An Honored Soldier

I interviewed my grandpa, Daniel Novak about his experience in World War ll. He was born on July 19th, 1924 and was 18 years old  when he went into the war.  He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He is 90 years old now.  My dad is helping me during this interview for further clarification.

“Let’s start with the first question. How old were you when you went into the army?”

“I was 18 years of age which was quite popular among those of us that volunteered.” 

“How were selected to be in the army?”

“That was a random selection, uh, I think probably numerically decided by the number of people they needed to serve in the army persay. And those also served in the navy and other services.”

“What did it feel like when you knew you would be in the army?”

“Well it was quite adventurous. I can’t say that there was any big excitement other than well we’ll see what this brings.”

“Yeah. Where did you start training for the army?”

“The initial posting was in Camp Grant, Illinois, and it was from there that we were sent to line organizations. And the one I was assigned to happened to be anti aircraft artillery, and our station for initial training was the Mojave Desert  in California. The camp from which we functioned was known then as Camp Irwin.”

“Where were you stationed overseas?”

“My activities occurred later on and my army experience, and I went overseas as part of a division which was made up of armor, engineering, and infantry for the most part, and it was designated as an armor division. It happens that our unit was assigned to the European theatre later during the war years. We went overseas and we uh, let me think about this.”

“That’s okay take your time.”

“We went overseas and that was at the end of ‘45 I think, wasn’t it?”

Dad: “I’m not sure of the date.”

“We went overseas let’s say in December of 1944 as a unit and we were initially billited, that’s a word that you’ll get a kick out of. We were initially billeted with French families, which in my case was an interesting story in itself. The parents of what I thought were three orphans, Yvonne, Yvette, and Donny, were living with their grandparents, but as it turned out and I later learned their parents were serving in the French underground very effectively and they chose to continue that activity. That’s enough on that.”

“Laughs. Ok. What did it feel like to be that far away from home?”

“Actually we were so active in our day to day function, what was required of the unit and of us individually, that we were not given to feelings of “what if” or “I wish.”

“Wow that’s crazy. How long were you at each place that you were stationed at?”

“That was very difficult to pinpoint, as my service periods were very short in some of the instances and especially longer too which I valued. The first being training from scratch in the makeup, and function, and requirements of a complete division ready for combat. In the second instance, I was chosen to continue a college education at Utah State University in Logan Utah, because of an engineering introduction scholastically.”

Dad: “When did you end up at 29 palms? Wasn’t that for basic training?”

“No that was where we were stationed to get kicked out.”

Dad: “Before you went overseas.”

“No this was after. After we were patients. The experience as a patient wounded in action was an experience in itself. I got to be a patient at three or four different facilities offering medical assistance in Britain, starting in France, and then later in Britain for a few months. Then coming home and being assigned to hospital detachments in different states in the United States.”

“Can you tell me where you were when you were wounded?”

“This is an interesting sight in itself. Our very first combat action that we were exposed to happened to be on the morning of April 12th, 1945, and it was a concerted effort to free the Ruhr Pocket from German control because this was the last of Hitler’s ability to produce war materials. We encountered some of Hitler’s best troops, the remainders of his SS and paratroops were in our path and they were responsible for us being taken out of action by their combat efforts. They were responsible for stopping our thrusts with heavy fire power. Which also accounted for my wounds.”

“How did it happen when you were wounded, like what exactly happened?”

“Well we were in an attack to relieve a captured section when we encountered a force of German military, which were using heavy equipment to stop armor which was our basic strength. My squad happened to be an accidental target of these German troops who were firing at our half tracks, and so doing they down affective anti personnel fire power causing 8 of us in our squad for example to be wounded by the same Panzerfaust which was initially directed at one of the armor units in our attack.”

“Is a Panzerfaust a bazooka?”

“Yes it’s a German name for a bazooka.”

“Okay. How old were you when you were wounded?”

“That’s an interesting story. It depends on if you want to put this in. You can say that my grandpa has an interesting aside to add to the day of his wound. That he claims that, you can maybe get a laugh, President Roosevelt was so concerned about him, that when he heard that my grandpa was hurt his heart couldn’t handle it and he died the same day.”

