Eric Walz History 300 Collection Darrell C. Neville Life during WWII By Darrell C. Neville October 21, 2002 Box 1 Folder 16 Oral Interview conducted by Nathan K. Hall Transcript copied by Maren Miyasaki June 2005 Brigham Young University Idaho
NH: It s Monday October 21, 2002, and we are sitting here with the Nevilles. Darrell, can you give us your full name for the record? DN: Darrell Neville, Darrell C. Neville. Theda Neville: Theda T. Neville. NH: When were you born? DN: 9 January 1924. TN: 8 January 1925. NH: Really? It s pretty close there. Good deal. Can you try to give me some background as far as where you were born and where you grew up? DN: I was born in Rigby, Idaho in one of those sugar factory labor houses. I spent a good share of my earlier life on the dry farms southeast of Rexburg. I grew up, up there. I went to school for one year up there, two years in Lyman. The rest of the time I went to school in Rexburg. I graduated from high school, was married shortly out of high school, from a short honeymoon, and Uncle Sam had things for me. NH: That s what he s there for. DN: So I went into the service, and spent nearly three years in the service. NH: When were you guys married? DN: June 2, 1943. NH: 1943. So, how long was your military service then? DN: Just under three years. NH: Under three years, okay. And where were you mainly stationed at during most of the war? DN: That s difficult to answer. I took my basic training in Fort Barkley, Texas. I was shipped over as a replacement to England. In England I was assigned to the 99 th special Norwegian Battalion. We landed on Normandy Beach with them. And so, I can t say we was stationed in any one place. It was wherever we happened to be. We could be stationed any place. I was one of those kind that liked to move around. NH: It gets boring in one spot right?
DN: Yep. It might be of interest just so you know what the deal is, I was a medic. So I wasn t assigned or didn t have to pack a gun. The outfit I was with was all Norwegian at the time I got with them or was of Norwegian ancestry. I was either the first or second man that was assigned to them. We spent the rest of our time until that was probably up until January sometime of 1944. The rest we spent training time in England until we landed on Normandy Beach on the 6 th, 6 th, and 6 th. NH: Now you said that you were a medic. What kind of training did the military give you as far as being a medic, and did you have any background prior to the war of any medical history? DN: Nope. All I got was medical training in Camp Barkley, Texas as a medical technician. NH: So what do the medical technicians do? What was their main job? Were they just like a doctor? DN: No. Just first-aid is all it was. I could work in an aid station in my situation I was assigned out to the injuries so I was an aid man with the first platoon of C Company. There was another medic in the B Company there was supposed to be three of us in the company, but there was only two with our company. NH: So your job then would be just basically get them fixed up enough to where they could get them to a doctor or they could possibly make it? DN: Treat them [with] first-aid, give them a shot, bandage them up, [and] leave them for a medical half-track or whatever ambulance to pick them up. NH: How many people a day do you think you would help out? DN: I couldn t answer that. Lots of time I wouldn t even get them worked on until the half-track would pick them up. So I d never know, a half-track would pick them up before I even got much done with them. NH: It would kind of vary huh? Okay. You said that you were with a Norwegian group. Why as opposed to a US company, a US division, would you be set up with a Norwegian? DN: Well, it just so happened I was a replacement unit when I was sent or shipped over to England for basic training and those people-- all of us that were there was assigned to different units. It just so happened that I was assigned to this Norwegian Special Battalion. I don t know why. Ask the guy that made the assignments. NH: You ll have to give him my name after this.
DN: I haven t any idea how come I was all I was done was wakened one night at 2 o clock and told to be out in front of company headquarters in 20 minutes. I was shipping out. And I was down there and one more man showed up. The sergeant come out and handed me all of our military papers and sent us took us down to the train, put us on the train, and give me all the papers, and told me I was to change the trains at such and such a station at about 2 o clock that afternoon. I was supposed to get off the train at a small station in England called Talibon. Which I did with this other man, and all it was, was a small 12 by 12 station out in the country, I waited for somebody to pick us up in about an hour, and nobody did so I asked the station master if there was someone, an American unit anywhere around there, and he first told me No, then he says, Well there s one about thirty miles away. And I said, Can you call them, and he said, Yes. So he called them and whoever he was talking to on the other end didn t want to come pick us up because they were not expecting any people any replacements. And so I read to him my instructions, and who I was supposed to be going to and finally he said, Well, I ll send somebody to pick you up. A couple hours later when it was just getting dark he come and picked us up. And took us to camp, which was a 99 th Special Battalion. NH: Before we go on further let me ask you you kind of answered this in the beginning of the conversation, but you obviously were drafted instead of enlisting yourself. DN: Yep. NH: First of all was this call to serve your country and you can be totally honest but just were you excited? Were you nervous? What were your feelings when you were being drafted because obviously if you didn t enlist you weren t jumping up? You had a new bride. How d you feel? DN: I wasn t excited about going. I wanted to stay home. NH: Yeah. I don t blame ya, especially having a new wife. Let me just really quick turn to Theda here real quick. Theda, what were your feelings when your newly acquired husband got drafted? TN: Well, it wasn t I wasn t expecting it really that soon. We knew that that possibility was very apt to happen. But it came so soon that it just wasn t expected. I wouldn t have had him not go (inaudible). NH: Well, you re a good lady to do that because I am sure that it was hard to see him go. But you said that you feel like it was going to happen eventually? TN: Yes. NH: Did you have that same feeling Darrell?
