazy! You’re all crazy! We’re all gonna die! We’re all gonna die!" He became hysterical you know. He just collapsed right on the floor of the stairs going up. He was just so terrified. In fact after that I got to thinking and I couldn’t sleep. I went up on top deck. I found a corner up there. I figured, if they sink the ship, I’d have a chance to get off. I didn’t know at the time they say if you are in the water for more than five minutes you’d freeze to death. But I didn’t know that. I thought I’d take a shot at it. In case they sank us, I’d be able to get off. I stayed there. It was so blasted cold on that deck you know. But I huddled in the corner, and I slept there all night. They did have a gun mounted there, on the passenger ship. They installed a gun on the back of the ship. It had been installed just recently for some sort of protection. I doubt it would have done any good. It would only have done any good If the submarine came to the surface. There was a big submarine scare at that time. They were knocking our ships off like crazy. Very big submarine scare."  The Cutter "Tahoma" was the escort for the SS Eagle on Convoy SG-23 to Greenland - likely the convoy that transported Sid to Bluie West One. |
The Coast Guard
& the Greenland Patrol
by John A. Tilley Convoy Patrol "Greenland was on the edge of the Battle of the Atlantic, the fight to the death between the German U-boat force and the Amerian shipbuilding industry... The 327-foot Treasury-class cutters, with their roomy hulls and hospital facilities, turned out to be good escorts and were put on the transatlantic runs. The duty of escorting the convoys to and from Greenland fell to the older, smaller cutters that had been built in the 1920s and '30s for search-and-rescue work and law enforcement. As the Coast Guard prepared for war, the navy yards loaded them down with additional guns, depth charges, sound gear and men in the hope that the cutters could function as miniature destroyers. At best they made adequate escorts. The North Atlantic slammed the little ships around like corks, spilling gear out of lockers and men out of bunks. When the weather conditions were right, freezing spray could coat the superstructure of a rolling ship with tons of ice, creating stability problems the naval architects had never envisioned... The escorts were fighting an ominous, rarely seen enemy who usually announced his presence by blasting the bottom out of an unsuspecting merchant ship - and could only be detected in the form of vague sounds in the earphones of a sonar operator... The convoy fights came to follow a depressing pattern: A merchantman would suddenly explode, the escorts would dash to the scene and rescue a few waterlogged survivors, the sonar operators would pick up an echo that they hoped represented a U-boat, the cutters would drop depth charges, and all hands would try to convince themselves that the echo's disappearance meant the submarine had been sunk. Occasionally someone saw or smelled an oil slick that might have come from a damaged U-boat, but no one could be sure. No vessel of the Greenland Patrol was ever officially credited with sinking a U-boat. In water whose temperature often actually dropped below 32 degrees, a human being's limbs began to go numb in a matter of minutes. The crew of a cutter that arrived at the scene of a sinking with ropes and cargo nets trailing in the water would watch helplessly as men drowned and froze to death, unable to grab the lines that were waiting to pull them to safety. When the Army transport Dorchester was torpedoed, Feb. 3, 1943, the escorting cutters Comanche and Escanaba thought themselves lucky to save 299 of the 904 men on board. - From:The
Coast Guard & the Greenland Patrol
by John A. Tilley "Long-range aircraft were not assigned to convoy protection duties in sufficient numbers to cover the convoys across the entire Atlantic until the middle of 1943. Consequently there was an "air gap" south of Greenland. It was here that most of the up-coming ocean battles were waged, and the area earned the nicknames "Torpedo Junction" from the Allies, and the "Devil's Gorge" from the Germans. To make matters worse, weather along the North Atlantic convoy routes bordered on hellish and proved to be equally dangerous as the Germans... The storms of the winter of 1942 and 1943 were the worst to hit the North Atlantic in more than 50 years. The weather, in conjunction with a renewed U-boat offensive on the North Atlantic convoys, led to the period being nicknamed the "Bloody Winter." March 1943 proved to be one of the most devastating months of the campaign for the Allies. The Germans changed their naval radio cipher, depriving the Allies of the precious Ultra information, and consequently the Allies were unable to locate all of the wolf packs. During the first three weeks of the month the Allies lost 97 ships, and at that rate American production could not keep up with losses. There was little rest for the cutters as they were desperately needed on the North Atlantic. Consequently there were constant breakdowns in equipment due to a lack of time for repairs. The Ingham, for instance, sailed with inoperative sonar for nearly six weeks before it was permitted to go into dry-dock. The crews, too, were offered little rest. A crewman of the Bibb related that "we were always exhausted. It was get resupplied, refueled, and back out." In early March, Group A-3 sailed east toward Great Britain, escorting 59 ships of Convoy SC-121 through a winter gale. Again, through heavy seas, U-boats closed to attack. The storm dispersed many of the merchant ships and the U-boats picked off the stragglers." From: The
Coast Guard and the North Atlantic Campaign
by Scott T. Price "On 1 March 1943, the
Tahoma reported for duty with Task Unit 24.8.2 and on the 5th while at
gun practice with the cutters Storis, Modoc and Algonquin, in the bay,
she received a report of a submarine in the area from a patrol plane,
which commenced directing the unit to the position. The unit
searched the area for the remainder of the day with negative results,
continuing until daylight of the 6th, when it stood for St.
