TWO - Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, June 1, 1994
Soldiers remember D-Day on 50th anniversary of invasion
This year marks the 50th an
niversary of D-Day during World
War II when American and Cana
dian troops joined British forces
in the final campaign to free
western Europe from Nazi Ger
many occupation. Three million
soldiers and 2,727 ships were in
volved in the largest amphibious
military operation in history.
On June 6, 1944, the first day
of ‘Operation Overload’, 57,000
Americans and about 75,000
British and Canadian soldiers
landed on five Normandy beaches
in France after crossing the
British channel. About 23,000
men dropped onto French soil by
parachute or in gliders.
Memories of that war in
Europe remain forever etched in
the minds of local veterans who
survived that ordeal. Time has
not erased those encounters or
memories of comrades who died
fighting for freedom. lone’s Paul
Rietmann was among those
young men who died during that
invasion.
Veteran James Farley is cur
rently on a trip to visit the land
that he remembers as being tom
apart by war. His 15-day tour in
cludes visiting the sites of Nor
mandy beach invasions and ma
jor battle sites such as the Battle
of the Bulge, Caen and Arnhem.
D—Day ceremonies there rae ex
pected to be attended by 13 heads
of state along with thousands of
returning veterans.
Farley became a second lieute
nant in the 925 Field Artillery
Division following ROTC train
ing at Oregon State College. On
D-Day his unit had been station
ed neaer Exeter in England. It
took five days for ships carrying
that unit’s heavy equipment to
land at Omaha Beach because of
rough seas.
“ It was all w ar,’’ Farley
recalls. But I give all the credit
to the doughboys (infantrymen)
who really had it rough, he said.
After destruction of German-held
coastline fortifications, his unit
provided reinforcements as Allied
troops pursued the retreating Ger
mans. They moved across
borders as Allied forces freed na
tions that had been overrun by
Germans.
Farley was discharged in
February, 1945. He resumed
hometown life where he has been
engaged in ranching. He also
ow ned and operated an
automobile agency and garage for
many years before his retirement.
Time hasn’t erased stories
about morale building tactics us
ed by military units who bragg
ed about which divisions were the
most influential in winning the
war. As a bombardier and First
Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air
Corps, Raymond (Bud) Batty
recalls his unit joking about drop
ping bombs behind Allied forces
to keep them moving forward.
Batty flew 54 missions to
knock out bridges, roads and
German strongholds. The effec
tiveness of those missions that cut
off German supplies and man
power was revealed in the Ger
man radio broadcasts of Berlin
Sally, who called them “ bridge
busting bastards,” Batty said.
Batty was living in John Day
when he was drafted at age 22.
He signed up for a three-year
hitch in the Air Force. He became
an air mechanics instructor at a
school in North Carolina. He
enrolled in the Army Cadets Air
Force School in Long Beach,
C A ., because he said his
mechanic role “ was boring” . He
was one-half inch too short in
height to qualify for a pilot. Ad
ditional training as a navigator
and bombardier molded Batty in
to a versatile member of a six-
man crew flying B-26s.
Alter crews were assigned,
Batty said they practiced “ milk
runs” in Louisiana. On D-Day
Batty ’ s squadron was on the way
overseas via Greenland as first
replacements after the Norman
dy beaches were cleared and
secured.
Batty’s military life was no
longer ‘boring’. Once his plane
suffered mechanical damage and
they had to set down in Brussels
which, by that time, was being
held by Canadian troops. Lack
ing access to replacement parts,
the crew stayed there five days
until another plane flew them
back to base. Their plane was
I
later repaired. Another close call
came when their plane lost a
motor on the way back to
England. Batty said his crew was
prepared to “ditch' in the English
Channel, but after almost scrap
ing the cliffs they made a safe
landing.
With 139 service points. Batty
received the distinguished flying
cross along with a bevy of
medals. But he never received the
purple heart as he declined to
report to a doctor to verify an in
jury when anti-aircraft flack sizzl
ed under his flack jacket. Lady
Luck flew with him on missions
when his plane received 300
bullet holes and when his plane
and one other, out of a squadron
of 12 were the only ones to
escape being shot down.
“ Going back to Europe would
bring back alot o f bad
memories,” Batty said, so he and
his wife declined to join in the
overseas commemoration. He
once tried flying small planes but
he said they were too slow and
too light. Following four years
and four days in the service he
decided to keep his feet on the
ground. After ranching at John
Day and Klamath Falls, the Bat-
tys came to the Heppner area in
1968 ^id farmed here before his
retirement.
Those successful bombing mis
sions relied on Army Air Force
ground crews. John Wood said
that his crew of 33 men worked
around the clock to keep those big
bombers flying. As chief armorer
of a squadron of Flying For
tresses, Master Sgt. John Wood’s
crew was in charge of all bomb
ing and gunnery equipment.
Under his direction they were
responsible for maintenance,
checking and repairing all the
complicated mechanisms used by
planes to drop bombs with
destructive effectiveness.
Wood was drafted at age 30 in
April 1942, while living in Enter
prise. His basic training began in
Texas. Technical schools follow
ed at Denver and Detroit. His
34th unit was formed from the
385 bomb group after advanced
training in Salt Lake and
Spokane.
After 25 months of military
service in England. Wood was
sent back to the U.S. He was ex
pecting to be sent to the South
Pacific war zone when Japan sur
rendered. Although his WWII
military service ended then, he
was called back during the
Korean war and he spent nearly
a year in California. Since 1966,
the Woods have made their home
near Heppner where he has spent
a lifetime as a carpenter before
his retirement.