DN: Oh yeah. I knew I was going to be drafted, but at the time I was doing farm work, and I thought that would defer me for that summer. But the draft board didn t see it the way I seen it. NH: And they never like to make it convenient for ya that s for sure. Did you ever have feeling because there were those that did enlist saying, Well, it s going to be my time sooner or later I might as well do it? Did you ever say, Should I enlist so I can have a chance to go with some buddies or get into an area where I want to get into? Or did you just always want to stay as far away from it as possible? DN: Well, I thought like I said I thought I was deferred for that summer. And then I was going to decide what to do after that so they didn t give me any chance to NH: Think on it. DN: Make any other decisions. They made it for me real quick. NH: And you were sent right to England [Actually, it was Ft. Barkley, TX]. Now this Norwegian group that you were with, were you with them through the duration of the war? DN: Yep. I don t know how much you want in between, but it so happened that I sent some flowers home to my wife on our anniversary, which was on the 2 nd of June, and by the 6 th of June which was what four days later I was on Normandy Beach. So and I had no idea I d be on Normandy Beach at that time either. We landed on Normandy Beach. We went through France got into Belgium, then into Holland. We were on the big in Cherbourg on their harbor. We was in that engagement and several others, and from France and Belgium I guess we got into Germany. We s in the Battle of the Bulge. That was an interesting experience. We were in a rest area for two or three nights in a row. They kept they d bring trucks around and tell us to load up on the trucks. We was going out on they called it maneuvers and after three nights of that they told us to take our full battle gear, and they had us kind of crowded in those trucks and they d drive us around for two or three hours, and they d bring us back to the barracks, and one night we didn t come back. Wound up in the little town of Moumandy and found out that we couldn t get out. We was totally surrounded. So we spend thirty-two days there in Moumandy while the Germans was making the big push on the Battle of the Bulge. So I always said that was the longest time I went without a bath was thirty-two days. NH: That s a good long period. DN: And without a shave so NH: I bet your wife at that moment would have loved to give you a hug and a kiss right. DN: Yep, I m sure.
NH: Was that typical now obviously you said thirty-two days was the longest you went without a bath, but throughout your whole experience in the war was it typical to go a few days without getting the bath? Without getting sleep? DN: Yep. Wherever, [or] whatever it is. Because we was a unit I didn t tell ya when I was assigned to the unit when I got to the barracks with them that night about three before that they had all new equipment assigned to them. They had been This 99 th Battalion had trained in Camp Hale, Colorado. They were trained as ski troopers. Everything they had was white their guns, their skis, their uniforms everything they had was white. About three days before I got with them, all that equipment was taken away from them, and they was issued straight Army issued equipment. Their mission originally was to invade Norway at the same time when the Invasion took place in France on Normandy Beach. But they found out that it was not wise to land there then German forces were strong there, and they cancelled those orders, and we was assigned to land on Normandy Beach. It was a special unit that could be moved in a hurry and lots of times they d just pick us up and throw us into a combat situation to either hold a town or fill a hole in the line someplace wherever they felt that there was a problem. And that was mostly what they used us for to throw us into a situation where they were having a difficult time of making any progress or something like that. We d usually maybe only be there sometimes a week or ten days or two weeks, and then they d pull us back and maybe into a rest area for two or three days, and out we d go again. We never knew where we was going. NH: You said the longest you hadn t bathed was thirty-two days. What was the longest amount of time you went without sleep? You were probably so delirious by that time that you couldn t tell time. DN: Oh, I don t know. You learned to sleep whenever you got a chance to. I had it a little better than what the ordinary guys did because they had to pull guard duty, and I didn t have to pull guard duty so whenever we d cut off our action for the day, why I usually find a place where I could get some rest or something like that and I didn t have to report to anyone. NH: Now, you say you didn t have to pull guard duty. Is that because of your position because you were a medic an aid? DN: Yep. I couldn t pull guard duty because I wasn t supposed to handle a gun. I wasn t supposed to have a gun, but I did have one. NH: Interesting. DN: But that was for me to know. NH: And that s the only weapon that you carried throughout the whole war was a pistol. DN: Yep.
