Robert Nate – Torpedo Junction, New Georgia, Mindoro and Iwo Jima
Robert Nate, Motor Machinist Mate Third-class (MM3)
United States Navy
Written by Jeff Ballard
Interviewed by Jeff Ballard, December 3, 2017
Robert “Bob” Nate was born in Denver, Colorado, July 26, 1924, but raised in Beverly Hills, California. He was a sophomore, at that now famous high school when he learned the United States was at war. Forty-eight hours after graduation (1943), Bob reported to his receiving ship in San Pedro Harbor, California. He chose the Navy because “I hated wool clothing,” and was afraid if he joined the Army I’d be “itchy day in and day out.” After basic training at the Naval Training Station, San Diego, California, Bob completed the diesel mechanic’s course at the University of Missouri. “My career in the Navy lasted two-years, eleven months and nineteen days,” the ninety-three years-old Nate cities with perfect memory and clarity. “Six months of that was in a hospital, not exactly what you wanted to have happen to you.”
The newly rated Motor Machinist Mate Third-class (MM3) returned to San Diego and reported to the only ship he would serve aboard. USS PC1128 was a steel-hull patrol craft and as a “Snipe” Nate was responsible for maintaining the ship’s two 12-cylinder diesel engines. This versatile warship performed many missions, but its primary role was anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and convoy escort. Arriving in the Solomon Sea PC 1128 jumped right into its ASW role in the dangerous waters known as “Torpedo Junction.”
On one such “killer-sub hunt” Nate’s ship encountered a Japanese submarine on the surface recharging its batteries. PC1128 took the sub under fire with its Mk. 21 pedestal mounted 3-inch 50-caliber deck gun, but the submarine dove before a shell struck home. The patrol craft next attacked with its primary ASW weapons, the 600-pound “ashcan” depth bombs. Pools of fuel oil bubbled to the surface, but Nate never knew if PC1128 sunk the sub or if the Japanese were playing possum. On another sub hunt, Nate was injured when, in heavy seas, his leg became trapped and he was in danger of being sucked into the bilge. Nate grasped an overhead bar and pull himself free, but friction burns on his left leg required surgery.
On Tulagi, Nate mingled with the local fauna. At night “tarantulas would hit the floor of the hospital, and you could hear their movements … it was a terrible feeling,” he recalls. While hobbling down a jungle path to the Red Cross tent, Nate, armed only with a cane, “[I] ran across a giant lizard. It was going north, and I was going south.” I always had an odd feeling in that particular area,” Bob remembers, “because the Marines had not cleared out all the Japanese … As long as they didn’t take a life, they were permitted to remain there. I suspect that they were looking for food. There was no one that would come to take them off of an island when they lost the battle, they were there to commit suicide or exist,” the battle-hardened veteran concluded somewhat wistfully.
While Nate was out of action, the war had moved north up “the Slot” and PC1128 with it. On the last day of June 1943, the Allies landed on New Georgia Island in the central Solomon Islands with the objective of capturing the Japanese airfield at Munda. Bob recalls making a number of “snooping trips” to the islands farther up the chain to check on Japanese movements. Allied planes made moving in the daylight too dangerous for the Japanese, who resorted to transporting troops in armed barges at night and hiding in inlets and mangrove swamps during the day. PC1128’s Mk. 1 40-mm Bofors twin-mounted machine guns amidships were the ideal weapon for “barge bopping.” Bob remembers destroying a barge and plucking three officers out of the water, interrogated them and threw them back into the water. “That was our first real contact with the enemy … in that group of islands. It was on that same trip we ran into the president’s (Kennedy)PT boat … I didn’t get a chance to meet him, but our officers met him.”
PC1128’s escort duty took Nate all over the south and southwest Pacific, in 1944, from the shark-infested lagoon of Green Island to Hollandia, New Guinea, to Mindoro Island, Philippines. Military censorship prevented Bob from explicitly telling his family where he was, but he communicated his whereabouts with prearranged codes based on fictitious family members he ran into during his travels. “I would say, I saw your brother’s son Ron, and my father would know exactly where I was in the South Pacific.”
In November 1944, just before the operation which triumphantly returned General Douglass MacArthur to the Philippines, Bob finally connected with his brother, also in the Pacific. Roger Nate was a Coast Guard signalman who hailed every Navy ship he encountered looking for his brother. The two finally connected on Thanksgiving 1944 but Bob’s time in the Navy changed him so much that Roger did not recognize him. “When I joined the Navy,” recalls Nate “I was five-foot-six and a half and a hundred and thirty-eight pounds probably. I had gained seven and a half inches and went from a hundred and thirty-eight pounds to two-hundred and fourteen pounds.” Its no wonder his family did not recognize him.
