Its may 29, 2014. Im in florida. What is your name . My name is harold w. Berkman. Harold, when were you born and where were you born . I was born on february 22, 1926 in brooklyn, new york. I have been a resident of florida since 1975. Im 88 years old. In order to accurately trace my military odyssey, i have drawn from four sources. One, my memory. Two, my discharge papers. Three, letters that i sent to my parents when i was in europe. And fortunately, my mother had saved my letters. And four, regimental and battalion history of the 317th regiment and second battalion that had been declassified. A neighbor of mine who was an expert in terms of accessing the internet did the research for me. Lets back up for a minute, please, harold. Sure. You said you were born in brooklyn, new york . Yeah. Were you raised and did you grow up in brooklyn some. The first 11 years of my life i spent in brooklyn. Then my father retired and we moved up to a small town in Sullivan County called monticello. Thats where you went to school . Thats where i went to Junior High School and high school. Any brothers or sisters . One brother who is deceased. I came from a small town called monticello located at the foothills of the catskills. Monticello was approximately 90 miles from new york city. I was inducted in the army in 1944, shortly after graduating high school. I was 18 years old. Other inductees and i traveled by bus to ft. Dix, new jersey, where we were processed. When the processing was complete, we were put on a train and we were sent to a camp in south carolina, which is outside of spartanburg. Do you remember growing up during the depression . During the depression, my father was in the scrap metal business. He always made a good living for his family. My mother my wifes father also, she was brought up in the depression. She was born in 1929, actually. The family made a living. Both she and i are first generation americans. Her mother and father came from kiev, russia. My mother and father came from it varied as the borders shifted. One day it was russia. One day it was poland. Now on the map its belarus. Thats where they came from. And they came to this country, could not read or write english. Learned how to read and write english, both my wifes father went into business and became a entrepreneur. My father went into business and he also became a entrepreneur. So we love america. Okay . And america, the United States has been very, very good to me and very, very good to my wifes family as well. Do you remember on december 7, 1941, where you were and how did you find out about the attack on pearl harbor . No, no. Have no have no recollection. At that time, i was in high school. Probably, as you had indicated previously, probably heard about it over the radio. Thats about it. Directly was not affected because in my age category, no one, obviously, was being inducted. And no one was volunteering. We were all too young at that point. You know . Later on, of course, we knew what was going on. As people from our town were inducted. I came from a very small town. In the wintertime, there were 2,500 people. In the summer, it jumped to half a million. It was a resort area. So that everyone knew everyone elses business. So if somebody went into the army or somebody went into the navy, immediately everybody knew about it. You couldnt hide it. Now, conversely, if you didnt go, then everybody knew about that, too. So there was a stigma attached to that. Were you drafted or did you i was drafted. I was drafted. So i completed 16 weeks of basic training. I was assigned to company b 36th infantry training battalion. One sergeant was a phenomenal drill sergeant. A little guy probably no more than about 55. But he had a voice like a fog horn. The other sergeant had returned from the pacific. I was in excellent shape, by the way, when i was drafted. I only weighed 145 pounds. I had played varsity soccer, varsity baseball and i ran track. The training, as you are well aware, consisted of a lot of drill, how to throw a grenade, bayonet obstacle course, how to put on a gas mask, exposed to live ammunition with a machine gun and the rifle range, which is something everybody looked forward to. We were all issued an m1 eight clip rifle which weighed 9. 5 pounds. After completing the requisite target practice on the rifle range, the usual results was what we called an m1i and m1i came because you were taught to put this thumb under your eye when you were holding the rifle. The recoil, you wound up with a black eye. The clip that went into the rifle, if you didnt pull your thumb out quickly enough, you wound up with a thumb that was black and blue. Okay . Thats something you never forget, by the way. I completed the 16 weeks of basic training. Then went back to ft. Dix for embarking to europe. The allies suffered severe casualties during the battle of the bulge. Replacements were being rushed overseas as quickly as possible. So i had a oneweek furlough and then, boom, i was on the queen elizabeth. It took six or seven days to load the ship. The ship was loaded with 22,000 men. In order to get that many people on