Speaker 1: Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is John Bill Kongable. He's a US Army
Speaker 1: veteran of World War Two. Mister cong Gable served in
Speaker 1: an anti tank company in the eighty ninth Infantry Division.
Speaker 1: He fought across the Rhine River and his unit helped
Speaker 1: to liberate the Ordriff concentration camp in early April nineteen
Speaker 1: forty five. Bill Congable was born in Oklahoma and lived
Speaker 1: there until he was drafted into the US Army during
Speaker 1: the war. But even earlier than that, he remembers getting
Speaker 1: the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor.
Speaker 2: I was in my home and we heard the news,
Speaker 2: and everybody gathered around radios to listen all of the
Speaker 2: events as they came on the radio.
Speaker 1: Do you remember how you reacted to the news.
Speaker 2: Well, everybody was mad as hell and surprised. One thing
Speaker 2: that we learned after a few days after Pearl Harbor
Speaker 2: was that there was a There were two pilots who
Speaker 2: got off the ground and shot down several Japanese airplanes,
Speaker 2: and one of them was Kenneth who came from Homiony.
Speaker 2: He was born and raised in homony. He stayed in
Speaker 2: the service and got to be a general.
Speaker 1: How old were you when Pearl Harbor was attacked?
Speaker 3: Fifteen?
Speaker 1: You were drafted into the army less than a week
Speaker 1: after graduating from high school? Is that right?
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: Were you expecting that?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 2: I was actually eighteen in February, and the head of
Speaker 2: the draft lord lived across the street from me. I
Speaker 2: don't know whether it was a particular favor, but he said, Billy,
Speaker 2: you can graduate from high school and then you're in
Speaker 2: the army. And so I graduated I think May twenty fifth,
Speaker 2: and I think I was drafted in May twenty on
Speaker 2: May twenty eighth.
Speaker 1: Where did you go for training?
Speaker 2: I went to Fort Sill for my induction. I took
Speaker 2: a train ride down to Fort Sill, and that was
Speaker 2: the second time I'd ever been on a train. We
Speaker 2: had a big station in town and a lot of
Speaker 2: trains going through, but only was on one other. I
Speaker 2: stayed there for I think it must have been a
Speaker 2: couple of weeks, and then they interviewed me to see
Speaker 2: what kind of skill or craft I might have, and
Speaker 2: I went to Camp fannin Texas for my infantry basic training.
Speaker 3: Camp Fannin was up.
Speaker 2: Near Tyler Longview in Northeast Texas.
Speaker 3: Northeast Texas.
Speaker 2: I went to the eighty ninth Infantry Division in Camp Butner,
Speaker 2: North Carolina. Neither Camp Buttner or Camp Fannin or in
Speaker 2: service anymore. I stayed there and got my training in
Speaker 2: the Anti Tank Company. I think I went up there
Speaker 2: in September around September. Then in January the division got
Speaker 2: carried by train up to Boston and we sailed from
Speaker 2: Boston in January of nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1: What does anti tank training consist of?
Speaker 2: The Anti Tank Company uses what is called a fifty
Speaker 2: seven millimeter rifle, which is like it looks like a
Speaker 2: little artillery piece and it's it's on a two wheel carriage,
Speaker 2: but it's designed with a very heavy powder charge and
Speaker 2: a very heavy projectile which has spent uradium in it.
Speaker 3: To make it heavy.
Speaker 2: And I was a crew member on one of the
Speaker 2: one of the tank anty tank guns. We had a
Speaker 2: gunner who used the site to the aim the gun,
Speaker 2: and we had a loader who put the shell in,
Speaker 2: took the old got the old shell disposed of, and
Speaker 2: put a new one in. And then we had a
Speaker 2: couple of more people moving ammunition around. I guess, kind
Speaker 2: of standing guard. Any tank weapon was designed so that
Speaker 2: if when the projectile hit a tank, it would actually
Speaker 2: melt the metal on the side of the tank and
Speaker 2: spring molten metal round inside. And we practiced shooting at
Speaker 2: obsolete tanks. We never fired at a tank. And all
Speaker 2: the time we were in that.
Speaker 1: Company, how fast could you move that around?
Speaker 3: How fast could we reload and fire? Exactly? Probably thirty seconds.
Speaker 1: So you arrived in Europe in early nineteen forty five, yes,
Speaker 1: and where did you go first?