John's. On the 8th the unit, plus three escorts, departed St.
John's as escorts for the four vessel convoy SG-21. On the 14th
the Modoc and Tahoma escorted two of the ships to Kungnat Bay, while
the reminder continued to Narsarssuak.
On March 18, 1943, the Tahoma and four other escorts departed Greenland with the two ship convoy SG-21, the Storis and Modoc splitting off on the 39th to go to the assistance of the SS Svend Foyne, which had collided with an iceberg. Later the Storis returned to the convoy as the cutters Algonquin, Aivik, and Frederick Lee departed for the disabled vessel. The Tahoma continued to Argentia. On 20 April 1943 she began escorting convoy XSG-23 to Greenland, entering the ice field on the 21st to break ice for the convoy. Ordered to escort the SS Eagle to Greenland, the Tahoma received air coverage but lost contact with the Eagle due to low visibility, regaining it on the 24th. On the 28th proceeding through increasing heavy ice, she hove to until daylight and moored at Narsarssuak on 29 April. " |
|
Greenland -
Bluie West One
Robyn – when you arrived in Greenland, did the other group leave right away? Sid - They left within the week. They had to give us information, our jobs, what to do and then they left. I don’t know what outfit that was either. But we replaced them... When I was in the outfit these guys had never seen any one of the Jewish faith... they really didn’t know who Jews were. Jack - that’s right Sid - I go in the morning to take a shower and pretty soon I have a gang of 8 or 9 guys watching me take a shower. I’m showering up, and I give a look and turn around to see if there is something behind me. It was only me. I said "What’s up guys?" They said – "Your Jewish,", I said yeah. - "Well we’ve never seen a Jew before." I says "Well I aint got any horns." Harlan - They thought you were hiding them. Jack - the same thing with my outfit. I think there were only two in my outfit also. I got a lot of grief. But you know what I was a combat medic. You would be surprised when you get into combat.. I’m their best friend. "Stay next to me Jack, stay next to me." Sid - Let me tell ya- I had the biggest fight I ever had in the barracks. This one guy of German descent … always had something to say about the Jews. When I walked into the Barracks he always had something to say about the Jews. I let it slide, and I let it slide, and let it slide and finally I decided I had enough of this guy. Funny thing is he was as ugly as hell and he had a scar coming down his face and that’s what scared me a lot about him... I said to him I want you to knock it off. The next time you say anything to me we are going to have it out. He said how about right now. So we fought in the barracks. We knocked over the pot-bellied stove, we knocked over everything. We fought for a good half hour to an hour. Jack - You were wrestling not fighting? Sid - Well we were throwing punches, kicking, anything we could do. Jack - so how did it end up? Sid - It ended up that neither of us won. Both were badly bruised, wWe both had slivers in all parts... cause the floors were wood. We had slivers all over our body. But from that time on we became good friends - I’m not sure but I think his name was Stemme. That was one of the wild experiences I had in the army. Sid - Greenland during the summer months was very warm you know.  We had nice warm weather out there.