the ship, one night you spent in a cabin. The canvas bunks were stacked four high. One night, you had to go up on the promenade deck. I found a storage closet with duffel bags. Instead of going up on the deck, i spent the odd nights on top of my duffel bags in a closet. The food, by the way, on the ship was terrible. You had to line up. You got two meals a day. It took about three hours until you finally got a meal. Of course, it was an english ship. They were serving mutton. Mutton has an odor. Its something that one never forgets. I lived on chocolate bars and cocacola for during the voyage across the atlantic. As an aside, there was no convoy. Because the ship was so fast that submarines could never get the ship. So the ship went we did a transatlantic crossing without a convoy. We went from new york harbor, we went to glasgow, scotland. We spent one night in glasgow, scotland. Then the following morning, we were put on a train and we were sent to South Hampton where we were loaded that night onto another ship and we crossed the english channel, which, by the way, was extremely rough. Because it was january, and the seas were a lot of guys got seasick. We landed in france. They put us into an enormous tent city. There were probably about six guys in a tent. No heat. So we were scrounging to find wood to heat the stove in the tent. We stayed there for one day. Then they put us on what the french call 40 and ace. You are familiar with this from world war i. The box car held either 40 men or eight horses. We moved up toward the front. As we moved up toward the front, we went through what was called replacement depots. You are coming into contact with veterans who were wounded. They were going back to their original outfits. The advice you get from these guys is that if you are going go into the infantry thats where i was headed to go the best job was to be a mortar man. So because mortar men stayed behind and they were below a berm. The enemy couldnt see them. We got to my division. What division . I was assigned to company f 2 2nd battalion, 317th infantry regimen, 80th Infantry Division, 3rd army. That, of course, as you know is general patton. I joined my outfit in luxembourg. First lieutenant came out and he immediately said, do we have any good mortar men here . I quick as a bunny i raised my hand. He said, you are now a machine gunner. So at any rate not what you wanted . Not what i wanted. Im sure you know that machine gunners, after a while, have to be exposed. Once you are exposed, the average longevity is about 35 seconds. Okay . Mortar men seem to have a better longevity. Now, the bulge lasted from december 16, 1944 to january 25, 1945. Who were involved . A million men that were involved in this action. 600,000 americans, 55,000 british and a half a million germans, 500,000 germans. Casualties, the americans had 81,000 casualties. Of the 81,000, 19,000 were killed. The british, they had 1,400 casualties and out of the 1,400, 200 were killed. The germans, they had 101,000 who were killed, wounded or missing in action. As far as the equipment was concerned, each side, the germans and the americans, they each lost 1,000 tanks. The germans also lost 1,000 aircraft that had been shot down. Its the largest land battle that ever took place in terms of American History. Now, as you this was my first my first exposure, so to speak, to the guys that i was going to be with. Your first combat experience . This is combat . This is the b this is the battle of the bulge. I have my battle of the bulge, ryneland and central europe. At any rate, im sure you know, an Infantry Company consists of three rifle platoons and one weapons platoon. I was assigned to weapons. They were supply, eadministratin and mess. The weapons have two squads of machine gunners and two squads of mortar men. Originally, i was a first gunner, second gunner, first ammo bearer, second ammo bearer. I was the second ammo bearer. You cant get lower than that. The first action that you go into is something that you never forget. Now, the veterans who have been up there before, they dont want anything to do with you. They dont want to associate with you because they dont know how long you are going to last. So they dont want to become friendly with you. Im sure that you undoubtedly know as far as world war ii veter veterans, theres only 2 million of us. 800 to 1,000 of us die every day. Out of 16 Million People that served in the armed forces, approximately only a million ever actually saw combat, real combat. The infantryman, seven out of ten were killed. As im sitting here with you, im very fortunate to be here. Okay . I think the total dead in world war ii was Something Like 60 million. Pattons army relieved bastion. The army the 3rd army was led by the 4th Armor Division. Im friendly with a gentleman who was a Lieutenant Colonel and who retired as a general who was in the 4th armored division. Im privy to a lot of stuff that went on. In fact, he wrote three books. I read all three books. The 80th Infantry Division used to follow the 4th Armor Division. 4th Armor Division was a speerhead. 