My Life Since Dec. 7, 1941

By: Louis Milton Belk

3805710 – CCC Number (Civilian Conservation Corps) That had been established several years before by President Franklin Roosevelt to give jobs to boys coming out of school into a bad economical job force. It was overseen by Army Reservist and used to benefit the country by working on roads, parks, conservation projects, and farm projects such as building fences, sodding drainage ditches, building roads and water conservation for ranchers. Some of the projects such as parks still exist today, one of which is the Longhorn Cavern near Marble Falls and Burnet. We were also taught trades that we could use after we got out of the C.C.C. Mine was carpentry.

Our whole camp at Bartlett, Texas was transferred by troop train to a camp called Camp Delmuse on the Delmuse Ranch, about 175 miles north of Las Vegas, Nevada. We landed there in late November of 1941. I had just graduated from Temple High School in June of that year and joined the C.C.C. because I could find no work at all and had to help my mother feed a younger brother and three sisters younger than me.

On Dec. 7 we heard on our radio that the Japs had bombed a place called Pearl Harbor that most of us had never heard of. As we expected a foreign army to land in California and our Commander wanting to do what he could to protect our country, sent a small, armed detachment of men to guard a highway bridge on a main road between Pioche, Nev. and the West Coast. Most of these boys had no training in weapons and were sent with loaded rifles and tents to guard that bridge. I didn’t have to go and was glad as I was sure some body was going to get shot by trigger happy boys.

After Pearl Harbor, many of the reserve officers were called back into the army and many of the men who were over 18 volunteered into the services. Hermann, our supply clerk, went and I was given the job of supply clerk till I came back home in April of 1942 to take a job in a grocery store. I stayed there till I went into Machine Shop school sponsored by the WPA at Texas University. I graduated there and took a job with Alamo Iron Works in San Antonia where I worked about a week and quit because I had to go before daylight and come in after dark. This was because of living in New Braunfels and having to ride with an Uncle who worked long hours in San Antonia at Kelly Air Base.

I then went back to Temple and went to work as a janitor for a USO Club in the City Hall where I stayed till I volunteered into the Army Air Corps on Dec. 7, 1942 to keep from being drafted into the Infantry. We all, from Temple were sent by train to San Antonia where we were sworn in at the Induction Center at Brooks Field. 18232164 – Army Serial Number was issued to me which I kept for the next 33 months.

I spent a very dreary Xmas at Brooks and was sent by train to the Basic Training Center at Sheppard Field at Wichita Falls, Tex. I stayed there for about 18 weeks training in drill, hiking and camping out at bivouac where I woke up the next morning with my blanket and Pup tent frozen to the ground. We had exercise they call calisthenics every morning rain or shine. I wore out two pair of G.I. shoes while I was there. Most of the men got to go to town but as the barracks Corporal took a big dislike to me and had me on K.P. for every weekend I was there. That meant scrubbing pots and pans and washing dishes in a machine we called the “China Clipper” After running many obstacle courses and having many arms drills I survived all that and was sent to Laredo for gunnery training.

We flew in the back seats of AT-6s that are now called T-6 Texans that were used by all flying personnel in the Army for training. We used 30 Cal. Machine guns and fired painted bullets at targets towed by two engine transport or trainer planes. Once while on a gunnery flight I had a gun jam. This was usual for the old worn out guns we were using. I proceeded to take the gun apart to extract the bent shell and get the gun back into operation. With parts in my teeth and pockets I managed to get it to working in what I thought was record time not paying much attention to anything else. When I finally did get it back together I looked up to see where I was. I was looking straight at the ground coming at me fast. The pilot flipped it over and we were right side up again. If it hadn’t been for a strong seat belt, the pilot would have dumped me gun and all out into the Rio Grande River. I learned very quickly and surely the value of following safety rules. The only time I ever got airsick was in a two engine AT-ll that we had upper turret gun training in. I was sitting over the bomb bay doors waiting my turn in the turret so sick they could have dropped me out for all I cared. We went several times out on a gunnery range for rifle practice, skeet shooting with shotguns and duck range with .22 rifles. At one time I teemed up with a young Lieutenant who would knock down a hinged ball and I would set it back up having about a half-inch target to shoot at the bottom of the target. We wore the hinge out on that target.