NH: You re a brave man. DN: I wasn t even supposed to have that. NH: You go into action like you did and have a pistol, that s quite a bold move I think. DN: I had to rely on the other guys to protect me. And they did. There were situations we got into where I lost a good friend that was a medic from Rexburg here. NH: He got hit, huh? DN: Yeah, it was there at the Battle of the Bulge. He was trying to get a man off of the field and didn t get the job done. NH: I m sure that was quite a regular occurrence too unfortunately. DN: It happens all the time. We had our white arm-bands on, but lots of times you didn t see that when you were a long distance away. NH: You see in the war movies the medics sitting there working on the guys, and then you see the combat guys working around them shooting and making sure they re safe as you just mentioned, and you see that sometimes they use bodies to kind of deflect the bullets whatever you want to call it. And you re right out there in the middle of the Battle, out in the open. Was that a common occurrence? Were you out in the thick of it just working on somebody, and you had those guys around ya guarding you or how would it usually work? DN: Like I said, I didn t get a chance to work on a lot of people because whenever we d go into combat we was usually always assigned to a tank outfit. The 1 st Armored Division was the one we worked with the most. They d assign a Company or tanks to go with us, and of course they d always have their medical half tracks, and they were right behind the tanks. We if somebody got hit, we d start working on them and a half track would pull up aside and say. We ll take him on ahead. So then I d take off and keep up with my unit. NH: Could you describe for us what a half track is? DN: A half track is a vehicle that instead of having wheels it s got a half track on the back just like a tank, and wheels on the front. NH: So where would they load the injured person on? DN: it was covered in the back and had armored sided and armored top, and it was covered just like an ambulance, only it was covered with steel, and they d just pull up to
the side of anybody that was injured, a couple guys would jump out, and throw him in the back door, and they re gone. NH: Just like that? DN: They don t even get inside. The armored people they don t go and work on them outside. They grab em and put them inside the half-track and work on them inside the tank. NH: Now you said that there d be two men usually to do that. Would they have EMT experience like any EMT would with an ambulance you know here in Rexburg? DN: They got the same training I got. Maybe they would have a better more experienced technician that could do a little more than what I would do, but that s about all that they would do is give them first-aid right in the back of the half-track and then they would make a round, and when it was loaded-what-i think they could carry I can t remember now whether they could carry four or six. I can t remember now. They would take them and they d swing around and take them back to their station. NH: Did you have a I don t know if list is the right word but some kind of list or program as far as those who would make it, who were wounded and those who would be saved? Would you just kind of go through and say this one can make it, this one cannot, this one s good? DN: That was not my responsibility. The ones I would complete there were very few that I would really complete when I d work on them. I d just bandage the, and give them a, just with a tube with a needle on it that had penicillin and anyway it was penicillin, and we d give them the shot then we d take that needle and put it in their shirt, then the needle only so that when they d pick him up they d know that he d had a shot. Then they d take em back and forth, but I never made any decisions as to what to put that took place back at the hospital. NH: Were you ever able to write Theda and let her know what was going on and what you were doing or because of the type of situation you were in whether it was this group that would be sent in and sent out quickly-- Would they now allow you to let her know? DN: Ask her what my letters were like. TN: They would come with cutouts in them. If they thought it was any kind of clue or anything like that. I did get one letter, and he was trying to give me a clue, but I wasn t smart enough to figure it out, but when I heard the news, boy out on the street yelling, Paper, paper, read all about it. They had landed on Normandy Beach, and I knew he was there. I just knew it. NH: You just knew it. How did you know it?
TN: Just I just got that feeling strongly that that s where he was, and that s what he was trying to tell me. NH: And about the time of D-Day you were serving about a year were you not (Darrell nodded)? About a year out that you were out serving. And so you didn t have any children here, correct (Theda shook her head no)? Where were you staying at? TN: Oh, I stayed in, I think an apartment. NH: On your own, huh? TN: I had another lady living with me. I had women that I lived with. NH: So what did you do during that time he was gone? TN: Just worked. NH: Where at? TN: In Rexburg and Idaho Falls and Salt Lake. NH: Wherever there was work. There was plenty of work I know that. TN: Yes there was. NH: That s good. What were your feelings as he was out there serving? How did you feel? Were you proud of him? Were there many nights you were scared and I don t want to get too personal, but how d you feel? TN: Well, there was always concern. There was always something in the news. I kept wondering where he was at all of the time. But I never I always knew he d come home. NH: Do you feel like that was the Spirit prompting you or was that the hope of a young wife? TN: Well, I think it was the Spirit prompting me. NH: That s neat. DN: Do they want to get that spiritual? TN: Do you? DN: Yeah, yeah. Because I think that s important. I think part of what helps us get through things like this, and I haven t been through things like this, but I m talking tragedies is our faith and is God.
