Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is
Lockard bud Gas. He is a US Army veteran of World War Two.
He served in the forty second Infantry Division, often called the Rainbow and Bud
thanks so much for being with us. Thank you. Where were you born
and raised? Sir? In Maryland and Baltimore, Baltimore suburbs and raised there.
What's your memory of the attack on Pearl Harbor? How did you hear
that news? I can remember exactly where I was, I guess everybody else
and what was shocking? Things were leading up You could feel the tustiness for
some reason. And then when that happened, why we knew we were in
World War Two? Did you join the US Army? Did you? And
Leicester? Were you drafted? No? I wasted? Okay? Where did
you do your training? Camp Creuber and Fort Raleigh, Kansas? Fort Raleigh,
Kansas. First in the cavalry and then next was in STP. I
was in the a STP for eight months and then they broke that up and
we became infantrymen in Camp Ruber, Oklahoma. And when did the forty second
Division get deployed to Europe November forty four. We arrived I think the end
of November in France, Marseille. And where did they put you into the
fight? First we started in the area of Strasbourg. We landed at Marseilles,
drove our own trucks up to the Strasbourg area area, and all the
fight was happening in the north of Strasbourg and Alsize, So that's where I
think the first duty I was on was in Strasbourg, just patrolling the city,
and we were there for Christmas. Where was your first combat experience?
Was it around that area? Actually, we went north for quite a distance.
It scares me when I realized how far north we were, and the
lines were very drawn, very loosely, because neither the Germans or we had
very many men. So we were facing each other with very few men,
and both sides were afraid the other was going to attack, and both sides
would be in a very weak position. So nobody attacked, which was good,
and then we had to draw back. I guess the powers that do
decided we should grow back about twenty miles and the excuse was to straighten the
lines, but it was we were so so loosely put and we ended up
still loosely had didn't have very minted at all, but much better shape than
at first. What was your first combat experience like and was it different than
what you expected it to be. No, we were attacked by a company
of two hundred men. Some are ss some there's a bicycle parachute battalion,
and there was snow. We spotted them. I drove a truck. I
drove a truck that pulled the our and a tank gun which was a fifty
seven millimeter and it was a right big powerful gun. It took a crew
of ten, and of course they didn't have the gun on. But I
was detailed to to go back to the back, and everyone's well to go
back for ammunition or food or something, and I was to go back.
And I went out from my truck and I shall had hit and had given
me three flat tires. So I didn't want to drive that. We had
maybe a foot of snow six inches to a foot of snow on the ground,
and they were big, big balloon tires, and so I walked about
a block to get another truck with another my friend, another driver, and
I looked up and there they were coming out of the woods, and that
part of town was only our platoon, which was actually a little more than
two squads. Said squad's supposed to be ten men, but I think we
were down to eight or seven or eight. He generally always are not full,
and so the odds were pretty bad. So we ran to a house
which seemed to be the only two story house in the area. Had a
lot of one story houses, and so right away we ran up stairs and
fourth from upstairs. So that was our first experience of real contact. What's
that like in that close quarters, little little tight The only thing about it
was the only place to be, was the best place to be at the
time. So we made pretty good decisions there, and it proved out to
be pretty good. We lost one man right off, but then the rest
of us did well survived. What did you do tactically? Obviously you're in
a fairly confined space. So was it just a matter of keeping the fire
steady against them? Were you in a specific position that gave you an advantage
in any way? I stopped at the top of the stairs, and I
knew eventually they'd be throwing grenades up the stairs or coming in, and they
started coming in, so I had what we called a grease gun. I
stopped them there, and the other men worked from the windows and had some
had quite some experiences. One of my friends was threw a grenade out the
window and the grenade has seven seventy account of seven seconds, I suppose,
which tom. I asked them, it is too long, and it should
be more like four or five, because after you let go of the hamlet
makes it a pop. And he just popped it and threw it out,
and they threw it right back up in the window and fortunately landed on a
bed and it was one of those feather beds, and it went off and
he dropped to the floor. He knew it was coming, He had presence
of mind. Has dropped the floor because Greig goes canary goes up and he
didn't get hurt, but it was feathers all over the place. But it
was the right thing to do. So from then on we knew if we
dropped a canade, just to tailor it to the situation, which we should
have talked. Been taught that in training. I was a little upset about
that because seven seconds is a long time. It's a long time, especially
if you're in fairly close quarters there a number of yards away. It's a
little better, but yeah, you don't want him to have time to throw
it back. So were you wounded it all in that No? No,
no, he had one of where men was firing out to win though,
and he had gotten up just before me and I got up there, and
I saw he was practically in the moon that I and I said better get
out of the window. And at that point he just they shot him,
shot him in the head. So, but no one else had any real
bad wounds. You know, I ain't got splinters or something, but nobody
really shot. What did you learn about yourself that day? Learned to think
fast, I guess, fast as he can. That's about it. Do
you felt like that prepared you for the rest of the deployment? Well,
yes, I suppose it did. Actually, we were so outnumbered, I
think all of us kind of gave up on ever coming out of the live,
which may have been a good thing. And so the general consensus of
opinion was, will get as many of them as before they get us.