One day while eating lunch that had been brought out on a GI truck we were finished and sitting around killing time. I picked up a couple of rocks about the size of a baseball and started to walk away from the squad. Someone asked what I was going to do and I told them I was going rabbit hunting. I walked off a short ways and spotted a big jackrabbit sitting up so I nailed him with one rock I picked him up with my left hand and walked a short ways farther and saw another big jack sitting there and nailed him. All that time all the squad was watching what this little Texan was doing. It was pure luck that I got them both but the men thought I must be “Dead-eye Dick” with rocks. Being raised on a share crop farm I had a lot of that kind of practice and also with a deadly weapon we called a “nigger shooter” made from a forked tree limb and rubber bands cut from an old car inner tube. A M/Sgt. had some rattlesnakes in a cage out there so we fed those rabbits to them. One day while going back to base after gunner range training, someone brought a large black king snake into the GI truck we were riding in. Needless to say, we just about bailed out of that truck while it was traveling. We persuaded that soldier to get rid of the snake or we would get rid of him.

When I finally finished that school I was promoted to Private First Class. That was one stripe and I thought at the time I was pretty special. I was also given a Marksman Badge for rifle shooting and .45 cal. automatic pistols. While at Laredo we had some “Hot Shot” pilots who would try anything. One day when both hanger doors were open on the big hanger a Major flew an A-T 6 through the hanger. After that at least one door as always closed and he got a good dressing down from the Commander.

From Laredo I was given an in-route leave to visit my family who had moved to New Braunfels from Temple, Texas. Then I was posted at Amarillo Air base for mechanical school where we were taught to work on airplanes as well as the engines. I don’t remember how long we were there but had a lot to study and do. We were sent one time for a week to live in tents at the edge of the field and pull guard duty. They had parked a good many old obsolete planes including the B-19 that was never used. That was the biggest plane I had ever seen and I ask someone years later if it was really an experimental plane. We had a lot of rain that week and some of the gung-ho officers would come out at night in a Jeep and try to drive past the sentry on duty. It was raining one night and officer came to my post and of course I halted him and asked for identification. I made him get out and come to me in the rain and needless to say he didn’t like it much but I was doing the job I was told to do so he couldn’t say anything to me. Those officers were inspecting us, to see if we were sleeping or goofing off. He didn’t bother us again. While there I took a test for Cadet school and passed. When they asked me if I wanted to be a Pilot I told them I wanted to be a Bombardier but they said they were taking only Pilot Cadets so that let me out.

We were given two-day passes on weekends in Amarillo. I had a cousin who owned a beauty shop there so it was all fun and games for me.

When we finished that, I think, if I remember correctly, that we were sent to Salt Lake City for about three weeks at this time and we thought this was to confuse anyone spying against troop movements in the States. We always took round about routes where ever we went. Nothing was very direct and most of the time we didn’t know where we were going till we got there. We rode one train south of Amarillo on a freight line and some of us Air Corps men rode in the caboose with the conductor who had a small coal stove for heat. That train was so crowded that Infantrymen were sitting on the floors of the cars.

From there I was sent to Peyote, Texas for assignment to a B-17 crew and for more training of the pilots, bombardiers navigators and gunners. We lived in tents there and called it “Rattlesnake Field” I was given the left waist gun position on Captain Conklin’s crew. He had been a civilian instructor and we were glad we got him. He was a strictly no nonsense officer and we got good training we were able to use in combat when we got there. All this was happening in 1943 so we didn’t have much time to think about anything. We shot at cows and an old iron bridge west of Peyote. I’ve been back there some years later and all that was left were the big hangers and the runways. I also visited Laredo that had been given to the city for an airfield after the war. I couldn’t find where my barracks or tent was at either place.

Then we were as a complete crew, sent to Dalhart, Texas for advanced training for navigators and bombardiers. We flew over the White Sands of New Mexico and night runs over Kansas and Nebraska. One night while flying over Kansas we had one engine on fire and one dead so were told to prepare to bail out. I went to the rear door, plugged in my headphones and waited word from the Pilot. I had a foot on the door and would have jumped into a cornfield until the pilot called and said he had the fire out and three engines running. So we all settled down for our trip back to Dalhart Air Base. One plane crashed that night, so we felt pretty lucky but it had a lot to do with experience of our First Pilot.

