Smith Wounded Outside Neuhoff, Germany
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
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 Saturday, one day before Saturday's World War II Memorial Dedication and Recognition Day, May 29.
James Smith left a piece of himself in Germany during World War II - a chunk of the ulna bone just above his right wrist. Shot outside Neuhof, Germany, April 16, 1945, Smith was a member of the Army's Troop A, 92nd Calvary "Stealth and Power" Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized.
Today, at 80, he makes his home on Ranch Road.
He became part of the 12th Armored Division - the Hellcats - in the fall of 1944 serving as a 60mm mortar crewman in France and Germany.
"When they first looked at it, the medics thought they'd take my hand off," he said, but they didn't and the wound healed after months of being in and out of a cast. He has full use of the hand and received a Purple Heart for the injury.
Smith arrived in England with the 92nd Oct. 1, 1944, spending that month and the next training and collecting equipment. On Nov. 10, 1944, the squadron beached at La Harve, France.
"Look at all the backtracking we did," he said studying a map of the unit's movements, "and all these little towns. I couldn't pronounce them then and never knew where I was or what I was doing."
The 60mm light mortar used by the US Army during World War II fired a 3.5 pound missile with a maximum range of about 1,800 yards.
"It was about like a piece of stovepipe. You'd stick it in the ground and drop a shell in. It just lobs the shell up high over bridges, trees, and drops it, supposedly, on your enemy."
The tube was mounted on a base with a tri-pod support. The shell produced more than 200 fragments, with a bursting radius of 17 yards.
The weapon weighed 42 pounds assembled. Smith and his crew were transported so far in a jeep, then walked to a firing position. The 60mm was then assembled and fired according to coordinates given by a forward observer.
"It took time to aim and load the mortar," he said. "I did what they told me to do, nothing else."
The map detailing the 92nd's travels shows the troops zigzagged south of the Normandy coast, headed east, went through Versailles and then dipped south. They were well south of the Ardennes area, west of Switzerland's border, in Dec. 1944.
"We had just pulled back for a rest break when the Bulge came. We were told to remove all of our identification, except for dog tags. This was right before we joined Patton's Third Army, when Patton started his push toward the Bulge. Then they shipped us back to the 7th Armored Division.
"That's when they started to call us the Mystery or Ghost division. To confuse the Germans, I guess. I always wondered if it was good or bad, because we never stayed with anyone or anybody for more than one or two days. They were always shipping us to somebody else, splitting us up into different sized groups.
"I never knew nothing," said the 1941 Warsaw High School graduate. "They told us to get in, we got in our vehicles and left. Like telling your kids on a trip - just get in."
Smith's job was to to drop shells down the tube and carry ammunition. The weapon was broken down during transport and each person would carry one part.
"The idea was for close range fire or support to somebody ahead of you, without hitting them. An observer had to have an idea where the shell was going to go. Then they would say to the left or the right so many yards.
"When I see how much we walked, I don't know how I did it. But we didn't have any choice. You got so miserable you just didn't care. That's why they say war is hell, no matter how you look at it.
"We were cold," he said of the worst winter in Europe in 25 years, the winter of 1944 - 1945. "A couple times we had explosives in a little quarter-pound pack and used them to blast holes in the frozen ground. You couldn't pick out a hole. If the enemy dropped artillery the shrapnel spread out so bad you had to have some kind of protection."
Depending on how far back the crew was they could light fires to get warm. More often than not he was cold and wet.
The squadron consisted of six troops with 150 men each.
"One troop was scouts; one was light tanks, like the one on the (Kosciusko County) courthouse lawn; most had armored cars. Jeeps were the main vehicle along with half tracks, with wheels in front and tracks on the back. We went on a lot of foot patrols. We did everything."
The soldiers were individually armed with .30 caliber, light-weight rifles. Everybody had hand grenades.
Scouting parties would report "contact" with the enemy, an acquaintance usually made when someone was shot at.
"When we met resistance we fell back and the heavier guns came up. The tanks would blast their way through. We tried to look all directions at once," he said of being out front.
"When we'd come into a town, or start to, we usually met resistance. Sometimes they'd let the first few vehicles come through. Then they'd have them trapped and open fire.
"We got trapped like that once. We had about four vehicles in a town. I don't remember how we got out of that one. I had too many other things on my mind.
"Once the firing stopped, a lot of times the civilians would act like they were glad to see you. At other places they weren't so happy. I think they just felt the fighting was over in that area and felt a little better.
"In mid-March when things were starting to go our way, we weren't falling back so bad. A lot of these towns had old men or young kids delaying action. We shot at anything moving," Smith said.
The 92nd crossed the Rhine River at Worms March 22, 1945, on a floating bridge. A month later they had advanced to just outside Nuremburg and were about to take the town of Neuhof.
"I was very lucky there," he said of the shot in the arm. Three others also were injured and the four wounded men crawled up on a tank to get out of the area. He spent the night at a field hospital and was flown to England, then back to the states by the first part of May.
He was discharged in late November 1945. In addition to receiving a Bronze Star, Smith has a Germany campaign medal, EAME campaign medal with one bronze battle star, a Victory medal and an American Theatre of Operations medal.
He and Mary Lou will mark their 57th year of marriage June 22. He is a Union Tool retiree.
Smith claims Mary Lou married him because he had a car and a couple of dollars at the time. After 56 years, she will neither confirm nor deny the accusation. [[In-content Ad]]
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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 Saturday, one day before Saturday's World War II Memorial Dedication and Recognition Day, May 29.