80th infantry and 26th used to follow them. They used to mop up. Eisenhower asked patton, how long is it going to take you to get up to bastion . Patton and the 3rd army were in southern france. Patton said, 48 hours. They looked at him and they said, you are crazy, man. You are never going to get up there. Remember, this is the wintertime. In mud, sleet, rain, ice, whatever, he gets up there in 48 hours. Now, he didnt tell them that he was going to go 24 hours and 24 hours, because they were moving at night, they were moving us at night as well. Its in the history books. This was a remarkable feat. Now, the 3rd army, the casualties for the 3rd army, 2,515 were killed out of 15 divisions. 14,977 were pouwounded. 5,559 were missing in action for a total of 23,051 people. Were you part of that march, that 48hour march . No. I came in afterwards. I came in afterwards. I was not part fortunately, i was not part of that march. Of course, i have heard a lot about it from general alvin ertzik who was a Lieutenant Colonel. He had a tank battalion. He was one of pattons favorite tank battalion commanders. You know . Fabulous guy. After bastion was relieved, we started a big push. We started to push back. Now, you never forget your first come d combat experience. Its like your first car, your first girlfriend, your first job. My first combat experience was a night crossing of a river. It was a dividing line, the border between luxembourg and germany. The river on one side in luxembourg is the sure river. On the german side, its called the sauer river. Trucks took us up to the dropoff point and before you get on the truck, you are handed two grenades. You get two. As soon as the trucks start to move, the experienced guys take the grenade and they bend the pins back and they throw them off the side of the truck. The minute you get off the truck at the dropoff point, the supply sergeant is there and he hands you two more grenades. Its like routine. They know you are going to throw the grenades away. They give you two more grenades. Picture that, im 145 pounds. I got a blanket, over my pack, im wearing a winter overcoat. Im carrying a carbine over one shoulder. They hand me two boxes of machine gun ammunition. Nobody told me that i was going to have to carry these two boxes of ammunition. Nobody told me, look for some cord, look for some straps, tie the two cans together, sling them over your shoulder like a dutch girl carrying two buckets of milk. Im carrying these cans of ammunition. I think my arms are going to get ripped out of my shoulders. As we get close to the waters edge, somebody slaps a paddle under my arm. Now we get into the pontoon boat. We start paddling across. As were paddling across, the germans are shooting up flares. They were shooting up flares while we were approaching the bank as well. In basic training, you are taught, if a flare goes up, stand absolutely still. However, the experienced guys are hitting the ground. So i learned very quickly, you follow their lead. You also learn with the artillery shells, the germans had the 88, which was a classic weapon. The 88 you learn that when you hear the whistle or a whoosh, you know you are all right. Its when you dont hear it you know that you got a problem. Of course, when the shells land, theres an odor that comes. Once again, thats another thing that you never forget, the odor. What did you think of the fighting ability of the german soldier . Beg your pardon . What did you think of the fighting ability of the german soldier and their training . Very well disciplined. Extremely well disciplined. In some instances, their equipment was better than our equipment. As an example, if you take a normal rifle platoon in the rifle platoon you have a squad and most of the guys in the squad have m1s. One has a browning automatic. Its not highly automatic. With the germans, its the reverse. Most of them have automatic weapons. They have a weapon thats called the burke gun. It was an automatic weapon. It did have, by the way, a particular sound that sounded like a burp. The other thing that the germans had that was much better than ours, but our weapon was the machine gun. Our machine gun, when the barrels get hot after you fire the gun with so many rounds of ammunition, you can actually see the bullets, because every fifth or sixth is a tracer. You can see the tracers coming out. They are wobbling. When you want to change the barrel, you have to take the gun apart. Theres a down time with that. The germans, their barrel, they had a clip, boom, boom, boom, unhinge the clip, the barrel drops out, screw another barrel in. Their weapon was much better than our weapon. As far as that was concerned. By the way, thats another thing you never forget. In the machine gun i was not trained as a machine gunner. I was trained as a rifleman. In the machine gun, when you take the gun apart, theres a bolt about two and a half inches long and about two inches high. The bolt can go in two ways. You learn, double beveled edge up and toward the front. If you dont put it in that way, the gun wont fire. Thats another thing. I mean, its indelible on my mind. The engineers