Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans
4:37 | After a short Christmas leave, Willie Lindsey shipped out for Europe. His unit was being rushed into place because the Battle of the Bulge had the Allied commanders worried. Even before they got ashore, they lost a man to the cold waters of the English Channel.
Keywords : Willie Rabbit Lindsey Fitzgerald GA SS Ile de France English Channel landing craft cargo net Le Havre France
It was September of 1944 when Willie Lindsey was drafted and sent for infantry training at Camp Blanding. They had good experienced men training the draftees and he felt it helped him greatly when he got into combat. It didn't help him at all, though, when the man next to him on the grenade course dropped a live grenade at his feet
Willie Lindsey arrived in France just as the Battle of the Bulge was winding down. His unit moved across France towards the action, but the cold was his primary enemy at this time. He could hear the Screaming Mimi's but they all went overhead.
Willie Lindsey was lead scout as the company was on the move. He got to an open field and stopped to plan going around the edges because you don't cross an open field. Incredibly, the young company commander decided to do just that. Bad idea. Part 1 of 3.
After being pinned down by artillery in an open field, Willie Lindsey was sent by his platoon leader to try and connect with a sister company. He found them alright, under fire by a German machine gun on the edge of a mine field. After he took care of that, he was in a gazebo near a German house when he spotted a German soldier coming out of the house and heading straight for him. Part 2 of 3.
After capturing a German soldier under unusual circumstances, Willie Lindsey took him and two civilians back to his unit's position. It had been an eventful day between nearly getting killed by artillery fire and single-handedly taking out a German machine gun crew. Part 3 of 3.
Willie Lindsey found a map while going through an abandoned German airfield. This came in handy at a crossroads where he determined that the retreating Germans had switched the road signs. Incredibly, the inept company commander insisted on following the signs.
The roads were full of German soldiers returning to Germany. Willie Lindsey's unit had pushed all the way to the Rhine, which they crossed on some improbable landing craft. When they were on the move, he was often lead scout, which was a rough life.
When Willie Lindsey got to Leipzig, his unit had to take a huge monument complex where German soldiers had holed up. It was tough but they had help from their artillery. Another building taken in Leipzig contained a large arsenal of German small arms.
After his friend and platoon sergeant Charlie Altmans was wounded, Willie Lindsey got a new sergeant who was from the Panama coastal artillery. This man knew nothing about infantry tactics and was bound to get get someone killed as the GI's pushed deeper into Germany.
They could have reached Berlin easily, but the 69th Infantry Division was stopped at the Elbe River so the Russians could take the German capitol. That was OK with Willie Lindsey. It meant that they wouldn't lose any more men. After the first meeting with the Russians, patrols were started to keep tabs on the tenuous allies.
The company commander was arrogant and rude. Willie Lindsey recalls how he humiliated a soldier needlessly, just one of the many things that made the enlisted men despise him. Three lieutenants decided to cook his goose.
Willie Lindsey was on a troop train bound for Italy where he was going to ship out to the Pacific. When the atomic bombs were dropped, it was a train full of happy GI's. He had low points, so he stayed on in Germany, trying to learn his new job, mechanic.
In postwar Germany, Willie Lindsey was first in a constabulary unit, then in a motorpool, where he was supposed to be a mechanic. He wasn't, really, but he tried hard and did a decent job, something that didn't go unnoticed by the colonel, who became a great friend and backed him up when it was needed.
