Story 1
Lloyd Joachim
15th engineers Battalion, 9th Infantry Division: European Theater
European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
Good Conduct Medal American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal Twx Wd 45
Presidential Unit Citation Medal G.O. 162
My eyes were so bad the Army gave me limited service for the first year. At the end my first year of duty I conveniently underwent an emergency appendectomy operation, which saved my life in more ways than one because it kept me out of the initial D-Day invasion. At that time, I was still in the states, awaiting transport to England. Once we arrived in England, I went across the Channel as a replacement. Replacements don't go in as a unit but are just thrown in wherever they are needed. I took the same path up Omaha Beach as those depicted in the movie Private Ryan, but by the time I got there the Beach was deserted. I saw all the junk left from the Battle and was so glad that I had not been there. Of course I would have been there if it were not for my eyes and the convenient appendectomy.
Once we arrived we followed the road up from Omaha Beach where we eventually met up with the transport trucks. They packed us into those trucks like canned asparagus. The trucks were so packed with soldiers we could hardly breathe. Eventually we arrived at the trains, which took us across France to our final destination. When we arrived at our unit, it looked just like a great big forest except for the many soldier's helmets poking out of foxholes.
By the time I got to the front lines I was in Belgium. We were fighting in the Hurtgen forest, which is where much of the Battle of the Bulge occurred. At that edge of the Hurtgen forest we encountered a big battle. My unit was brought back for a little relief. I was a replacement and just thrown into the wolves. At that point, I started to get into the war right quick.
From there we went to Ardennes, where we attempted to cross a few rivers. We made a few dry runs and in the process we engaged in a few minor battles. We finally got up to where the Battle of Bulge occurred. My unit was stationed directly across from where the Krauts were positioned to come across in mass that night. Luckily, that afternoon we were suddenly pulled out of there just before the Germans came across en mass.
I was over there for nearly two years and I was scared the whole time. The only time the fear dissipated was during the harsh winters, when we were freezing to death. Every once in a while it got so cold I didn't give a damn whether or not I got shot because I was so cold. We were all so cold many of us just didn't care. When we were on the front lines we never took our clothes off. We would take off our overshoes and overcoats and climb in our sacks - as we called our sleeping bags - but that's all we dared take off. We did that for weeks at a time, without being able to change clothes or even change socks. It got pretty hairy.
Story 2
Lloyd Joachim
15th engineers Battalion, 9th Infantry Division: European Theater
European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
Good Conduct Medal American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal Twx Wd 45
Presidential Unit Citation Medal G.O. 162
I was drafted in Minneapolis. I didn't see combat until I reached Belgium. My primary job assignment was mine detection. We almost always attacked at daylight, very early in the morning. First, we would bombard them with a bunch of artillery and mortars and then I would move in with my mine detector so a tank could follow, and hope I didn't get shot in the process. Someone had to go in and find the mines so the tanks could get through. The infantry would be on one side of the road, lying down in ditches, while I'm walking out front with my mine detector. In a situation like that, I was an open target. I was bloody naked out there on the road. Even if somebody was aiming at the tank behind me they were more than likely going to hit me first. We picked up a lot of mines.
I was mostly searching for antitank mines, which don't go off from the weight of the man. So I wasn't worried about the mines. I was much more concerned about being shot. The enemy often lay in artillery fire as an attempt to thwart our attack. The artillery fire was particularly dangerous because if it hit a mine it would set off the mine or it could hit me. I was shot at directly by a German 88. I was walking down the road and they laid two quickies in and of course you cannot get out of the road fast enough. Luckily, I found a foxhole and landed in it. I sat there for a while and then went tearing out of town to where my buddies were.
One afternoon I was all alone out on the road shoveling some dirt when a Jeep came through loaded with four GIs. These four guys came sliding up to me as I was shoveling and they asked, "Where's the ammo dump?" Now, that's not a question you would normally ask an ordinary GI standing on the roadside. Not to mention there were four of them in that Jeep. All four had their submachine guns at the ready and all four were immaculately dressed. I found this alarming because soldiers coming from the front lines never looked alike and as a rule they were covered with dirt from head to foot. If those four men had been American GIs their heavy machine guns would have been in their laps rather than at the ready. They were definitely Krauts coming up to spy on us. I reported the incident to my captain but I'm not sure what ever came of it. There were a lot of those guys around at that time and that's still sticks in my mind because they German spies trying to find that ammunition dump. All I could think was how easily they could have shot me.
