Bills war, Dogface soldier

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Publish Post

I don't know what happened to the picture as tthey show in the editing condition.  But I am redoing this new at billswar2.blogspot.com try billswar2.  This one is incomplete

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For a new updated version of Bills war go to 

 billswar2.blogspot.com

More pictures, more details as he told it. 

First duties as a soldier

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Chapter 2. Bill's War: Down to Serious Business

After the usual business of signing up and the Army deciding where he was to go Bill went for artillery training at Camp Roberts. The exact same location that I went to 2 years later.

Shown here is the platoon he trained with at Roberts. Training with ancient equipment from WW1 or older. With the army expanding as fast as possible there were more than enough shortages to go around. At the end of training the army broke up the platoon and assigned the members to various army units where they were needed. His friend Bennie Benson went to Alaska and Bill didn't see him until after the war. Surviving boot camp Bill was sent to the 39th FA Battalion where he spent the war and made lifelong friends. While here at Ft. Lewis the family and girl friend Virginia came up from Oregon to visit. In those days there was no I5. Just US 99 with lots of twists and turns. A real drive. Later Virginia visited him but he had KP. Wouldn't you know it.

From the record instead of the European Theater of Operations (ETO) he came "this close" to spending the war in the Pacific jungles. Assisting the Marines no less. It was thought they might need some help. Things were all in a flux and daily events could cause plans to change. The Division had been sent to Ft. Ord the jumping off place for the Pacific.

Fortunately plans did change and the 3rd Infantry was sent to Camp Pickett VA for deployment to the North Africa invasion Operation Torch. Prior to this he did some amphibious training which amounted to jumping into small boats placed in the sand the jumping out the other side and running like it was on the beach. Who said war is all serious. Later though at Pickett they actually did some amphibious training.

One thing you couldn't accuse Bill of was lack of common sense. Some time during an early career they do some recruiting for other branches, like gliders, paratroopers, special forces and so on. If you look at film of gliders in WW2 you can tell Bill is no dummy. He turned the gliders down.

The 39th FA Battalion spent the war shooting 105 howitzers supporting the 3rd Infantry. For a time early in the war they were issued 37 MM anti-tank guns and was an anti-tank battalion. It was here at Pickett that Bill went to radio school to be a radio operator.

Next chapter Picket and the invasion of North Africa

More war experiences of mine here

Chapter 7: How this story came about.

Bill Sheldon used to tell stories about his experiences in WW2. After he became sick his wife had him write his experiences down. I was making a blog of my experiences in WW2 that pale into insignificance to his. Whenever my wife and I would visit them in George Washington we'd get to talking and he'd tell me about it. He was a proud patriotic American and proud of the exploits of the 3rd Infantry Division. One of the best in the US Army. Certainly the one that sffered the most casualties. But each man killed was a young vibrant man who never got a chance to live out his life because some politician didn't try hard enough to avoid this useless war. 280 people a day for 4 years killed. For what? Hitler couldn't cross the 20 mile English Channel. He certainly couldn't cross the Atlantic Ocean.
These stories lose something in the translation from him writing them down as compared to extemporaneously telling a story. It's so much better to hear them live.
But to get back to how this blog came into being. After Bill wrote his stories Virginia his wife, got out the History of the 3rd Inf. in WW2 and combined history with Bills stories and pictures and made them into a book in the form of a 3 ring binder. I am taking Bills story out of the binder and retelling it here in this blog. Sometimes adding to it from what I know of history of WW2 and Bill Sheldon. I'd like to point out the trauma he went through when early in the Sicily campaign his best friend Terry was killed. Compared to the infantry of course not a big a percentage were killed. But there were a considerable numbe killed. According to the 3rd Inf history about 47 in the 39th FA were killed, missing or captured. You might ask how could someone in the artillery be captured. Two were captured when operating as forward observers and got too far ahead and were captured by the Germans. I never got a chance to ask Bill what effect the death of his best friend Terry had on him but it must have been enormous.

Now go check my blog. That's an order!

The Assault on Germany

Remember, To see a full screen picture click on the thumbnail.














Landing ship. Click on the picture for a big picture and you can see a 105 mm Howitzer being transported to the beach.






A picture of a 105 MM Gun being transported to the beach












Spotter plane.

I have funny story about this plane. When we were in Darmstadt during the occupation the plane landed at a grass field and when he was to go back to where ever he came from I had driven him to the field. He asked me to retard the throttle after he spun the prop. Unfortunately I had forgotten if you pushed or pulled it. When the engine started I gave it the throttle instead of slowing it down;. I darn near took off. However he ran around and got the engine slowed down before it had moved.  He didn't say goodbye either.

Before moving inland the 39th had a few hours to enjoy the beach. I never got a chance to ask him about t his part of the invasion.
Later This; is after Southern France and Colmar winter campaign.