“Laughs, oh my gosh!”

“He did die April 12th, 1945.”

“And you were how old on that day?”

“I was 18. Or wait no 19.”

“Wow that’s so young. How did they get you off the battlefield when that happened?”

“Among the facilities used were air evacuation and ground  based ambulance.”

“So they get you off with a stretcher to a ground?”

“Yeah we were taken by these ground troops and put in a farm house and they try to take our weapons away from us and I wouldn't let them get mine, because they said if you’ve still got your weapon if you're overcome they could shoot you. But what we didn’t know was upstairs in this house where we were billeted, there was a squad of German infantry still.”

“Oh my gosh. What were they doing there? Hiding?”

“Hiding. They hadn’t given up their weapons.”

“So they are upstairs, the German soldiers. The wounded American soldiers are on the first floor of this house. And the Germans are hiding from them.”

“And the ones that were on the first floor, were like me; wounded. And we wouldn’t give up our guns.”

“How did they get the Germans out eventually?”

“Well somehow or other I guess the way I understand the story is that the people who run that house, the woman, she was so nervous and it was so obvious that there was something wrong that we somehow found out about it, and we pulled a couple of hundred yards away with our tanks and turned around and leveled the house with cannon fire. You know, it was brutal, but…”

“Wow! What was going through your mind while you were wounded? What were you thinking?”

“That I was going to get home. That this would speed it up. As long as I was not hurt badly, I was happy to be on that path.”

“Yeah. How did they notify your parents about you being wounded?”

“The usual telegram. Your son was slightly wounded in action in Germany.”

“Oh okay. When did you find out that you could go home?”

“It was in the fall of 1945 probably October.”

“Okay. How did the war change you? And I know that your nickname was Hap when you were younger.”

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve never given real thought to to that. That you don’t control every facet of your life.”

Dad: “Right. Your mom said to me that when I was reading your high school yearbook from Taft High School, and it said Hap. Everybody addressed their comments to hap. And I said to grandma who is hap? And she said well that was you fathers nickname growing up. Happy Dan. And I said really. Dad seems serious. She said the war made you a serious person.”

“That would be a very good analysis of what happened. I always was caddying and doing things in sports and school. I was known as the guy with a positive outlook. The nickname hap was applied to me. So many of the guys had nicknames. Mine happened to be hap and it was appropriate. As a matter a fact, even today, the phone rang about two or three weeks ago and the voice answered and it was a male and he said Hap? This was Alfie Rettenmeyer who still refers to me as that.”

“Did you meet him in the war?”

“Well, we knew each other in high school and later on.”
“You must be very proud of the service you gave to this country and the medals that you were rewarded, what do you think you are the most proud of?”

“Well, it’s hard to say because so many contributed and um, at the beginning of this interview we singled out the purple heart and bronze star but we neglected to mention the combat infantry badge.  Which was awarded to those of us who conducted our efforts as riflemen in an infantry unit.  In an immobilized infantry unit I would say.”

Dad: “Yeah, you told me before that was probably, of all the medals, the one you are most proud of.  Doesn’t that have two rifles and a wreath around it?”

“Yes, it’s that blue one.” 

“ When did you officially get home?”

“I can’t be exactly sure, as the whole period was so…..happy.”

Dad:  “But it was the winter, wasn’t it?”

“No, it was in May I thought I got home.”

Dad:  “Okay, in the spring of 1945 then?”

“Yeah.”

Dad:  “So you got wounded in like the fall towards the winter.”

“No, it couldn’t have been one month later.  It was 1946 that I got out, in January of ‘46’.  Yeah, I was discharged in January of 1946 and that was when the mechanism was in place to do it.”

“Thank you Grandpa Dan and thank you for your service for this country.”

“You’re very welcome and to have a family like all of you makes me grateful that serious wounds were not coming my way.”

My grandpa is now 90 years old. He got married to my grandma Bette on February 7th, 1948. They also had five kids. Grandpa Dan got to go on the Honor Flight this past year. We got to greet him when he got back home. It was a great experience to see him and all the veterans being honored for their service for this country.