A veteran recalls his time in World War 2

To my kid brother, Raymond George Rinard

This is a synopsis of my service time in World War Two.

I hitchhiked from Boone to Des Moines, Iowa on October 6th, 1942 to enlist and was sent back home with four papers to be filled out. One was for my mother giving her permission to me to enlist, one with signatures of three businessmen at Boone, one to be signed by the police chief showing I had no arrests, and one by the pastor of our church. I got them signed and hitchhiked to Des Moines again on October 10th.

I enlisted and spent the night in the hotel, where there were two men to each bed. Then we were driven to Camp Dodge outside of Des Moines where we were sworn into the army. October 12th, 1942, we shipped out and arrived four days later at Fort Francis E. Warren in Wyoming. I completed basic training and shipped out between Christmas and New Years to Mount Rainier Automotive Camp on Fort Lewis Army Reservation. I had basic training, KP, and guard duty. They thought they were going to make me into an auto mechanic. We never had a car at home; we couldn't have afforded gas if someone had given us a car.

I spent 42 days in the hospital, first with Scarlet Fever and then when I was almost well, I got queezy. My throat swelled so bad I couldn't eat, and I had a difficult time swallowing water. I came out of the hospital in late May, two days after my company had shipped out, so I spent about 10 days as fire guard in the camp area. I also cleaned up three platoon buildings that had held 32 enlisted men. I stocked the coal bins for two stoves in each barracks. Then I moved my bunk into the company latrines. I had to keep the fire going to heat the showers and also to heat the attached command post quarters for captain and first sergeant.

Finally, another company shipped out, so I was sent with them. My original company went to Larrimore, Louisiana to train in swamps, and then they went to the Pacific. I lucked out; my new outfit went across the country to Camp Patrick Henry in Virginia and shipped out to North Africa.

I left Newport News, Virginia on the USS West Point, formerly called the "United States," the largest US passenger ship in America. On June 6th, 1943, they said there were 12,000 troops aboard, and I don't doubt that was true. I got lost coming back from chow and ended up in the hold. They had beds stacked up 10 high. The guy on the top had ropes or belts to keep them being thrown from the bunks. I did better. I was in a stateroom for four, which was close quarters - we had soldiers wall to wall. We each had two large barracks bag containers that contained everything we owned.

There were nine canvas bunks. I was in the bottom one. When the middle bunk was occupied, I had to lay flat, there was no room to turn over. The second bunk was the same way. They fed us twice daily.

I was seasick from the minute I got on until I disembarked. We landed June 13th at Casablanca, North Africa. We weren't able to get into Port because the Vichy French, who were on Germany's side, had scuttled an earlier fleet of ships that were in port. When the Americans invaded, the ship stopped at the entrance to the harbor, let down the gangplank and attached it to one of the sunken ships. The engineers had constructed bridges to two more ships and finally to the dock. We disembarked wearing full packs, steel helmets and carrying two big barracks bags. They picked up the bags with 6x6 trucks and we walked three miles to a camp called Camp Marshall Lente. It was named after a famous French Officer in World War I. We got together 2 x 2 to set up our pup tents.

There was nothing but sand and occasional roads. It was 120 or better during the daytime and freezing at night. We were 2-3 miles from the ocean, so at night we got heavy dew. When you turned over in the pup tent and touched the canvas, water poured through the tent. The first thing they did was take our summer uniforms of Khaki cotton and give it to the French troops. They then made us wear our winter uniforms. We spent three or four weeks in camp, the number-one replacement depot. We spent our time taking walks 10-15 miles through the sand, working in the kitchen cleaning up the area, and putting in guard duty.

Finally, I was put on the train that took us over the Atlas Mountains to another replacement depot at Camp Oran. I was amazed that the French could put a track through those mountains. It was just solid rock. I almost laughed when I saw the train. It has narrow- gauge small cars and a little electric engine. I heard my mother's brother, John, say the little trains in France were painted with pictures of 40 men or 8 horses per car. And these were the same words in French. I will not attempt to spell them.

I suppose 40 men could stand up in the cars. We had 31 enlisted men and the new 2nd lieutenant. There was a big box on top with a large brake wheel to hold the cars on the incline. Two men rode there, the other 30 inside. The lieutenant and three others slung shelter (tent) halves across the car, and the 26 slept head against one side and feet against the other. The knots broke, and the lieutenant fell on two soldiers sleeping on the floor. Whoever helped him put up hammocks tied the slipknots. We spent three days and two nights on the train. The train moved so slow on grades that some guys dropped off and ran alongside. Then they were pulled back on board.