So I guess we gave you up. And you know that turned out to
be positive, And said of native so and take the fear away probably makes
you a little more aggressive too. Oh yes, yes, But we're gonna
pause for just a moment. We're gonna go to a quick break, and
when we come back, we'll continue your story here on Veterans Chronicles. We're
talking with US Army veteran Lockered Bud Gaz, veteran of the forty second Infantry
Division in World War Two. I'm Greg Corrumbus, and we'll be right back.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. I honor to be joined
today by Lockered Bud Gass. He is a US Army veteran of World War
two forty second Infantry Division known as the Rainbow, which will explain in a
little bit. But just as a conclusion to our story about the fight at
the house, you were awarded the Bronze Star with valor. How did you
find out that you were going to receive that? I guess it was about
a week later one of the other gentlemen, in fact, that our leader,
second lieutenant leader earned that and I earned. He was in one house
and I was in another half. And I learned then that I was to
receive some I didn't know what but unfortunately, I was really feeling bad that
day for some reason. I didn't go, but he went and he was
awarded a silver star. What does it mean to you to have a bronze
star for your actions? It means a lot. At least it said I
did my duty at the right time. Now the Rainbow, the forty second
Infantry was also attacked by Germany as part of its Operation north Wind explained what
that meant, what they were trying to accomplish, and how you responded to
it. Okay, the Balls was at a standstill at Baston. Bastone had
stopped had at least had did something to stop that advance. So they were
to standstill. And I understand the Hitler. This was Hitler's idea alone,
which I just learned in the last few years. And he figured on going
underneath the balls and coming up on the other side with some sharp troops.
So he put his sharpest he had in that, and a great number of
them were ss and who who were thugs? There were nothing but thugs.
They really in many cases they weren't real smart guys, but they were just
rough eel and I ran into him later and had a little experience with him
later to learn more about them, which I figured ended up calling them thugs.
That's what we call foreshadowing, bud. So we're gonna talk about that
in a little bit. So how did that engage? How did that combat
commence? It was just a constant shooting out the window and them shooting at
us most of the day. There were some laws. We ran a low
on ammunition, so we had a back off a little bit, and another
gentleman and I planned on trying to see he was He was a German descent
and he knew German in the language pretty well, so we knew they were
out there, but they did move around some. So he and I were
going to trying to sneak out and get through the lines at night. We
had sort of planned that, but we didn't have to fall through that thing,
having though, and and we would depend on his German to guess get
us through. I don't know what, but it was to be refined idea.
We really didn't know what was going on around us. How do you
know? You know? We had our own little fight, and up the
street was some of our own company doing the same thing, a little bigger
contingent. They beat him back all together. At one time we had a
smaller contingent of maybe eight guys, seven or eight guys. They had maybe
twelve. How close it was the fighting right here about a little more than
I'd say about three hundred feet and two locate is maybe before her feet.
One thing I've heard a lot in my interviews this week is how well American
forces did despite being outnumbered. The Germans had a whole company. Oh here
we go again, this is badly outnumbered. Yeah, yeah, that's why.
I don't think it was stated too much. But I think most of
the guys that give it up altogether, will we realize the numbers, and
that does something to release your fear. You know, no, we're never
going to get out of this thing. So somehow another set you free.
