Record 784/2101 |
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Date: 1942 ca.
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Description
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| Gert Neuberger (middle) doing KP, probably during boot camp. Gert, age 25, along with sixteen other Baker County men, received his draft notice in early 1942. In a 2005 interview, Gert remembered very fondly these men, who stayed together through induction at Fort Lewis, Washington, basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and shipment overseas to England: Charlie Moeller, George Hansen, Bill Leggett, Harvey Queen, Glen Hall, Paul Hill, Leslie Davis, George Wize, Eugene Ego, Darrell Hunt, Ralph McCullough, Romine of Halfway, Gomez and the Garrison brothers of Huntington, and the Morrison brothers of Baker City. After arrival in England, the men were eventually split up with Gert and Wize being assigned to an aviation engineering unit trained to build emergency runways using wire mesh on which aircraft that could not make it back to an established airfield could land. Although Gert's group of Baker County draftees all made it safely home from the war, tragically Gomez drowned in the Snake River shortly after his discharge from the army. Besides Gert, the only others still alive in 2005 were Leggett and Davis, who still lived in Baker County. On June 6, 1944 (D-Day) Gert and fellow Bakerite George Wize were waiting at an English dock to board a landing craft for the trip across the English Channel to storm the beaches of France, but their boat didn't show up, apparently having been sunk or disabled. Six days later they finally went ashore in Normandy under fire from German defenders. From the beach they made their way up a long, steep slope to a plateau, and moved inland in the area of Ste. Mère Eglise and St. Lo, France. The many trees and hedgerows of that area provided welcome cover from German snipers. Although Gert's engineering unit followed behind the infantry, they were close enough to see and hear the fighting, including seeing General Patton's tanks silence German guns trying to destroy a strategic bridge. Gert's duty in France was interrupted when his back gave out. He was hospitalized and eventually returned to England for treatment. After his back improved, since he was a native speaker of German, Gert was reassigned to a unit that sorted enemy mail, stationed first in Stuttgart and then in Darmstadt. In October 1945, six months after the end of the war in Europe, Gert was discharged from the army. |
Gallery #5 PEOPLE, SCHOOLS, ORGANIZATIONS, CHURCHES
-Neuberger, Gert doing KP, probably during boot camp.
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: Credit Baker County Library, Baker City, Oregon
| Gert Neuberger doing KP. |
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COPYRIGHT INFORMATION: Credit Baker County Library, Baker City, Oregon