TN: Well, I had a family friend who was a patriarch who lived in town. He had had a patriarchal blessing, but I wanted him to get a special blessing. [Inaudible, but Theda tells the story that the patriarch told them Darrell would have many close calls, but that he would have a long life] So that s hard to figure out in your own mind because he s going to war. DN: So, how d that come true? NH: You were a medic. DN: I d have many close calls, and I got a field jacket right there hanging on a hanger my wife wears once in a while. I was on the back of a tank some guys here with me they sat next to me here [and] I had my heals hooked in the cable on the tank, my arm resting here. I had two field jackets on and an old T-shirt. It went through both field jackets (pointing to his sleeve). The bullet went through here. It went through both field jackets and come out my elbow and went into my buddy s leg. At the same time it went into his leg another bullet went through his arm and blew his watch off. So I ve got proof of how close I That had one of the close calls that he [patriarch] said I would have. Another close call I had we were preparing to attack the next morning so we were moving at night up along the fence line, and the lieutenant was leading the platoon. The sergeant was at the back of the platoon. All of the platoon had gone through an opening in the hedge, and were laying next to the fence line. And the sergeant and I were standing just next to the we re about ready to go through the gate, standing there talking. It was moonlight. It was quite light that we could see. There was mortars going off in different places. All at once we you can hear a mortar when they re coming close to you. All at once we heard a (makes the sound of a mortar) and we looked in the hedge right there, and we could see the German swastika on the back of an, on the fins of the mortar, and there it was there was ticking in the hedge. It was about a foot and a half long. The sergeant looked at me and said, Let s get the hell out of here! And we took off of the fence line and told the rest of the guys to move out. And so that was another if that would have exploded we would have both been gone because we wasn t anymore then five feet away from it. Another time a concussion a mortar went off not too far away from us and blew my helmet off. NH: My gosh! DN: Threw me about ten or fifteen feet away. It didn t hurt me. All it was was a concussion. So I did have a few close calls that I know of. NH: You could say that s a few, a few very close calls. You said that that you got this special blessing or you had alluded to that and obviously you did. Did these ever confirm your testimony, your faith when you had these experiences? Can you recall at all? DN: Well, no I when you get out there you re not thinking too much about these special blessings that you have I guess. I didn t think too much about them until the thing was
just about over. I started thinking back on how things on what had happened and so on, but at the time they were happening I wasn t thinking about a special blessing in what was going on. I was thinking about how I was going to survive. NH: (To Theda) When your husband came home did it or even during the information that you got out of his letters that you could read or any experiences you might have had did it confirm your faith? Did it strengthen your faith? TN: Sure, you bet. NH: It just seems like those kind of experiences would. I had a bishop on my mission that actually served. He wasn t a member of the church when he went out, but he had a couple of close experiences, and he said that he knew, even though he didn t have a knowledge of the Gospel, he knew just from these experiences that there was some reason why he was here and that there was some higher power. And of course with you guys having the LDS background obviously had more to go on, but I appreciate you sharing that spiritual aspect with me. TN: There s one thing I d like to say. He was an only child and his mother was promised a large posterity. And they waited 11 years for him and there were no more children, and she could never understand that posterity is through him now six grandchildren. She would have had six grandchildren and thirty now great-grandchildren and twenty-five great-great grandchildren, and he is the only child. NH: Wow. (To Darrell) That s probably something you weren t thinking about out there either. DN: (Laughs) No. That was the farthest thing away from my mind. NH: Now D-Day happened June 6, 1944 in obviously off the coast of Normandy, France. The Battle of the Bulge happened in Belgium close to the Rhine River end of December 1944 and into January 1945. Now there are those historians and others that debate which one [battle] took the cake as far as helping to turn the tide of the war and winning the war as far as the European Theatre was concerned. I don t know if you know how many men I can t recollect how many men were killed D-Day. 75,000 Americans were killed or at least allied troops were killed in the Battle of the Bulge. In your opinion because I m one of those historians that argue which one turned the course. Which battle had the most prominent affect to turn that tide? DN: Well, because I was surrounded and in that little town of Moumandy The Germans just bypassed us, and so we weren t actually fighting all that time, that thirty-three days. We were just surrounded. We couldn t go any place. So the actual fighting was being done on the Front Line as the Germans was pushing. They just by-passed us, and we couldn t get out, we couldn t go anyplace. So, of course landing on Normandy Beach was a lot more action and things taking place there than during the Battle of the Bulge because I wasn t I was in the Battle of the Bulge, but I wasn t fighting because I we
had to protect ourselves and stop the Germans from coming in on us, and we would make raids on the towns to get prisoners, but as far as fighting everyday and all this we weren t that thirty-three days, we were just surrounded and no place to go. They the Germans didn t particularly care what we did because we were surrounded so they just let us sit there. NH: Now being with the Norwegian group obviously Utah and Omaha Beach is where the Americans landed. And then you had Gold and you had what were the other two? DN: What were they? NH: Sword Beach, wasn t there Sword? DN: There was some smaller ones where they landed. NH: The British and the Canadians which beach did you land on? DN: Normandy. NH: Which specifically? DN: I landed on Normandy Beach. There was Utah Beach, Omaha Beach and one or two other. Normandy, Utah, what else did you say there was? NH: Gold. DN: I m not aware of that one. Could have been that one. NH: There were five beaches and I can t remember the names of two of them [Juno and Sword]. DN: Normandy and Omaha and Utah were the ones that the Americans had. The British had some where they landed. I think that some of the Canadians and the Australians landed as well. I wasn t aware there were more beaches. NH: The most common term used when describing war is, War is hell. That s probably the best adjective that could be used to describe it. Could you for us and Normandy is a great example, but just describe [how] were the conditions? What was it like during the battle? I know you witnessed these things and was it total chaos? What were the details? DN: Well, in our situation, we were told when we were moved up in the different positions, we were told what our objective was and so that s where we was that s where we were headed for is whatever objective we were given to take or to hold, whatever we was to do. Because of the nature of these Norwegian People see they had a lot more to fight for than what I did. Their country was invaded. These men I was with some of