We arrived at camp in Oran, where we had more drilling, hikes through the sand and K.P. We lined up in front of tents every morning, and men were taken to fill rosters in companies. My time came with five other enlisted men and one second lieutenant. We wound up in a Cork Forest (they stripped the bark for bottle corks). We were met by a captain and a first sergeant. One look and we knew he was a real soldier. The captain asked if anyone thought he could whip the sergeant. No one was dumb enough to say yes. Three men were assigned to mechanics maintenance. One was assigned as headquarters clerk, and I was assigned to the cook shack. I got it right. I had worked in cafés back home, and I was the gofer guy: You - do this, you - do that, hurry-up.

About three weeks later we loaded up, convoyed to port and loaded onto Liberty Ship. It sailed to Southern Italy and landed four days after the main enlisted invasion. We had a big storm the night before and almost sunk the boat. Four of us landed the next evening. There were huge waves. The boat would sit on top of the wave then it dropped like an express elevator. Four of us got into the little flat-bottom landing craft. It almost capsized, so they cancelled the landing. We were the only group to make the dangerous landing.

We made it to shore and laid out in the brush in two groups. One got to sleep while the other guarded. We could see flashes from guns, and we watched flares firing up all night. The next morning, the rest of the company came ashore, and we started north through Italy.

We went through large cities and small villages right behind the front lines so we could service the equipment and get it back to the front. We never stopped in any towns. We needed space to set up camp. The first big city we saw was Naples. I did get to go across the bay to see where the volcano Vesuvius covered two towns with lava and ash. That is quite a tourist attraction. Then we went past Rome and other large towns. Finally, in Florence, we were camped outside of Bologna, a big city near the northern border with Switzerland and France.

We went into Lake Como, a famous resort in Northern Italy, across the lake from Switzerland. While we were driving north in Italy, the American Army was held up near a thousand-year-old monastery overlooking the only road north. American orders were not to destroy the monastery. After losing too many troops, they finally decided to bomb it. We were camped just short of the monastery. We saw a flight of bombers go over and could see smoke from the bombs. In fact, they flew directly over us, and we were cheering them on. When we saw something falling from one plane, we thought they were leaflets, but when we could hear them whistle, we scrambled to find shelter. They were anti-aircraft personnel bombs, and they hit a rock wall just outside our camp.

So, that didn't work very well for the Germans.

They just moved their artillery into the ruins and still commanded the only road. The Americans made an end run all the way around the line and landed at Casino Beachhead due to a timid (chicken) commander. They stopped to regroup, and the Germans threw up a line along the canals. The Americans were held up for months.

We served in Italy. I believe we landed Sept 7th, 1943, and the Germans surrendered May 8th, 1945.

I did four campaigns in Italy: Naples, Foggia, Rome, Anso, North Apennines, and Po Valley. Then we shipped out July 15th across the Atlantic through Panama Canal to the Pacific. We did stop in the canal, go into the fenced area, and walk around. We could buy souvenirs and bananas.

The next stop was a small volcanic rock island in the Pacific called Eniwetok - just two Quonset huts with message transmission equipment to forward messages to the Pacific.

We were making a convoy to invade Japan. On the second day, we received messages that the Atomic Bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, and shortly after another on Nagasaki. That saved our lives and many others on both sides. We were routed to Manilla in the Philippines and landed August 16th, 1945. We were on the voyage for 46 days. We were rotated home November 17th, 1945 and landed in San Francisco Bay on December 5th, 1945. I was discharged at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas on December 12th, 1945.

My rating was T-3.

Elmer 0. Rinard

A few afterthoughts:

When we were In North Africa, I was assigned to work in the kitchen for a trucking company. They hauled supplies from the docks and stockpiled them ashore. There was a young Arab boy to help us, and I felt sorry for him until I found out he could understand five languages. They included his Native Arabic; also second nature was Tsonga French because the French had colonized there 100 years earlier. He also spoke German and Italian, and finally the American English. I don't even do that well with my native tongue.

About that Liberty Ship we were on: the scuttlebutt was they made one ship every seven days. It was just a tub that floated. I'm sure they had a five-horse motor, just barely enough to move it in a convoy. I spent nearly two years in Italy. I don't speak a word of the language; I was never near any people.

Thanks, daughter Peggy, for deciphering my scrawl. Hope you can make heads or tails of my story, Roy.

Love to you and Edna,

Brother Elmer