were attempting to put a pontoon bridge across the river. When we got across the river, we found a barn. We got into the barn, took shelter. The 2nd platoon was already there. They had crossed earlier. Now, after getting settled in the barn, sergeant calls me over and he calls over the other ammo bearer. His name was donald broscius. He said, borrow a litter from the medic. He said, pfc perez hurt his ankle. So put him on the litter and carry him back to the rivers bank and they will take him back across. Why was he so nice about this . Pfc perez was 39 years old and he was due for rotation. So the sergeant figured, send him back. So he went back. Brosci broscius carried him back and walked back to the barn. The next morning, we get up, its light. We look outside and theres a big sign in german. It says we walked through a mine field three times. Fortunately, we didnt get hurt. When we that morning, the platoon sergeant grabs ahold of me. Im on the bottom of t. We start moving up the bank. As we are moving up the bank, we see dead american soldiers. Half submerged in the water and half on the land. Bloated, white and that was obviously the first time i saw dead americans. We get back to the barn and the First Lieutenant of the 2nd platoon was having an argument with my sergeant. His name the other thing you never forget. His name was isadore beckerman. He came from brooklyn. He wanted the machine gun section to come outside and give his men cover as they were going to go up this very steep slope and attack the germans who were dug in on the top of the slope on the crest of the slope. My sergeant refused to go. He had been wounded in france. So he was extremely cautious. Lets say, risk aversive. He didnt go, we didnt go. So at any rate, the 2nd platoon starts to go up. They get a third of the way up and the platoon sergeant steps on a mine. It must have been a big one. Blew off his legs. Shot up into the air. Came back down again and his head hit another mine and it severed his head. That was the first time i had ever seen anybody get killed. They got about a third of the way up and the germans unloaded. Pushed them back and back into the barn. They stayed there until that night. That night, the rest of company f made it across the river. And we started we moved into a night attack. The one thing that you learn when you go into a night attack is that you never fall out. I have seen guys urinate in their pants, defecate in their pants, dont fall out. You fall out, you get lost, you are never going to find your outfit. Another thing that is scary at night, as you well know, sound travels a lot at night. You can hear the tank tracks. And thats the scariest sound in the world when you hear tanks moving around. Well, we kept moving forward. Pattons philosophy is, the only way you can win a war is to attack. Then you attack again. Then you attack some more. Then you keep attacking. Thats what we did from the end of january into february, we were constantly engaged with the enemy. You move forward, you dig a hole, you engage with the enemy, you get up, you walk again, you dig another hole. This is what you constantly do. You are constantly moving forward. February 10th was a date that i remember. February 10th, we crossed at the junction of the rivers. We breached the zigfwried line. Its a series of pill boxes. 20 miles in depth with three belts stretching from the border of holland to switzerland. In front of the pill botches b dragon teeth. The germans call that [ speaking Foreign Language ] the concrete posts are in the ground. The concrete posts are embedded in the ground to impede the progress of tanks. The 80th Infantry Division had the distinction of penetrating this line at two locations. I will describe to you an engagement that took place that i still dont understand. They call ed the regimena re officers came up and we were attacking a pill box. The first thing, they laid in artillery on the pill box. Then the mortar men popped on top. Then we laid in machine gunfire. Then two platoons of riflemen got up and charged the pill box. Fortunately, they were knocked out in terms the germans in the pill box and nobody was lurt. This is something that you would see in a movie. This is something that you would see in a movie. I dont understand why they did that. Its unbelievable. Now, i have some dates over here. If you like, stop me and i will be august, september, october, november, december, im in south carolina. I then depart at the beginning of january and i arrive in europe in toward the middle of january, the 17th. January im in luxembourg. February 3rd, i cross the river. On march 3rd, an interesting thing happened. You know that a lot of the guys that were in the bulge did not have good equipment. Some of them even just had summer clothes. They never had winter clothes. They brought up a new kind of boot that we were supposed to get. The bottom of the boot was rubber and the top of the boot was leather. I didnt get one because they didnt have one to fit me. So i was wearing oldfashion combat boots with galoshes with the clips on the side. The problem with the new boots