While at General Quarters, Nate was a 20-mm Oerlikon gunner at one of the three machine guns on the bridge-level of the ship. Official Navy records credit PC 1128 with shooting down one Japanese plane, which is no small feat given that their anti-aircraft battery was miniscule compared to just about every other type of ship. The diesel mechanic turned gunslinger remembers, “[the] Japanese aircraft passed over us … and I started firing; then I stopped firing because my 20-mm rounds were going awfully close to some of the small landing craft, so I stopped firing … our 40-millimeter actually hit it and brought it down. It was another experience like something you’ve never seen before in your life, you know.”
Nate stood a fender watch when the Special Sea Detail was set, like when PC 1128 came alongside another ship. Such was the case when, just days before Iwo Jima landings, he suffered the injury, which ended his naval career and required months of agonizing rehabilitation. With mounting irritation Bob remembers, ”Our skipper had friends on an Australian minesweeper, and Australian ships always had alcohol. So, we came alongside the minesweeper in a terrible wind. I was fenderman, and I was ordered forward to, you know, receive their vessel. Their bow hit our bow and hit the 3-inch 50-caliber gun and wiped it out. I got pinned against our Mousetraps, hitting my left arm and fractured it at the wrist, fractured it at the forearm, and compound fractured it above my elbow.” With no doctor aboard, all the pharmacist mate could do for Nate was inject him with morphine and wait for medical help to arrive. Shipmates erected a tent over Bob, and a well-meaning cook fed him Coca-Cola and cherry pie as he waited four-and-a-half hours for assistance.
Relief came in the form of the hospital ship USS Bountiful (AH-9). “I have no idea how they got me aboard; I eventually went to sleep on the deck.” Nate underwent surgery and emerged with an upper-body cast to support his spine and his left arm raised above his shoulder. Bob’s final recuperation destination was the Santa Margarita Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, by way of an Army hospital on Saipan and Honolulu. While in Hawaii Bob spoke to his father when he answered a ringing random pay phone. A one-in-a-trillion occurrence that is too fantastic to believe, except it happened. Next, a converted ocean liner transported him to Oakland Naval Hospital, Oakland, California and finally by train to Oceanside. Bob’s body cast was so unwieldy that he could not walk aboard the train. A window had to be removed, and he was passed in and out of the train by hand through the opening.
The war ended for Bob Nate while he was recuperating at Camp Pendleton when the war ended on August 15, 1945. “When the war was declared over, all of those who were ambulatory, went to Oceanside to celebrate. My situation was a little different; I had no clothes that would fit the cast around my body.” Bob would have to wait seventy-one years to celebrate V-J Day and receive the recognition he so richly deserved.
In 2017, Bob accompanied by his daughter Debbie, joined thirty-five World War II veterans, all but two (Bob and another) wheelchair bound, aboard the Honor Flight. On this trip to Washington DC, the vets, and their guardians, visited the World War II Memorial, Vietnam Memorial Wall, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Arlington Cemetery to reflect at their respective memorials.
With tears in his eyes, Bob told me, “[T]his was probably the fifth most important thing that ever happened to me in my life. My first marriage, my second marriage, my daughter and my son being born. [The Honor Flight] made me feel like … I wanted to receive at the end of World War II – V-J Day. Great people. If you ever have an opportunity to the donation to Honor Flight don’t hesitate, magnificent group.” (https://www.honorflight.org/)
“Bob,” I said closing my notebook, “I cannot think of a better way to end this conversation than with that. Thank you very much for your time and your service. It’s is my pleasure to know you.”
“I loved the military, I really did.” – MM3 Robert Nate, USN, 8781265
Graham Stevenson – El Alamein – Normandy – Sherwood Rangers
Graham Stevenson joined when he was 16 and served in Africa, including El Alamein, from ages 17 – 19. On their return to England, his unit was trained in the Sherman DD swimming tanks. He came in on Gold Beach and was wounded in hedgerow fighting on his first day in Normandy.
Dates of Interview: April 12, 2012; June 7, 2012; ongoing.
Transcribed: Mostly
Interviewer: Heather Steele
Format: Mix of Standard and High Definition Video
Length: 200+ minutes
Charley Koenig – 21st Panzer Division – Africa Corps
Charley Koenig and Paratrooper Thomas Blakey at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans
Karl Friedrich Koenig was 19 when he entered combat as an officer candidate in 1943. After arriving in Africa, he fought against both the British and the Americans as a part of the 21st Panzer Division, Regiment 5. Six weeks after he arrived, the Germans surrendered. Karl Friedrich was taken as a POW by the Americans, and transported to the United States. Actively working to improve his English skills and pick up Americanisms, he became a translator and soon went by the name Charley.