them were first mates, captains, and engineers in the Norwegian Navy. And when the Germans went into Norway they couldn t go back, and so they went right into the United States. In order for them to become American citizens they had to join the Army. At that time when they joined the Army, they were automatically American Citizens. They did make them to my knowledge now this is what I was told by them. Why didn t they go into the Navy? The Navy did not at that time make the citizens. If they join the Army they automatically become American Citizens. And so that s what they did. And so all at once the military found out they had a bunch of Norwegians signed up in the military that couldn t speak English, what were they going to do with them? And so that s when they activated and made the 99 th Special Battalion and sent orders out to other military bases that anyone who was of Norwegian ancestry that they were to be sent to I don t know for sure I guess Camp Hale Colorado cause that s where they took their training. And that s where they started their training, and I was told they were given a couple of months and then they were told that from then on they would be given their orders in English because they were an American citizen so they had to learn to speak English. That s how come the Norwegian unit was started in the first place. NH: So were you involved more in guerilla style warfare or were you more involved in the actual battle? DN: Well, we d be involved in the actual battle like say the front lines were advancing and all at once all at once they had a spot in the front line where they were having a problem. Maybe the unit that was there was badly shot up I guess are the words to use. And they were having difficulties so they, and they usually had bigger units up there but, because we were that battalion they could move us in fast, set us up, tell us what they wanted us to either to hold, or to attack, or to take the town, or whatever it was and that s what our job was. Like I say if they had more to fight for than most the rest of us did because they were hearing all the time as to what was happening to their families in Norway because the Germans were there, and so these guys were mean. It is the only good word I can put in it. They just don t back up. NH: But Uncle Sam liked the mean ones. DN: Well, that s what they liked us for because they could put us in a unit and [in a] place that they say hold it until we can get a division or something to relieve you. And the characters were told to attack. And I got tired of that old business, but I didn t want to be left alone, so I d stick with them. NH: You bet I wouldn t blame you for not wanting to be alone, that s for sure. DN: I was that way when I was assigned as a medic out with them at that time. You don t want to be in one of those situations when you re out there all alone and you hear them shooting up above, up ahead of you and snipers are shooting at you from the back lines and mortars are going off why you better stay where the front lines are at. You are safer up there than back aways.
NH: Now you hear report of the wounded picking up their parts that might have been blown off whether they ve [been] shot or different things like that, that they d cry out, that they d say things like-- cry out for their moms or they d cry out for help. Could you describe what that was like as far as when you were on the battlefield? DN: Well those are things that I ve forgot about. You hear them then, you try and forget about them. It s those things that you forget about. TN: He wouldn t talk about them at all. DN: I didn t get into a lot of these. I can see that you re hearing some of what maybe took place in the islands with the Japanese. Our situation wasn t like that. It wasn t jungle and stuff like that. We was either hedger or in the towns or in open country. I was with several different units when the war was over with. We was with General Patton and so that s just the way we were. Where they needed us they d transport us, and we was front line one day in one place and someplace else a few days later. You just forget about some of those things that just took place. And I know that I didn t see as bad of things as what you see on television and things like that. NH: I hope that I haven t caused any bad feelings [to] come up. That wasn t my intent, but I know that that had to have been a hard part of it and there s no wonder that you couldn t talk about it or that you ve forgotten about it because that is something very difficult, and especially as a medic. There are those that have said as the Japanese kind of stayed in the pacific theatre if you want to call it quote their home country. There are those that say that Hitler expanded too much. He just had this broad vision that he couldn t contain it all. He took the Hitler Youth, and he was grabbing people ages sixteen to sixty to control these areas, just trying to control all these fronts. Do you think that that was a weakness of his? Do you think that that s one thing that helped the allies that there was too much area to control? DN: Well sure. You could see that. He didn t have the means and the manpower to fight the type of war that was going on over there on two fronts. Of course an ordinary soldier out there fighting you don t see all these kinds of things, and I picked this up as I come back, and read different things that took place. Of course we had the Stars and Stripes we got whenever we got in a? But then we were only told what they wanted to tell us. So that didn t tell us a whole lot. Once you were in combat and see what s kinda going on [and] why when you re fighting on two fronts you can t keep up. NH: Especially a country (Germany) that size right? DN: Exactly. During the Battle of the Bulge that was his (Hitler s) problem right there. His supplies couldn t keep up with him. If the Front Line would have had the supplies well you ve seen the show [The Battle of the Bulge]. They run out of gas and that was their problem. Their supply line just couldn t keep up with him. That Battle of the Bulge that nearly succeeded [for the Germans]. And it was bad weather. We had the air superiority, but the airplanes couldn t get out. Christmas day, 1944 we was on a hillside.
