A Trombonist’s Tale
as a Soldier in
World War II
By
Edward G. Fritsch
About the Author
Edward G. Fritsch was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 18, 1924 to Charles and Catherine Fritsch. He was one of eight children and as any kid enjoyed playing sandlot baseball, basketball, houseball, and shinny, which is a form of hockey. Edward started taking trombone lesson at the age of 10 and played in the school band. At the age of 15, he attended summer school on a scholarship at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, which was one of the top music schools in the country. During high school, Edward began playing with dance bands for money and after graduation, traveled with a dance band throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
After World War II, he married Elizabeth Hoffman on April 23, 1947 in Evansville, Indiana. He and Elizabeth had six beautiful children, in which five are still alive today. Mr. Fritsch is a retired insurance and IRS auditor that resides on the south-side of Indianapolis with his wife of 61 years.
About the Editor
Christopher Cleland is one of many grandsons of Edward G. Fritsch. After getting interested in his family history, Chris decided to rewrite his Grandpa Fritsch’s story with additional pictures and explanations.
Preface
This is a record of the events, places, and most important, the impressions and the feelings of an 18 year old boy as he lived through these events to emerge as a 21 year old man. Some of these events are history, but the unrecorded events and impressions can be educational.
I think an important fact to remember was that, when inducted, Paul [Edward’s brother] and I made payroll allotments to Mom and Dad. Since they had no income other than Sis’s wages, this was crucial. When we were promoted, they received part of the increase. Mom never forgot this.
Editor’s Note: Edward Fritsch in his original writings included recorded history and his own impressions. I have kept the recorded history in regular type and italicized the impressions. Also, I have added bolded [brackets] to help the reader understand some of the sayings and history in his writings.
Chapter List
Chapter 1: Beginning
Chapter 2: History Making Event
Chapter 3: Division Moves
Chapter 4: 1stBattle – Battle of the Ardennes [Battle of the Bulge]
Chapter 5: The Colmar Pocket
Chapter 6: The RuhrValley
Chapter 7: The End
Chapter 1: Beginning
At age 18, I took tests for the Air Force and the Coast Guard in hopes that I may get into safer and more rewarding position. This failed due to my colorblindness. So, on August 19, 1943, I was inducted into the Army at Ft. Thomas, Kentucky. First stop was Ft. Lee, Virginia[CampLee till 1950], where I took basic training with the usual rough indoctrination. This was completed and I was shipped to army band school at Ft. Myer, Virginia. The music tests were passed and much was learned while rubbing shoulders with some of the best talent from all musical fields.
The U.S. 75th Infantry Division was being assembled in Missouri[Fort Leonard Wood] and I was shipped there on December 30, 1943. The band was to be built around two former National Guard bands from Detroit and Flint, Michigan. On the train going through Cincinnati to St. Louis, I nearly cried as the train passed within 500 feet of my home. If it wasn’t deep winter, I may have seen Mom hanging out the wash.
In Rolla, Missouri, I learned for the first time how soldiers were scalped [taken advantage of] by their patriotic friends and neighbors. A local redneck charged me an arm and a leg to sleep on his basement floor. A local cabbie charged me two arms and a leg to get into camp.
Although the band people were older men (ages 27 to 38), when the division was assembled and shook down, the average of the enlisted men was 21.6 years old, the youngest in the U.S. Army.
In the few weeks at Ft.Leonard Wood, I observed an unimaginable thing. One of the band members, an absolute genius at composition and a professional arranger, was a child pornographer. The other men in the band had known him for years in the National Guard, but they humored him. Fortunately, due to terrible eyesight, he was discharged during maneuvers in Louisiana.
[Fort Leonard Wood barracks, 1942]
The division moved out for southwest Louisiana on February 1, 1944 and began maneuvers around a proving ground which is now Toledo Bend.
[The Louisiana Maneuvers started in 1941 and were a series of military exercises in to prepare for troops for combat. The Louisiana Maneuvers of 1944 were not as big as the one in 1941. The 1944 Maneuvers were hampered by severe weather conditions. Many troops were not prepared for the cold and ice that occurred that winter and many cases of the cold, flu, pneumonia, and trench foot occurred.]The maneuvers were as far south as Ft.Polk[Near Leesville, LA]. Here I learned about scorpions, mosquitoes, and swamp snakes. I also learned something new.
People who live around military facilities love the income that is generated by the camp, but they despise the military people. Often this is justified by the acts of dangerous military personal. After making a purchase at Leesville, the saleslady threw my change at me so I had to stoop to pick part of it from the floor.