After spending over two years in camps in Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, Charley and many POW’s were sent back to Europe in 1946. Expecting to return home, they were instead diverted to POW camps in Belgium, and then on to England. Finally, in 1947, Charley returned to Germany where he had a successful career in business, raising four children.
He has been an invaluable partner, sharing his wisdom in regards to peace, healing and reconciliation, as well as gaining the trust of German veterans we have interviewed.
Rear Admiral Richard Lyon – Scouts & Raiders – Navy SEAL
Born i
n the summer of 1923, Dick Lyon was destined to become an extraordinary waterman. Initially, while only a junior in high school, he became the #1 nationally ranked swimmer in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. In 1940, Dick made the US national Olympic team. Mentored by the formidable Yale coach Bob Kiphuth, it’s no surprise that Dick entered Yale in the fall of 1941.
He enlisted in the Navy on October 9, 1942 while an engineering major at Yale, and entered the accelerated program, graduating after only two years and nine months. While taking a tough course load, Dick never let up on his training in the pool. The whole time he competed at Yale the swim team never lost a meet. During Dick’s junior year he anchored the 400-yard freestyle relay team which set a new world’s record, stealing it from the Japanese national team who had held the record previously. Hearing the patriotic crowd roar with excitement at the prospect of Americans beating the Japanese, Dick got his best-ever split on his leg. When he touched the wall, his teammates jumped in with him and yelled, “We got it!” As soon as he could, Dick sent a telegraph to his delighted parents telling them his relay team in essence had “just broken the world’s record, ho hum.” They weren’t fooled for a second by his low key message. They were all over the moon. Finally, he capped off his swimming career by captaining Yale to the NCAA Division 1 National Championship in his senior year.
After graduating with honors in 1944, Dick went on to Columbia Midshipman School in New York City for three months. After the first month he was selected to take command of the entire regiment (2,400 midshipmen). Three weeks before he was to graduate as a 90-day-wonder he saw a notice “Wanted: Volunteers for Special Warfare Unit Involving Demolition of Explosives. Must be Strong Swimmer.” The assignment to the Scouts and Raiders (forefathers of today’s Navy Seals) was just his calling.
Sent to Ft. Pierce, Florida, Dick went through Class 8 of the Scouts and Raiders along with 56 other tough naval officers. Scouts and Raiders was the Navy’s first special warfare unit, developed to conduct reconnaissance on potential invasion beaches. They were soon followed in 1942 by NCDU’s (navy combat demolition units), and in 1943 by “frogmen”, the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT’s), who were responsible for blowing up natural (reefs) and man-made obstacles on beaches to clear a path for invasion forces.
The Scouts and Raiders were the first to endure such trials as “hell week”, a week with almost no sleep or rations, which is today a standard part of training for Navy SEALS that prepares them to find ways to survive on their own behind enemy lines. Three months later, Class 8 were sent to Europe, the China-Burma-India (CBI) theater, and the Pacific. Dick landed on the Pacific side, where he joined the Administrative Command Amphibious Force Pacific Fleet.
Hopping from island to island primarily in the Philippines, Dick got to do his first reconnaissance mission of the war at a beach a little bit outside of Davao, one of the larger cities on Mindanao. Dick found and reported that it was clear of natural and man-made obstacles, a good place for a landing. Exactly five days after he did the recon, the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan.
The Amphibious Force picked up elements of the Army’s 33rd Infantry Division, then went on to Japan’s Honshu Island. There, inside Sagami Wan, a large curved bay west of Tokyo Bay, near the village of Wakayama, Dick did another recon of a beach. The town looked abandoned, but as Dick looked out of the water towards the small town center he saw three people walking down the main street to the beach. It soon became clear they were waiting to talk to him. So, Dick walked out of the water and up the beach towards the men. The leader of the little group said in clear English, “I want to let you know that I and the people of this city are so glad that this war is over.” Somewhat surprised to have met his first Japanese, and one who spoke English so well, Dick said he was glad the war was over too, “And I think you will find the occupation a peaceful one.” His new acquaintance replied, “I am sure you will find that the case in Wakayama.”
After several minutes, Dick asked how he spoke such good English. The Japanese man said, “I’m a graduate of Harvard.”
Not one to let that slip, Dick immediately expressed his regrets, “Well my heart goes out to you, because Yale always beats Harvard at football.”