Speaker 2: We went to Camp Lucky Strike, which was one of
Speaker 2: the cigarette camps along the coast where troops coming in
Speaker 2: from the States got organized to go into combat. We
Speaker 2: landed at Laharvor in a driving snowstorm and it was cold, cold, cold,
Speaker 2: And when we got to the camp, our tent was
Speaker 2: laid out on the ground, so we had to erect
Speaker 2: our own thirty man tent.
Speaker 3: I guess the thing that was that you.
Speaker 2: Most suffered from, besides just being cold, was a little
Speaker 2: tren was out in a field away from the tents,
Speaker 2: and so if you had to go, you had to
Speaker 2: go out in the cold, cold, cold, and part of
Speaker 2: the time, it was in snow.
Speaker 1: That's the same winter of the Bulge.
Speaker 2: So I yeah, I was inducted just about the time
Speaker 2: of D Day and we landed in France when the
Speaker 2: Battle of the Bulge was going on. I think we
Speaker 2: landed in mid January and it was the first part
Speaker 2: of March before we went into combat. And it was
Speaker 2: a puzzle to me while we were sitting around so long,
Speaker 2: and somebody said, well, think about the situation there. They're
Speaker 2: surrounded and we've got other military units wheeling around and
Speaker 2: going back up to the Battle of the Bulch and
Speaker 2: they don't want a Green division in. They're missing things up.
Speaker 2: That's the only reason. But when we did enter combat
Speaker 2: in March in Luxembourg, that was early March.
Speaker 3: The war was over in May. We only had.
Speaker 2: Two months of combat experience, and in that time we
Speaker 2: went from Luxembourg all the way to Germany and some
Speaker 2: of our troops ended up in Czechoslovakia.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of progress.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, it was fast the tanks. We were following
Speaker 2: the tanks. That's what the infantry was doing. The tanks
Speaker 2: would go blaaring ass up through every town and the
Speaker 2: infantry would come along and clear the town of any
Speaker 2: remaining German soldiers. Sometimes they would stop in that town
Speaker 2: and go take over a German house and spend the night,
Speaker 2: and another unit would leap frog through.
Speaker 1: What other weapons were you carrying besides the anti tank gun?
Speaker 2: Well, we carried an empty back. Crew members carried carbine
Speaker 2: in one carbine and the gun crew and the loader
Speaker 2: carry of forty five automatic pistol. After we crossed the Rhine,
Speaker 2: Patten said we don't need anti tank guns anymore, and
Speaker 2: we became a rifle company, so everybody carried a nam one.
Speaker 2: That was one of the main weapons we trained on.
Speaker 2: We trained on all of the weapons that an infantry
Speaker 2: company might have to use. A thirty milimere, a machine gun, mortar,
Speaker 2: thirty thirty milimere and sixty milimere border.
Speaker 3: There was what was called a.
Speaker 2: Browning automatic rifle of the bar. We didn't get pistol
Speaker 2: training in basic training that we got that training. Uh,
Speaker 2: after we got to the United Division.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of guys got attached to their rifles.
Speaker 1: Would it would would that be true for you?
Speaker 2: Not really in the infantry. In basic training you answered
Speaker 2: your roll call all with your dog tag number, and
Speaker 2: you had to report every so often the number on
Speaker 2: your rifle. When we got into combat, there was no
Speaker 2: such keeping records of anything you grabbed, grabbed, whatever gun
Speaker 2: you were using at the time, and there wasn't any
Speaker 2: wasn't any record keeping go if in basic you if
Speaker 2: you lost your rifle, you were in deep trouble or
Speaker 2: in in Europe, that wasn't a problem. At one stop
Speaker 2: we made, we passed by a house that was already
Speaker 2: occupied and somebody had their sniper rifle leaning up against
Speaker 2: the wall out just out in the open street. I
Speaker 2: don't know who might have stolen it, but it wasn't secure.
Speaker 2: I'd say that all right.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about March and your first entry into combat.
Speaker 1: Where was that and what was it like?
Speaker 2: That was in Luxembourg and in the anti tank company.