is they didnt breathe. Guys that were wearing these boots, moisture built up in the boot and a lot of them wound up with trench foot. I never had trench foot. I was lucky. On march 9th on march 6th, rather, they took us back to the rear echelon. To an enormous tent that was heat. Y the only thing you kept on was your shoes. You took a shower, shave and you got fresh clothes as you exited the tent. A shower with your shoes on . You took the shoes off. I had not shaved or showered in 55 days. Okay . We were all pretty tacky. You are outside. Its cold. You dont smell that badly. You know . On march 9th, another interesting anecdote. Were going into attack. Were below a berm. Between the berm and where we have to reach is approximately 50 yards to the outskirts of a forest. The First Sergeant is sitting below the berm and has his. 45 out. Two guys are getting up and running toward the outskirts of the forest. The implication being, you dont get up and run, im going to knock you off with my. 45. The motivation was great to get up and run. Im carrying the machine gun. At that time, i had moved up. I was promoted. I was moved to the first gunner. It only took three weeks. I was able to move up quickly because guys got hurt and guys were on rotation. Now, the machine gun is split into two parts. You have the gun and you have the tripod. First and second gunner switch off. Sometimes you carry the gun, sometimes the tripod. Unfortunately, it was my turn to carry the gun. As im running to the edge of the forest, theres a rifleman running next to me. Off to one side is a german tank. As guys are getting up to run, he is shooting at us with machine gun with his machine gun. The both of us hit the ground at the edge of the forest. The guy next to me says, i think im hit. He says, i feel something running down my leg. I take a look. A bullet went through his canteen. Water had leaked out and it had dripped it was running down his leg. So he thought it was blood. Were looking at each other. He says to me, where do you come from . I said, monticello. I said, where do you come from . Brooklyn. He said, when i was a kid i used up in monticello. He starts to tell me the places, the hotels where he used to work. This is how i first met paul. Even though he was in a rifle platoon, we became friends. I wrote to my mother and father. He wrote to his mother and father. His mother and father came to visit my mother and father. It was a wonderful friendship. Did paul make it through the war . He made it through. I will tell you i will give you an anecdote about him at the very end. So at any rate, he and i make it into the forest. I survive. On march 22nd, we start to move into towns. On march 25th, we get into one german house. Now were sleeping in beds. Theres feather mattresses, quilts. What happens . We all wind up with lice. So on the 26th, 27th, they line us up in the street, the whole company, split in half, half on one side of the street, half on the other side of the street and they spray us with ddt. This is the ridiculous thing, too. They give us a short arm. Can you imagine what the germans must have thought . Here is these americans, dropping their pants in the middle of the street. Some guy is walking along looking at them, inspecting them. I dont think we have anything to be afraid of. You know . At any rate, that i never forget, either. There was a nonfraternization policy. You gotta remember, here is a budge bunch of g. I. S. We have been the in field for two months. We are coming into town. Theres german women. Theres no german men. Thats another thing. The women used to say i will translate. Six years no men and six years no chocolate. The americans were very happy to provide both. Okay . At any rate, on march 28th, we cross the rhine river in daylight. We cross this is the first one to cross one of the first ones, the 80th. We cross the rhine river. The way that its described, they call it the confluence of the rhine river and the main river. It was a daylight crossing. We were in large boats that are similar to the oldfashion life boats with a motor on the boat. Of course, the germans were shooting shells. Artillery at us. At any rate, we make it across the river. At this point, were also moving very rapidly. We are moving very rapidly. Were approaching the city of a kassel. As we approach kassel, were moving in two columns. Suddenly, a german fighter plane swoops in on top of us. But this was a very unusual fighter plane. It didnt have any propellers. Didnt have any propeller. This was the first german jet that we see. They were way ahead of us, you know. This was a german jet. Fortunately for us, the pilot must have been out of ammunition, because he didnt fire. He didnt fire. Then, you know, somebody will say, you know, we saw john wayne movies. John wayne shot down a plane. I can tell you, john wayne couldnt pick up a machine gun and shoot down a plane. I was a machine gunner. I can tell you, you pick up a machine gun, you start to fire it, that gun is all over the place. You are lucky you dont kill yourself. Okay . So at any rate, once again were moving. Were moving and now on the 12th and 13th of april, we hit were approaching. Outside of the town, we hit a concentration camp, buchenwald. Had is the fir this is the first time americans had seen a concentration camp. We were one of the first g. I. S i was one of the first g. I. S in buchenwald. When i walked into buchenwald and my company walked into buchenwald, the ovens were still warm. The inmates were 70 pounds, 75 pounds, under nourished. I saw bones where the furnaces were stacked high. Thats another thing you never forget. Patton saw this and patton notifiy eied eisenhower immedia. They had never seen a concentration camp before. Patton and iceisenhower walked through. 