They made an appointment to meet again on the beach in three days, and his now Japanese friend brought Dick to his house as a guest, where they had a delightful evening. Dick’s gift of two cartons of Lucky Strikes could not have been more enthusiastically received, and as he left he was presented with a portfolio of 23 antique prints with detailed hand appliqués of Samurai warriors…priceless!
Still not able to return home because he had so few points, Dick was somewhat at loose ends. Then he heard through the grapevine that the Commander of the 7th fleet based in Shanghai wanted a Scout intelligence officer on his staff. He spent the next year in northern China reporting on the activities of Mao Tse Tung’s armies on the Shantung Peninsula in an effort to hold off a Chinese civil war, an incredible experience for a very junior officer.
Leaving active duty after that assignment, Dick joined the Naval Reserves and had completed his first year of a Stanford MBA when he was recalled for Korea. Reporting in 1951 to Beach Jumper Unit 1, he again volunteered for NavSpecWar, UDTRA Class 2, and as a Navy Lieutenant became a Plank Owner (original commissioning member) of Underwater Demolition Team 5. That grueling training that UDT5 experienced was the beginning of what is now the 55-week SEAL training. Since then 281 additional classes have endured the training, and in early 2012 Class 287 will graduate.
After just a three-month training, UDT5 was sent immediately to Korea. For the first time they took mission responsibility beyond the mean high-water mark. In fact, UDT5 went in and blew up rail lines and tunnels. Dick worked in North Korea, above the 38th parallel, inside Won San harbor, recovering a new type of anti-amphibious assault mine. His job was to dive in 36-degree water in a dry suit (before SCUBA and wetsuits existed), under fire, swim under the mine, and cut its mooring line with a pair of 24” bolt cutters. After 20 minutes he had to be pulled out due to the cold. Working out of a little yellow raft with the explosive ordinance disposal expert, they would tow each mine to an island within the harbor and “render it safe” (defuse it). The mines were then sent back to Indian Head, Maryland, Navy Mine Warfare Headquarters, where all were determined to be Russian-made!
Dick eventually attained the rank of two-star Admiral in 1974, the first special warfare (SEAL) officer to do so. In this rank he was recalled for three more years of active duty as Deputy Chief of Naval Reserve, the senior reserve officer in the Navy. He has the distinction of holding the title “BullFrog 1”. “BullFrog” is that active-duty SEAL with the longest tenure in special warfare. When Admiral Eric Olson (BullFrog 14) retired, Admiral William H. McRaven, and Commander Brian Sebenaler (a Mustang) jointly inherited the title of BullFrog 15. Both graduated from BUD/S Class 87.
Retiring from the Navy after nearly 41 years of service, Dick became actively involved in community affairs. He was a founder and trustee president of Children’s Hospital, Orange County (CHOC). He also was a strong and cheerful supporter and advisor to the World War II History Project, as well as serving as mayor of Oceanside, California for eight years. A proud representative of the Scouts and Raiders, Dick lived on the beach and swam in the ocean in the summer. He enjoyed a very full family life with wife Cindy, nine children, 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren until passing in February, 2017.
Date of Interview: March 11, 2011
Interviewer: Heather Steele
Affiliation: Old Bold Pilots Oceanside
Format: Standard Definition Video
Length: 78 minutes
Transcribed: Yes
Captain Jay Walker – B-17 Pilot, 384th Bomb Group
When Jay gave a ride to a friend who wanted to join the Army Air Corps in early 1942, he never imagined he’d be the one who would eventually be flying lead on missions over Germany in 1944 and 1945. On that fateful day while Jay waited for his friend, the sergeant in the waiting room handed him a stack of papers and tests to fill out. Although Jay balked at the expected timeframe of two to three hours – he had to get back to work – he tackled the tests and finished in 20 minutes. When the sergeant graded the papers, he was astounded that Jay had aced the tests.
Soon Jay found himself going through physical exams before returning home. It wasn’t until the fall of 1942 that he was invited into the Air Corps’ cadet program. After a few months cramming a university education in Minnesota followed by primary, basic and advanced training, Jay moved to B-17 bombers.
Seeing the huge plane for the first time up close, Jay could hardly believe such a massive plane could actually fly. It wasn’t long, though, before Jay was flying it, and well. A natural pilot, Jay and his crew won the top award when graduating from the B-17 training at Rapid City, South Dakota in September, 1944.
