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I entered the
service on January 27, 1943 and served until March 8, 1946. I had hoped
to be a rifleman, but as fate would have it, if you wanted something in
the Army you could be sure you would not get it. So, sure enough, I was
assigned to the medical detachment of the 343rd infantry
(Combat Team 343) 86th division (Blackhawks).
I trained at Camp
Howze, (Gainesville Texas) before we moved to Louisiana for maneuvers in
November 1943. We then moved to Camp Cooke California in September 1944.
We knew that we were headed to the Pacific to fight the Japanese and
needless to say, by then, we were ready.
We had all hoped
to get a chance to help liberate the Philippines. After hearing of the
atrocities the Japanese had done to the boys on Bataan, we wanted to get
over there and pay them back. We were all gung ho. Both, youth and the
army had a way of making you think you were bullet proof, and that somehow
you knew you were going to make a difference.
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As I said before,
if the Army knows you want something, you can almost be assured you will
not get it. Just when I was certain that we were going to the pacific in
January 1945, we up and moved east, all the way to Camp Myles Standish,
Massachusetts. We knew then that we would never see the Philippines. We
did not expect grass skirts and sunny beaches in the pacific but we sure
has hell did not look forward to winter in Europe. We had heard the
reports of record setting cold temperatures. And, sure enough, on February
19, 1945, we sailed off to Europe.
The life aboard
ship was not that great. You had a lot of time to think and began to
realize you were really heading for combat. After we were at sea a few
days, we were all ready for action. The endless rocking of the ship and
the ever present thought of German U-Boats made the thought of dry land
and German infantry seem like the better of the two. However, I must admit
that there were plenty of poker games on the way over and I managed (with
a little luck) to snag more than my fair share of the booty.
We entered France
on March 1, 1945 and were soon in the heat of things. By now the Germans
were retreating but they were putting up a good fight as they withdrew.
The 343rd was on the front lines for only 34 days but we saw
some tough fighting at Cologne, the Ruhr, Bavaria and Austria.
Though our time in
combat was short, there were some notable accomplishments. The 86th
was the first combat division to cross the Danube, we captured over 53,000
prisoners, seized 220 mile of enemy territory, liberated over 200,000
allied prisoners of war, and liberated several slave labor camps. We
assaulted across the Danube, Bigge, Altmuhl, Isar, Mittellsar, Inn and
Salzach rivers. We served in combat with four different Armies: the
First, Third (Patton), Seventh and the Fifteenth. We were constantly on
the move, sometimes by day, but often at night.
Combat Medics did
not carry a rifle but we were often shot at. We lost two of our guys in
one day trying to aid a wounded soldier. A sniper on top of a building
did not care that they were wearing a medic’s helmet, he just shot them
anyway. Even the ambulances and jeeps had holes in them and the 88 shells
did not care if you were a medic or a rifleman. They were the scariest,
(the 88’s), they sounded like they were headed right for you. Everybody,
including mechanics and cooks, were at risk in combat. In fact, we lost a
kitchen crew who had mistakenly wandered into a German patrol. They were
captured and killed.
We had left
Wasserburg and were near Salzburg when the war ended on May 7, 1945.
In my mind, there
was no doubt of the right of our cause. I had seen Buchenwald, Belsen,
Dachau, Ohrdruf and dozens of other terrible places. The evil tyranny
that man can do to his fellow man is the reason why, when evil rears it’s
ugly head, we must beat it back down again.
We arrived back in
the states in June of 1945 and were soon at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma
preparing for the invasion of the Japanese home islands. However, the
first atomic bomb was dropped on August 7th and we were quickly
sent to Camp Stoneman near San Francisco. There, we were loaded onto
troopships and headed for the Pacific.
We crossed the
International Date Line becoming members of the “Domain of the Golden
Dragon”. To our great pleasure, on September 2, 1945, the Japanese
surrendered on the USS Missouri. We had all lost too many friends and were
ready to go home.
On September 9th,
we unloaded at Leyte, Philippines and we soon relieved the 38th
near Manila. As fate would have it, we ended up in the Philippines after
all; we just took a little detour first. Our role in the Philippines was
mainly training of the Philippine Army. However, we continued to
encounter pockets of Japanese who had not yet surrendered. The 86th
was the only infantry division to have served both in Europe and in the
Pacific during WWII.
Edgar R. Starnes
Medic 343rd Regiment
86th Division (Blackhawks)
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