Moumandy, the town was at the bottom and we was up around the edge of the hill and that was the first day any planes come out, and we heard them and we knew they were German because you d learn to tell by sound what they are. But our planes met them right there over that town. Because we was up on the hill and they were coming down low, trying to sneak in. We could sit right there at the edge of the hill and watch. Best dogfight you d ever seen up there. You don t even see it like that in the movies. We had the front line seat. It was about four or five of our planes and I think four German planes. And the dogfight was right there over the top of us. NH: And you didn t even have to pay money to see that kind of show. DN: No we didn t. We sat there and watched two of the German planes get shot up and the pilots bailed out. One plane come across us a German plane. And he was coming so low that instead of looking up at him, we looked out. We could see the swastikas on the side of his plane, could see the swastikas on his helmet as he come past us. He had a bomb hanging from the bottom of it. I don t know why he didn t drop it on us. He still had a bomb and one of our planes right on his tail. As soon as he cleared the top of us why he was back inside the German lines and our plane was firing on him all the way as he was going back. NH: Darrell in your personal opinion, and this didn t even have [to be] something you witnessed, but as far as the war went, what do you think was the worst hit to us and what do you think was the greatest triumph for us? DN: Well, I m sure the greatest triumph and I don t think the Germans anticipated that we could make that big of a landing on Omaha and Normandy Beach and Utah Beach. As I was landing, we didn t know what was going on. As I see and read things that took place why the Germans just didn t believe that we were doing it. And that was proven because as soon as we knocked the small force off that was guarding the beach, we was able to move right out and move inland three or four miles before anything stopped us. So, I m sure that was the biggest accomplishment or something the Germans were not anticipating because they didn t think that that was going to happen. And as your read your history and that now they had units that they could have thrown in there to stop that, but they just thought it was going to take place in another area, but I can t remember where that s at. Your history tells ya I think where the Germans anticipated where we was going to land. It was up North. NH: Yeah, it was up by the narrower part of the Channel. Chalais or something like that is where he thought it was going to hit. DN: Yeah and that s what they were saving their SS troops for is for that because they thought we was just a decoy. It just so happens we wasn t the decoy, we was the main force. NH: They still hit the troops pretty hard in that Normandy area. I mean they were still ready for anything right?
DN: Yeah, it was difficult. There was a Ranger outfit that landed just down aways from us. The reason I know what took place with them is because they were completely shot up and some of their personnel was given to us a few days later as replacements. And this one fellow became a very good friend of mine and he was a radio operator with the lieutenant, and his radio was shot off his back and the lieutenant killed, but they were supposed to land on a cliff. They went in with LSTs [Landing Ship Tank] I think. They were I can t be sure of this but he told me, but I m not sure, but they had ladders on [them] like your fire engines has and that ladder was suppose to go to the top of the cliff with a man and a machine gun on it. But when they got to the beach the tide was too in. And so the boat was sitting there bouncin around the water, and they go to shoot the ladder up and the ladder with the man on it would tip the boat over. They couldn t get on the beach. So that Ranger outfit got shot all to pieces. That was one unit that was just down aways from us, but he has told me what happened to them. NH: Now your wife stated that you were in the Second Wave that landed. DN: Somewhere close to that. I wasn t counting. I wasn t the First Wave, let s put it that way. I was close enough to the First Wave that I m assuming it was the second Wave. NH: When your wave did get there, which we will assume which we re going to call the Second Wave were most of the forts taken by then? Or was there still heavy firing going on? DN: Well, there was still heavy firing going on and there was wounded soldiers laying all over and blown up tanks and half-tracks. A lot of the barbed wire embankments and that was all torn up where the tanks had tromped them down to get through. But there were a lot of tanks there with their tracks blown off. One thing that the Americans did was try to pick their wounded up. It s not a very big moral booster to have too many wounded people laying around. NH: where would you find cover during the firing? DN: Behind your helmet. NH: That s a good place. DN: Yep. There wasn t any cover. All you had was across that beach, and they landed us with LSTs and when that door drops open out you go. NH: You run out. DH: I found out in a hurry that you want to follow the guy in front of you. When he drops in that water out of sight why you go right around him. When he falls into a shell hole with and goes in over his head you don t want to follow his tracks.