After training in Dalhart, we were loaded on a train and sent to Grand Island, Nebraska where we got off in the snow and were hauled to a camp where we stayed the rest of the night. The barracks we were put in had army bunks but no blankets or mattresses so we slept in our fleece lined flight suits, boots, helmets and gloves. Before daylight we were back on a troop train, not the one we came in on, and sent north to spitting distance of Chicago and the turned east to Newport News, Virginia. We were then stationed at Langley Field for training. That was in the winter of 1943 and we saw the river between base and town frozen over so thick cars could drive on it. There we had training on the new Radar bomb sights and went on submarine patrols on the east coast. We never saw any but later heard that German U-boats were in the area at the time. When we got to base I had only one quarter in my pocket. I was always short on money. I walked into a N.C.O. club and saw some quarter slot machines so I dropped in my last quarter and turned to walk away when I heard the jingle of the jackpot, so I jerked off my flight cap and filled it with quarters. I bought drinks for the whole crew that night. I had leave in Newport News one night and was forced to push a drunk Major out a screen door of a local watering hole. I never went back into that town again.

When we finished at Langley, we were shipped in what we called racehorse train cars to Brooklyn, New York for shipment over seas by troop ship. I went into NY a couple of times but didn’t find it to my liking. One night some of the men were getting ready to go to NY, and wanted me to go with them. I asked what they were going for and was told they were going to a burlesque show. I ask them “what for” and they said to see naked women, to which I told them I wasn’t going because I had seen a naked woman and wasn’t going to pay to see another one. They went without me but had a big hangover the next day.

After a couple of weeks we were loaded on a ferry and taken to the Brooklyn Naval Yard to be sent to Scotland on the Queen Mary which had been turned into a troop ship. We bought cigarettes on the ship for five cents a pack. The galley in the hole of the ship had a sour smell all its own so we didn’t tarry there long but ate snacks out of the PX on A deck. We had a room on “A” deck with ten airmen in it and salt water showers which we bypassed mostly. We crossed the Atlantic to Scotland in six days zigzagging all the way because of German U-boats in the area. We could easily outrun them but they would lay in wait to ambush troop carriers if they could anticipate where they would be. We docked near Liverpool; I don’t remember the name of the dock there, but it was used for all incoming troop ships and I suppose for cargo ships as well to be as far away from the South Coast of England as possible. After we got off the ship we were sent to a replacement center in northern England where we stayed about three weeks? We had no passes but a M/Sgt. and I went thru a hole in the back fence and went to a Pub in town. Probably this was because I had just come from the States and had money to buy drinks. When we came back we saw a coat from under a haystack in a barn and I jumped over in there. Two refugees from London were sleeping there. They were “ladies of the evening” so we gave them a bottle of beer and gum and candy and hurried back to camp before we got caught. They wanted us to stay but we didn’t, as we didn’t want any of their “favors”. I worked in the kitchen while I was there. They were short handed for dishwashers so they put some of the brand new Lieutenants on KP. They didn’t like this until a Bird Colonel gave them a pep talk and made them go to work even though they had been made “Officers and Gentlemen” by Congress and thought this was below their status. I taught some of them to run the dish washing machine that we called the “China Clipper”.

After there we were stationed in south England for about a week. While we were there the Germans bombed London one night. We sat outside our barracks and watched the spotlights as they were shooting down the bombers. I don’t remember any Spitfires in the fight but they may have been there.

Our next move was to Chelveston where we came in about night and were sent to the 364th SQ. When we entered the barracks we were assigned to, we saw all the beds apparently taken and clothes hanging on each rack. Five airmen were sitting on their beds at the back of the barracks. I told them that a Sgt. had sent us there and ask if all these beds were taken. They told us that only these five they were sitting on were taken. I asked what about these others that had clothes and were made up. They said, “Take any you want, they didn’t come back.” That night we slept in “dead men’s beds” and took any of the clothes we wanted. This was an eerie feeling, to say the least.

