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| ISBN-13: | 9781466937000 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 06/13/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 272 |
| File size: | 88 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
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The 250th Field Artillery Men Remember World War II
THE 250TH ADAPTED TO THE ARTILLERY TRADEMARK: SHOOT-MOVE-AND-COMMUNICATEBy RUBY GWIN
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2012 Ruby GwinAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-3701-7
Chapter One
Ford P. Fuller, Jr.Major, United States Army S-3 Operations Officer 250th Field Artillery Battalion December 1943-June 1945
Born November 26, 1917, in Savanna, Georgia, I graduated from Savannah High School in 1935. Entering the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in July 1936, I graduated as a second lieutenant in the field artillery in 1940. After a summer leave, curtailed because of the national emergency, I reported to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to attend the Officers' Basic Course at the Artillery School. As a matter of note, this was the last class to receive instruction in horse-drawn artillery as well as truck-drawn artillery. After completion of this course late in 1940, I was assigned to the division artillery of the Fourth Infantry Division (Motorized) at Fort Benning, Georgia, where I served as a battery officer in a field artillery battalion armed at first with the French 75 mm guns and later with 105 mm howitzers. In early 1942, shortly after Pearl Harbor, the Fourth Division was moved to Camp Gordon, near Augusta, Georgia, to occupy the newly constructed camp and to continue its training.
In August 1942, as a regular army officer, I received orders to report to Camp Maxey, Texas, to be a member of a cadre of officers and noncommissioned officers for the activation and formation of the 251st Field Artillery Battalion. By that time, because of the war emergency, I had been promoted to first lieutenant and then to captain. For the next sixteen months or so, I was busy as the assistant S-3, helping to train for combat the newly activated 251st Field Artillery Battalion. Our young soldiers, mostly from the states of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, came in increments from basic training. With our sister unit, the 250th Field Artillery Battalion, we were a part of the 406th Field Artillery Group. Experiencing all the growing pains associated with a new unit, we moved along smoothly, and within a year, we were participating in army maneuvers in Louisiana, taking army training tests and proving to our superiors that we were ready for combat. The enlisted men who showed leadership ability were designated noncommissioned officers and those with technical and special skills given positions of responsibility and designated technicians. By December 1943, both the 250th and the 251st had passed their test with flying colors and were declared combat ready. At that time, within the 406th Field Artillery Group, some officer shuffling took place. As a temporary major (and a regular army first lieutenant), I suddenly found myself transferred to the 250th Field Artillery Battalion. This came as a shock as I had been operations and training officer (S-3) of the 251st and knew intimately all the officers, key NCOs, and many other enlisted men in whom I had the greatest confidence. Fortunately for me, both battalions had been well trained in basic field artillery fundamentals. My only difficulty in moving from S-3 of the 251st to S-3 of the 250th was saying farewell to one set of comrades and in acquiring a new set of equally qualified comrades.
Paris, Texas, the home of Camp Maxey, was a wonderful North Texas town. The people were warm and friendly and opened their hearts and their homes to the large military contingent that eventually occupied Camp Maxey. The churches opened their doors to us, and the community went all out to welcome us and help us overcome our homesickness and our anxiety over what the future held for us. Over time, many of the local young ladies became engaged to, and some eventually married, men stationed at Camp Maxey. Since my heart was elsewhere when I arrived at Camp Maxey, I was not among those who married Paris girls. In January 1943, I managed to get a leave of one week to go to Savannah, Georgia, marry Peg, and bring her back to Paris with me. Ever since, I have boasted that Peg and I spent the first year of our married life in Paris. And it was exactly a year, as we shipped out from Camp Shanks, New York, on January 30, 1944, our anniversary, my parents' anniversary, and the birthday of Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt.