The Division was assembled in secret to prepare for the invasion. of Germany. Bill was sent up close to the line for radio relay. When the 3rd broke through the Siegfried line in 3 days, Bill was able to take a look at the line fortifications. Very impressive until there was a breakthrough. Just like the Maginot line. They guns pointed one way and with the enemy through the line the guns were useless. A lot of work by concentration camp and other prisoners went into this useless project. But Bill was impressed. The resistance was sporadic going into Germany Bill said he crossed the Rhine river on a pontoon bridge and they stopped for the night 5 miles past the river. Bill and his unit came under artillery fire that night and one duck (amphibious) was destroyed when it caught fire with a guy under the duck couldn't get out of his sleeping bag fast enough and almost burned to death. Later Bill did a dirty trick on his friend Aho. After the shelling he know there would be another one so he asked Aho to come on duty a little early. Sure enough an hour later there was another shelling. Bill was concerned enough to call Aho to find out if he was OK. He was.

Photo above. Camping out in the Colmar battle.


Another photo during the Colmar Battle.


Next morning on the way to Schweinfurt they stopped at a small village where they were to stay for a few days and kicked the owners out of their house because they needed it. They were in Germany now and niceties no longer applied. Pretty standard SOP for conquering armies. Although it was against regulations for a German Soldier to be billeted in a French house with unmarried girls living there. In Russia I don't know if it also applied although discipline was so strict there would not be independent rape and pillage. This was the privelege of the Nazi rulers.
The strange part was that the owner was an x American soldier from the 1st World War. He didn't take too kindly to this development so the Sgt gave him the standard 10 minutes to leave. Like the house I stayed in in Salzburg. This still didn't please the man who continued to protest. Finally Gunderson put the butt of his rifle against the mans chest which convinced him to leave right now. The next day the home owner came around to ask if he could have his radio. This was denied. I think it was in Stroyans account where he said the Army notified the men that niceties were out the window when it came to the treatment of the Germans. This policy continued on into the occupation I can verify from my own experience. Although it might not be the policy in Iraq I can see from accounts it is hard to get that out of a soldier even though the military is trying to win over the Iraqi's hearts and mind.

By Bills account it took all this time for the army to supply the artillerymen with carbines which I had had from training days. Strange.

Although the war was winding down it still was a dangerous place. Under some shelling when in a Germans house George Tierney was so excited it took him about 15 minutes to get his pants on. He vowed not to take them off untill the war was over.

Another story about George by Bill who was aware of his nervousness of course. The war coming to a close I suppose might have had something to do with it. Who wants to get killed in the last few days of the war. (or any time for that matter.) They had pulled into a place about midnight and instead of just climging into a sleeping bag George started digging a foxhole. By morning he was still digging but had dug only about a foot down.

The residents of the now resort town of Bad Kissengen didn't want their town destroyed so they decided to disobey Hitlers orders to resist to the last so met the Americans outside and surrendered the town. I don't know if Bill was a part of this or this it came from the book "The Third Infantry in WW2". I mainly want to make this Bills story of the war not too much from the book. There are thousands of books on the war. Two of the best "Hitler's War" and "Churchill's War" by David Irving.
The Germans were starting to surrender in droves. Smart move

Bills story of the war continued when they got to the Outskirts of Salzburg there was a time in this period he didn't say much. He didn't say much after the incidents with George and had hardly any pictures for me to show. . The men were able to get some of the grime off at a lake resort near Salzburg in a sauna after the war ended. An experience not available in Cottage Grove Oregon I'm pretty sure at that time.



The battalion was stationed in Hallein for a short time n some old Austrian barracks. The war was over now. Some duties consisted of guarding prisoners being taken by train to Munich. After about 3 weeks Bills battalion and the entire division was moved up near Kassel. I was with the 3rd by now in Divarty having joined when it was in Salzburg. Bill's 39 FA guarded some prisoners while there in Kassel. I have a picture somewhere of Kassel which was totally destroyed. A poor one. I was driving for the ex officer and may have been near Bill but didn't know it. I have some pictures when the Col. was visiting one of the Battalions althoug I didn't say which one.


Bill lucked out on the troop ship home. He was not assigned duties because he supposedly didn't have a bunk. Although a friend did find one for him unknown to the brass who assigns duties.

This pretty much concludes the wartime stories by Bill Sheldon that are in the book by his wife Virginia. He told many more of course but I do not remember those. Virginia remembers others but at this time I am not able to include them. Bill never told me many of the real bad experiences. You can read them in Bill Stroyhan's experiences . Stroyhan's will be entirely different because it is in the form of a diary, It will also be in PDF. I don't have any pictures from him but I can include some from Bills collection if applicable.

NEXT
After the war.
The Society of the 3rd Inf. Division