Speaker 2: We rode in trucks pulling our gun behind us. The
Speaker 2: rifle companies did the main ground fighting. When we crossed
Speaker 2: the Mozelle, some of the people who were in the
Speaker 2: first company said it was a pretty intense battle. After that,
Speaker 2: we traveled in our trucks, waiting, waiting to be called
Speaker 2: on to use our anti tank weapons until the crossing
Speaker 2: of the Rhine.
Speaker 1: That's Bill Kong Gable. He's a US Army veteran of
Speaker 1: World War Two who fought in an anti tank unit
Speaker 1: that saw intense action while crossing the Rhine River. Miss
Speaker 1: the aftermath of the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis at
Speaker 1: the or Driff concentration camp. When we come back, con
Speaker 1: Gable describes the vicious fighting to get across the Rhine.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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Speaker 1: This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
Speaker 1: this edition is John Bill kong Gable. He served in
Speaker 1: an anti tank unit within the eighty ninth Infantry Division.
Speaker 1: Later in our conversation we'll discuss the unspeakable horrors that
Speaker 1: Conggable witnessed at the order of Concentration camp. But right now,
Speaker 1: con Gable takes us to the most intense combat of
Speaker 1: his time in World War II, crossing the Rhine in
Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen forty five.
Speaker 3: Well, that was quite a battle.
Speaker 2: Our commanders had planned to have a surprise night crossing,
Speaker 2: and the Rhine's in a deep valley there, and on
Speaker 2: the American side, we placed their anti tank companies on
Speaker 2: the top of the hill pointing down to cover any
Speaker 2: thing that we needed to shoot at. And at two o'clock.
Speaker 2: The first company crossed. They were in in one assault boats,
Speaker 2: which were just a metal square brow pile boat with
Speaker 2: eight soldiers, four on each side paddling and an engineer
Speaker 2: in the front and an engineer in the back. And
Speaker 2: the first company crossed without any resistance. And when the
Speaker 2: second company started across, the Germans had anticipated us and
Speaker 2: mounted twenty millimeter anti aircraft guns and machine guns culverts
Speaker 2: under the road on the other side of the river,
Speaker 2: set up in a perfect crisscross fire, firing at water
Speaker 2: level so that no way you can get through that.
Speaker 2: Our second company ran into that resistance. The first things
Speaker 2: the Germans did was are a twenty milimere any aircraft
Speaker 2: gun to gasoline barge which was parked along the river,
Speaker 2: and it set the barge on fire in the valley.
Speaker 2: Was dislike daylight. That company, as I understood it, had
Speaker 2: eighty five percent casualties dead and wounded, and there were
Speaker 2: quite a few missing. We kept firing at the German positions,
Speaker 2: and the first company that crossed over came around and
Speaker 2: between the two of us we eliminated the German opposition.
Speaker 2: One thing I'll never forget is that during the crossing
Speaker 2: of the second company. Between berths of gunfire, we could
Speaker 2: hear the men on the river screaming and hollering. And
Speaker 2: the one thing that this brings me to tears every
Speaker 2: time I think about it. One guy said, old Mama,
Speaker 2: you just can't imagine the suffering that guy was having.
Speaker 2: After the German positions were knocked out, it was three
Speaker 2: o'clock or four o'clock in the morning, and I sat
Speaker 2: down and went to sleep and woke up at sunrise.
Speaker 2: The ally was covered with a smoke strain. We crossed
Speaker 2: pulling our weapon on a pontoon bridge that the engineers
Speaker 2: had built at noon. It's just amazing they got in
Speaker 2: there that quick and built a bridge. After the fighting.
Speaker 1: Take me back to the night before. Where are you
Speaker 1: set up?
Speaker 3: We were?
Speaker 2: We were set up on the top of the hill
Speaker 2: on the American side, with our guns pointing down, and
Speaker 2: our weapons were not as effective as they could be
Speaker 2: because it was just one solid bullet and you had
Speaker 2: to make a pretty direct hit to do any damage.
Speaker 2: There was an ammunition called high explosive anti tank ammunition
Speaker 2: which had an explosive head on it, but we didn't
Speaker 2: have that, so it took a little longer because of that.
Speaker 2: But we must have been pretty close because one of
Speaker 2: the twenty millimeter guns turned it up the hill and
Speaker 2: was shooting at us.
Speaker 3: They it went over us.
Speaker 2: But every round on a twenty milimeter any aircraft bullet
Speaker 2: is a tracer, so you know where you can see
Speaker 2: where it goes. And the machine guns it's only every
Speaker 2: fifth round, but it's pretty fast and so you see
Speaker 2: a lot of of the tracer bullets.