By coincidence, my West Point classmate Michael F. Bavaro had the same job in the 250th that I had in the 251st. When I was transferred to the 251st, Mike, who ranked me several files, moved to the position of executive officer of the battalion or second in command. A big event in June of 1943 was the marriage at the Camp Maxey post chapel of Capt. Michael F. Bavaro to Ms. Janet Wagner, a charming young lady from Paris. I was Mike's best man in an impressive military wedding with attractive bridesmaids and groomsmen in Dress Blues who formed an arch of sabers for the couple as they left the chapel. In 1993, at Thousand Oaks, California, Peg and I helped Janet and Mike celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary with a large group of family and friends.
The reunion group has done an outstanding job of getting us together after all these years and publishing the history of the 250th Field Artillery Battalion. Since World War II ended over sixty years ago, it would be foolish and futile for me to go into great detail over my memories of what happened from the time we sailed for England from New York to the inactivation of the 250th in June 1945. Therefore, with apologies to my 250th buddies who attended the reunion at Mountain Home, Arkansas, in 2000, I am taking the liberty to include in the next few paragraphs some notes of the talk I gave at that time.
Cryptic memories of the 250th Field Artillery Battalion
August-September 1943, arrival at Camp Maxey of the cadre composed of officers and noncommissioned officers from units all over the country—assigning the cadre to key positions within the battalion; cadre training.
There was the arrival of troops from various basic training posts and specialized military school assignments. Assignment of troops was according to their training batteries: headquarters, A, B, C, and service. Comprising of obstacle course, twenty-five-mile hike, unit training by section, unit training by battalion, battery tests, battalion tests, maneuvers in Louisiana. Return to Maxey to prepare for shipment overseas, arrival of overseas orders, sad farewells, departure of battalion for port embarkation, Camp Shanks, New York.
Memorable trip by train in January 1944 to Camp Shanks; loading in New York City of the battalion on British luxury liner converted to a troop ship. Unforgettable voyage in an Allied convoy through submarine-infested waters of the North Atlantic from New York City to Liverpool, England. Traveling in convoy to Atherstone, Warwickshire, in the Midlands of England to occupy a Quonset camp set up on the estate of Sir William Dugdale. Meeting our English hosts; seeing a bit of England; trying to maintain our unit integrity while awaiting orders. Trying to communicate with our families by V-mail without breaking security and on June 6 was listening by radio to news of D-Day. Finally receiving orders (but not combat) to move by battery to various places in England to guard German prisoners captured in Normandy. Eventually receiving orders to reassemble and move to an artillery installation in Wales to brush up on our ability to move, shoot, and communicate. Officers and key noncommissioned officers while in Wales being assembled in an army theater to hear Gen. George S. Patton's famous fight speech. Moving to Southampton and loading on LST's (landing ship, troop), landing at Normandy with General Patton's Third Army, six weeks after D-Day, having taken longer to travel from England to France than from the US to England.
Having as first assignment to reinforce the artillery fire of the French Second Armored Division, a combat-experienced division of mostly North African troops and French officers, commanded by the well-known Gen. Jacques LeClerc (nom de guerre). Our CO, Colonel Jealous, received orders from the division artillery commander to "Follow us." "To where?" asked Colonel Jealous. "A Paris" (to Paris) was the reply. Following those orders, giving support, as requested, from Normandy to Paris. On reaching Paris, for political reasons, being detached from the French and left in position on the outskirts while the French took two weeks to liberate the city and thereby experiencing our first disappointment of the war. Being reassigned to the French as they moved eastward toward Germany; being held down in a ready position with no action while our troops to the north successfully defended themselves, suffering many casualties but stopping and driving back the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. Symbolically firing the first artillery round across the Rhine River into Germany and supporting the fires of the French as they captured Strasbourg, France's easternmost city.
Being assigned to the Seventh Army as it came up from its invasion of Southern France; reinforcing the fires of many divisional units of the XV Corps as we moved across Germany, winding up the war in a lovely little valley in Salzburg, Austria, where we were enthusiastically welcomed by the Austrians as liberators.
Receiving good news and bad news; the good news that the war was over and we were being sent home. The bad news that the 250th was to be inactivated, and we were having to part company with our wartime buddies.
