Burns Landed On Omaha Beach

Radio operator Bob Burns saw 218 days of combat in World War II landing on Omaha Beach a few days after D-Day in June 1944 and remained in Europe as part of the Occupation Army of Germany with the First's 3rd Armored Division.

Now at home on Union Street in Warsaw, Burns received the Croix de Guerre given by the Belgian president and a Presidential Unit Citation for action in Belgium. He also received five medals commemorating his service - National Defense World War II Army medal, one for the Army of Occupation, Germany, the American campaign and European/Middle Eastern/African campaign with a silver battle star.

Fresh from a nine-month stay in England, Burns' first good look at France was through the infamous Normandy hedgerows.

Burns referred to the fierce fight through the dense barrier of vegetation as "nip 'n' tuck" for a while.

Farmers used the vegetation as a field border. German Panzers fired their machine guns at the advancing American troops as they charged through the mine-spiced open spaces.

The 3rd Armored is famous for its rapid advance across France and Belgium and right on up to the German border.

"Once they solved the problem of getting through the hedgerows, we started across northern France. We bypassed a lot of German troops and got into Belgium, liberating a lot of towns there. Of course, there were Germans there trying to prevent us from going any further.

"In the meantime, the ones we bypassed came up behind us. So we had a lot of nip 'n' tuck for a long time.

"I remember one time we got shelled by artillery and it was awful close. I wasn't near my foxhole, so I jumped in with these other guys. I remember looking out once it got calmed down and I never witnessed anything like it in my life.

"Everything was so clear, just crystal clear. Must have been adrenaline or something. I've never forgot that, how clear it was.

"They tell me we were the first troops to invade Germany since Napoleon's time."

He recalls the back-and-forth combat at an area around Stolberg, Germany. On any given day, half the town was held by the Germans and the other half was held by the Americans.

"There were skirmishes every night and this went on well into winter, until the Battle of the Bulge.

"So one evening they said, 'You boys have to go down there and help out.' We went in a convoy all night long, arriving at a little Belgian town. We asked if there was any action around and they said, 'No.' At daylight, the Germans were right on the edge of town throwing mortars.

"Oh, we just had a heck of a time for three or four days."

Radio operator Burns was responsible for sending messages brought to him back through the division or back to headquarters. The missives were transformed into ever-changing five- letter word codes and sent out in Morse Code. He remembers the Morse Code's dot-and-dash system to this day.

Was he protected more than the others because he was a radio operator?

"They took care of themselves," he said, laughing. "You dug a foxhole and got in that foxhole. I didn't get no special treatment."

He operated out of a jeep, an amtrac or just wherever a radio operator was needed. He tried to avoid tanks.

"A friend of mine had six tanks shot out from under him. A tank wasn't an ideal place to be. We called them iron coffins.

"The snows came, then this Bulge business and oh, it was miserable. We couldn't get air support because of the weather.

"The weather broke and the snow quit, we got some air support in there. Then the Bulge calmed down," he said of the great land battle that left 19,000 Americans and 100,000 Germans dead.

The division went back to Stolberg, then headed east, capturing Cologne on the Rhine River.

Crossing the Rhine on a pontoon bridge, they circled the Ruhr Valley, a highly industrial area with steel mills and coal mines.

"We couldn't trust anybody because the Germans had so many people in American uniforms.

"We had to trick 'em, asking questions, like, 'Who won the world series in 1942?' 'Who is Mickey Mouse's girlfriend?' Things we would know and they wouldn't."

The 3rd Armored circled the Ruhr from the south and another division came from the north. The two groups met around Patterborn, Germany. Maj. Gen. Maurice Rose was killed in a convoy near Patterborn, Germany.

"We went east then and there is where we ran into the concentration camps. I never was in one but I saw a lot of refugees. More miserable humanity you never saw in your life.

"The poor souls, just wandering around. They had nowhere to go and you couldn't feed them, couldn't give them anything because they were so malnourished. The rich food would kill them.

The troops received word that President Franklin Roosevelt had died by the time all resistance had practically ceased. There were pockets of defenders on occasion.

"We were deep into the eastern part of Germany and the 9th Infantry Division relieved us. The war was over for us."

Burns saw towns that were "completely and totally demolished" before he returned home in May 1945.

At the beginning of the Korean War, in 1950, Burns re-enlisted and was stationed in Germany.

He was amazed at how quickly those same towns had recovered.

"When I left Germany, it was absolute destruction. The country had gotten back on its feet."

A few other things had changed for the better, too. During World War II, Americans weren't allowed to date German women. It was considered fraternizing with the enemy. That attitude changed upon his return, five years later.

In 1950, Burns met his future bride, Elizabeth, in Germany. They were married in 1953.

While her family's house remained intact, all the glass was busted out of the windows. Structural damage appeared as cracks above the doors.

Others were not so lucky.

"Our town was 75 percent demolished," she said. "We had no water, no electricity, for months in 1943.

"It's hard for children. You lose some of your friends who couldn't escape.

"See, we used to go down in the basement during the air raids. If a house got hit, the water pipes would burst and you would just drown down in that basement. There was no way out.

"I had that happen quite a bit, lost many friends that way."

She lost school time, too, of course. The U.S. Air Force bombed during the day. The British planes came over at night.

"There were many days we didn't go to school because of the alarms," she said of the constant bombardment. If the alarms went off after 10 p.m., the children had a two hour school delay. If the alarms went off later, in middle of the night, they didn't go to school the next day.

"War isn't easy," she said.

Elizabeth's brother went to the Russian front and was never heard from again.

The couple returned to Germany many times visiting Elizabeth's family, staying in the house where she grew up.

When her mother's estate was completed, the house also was sold. Now they don't want to impose on cousins.

Burns shrugs off any notions of heroism or bravery. He was treated for lung cancer five years ago and that seems like battle enough.

"I'm just a guy who had to help out, when there would be artillery or mortar rounds come in or a close fire fight. With all that kind of stuff, it gets real ... interesting."

From June 29, 1944, until May 12, 1945, the 3rd Armored Division's personnel losses were 2,214 killed in action, including dead of wounds and injuries; 7,451 wounded in action; 706 missing in action, including reported prisoners, for a total of 10,371 casualties.

"All in all, it's quite an experience," Burns concluded. "I don't recommend it for everyone. But it has to be done sometimes."