Maneuvers went on in and around an army artillery and air force firing range and within the forests. We played for dances[similar to the one pictured to the right] arranged in Mansfield, Louisiana and Alexandria, Louisiana. These were usually set up at local colleges.
On April 1, 1944, we traveled by truck to Camp Breckenridge, Kentucky. Here, I got PFC [Private First Class]. However, before this, being a PVT [Private], I had to do KP (Kitchen Police).
The head cook for our company was a redneck hillbilly from Tennessee. After the cooking and serving food was done, the privates had to scrub up the kitchen and dining area. This guy beat down on every lowly private, threatening punishment if they did not scrub the floors on both knees holding the brush with both hands. This was carried out with loud cursing and shouting. I believe this was the first person that I really hated. The cookie was so despised that he never took leave away from the camp. Too many men wanted to get at him and, as I heard from older soldiers, he found a home in the Army as there was no place for him in the real world.
Chapter 2: History Making Event
We immediately started playing dances at the USO and at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Evansville, Indiana. This was a long windy truck ride, but worth the trouble. Here at the Knights of Columbus hall, the musicians got a chance to dance between sets as the jukebox played in between. Here also I met a quiet girl named Elizabeth, who, as I quickly discovered, was 18 years old, supervised at the telephone company, and was unmarried. This turned out to be a promising summer as I spent much time standing in front of the telephone office waiting for her to get off. We saw movies and danced. Then came the big test!
[Barracks at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky]
I was invited out to the house on Walnut Street[Elizabeth Hoffman lived at 1418 Walnut Street. She lived a block away from St. Benedict Church which is pictured to the right]. As soon as I got there and met Ida and Bud Hoffman, Ida took over. Everyone seemed to vanish except Ida and me, as we were sitting on the porch swing. Ida’s first question was, “Are you Catholic?” A “Yes” got me past that one. Ida’s second question was, “Are you a Democrat?” I got by that one by saying I wasn’t old enough to vote. From then on, things went well. Now, I received my first 30 day furlough [temporary leave of absence]. I told Mom about Elizabeth.
Chapter 3: Division Moves
The division shipped out to Camp Shanks, New York[Orangeburg, New York] on October 15, 1944. I was on the British liner named Aquatania[pictured below]. Somehow I missed out on seasickness. Very few did. The food was so lousy that meals were avoided. [Camp Shanks, New York]
The food for American troops was provided by the U.S. both going and coming because the British had little to feed them selves. However, we were served mush and orange marmalade[Marmalade is a sweet preserve with a bitter tang] for breakfast, pork sandwiches for lunch, and pork and chips for supper.
The troops screamed for decent food, but the only chance we had for something edible was to purchase beef or spam sandwiches from those “limeys”[Limey is an American term to describe a British soldier. This comes from the practice of British sailors drinking lime juice to prevent scurvy], who we grew to despise. They stashed the American food and fed us their slop. Most of us survived on candy bars. We slept in 8 hour shifts, three men sharing one bunk for 24 hours over six days. The rest of the time, regardless of weather, was on deck or standing in the hallways.
We landed at Glasgow, Scotland on November 21, 1944 and were moved to Tenby in Wales[Tenby’s St. Catherine’s Island pictured below], which is in the Swansea area. While we were there, it seemed as if they were burying a soldier every day. On December 9th, we moved to Southampton, where we debarked for Le Havre, France and arrived on December 15th. Now safety became paramount, so we had to be moved quickly from ship to trucks to trains.
Seeing the gravity of the situation, one of our trumpet men turned chicken, put on a wild demonstration of a nervous breakdown, placed in a straightjacket, and sent back to England. The memorable part of this event was when Fred Webster returned to Milwaukee, he wrote to his old buddies telling them what suckers they were and how he was making a killing in the music business due to shortage of brass men. I wondered who visited him after the war.
It is important to note that at this time our Band (50 men) was now divided into two parts. The first part was led by our Chief Warrant Officer, Ken Humbert and they were reserved for the rear. The bad part was double. The second group was to be led by our Junior Warrant Officer, Warren Moon. We were to be forward guards (bad). Warren Moon was a homosexual and few had respect for him (bad). There was some good in the split though.
A the ages of 18 and 19, I had no idea what a “fag”, “queer”, etc. was! Due to the customs at that time, I thought a homosexual was just a sissy and the reason they were despised was that they were not manly. It made no difference to me that a Private cleaned his rifle and acted as “goffer” for him.