James Smith left a piece of himself in Germany during World War II - a chunk of the ulna bone just above his right wrist. Shot outside Neuhof, Germany, April 16, 1945, Smith was a member of the Army's Troop A, 92nd Calvary "Stealth and Power" Reconnaissance Squadron, Mechanized.
Today, at 80, he makes his home on Ranch Road.
He became part of the 12th Armored Division - the Hellcats - in the fall of 1944 serving as a 60mm mortar crewman in France and Germany.
"When they first looked at it, the medics thought they'd take my hand off," he said, but they didn't and the wound healed after months of being in and out of a cast. He has full use of the hand and received a Purple Heart for the injury.
Smith arrived in England with the 92nd Oct. 1, 1944, spending that month and the next training and collecting equipment. On Nov. 10, 1944, the squadron beached at La Harve, France.
"Look at all the backtracking we did," he said studying a map of the unit's movements, "and all these little towns. I couldn't pronounce them then and never knew where I was or what I was doing."
The 60mm light mortar used by the US Army during World War II fired a 3.5 pound missile with a maximum range of about 1,800 yards.
"It was about like a piece of stovepipe. You'd stick it in the ground and drop a shell in. It just lobs the shell up high over bridges, trees, and drops it, supposedly, on your enemy."
The tube was mounted on a base with a tri-pod support. The shell produced more than 200 fragments, with a bursting radius of 17 yards.
The weapon weighed 42 pounds assembled. Smith and his crew were transported so far in a jeep, then walked to a firing position. The 60mm was then assembled and fired according to coordinates given by a forward observer.
"It took time to aim and load the mortar," he said. "I did what they told me to do, nothing else."
The map detailing the 92nd's travels shows the troops zigzagged south of the Normandy coast, headed east, went through Versailles and then dipped south. They were well south of the Ardennes area, west of Switzerland's border, in Dec. 1944.
"We had just pulled back for a rest break when the Bulge came. We were told to remove all of our identification, except for dog tags. This was right before we joined Patton's Third Army, when Patton started his push toward the Bulge. Then they shipped us back to the 7th Armored Division.
"That's when they started to call us the Mystery or Ghost division. To confuse the Germans, I guess. I always wondered if it was good or bad, because we never stayed with anyone or anybody for more than one or two days. They were always shipping us to somebody else, splitting us up into different sized groups.
"I never knew nothing," said the 1941 Warsaw High School graduate. "They told us to get in, we got in our vehicles and left. Like telling your kids on a trip - just get in."
Smith's job was to to drop shells down the tube and carry ammunition. The weapon was broken down during transport and each person would carry one part.
"The idea was for close range fire or support to somebody ahead of you, without hitting them. An observer had to have an idea where the shell was going to go. Then they would say to the left or the right so many yards.
"When I see how much we walked, I don't know how I did it. But we didn't have any choice. You got so miserable you just didn't care. That's why they say war is hell, no matter how you look at it.
"We were cold," he said of the worst winter in Europe in 25 years, the winter of 1944 - 1945. "A couple times we had explosives in a little quarter-pound pack and used them to blast holes in the frozen ground. You couldn't pick out a hole. If the enemy dropped artillery the shrapnel spread out so bad you had to have some kind of protection."
Depending on how far back the crew was they could light fires to get warm. More often than not he was cold and wet.
The squadron consisted of six troops with 150 men each.
"One troop was scouts; one was light tanks, like the one on the (Kosciusko County) courthouse lawn; most had armored cars. Jeeps were the main vehicle along with half tracks, with wheels in front and tracks on the back. We went on a lot of foot patrols. We did everything."
The soldiers were individually armed with .30 caliber, light-weight rifles. Everybody had hand grenades.
Scouting parties would report "contact" with the enemy, an acquaintance usually made when someone was shot at.
"When we met resistance we fell back and the heavier guns came up. The tanks would blast their way through. We tried to look all directions at once," he said of being out front.
"When we'd come into a town, or start to, we usually met resistance. Sometimes they'd let the first few vehicles come through. Then they'd have them trapped and open fire.
"We got trapped like that once. We had about four vehicles in a town. I don't remember how we got out of that one. I had too many other things on my mind.
"Once the firing stopped, a lot of times the civilians would act like they were glad to see you. At other places they weren't so happy. I think they just felt the fighting was over in that area and felt a little better.
"In mid-March when things were starting to go our way, we weren't falling back so bad. A lot of these towns had old men or young kids delaying action. We shot at anything moving," Smith said.
The 92nd crossed the Rhine River at Worms March 22, 1945, on a floating bridge. A month later they had advanced to just outside Nuremburg and were about to take the town of Neuhof.
"I was very lucky there," he said of the shot in the arm. Three others also were injured and the four wounded men crawled up on a tank to get out of the area. He spent the night at a field hospital and was flown to England, then back to the states by the first part of May.
He was discharged in late November 1945. In addition to receiving a Bronze Star, Smith has a Germany campaign medal, EAME campaign medal with one bronze battle star, a Victory medal and an American Theatre of Operations medal.
He and Mary Lou will mark their 57th year of marriage June 22. He is a Union Tool retiree.
Smith claims Mary Lou married him because he had a car and a couple of dollars at the time. After 56 years, she will neither confirm nor deny the accusation. [[In-content Ad]]