Final Comment
The efforts and the sacrifices of the 250th did not go unrecognized. All the divisions and the other units whose fires we supported looked forward to having the 250th assigned to them. On one occasion the commanding general of the 100th Infantry Division was listening on his radio to the fire commands of his forward observers to the 250th. He called Colonel Jealous to say how astounded he was at the speed with which that "On the way" followed the forward observer's target locations. The Germans, who referred to the US fire as "automatic artillery," most certainly were referring to the 250th. And, of course, we are all proud of our Presidential Unit Citation.
We could not have done the job as we did it without the help and the efforts of everyone, cannoneer, cook, clerk, wireman radio operator, truck driver, mechanic, medic, et al. We were a team and a darn good one! And we give our grateful thanks to those who got us back together in 1964. This team with its wives, children, and grandchildren has become a caring, patriotic organization, the 250th Field Artillery Battalion Family.
Every member of the 250th was, and still is, a hero. One of our members who are no longer with us was a special hero. Lest we forget, our leader, Lt. Col. William K. Jealous, had served in World War I and had remained in the Army Reserve ever since. As the commanding officer of a small tactical unit such as the 250th, he was an old man, maybe forty-six to forty-seven (somehow, that does not seem old now). When we slept in the open, ate out of mess kits, and dived into foxholes, so did he. He was with us from the beginning to the end, and he loved the 250th and everyone in it. So did his wife, Anita, whom we remember with great affection. They would be as proud of the 250th today as they were in 1945. As we remember all our departed members, their wives, and their families, let us put Colonel and Mrs. Jealous at the head of our lists.
As an officer of the Regular Army, I did not return to the States until September 1945. I spent my leave in Savannah, Georgia, becoming reacquainted with my wife, Peg, my parents, Peg's parents, and meeting for the first time my twenty-month-old son, Ford III. I remained in the army until my retirement in 1970 with the following assignments about each of which I could write a book:
1945-1949 Student/observer at the Escuela Superior de Guerra (War College) Mexico in Mexico City
1949-1950 Students Officers' Advanced Course, The Artillery School, Fort Sill, Oklahoma
1950-1953 Assistant Professor of Military Science, The Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia. Promoted to Lt. Colonel
1953-1954 Student, Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
1954-1955 Staff officer, Officer of the Secretary of the General Staff, 3rd Army, Fort MacPherson, Georgia
1955-1956 Commanding Officer, Forty-ninth Field Artillery Battalion, Korea
1956-1958 Staff officer, First Cavalry Division, Tokyo, Japan
1958-1962 Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Department of the Army, The Pentagon, Washington, DC, Promoted to Colonel
1962-1966 Comptroller then G—1 (Personnel), Southern European task Force (SETAF), Verona, Italy
1966-1970 Professor of Military Science, Pennsylvania Military College (PMC), Chester, Pennsylvania
Retiring in 1970, after thirty years of service, I lived in Delaware from 1970 to 1982. In 1982, we returned to Savannah, Georgia, our hometown, living there until 1997. In 1997, we moved to Brandon Wilde, a life care facility in Evans, Georgia (near Augusta). In August 2000, my beloved Peg died. We had been married fifty-seven years. Our son Ford III lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Kathy. Their sons are Ford IV (Chip), age 20, and John, age 18. Our other son Middleton was born in Mexico. He resides in Palo Alto, California, with his wife, Cheryl. Their sons are Thomas, age 23, and Scott, age 20. I still live at Brandon Wilde in Evans, Georgia, will be eighty-eight in November 2005 and am in pretty good health.
* * *
First, I want to say, Col. Fuller's response to write the above story was one without reluctance. I found him not exploiting his "colonel" title that he so honorably earned. Col. Fuller and classmate, Mike F. Bavaro at West Point, would both make colonel. Col. Mike Bavaro is deceased.