Speaker 1: Are you using the anti tank gun or rifles anti
Speaker 1: tank gun?
Speaker 3: There were troops.
Speaker 2: Down on the shoreline with M one shooting across two,
Speaker 2: so we had those troops and or anti tank guns
Speaker 2: up on the hill and then pops deadhead crossed on
Speaker 2: the initial crossing. I don't know who did the most
Speaker 2: to knockout the positions. Boo, we did our share.
Speaker 1: That's Bill kong Gable, a US Army veteran of World
Speaker 1: War II. When we come back, more of his thoughts
Speaker 1: on the fighting at the Rhine and the horrors that
Speaker 1: he witnessed at the Order of Concentration Camp. I'm Greg Corumbus,
Speaker 1: and this is Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm
Speaker 1: Greg Corumbus, our guest in this edition is John Bill
Speaker 1: kong Gable. He is a US Army veteran of World
Speaker 1: War Two serving in an anti tank unit in the
Speaker 1: eighty ninth Infantry Division. In just a moment, mister coong
Speaker 1: Gable will tell us what he saw at the Order
Speaker 1: of Concentration camp in early April nineteen forty five. But
Speaker 1: first more of his thoughts on the fight to cross
Speaker 1: the Rhine and what he was thinking in the midst
Speaker 1: of that brutal f I.
Speaker 2: Was amazed that the Germans had always had a surprise
Speaker 2: for us, and that was the first intense battle I
Speaker 2: was involved in, and it just amazed me that they
Speaker 2: sat there and let the first company cross. They hoped
Speaker 2: to trap the first company after that first crossing, and
Speaker 2: the guns were set up so perfectly, firing in a
Speaker 2: crisscross pattern. They planned it, They planned for it. They
Speaker 2: were well prepared and they were well armed. And here
Speaker 2: it was almost the end of March, and the war
Speaker 2: was over in May, so they were still fighting. We said,
Speaker 2: don't they know the war's over? But as far as
Speaker 2: they were concerned, it wasn't over, and they never stopped resisting.
Speaker 1: Did you then cross the Rhine yourself? After the fighting.
Speaker 2: No, I wasn't in any of the troops that crossed
Speaker 2: the Rhine in the paddle boats. We crossed with our
Speaker 2: in our truck.
Speaker 3: The crew.
Speaker 2: Rode in a truck which pulled our weapon. So that's
Speaker 2: how we crossed the Rhine in our truck across the
Speaker 2: pontoon bridge.
Speaker 1: What did the river and the valley look like the
Speaker 1: next morning after all that.
Speaker 3: Well, the.
Speaker 2: Place we stopped is really a famous place. It was
Speaker 2: at Saint Gore, which is a narrow spot in the Rhine.
Speaker 2: Back in ancient days.
Speaker 3: There's a story that and there was.
Speaker 2: A castle up on the top of the hill that
Speaker 2: there was a singer named Loralai who sang and attracted
Speaker 2: some of the boat traffic on the Rhine over to
Speaker 2: the side of the river where the Germans looted the
Speaker 2: cargo boats. But that was the That was the location
Speaker 2: of our crossing. I couldn't see much on the river
Speaker 2: that the smoke screen hadn't completely gone away when we crossed.
Speaker 1: Now, you said earlier that once you crossed the Rhine
Speaker 1: that you shifted to infantry. Yes, what did that shift
Speaker 1: look like? How did it happen?
Speaker 2: Well, we parked the trucks and the guns, and we
Speaker 2: were issued Those that didn't have rifles already were issued
Speaker 2: in once and so we walked in patrols the rest
Speaker 2: of the way across Germany. Our platoon didn't encounter any
Speaker 2: heavy fighting. From the Rhine crossing there were a few
Speaker 2: minor battles and towns were German soldiers had hidden out
Speaker 2: when the tanks came through, so they had to be eliminated.
Speaker 1: How did you do that?
Speaker 2: Well, find them and shoot them.
Speaker 3: That's the way. That's the way you do it.
Speaker 1: So you did have an anti tank moment, just not
Speaker 1: with your anti tank unit. Yes, yes, Now you also
Speaker 1: encountered some displaced persons.
Speaker 3: Yes, we encountered some.