2 million nonjewish poles were killed. There were 4 million soviet prisoners who were killed in the concentration camps. There were gypsies, handicapped people, homosexuals, political prisoners. Patton ordered the bergerme berr to march through. He said he didnt know what was going on at buchenwald. Remember, there was black smoke belching from the chimneys 24 hours a day. The stink was terrible. He claims he didnt know what was going on. The following day after he went through buchenwald, he and his wife committed suicide. On april 14th, we got word that president roosevelt had passed away. The germans that we spoke to did not understand our system of government. They were wondering whats going to happen to the United States now. Theres no president roosevelt. So we explained thats all taken care of with the constitution. April, were moving very rapidly. Isenberg, then between the 23rd and 28th, we come into nuremberg. The allies flew bombers over and destroyed the city. The amazing thing is, the following day the germans came out of the underground shelters and many of them did survive. In nuremberg, i saw the sports plots where hilltler did speech, the monuments and everything. On may 8th, the war ends and were in the austrian alps. Were in the mountains. How did you find out that hitler had killed himself . Didnt. You did not know that . Did not know that. Did not know that. We wind up where the 6th german army surrendered to the 80th division. Here is an interesting anecdote that took place. The german general whose name was general balck requested a meeting with general mcbride of the 80th Infantry Division. The reason he wanted the meeting, he wanted to be assured that his men who were on one side of the river would be able to get across to the american zone. As you well know, churchill, stalin and roosevelt divided europe up, which was probably a big mistake. The russian zone ended at the river. Mcbride told the german general, as long as you can get your men over here by midnight, may 9th, they are safe. Anybody after that, you cannot cross the river anymore. The german general was only concerned about his men, because he also had two divisions he had a Ukrainian Division and he had a division of ss hungarians. He didnt much care about them one way or the other. What happened at that point, from may 14 to may 17, we pulled guard duty with the russians. We were on one side of the river and they were on the other side. The russians, their uniforms are different than our uniforms, of course. They had on their left arm, they had wound stripes in red. We had overseas bars, gold bars. I had three. I was overseas for 18 1 2 months. Each red bar signified a wound. I never saw a russian who didnt have four or five wound stripes on his arm. They hated the germans, detested them. They were told that this is the hour of revenge. They were told that they kept a revenge score. Every russian regiment kept a revenge score. They looted, they rapes thousands of german women. Keep in mind, that the russias s lost 2 Million People in stalingrad alone. They had hate. Anything that wasnt nailed down they shipped back to russia. Including the railroad. It didnt fit the cars, but they sent it back. The russians loved wristwatches. They loved wristwatches. They tell the story of an american g. I. Who took two leather straps, glues it on an alarm clock and sold it to a russian for 200. Particularly, they loved mickey mouse watch. You could get 200, 300 for a mickey mouse watch from a russian. On may 20th, we start to be concerned about whats happening in the pacific. Were still in austria. On may 24th, we move. Then they put us back into training. Of course, were all nervous, because we figure were going to go to the pacific. Now, of course, this is another stupid thing. You have experienced combat veterans and were doing close order drill. That wasnt received very well, by the way. On june 2nd of 45, we get our original barracks back that we had brought over from the states. We get clean clothes. Then on the 11th of june, we leave for munich, germany. The capital of bavaria. We go into the army of occupation mode. On the 16th, were not in munich. General patton comes up to visit us. He is in this big german touring car, open touring german car, sitting in the back of the car, waving to everybody. Shiny helmet. The whole nine yards. You know . Then on the 29th of june, we are reposition repositioned in bavaria. This is adjacent to hitlers