This Army band was made up of two National Guard bands from Lansing, Michigan and Detroit, Michigan. As these older, experienced men failed to qualify for the rigid physical requirements, they were discharged and new G.I.s, like me, were used to fill in. The Detroit musicians came from Hamtramck[surrounded by Detroit]. Hamtramck was home to the toughest Polish people in America. [In the 1940s, over 90% of Hamtramck’s population was of Polish decent. Most of these Polish immigrants had come to the city to work in the automobile industry.]These guys were foul, criminal-like, and downright dangerous. Since the new guys like me stayed away from them, the most we got [to see their behavior] was a chance to witness first hand some of the crudest language never before heard. Remember the child pornographer? He was a Michigan boy.
We were rushed to a central assembling area at Yvetot, France in a Hommes 40 & Chevaux 8 [a French boxcar that was used to carry military personal. It could carry either 8 horses or 40 men]. If someone had to go bathroom, we passed the can. Our part of the band went forward another 200 miles by cattle car to Huy, Belgium, to the estate of a wealthy farmer. We billeted [quartered] in the barns and since my best friend, Rod Landry, Joe Cook, and pal, Jim Davies, spoke French, the farmer invited us for dinner at his mansion. I figured he treated the Germans the same two weeks earlier. He spelled “wheeler-dealer” all the way.
Fact: Joe Kukurka (his pseudonym in the music field in Detroit was Joe Cook) was the most gifted musician I ever experienced. Joe was soloist with the band and assistant band leader, in that he led the dance bands. The wealthy farmer invited us to a lavish meal in his mansion after which he serenaded us with his violin and his beautiful wife as accompanist on the piano. (His plan was to show off his beautiful wife, overwhelm us with his violin playing, and to fit it with new conquerors. He also made it known that he played each Sunday at Mass.) After two solos (he was awful), Joe Cook asked if he could play. Joe played the violin (to my surprise) as well as he played the trumpet! The farmer ended that concert promptly and we hit the sack in the barns. I thought his wife looked amused!
[Picture of present-day Huy, Belgium]
The following day, we had our first air raid. Everyone hit the ditches as were trained except Warrant Officer Moon. Moon hid under a table with a blanket over his head! He came out when someone came and assured him it was all over.
The 75th was attached to the 9th U.S. Army and Major General Prickett led the division.
Chapter 4: 1stBattle – Battle of the Ardennes
[Battle of the Bulge]
As I said before, there was some good in the split-up of the band. But, when it came for the showdown, during the bad times these guys were who you wanted to be with. This saved my bacon!
At this time, I was not aware that my brother, Jim, was in the Ardennes just 20 miles away and my brother, Al, was 50 miles away at Antwerp with a Harbor Craft battalion. Brother Paul was in Fairbanks, Alaska in the Air Force. Mom and Dad Fritsch were getting $40 per month allotment for their contribution of four sons.
When the trouble started, plans were changed and the 75th was attached to the American First Army. Headquarters moved to Tongres [Tongeren in Belgium, Tongres in French], Belgium on the north flank. Then suddenly, the division was split and part was attached to the 3rd Armored Division. We went into combat on December 23, 1944. [Statue of Ambiorix in Tongres]
The division wasn’t strong enough for this split and new infantry troops were pouring in. These were Air Force trainees who were selected for their brilliance and sent to top Universities in America for special Air Force jobs. We learned that 500,000 of them were washed out when it became clear that the war would be won. They were given a couple days of rifle training, moved to the infantry, and some sent to the 75th to fill the voids. Imagine it! From colleges to line troops in weeks!
Hot showers and clothing were arranged at division headquarters. I and some of our guys were there for showers also. We had already been issued the clothing for deep snow and for intense cold.
As they came through the trailers, my friends Jim Davies and George Stucky recognized students from their schools in the East Coast. They had no snow packs as most supplies were hung up by the snow. These guys were going to be on the firing line in hours so we gave them the most valuable things we had, our snow packs, toilet paper, and soap! This was Christmas Eve. The next morning Jim checked the casualty list and saw that Frank Decider and the other guys we helped were dead.
A major foul-up caused an emergency and our headquarters packed up and was gone in two hours leaving 25 bandsmen to secure Tongres, which was the northernmost edge of the bulge. Here, the Hamtramck Polacks made do with what was left for us to fight with. They mined the only street using Bangalore torpedoes and primer cord, as there were no detonators due to the usual foul-up with weapons. A German recon group did show up and the Polacks blew their jeeps. The Germans ran for the houses which were stone buildings. However, there was a problem. Some of these apartments had old Belgian people in them who refused to vacate their village, and the Polacks were prepared to hand grenade the rooms one by one. I told them that I could not do that, so they made me a runner and I hauled duffle bags of grenades to them. The Germans ran out the backdoors and into the fields towards Holland. I made Corporal with the Bronze Star when we got to Liege.