WEBVTT

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Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. Our guest in this edition is

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Lockard bud Gas. He is a
US Army veteran of World War Two.

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He served in the forty second Infantry
Division, often called the Rainbow and Bud

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thanks so much for being with us. Thank you. Where were you born

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and raised? Sir? In Maryland
and Baltimore, Baltimore suburbs and raised there.

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What's your memory of the attack on
Pearl Harbor? How did you hear

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that news? I can remember exactly
where I was, I guess everybody else

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and what was shocking? Things were
leading up You could feel the tustiness for

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some reason. And then when that
happened, why we knew we were in

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World War Two? Did you join
the US Army? Did you? And

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Leicester? Were you drafted? No? I wasted? Okay? Where did

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you do your training? Camp Creuber
and Fort Raleigh, Kansas? Fort Raleigh,

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Kansas. First in the cavalry and
then next was in STP. I

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was in the a STP for eight
months and then they broke that up and

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we became infantrymen in Camp Ruber,
Oklahoma. And when did the forty second

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Division get deployed to Europe November forty
four. We arrived I think the end

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of November in France, Marseille.
And where did they put you into the

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fight? First we started in the
area of Strasbourg. We landed at Marseilles,

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drove our own trucks up to the
Strasbourg area area, and all the

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fight was happening in the north of
Strasbourg and Alsize, So that's where I

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think the first duty I was on
was in Strasbourg, just patrolling the city,

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and we were there for Christmas.
Where was your first combat experience?

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Was it around that area? Actually, we went north for quite a distance.

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It scares me when I realized how
far north we were, and the

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lines were very drawn, very loosely, because neither the Germans or we had

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very many men. So we were
facing each other with very few men,

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and both sides were afraid the other
was going to attack, and both sides

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would be in a very weak position. So nobody attacked, which was good,

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and then we had to draw back. I guess the powers that do

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decided we should grow back about twenty
miles and the excuse was to straighten the

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lines, but it was we were
so so loosely put and we ended up

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still loosely had didn't have very minted
at all, but much better shape than

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at first. What was your first
combat experience like and was it different than

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what you expected it to be.
No, we were attacked by a company

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of two hundred men. Some are
ss some there's a bicycle parachute battalion,

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and there was snow. We spotted
them. I drove a truck. I

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drove a truck that pulled the our
and a tank gun which was a fifty

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seven millimeter and it was a right
big powerful gun. It took a crew

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of ten, and of course they
didn't have the gun on. But I

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was detailed to to go back to
the back, and everyone's well to go

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back for ammunition or food or something, and I was to go back.

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And I went out from my truck
and I shall had hit and had given

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me three flat tires. So I
didn't want to drive that. We had

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maybe a foot of snow six inches
to a foot of snow on the ground,

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and they were big, big balloon
tires, and so I walked about

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a block to get another truck with
another my friend, another driver, and

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I looked up and there they were
coming out of the woods, and that

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part of town was only our platoon, which was actually a little more than

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two squads. Said squad's supposed to
be ten men, but I think we

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were down to eight or seven or
eight. He generally always are not full,

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and so the odds were pretty bad. So we ran to a house

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which seemed to be the only two
story house in the area. Had a

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lot of one story houses, and
so right away we ran up stairs and

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fourth from upstairs. So that was
our first experience of real contact. What's

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that like in that close quarters,
little little tight The only thing about it

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was the only place to be,
was the best place to be at the

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time. So we made pretty good
decisions there, and it proved out to

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be pretty good. We lost one
man right off, but then the rest

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of us did well survived. What
did you do tactically? Obviously you're in

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a fairly confined space. So was
it just a matter of keeping the fire

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steady against them? Were you in
a specific position that gave you an advantage

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in any way? I stopped at
the top of the stairs, and I

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knew eventually they'd be throwing grenades up
the stairs or coming in, and they

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started coming in, so I had
what we called a grease gun. I

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stopped them there, and the other
men worked from the windows and had some

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had quite some experiences. One of
my friends was threw a grenade out the

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window and the grenade has seven seventy
account of seven seconds, I suppose,

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which tom. I asked them,
it is too long, and it should

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be more like four or five,
because after you let go of the hamlet

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makes it a pop. And he
just popped it and threw it out,

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and they threw it right back up
in the window and fortunately landed on a

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bed and it was one of those
feather beds, and it went off and

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he dropped to the floor. He
knew it was coming, He had presence

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of mind. Has dropped the floor
because Greig goes canary goes up and he

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didn't get hurt, but it was
feathers all over the place. But it

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was the right thing to do.
So from then on we knew if we