In the winter it got extremely cold. We had weather that was 50-60
degrees below. Really howling winds. We had to rope
everything off. If you had to go to the latrine or mess hall ...you had
to hold onto the ropes and pull yourself along. You had to
fight the wind, it was like a tug of war with the wind. It was
snowing but it was the wind, that was tremendous. That was the worst
thing. The planes that came in and landed we used to have to take
and anchor them down so they wouldn’t blow over. We attached them to
the metal runway.The cold was so intense when it was 50 below - for guard duty no one was allowed to stay out longer than 3 minutes, maybe 5 minutes at a time. If you stayed out to long your lungs would freeze. Then when you came back in your lungs would collapse, and they would have to send you back to the States. The guard duty was 3 minutes or 5 minutes I don’t remember, but it was for a very short time. It was crazy to have guard duty out there, cause there was nothing out there but us. It was just a matter of rules and regulations. You had to have guard duty. I remember I drew guard duty, I was supposed to walk around the plane. It got so cold, I started getting numb. I knew one of the cabins had all the parkas and stuff in them. I headed for the that, which wasn’t to far away... I went into this place and there was a pile….right in the middle of this place were all these parkas. I just got right in the middle of all the parkas and just stayed there till I warmed up. When you get so cold, that you can’t stay out, you just take matters in your own hands. They never came and relieved me anyway. They forgot about me. Robyn - Could you see the plane from where you were? Sid - No. I was in a barracks… Well no, it was a small storage room. Sid - Every thing in Greenland even the Barracks were anchored down, because of the winds. Big, big winds. We used to fight the winds, and the cold. In our barracks we had pot bellied stoves. Three stoves, one in the middle and one at each end. They were going all the time. I Remember an incident that happened - one of our sargeants opened the door to the barracks. He stayed at the door there with the door open. He had his hand up. He was yelling at everybody and all of a sudden a wind came and slammed the door. One of his fingers came right off. It took off the tip, part of his finger came right off. He passed out right there. He passed out. They rushed him to the hospital They found the tip of his finger and they sewed it back on. After that nobody stayed near the doorway. You opened the door. You got in and you got out. Nobody hung around the door, because the wind was so strong. Robyn - there was a medical center at the site? wasn’t there a hospital?  Sid - Yeah
they had one
building there if you were sick you could sign
in and tell them whats wrong. If you were very sick they kept you there
otherwise they sent you back to the barracks.Robyn - While you were there did your group build any of the buildings? Sid - Oh yeah, in fact we built a huge recreation hall. They could play basketball, watch movies in there. Some of the building were built before we got there, and some of them we built while we were there. We reinforced anything that needed reinforcing. Sid - One of our duties as the Corps of Engineers was defense. Each guy had a job. I was the machine gunner on a half track. When the alert comes I would get into the half track with three others guys. A driver and three guys in the back of the half track. The driver would drive us to our point for guarding the base. That part of the base. Most of ours was on a high rise. I remember looking down in the Fjord. The Fjord was running right along side and we were there. One day they took us out there when we didn’t have an alert, to show us our positions and what our job was and all that. Being the machine gunner on the half track you know… the Sargeant said to me “There’s an iceberg a small chunk of ice. I want you to fire at that. See if you can hit it.” You know. And I did. The funny thing was – the machine gun as you fire it would drift towards the right you know, and the piece of ice was drifting to the right with the current. So all I did was hit it. Once I hit it, I could boom, bla boom, keep tearing it up. He looked at me , He says to me “Hell Wallach - you’re a terriffic shot!” Robyn - what is a half track? Sid - A half track is like a tank except it’s on treads. The front part has wheels and the back part is on treads like a tank. The back part was open cause we had a machine gun on it. The back part is open. The machinie gun was mounted behind so you swing it around, in any direction, you know. To fire it in any direction, You just held it and fire it . You just look through the eye sight and fire it. In fact I remember an incident that happened. About 3 oclock in the morning we got called out on an alert. We had been called out on alerts before you know and they only lasted a short time. So the two guys and myself we get on the half track and we drive up there. I thought it was going to be a short alert so I didn’t bother to get dressed. All I did was throw a blanket over me and I got into the half track. An hour passed and we were still