[Music]
we pulled all the troops back in that
three-story house that had a rock wall
around the outside
was getting so low on ammunition was
only shooting when they try to come over
that wall
so they turned a bazooka loose
with the united states involvement in
the second world war increasing rapidly
american businesses shifted their
peacetime productions to support the
allied war effort
folks like george mills of decatur
alabama did their part on the home front
but before long george heard that uncle
sam was about to call his name
the draft board was across the street
from where i worked
and i knew the young lady worked in
there
and she uh stuck her head out the window
and said george you're gonna be drafted
next wednesday
so i had two guys that was buddies of
mine and they were in the same boat so
we just decided we'd three go down and
enlist
they processed us into that fort
mcclellan and uh
they sent me to livingston louisiana for
a basic training
[Music]
george was assigned to the u.s army's
28th infantry division
and soon began training for the allied
forces next major offensive in the war
against germany
the invasion of western europe and then
went to carabelle florida and we took
amphibious training there
then we left there and went to pickett
virginia for
cliff scaling
then from there to england
[Music]
having been held back during the initial
d-day landings
the 28th division landed on the shores
of normandy in july of 1944
with the beaches secure george in the
28th moved inland
engaging the enemy almost immediately
after a month of combat slowly pushing
the german forces back from one town to
another
the 28th division walked into the newly
liberated city
of paris
[Music]
when we did liberate paris
the champlain boulevard it's a big wide
street
that's where they wanted to have the
parade and have the
viewing stands and all for the officers
and we marched 24 breasts from
from the arctic triumph to notre dame
church
although the liberation of paris brought
the allies one step closer to victory
the end of the war was not as near as it
seemed
the next objective would take george and
the 28th division
into german territory
[Music]
then we went into the hurricane forest
when we attacked that thing the archer
would hit in the trees
[Music]
it would tear the top of the trees up
and all that would fall
for nearly three months the united
states army launched assault
after assault against the german forces
but to little avail
the battle of the hurricane forest
claimed over 30 000 american casualties
it was just so bad in there that it took
two or three days to get the wounded out
because you couldn't get vehicles in
there
and after the the we fought in the
hurricane forest there
they pulled us out of there and took us
to dykirk luxembourg
the 28th division was pulled back from
the front lines to regroup
but soon germany would launch their
largest offensive since the allies set
foot in europe
taking their enemies completely by
surprise
and then they sent us up to a little
town called walls
that's where our supplies and kitchen
was set up and we really had a good meal
boy
and it's just like here i mean nothing
going on it was just
peaceful as it could be i went down with
a jeep
and i just decided to spend the night
the 15th of december 44.
i went to bed that night in a little
rock barn there
and i woke up at five o'clock artillery
and rockets was coming in
and i mean all around that place and
hundreds of them said boy i gotta get
back to the company how they getting hit
up there
so i jumped on that jeep went back up
with them and sure enough
fifth panzer division they were coming
around our left right
vanguard division was coming around our
right flank and surrounded
that 200 men called g
company they couldn't help us they just
told us to hold that road
we pulled all the troops back in that
three-story house that had a rock wall
around the outside
we were getting so low on ammunition was
only shooting when they tried to come
over that wall
so they turned a bazooka loose and i
blew up one hole in it
i went back there to see what was going
on they turned another round in there
and i got some trout
from that
then they turned the flamethrower in
there and said don't fire
[Music]
surrounded low on ammunition and having
suffered many casualties
george and the rest of his company were
now prisoners of war
in the hands of the enemy there was no
way of knowing what lie ahead
and and then we went from meredith's
dialogue to 4b where the
singer gave us they took all the
officers and put them in concentration
camps
took all the privates and put them in
work farms or
businesses whatever wherever they needed
them they took all the ncos
and they started us marching towards
czechoslovakia
for five months george and the other
captured ncos were gradually marched
across
europe though starved and exhausted
george never gave up hope
we walked all the way to dialogue or 8a
which is on
czechoslovakian border they'd put us in
a barn lot
that was down to about 250 of us at that
time
we were there two nights then we
we could hear russian artillery coming
in
i heard a tank and i
i thought it was a german tank and i
kept looking for it
when i did spot it was a half track and
then it was a command car with it big
old white star on the side of it which
is
american we took over the
guards it was there and they sent trucks
in there and
picked us up and trucked us back to the
horror of france and
giving us clean clothes getting us
something to eat
and uh putting us on boats to send us
back home
[Music]
soon after the liberation the war in
europe came to an end
and george was heading back to alabama
throngs of war-weary servicemen returned
from overseas
and their families were eagerly waiting
my mother she'd been getting letter
telegrams from
from the government missing in action
you know a mission in action they don't
tell you nothing except mississippi
when we went to star logger 4b they gave
us a little old card
said we could send that home wrote on
there
i was doing fine and i told her to send
me some
candy some socks
and she got that car
i come in home knocked on the door and
they were back in the back of the house
cooking breakfast
and elizabeth come to the door and
the screen door was hooked she got so
excited she didn't
didn't unhook the door and let me in she
run back to tell them and and then they
all
come out there so i went back and course
that's cooking breakfast and i was glad
to get that you know
so they was glad to see me
[Music]
to this day george mills continues to be
an influential voice
pointing us to the importance of
remembering the past
i i go to not as many right now as i
used to
and i still do some church
meet with church groups and i do a toast
to the flag and
if you don't remember your history you
can't do your
tomorrow's work
[Music]
hi everyone i'm josh from memoirs of
world war ii and i just want to say
thank you for watching this episode
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