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dropped a canade, just to tailor
it to the situation, which we should

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have talked. Been taught that in
training. I was a little upset about

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that because seven seconds is a long
time. It's a long time, especially

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if you're in fairly close quarters there
a number of yards away. It's a

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little better, but yeah, you
don't want him to have time to throw

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it back. So were you wounded
it all in that No? No,

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no, he had one of where
men was firing out to win though,

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and he had gotten up just before
me and I got up there, and

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I saw he was practically in the
moon that I and I said better get

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out of the window. And at
that point he just they shot him,

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shot him in the head. So, but no one else had any real

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bad wounds. You know, I
ain't got splinters or something, but nobody

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really shot. What did you learn
about yourself that day? Learned to think

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fast, I guess, fast as
he can. That's about it. Do

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you felt like that prepared you for
the rest of the deployment? Well,

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yes, I suppose it did.
Actually, we were so outnumbered, I

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think all of us kind of gave
up on ever coming out of the live,

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which may have been a good thing. And so the general consensus of

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opinion was, will get as many
of them as before they get us.

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So I guess we gave you up. And you know that turned out to

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be positive, And said of native
so and take the fear away probably makes

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you a little more aggressive too.
Oh yes, yes, But we're gonna

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pause for just a moment. We're
gonna go to a quick break, and

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when we come back, we'll continue
your story here on Veterans Chronicles. We're

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talking with US Army veteran Lockered Bud
Gaz, veteran of the forty second Infantry

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Division in World War Two. I'm
Greg Corrumbus, and we'll be right back.

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This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg
Corumbus. I honor to be joined

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today by Lockered Bud Gass. He
is a US Army veteran of World War

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two forty second Infantry Division known as
the Rainbow, which will explain in a

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little bit. But just as a
conclusion to our story about the fight at

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the house, you were awarded the
Bronze Star with valor. How did you

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find out that you were going to
receive that? I guess it was about

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a week later one of the other
gentlemen, in fact, that our leader,

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second lieutenant leader earned that and I
earned. He was in one house

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and I was in another half.
And I learned then that I was to

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receive some I didn't know what but
unfortunately, I was really feeling bad that

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day for some reason. I didn't
go, but he went and he was

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awarded a silver star. What does
it mean to you to have a bronze

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star for your actions? It means
a lot. At least it said I

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did my duty at the right time. Now the Rainbow, the forty second

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Infantry was also attacked by Germany as
part of its Operation north Wind explained what

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that meant, what they were trying
to accomplish, and how you responded to

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it. Okay, the Balls was
at a standstill at Baston. Bastone had

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stopped had at least had did something
to stop that advance. So they were

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to standstill. And I understand the
Hitler. This was Hitler's idea alone,

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which I just learned in the last
few years. And he figured on going

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underneath the balls and coming up on
the other side with some sharp troops.

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So he put his sharpest he had
in that, and a great number of

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them were ss and who who were
thugs? There were nothing but thugs.

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They really in many cases they weren't
real smart guys, but they were just

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rough eel and I ran into him
later and had a little experience with him

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later to learn more about them,
which I figured ended up calling them thugs.

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That's what we call foreshadowing, bud. So we're gonna talk about that

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in a little bit. So how
did that engage? How did that combat

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commence? It was just a constant
shooting out the window and them shooting at

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us most of the day. There
were some laws. We ran a low

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on ammunition, so we had a
back off a little bit, and another

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gentleman and I planned on trying to
see he was He was a German descent

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and he knew German in the language
pretty well, so we knew they were

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out there, but they did move
around some. So he and I were

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going to trying to sneak out and
get through the lines at night. We

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had sort of planned that, but
we didn't have to fall through that thing,

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having though, and and we would
depend on his German to guess get

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us through. I don't know what, but it was to be refined idea.

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We really didn't know what was going
on around us. How do you

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know? You know? We had
our own little fight, and up the

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street was some of our own company
doing the same thing, a little bigger

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contingent. They beat him back all
together. At one time we had a

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smaller contingent of maybe eight guys,
seven or eight guys. They had maybe

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twelve. How close it was the
fighting right here about a little more than

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I'd say about three hundred feet and
two locate is maybe before her feet.

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One thing I've heard a lot in
my interviews this week is how well American

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forces did despite being outnumbered. The
Germans had a whole company. Oh here

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we go again, this is badly
outnumbered. Yeah, yeah, that's why.

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I don't think it was stated too
much. But I think most of

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the guys that give it up altogether, will we realize the numbers, and

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that does something to release your fear. You know, no, we're never

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going to get out of this thing. So somehow another set you free.