NH: Were there quit a few who perished by drowning as opposed to getting hit by ammunition? DN: I think there were a few who drowned who got wounded that couldn t help themselves. Other than that I don t think that there was too many drownings if they could still help themselves. But it was a big operation. I tell you that you can t imagine all the ships that was around there. That big ship that we was on, or the top deck that we was on was about three or four stories high and they d have big nets over the side and we d throw battle gear and was supposed to go over the side and crawl down that big long old ladder. I was standing there waiting for my turn to go and they had a big cargo net. I don t know what they had in it, I m assuming ammunition that they were lifting overboard to set in this LST and the guy unloading says, Anybody that don t want to go down the ladder grab onto the net. So I grabbed onto the net. A whole bunch of us grabbed onto the net and they lowered us over the side and down into the landing craft. That was better than going down the ladder. I didn t want to go down that ladder four stories high. NH: Now the then General Eisenhower has made claims that as early as 1942. this operation was started, viz. they were starting to plan it. In all the preparation that they put into it, do you feel that D-Day was a success? For as much manpower, boats, ammunition, do you think it was a success? DN: Oh yeah, sure it was a success. But I can see that it was a hard decision for him to make because the Channel was rough and he had to make the decision. If he delayed it, the Germans were more apt to find out what you were going to do. And so he had to make a decision. I didn t see the actual of what was taking place in back of me until we hit the beach, and got in on it a little ways. I could see them. That big ship that we went in on, they sunk it out there. Just off the beach a little ways. They sunk several ships and made a harbor out of sunk ships. They just opened them up and let the water out and made a harbor. But when we came back down to Normandy Beach after the war was over and went to Norway why the ships were still sunk. That was still one of their main supply arms. But they sunk those ships right there to brake the waves and made a hull out of those ships. NH: And you had said that it was a difficult decision for him and that the Channel was rough that day. I don t know if you re aware of this, but actually, his original intent was to (General Eisenhower s) invade June 5 th, which was Monday, but it was so stormy that day that they had to bump it to the next day. You probably knew that. DN: I knew that. We didn t know that then. We didn t know anything that was going on. It was an interesting thing what they were doing with us because we were a battalion. They moved us down to South England and then they d move us back up to North England and would move us back down. I went through London I know at least three times and have never ever seen it. We were on a train, completely blacked out and they were using us as decoys. Just moving troops all over so the Germans couldn t figure outall they knew was the train was going south. In a few days, all of us would go north.
NH: Did they do that also keep you covered up and not let you know where you were going so in case you were ever caught you could never give any information? DN: (Nods) We didn t know anything. All we know is we was taking a train ride every other day and we d find ourselves in some tents up in and find out in the names of some signs or something that we was in some of the guys that would have a map or knew England. Those Norwegians knew England pretty good. They d been there. So they d see the name of the town that we d been in and they d say, Well, we re in North England today and a few days later why, we d be in South England. NH: So what day did you find out you were heading to Normandy? DN: That morning. NH: The morning of. Wow! You really know how to pack up and move don t ya. (To Theda) Let me ask you from a Home Front perspective. What were your feelings of D- Day? What thoughts did you have from this angle? TN: Well that the day. D-Day is 6, 6 and 6 right. That the day I heard the paper boy woke us up in the morning yelling that they were landing over there and it was just frightening to me and I just had that strong feeling that he was there. NH: Do you feel because it was the talk of the time in your opinion was that the feeling of a lot of people? Were they afraid when they heard about D-Day? Was that a common thing? TN: I don t know. I think there was maybe a feeling of a big push for victory. The surprise that they worked up, I would think it was more like that. NH: So more excitement. TN: That it was progress in the war. NH: Okay, just a couple more questions. You re able to read in papers and we re able to see some recreations in movies. Of course movies are trying to give a more dramatic element than maybe factual, but was it like the movies or was it far, far worse? DN: As far as I can see pretty well accurate. The common, ordinary soldier we didn t know where we were at a lot of the time. All we d see is signs as we d pass them. And street signs and things like that. Like in that one movie where the Germans change the street signs and sends them in the wrong direction. The countries over there had signs so that people could find their way around so we had access to those signs so we knew a little bit about where we were at, but it was fast and we were assigned to different areas so quick that we didn t know exactly where we were all the time. Well, I m hopin the officers knew where we were.