Then there were the military
medics who assisted the wound
ed and dying soldiers. Their work
was sometimes downplayed, but
not by the men who personally
received that attention.
While not actively participating
in combat, Gene Majeske ex
perienced the horrors that war in
flicted on young men while he
was serving as a young Army
medic.
Majeske, who was drafted in
1944, received his basic training
at Ft. Lewis, WA. and was then
sent to Pennsylvannia. Shortly
after D -D a y he was on an
American ship sailing from New
York to France as part of the Ar
my’s 36th Engineer Regiment.
“ Depth charges trying to sink
the boat, sounded all night while
we were crossing the English
Channel,” Majeske said. After a
safe landing, he spent two years
in occupational hospital units in
\
Gene Hall with his army jeep
France, Austria, Belgium and
Germany as the U.S. helped
restore those countries. After he
was discharged in May 1946,
Majeske returned to his wife and
the Lexington family farm that he
has continued to operate.
A Morrow County resident
since June 1990, Veteran Jubby
Roach readily recalls his World
War II service. During D-Day
Mater Sergeant Roach was with
the Army’s 502 Quartermaster
Company that unloaded equip
ment from landing craft on
Omaha Beach.
Roach, age 23, was working in
California when he was drafted.
His basic training began in Il
linois. “ I’ll never understand
how I got switched from a medic
to a mechanic,” Roach said. But
he found himself in charge of
training men as drivers of trucks
and tanks.
In spite of many fallen infan
try soldiers on Omaha Beach,
Roach's division got on shore
with trucks and other equipment.
Land mines got some of the
vehicles, he said, and for a time
he and 33 men were cut off from
other Allies by the Germans.
Those trucks, trailors and
weapons assisted the reinforced
troops as they pursued the
retreating G erm ans across
borders. Roach said he was “ real
lucky” as his unit was cut off
again, near the Rhine River.
However he lost many close bud
dies during the four years and 18
days that he served his country,
a memory that is difficult to
forget.
While some WW II soldiers
kept their feet on the ground,
three Morrow County veterans
chose to jump out into space,
rather than depend on a plane for
a safe landing. Gene Hall, James
Norene and Donald Robinson
were with the 502nd Regiment of
the 101st Airborne Division.
Hall, whose parents were liv
ing near Fossil, was attending
Oregon State University when he
was drafted in March 1943.
Norene. who was also attending
OSU was drafted in Dec. 1943
and Robinson left the family
ranch near Hardman for the ser
vice in January 1942.
After basic training at different
locations, these men volunteered
for the paratroops. Following ex
tensive training at camps in the
southern part of the U .S., they
were sent to England. There they
acquired an in-depth knowledge
of foreign terrain as they con
tinued making practice jumps.
Targeted landing sites didn’t
always pan out due to ground
winds. Robinson said he wasn’t
looking for flowers when he fell
through the roof of an English
greenhouse and broke some
bones in his foot.
General Dwight Eisenhower
made the decision about D-Day
which was postponed by a day
due to bad weather. The Ger
mans, who were fortified along
the French coast, didn’t per
ceive that airborne troops
would drop inland under cover of
night before landing troops reach
ed the beaches.
The night sky was illuminated
with tracers as pilots flew slow-
moving transport planes, without
armament loaded with human
cargo. After machine gun fire rip
ped through the bottom of that
C-47, Robinson recalls, they
were glad to jump at just 250 feet
from the ground. At that eleva
tion. there really wasn’t any point
in packing an extra chute, he
added.
Robinson’s division followed
tanks inland as a reserve force to
mop up scattered German troops
and secure Allied supply routes.
Once while resting briefly near a
French village, the tired and
hungry paratroopers were
befriended by a French farmer.
After giving these soldiers
Cognac that he had hidden from
the Germans, Robinson said that
their forward line of march weav
ed considerably.
Two weeks later Robinson was
hit by shrapnel from an 88 ar
tillery shell after encountering
Germans entrenched in a French
farmhouse. After being attended
by a field medic, that night
Robinson said he heard German
voices while laying in a shell
hole. To avoid detection from
Germans who weren’t taking
prisoners of war then, he crawl
ed into a nearby covered slit
trench. Members of his unit sear
ched and found him there the next
day.
Hall’s unit was commission
ed with the dangerous job of
knocking out communications.
Laden with dynamite caps, com
pound C and primer cord they
knocked out bridges and railroads
after parachuting 15 miles inland
from the coast of France. His unit
was later sent to southern France
to help secure the Cherbourg
Pennisula. His war experiences
are one thing that he’d rather not
talk about, he said.
Hall was discharged in
September 1945. He resides in
Heppner after a lifetime of work
ing on ranches and other occupa
tions. Robinson was discharged
in January 1948 after spending
about three years in and out of
Army hospitals. Since then he has
been an active cattle rancher near
Heppner.
Also opting to float down to
earth, Heppner veterinarian Dr.
James Norene signed up for the
n
Sii*
Gene Majeske with truck during war
Continued page 3
Don Robinson in full jumping gear
Bud Batty in front of barracks
James Norene
L-R: Don Robinson, Jim Farley, Bud Batty, Gene Hall, John Wood, Gene Majeske and Jim
Norene look over old photo and news paper clippings from D-Day.