Jay and his crew picked up a new B-17 and flew alone from the heartland to New England, Goose Bay, Iceland and finally England. Assigned to the 384th Bomb Group in Grafton Underwood, Jay flew his first mission on November 1, 1944 over Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
By their 10th mission, Jay and his crew in the SCREAMING EAGLE were flying squadron deputy lead, and soon thereafter group and finally wing lead. On the 14th of April, 1945, Jay and his crew flew their 30th and last mission over Royan, France, their only mission NOT over Germany.
Jay flew an additional 11 missions in a B-17 stripped of armament to analyze captured airfields in newly-liberated territory, or supposedly newly-liberated territory. One time, when he saw Germans diving for their guns in their revetments upon his landing approach, he decided landing there would be premature and returned instead back to England.
After separating from the Air Corps, Jay built the Bellflower Airport before going on to produce in Hollywood and own multiple car dealerships nationwide. He served as an Ambassador-at-large after the war, and flew a restored Collings Foundation B-17 across the country for many years while in his 70’s.
Jay was president of the governing board of the World War II History Project. He passed away on May 2, 2016 and will be sorely missed.
Bob Watson – Beachmaster Omaha Beach
A native of Lynn, Massachusetts, Bob was 18 years old when his Company B6 of the Sixth Naval Beach Battalion participated in one of the first waves to Omaha Beach on D-Day. The battalion consisted of 445 men who served as Beachmasters – those who coordinate traffic, police, medical, communications, engineering, hydrographic and underwater demolition.
On the 6th of June in 1944, D-Day, the weather was drizzly, cold and rainy, complicating a horrific scene of chaos. About 1,000 yards from the beach, Bob’s landing craft – an LCM (Landing Craft Mechanized) holding 71 Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) troops and four Navy Beach Battalion crew – hit a Teller mine and exploded. 55 men were killed instantly, body parts flying, and Bob was thrown out. He credits his training for giving him the ability to immediately inflate the flotation device under his armpits. After submerging for some time due to the heavy kit all soldiers and sailors hitting the beach were wearing, his flotation device brought him back to the surface gasping and in shock. Quickly he was picked up by a Zodiac ferrying floaters to the beach.
Responsible for 1/18 of Omaha Beach, which is a little over five miles in length, the 6th Beach Battalion lost 25% of its personnel on the way to or on the beach.
When Bob touched the sand it was about 7:47 a.m. Terror and chaos reigned. Saving Private Ryan’s depiction of the scene could do only faint justice to the true horror American servicemen were experiencing on the beach. Everything was on fire. Landing craft were burning, their ammunition blew up, bodies and parts of bodies littered the beach, and the Germans, who had excellent equipment and training, poured on the machine gun and artillery fire.
The young men on the beach, most experiencing their first combat, were devastated, confused, and shocked. These were the designated leaders of the Great Crusade. They understood that if it the invasion were to succeed, they would have to overcome this traumatic entry into the war. They had to get up the hill.
Bob’s first mission was to get up to the dune line. He started on his hands and knees, bullets flying over his head. Wounded all around him screamed and cried for help, for a medic. Half way up the beach he ran into an army medic who had lost all his first aid supplies except several morphine syrettes draped around his neck on strings. To help him Bob started collecting pressure bandages from dead soldiers’ first aid kits and giving them to the medic.
Finally reaching the dune line, Bob was exhausted. An Army captain ordered Bob up to the firing line, even though Bob protested that he was Navy, and a Beachmaster. The captain was not swayed. Some Germans could be seen moving around, delivering ammunition, and firing the open field pieces. Bob shot off 40 rounds of ammunition and went back. The captain told him to get another belt and get back up to the firing line.
A naval officer turned up and prevented Bob from going back up to the firing line. Now, well after 9 a.m., the Navy Beach Battalion finally had a chance to start getting their people together. Ensign Jim Allison took over command from their missing Sixth Company Lt. JG. Their job was to get and keep everything – troops, materiel, equipment and vehicles – moving up the beach and inland.
Right after 10 a.m. Ens. Allison sent Bob and his good friend Dick Wayent to put a bulldozer – whose Army driver was been badly hit – into operation. Hauling the corporal to a medic, they returned and took charge of the running bulldozer. Dick was a farm boy, and between the both of them they figured out how to work it.
With a crew of six or eight Big Red One engineers who removed the Teller mines, Bob would use the bulldozer to pull the beach obstacles off to the side to make a driveway for the incoming 30,000 troops and 11,000 vehicles. On one occasion Ens. Allison came to ask Bob to help push an empty LCVP (Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel) back into the sea with the bulldozer. Bob agreed only on the condition that it be fully loaded with wounded.
