Memorial Day 2009

Memorial Day is a time to remember all of our ancestors who fought for our country and to honor their service on the battlefields of the US, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.  Many who were conscripted or volunteered  were so young, leaving the security of their family and community, to form new bands of brothers and sisters fighting for a purpose they may not have understood.  This is the story of one WW II veteran from Guthrie, Oklahoma. 

 

Larisa's grandfather and my father, Wallace Duke McMillin, received the Purple Heart for wounds he received after this plane, a P-47 Thunderbolt, was shot down over Germany on March 31, 1945.  He was 23 years of age.  He had already participated in over 50 missions in the European theatre of operation and had served in major campaigns from the Battle of France to the Siegfried Breakthrough.  His service was in the Ninth Air Force under the 367th Fighter Group.

On March 31, First Lieutenant McMillin led his squadron on an Army reconnaissance mission to fire on enemy aircraft on the ground and to destroy  trains moving toward the Third Army sector commanded by General Patton.  As he led the squadron toward home, 6 enemy  trains were destroyed.  However on the way home, his plane was fired upon by German aircraft.  He lost airspeed quickly and as flames consumed the cockpit, he put the plane down on German farmland close to a wooded area .  His squadron circled his plane until they could see he had found cover in the woods.   He felt alone after the squadron set course for home. 

 

He had gone about 500 yards into the woods when he heard German voices.  He could see a paved road with several German tanks and trucks parked along the side of the woods.  The Germans soon entered their vehicles and started to move down the road.  Wallace heard a whistle sound and he knew it was a round of artillery coming from Allied aircraft firing on the Germans.  The shells hit very close as trees on either side of him fell to the ground.  The artillery fire continued and Wallace felt blood run down his face and as he tried to get up, he realized his foot was broken.  He crawled as fast as he could but artillery shells continued to rain around him.  He had crawled 200 yards when the shelling stopped.  He could still hear machine gun fire ever so often but he knew that the German resistance along this road had been broken.  He crawled back up to the road staying hidden in brush.  A German Mark IV passed along the road.  

Wallace crawled over the road to another woods where he made a cover of fallen tree limbs.  It was starting to get dark and he realized that he only had an old pocket knife, a pen and a map in his pockets.  While removing the map, his compass which had been broken, fell out.  His escape kit which all servicemen carried was gone.  He waited in his cover until morning.

He could see the German soldiers off in the distance marching back and forth along an opening in the woods.   He started to crawl out moving toward a small village he could see down a valley.  He had traveled about a 1000 yards when he saw a German soldier walking back and forth in front a gun.  He was carrying a rifle and looked like he was guarding the artillery gun.  It was growing dark again and he decided to crawl back into the woods for protection.  He heard footsteps in front of him and covered his face so no reflection of his face could be seen.  A German soldier stood about 10 yards away, took his gun from his shoulder and pointed it at Wallace who could see the bayonet pointing at him.  His heart was beating so loudly that he thought the German might hear it.  For some reason, the German soldier put his gun back over this shoulder and started walking away.  Wallace stayed in the same location for about 20 minutes to see if the German would go away or come back and kill him.  Wallace entered back into the woods as the moon came up and he realized how lucky it was that the moon was late coming up that night so he could have longer protection.    As the moon got brighter, he could see a farm house off in the distance and hear dogs barking.  He returned to the same hiding place he had had earlier in the day fearful that the dogs would be turned on him.  His foot was beginning to hurt.  He could not rest because he kept opening his eyes expecting to see the German soldier with the gun appear again.  

On his second night on the ground, the Germans were getting shelled instead of the Allies.   He decided to crawl out of his hiding place so he could again see the paved road.  Two German soldiers were coming along the path talking and laughing.  After passing him, the Germans stopped about 10 yards away and started looking out over the woods where Wallace was hiding.  Wallace thought they were telling jokes to each other and maybe that prevented them from seeing him.  They started to move down the road continuing to laugh. 

 

Wallace moved his hiding position over on a small hill under some grass where he could hide himself but still be able to watch the road that ran through the woods.  He could hear the Allied vehicles moving in the distance and could hear some small arms fire. He watched several German vehicles move along the road and could see German civilians riding bikes.  Hours later, he saw an American tank pass by at full speed followed by a jeep.  He jumped up quickly and yelled at the driver.  The jeep driver was so startled that he slammed on the brakes, grabbed his carbine and pointed it at Wallace. Wallace identified himself. When the driver saw he had been wounded, he backed up to get him but the Germans started sniping at him from about 600 yards down a railroad track.  The tank returned to provide cover as Wallace got in the jeep.  The drivers were on patrol from the 11th Armored Division.  The tank gunner said the Germans had a road block around the next curve.  

The tank gunner and driver and the jeep driver started moving along the road firing from both flanks for protection.  They started to approach the road block under cover of  75 mm shells from the tank and machine guns from the jeep.  2 soldiers were injured.  They were finally able to knock down the road block and were ready to make a run through it.  The 2 wounded soldiers and Wallace were loaded into the tank for protection.  The machine run was fired in a 180 degree circle.  They got through the road block without a shot being fired at them.  They moved into the village which was under Allied control.  

Wallace was taken into a German house in the village in a sling fashioned by 2 of the GI's.  A German man about 60 years of age, his wife and another woman greeted them.  The jeep driver spoke some German and asked the occupants to prepare beds for the wounded.  Wallace was placed on a soft bed with clean sheets where his shoe was removed from his foot.  He and his fellow GI's got a much  needed rest until he was returned to the Field Hospital and finally was flown to England by his own Ninth Air Force group.  The shrapnel from removed from this foot and face at the Field Hospital.  He recuperated in England and then was flown to the US where he spent nine months in the hospital before returning to his home in Oklahoma.