on our alert and in our position. Even though we had the machine gun up I sank below the top level so I wouldn’t be in the wind and I was huddling like this (motions holding a blanket around him in a crouched position). I remember one of the guys I was with said “Wallach you can’t do that, if the sargeant comes around you’ll get court marshalled.” I say’s “if I don’t do it I’m gonna freeze to death.” He didn’t come around, and about 2 hours later …we got the clear. We headed back to the barracks. I couldn’t wait to get into bed with blankets around me, and warm up. Boy I was frozen. Robyn - If you are in charge of the gun what are the other two guys doing? Sid - They get the ammunition, and in case I get shot they take over my position. You know in case I’m wounded, they take over. We had a driver too. Anyway, that was my position when there was an alert. We had many alerts. You know if something happened out of the ordinary. The only actual place they could come up was through the Fjord. If we had an attack it had to come from the Fjord. It couldn’t come from any other place. That was the only place they could move up. We had control of the air. The Germans all they had was a weather station up there. They were too far away to fly. The weather was too intense to have them flying. It was even rough on us. When we sent planes from the United States to England, they did what they called hedge hopping. A big plane would fly with a bunch of smaller planes, fighter planes would hedge hop. They would go from the United States to Canada. From Canada to Greenland. From Greenland to Iceland. And then from Iceland to England. If they needed refueling at any point they could always refuel there. Just so they didn’t get lost, they would have a big plane that was able to guide them during the day. Then they would have visual contact with, you know the big plane. An incident that I recall - that I found out later. There was a Norwiegian ship that used to come in with supplies to us. They had an ice breaker come in and break the ice up in the fjord. We would unload the ship. Many times I was in the hold of the ship unloading it. In fact one time I almost got killed. The sway of the thing in there, all loaded would sway and could push you up against the wall and you could get crushed. To bring things out of the hold they’d have an arm that would drop down a sort of a net thing. You’d load things into the net. They’d pull it up. There was always some motion to it, it just doesn’t stay motionless. When you load it, it has more motion to it. It swings by itself. If it got swinging, the weight of it could crush you if you got pinned against the wall. One time I almost got pinned against the wall, but I was able to get out. I was able to give it just enough of a little shove, you know. After that I was very careful. Anytime it was swinging this way, I made sure I went the other way. We used to unload the ship... One of the guys stole a chicken and he brought it to the barracks. Another guy stole a drum of butter. They put it on top of the Pot Bellied stove and melted it and stuck that chicken right in that melted butter. And cooked it, it was very good! Any time we could steal a little extra food we did. You know like oranges and stuff like that- we kept it in the barracks. Robyn - The stuff you unloaded from the ship – where did it go? Were all deliveries from the ship for the U.S. or was it also delivering to the villages nearby? Sid - It was always for us. All deliveries into the fjord were for us. The stuff we unloaded went into a storage room. And then they used it from the storage room. Sid - That Norweigian ship that came in and supplied us with food stuff, we found out later on it was also supplying the German weather station further up the Fiord. What they did, of course once we found out, we got rid of the weather station. They asked for volunteers and I think there were about 11/12 guys with the coast guard I think…I’m not sure if the coast guard were in on it or not… Any way the Coast guard took us up the Fjord. We surrounded the German hut that was there. They yelled with a loud speaker, one guy spoke German… he yelled “We have you surrounded . Come out with your hands up or we’ll blow the building apart”. They all came out with their hands up. There was no place to go. Robyn - how many were in there? Sid - There were about a dozen, about 10 or 12 guys. It seems to me, If I recall…. Robyn - did anybody from your barracks volunteer? Sid - ya one guy from our barracks volunteered. That’s how I know about it. He volunteered. He said to me, I remember him saying to me “Hey Wallach lets you and I volunteer.” I said “I ain’t volunteering.” I says “Any time you can get killed I ain’t volunteering.” He say’s “Well, I’m volunteering. I gotta do something this is crazy here.” I says “go ahead, volunteer.” And he did. They brought them back. The Coast Guard took the prisoners to take them back to the states. Robyn - You heard that from the Coast Guard? Sid - Yeah - the Coast Guard Robyn – The same people? Sid - Yeah. the Coast Guard had the ships there. You know. They once had a party, where the Coast Guard and us were part of the same party. We supplied the anti-freeze. It was 190 proof alcohol, very powerful stuff. From what I understand they ran it through bread to purify it more than it was. We used to cut it with coke or beer or whatever they used. I remember that. That was when we heard rumors about what happened to the German prisoners.  