Take more chances. You're going to get it in. Yeah, so might
as well through everything you can. Yes, And so as you started to
succeed against these overwhelming odds, how did that change your mindset and what you
thought you could accomplish? It was certainly encouraging. I had a plan that
they should have had. They should have set the house on fire and the
basement because they got in not in the basement, of it in the first
floor. They got into the first floor and fired up to the floor.
That was a little hairy because bullets come around through. How did you respond
to that? Don't move otherwise they could hear you. Yeah, they hear
where you were. Nothing last long. But it was an idea. But
if I were them, I would have set the whole first floor on fire
smoked us out. Now you mentioned that this is the SS you're dealing with.
How are the SS different as fighters than the regular? Very mocked They
just the regular probably becomes like we were. They were drafted or made to
fight. We weren't ready to fight. I could have gotten out of fighting,
I suppose, But they were not not professionals, and the SS especially
train but in order to get a typical good SS um they had to come
from pretty tough stock. I would think, Yeah, they're tougher men.
Now, the SS is mainly known for harassing innocent people. Usually they're rounding
people up, or they're terrorizing people who really couldn't fight back. Yeah,
they had got a gay a little bit extra fun out of that. It
seems like they struggled once somebody who was equal to their firepower or better could
could return it. I don't know about that. They they just just for
dumb fighters. Some ssor hear that and do way with me. But they
were thugs, so whenever you were definition of thugs are pretty well, that's
them. Didn't have too much unch and I had one later on after a
couple of months later, we were guarding railroad terminal that they were bringing wood
in and the ass were put and we're put to stalling this wood up for
the civilians because this was after the war, and we were chosen to watch
them, and our orders were to shoot to kill. You don't get that
very often, so if they started running away, if we kill them,
there was no question. So that's a little out of the ordinary. It
gives you a little idea what other people thought of Bud. We're gonna pause
one more time. We'll come right back and talk about the rest of your
story right here on Veterans Chronicles. Our guest is Lockered Bud Gas. He
is a US Army veteran of World War two forty second infantry division called the
Rainbow. I'm Greg Corumbus Veterans Chronicles. We'll be right back. This is
Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus honored to be joined today by Lockered bud Gas,
the US Army veteran of World War Two, and the forty second Infantry
Division known as the Rainbow and bud Towards the end of the war, you
took part in the liberation of Dakao concentration Camp. Tell us about coming into
Dacao and coming to realize what was happening there. Okay, I was maybe
an hour about at least in an hour after the first of our troops entered
or discovered it, and they had somewhat of a fight the first people.
We didn't have any fight with him. In fact, we were surplus.
Daka is only nine miles north of Munich. The overall idea was to capture
Munich before the Germans would start kicking up, so the big drive was to
get there in a hurry. So they sent us our company, our anti
tank company on the road to Munich. But first before that, they told
me to take my squ out and we'll go through the woods which has ran
alongside of the camp, because they thought the guards were putting on the guard
of the prisoners and trying to escape. So our our plan was to clear
that woods. That's that's what they told. So we're walking through and all
of a sudden the bushes start shaking, and here comes these these guys with
the stripes. Well, of course we were ready to shoot them, but
we saw they were pretty skinny and emasculated, and we believed that they were
inmates and not guards. And one came over to me and hugged me all
up. And here he's all full of sores and and skinnymall bones. They
were really so wonderfully grateful that we were there. And one of them dropped
down and kissed my boots, and that brought a tear to my eye.
That's pretty hard to take. Were you aware of what the Germans, that
they even had these camps and what they were doing there? No, no,
not before we found that only or Son. We went on to many.
How shocked were you? You must have been completely shocked if you had
no previous knowledge of this. Yes, I really didn't get to see the
whole camp right off. I could kind of see in there, and I
saw bonnies and so forth. But since they were already they didn't need us.