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Take more chances. You're going to
get it in. Yeah, so might

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as well through everything you can.
Yes, And so as you started to

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succeed against these overwhelming odds, how
did that change your mindset and what you

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thought you could accomplish? It was
certainly encouraging. I had a plan that

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they should have had. They should
have set the house on fire and the

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basement because they got in not in
the basement, of it in the first

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floor. They got into the first
floor and fired up to the floor.

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That was a little hairy because bullets
come around through. How did you respond

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to that? Don't move otherwise they
could hear you. Yeah, they hear

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where you were. Nothing last long. But it was an idea. But

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if I were them, I would
have set the whole first floor on fire

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smoked us out. Now you mentioned
that this is the SS you're dealing with.

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How are the SS different as fighters
than the regular? Very mocked They

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just the regular probably becomes like we
were. They were drafted or made to

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fight. We weren't ready to fight. I could have gotten out of fighting,

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I suppose, But they were not
not professionals, and the SS especially

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train but in order to get a
typical good SS um they had to come

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from pretty tough stock. I would
think, Yeah, they're tougher men.

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Now, the SS is mainly known
for harassing innocent people. Usually they're rounding

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people up, or they're terrorizing people
who really couldn't fight back. Yeah,

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they had got a gay a little
bit extra fun out of that. It

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seems like they struggled once somebody who
was equal to their firepower or better could

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could return it. I don't know
about that. They they just just for

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dumb fighters. Some ssor hear that
and do way with me. But they

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were thugs, so whenever you were
definition of thugs are pretty well, that's

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them. Didn't have too much unch
and I had one later on after a

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couple of months later, we were
guarding railroad terminal that they were bringing wood

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in and the ass were put and
we're put to stalling this wood up for

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the civilians because this was after the
war, and we were chosen to watch

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them, and our orders were to
shoot to kill. You don't get that

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very often, so if they started
running away, if we kill them,

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there was no question. So that's
a little out of the ordinary. It

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gives you a little idea what other
people thought of Bud. We're gonna pause

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one more time. We'll come right
back and talk about the rest of your

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story right here on Veterans Chronicles.
Our guest is Lockered Bud Gas. He

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is a US Army veteran of World
War two forty second infantry division called the

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Rainbow. I'm Greg Corumbus Veterans Chronicles. We'll be right back. This is

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Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus honored
to be joined today by Lockered bud Gas,

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the US Army veteran of World War
Two, and the forty second Infantry

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Division known as the Rainbow and bud
Towards the end of the war, you

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took part in the liberation of Dakao
concentration Camp. Tell us about coming into

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Dacao and coming to realize what was
happening there. Okay, I was maybe

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an hour about at least in an
hour after the first of our troops entered

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or discovered it, and they had
somewhat of a fight the first people.

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We didn't have any fight with him. In fact, we were surplus.

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Daka is only nine miles north of
Munich. The overall idea was to capture

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Munich before the Germans would start kicking
up, so the big drive was to

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get there in a hurry. So
they sent us our company, our anti

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tank company on the road to Munich. But first before that, they told

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me to take my squ out and
we'll go through the woods which has ran

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alongside of the camp, because they
thought the guards were putting on the guard

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of the prisoners and trying to escape. So our our plan was to clear

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that woods. That's that's what they
told. So we're walking through and all

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of a sudden the bushes start shaking, and here comes these these guys with

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the stripes. Well, of course
we were ready to shoot them, but

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we saw they were pretty skinny and
emasculated, and we believed that they were

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inmates and not guards. And one
came over to me and hugged me all

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up. And here he's all full
of sores and and skinnymall bones. They

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were really so wonderfully grateful that we
were there. And one of them dropped

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down and kissed my boots, and
that brought a tear to my eye.

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That's pretty hard to take. Were
you aware of what the Germans, that

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they even had these camps and what
they were doing there? No, no,

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not before we found that only or
Son. We went on to many.

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How shocked were you? You must
have been completely shocked if you had

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no previous knowledge of this. Yes, I really didn't get to see the

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whole camp right off. I could
kind of see in there, and I

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saw bonnies and so forth. But
since they were already they didn't need us.

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You just kept moving along. Yeah, So they sent us on to

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get too many and what happened when
you got to Munich. Well, I

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got the honor of, I think, driving the first truck into the middle

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of Munich, which is the Roighthouse, which is the government building. If

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you've ever been there, you've ever
been there. The Marian plazas, that

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big concrete plaza in front where all
the figures from the clock are, and

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they weren't there of course. Anyway, I was the first truck to drive

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up there. Of course we didn't
know what was there. And that's a

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little touchy when you just take off
and drive someplace because you're really not ready

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for a fight. You know,
you're in a truck and you're good targets.