Later, Dick went to push a landing craft out, but only got half-way there before returning. Seeing an American soldier carrying a wounded man, and then fall to a hail of German bullets, Dick was devastated when the fire then decimated the nearby landing craft and all the wounded already inside. He returned with tears in his eyes, but there was little time to mourn.
Bob and Dick made an aid-station by pulling timber off the beach and placing it on top of sand bags on the dunes. When Germans walked their 88-mm artillery fire up and down the beach, Bob and Dick would abandon the bulldozer and run for cover. Twice they lost bulldozers, which were immediately replaced by the vehicles brought in steady streams by Rhino barges.
With their third bulldozer, they had longer-lasting luck. They ran it heavily for the rest of the afternoon of D-Day and much of D+1 before almost running out of fuel. For his tireless good work during the day, Ens. Jim Allison asked Lt. Emmett Hall, head of B Company, to promote Bob to Coxswain.
Ens. Jim Allison, who was married and had a small child, was a very beloved officer with his men. Working through D-Day and D+1 with no rest, he stayed on the beach directing landing craft with red flags while Bob and Dick left the beach to refuel their bulldozer. Looking down, they saw Ens. Jim Allison hit by artillery shrapnel. Rushing back they dragged him to the medics, but there was nothing they could do to save him. He had been killed instantly
As they returned to their machine and headed towards the fuel dump, they hit a Bouncing Betty anti-personnel mine. The blast threw the dozer up and sent Bob flying again. This time, he landed on his left side, bruised and sore but luckily without any major injuries.
After waking up on D+2, Bob was assigned to handle the prisoners of war. Driving a Jeep with an Army corporal manning a .30 caliber machine gun in the back, Bob and some Coast Guard guards would escort 200-300 prisoners at a time to the beach.
Bob stayed on Omaha Beach for 28 days before being sent back to England. Upon his arrival he turned 19 years old. After an appropriate naval celebration, Bob woke up one morning with a tattoo of an anchor but with no recollection to this day of how he got it.
For their efforts and accomplishments on Omaha Beach, Bob’s naval unit was awarded the Navy and Army Presidential Unit Citations. Bob also has two purple hearts.
The Beach Battalion was loaded onto the USS Monticello and sent back to New York and ten days of leave at home. Bob then went on to beach battalion school in Oceanside, California, training for the Pacific. There he met his future wife, Margie, at a USO dance.
Assigned to Oceanside instead of going back into combat, Bob was able to date Margie for a year and a half before they got married and had three boys. They are still happily married today.
After the war Bob went into the construction business and ran his own successful company in north San Diego County for 30 years. Now retired, he spends a good part of his time giving presentations about Omaha Beach and his experience there to school children and visitors at the Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego Bay.
Joe Glass – The Devil’s Brigade
by Zoe Hume
The First Special Service Force was an innocuous name for the joint Canadian-American fighting force created during World War II, but during late 1943 and early 1944 the men of the Force more than earned the nickname bestowed upon them by the Germans: The Black Devils. Covering their faces in black shoe polish, the Black Devils moved through the night, often behind enemy lines, attacking in small numbers with unprecedented fighting skills. From their first battle to their last, the Black Devils displayed toughness and tenacity as they fought more experienced and well-armed enemies. In Italy, the Black Devils summited the “un-scalable” cliffs of Monte La Difensa and overwhelmed an astonished German force at the top.
Joe Glass’ platoon, the 3rd Platoon, was the first up the ropes. Born in Sarnia, Ontario, on March 14th, 1920, Joe Glass weathered the Great Depression by first joining the Canadian Merchant Navy, then the Canadian Army. He then volunteered for the First Special Service Force, which recruited hardy outdoorsmen including lumberjacks, hunters, and forest rangers. The men trained in harsh temperatures and mountainous regions surrounding Helena, Montana. They parachuted from planes mere days into training, learned new hand-to-hand techniques under the tutelage of a former Shanghai Municipal Police officer and martial arts expert, and camped out in the wilderness to learn survival skills.
Though he reveled in his training, Joe was more than a rowdy kid who got into fights at local bars in Helena, as the Force men often did, and snuck out of camp at night to party in town with his best friend Lorin Waling. While out one night at the Casino Bar, he met the beautiful bartender Dorothy and her best friend Steffie. Joe later married Dorothy, and a few months after that Lorin married Steffie. The four had a friendship that lasted over 60 years.