I don’t know how long we were in the 364th but were later transferred to the 422nd as we were a “Pathfinder” crew and they wanted us all together. At this time we began to get planes that were natural silver color instead of the painted camouflaged ones they were using. Our First Pilot, Capt. Conklin was promoted to Company Commander and Lt. Ohlsen was made First Pilot and promoted to Capt.. One mission we made that I will never forget was to a German Airbase in Southern Germany by the name of Oberpfaffenhaffen. That was the time we got escorted by the Tuskeegee Airmen who were black pilots flying P-51 Mustangs and based in Italy. They stayed with us about 20 minutes and run the German fighters off. The Germans were afraid of those red tailed Mustangs. That was also the time we came over Cologne very low on two engines and threw out everything that was loose or we could get loose in the English Channel to make the plane light enough to get back to base. We made it by flying through the barrage balloons over London and landing at Chelveston on two engines. That was also the time we saw our first German rocket or jet plane. We didn’t know what it was and had never heard of one. We were supposed to make 25 missions and rotate home, but by the time we got 25 missions, they raised it to 30. After we had made 27 someone came into the barracks and told us, that we were crazy and being sent Stateside. I said, “So I’m crazy, let’s go.” I don’t remember all the targets we had but we did go to Berlin five times. Later I learned that we were used as “bait” to bring the Luftwaft up so our Mustangs could shoot them down. That did leave a lot less German fighters to deal with on D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. I made that run on D-Day and didn’t fire a gun, as there were no enemy planes to shoot at. At briefing that morning, the

Officers were telling us where we were going and what we were going to do. He then asked if there were any questions to which one sleepy Sergeant ask, “While we are doing all that what are the Germans going to be doing. The answer was, “Don’t worry about that son, there will be so many of us there won’t be room for them.” He was right. We didn’t see a single German fighter. When we were on for a mission, we were awakened about three in the morning. We then went to the mess hall for breakfast. We had powdered eggs, black bread, greasy bacon and ersatz coffee. I don’t remember any fresh eggs, ham and real coffee as you see in Hollywood movies. There was always black bread and Spam when we came in from a mission plus a two ounce shot of Scotch whiskey which most of us took. I bought a girls bicycle for the equivalent of $45. I left it in England when I came home. This was transportation to the Pubs and villages near by.

On the 4th of July we had a fireworks celebration. For some time before there were flare pistols and cartridges missing from airplanes. On the 4th we found out where they were. Some airmen shot up the camp with them as well as pistols, carbines and sub-machine guns. The British Land Army came running out to our base wanting to know what was going on. They were told we were celebrating the time we whipped the Red Coats in the Revolution War in 1776.

In late July of ’44 we were sent to Valley Wales to wait for a C-54 to take us home. We could take only 35 lbs. on the plane, so I left most of my stuff, which included a .45 pistol, a 30 caliber Carbine and a Thompson Sub-machine gun, in a bomb box at Chelveston. I thought we would go back to that base after a 30 day leave in the States. After the B-29 was perfected we became obsolete in the Fortress and we were not sent back nor to the Pacific Theater as we had heard we were to be.

After loading on the plane, we landed in Iceland in the middle of the night. They fed us there, and I don’t remember what we had to eat, I think it was breakfast. We then took the plane and landed first in Maine, then in New York. While in Maine, the first thing I ordered in a café was a big glass of milk and some fresh tomatoes. They sure did taste good as I hadn’t had any for over seven months.

We then took a train to Washington, D.C. where we got a hotel room and spent the night. We ordered up a case of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and didn’t get much sleep that night. Some took a train that night on to Alexander, La. But we intentionally missed that one and caught another the next day. When we got into Ft. Polk we were chewed out for being late, but we just laughed at them. All the clothes we had were the ones we were wearing so they gave us new summer uniforms for our wool O.D.s Mine were too big but I wore them anyway till I got home in New Braunfels.

I had 30 days leave, which I enjoyed very much at home. I even went to the local High School and made a talk and answered question for the kids there. I was a hero to them.

When leave was over I had to report to Atlantic City, N.J. There had been a storm and tidal wave that September that had destroyed the Board Walk and inundated the city. As we went in on the train, all we could see was water everywhere. We went in very slow, as we couldn’t tell if the bridges were weakened or not. We made it in OK and I never did know if any damage was done to the railroad. In Atlantic City, all the basements were filled with salt water. The water broke out some windows in the fourth floor of our hotel. The food we got was in bottles, boxes and cans as the mess halls were not yet up and running.

The Army had requisitioned many of the hotels in some cities as billets for service men. I stayed there about three weeks. My papers were lost somewhere along the way so all I got was a partial payment after a while and lots of arguments. I borrowed less than $4.00 to pay for laundry of my under clothes, from the Red Cross and they never got through dunning me for it. I finally paid it off with interest. As far as I can remember the Red Cross never gave me anything although they were telling our folks back home ALL they were doing for the service men. I still don’t have anything for the Red Cross and many service men I have talked to said the same thing.

