PERSONAL MEMORIES OF W W II ERA

1939 ( 12 Years old)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt re-elected (Second Term).

Germany (under Adolph Hitler) invades and conquers Poland, Czechoslovakia, invades France, Belgium, bombs London, starts Battle of Britain.

Italy (under Mussolini) joins Hitler.  Invades Ethiopia and North Africa. (Haile Sellassi was emperor of Ethiopia)

1940 (13 yrs old)

U. S. National Guard sent to Alaska.  U. S. Army starts maneuvers in Arkansas and Louisiana.

Draft started. (all males over 18 must register)

1941 (14 yrs old)

William Durrett, Virginia's older brother was drafted and served with the U. S. Combat Engineers.  He served four straight years in the South Pacific, including Saipan, Tarawa, Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and Hawaii.

Germany continues its conquest of Europe and North Africa.   U. S. sends planes to England to assist in Battle of Britain.  Germany pushes French and English troops all the way to the North Sea at Dunkirk, France.  Britain sends every boat available to rescue as many as possible.

December 7:  Japan bombs Pearl Harbor without warning.  Sinks many U. S. Navy ships, kills thousands of innocent civilians.

December 8:  President Roosevelt delivers his "day of infamy" speech.  Congress declares war on Japan and Germany.

1942 (15 yrs old)

Germany occupies all of France and Belgium, continues Battle of Britain.

U. S. sends Marines and Infantry forces to South Pacific Ocean to fight Japan on Islands of Saipan, Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, Phillipines, and New Zealand.  Rationing of food, clothing, gas, tires, sugar, and even toothpaste.  In order to buy a new tube of toothpaste, you had to turn in the old tube (it contained lead).  Collection of all waste metal was encouraged in order to make more  ammunition.  Many U. S. Navy ships under construction along the Gulf Coast.

My oldest brother (Malcolm) enlisted in U. S. Army after four years as a cook in U. S. Navy.

1943 (16 yrs old)

War in Europe and North Africa drags on.  U. S. troops invade Italy and Sicily.  Thousands of U. S. Navy, Coast Guard and Marines and Infantry continue to recapture Islands in the South Pacific.  Under Admiral David Nimitz, there were heavy losses of  Japanese as well as Americans.

1944 (17 yrs old)

War continues both in Europe and South Pacific.  U. S. continues to build troop strength in England (under General Eisenhower) in preparation for D-Day invasion into France. 

June 6, 1944 was to be the largest concentration of any invasion force in the history of the world.  Thousands of ships, all loaded with British troops, U. S. Infantry, Marines, and Coast Guard arrived before dawn on the coast at Le Havre, France  to meet the German forces that were waiting for them with machine guns and cannons right on the coast.  Thousands of men and hundreds of ships were lost under blistering fire by the time the invasion was completed

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  By noon that day, the German defense had been removed and the Allied Forces had come ashore.  Even to this day, I can almost hear the radio reports of the "BOOM-BOOM of the German artillery guns shooting down on our troops.  At the same time, American forces were well into Italy, and attacked Germany from the south.  A friend of ours, Frank Reitzell, was on active duty in Italy at the time.

Our troops marched all the way across France and into Berlin, Germany by December.  My two brothers,Wren and Malcolm, arrived in France after the invasion.  They both participated in the Battle of the Bulge against the Germans in the Fall of 1944.

1945  (18 yrs old)

Germany surrendered to the Allied forces in June, 1945 at a school house in Reims, France (just east of Paris).  President Roosevelt died in office.  Vice President Harry Truman ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped on Japan, in order to end the war in the Pacific.  Japan surrendered.

William Durrett (Virginia's brother) was discharged from U. S. Army

I graduated from El Dorado High School on May 25, 1945.  I was drafted into the U. S. Army Infantry on June 4, to serve for the duration of the war, plus 6 months.  I was sent to Camp Fannin, Texas for 18 weeks of Infantry training.  Our battalion was selected to march in a huge parade for Admiral Chester Nimitz in Dallas during this time. After 18 weeks of training, I was sent to Camp Pickett, Virginia to prepare for occupation duty in Europe.

In April, 1946, I unexpectedly received orders to report to L. S. U. to teach Military tactics  in the R. O. T. C. Department.    I was so excited that when I called my mother to tell her this great news, we both just started crying over the phone!

Received honorable discharge in September, 1948.