NH: Okay, so you had said thirty-two, thirty-three days you were contained in Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge and then if you could finish up and kinda tell us where you went after that. DN: After the Battle of the Bulge we was assigned to General Patton s Army. And we were not after the Battle of the Bulge I don t believe we were ever right on the front lines. We were coming right behind General Patton s Front Line to searching homes, securing towns, and just doing clean up work, but that was a new experience cause we had to be in we were actually in combat, but he had us dress with dress uniform, combat jackets and ties. And when the war ended. We were just inside Czechoslovakia. The next day after the war ended they loaded us on trucks and within two days we were back in Normandy Beach preparing to load on ships to go to Norway. And we was issued all new equipment. Some other units was assigned to us. We then became the 474 th Regiment. And we went to Norway and it was just like going home for those Norwegians who were left. All we did in Norway was go into the German camps. The Germans were stayed in their camps. They had guards at their gate, but they had no weapons of any kind. We would go into their camps early in the morning and pick up so many of them, take them out and line them up on the field. The Norwegian authorities would go down the line and inspect them. Any who they knew were had been cruel to them or anything like that they were picked out and taken away and what happened to them I don t know, but the rest of them we d take them down to the harbor and load them on ships. And from there on I don t know what happened to them I guess they was taken back and sent back into Germany someplace. Then only ones we had any trouble with were those that had somehow found out that they were going to go through the Russian sector and some of those guys would go and run them off the ship and jump over the other side and try and get away. But we stayed there until the war in Japan was over and we was perfectly content to do that cause we didn t want to be shipped over to Japan to fight in that war too so but as soon as the war was over why they decided they had better get us out of there. Which they did and we were sent home. NH: And then how was your homecoming? DN: It was great! NH: That explains it all. DN: December 5, 1945. NH: Wow! So after the Battle of the Bulge, as far as the European Theatre was concerned, it was basically clean up work that was being done there. I mean Hitler and his mistress committed suicide April 30, 1945. Germany surrenders to the Allies May 7, 1945 and so in between that time from Bulge to the surrender was basically clean up work.
DN: As far as we was concerned. Some of them were still [unknown] or fighting on the front lines. Patton s troops were, but it just so happened that he was moving so fast that he had set up somebody that was taking up their prisoners. [And] it was interesting at this time that cause the Germans they were just giving up and they was just walking down the road and we d pick them up and we d start them down the road and the MP s would pick them up and on down a ways further. NH: That guy (Patton) was an ornery old cuss. He wouldn t give up would he? He just wanted to keep busting those Germans. In closing Theda what you guys have been through and what you guys have done I believe will affect many generations. Not only mine, but after me and we need to let those generations know what you guys did for us. What would you want people to know? What would help? What was gained from the war an experience or something that you d like them to know? TN: My posterity you mean? NH: Yes. TN: Well, my main thoughts has always been that our grandchildren appreciated what Darrell has done for the war, and that they would honor him. They would not have know otherwise because it s not in the schools. They don t teach it. But I think that it s a part of heritage. NH: Darrell, you ve been through quite a lot as we ve talked about in just two and a half years. You probably experiences more in that two and a half years than any of us could in a lifetime and anyone serving. Was it worth it? The time, the lives, ammunition? Was the war fought for a good cause do you think? DN: Well, I m sure it was fought for a good cause and if Hitler could have kept it going when he took France, had he known he could have taken England I think right then if he had had his supply line so, he could have done it. I feel like there was something that had to be done and it made our world a better place to live in. It was one of those things that had to be done. I m a little disappointed as I talk to some young people. They don t know anything about, really, World War II or anything about it. And I m a little disappointed in our school system because I think the history of our nation, the battles that was fought in World War II and things I don t think our young people know about it. Maybe they do, I don t know what it is. So to me, it s not being taught in the schools or they re not being told about it. And maybe that s alright, I don t know. NH: It s not alright. DN: It seems like to me the history of our country, the wars that was fought, the sacrifice the ultimate sacrifice that some of our people had to give should be remembered. And I think that our school system has been taken over (chuckles) I ll say it, but it s only my feeling, but I think that the environmentalists and things like that have taken over our schools to the point that all we re concerned about is our environment.
We wouldn t have the damned environment if we wouldn t have had wars to make it that way so we got it. NH: And that s an excellent point, the fact that you just stated. And I agree with you whole heartedly in all honesty that it s not taught the way it needs to be in the schools and that we as parents, we as children aren t seeking to know enough and we need to. And so that leads exactly into my next question. What would you say to have them know to have these people know to let them know about the war? What would you say? DN: Well, I think our education system has to be looked at and some drastic changes made. I think because our environment is, sure very important, but when they cut out other things in the school, and harp on environment all the time and what pertains to the environment that s well and good, but I think that they re cutting out other things and letting that take its place. And I guess you can tell by the way I talk [that] I m not an environmentalist. In fact whenever they say environment or environmentalist I turn it off because I don t believe anything he says. They ve got good ideas, but when they become so radical that it affects our whole society, I can t take them. NH: Thank you. Is there anything else? DN: That s probably pretty strong enough right there. NH: [I ve] been sitting here talking with the Nevilles Darrell and Theda on the important subject of what has been come to be [known] as the Good War World War II in which they were heavily involved in. And in which we will be thankful unto them and those who have served for many generations. And we thank you Darrell and Theda for your time tonight.