Speaker 2: Dps who apparently had been locked up in a factory
Speaker 2: or chemical plant that had been liberated by troops on
Speaker 2: some side of us. And these late slave laborers that
Speaker 2: we encountered were walking home. Several of them were Italian
Speaker 2: and they had been in one of the camps, the
Speaker 2: slave labor camps and Ponya Maya Polski. People were asking
Speaker 2: if we spoke Polish, or people asked if we spoke Italian.
Speaker 2: We had one guy in our squad who came from Brooklyn,
Speaker 2: and spoke fluent Italians, and so he would stop and
Speaker 2: talk to him, but there wasn't any way we could
Speaker 2: help him. And he got to the point where he said,
Speaker 2: don't tell anybody I'm a Talian. I don't want I
Speaker 2: don't want to talk to any of those people. But
Speaker 2: then on April fourth, the division liberated Ordroff, the first
Speaker 2: concentration camp on the Western Front. It wasn't our platoon,
Speaker 2: it was some other platoon in the in the division.
Speaker 2: Did you see ord I saw part of it, and
Speaker 2: it probably I don't know. I forget now exactly why
Speaker 2: how I happened to see it, But it was some
Speaker 2: days after the initial liberation, and it was the open pit.
Speaker 3: Grave of Ordroff were about.
Speaker 2: They said about an estimated three thousand naked, skin and
Speaker 2: bonne bodies were buried in this long pit. And at
Speaker 2: the time there was a detail of soldiers supervising some
Speaker 2: Germans and I don't remember how many. They were digging
Speaker 2: six foot graves, six foot deep graves and pulling bodies
Speaker 2: out of the pit. And you can't imagine a more
Speaker 2: terrifying an awful job. That is because when they take
Speaker 2: hold of a body, the rotting skin would slide off
Speaker 2: the bones and it was hard to get a grip
Speaker 2: on it. And I saw one body coming out. It
Speaker 2: came apart, it was so old and rotted. I was
Speaker 2: only there about ten minutes, and I didn't know at
Speaker 2: the time that it was the Order of pet I
Speaker 2: found out later.
Speaker 1: What's it like to see something like that.
Speaker 3: It's just awful. It's just awful.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're going to encounter dead bodies, and you encounter
Speaker 2: dead bodies as a result of enemy fire, but to
Speaker 2: see that many bodies completely unclothed, almost skeletal from having
Speaker 2: been starved to death. But I wasn't there very long,
Speaker 2: so I didn't have time to grieve over it or
Speaker 2: wonder over it. But it was a terrible and the
Speaker 2: smell was I'll never forget that smell.
Speaker 1: Is there any way to describe the smell.
Speaker 2: Well, you've run across dead, rotting animals run over in
Speaker 2: the road or something somebody shot and left in the countryside.
Speaker 2: That kind of smell plus a terrible smell of body
Speaker 2: odor mixed in with the rotting flesh of.
Speaker 1: The bodies, and you had no idea that the Germans
Speaker 1: were doing anything like this.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, we had seen.
Speaker 2: Movies in the States, where there usually was a short newsreel.
Speaker 2: They showed film clips of various incidents, and we saw
Speaker 2: movies of where the Germans were gathering up the Jews
Speaker 2: and carrying them off to concentration camps. We didn't see
Speaker 2: the concentration camps, but it wasn't a complete surprise to
Speaker 2: find these camps like that.
Speaker 1: Now, I also read that you encountered some local citizens
Speaker 1: who pretended they knew nothing about the camp.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, that's part of the account by the liberating company
Speaker 2: that right after it was discovered, the commanders ordered Germans
Speaker 2: from the town of Ordruf to march through the camp
Speaker 2: and see what their Nazi soldiers had done. And they
Speaker 2: said many of them were shaking your heads and saying
Speaker 2: I didn't know, I didn't know. It was too close
Speaker 2: to the town that they didn't know everything that was
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 1: Now, after you encountered the camp, you kept moving into Germany.
