Bob's WWII Story: Part 1

Recently, my family and I talked to an awesome WWII Veteran named Bob Kenyon, who gave us an overview of his time fighting in the war. Throughout this week, I will be posting the links to the actual recording of the interview, as well as a summary of some of the key points. The interview lasted about an hour, so I will break it up to make it more manageable.

• Bob went to Bordentown military school in New Jersey for 4 years
• went straight from Bordentown to the army
• played football for Bordentown
• General Bonesteel ("quite a name for a general") called him into him down to be on the main post football team (January of 1944)
• 90th Divison
• went overseas to England- had no idea what to expect
• 18 day terrible, rough trip
• 5,000 men on one ship- people stacked 5 high in bunks, throwing up
• old rust bucket ship
• moved to South Hampton, had no idea where they were going, but knew something was coming
• every morning they packed everything up and took a 5 mile hike, and one day they never came back
• marched down to ships (Susan B. Anthony was one of the ships- sunk)
• still had no idea where they were going
• crossed to France on the Normandy Coast to Utah Beach (D-Day invasion)
• none of the men on his boat had been in combat before
• "the sight of the ships was amazing, 5,000 ships"
• had to go down from the Liberty ship to the landing craft (Higgens boats) by platoon
• windy and rough
• "If you fall in you're gone- you can't stop for anybody"
• Utah beach is very wide, landed at 10 in the morning
• hit the beach and ran up to the foliage without
• men were in complete shock
• "Who wants to see somebody killed in front of you. I mean, not just killed, blown to pieces"
• ran into something they had no preparation for called hedgerows in Normandy
• impenetrable
• couldn't see through them
• underestimating the hedgerows was one of the biggest mistakes in the invasion
• took hundreds and thousands of aerial photographs, and figured they were thin hedgerows that you could go right through"
• not even a tank could penetrate the hedgerows
• supposed to get to new location (Perrier) in 5 days, but it ended up taking 2 months
• At this time, Bob was 19 and a staff sergeant
• fighting the German paratroopers
• extremely good troops that had been there for 4 years
• "the Germans knew every terrain feature, every crossroad was zeroed in with artillery"
• "after a month, most everybody who had came in originally had been killed or wounded"
• replacements came in which was difficult, because they were just kids straight out of high school who were terrified
• "It's hard to describe it, I mean, the paralyzing fear"
• "You didn't know their names. (referring to what they told the newbies) Keep your mouths shut, do what the guy on the right and left does and don't smoke at night, don't talk at night...if they made it for a week, well, maybe they're going to be okay. So, it was pretty brutal for them."
• "I think every fighting, whether it was then or WWI or whatever, it's the toughest thing that a human being can do."
• they were always on the offense, since the Germans were dug in, so they had to expose themselves to fire
• "We only had 9 field grade officers who made it all the way through, and that's from major and above"
• the average lieutenant in Normandy lasted about 2 weeks
• the motto was "Follow me"
• learned to lead from in front
• example Bob was told: "Take a piece of spaghetti that's wet and get behind it and try to push it. Get in front and pull it, and you're ready to go"
• Bob got hit when crossing a hedgerow
• Battle for Perrier started on July 24, and he got hit on the 26th in one of the outskirts
• artillery spotter picked them up- there was no foxholes or cover to hide in
• "I was just looking to survive"
• he was hit in the right trapezius with shrapnel
• "When I got hit, the first thing you think you're gonna die"
• only one medic in the platoon, so Bob got up to find help elsewhere
• walked to a farmhouse and got basic first aid to stop the bleeding
• put him in an ambulance and took him to get an operation
• woke up in a hospital plane going back to England
• had nothing- they took his watch and ring
• got operated on again back in England
• "The doctor said, 'Is your father Doctor Kenyon?' and I said, 'Yes sir he is' he said 'Well we can operate, but if this doesn't turn out blame him, because he taught me everything I know in medical school'"
• One of Bob's father's patients back home was the assistant Secretary of War, and he told his father that he could keep Bob out of harm's way.
• his father refused, saying that if he interfered Bob would be upset
• "I don't think he told my mother about that"
• Bob was asked if he wanted to join a new unit that was being formed
• he agreed, not knowing what kind of unit it was
• found out that they needed people to train new infantry in only 2 weeks
• Bob ended up being one of the trainers in England, instead of having to go back and fight

Link to recording:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4jeI_CkmO_4RzlwTG1ycV9TQXNmYnkwRzdNZXM1aHd0YThV/edit?usp=sharing

The best parts to listen are from 0:58 - 6:30 and 9:40 to the end (this should take out the sections of my mom fawning over Bob's dog). Enjoy!