Story 3
Lloyd Joachim
15th engineers Battalion, 9th Infantry Division: European Theater
European African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
Good Conduct Medal American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal Twx Wd 45
Presidential Unit Citation Medal G.O. 162
My most memorable experience was when we crossed the Ludendorf Bridge at the city of Remagen, just after its capture. Thankfully, it was captured intact and this allowed the allies to get through Germany's last major defensive line, namely the Rhine River. My unit, the 15th Engineer Battalion 9th Infantry Division, was one of the early units to cross the bridge. It was for this act that my unit received a Presidential Unit Citation.
Once we arrived at the bridge some infantry and tanks had already crossed. I was standing on the tailgate of the truck - just as we got to the end of the bridge I noticed a small mountain with a railroad tunnel running through it. While taking in the scene I heard an airplane coming closer, but I couldn't see it. As I scanning the mountaintop an airplane appeared out of the haze. Its engines were roaring as it came tearing down on us. Just as he got close he cut the engines off and glided straight for us. He had a bomb! I could see it clearly. Try as I might, I couldn't tell if it was a German or an American or what. I just kept watching and watching, but the plane had no markings on it. Because of my position on the far end of the bridge he was headed right at me. The plane came so close to me that if the pilot had been a guy I knew I could easily have recognized him, he was that close. Then he dropped the bomb and of course the bank was on a steep incline but in order for the detonator to go off he needed the bomb to hit dead on. Fortunately, the angle was wrong and it hit sideways and tumbled into the Rhine without detonating. He roared off as I stared after him. We had antiaircraft guns in place and suddenly they begin to fire on him just as he roared off, but they were too late.
The next morning we went around the hill to the spot where the Krauts had been shooting at us the night before. There were a few mines at the top of the hill and so they sent me in with my mine detector after laying in a bunch of artillery and mortars to soften up the enemy. It was my job to clear a wide enough path for the tanks to spearhead the assault. It's a pretty hazardous job. You’re unarmed because you need both hands to wield the heavy mine detector, as well as being bloody naked out on the road while walking ahead of your entire unit. I picked off a few mines as I slowly made my way over the hill overlooking the town.
As I came upon the town I heard the familiar sound of a tank. I thought, "Well, if we already got a tank down there what am I doing out here?" I took another look and saw that it was a German tank. He was only a block off and he was coming straight toward me. As he drew closer I said to myself, "The heck with you." I then threw down my mine detector and dove into a foxhole. Fortunately, the tank was more interested in getting out of town and saving itself rather than messing around with me.
The enemy got up and hid behind a hill for a while. Pretty soon they started in and I wasn't able to get back to my group because there were tracer bullets coming across, so I went in and joined the infantry. I stayed with them and we settled in an abandoned house. The German tank had hid itself behind a little rise. After a while he set his Turrets across the top of the mound and started shooting the heck out of us guys in the house. We couldn't locate our artillery or mortars, which we desperately needed if we were to mount a counterattack. This gave the Kraut's time to regroup and mound a counterattack.
We had guys in all the windows of the house with machine guns fighting off the Krauts as they battled their way back in trying to catch us. To locate a target you have an observer telling the artillery to shoot say, twenty yards to the left and twenty yards right. When we finally found our artillery and zeroed in on them they soon surrendered, but by this time fourteen hours had passed. Because I had not made it back to camp I was missing, and so I was listed as missing in action.
My Sergeant received a report that they had a dead soldier down in the town where I was last seen. The Sergeant put two and two together and figured it was me. So early that night, about eight o'clock, here comes my Sergeant tromping in to take my body out. He comes in the door and there I am. He said to me, "Ah gee, we thought you were a goner". So I wound up helping them carry what was "officially" thought to be, "my body" back out to our line.