When we left Atlantic City we were sent to Miami Beach, Fl. And put up in the President Madison Hotel. I stayed there for three weeks and was sent to Lake Lure, N.C. for R. & R. (Rest & Recuperation). While we were there we had dances and parties and also went on field trips to an apple farm and made cider. We picked the apples, squeezed out the juice and stored it in a springhouse to age. We went back in about a week and sampled our product to see how it taste. If it had stayed there long enough I suppose it would have made hard cider. It was good even though it wasn’t hard. I wore cowboy boots and a red silk shirt while there. A M/Sgt. put me on report and I had to report to the commander. When I went into his office, he was a Major and asks me where I was from? I said “San Antone” and ask him where he was from to which he answered “Cowtown” sit down and let’s talk. We shot the bull about Texas for about an hour. When I left I asked him what I was to do about that Sgt. He said, “I’ll take care of him.” I had no more trouble with that Sgt. as long as I was there.

Then I was sent back to Miami Beach for about three weeks. I drank quite a lot at this time but I had a roommate that would drink anything that had alcohol in it. I had to keep my hair tonic and aftershave locked up to keep Jack Clements from drinking it. Jack was from Muscogee, Okla. and was about ¼ Indian. I was drunk one night and dived off the ten-foot diving board into a salt-water swimming pool. I turned up too quick and sprung my back and have had trouble ever since. My buddies pulled me out of the pool and I lay flat of my back in the hotel floor for about three days. We were then put on a train and sent to Amarillo Air Base where I had trained as an aircraft mechanic before going overseas. There they made me an instructor in Engine Operations where I taught young Lieutenants how to start and run aircraft engines. Our Warrant Officer put me in as a clerk but I didn’t like that and made so many mistakes he put me in the generator room recharging batteries. I was on night shift and learned to sleep sitting in a chair. One time when on a pass to Amarillo, Doug Sweeton and I were out on the south gate trying to catch a ride into town. Doug told me that this mother was in a hospital in Knoxville, Tennessee and he was going there to see her. I said ok I’ll go with you. So instead of going into Amarillo, we turned and caught a ride toward Oklahoma. We were A.W.O. L. for five days on that trip, but we did see his mother and brought his ’36 Ford convertible car, that broke down in Oklahoma, back with us. I have that story in my Web Site.

I got me a job as a mechanic for Guggenheim Smelters out of Amarillo. I think they paid me about 85 cents an hour. I had some spare time in the evenings before I went to Base on graveyard shift so I was a bartender in a beer joint some evenings.

Then we got news that the war with Germany was over so we all celebrated. Later that year Japan surrendered after two A-Bombs were dropped, so as I had 81 points they decided to discharge me. I was sent to Randolph Field by train to be discharged out of the Army Air Corps. I was sent to Randolph by train with an old M/Sgt. who stopped off in Waco to see his mother. I got to meet his family who fed us well and then sent us on our way.

I was discharged in Sept. of 1945. A female Lieutenant said I lacked 5 points for discharge so we had an argument and I won. I had made the American defense medal on submarine patrol out of Langley Field, Va. While I was training for Pathfinder crews there and it wasn’t on my records. When I got off the bus on U.S. Highway 81, 15miles north of San Antonia, and sat my bags down, I looked up and recognized an Army surplus ’43 Ford car one of my first cousins had bought. I whistled loud and he stomped hard on the brakes and backed up to get me. I got home to New Braunfels in a short time after that as I was only fifteen miles from home.

I celebrated for a while after getting home. I decided to learn to fly on the G.I. bill and signed up with a local airfield. Joe Faust owned the airfield and had instructors to teach flying to aspiring pilots. I passed all my paper work with flying colors and was doing OK in flying when an instructor showed up drunk. He cut the main switch off in the air and I started to set it down in a pasture when he turned it back on. I then circled it around and landed it at the airfield and never flew in an airplane again.

This is the gist of my life from the time Pearl Harbor was so cowardly bombed by the Japanese and put us in the World War. I still have no regrets about using the Atomic Bombs and I have never thought we owed the Japs an apology about the bombs as some misguided souls do. Thousands of lives both Americans and Japs would have been lost, if we had to invade their homeland. We can’t be concerned about the women and children as they too were taught to kill just like the Jap soldiers were.

Louis Milton Belk, S/Sgt. US Army Air Corps.

Left Waist Gunner, Pathfinders, 364th Sq.,

422nd. Sq. 305th BG, 8th Air Force, Chelveston, England.