Editor's note: This is part of a series of interviews with World War II veterans. The articles will continue in each day's edition until May 28, prior to the World War II Memorial Dedication and Recognition Day, May 29.

Escorted by their lucky pups, the 387th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, 5th Armored Division, drove across Europe in a systematic fashion during World War II. Don Creakbaum, a recently graduated Beaver Dam schoolboy, manned four .50 caliber machine guns for 18 months during the saga.

At American Legion Post 49 in Warsaw, Creakbaum recently pored over a series of maps detailing the 387th's trip with his wife of 58 years, the former Nondus Barber.

After landing on Utah Beach June 30, 1944, the division battled for the port of Cherbourg during July. Then they turned, fighting from hedgerow to hedgerow in the Normandy region.

"When we broke out of there," Creakbaum, 78, said of the hedgerows, "that's when we shot forward." They went through Valognes, Lessay, Coutances, Villedieu-Les Poeles, St. James, through all the battles, circling down to Baren, in southern France, by Aug. 30.

He found out later his brother, Dale, was wounded in the hedgerows of Normandy, and they sent him back to London.

"He was only there for one day. An 88 (mm shell) hit a tree, the shrapnel hit him. That ended his days of war. He got hit quick and came out all right. Me, I went all the way through.

"I was lucky," said the veteran decorated with five bronze battle stars. "I didn't get hit. Oh, I got hit with a piece of shrapnel one time, but I didn't turn it in.

"We helped liberate Paris. The infantry was behind us. The Germans didn't mess with us and the tanks."

The armored division contained three tank battalions, each with one light and three medium tank companies; three armored infantry battalions; three self-propelled field artillery battalions; a mechanized cavalry squadron; and various support units.

Several unlisted personnel were a constant presence.

Small dogs adopted the platoons. In group pictures, the pooches are snuggled in soldiers' arms. Creakbaum doesn't remember any of canines' names and they aren't acknowledged in the photographs.

"We kept those mascots with us all the time. Several dogs traveled with the platoon. Those were our lucky dogs."

At the Hertgen Forest, the half-track crew decided to build a small house underground since they knew they would be there for a while.

"We had a stove. My right-hand cannoneer decided to make a chimney using empty shell casings. They were nothing but cardboard. I was away at the time, came back and we started a fire and it took the chimney right out. What was he thinking? He could have got me killed! He and I always went round and round, anyhow."

In Luxemburg most of September, the convoy heard the Germans were supposed to break through up north.

"They told us the Germans were nearby, so we went five miles real easy, then 10 miles. They blew the bridge out behind us." And there they sat until supplies arrived and a new bridge was built.

The battalion headed north, finding and sleeping in barns at the Bulge.

"When the division traveled, the Air Force helped a lot. We'd need air support and we got it, except in the winter time. We just sat in the winter time, usually.

"We would see an enemy convoy coming down road. I shot the 'head duck' and shot the 'back duck.' Everything in between had to stop. That's the way I was taught to figure things out. There'd be nowhere to go and they gave up to us."

At one river crossing, the 101st Airborne came in and secured the other side of the river. The division drove on through towns and villages like Weddle, Gustoff, Vedersay, Lebendorf, Demkurk, Iden, Arendees.

The Fifth "Victory" Division was attached to The First, Third and Ninth armies at one time or another. They were also called the Phantom Division because of all the transfers.

Creakbaum heard the war was over in May, after crossing the Rhine River at Wesel.

He was one point shy of the 75 points needed to go home, and now wishes he'd have put in for that Purple Heart.

"I didn't know I'd need it," he said of the medal that would have been worth a point or two.

After months of guard duty, Creakbaum left France on Nov. 13, landing in Boston, Mass., Dec. 18. He arrived home Christmas Eve.

Jack Bullers and Bob Rohrer, both of Warsaw, were in Creakbaum's outfit all the way through the war.

"We made a deal - if we all got back to the states, we'd get together every New Year's Eve. We did, for 25 years. They died on me."

Because the men became part of the Army of Occupation, they picked up the German language. French and German language books were standard issue at the time. When the soldiers got together after the war, their wives were part of the New Year's Eve celebrations.

"They would all speak German," Nondus said of these events. "And we ladies couldn't talk German. One year I got my brother to teach me two words."

During the annual get-together, she made a pointed comment - in German.

Conversation ceased. Had the women known what the men had been talking about all along?

"That was a happy time," Nondus said of the reunions.

After the war, Creakbaum worked for Kroger for a while, at Gatke, the MI Bakery and then returned to Kroger, retiring after 37 years. [[In-content Ad]]