Sargeant Yost, Frank Soloman, Sid Sid - In Greenland Rodrigez, Odwyer, and myself were a threesome. We were buddies. None of my pictures have them in them. They were in the photos I sent ... that never made it home. Robyn - Do you remember who you sent the other Greenland photos home with? Sid - He was from my outfit but I don’t remember who he was. Robyn - The guy who took your photos home to send to your mom- was he an engineer like you? Was he in your barracks ? Sid - Yeah an engineer , but he wasn’t in my barracks. A lot of pictures… he kept them and he never sent them to my home Robyn - Why would he get to go home before you? Sid - They were sending certain guys home. A lot of these guys, were allowed to join other branches of the service. Like Rodriguez joined the Air Force. I think these guys were heading home to do that. Of course we relieved certain guys that were in our outfit, it was time for them to go home. Sid - Some names I remember from Greenland: Charley Makli - Boxer from New York Tommy Maffy - Italian from Brooklyn He shot himself in the foot to get out of Greenland. Edward Stemme - He was in my barracks, - he married Bill Schmidts Sister. William Schmidt - From Chicago, his nickname was Roundhead. He lived in Morton Grove for a while. He belonged to the Morton Grove legion too. Sargent Yost and Sargent Hesko was the mess sargent Major Zahn was company commander of our Corps of Engineers Eddy Odwyer - Was from the Boston area and a good buddy of mine, we hung out together. Rodriquez was killed. He joined the Air Force, he left Greenland to go. I found out later he was shot down. He was one of the guys I hung out with. |
 PBY
amphibious patrol bomber on
BW-1 steel mat runway in 1943 "The United States came under increasing pressure the British and Canadians to take an active role in the defense of Greenland. Sightings of aircraft over the northeast coast and the capture of a ship carrying meteorological instruments provided clear evidence of German intentions towards Greenland. The Danish Minister to Washington, Hendrik Kauffman marked the first anniversary of the German occupation of Denmark by signing an agreement with Secretary of State Cordell Hull which placed Greenland under the protective custody of the United States for the duration of the war. The Danish diplomat acted independently of the German controlled government in Copenhagen. The United States reiterated its recognition of Danish sovereignty and agreed to assist Greenland in maintaining its existing status and to respect existing laws pertaining to the native population and internal administration. To further these ends, the Americans were granted the right to maintain and operate landing fields, seaplane bases, radio and meteorological stations; to install fortifications and to take any measures need to insure their efficient operation, including the improvement of harbors, roads and communications. President Roosevelt announced the agreement the following day and stated that, "we propose to make sure that when the German invasion of Denmark has ended, Greenland will remain a Danish colony." The United States Coast Guard’s Greenland Patrol was formed under the command of Edward H. "Iceberg" Smith in June, 1941 to defend Greenland, to support the Army in establishing bases for use in ferrying aircraft to the British Isles and to prevent the Germans from conducting operations in northeast Greenland. The Coast Guard’s cutter and amphibious aircraft patrols coordinated their efforts with those of the Greenland Sledge Patrol, a small force of Danes and Greenlanders equipped with dogsleds, who scouted the inland terrain for signs of German landing parties. U.S. Army Air Corps bombers were available to strike at suspected enemy bases when they were too big for the Sledge Patrol to tackle or too remote for the Coast Guard to land troops. The Patrol thwarted a half dozen serious attempts to establish German weather stations over the course of the war Greenland played an important role in the shipment of American aircraft to the European Theater. American military engineers began constructing, "the great aircraft carrier of the arctic" in September 1941 under the direction of Colonel Bernt Balchen. The first landingfield, code named "Bluie West", was built at Narsarssuak in southern Greenland. Other Bluies were built at Sondre Stromfjord and Gronnedal. Greenland’s climate posed as much of, if not a greater, threat, to the American troops stationed there as a the possibility of German attack. The experience of military engineers sent to build a loran station near the Inuit village of Fredericksdaal was not entirely atypical. The construction battalion arrived on site in November 1942 and set up camp in canvas tents. It soon became apparent that the tents were not up to their assigned task and lumber was shipped in from Boston. An impressive collection of wooden structures was assembled over the next two months. On New Year’s Eve 1942, a howling gale descended on the base. Winds reaching 165 mph carried off practically ever stick of timber. The commander of the operation later reported that when last seen the buildings "where headed somewhere in the direction of Boston, Mass.". The problem was ultimately solved by placing Nissen huts in 6 foot deep trenches and burying them under sand."  