Joe and Lorin summitted Monte La Difensa together, though they split up at the top. Joe moved to the right of the battlefield and Lorin went to the left, and in the early morning of December 3rd, 1943, the mountaintop exploded into chaos as the Force took on the Germans. One German sniper nearly ended Joe’s combat career just as it was starting and as Joe tried to line up his shot on the sniper, the sniper lined up on Joe. Chips of rock struck Joe in the eye, temporarily blinding him and damaging his little finger. While fighting the sniper, Joe was joined by another soldier and Captain Bill Rothlin. Joe warned them to stay low, but curiosity won out and both men peeked out from behind the rocks. Both were promptly shot and killed. Though it is unclear how the German sniper died (perhaps shot, perhaps blown up with a grenade), he disappeared shortly afterward.
After taking Monte La Difensa, the Force moved on to Anzio to hold a section of the line. The Force men numbered 800, and the division holding the line before them had numbered 10,000. To hold the line with so few men, the Force men snuck behind enemy lines to sow fear and destruction, scouting out the German positions. Here they earned their nickname the Black Devils as their polished-covered faces, necks, and hands were a part of their stealth tactics. Sometimes members of the Force would sneak behind enemy lines into the sleeping quarters of the enemy and kill just one, leaving a card that read, “Das dicke Ende kommt noch!” (translation: the worst is yet to come). This intimidation ensured that the Germans units positioned against the Force moved farther and farther back from the line. Despite his previous eye injury, Joe’s night vision was excellent. Both he and Lorin relished their nighttime scouting missions deep into enemy territory.
During a daytime raid near Borgo Piave on May 21st, 1944, Joe suffered near-fatal injuries after being shot through the back. The bullet tore through his lung, causing it to fill with blood. After being carried off the battlefield, a doctor from Detroit gave Joe a cigarette to smoke so he would cough up all the stagnant blood. He did actually cough up the clot, and doctors saved his one remaining lung. Once stable, Joe was flown to a US military hospital in Naples. After about a month in Naples, Joe returned to Santa Maria. Due to his injuries, he could not return to combat, was lucky enough to be able to stay connected with his unit by training replacement troops. When the new guys were sent to France, Joe connived a way to accompany them, but was still disappointed to be denied the opportunity to fight again.
In October of 1944, Joe was discharged from the Black Devils. He spent some time in England recuperating before returning to Sarnia to be reunited with his family. Joe and Dorothy moved to Helena in 1946, back to the place where he’d met the love of his life, he’d met his best friends, and his proudest chapter as a Black Devil had begun. Joe and Lorin drove taxis and talked about the war every day, remembering lost friends and the struggles they had endured. Joe moved on to running poker games, and finally opened businesses with his wife and eldest son in 1975, including B&J Bingo and Glass’ Fish ‘n Chips.
Joe Glass passed away on April 1st, 2012, in Helena, Montana.
Date of Interview: October 1, 2011
Interviewers: Heather Steele and George Cone
Format: Standard Definition Video
Length: 144 minutes
Doug Best – RCAF Air Gunner – Lancasters
Doug Best was an RCAF air gunner in Wellington and Lancaster bombers.
This interview is ready for transcription, please contact us if you would like to volunteer to transcribe this interview: info (at) ww2historyproject.org
Date of Interview: January 15, 2011
Interviewer: Heather Steele
Format: Standard Definition Video
Affiliation: Old Bold Pilots Oceanside
Length: 136 minutes
Grant Young – Torpedo Bomber Pilot – Sank the Yamato
Surviving Against the Odds
By Michael Fink
Grant C. Young inscribed his name in the history books on April 7th, 1945, when he became one of the last torpedo bombers to score a hit on the Japanese battleship Yamato. Shortly after his torpedo struck, Yamato rolled over, exploded cataclysmically, and sank. The sinking of the Yamato—one of the two biggest battleships ever constructed, the pride of the Japanese fleet—was the death knell of the Imperial Japanese Navy. The story of Grant’s successful torpedo run capped an incredible WWII saga and marked the beginning of three decades’ service in the United States Navy.
Grant was born on November 8th, 1921, in rural Dixon, Illinois. He enlisted in the Navy on August 26, 1940 at the age of 18. Grant’s boyhood experience repairing tractor engines and transmissions on the family farm landed him a job as an Aviation Metalsmith at Naval Air Station Pensacola. Though he advanced rapidly through the ranks, Grant’s real dream was to fly planes, not fix them. He applied for flight school shortly before the attack on Pearl Harbor, after which he was quickly accepted as an aviation cadet.
