Week 22: Military - Memorial Day Salute to PFC John Brown, WWII

Week 22: Military – Memorial Day Salute - PFC John Brown, WWII

John Brown, c. 1980

“The most exciting, but at the same time, the most frightening time of my life.”  John Brown

I first met John Brown in the summer of 1969. He was to become my father-in-law in November that same year. He was a mild mannered, slender man who was born 62 years earlier on the family farm near Orrville, Ohio in 1907. We got along very well right from the start. I learned that Brownie, as his friends called him, had been captured by the German Army in France during WW II. I was immediately interested in learning the details. Here’s what he told me.

“When the United States entered World War I in 1917, I was only ten years old. But by 1939, when Germany invaded Poland and Japan was at war in China, everybody knew world war was coming again and soon would involve the United States. I wanted to see something beyond the farm, so I enlisted in the Army in 1940. I knew how to handle horses so they sent me to Fort Riley, Kansas and assigned me to the horse Cavalry. One day the First Sergeant called me to his office and said, ‘Brown, the General needs a driver and we are sending you up to HQ for an interview.’ I got the job as the General’s sedan driver until my enlistment was up in mid 1941. As much as I liked the Army, I decided it was time to go home and see about getting married and starting a family. Unfortunately, that was not to be just yet.  

World War II broke out for the U.S. after Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In 1942, I was called back to active duty in the Army. By this time, the horse cavalry had become obsolete and I was sent to Camp Campbell in Kentucky and assigned for training in a brand new unit that was to become the 12^th Armored Division (12^th AD). I was to be a driver again, but this time in a Sherman tank.”

Brownie continued, “After basic training for a year at Campbell, we were reassigned in 1943 to Camp Barkeley in Abilene, Texas for advanced training. Here we drew all of our tanks and other equipment and trained for another year. I had married Lelia in March 1943 and was lucky enough to take her with me to Texas. By mid 1944, our unit was ready to go. Not bad! The Army had trained, organized, and equipped over 12,000 officers and men for the 12^th AD in just two years.

What followed was a whirlwind of activity. We loaded up all of our equipment on flat cars for shipping to Europe. All of us soldiers took a train to New Jersey and then went by troop ship to southern England. Here we were issued all new equipment and trained for another month or so. The only break I got was a two day pass to visit London. In November of 1944 we were taken by LSTs (ships that could carry our tanks) to La Harve, France. The battle to free France had been going on for several months before we got there and the German Army had been pushed back almost completely out of France. In November we were told, ‘Get ready to go to the front.’  I remember driving my tank day and night for most of three days and two nights. I didn’t know where we were or where we were going. But all I had to do was what my tank commander told me to do, which simply put was, ‘Follow the tank in front of you.’

There’s an old saying in the Army, ‘Hurry up and wait.’ We got to the rear of the combat zone in early December 1944. Our 43^rd Tank Battalion was put in reserve, so we waited some more. I don’t know how I got it, unclean mess kit I suppose, but I got a bout of ptomaine poisoning just before Christmas and spent a couple of weeks in the hospital. I felt terrible but at least I got some bed rest. When I got back to my tank in B Company, we waited some more, until January 15^th, 1945. That night our company commander, Captain Dwyer, was called up to Battalion to be briefed on a big attack that was to take place during the next two days, January 16^th and 17^th. When he came back our platoon leader was briefed on the up-coming operation and we were told where B Company fit into the plan.

On the 16^th of January, some of our battalion attacked east across the Zorn River toward the French farm town of Offendorf. Our B Company was held in reserve that day. Fighting was heavy and about twelve of our tanks from other companies were knocked out. The remainder of our battalion was pulled back for repairs and to rearm. It had been a bad day for the 43^rd Tank Battalion and the two Armored Infantry battalions that made the attack with our battalion. We knew we in B Company would be committed the next day and had a lot of reasons to be scared.  The good thing is we didn’t have a lot of time to think about it.

A little after midnight on the 17^th, our battalion, with our company this time, was positioned forward into our attack position. We were told we’d attack at 7 am in the morning to clear the town of Herrlisheim of any German resistance we found there. We jumped off right on time. We in B Company followed the 17^th Armored Infantry Battalion (17^th AIB) into Herrlisheim. The infantry moved to the left and our 12 tanks were ordered to go right to the center of town to provide support for our infantry to occupy houses there.

French farm villages have very narrow streets because the houses are built right next to the streets with barns behind them. The narrow streets forced us into a column which is good for fast movement but not good for bringing all of our firepower to bear on any enemy we encountered. When we arrived at the center of town we relaxed because we had not seen any enemy yet. Little did we know that there was an enemy infantry battalion and part of a company of Panther tanks waiting for us.

We parked our tanks in column, shut off our engines, and dismounted for maintenance, lunch, and to await new orders. Almost immediately we heard a big explosion. A previously unseen enemy Panther tank had fired one round right into the engine compartment of our last tank in the column. The crew was not hurt but dazed. Suddenly, a second Panther tank appeared at the front of our column pointing its’ main gun right at our lead tank. A German sergeant dressed in a black SS uniform and holding a submachine gun stepped out of the shadows and commanded us in German to drop all of our weapons. One of our Lieutenants near the rear of our column seeing that the Germans had the drop on us waved a white t-shirt so that we wouldn’t be killed where we stood.

Although there was no glory in ending our wartime experience this way, our part in the shooting war was over. I had gone from a heavily armed American soldier to an unarmed prisoner of war.”

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Brownie was held in the Hanover area of Germany as a POW from late January 1945 until the middle of April 1945. German guards (old soldiers recalled to active duty) had marched the POWs around the countryside for most of those 90 days as the German Army collapsed around them. One morning Brownie and his fellow POWs woke up and found that their guards had disappeared. Soon a Canadian truck convoy pulled up and a sergeant jumped out and shouted, ‘OK, boys, onto the trucks. We’re here to take you to the rear…Welcome back!”

 

Welcome back boys!