You just kept moving along. Yeah, So they sent us on to
get too many and what happened when you got to Munich. Well, I
got the honor of, I think, driving the first truck into the middle
of Munich, which is the Roighthouse, which is the government building. If
you've ever been there, you've ever been there. The Marian plazas, that
big concrete plaza in front where all the figures from the clock are, and
they weren't there of course. Anyway, I was the first truck to drive
up there. Of course we didn't know what was there. And that's a
little touchy when you just take off and drive someplace because you're really not ready
for a fight. You know, you're in a truck and you're good targets.
But that all came out very peaceful. There were other trucks that came
and other troops that came right behind us, and we went into the offices
there. They were full of German army officers offices, and we brought the
officers out and still to watch and their lovers so forth, and they were
peaceful. They do was all. So it wasn't any action there. Now,
the liberation of Dakaut happened in late April, and so Munich was a
little bit after that, and so we're getting very close to the end of
the war in Europe. Was Munich your last action or was there a little?
Essentially and that wasn't much, which wasn't bad today, which brings us
to the explanation of why your division is known as the rainbow. Oh,
rainbow was in World War One. Macgonthur was his head and if you can
look on the patch, just a half of rainbow right. During World War
One it went all way. Were on the other half, but they lost
half there were men, so they cut the patch in here. They have
a They had a really big reputation that we were supposed to match. That's
a good thing, but they did have a great reputation and the author did
well. It was interesting though, because I saw, I think it was
in studying for your interview that if you look at the path that your division
took, yeah, it was, it looks like a rainbow. Unintentional I'm
sure, Well, I don't know. Our rainbow bosses and in generals were
pretty rainbowish. I've also this is not actually a story about you, but
I've heard that you've told a story about a fellow soldier named James Hickey,
Yes, who on the one hand, was a very bad at predicting his
own future. Go ahead and tell okay, he was in my squad.
And when the Germans came, I wasn't with my squad. I was with
another squad, but the house where we were staying, and I had just
left. Suddenly they realized that there were Germans in the kitchen. So and
and when I left, I was at last home watched I woke somebody up,
and they've as as it happened many times, they fell back to sleep.
So they had no warning. So they all ran and jumped out the
front window, except Hickey, who was an old man of about thirty two
or thirty four years old with three kids. He went in to see what
was going on in the kitchen, and of course they had him right there.
So they had, let's call him a good German and a bad German.
The good German wanted to keep him alive, of the bad German wanted
to do with him away, run right away, because they had no way
of handling. But finally the good German prevailed and they left and they were
running back to their to their lines, and they were running across the field
and the show hit. He killed the bad Germans. Okay, we got
him out of the way. So the good Germans said to Hicky, he
gave him his He gave me his pistol. He said, we don't know
who's in those woods by now, so if there's Germans, I'll take my
rifle and take you prisoner. If they're Americans, you take me prisoner,
depending on who's in there. So that worked out pretty good for Hicky,
but it didn't work out that great for the good German. No, it
didn't either. He was he was eventually killed or killed right after that,
so both the Germans were killed. He said Hickey rolled in a into a
ditch in the tank kind of almost run right over him, but he survived.
And Hickey was had a personality of his own. He was always an
up guy and good to be with, and when he was had had had
a close when his voice would always go up real high. So we knew
when Hickey was was having a little trouble with things. Better watch. How
did you find out the war was over? Oh? I think it was
in the air. You know. Here we were. We were maybe I
don't know, ten miles south east of a Munich on a farm, so
it was kind of in the air. We had no no action after MUNI
really till Mountain anything. And actually we knew it had to come to an
end sometime and everybody an So you weren't surprised at all. No, not
really. Well, but we're just about out of time. But as I
always like to conclude our interviews, given your tremendous service to our country,
what would you say you're most proud of from your time in the military.
Oh, gosh, I guess um, I was proud of them away,
every everybody acted under pressure would be one thing I'd be proud in my group,
and I think it was generally true. I was. I was proud
of the general soldier over there. They married, many married men didn't behave
but most of them did, believe it or not, and the other guys
were well behaved. I think proud of the American Army at that time.
So I guess that would be answer to that question. Well, Bud,
it's been a pleasure to meet you, and I thank you for your time
today, and I thank you most of all for your service. Well,
thank you very much. Lockard bud Gas is a US Army veteran of World
War Two. Veteran of the forty second Infantry Division known as the Rainbow.
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center.
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