I got to meet Colonel Fuller (Ford) for the first time at his Georgia home in 2006. It is at the top of the list of highlights of my life. It was a trip I shall never forget. While we were there, Colonel Fuller first called John Eberhardt and then Herbert Glazer. I personally got to enjoy a three-way conversation via phone. It was a nice surprise. Just as Colonel Jealous, Colonel Fuller is the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, and of natural nobility, which is classless.
I made it a mission to meet Colonel Fuller; words cannot tell in part what it meant to me. Ford is a very captivating person that is enjoyed and loved by all.
Col. William Kingscote Jealous
250th Field Artillery Battalion
Colonel Jealous was born 1894, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where he attended various schools. He received a chemistry degree from Worchester Polytechnic Institute in 1916. His "army career" started when enlisted into the Army Reserves—history tells the rest. Holder of the Bronze Star with OLC; Medal for Merit; Purple Heart; Croix de Guerre with a Bronze Star, Silver Star and Palm.
I chose to follow Col. Ford Fuller's story with this beautiful Eulogy Ford gave at a memorial service for Col. William Jealous & Anita Jealous. It tells of two people he knew, he loved and respected.
* * *
I first met Col. William Jealous almost forty-one years ago. As a young captain, I was assigned to Camp Maxey, Texas, to join a cadre of officers and noncommissioned officers to organize two field artillery battalions. Most of the senior officers of this group were Regular Army officers, but Colonel Jealous, then a lieutenant colonel, was a Reserve officer. Having served in France in World War I, he had remained in the Reserve after his separation from the service and had volunteered for active duty in 1940 as a result of the national emergency.
We immediately began organizing, training, and preparing for the arrival of our "fillers," the young soldiers, mostly inductees, who would make up our two units, the 250th and the 251st Field Artillery Battalions. Colonel Jealous was appointed the commanding officer of the 250th Field Artillery Battalion. By the end of that year, 1942, most of our men had arrived and had been assigned to the five batteries of the battalion.
For the next year, we went through a vigorous training program to develop our two artillery battalions into combat units.
We were among the first occupants of Camp Maxey, an installation of newly constructed, wooden temporary buildings located a few miles from Paris, Texas, a small town in the northeast part of the state. With fifteen to twenty thousand troops stationed at Camp Maxey, Paris, like most army towns of those days, was taxed to the limit. Colonel and Mrs. Jealous, along with all the other married people of the command, had to find their own quarters to rent in town. It was indeed a cultural shock for many of these people, particularly the younger newlyweds, to find themselves under wartime circumstances in Paris, Texas.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The 250th Field Artillery Men Remember World War II by RUBY GWIN Copyright © 2012 by Ruby Gwin. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Dedication....................vAcknowlegements....................vii
Preface....................xi
Ford P. Fuller, Jr....................1
Col. William Kingscote Jealous....................11
John S. Eberhardt....................19
Joe Festervan....................31
Milton J. Broussard....................37
Dick Adair....................41
Jeff Adair....................41
Walter Yuratich....................47
Wallace A. Reid....................53
Carl E. Gwin....................65
Howard Clanton....................77
Wilbur Johnson....................83
Everett Wheeler....................91
Charles Wade, Jr....................97
Peter Cagle....................101
J. D. Duncan....................105
Dr. Robert J. Weaver....................109
Herbert Olshine....................121
Herbert D. Glazer....................127
Byrd L. Lewis....................131
Barney Howard....................139
Jada M. McGuire....................147
Roger Livermore....................155
Kenneth Turner....................159
Monte Bankhead....................163
Allen Bandy....................169
Lindel McCullough....................173
John J. Wann....................181
Arthur Goe....................187
Ralph Phillips....................191
Thomas Oscar "T. O." Johnson....................197
Lecile Wix....................201
Charles F. Dalferes....................205
Jeff D. Hackler....................209
Louis J. Cunningham....................213
Chester Blaylock....................217
Vincent Colombo, Jr....................221
Loran K. Rutledge....................229
XV Corps....................251