B-24 Liberator on BW-1 airstrip in 1942 Phooey on Bluie You've read of the brave Russian Stalingrad stand, How the Axis were chased through the North African sand, But speaking of battles, we know there are none To compare with our winter at Bluie West One. The mountains of Greenland rise into the sky As a field of the fjord where the ice drifts by. The worst of is, with its infinite trials, There isn't a woman within one thousand miles.... Halfway to London in late 'forty-two, Wait eighteen Marauders for skies to turn blue. It's said that they serve who just sit and wait, And yet a war's lost with too little, too late.... Then get out the cards, boys, and shake up the dice; You're better off here than up on the ice! When you're down on the cap, they say "Just sit tight," Yet some guys sit still for the fortieth night. Perhaps we're too critical; there are good features, too! But rule out the mess with its eternal stew, And cross off the permanent officers here, The brief fleeting daylight, the shortage of beer. Only hermits and llamas can do without sex, So give us good weather and we'll fly on to 'X'. To us, just one place in the world really rates, So let's finish the war and get back to the States! GUARDING THE UNITED STATES AND ITS OUTPOSTS by Stetson Conn, Rose C. Engelman, Byron Fairchild CHAPTER XX: The North Atlantic Bases in Wartime "At the beginning of 1943 a heavy concentration of U-boats gathered in the North Atlantic just beyond range of the Newfoundland air patrols, but within reach of the still unfinished Greenland bases. Plans were cast to send a heavy bomber squadron to Greenland and to increase the air cover from Iceland; but the weather in the region of Cape Farewell was discouraging to patrol operations from BLUIE WEST I. As a result action did not immediately follow upon design. Then, in March, the whole strategy of the war against the U-boat was placed under discussion at the Atlantic Convoy Conference in Washington, where it was decided to increase the range of the Newfoundland patrols and to place under Canadian operational control all the antisubmarine operations from Newfoundland. During the next few weeks two squadrons of B-24's were sent to the Gander airport to join the B-17 squadron that had been carrying the full load and on 3 April Canada took over operational control. Within two weeks the first steps were taken to set up an operating base at BLUIE WEST I. By this time the crisis had passed; the battle had moved away, and the long-range bombers were no longer needed in the North Atlantic... Following photos from: Bluie West One / Secret Mission to Greenland, July 1941 /The Building of an American Air Force Base by Wilian Kray  Circling for a Landing at BW-1  Unloading Ship at BW-1 in Harbor  Unloading Ship by sled after the fjord froze.  BW-1 Barracks "... Early in the spring of 1943 three members of the Greenland Sledge Patrol discovered the German weather base that had been established on Sabine Island the preceding summer. On being discovered, the Germans immediately descended on the patrol station at Eskimonaes, about fifty miles to the south, destroyed the place, killed one of the patrol men, and captured another. A third member of the patrol escaped to Scoresby Sound with the news of the raid, which was dramatically confirmed some time later by the arrival of the man who had been taken prisoner by the Germans. He had persuaded them to split forces; had engineered an opportunity to be alone with the leader, had seized and overpowered him, and, turning the tables completely, brought him back to Scoresby Sound, a captive. A flight of bombers led by Col. Bernt Balchen took off from Iceland for Sabine Island on 25 May and found the enemy base of operations. Bombing and strafing the three or four huts that made up the installation, as well as a small supply ship that was discovered in the harbor ice, they left the place damaged and on fire."  COAST GUARDSMEN CAPTURE TWELVE GERMANS To follow up the air attack a Joint Army-Coast Guard task force was organized in Narsarssuak (BLUIE WEST I) and was dispatched as soon as ice conditions permitted, in July, on board the two Coast Guard cutters Northland and North Star. A specially trained and equipped detachment of twenty-six men and two officers made up the Army component. After a difficult three weeks' voyage by way of Iceland, where the North Star laid over for several days for repairs, the force arrived off Sabine Island on 21 July. Plenty of signs, but no Germans, could be found. Then just as the landing party was about to return to the ship, its attention was attracted by the sound of phonograph music. A lone German was discovered waiting to surrender. He was taken on board. Further search of the coast revealed nothing else, and it was assumed that the rest of the Germans had been evacuated or had moved farther north. Operations in Greenland were resumed the next summer with the discovery of a well-fortified German base just north of Sabine Island. A landing party of soldiers and Coast Guardsmen went ashore from the cutters Northland and Storis, but found the place deserted. A burned-out armed trawler lay abandoned in the ice. FROM:
GUARDING THE UNITED STATES AND ITS OUTPOSTS
by Stetson Conn, Rose C. Engelman, Byron Fairchild CHAPTER XX - The North Atlantic Bases in Wartime |
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Leaving
Greenland - Camp Livingston
Sid - When we left, we left as the artillery because they had an artillery group that was up there. They came up later on, and they were coming up now, the artillery. And we came back as the artillery. And they remained as they changed. We swapped names with them so we could come back and they could stay. Robyn - why would they have to do that. Why would they change the names? Sid - Their orders were to come back to the states. So I guess. They cant keep you there more than three years. We were there three years - the corp of engineers. We were there in '43 and I think we left for the states in '45. Robyn - Why did they have to change your name then? To have you leave? Sid - The orders read, for the anti aircraft artillery to come back. So the only way to do it was to switch names with us. That’s what I think, I don’t know why they did it but that’s the only logical answer. So that we could come back. We came back as the artillery. When we came back , we all went into the infantry. They put us into infantry training in Louisiana. We docked at Boston Harbor, the next thing we know,we were on a train head heading to Louisiana. We all took infantry training in Louisiana. Some of us were kept in Louisiana to train new recruits coming in. It was the time of the Battle of the Bulge, and others were flown over to buck up the soldiers there. Soldiers were making their last stand there. They were in the Battle of the Bulge, and a lot of them were killed too. I don’t know how they picked us. They picked about 8 or 9 or 10 of us to stay behind to train recuits. I was one of the guys they kept behind. I don’t know why but they did. I don’t know how they selected them. We were part of what they called the cadre. The training cadre. All the training cadre stayed in one barracks. We’d be assigned…with the new recuits coming in we’d be assigned to take company “A” out or…. I remember we’d teach them how to take apart the rifle and put them back together again. We’d take them out on forced marches. We’d march with them. Strictly basic training. Then the war ended . I remember the Japanese surrendered and the war ended. Robyn - When you were in Louisiana, how did you hear about Johns injury? Sid - I also was in Alabama for some reason. I don’t remember why. Did I go to Alabama first?… I got the letter from home that John was in the hospital. On my first weekend leave I went to visit him in the hospital. He  was wounded - he
was
flown back cause he was wounded - going from France into
Germany. John was in the Africa campaign going from Sicily to
Italy and then in France he was wounded. I don’t
remember where he was but I took a train to visit him. What
happened was when I got to the hospital that John was in, they wouldn’t
even let me in to see him. There was a guard there. I said
to him “ Look my brother is in the hospital, he is wounded and I’d like
to see him. I have to be back for duty.” So he let me
in. I found John, I sat next to him and we talked. Finally
I said “I have to get out of here.” John said “Why?
Where
you gonna find a hotel here? You can’t. There’s an
empty bed there. Sleep there.” I says “ You think its
alright?” he says “Yaaaah”. So I slept in the bed next to
his. When I woke up the next morning there was a nurse and
a doctor at the foot of the bed. I heard the nurse say “Where’s
his chart?” I got out of the bed and I said “I’m visiting my
brother, I’m not supposed to be here.” The doctor says “ You cant
do that! Go! Leave!” He kicked me out of the hospital, and I headed
back to my own base. |
Camp
Livingston
" Camp Livingston was open from 1940-1945 and was first known as Camp Tioga. It was renamed Camp Livingston in honor of Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase. It was home to the 28th, 32nd, 38th and 86th Infantry Divisions during the war. Camp Livingston was designated as an infantry replacement training center, as well as a garrison for these infantry divisions. The 38th Division was known as the "Avengers of Bataan" and the 86th Division was the first American unit to cross the Danube River into Germany. Over 500,000 troops trained on the 47,000-acre base during the war. The Camp also held German and Italian POWs after the war. On some old concrete walls in the site, beautiful artwork and graffiti has been discovered and is thought to have been drawn by Italian POWs. Camp Livingston was deactivated in late 1945 and is now part of the Kisatchie National Forest. " FROM:
CAMP LIVINGSTON Website
 Postcard of Selectees at Camp Livingston  Artillery Maneuvers at Camp Livingston  Selectees at Camp Livingston |