Speaker 1: But you also witnessed the crash of a B twenty four.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's my B twenty four story. We were walking
Speaker 2: along a road. It was pretty long, straight road and
Speaker 2: there were woods on both sides of the road, and
Speaker 2: it was a very clear day and we could see
Speaker 2: the flights of B twenty fourth going over, just squadron
Speaker 2: after squadron, and we were griping. One of the guys says, now,
Speaker 2: look at those fly boys. They fly over, drop a
Speaker 2: few bombs, fly back to England, have a bear to
Speaker 2: pub and sleep in a nice soft bed. And here
Speaker 2: we are. Our feet are slower, sore, we're sleeping on
Speaker 2: the ground, we're eating cold food. We haven't had a
Speaker 2: bath in three weeks. It's it's just not fair.
Speaker 3: And about that.
Speaker 2: Time we heard a plane coming from a German side
Speaker 2: and we scattered into the woods. And when the plane
Speaker 2: arrived at was a BE twenty four and one engine
Speaker 2: was dead and the other one was burning, and I
Speaker 2: swear there was so many bullet holes in the fuselage
Speaker 2: you could almost see through it. And it was flying
Speaker 2: at about three hundred feet, which is very low for
Speaker 2: a big plane like that. And then three or four
Speaker 2: seconds later we heard it crash over behind us. It
Speaker 2: was such a shock. We were just looking at each
Speaker 2: other thinking what did we see. And one of the
Speaker 2: guys said, you know, maybe it is better to fight
Speaker 2: the war with your feet on the ground, because when
Speaker 2: you stop flying you die?
Speaker 1: How did you hear about the German surrender?
Speaker 2: Somebody in in our organization passed a word down.
Speaker 3: That the war was over, So we just relaxed a lot.
Speaker 2: We were apparently in in the area that was going
Speaker 2: to be the Russians as the Allies had agreed, and
Speaker 2: so we had to pull back. I forget how far
Speaker 2: after we pulled back. We were in the town of
Speaker 2: Armstadt in eastern Germany.
Speaker 1: Last couple of questions, sir, First of all, what are
Speaker 1: you most proud of from your service?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know that I'm proud of anything that
Speaker 2: wasn't my duty to do as a soldier. I guess
Speaker 2: supporting the crossing of the Rhine was a most intense battle.
Speaker 2: We eventually won that battle.
Speaker 1: Do you still think about it? Often?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 3: Not often.
Speaker 2: After I got out of the army, I went to
Speaker 2: the Canal Zone for two years and then went to
Speaker 2: the University of Oklahoma. I got a degree in chemical engineering,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 3: Moved to Texas.
Speaker 2: I wasn't in contact with any of my crew members
Speaker 2: in the division, and I didn't know there was was
Speaker 2: a a nice division association until it's probably twenty years
Speaker 2: after the war.
Speaker 3: Was over.
Speaker 2: When I found out about it, I read about all
Speaker 2: the reunions they had had, and one of the members
Speaker 2: was maintaining a website, and I logged onto the website,
Speaker 2: and by that time it was mostly disbanded because everybody
Speaker 2: was too old to maintain it. But I would have
Speaker 2: liked to see some of my Patoon fell Up atoon members.
Speaker 1: Lastly, sir, what does it mean to you to have
Speaker 1: us record your story so this generation and future generations
Speaker 1: can see it.
Speaker 2: I think it's my privilege. There hasn't been anything much
Speaker 2: that it was, anything that I can have have done.
Speaker 2: Since the war, I have been interviewed about five times
Speaker 2: in videos like this, and I'm happy to tell the
Speaker 2: stories so that young people have some sense of what
Speaker 2: really went on. So many of them, my granddaughters, they
Speaker 2: don't look up anything about World War Two. They don't
Speaker 2: know a whole lot about current politics, so I have
Speaker 2: to I have to educate them on that. But I'm
Speaker 2: happy to share my experience.
Speaker 1: It's been an honor to meet you. I thank you
Speaker 1: for your time today, and thank you most of all
Speaker 1: for your service to our country.
Speaker 3: You're welcome.
Speaker 1: John Bill kong Gable is a US Army veteran of
Speaker 1: World War II. He served in an anti tank company
Speaker 1: inside the eighty ninth Infantry Division. He fought across the
Speaker 1: Rhine River and his unit helped to liberate the Order
Speaker 1: of Concentration Camp in early April of nineteen forty five.
Speaker 1: I'm Greg Corumbus. Thank you for listening to Veterans Chronicles. Hi.
Speaker 1: This is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
Speaker 1: a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
Speaker 1: please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
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Speaker 1: next time for Veterans Chronicles