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But that all came out very peaceful. There were other trucks that came

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and other troops that came right behind
us, and we went into the offices

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there. They were full of German
army officers offices, and we brought the

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officers out and still to watch and
their lovers so forth, and they were

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peaceful. They do was all.
So it wasn't any action there. Now,

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the liberation of Dakaut happened in late
April, and so Munich was a

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little bit after that, and so
we're getting very close to the end of

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the war in Europe. Was Munich
your last action or was there a little?

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Essentially and that wasn't much, which
wasn't bad today, which brings us

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to the explanation of why your division
is known as the rainbow. Oh,

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rainbow was in World War One.
Macgonthur was his head and if you can

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look on the patch, just a
half of rainbow right. During World War

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One it went all way. Were
on the other half, but they lost

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half there were men, so they
cut the patch in here. They have

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a They had a really big reputation
that we were supposed to match. That's

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a good thing, but they did
have a great reputation and the author did

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well. It was interesting though,
because I saw, I think it was

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in studying for your interview that if
you look at the path that your division

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took, yeah, it was,
it looks like a rainbow. Unintentional I'm

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sure, Well, I don't know. Our rainbow bosses and in generals were

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pretty rainbowish. I've also this is
not actually a story about you, but

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I've heard that you've told a story
about a fellow soldier named James Hickey,

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Yes, who on the one hand, was a very bad at predicting his

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own future. Go ahead and tell
okay, he was in my squad.

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And when the Germans came, I
wasn't with my squad. I was with

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another squad, but the house where
we were staying, and I had just

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left. Suddenly they realized that there
were Germans in the kitchen. So and

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and when I left, I was
at last home watched I woke somebody up,

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and they've as as it happened many
times, they fell back to sleep.

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So they had no warning. So
they all ran and jumped out the

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front window, except Hickey, who
was an old man of about thirty two

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or thirty four years old with three
kids. He went in to see what

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was going on in the kitchen,
and of course they had him right there.

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So they had, let's call him
a good German and a bad German.

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The good German wanted to keep him
alive, of the bad German wanted

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to do with him away, run
right away, because they had no way

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of handling. But finally the good
German prevailed and they left and they were

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running back to their to their lines, and they were running across the field

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and the show hit. He killed
the bad Germans. Okay, we got

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him out of the way. So
the good Germans said to Hicky, he

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gave him his He gave me his
pistol. He said, we don't know

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who's in those woods by now,
so if there's Germans, I'll take my

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rifle and take you prisoner. If
they're Americans, you take me prisoner,

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depending on who's in there. So
that worked out pretty good for Hicky,

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but it didn't work out that great
for the good German. No, it

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didn't either. He was he was
eventually killed or killed right after that,

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so both the Germans were killed.
He said Hickey rolled in a into a

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ditch in the tank kind of almost
run right over him, but he survived.

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And Hickey was had a personality of
his own. He was always an

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up guy and good to be with, and when he was had had had

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a close when his voice would always
go up real high. So we knew

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when Hickey was was having a little
trouble with things. Better watch. How

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did you find out the war was
over? Oh? I think it was

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in the air. You know.
Here we were. We were maybe I

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don't know, ten miles south east
of a Munich on a farm, so

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it was kind of in the air. We had no no action after MUNI

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really till Mountain anything. And actually
we knew it had to come to an

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end sometime and everybody an So you
weren't surprised at all. No, not

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really. Well, but we're just
about out of time. But as I

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always like to conclude our interviews,
given your tremendous service to our country,

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what would you say you're most proud
of from your time in the military.

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Oh, gosh, I guess um, I was proud of them away,

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every everybody acted under pressure would be
one thing I'd be proud in my group,

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and I think it was generally true. I was. I was proud

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of the general soldier over there.
They married, many married men didn't behave

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but most of them did, believe
it or not, and the other guys

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were well behaved. I think proud
of the American Army at that time.

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So I guess that would be answer
to that question. Well, Bud,

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it's been a pleasure to meet you, and I thank you for your time

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today, and I thank you most
of all for your service. Well,

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thank you very much. Lockard bud
Gas is a US Army veteran of World

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War Two. Veteran of the forty
second Infantry Division known as the Rainbow.

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I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans
Chronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus

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00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:07.680
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center.

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00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:12.400
For more information, please visit American
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00:28:12.440 --> 00:28:18.720
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