Posted on 12/11/2019 7:44:05 AM PST by NEMDF
Francis X. Murphy was just 18 years old when he got married on Dec. 6, 1941. The next day, Pearl Harbor was bombed, and the United States was at war.
Murphy joined the 83rd Airdrome Squad. He went to Europe and fought in D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge. To this day, the 95-year-old from Whitman remembers the bloodshed from what remains the third-deadliest battle in American history.
“You either kill them or they were going to kill you, and that’s how it was,” Murphy said bluntly.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonherald.com ...
As I passed his table I could see that the cap was quite worn and the patch appeared authentic. I asked him if he would mind if I spoke with him for a few minutes. He gladly agreed. I apologized for interrupting his supper and asked if he had been in the 82nd. He said he was and had served during WWII and saw action in the Ardennes. He told me stories of the Battle of the Bulge and had quite the memory. We talked for about 20 minutes and I told him I would let him get back to his meal and thanked him for his service. It was a fascinating moment.
I spoke with the manager of the place and he knew the guy only as "Joe" and that he was a regular. I paid for Joe's meal that day and also purchased a $100 gift card and asked if he would present it to Joe as I didn't want to disturb him further. The manager agreed gladly and thanked me since his father had served in WWII also.
It was one of those moment you just don't forget.
These men acted without orders and on their own initiative. They had to of course but they were in no danger of being frozen with analysis paralysis or fear of being out guessed by higher authority.
One wonders how word actually got back to them and when.
The 82nd was sent into Berlin after the fighting stopped as part of the Army of Occupation.
I have several photos of them. Several of them serving as honor guard for Eisenhower as his plane lands at Tempelhof. Also of them parading in the 1936 Olympic stadium.
Also of them playing against the combat engineers in a football game in the Berlin Polo Grounds. Eisenhower and Zhukof were both at the game.
“About half his group was killed, he never talked about it...”
My 96 year old uncle also fought at the Bulge. Only 2 guys left in his platoon at one point. He and a Lt. went out to scout around and they were pinned down by Germans. They barely made it back, Germans chasing them the whole way back
He had nightmares every week about it the rest of his life.
He was wounded very badly and spent a year recuperating.
He was field-promoted to Sergeant when his was killed in action.
He then fought across Belgium to the Rhine, where his Division was the first to cross over the Bridge at Remagen “en masse” into Germany.
Two days later he was shot and killed in action, near Ariendorf, Germany. March 11, 1945. He was 19 years old.
We had a family friend, when I was growing up, who also served in Patton’s Third Army. Apparently, everyone in the Third has a story of personal contact with General Patton. I forget what he said, but it was some “blood and guts” blurb that was fitting for the general.
The friend’s story that stuck with me the most was when they were fighting towards the end of the war. They got fired upon. My friend captured the German after a short chase, and knocked the enemy’s helmet off. The “soldier” turned out to be a kid, maybe ten years old, who started crying. My friend was always grateful he didn’t shoot the kid.
“One wonders how word actually got back to them and when.”
When the “Bulge” broke under Patton and Montgomery, a lot of Germans were taken prisoner. And soldiers love to talk, to each other at least. Interrogation of higher-ups and specialists was also the norm.
Amazing. I thank you father for his service.
I had a great uncle who flew B-26 Marauders in WW II European theater. I had a picture with his plane with D-Day markings on it that my Grandpa gave me. I was so proud of that. But he never talked about it. I was a kid (around ten) when I asked him about it, and he just walked away from me. My feelers were hurt but my Grandpa told me it was just too painful to talk about. He lost a lot of friends. He didn’t even talk to his own family about what he did. One of his daughters approached me at my Grandma’s 90th birthday party and said she had found his flight logs and a few charts and asked me if I thought she should keep them. (??)
I had a great uncle that lost an eye when he scaled Point du Hoc on D-Day and caught shrapnel in his cheek.
Another great uncle who was a mechanic in the Pacific theater. His job was to go out and retrieve damaged vehicles and tow them back, repair them. He told me one time, just before he died, of his first combat experience, where they went out to retrieve a damaged truck and heard an odd buzzing sound. They realized they were being shot at from the jungle. He laughed about it. He was such a good guy.
I had a neighbor, very nice old man, who one day asked me for a ride down to the library to return some movies. Of course, I obliged. We started chatting about the news of the day, and it turned to the war in Iraq. He said he was not much disposed to go to war - you better have a good reason. Turned out he was a World War II vet. Battle of the Bulge. He was an ammo runner, among other things. I jokingly said, that sounds like it was a pretty dangerous job. He chuckled and replied, “Yeah, a little bit hazardous.”
God bless these men.
God bless all of them.
Thanks, you have nailed it. These units were a part of the Army Air Forces, in this case part of the 9th Air Force and were designed to provide forward maintenance, armament, fuel, and technical support to Fighter Squadrons operating out of forward air fields.
Why didn’t he have his tie on? :p
My mother’s brother was awarded a silver star. All he said about it was he was so scared his hair turned white given TS number dead around him. He returned mentally traumatized from the war and an alcoholic. Died after being mugged from a bunch of urban outdoors men in NYC. Never found the POSs either. Would love to have them framed in the scope of my LR.
Here's a video interview with the Man himself:
https://www.wwiimemorialfriends.org/voices/francis-murphy-sr/
Interesting! Thanks. Don’t remember actually hearing the term “airdrome” in relation to US military units.
More here including new and old video, some footage of them leaving at Boston Logan last night:
https://boston.cbslocal.com/2019/12/10/wwii-veterans-belgium-75th-anniversary-battle-of-the-bulge/
And don’t forget The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest, the longest single battle the U.S. Army has ever fought, just before the Battle of the Bulge. From 33,000 to 55,000 American casualties.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_H%C3%BCrtgen_Forest
At the time, western Europe was covered in the heaviest blanket of fog ever seen. This meant that in pitched battles, where the sides were not obvious, soldiers had to charge each other with pistols and knives, because they could only distinguish the other’s uniform at just a few feet.
Played golf in the late ‘60s on a 105° day with a fellow who conspicuously ignored our loud complaints about the heat. When I asked him why, he said, “I fought in the Battle of the Bulge. I was so cold that I swore I would never again complain about the heat.”
My late Uncle Fred, 335th Infantry Regiment , 3rd Battalion, I Company, 84th. Infantry Division. Saw combat at Marche , Belgium. Wounded on or about January 3, Soy, Belgium evacuated to Tidewater England and then home. God bless you Unc. God bless them all.
I’m sure that they supported the 101st Airborne Division, but they wouldn’t have been attached to it. Once the word Squad was corrected to Squadron, it all clicked. These units operated forward airfields used by fighter bombers providing close support to combat troops. They were typically located minutes away from the front lines so that the fighter bombers could engage enemy positions, return to their forward airfield, refuel, rearm, etc. and get back to the fight. These units would have been close to the enemy front lines, but far away from them to be out of range of enemy artillery.
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