private hunting preserve. We are in a yaegers house. A yaeger is a professional hunter. He says to me his name is berkmann. He says, maybe were relatives. I said, i dont think so. I said, my relatives came from russia. I dont think were relatives. You know . September 7th, i get a furlough to paris. I didnt really want to go. But i went anyhow. I dont know if we pick this up before, but on september 7th, i get a furlough to paris. Thats where we left off. When the germans surrendered to us, they were instructed to put all their arms on the ground. However, officers were permitted to keep their sidearms. The two pistols that i will show you later, i took away from two g german officers. I dont know if you know this, roosevelt had received a gift of a p38, which was put into his museum. I took the lugar and p38 away from two german officers who resisted slightly. I took it away from them. We then i was then put on special duty with paul. We went where they make rosenthal china. You go to the highest mountain in bavaria. They had the Winter Olympics there. I had never seen the symbol for the olympics. I didnt know what the hell it was. I thought it was some nazi symbol. We were doing we were we were doing mp duty there, which was very good. On the 18th, we returned to our company. We moved to czechoslovakia. The division moves to czechoslovakia where they make the beer, the famous beer, pilsner. My Company Moves to a train station. Thats where the dividing line was between the russian zone and the american zone. As the trains came into the train station, three of us would get three americans would get on the train and we would check the papers. People were very frightened, because they were lucky to make it into the american zone. Obviously, they didnt want to go back. They didnt want to go back to the russian zone. Everybody feared going back to the russian zone. So it was a pretty good gig for a while. I have some pictures that i will show you. In december 45, the 80th Infantry Division was deactivated. They were shipped back to the United States. I didnt have enough points, because my sergeant didnt put me in for a bronze star that i was entitled to. Interestingly enough, i did get that bronze star later on. The only problem is, i didnt know his address. I didnt know where to find him. Because i would have written him a letter. I had a few choice words i would have liked to have told him. You know . At any rate, we were transferred temporarily to battery d, 398 aaa, automatic weapons battalion in nuremberg. After walking all through europe, im transferred to a half track outfit. Now im riding. Im not walking anymore. We stay i get promoted to a t5. I get additional 14 a month. I write to my parents, i got a raise. At any rate, in february, were transferred again. Were transferred to the 571st aaa. Luckily, im transferred to a headquarters battery. They are in germany. Very quickly, i get promoted to sergeant, Staff Sergeant and then acting First Sergeant. Serg. This is really a great gig because at the headquarters battery you dont have anything to do with your men basically. You see them in the morning and at night. Thats it. The rest of the time the men are involved in intelligence, supply, motor pool, et cetera. I have the life of riley. Im thinking very seriously about staying in the army. You know, they had a Second Lieutenant who had never seen combat. He was deathly afraid of me. So we got along wond ferfullwon. During the day i would go to the mess hall and drink coffee with the mess sergeant. It was really it was really a considering everything i had gone through, it was like a vacation, a wonderful vacation. And then i kept taking myself off the list to go home. I was supposed to go home. But i took myself off the roster because i controlled the roster. I was the First Sergeant, acting First Sergeant. One day in july i get a call from the colonel. He says to me, buchman, theres beer cans in the back of the barracks. Go pick them up. That day i made up my mind, no matter how good i had it in the army, there was somebody better than bergman. I put myself on the list to go home. A week later i left and went home. I get to the germany and its like a tent city. I dont know what happened. I guess fate, i run across my friend paul rothfelt again. I said, paul, you should have gone home before me. I said what happened . He said he had a little difficulty with an officer. He pushed him or struck him or whatever. They put him go the guard house. For three months he was carrying 50pound bags of cement. He was delayed going home. I went home on a liberty ship. Interestingly enough, my father left from germany to come to the United States when he left russia. Now, we pulled in we pulled into the new york harbor at 3 00 or 4 00 in the morning, a. M. The statue of liberty was lit up. I could see the lights. I could see the lights in new york city. I said to myself, wow, i made it. I made it. I went back to fort dix again to go through the discharge. I went home to my brothers house because my folks lived in montecello. The first breakfast i had a dozen eggs, i had a quart of milk, a