Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
6:41 | Bill Newman was a communications specialist with a field artillery unit when he joined the push across France. He didn't face much enemy fire at his first battle, but he did face a problem related to the unrelenting rain. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
Keywords : Bill Newman Normandy France Forward Observer (FO) Metz cold rain trench foot
Bill Newman had some experience with coastal artillery from college ROTC, so, when he was drafted, they put him in the field artillery. Coastal artillery had been rendered irrelevant in the new age of air power, but there was new weaponry to learn. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
He was in anti-aircraft training, but Bill Newman was selected for the communications group so he didn't fire guns at towed targets. He did have to make the grueling 50 mile final hike. Then he was picked for the Army Specialized Training Program, which placed soldiers in college. That didn't last very long, since every soldier was needed for the coming invasion of Europe. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
In the Army Specialized Training Program, Bill Newman was placed at Penn State, where he was to get some education that the Army could later use. The important thing about this was the male-female ratio at the university. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
In his final training before shipping out to England, Bill Newman, and most of the men in his unit, failed spectacularly at rappelling. No matter, they departed on a converted cruise ship and set up camp across the pond and waited. D-Day came and they were still waiting. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
He had experience on small boats, so Bill Newman did not get sick crossing the English Channel on an LST. It was weeks after D-Day, and his division set up camp just inland from Omaha Beach, where they waited. Their trucks were needed for the Red Ball Express, so they were sidelined for a while. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
The song rang out from the rail cars loaded with American soldiers. It was "The Yellow Rose of Texas," and Bill Newman knew instantly what unit it was. He was in the communications group of a field artillery battalion, so he was often stuck with KP and guard duty. He vividly remembers his first night on guard duty in a combat zone. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
The German fortifications at the Siegfried Line were formidable. Some were centuries old and some were built right into the shops of the towns. Bill Newman recalls the Thanksgiving dinner that got delayed several times until it was a problem in itself. At Saarlautern, he was pressed into front line duty after the forward observers were injured. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
The going was slow and German artillery cut the field telephone lines nearly every night. Bill Newman describes how he and his partner would find the break and repair the line. During the Battle of the Bulge, he was doing just that one day when he was startled by a tap on the shoulder. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
Bill Newman describes how American ingenuity solved some big problems during the push across France into Germany. First up, the hedgerows. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
Bill Newman remembers fondly the family he stayed with in Felsberg, France, just before the Battle of the Bulge. There was little action at his position during the German attack, but the extreme cold was an enemy in itself. This was made worse by the fact that the Americans had no proper cold weather gear. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
There was little action when Bill Newman's unit reached the Rhine. The Germans had fled to the other side but they did manage to blow the bridge he was waiting to cross. He made it across at Remagen and moved into the Ruhr Valley. It was there that he ran into a hometown friend, who recounted to him the tale of the ill-fated 106th Division at the Battle of the Bulge. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
During the campaign in the Ruhr Pocket, Bill Newman could tell that the Germans were disheartened. Their failure at the Battle of the Bulge had sealed their fate. His field artillery unit had a new proximity shell that could clear the battlefield of all enemy personnel. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
As a communications specialist with a field artillery unit, Bill Newman sometimes had to carry half of a hundred pound radio on his back. He had other duties and when he and his partner were clearing buildings in a town, he had a strange encounter with a German child. When he picked up a pack of bazooka rounds, he wound up using them, to his own amazement. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
It was a standoff that didn't look good. Three German tanks were threatening Bill Newman's unit and air power was summoned and promised. The tanks left but the P-47's arrived and, to the horror of everyone, they circled and came in for an attack run on their own countrymen. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
The captain asked, where is A Company? Bill Newman had just seen them and he agreed to take some men and go back and retrieve them. This led to some grief given by his comrades. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
They were holed up in a basement for the night when the lookout yelled down for everyone to come up. What Bill Newman saw when he came up meant that the war was over. For a while after that, his unit was assigned to guard a Polish slave labor camp.(This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
He was glad to be home, but Bill Newman was distressed that, after the campaign in Europe, he was slated to be part of the Japan invasion force that was gearing up. Thankfully, that operation never happened and he was able to finish his degree and raise a family. (This interview made possible with the support of NORMAN PICKER SR.)