To earn his wings, Grant had to take off from and land on the converted carrier Wolverine as it steamed through the waters of Lake Michigan. His qualifying flights took place in December 1943; temperatures hovered in the mid-20s. During one of his landing attempts, Grant’s engine quit, forcing him to crash into the icy waters of the lake. He almost froze to death before the rescue boat got him back to shore. Despite this close call, Grant finished qualifying the very next day. His wedding date was just a couple weeks away, and he wasn’t going to let anything stand between he and his future wife, Ethel.
After he was assigned to a torpedo squadron, Grant came down with chicken pox. He had to be held back while his assigned squadron left to conduct anti-submarine patrols along the west coast of the U.S. Once he got better, Grant was slotted into a new unit, Torpedo Squadron 10 (VT-10), which was busy taking the fight to the Japanese in the Pacific. He was thus moved from a stateside billet and relatively safe flight duty, right to the front lines of combat.
Grant started flying bombing missions in late June 1944 while VT-10 was assigned to the carrier Enterprise. On one of his first strikes he hit and sank a Japanese trawler, earning him accolades in his hometown newspaper and further strike assignments with his squadron. He stayed with Enterprise through July 6th, the end of VT-10’s first deployment. At the dawn of 1945 Grant and the rest of Torpedo Squadron 10 went aboard USS Intrepid for a second tour of duty. Their target was Okinawa, a stone’s throw from Japan itself. In a last ditch effort to stop the Allied advance, the Japanese decided to send Yamato south on a one-way mission to beach itself on the shores of Okinawa, where it would serve as an unsinkable coastal artillery battery.
On April 7th, 1945, while steaming south to complete its mission, Yamato and her consorts were spotted by U.S. carrier forces. 12 men from Torpedo Squadron 10, including Grant Young, were sent out from Intrepid to join a multi-carrier strike against the behemoth battleship. Carriers closest to the sighting report got their planes over the target quickly, wracking Yamato with bomb hits and torpedo strikes. Intrepid’s pilots had to cover a whopping 275 miles to the Japanese ships; they were last on the scene. Though the weather that day was overcast and stormy, the site of battle was plain as day: flashes from Yamato’s guns were still visible from 12 miles away.
Intrepid’s Avenger crews were supposed to execute a coordinated torpedo attack on a cruiser escorting Yamato. As they approached the enemy ships, descending through thick clouds into the open air below, they traded the buffeting of the storm for the buffeting of flak bursting all around them. It was incredible that 11 of Intrepid’s planes stuck together through such rough treatment. Grant, however, became the one pilot bounced out of formation. When he pushed through into clear skies, his Avenger was pointed right at the broadside of Yamato. He was all alone against the biggest battleship on Earth.
Grant pressed the attack. Yamato, bristling with anti-aircraft guns, threw up a veritable hail of gunfire in response. Despite doing his best to dodge incoming fire, Grant’s plane sustained hit after hit. And yet he still continued closing. At 1,000 yards he dropped his torpedo and circled back just in time to see its blast heave Yamato over to one side. Soon after Grant headed back to Intrepid with the other Avenger crews, Yamato rolled over on its beam ends and exploded. The doomed ship threw up a mushroom almost 4 miles high—one which could be seen 100 miles away on Kyushu, the southernmost island of Japan.
Grant went on to fly jets during the Korean War, and served as a carrier air officer during the Vietnam War before retiring in 1970 after 30 years in the United States Navy. He was awarded a slew of medals over the course of his career, including multiple Air Medals and Navy Commendation Medals; a Purple Heart for being wounded as a result of a kamikaze attack on Intrepid; and, for scoring a hit on Yamato, the Navy Cross. Despite these achievements Grant remained modest. He chalked success up to a team effort: after all, it took almost a dozen torpedoes and 6 bombs to sink Yamato.
Grant and his wife Ethel returned to Illinois in their later years, settling close to the farm in Dixon that started Grant down his path as an aviator. His life’s arc had been almost unbelievable. He went from a kid in rural Illinois fixing tractor transmissions on his family’s plot, to surviving plane crashes in freezing lakes and shell fire from the largest guns ever mounted on a warship. Yet he survived—even thrived—and became one of the many men who contributed to Allied victory in the Pacific.
Dates of Interview: January 2014.
Interviewer: Heather Steele
Format: Audio
Length: 185 minutes
Virginia “Ginny” Jesperson – Marine
Ginny Jesperson served as a Marine in San Francisco during the war. Not all the men in her office were excited that her service, along with that of other female Marines, freed them up for combat service.
This interview has been transcribed and is ready for archival research. If you are interested in conducting archival research in regards to this interview, please contact us at Info at ww2historyproject.org.
Date of Interview: January 5, 2012.
Interviewer: Heather Steele
Format: Standard Definition Video
Length: 80 minutes