half loaf of white bread with butter. I got to tell you, it was the best breakfast i ever had in all my life. You know, eggs in europe during combat were worth their weight in gold. You very rarely had eggs. The army eggs were terrible. I didnt get hot food most of the time anyhow. I usually had k ranges of motion. I learned how to eat cheese because in my house we always had white cheese. We had cream cheese. We had pot cheese. We had cottage cheese. We never had american cheese or anything like that. So you had three meals with k ranges of motion. You had the breakfast and the little can had some kind of stuff that was like scrambled eggs, which was terrible. The lunch k ration had a dbar which was chocolate, solid chocolate which was about that long, yay high. It had a can of american cheese. Then the super, the evening meal, had spam, which was terrible. Okay . Got to the point i couldnt eat the spam. I couldnt eat the breakfast. The only thing i could eat was the cheese. I used to everybody nobody wanted the cheese. I used to swap. It turned out, a lot of the guys got diarrhea. I never got diarrhea because i was eating cheese. So it was binding. So i never got sick the whole time i was over there. Do you still like cheese . Yeah, i do. My favorite cheese is still my favorite cheese is pimento cheese. I learned how to eat that when i went to school. Anyhow, i came out of the army in july of 46. It was a little late to get into school and college in new york. So i wound up going to college at the university of georgia in athens, georgia. My brother went there. They managed to get me in there. So i learned how to sing dixie. I learned how to smoke a cigarette and drink a cocacola for breakfast. It was a unique experience. Being in athens, georgia was more of a Culture Shock than being in germany. I got out of there rapidly. I finished a fouryear program in two and three quarter years. Ive been away from home for two years. My Service Overseas here are some of my here are some of my stats. I came out of the army i was a machine gunnery at 604. Then i was inducted on the 24th of august, 44. I was separated on 1st of august, 46. I left for europe on the 8th of january, 45. I arrived on the 17th of january, 45. Went back to the states on the 17th of july, 46. Arrived on the 26th of july. My u. S. Service was four months and 19 days. My Foreign Service was one year, six months and 19 days. I was in harms way for over 120 days and i was in the army of occupation for slightly over 14 months. My decorations included the combat infantry badge and i value that more than any of my other decorations. The bronze star, the bronze star for bravery in combat against an armed enemy. The european african medal with three little bronze stars, service stars, one for aarden, which was the bulge. The victory medal, the army of occupation medal with a germany clasp, good conduct medal, the president ial Unit Citation and the honor awarded by the republic of france. I was knighted by the republic of france. My veterans organization, im involved with the battle of the bulge on the board of directors and the Vice Commander of the combat infantry association, first regimen florida. My wife and i are particularly interested in veterans affairs. Just recently the university of georgia established a Resource Center for veterans and we endowed we endowed a fund for scholarships that will be given each year, a 1,000 scholarship will be given each year to a veteran. Ive ranked them as to how its to be given. Number one on the list is a combat infantry man. Number two, anybody thats lost a list. Number three, anyone thats been wounded. If they meet that criteria, theyre eligible for the scholarship. At any rate thats my story, other than i can show you my pistols and my photos. My wife and i thank you for coming. Youre coming from new orleans . I came from new orleans. I have you and another gentleman this afternoon. All right. Well, we thank you for your visit and the greatest thing about this is the fact that ill have something to give to my daughter and i have something to give to my grandson who is very interested in my experiences. My children were not interested, but he takes particular interest in my experiences. So ill definitely have something to give him. Over the next few hours on American History tv, a look at the beginnings of aviation and aerial combat. We begin with a look at Fighter Pilot culture. Then the fighter of the Navy Fighter Weapons school. After that a discussion with Fighter Pilots from world war ii. Then a look at the beginnings of civil aviation. Announcer television has changed since cspan began 41 years ago. Our Mission Continues to provide an unfiltered view of government. Weve brought you primary election coverage, the president impeachment process and now the federal response to the coronavirus. You can watch cspan on television, online or listen on our free radio app. Be part of the National Conversation through our social media feeds. Cspan, created by private industry. Americas Cable Television companies. As a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider