October 8, 2025 • 35 mins
Joseph Picard was a teenager when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. Unlike some of his peers, Picard was neither excited to join the service nor dreading it. He just accepted that he would need to serve.
After completing basic training, Picard was assigned to the 552nd Field Artillery Battalion, working with the massive 240mm guns. The battalion was held out of D-Day operations and landed at Utah Beach in late June 1944.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Picard takes us through all the work involved in assembling and operating the 240mm guns. He also walks us from Utah Beach through the Battle for St. Lo and the Allied drive to Paris.
Picard also describes the devastating combat at the Battle of Aachen, losing his best friend in combat, and the chaos and bitter cold at the Battle of the Bulge.
After completing basic training, Picard was assigned to the 552nd Field Artillery Battalion, working with the massive 240mm guns. The battalion was held out of D-Day operations and landed at Utah Beach in late June 1944.
In this edition of Veterans Chronicles, Picard takes us through all the work involved in assembling and operating the 240mm guns. He also walks us from Utah Beach through the Battle for St. Lo and the Allied drive to Paris.
Picard also describes the devastating combat at the Battle of Aachen, losing his best friend in combat, and the chaos and bitter cold at the Battle of the Bulge.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran
of World War Two, including the Battle of the Bulge.
In the Battle of Auchin, he was a member of
the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion, first
as part of a two hundred and forty millimeters gun
team and then as unit clerk. Joseph Picard was the
(00:33):
first member of his family to serve in the US military.
His parents were immigrants from Canada, and for all one
hundred plus years of his life and counting, mister Picard
has felt at home in New England.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, but I was raised
in Rhode Island, specifically one Socket Island. I graduated from
Warsawk In high school in nineteen forty three, and after graduation,
(01:09):
I graduated on my birthday, my eighteenth birthday. And after graduation,
I went down to the draft board and registered as
I as was required, and that was in June, and
in August I got my letter from President Roosevelt welcoming
(01:31):
me into the Army.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
He was a teenager. On December seventh, nineteen forty one,
when he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
And even at that young age, the card knew his
life was going to change dramatically.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I was home, but I was in school. I
was in high school, and I had the radio going,
and that's where I got the news of the bombing.
And I knew then that I would be going in
the service, because the war was progressing to the point
(02:10):
where they were calling the high school students, and so
I knew that the minute I graduated from high school,
I would be in.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Some young men couldn't wait to enlist after Pearl Harbor.
Others had to wait because they were too young to serve.
Neither of those sentiments described Picard. He was neither gung
ho nor dreading the service. He was simply resigned to
the idea that he would be part of the war.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, I don't think at that time it was eager
or not. I think it was a given that you
were going, and you just accepted that. You knew that
the minute you were over with school high school, that
you were going to be called. You just accepted accepted that.
(03:02):
You know, at least I did anyway, and I think
most young fellows did. Now I didn't enlist, many did.
The essential difference was that if you were drafted, you
had to go with essential. If you were enlisted, you
(03:23):
had some options. And I just took that chance and
was drafted.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
After being drafted into the Army, the card was soon
off to training, first at Fort Bragg. Soon he found
himself in the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion,
working with the biggest gun the military had.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
My training was in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, And just
to give you an idea of how things were moving
at that time, when we left to go to Fort Bragg,
our schedule was to go to a different station, and
(04:04):
on the way down they got a phone call that
we were going to change and go to Fort Brag.
My initial training was at Fort Bragg. I was there
until we left in December, and my training was fuel artillery.
(04:30):
That was that was my training. My particular position was
the system. At the time, this was a two hundred
and forty millimeters outfit and you had to learn every position.
There were something like twenty positions because that was the crew,
(04:51):
and you had to learn all of those and that
was your basic training, and when that was over, then
you waited to be shipped overseas.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We'll learn much more about the gun team and how
they maneuvered the weapon and the ammunition when we follow
the battalion into combat in late nineteen forty three, after
all that training, the battalion was on its way across
the Atlantic when Picard was stunned to learn he was
getting a new job.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
We left out of Fort Slocum, New York. On the
way out there, I got a phone call from the
battery commander, which is not customary. Had he ever heard
from him? And he said, this is very short, Picard,
(05:43):
as of now, you're the unit clerk. I had been
a Canonia. I know anything about the unit clerk. But
what had happened was the unit clerk took off naval
and so and we were on our way to take
(06:05):
the boat to Europe, and so the battery commander had
to add act pretty quickly. And that's what I did
throughout the war. What the union clerk does is keep
all the records of the battles of the of each person,
(06:26):
you know, each staff member had to report to me everything,
all shots and and I had to keep records of
transfers and all the rest, and I worked with the
other battery clerks. There were we had five batteries ABC,
(06:53):
service and Headquarters, and I worked with them, but kept
all the records of battery C. I was clerk of
Battery Sea.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion trained
and waited in England for months. Picard and the other
men were still there on June sixth, nineteen forty four
D Day. Picard says it wasn't easy to get a
clear picture of how the day was unfolding because the
military was very tight lipped about what was happening.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
They were very cautious about giving the news that first
day because as you know, it was almost a disaster.
I don't say that with any fall or anything. They
had studied this and the preparation was unbelievable, but it
(07:49):
was a big operation and so lots of things went wrong.
As you probably know. The inks that came they had
they had set tanks on floats because you can't drive
those in the water, and so they came in and
(08:15):
they had anticipated the consequences. What happened was the floats
gave way and they lost all his tanks, and so
there were lots of things like that that were I mean,
if you wanted to be critical, you could. But they
(08:35):
had planned this so long, five thousand ships and so forth,
and then of course you had the landing craft, you know,
those those were very successful. But these poor guys who
were in the invasion were facing guns up ahead. So
(09:01):
it was not a very happy situation. And so they
gave us clear reports. You know, certain things they kept quiet,
but other things were given to us.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The Allies won the day on D Day, securing the
Normandy beaches and beginning to drive the Germans out of France.
Twenty two days after D Day, it was time for
the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion to
enter the fight, starting at Utah Beach.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We landed at the Utah Beach. This is where I say,
you know, there were lots of errors made. We arrived
at the wrong place. It was Utah Beach, but it
was not where were supposed to land. And the other
(09:54):
thing was that we arrived too late to bark because
you had to land to get off. You had to
land at high tide so that the boat could go
as far forward on the beach as possible, but then
(10:16):
you couldn't. You had to wait until low tide to
get off, and so we were late, so we had
spent an extra day. That way, we got off without
any major problems, landed up ahead, because by then you
(10:36):
could do that. You could get off the ship and
go right up to land, and that's what we did.
And what you had to do once you get up there,
you had to d D grease all these mechanical things
(10:58):
were you know, you're driving them in salt water, and
so you had to arrange it so that you wouldn't
destroyed the engine. So the first thing you had to
do was go up and degrease all of this so
(11:18):
that you can now use it. Took us one day
to do that, and unfortunately, in the first couple of days,
one of our sergeants, nice good fellow, went off driving
his truck, not being aware that it was a minefield,
(11:40):
and he hit the mine and that was the end
of him, the truck and he gone.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
That's Joseph Picard, a US Army veteran of World War Two,
serving with the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion,
Still to come the Battle of the bulge. But up next,
the battalion sees its first major action in Normandy. I'm
Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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Speaker 1 (13:05):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran
of World War Two, serving in the five hundred and
fifty second Field Artillery Battalion, first as part of a
two hundred and forty millimeter gun team and then as
unit clerk. Still ahead, we'll hear Picard's thoughts on the
chaos and the cold at the Battle of the Bulge,
(13:28):
the death of his best friend in combat, and a
voyage home after the war that was rougher than expected. Earlier,
we told you about the five hundred and fifty second
landing at Utah Beach in late June nineteen forty four.
Before long the battalion would be in action at Saint
lo in, Normandy.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
We stayed pretty well in the area that we arrived at.
You had to leave there because that was to prepare
for this, but you were in it, and we participated
in what was called the Battle of Saint Loe at
(14:06):
that time, which was an awful battle. The streets were blocked,
we couldn't move, couldn't move ahead. We had to call
for help with cranes and tractors to pave a road
to get through, and that was a big delay. They
(14:31):
hadn't anticipated that and it delayed the whole operation.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Picard says the infantry saw the most vicious part of
the fighting at Saint Loe.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
It was severe, but it was all infantry. You know,
it was hand to hand fighting at that point, and
in artillery you don't have that there. You're a little
further back and because you just can't get into the
hand to hand fighting, so it's more defensive kind of
(15:09):
a thing. And you get signals from all the fellows
up front who were struggling and need that kind of help.
It was big stuff. We tried to destroy bruises, railroads,
military buildings, and that's what we did and quite effective.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
After several days in Normandy, the Allies began their breakout
and the rapid push east and south towards Paris. Picard
has fond memories of the road to Paris.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
That went very well. That bit went very quickly from
Saint Lox to Paris. We got a little bit of
a break when we got to to Paris. We weren't
in Paris, but the little town that we were in.
They gave us a break of I shouldn't say it
(16:09):
was a break really, because it was the opportunity to
fix our weapons, because they had been battered all along
that Saint lo deal, and so we had I think
it was four days where we were able to repair
(16:29):
all the equipment and move on pretty quickly from there.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
The US troops wanted to celebrate the liberation of Paris,
but the five hundred and fifty second Battalion and others
were held back for multiple reasons. First, US officials wanted
exiled French forces to be the centerpiece of the parade
in order to give legitimacy to Charles de gaul In,
the new incoming French government, but Picard says it was
also for their own safety.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah. Well, the French were very helpful, and we first
got to Paris, they warned us. They said, look, as
much as you'd like to communicate with these people, don't
do that because you won't know who's the enemy and
who's on your side. So don't they use the word fraternize.
(17:22):
Don't fraternize with these people who be polite, but don't
get engaged. And because the truth of the matter is
that the French underground was very helpful to us, very
very helpful. They would, you know, they knew the rail
(17:44):
schedule and they could advise you of what's coming, and
so they were very helpful.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
The next major fight for the battalion came in October
nineteen forty four in the Battle of Achan, and Picard
remembers it as a fierce battle. He also remembers the
devastating aftermath that.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Was a real bad one. There was a kind of
assignment that they needed us because we were bombing Achan daily,
something fierce, and there was nothing left of Achen. By
(18:26):
the time we and the others got through, there was
nothing left in Achen. The buildings were ruins, ruins. But
it was a very important break that we got. And
then we went on from from Achen that that was
(18:49):
Germany actually onto Holland. We were in Holland, we went
on to the Four Campaigns. That were four campaigns during
the war in Europe, and we were part of all four.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That's Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran of World
War Two, serving in the five hundred and fifty second
Field Artillery Battalion. Straight Ahead more on those massive two
hundred and forty millimeter guns the Battle of the Bulge
and Joseph Picard loses his best friend. I'm Greg Corumbus,
and this is Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm
(19:31):
Greg Corumbus. Our guest is Joseph Picard, a US Army
veteran of World War Two and the five hundred and
fifty second Field Artillery Battalion. As the battalion fought at
Auchen and later at the Bulge, the two hundred and
forty millimeter guns became even more important, and Picard explains
how those teams did their jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well, you had people who were responsible for the weapons,
the bombs. The shell was about this high, so you
had to have special people take care of those some
(20:12):
distance away from your gun. And then you had people
who were carrying these things. They had a tray with
four handles, and so you had four people there engineer
(20:33):
to figure calculate your settings of your gun. And then
you had a lanyard man who waited for the signal
to fire and then pulled the lanyard and all of
these people. This was a big gun, so there were
(20:54):
stations on the gun to set all this up, and
you had to learn all those positions. And before going
they had a trial to where the battery commanders assigned
each one a number so that he could see how
(21:19):
well you could cope with every position if you had
to had to do so.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
The cart also shared that each shell for the two
hundred and forty millimeters guns weighed three hundred and sixty
five pounds. He says that required a lot of powder
to send it flying.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Now, to propel that you needed up to a maximum
of one hundred pounds of powder. I say powder, but
they were granules. You know. You had a canister that
was this high and there were four charges in it,
(21:58):
and depending on the rain, you've got your your phone
that gave you the number of charges one, two, three, four,
and that's what governed the distances you were firing. It
had a maximum distance of fourteen miles and it was
(22:21):
very accurate, very accurate. I used to call it a
defensive role because we were always helping other units. We
had targets, but it was for some other unit. It
might have been for George Patten, Third Army, who needed
(22:46):
that kind of help, and he would contact us, and
that's what we would do. So we were I call
it a kind of a defensive position. It was very effective.
It was difficult to put together. Came in two parts,
(23:07):
the carriage and then the tube, and they were separate,
and they needed a tank for each one to tow it.
And when you reach your destination, you know, you got
your destination from the engineers, and when you reached there,
you needed a construction crane to put this thing together.
(23:33):
So it used to take us an average of four
hours to put this thing together to operate.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
One of the most difficult moments for Joseph Icard came
in November of nineteen forty four when his best friend
Raymond Bulldock was killed while in his tent that night
while combat raged nearby.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, that was said. We weren't totally clear as to
whether Germany had the two hundred and forty And the
other thing too that was very important was the battle.
That two hundred and forty millimeter the old fues detonated
(24:19):
when it hit the ground. If it's coming your way.
The theory was hit the ground because once you were
on the ground, when it detonates, it goes this way,
so you're safe. Well, they had come out with a
new foes that detonated in mid air. They would set
(24:40):
it and they would go in mid air. Well, we
were stopped in that area, and what happened was one
of those bombs came in and detonated over our area.
(25:05):
It's all lion and all these pieces of iron fly all.
Bulldock and his friend you were two, two to a tent,
and it was a rainy night, six o'clock in the evening,
and these two guys were riding home to their wives,
(25:28):
and all of a sudden, one of these big bombs
come in and bull Duck got a piece, big piece
in the neck and got killed instantly. And next to them,
his buddy lost both legs. Now, this is just a tent,
(25:52):
it's just a white and lost both legs from another
big chunk, and the tent, of course, was shredded.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
By mid to late December, the focus on the Western
Front was almost entirely on the Battle of the Bulge,
as Adolf Hitler launched a major offensive in hopes of
turning the tide of the war back in his favor.
Picard says he remembers poor communications and a lot of
confusion while fighting at the Bulge.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The problem with the Battle of the Bulge is is
utter confusion because the communication was poor, it was defective,
so you're really struggling to figure out what's going on here.
And as you know, we had very shoe people there,
(26:49):
and we had very huge trained people there, so we
were really against the defensive. Eisenhower General Eisenhower decided that
rather than send people in one by one, let the
Germans go to this given point no further. When we
(27:12):
get to that point, then we will have a strong
enough defense to beat them. And that worked. But I mean,
it was the coldest winter of the century. Because we
were a little further behind, managed fairly well. You know.
(27:36):
The poor infantrymen of course got the brunt of it
because they had trench feet and so forth. But we
manage fairly well and were successful in helping beat them.
For us, it wasn't as severe as what you've seen
(27:59):
on TV. For the poor infantryman.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
More than eighty years later, but Card vividly remembers what
he heard and saw at the baults.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Well, you know, especially in that kind of weather, you know,
the weather has something to do with it, and the
noise that this thing made is unbelievable. You know it's
so deep. And to give you an idea, when one
(28:32):
of these things landed near where we were and the
next day I wanted to see the damage it had done,
and it had a thirty foot span and the whole
(28:53):
was I went down in and had a picture taken.
But I look about this big in this tremendous hole,
and that's what that shell would do. So we use
it effectively.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
In addition to the intense combat, the other major challenge
was the cold. Brutal cold. Picard says it was rough
for the artillery guys, but he says they still had
it much better than the infantry.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Unlike the infantry that was constantly in the cold. We
would go to a busted up building to get away
from the breeze, from the wind and the cold. I mean,
you didn't have any heat, but you at least were
(29:47):
out of the wind. When we were off duty, we
were in some of these old wrecked buildings just to
get cover. So we fed fairly well.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
But car It says the cold also took its toll
on the big guns.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
It did take effect because we had to do some
repair work after the bulge. The cold caused damage to
the equipment we had, but once the battle, once the
(30:25):
Bulge was over, we were able to repair these weapons.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
The Bulge was Hitler's last major stand. From there it
was a matter of getting across some key rivers like
the Roar and the Rhine and shoving the Nazis deeper
into their own land. Picard says controlling the bridge at
Ramagen was hugely important, and he still marvels at the
pontoon bridges the army engineers built across the rivers. Finally,
(30:52):
in early May, the Germans agreed to an unconditional surrender.
Picard describes the relief and the dramatic journey home.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
The word came very quickly. Everything stopped like a clock,
joy and wonderful feeling about winning the war. And I
have pictures in that pamphlet of the battery commander and
(31:27):
all these people that on that day that are in
that pictures that I had taken, and I never did
give him to him because we in short order, you know,
they had the government had really planned a nice method
(31:52):
of getting our people home, and that was an experience too,
because you've got sixteen million people that want to go home.
Now impossible. So they used every kind of ship to
(32:14):
ship you back. I had a point system. I came
back from Lahab, France. I got on a ship there
and it was it was not a very good ship.
And away home we hit a storm. One of the
(32:36):
seams let go and water was coming in, so they
slowed down to three nouns an hour, which is really nothing.
You're not gaining anything. Finally they were able to repair
it and we got to Newport News Christmas eve. Well
(32:59):
we got there. When we got to Newport News, the
base was closed, nobody there to get us off the ship,
and so the chaplain radioed in and they got a
crew together to get us off the ship and prepare
a dinner for us at three o'clock in the morning
(33:22):
Christmas morning. So it was a very merry Christmas, believe me.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
But Car did not share his story for many years.
That changed his mind as fewer and fewer World War
Two veterans were still alive, and he's still proud to
have done his part to win the war.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, I did the best I could with what I
was assigned to do. You know, it started as a cannoneer,
ended up as a unit clerk, and even that was
important because you wanted to report correctly what was happening
(34:04):
and what was happening to our people, and just how
well we were doing with our assignments. You kind of
felt that you had a I won't say major part
in the war, in the ending of the war, but
certainly an effective, effective part of it. So when people
(34:30):
asked me what I thought of my duties, I would say, well,
I'm no hero. I'm just one of sixteen million people
who fought this war and the fact that we all
worked together brought an end to it, and that's kind
(34:55):
of the way I looked at it. I mean, I
was just glad kugoo my pie.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
That's Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran of World
War Two serving in the five hundred and fifty second
Field Artillery Battalion. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi,
(35:22):
this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:43):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of
course please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you
get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join
us next time for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran
of World War Two, including the Battle of the Bulge.
In the Battle of Auchin, he was a member of
the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion, first
as part of a two hundred and forty millimeters gun
team and then as unit clerk. Joseph Picard was the
(00:33):
first member of his family to serve in the US military.
His parents were immigrants from Canada, and for all one
hundred plus years of his life and counting, mister Picard
has felt at home in New England.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, but I was raised
in Rhode Island, specifically one Socket Island. I graduated from
Warsawk In high school in nineteen forty three, and after graduation,
(01:09):
I graduated on my birthday, my eighteenth birthday. And after graduation,
I went down to the draft board and registered as
I as was required, and that was in June, and
in August I got my letter from President Roosevelt welcoming
(01:31):
me into the Army.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
He was a teenager. On December seventh, nineteen forty one,
when he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
And even at that young age, the card knew his
life was going to change dramatically.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well, I was home, but I was in school. I
was in high school, and I had the radio going,
and that's where I got the news of the bombing.
And I knew then that I would be going in
the service, because the war was progressing to the point
(02:10):
where they were calling the high school students, and so
I knew that the minute I graduated from high school,
I would be in.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Some young men couldn't wait to enlist after Pearl Harbor.
Others had to wait because they were too young to serve.
Neither of those sentiments described Picard. He was neither gung
ho nor dreading the service. He was simply resigned to
the idea that he would be part of the war.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Well, I don't think at that time it was eager
or not. I think it was a given that you
were going, and you just accepted that. You knew that
the minute you were over with school high school, that
you were going to be called. You just accepted accepted that.
(03:02):
You know, at least I did anyway, and I think
most young fellows did. Now I didn't enlist, many did.
The essential difference was that if you were drafted, you
had to go with essential. If you were enlisted, you
(03:23):
had some options. And I just took that chance and
was drafted.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
After being drafted into the Army, the card was soon
off to training, first at Fort Bragg. Soon he found
himself in the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion,
working with the biggest gun the military had.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
My training was in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, And just
to give you an idea of how things were moving
at that time, when we left to go to Fort Bragg,
our schedule was to go to a different station, and
(04:04):
on the way down they got a phone call that
we were going to change and go to Fort Brag.
My initial training was at Fort Bragg. I was there
until we left in December, and my training was fuel artillery.
(04:30):
That was that was my training. My particular position was
the system. At the time, this was a two hundred
and forty millimeters outfit and you had to learn every position.
There were something like twenty positions because that was the crew,
(04:51):
and you had to learn all of those and that
was your basic training, and when that was over, then
you waited to be shipped overseas.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
We'll learn much more about the gun team and how
they maneuvered the weapon and the ammunition when we follow
the battalion into combat in late nineteen forty three, after
all that training, the battalion was on its way across
the Atlantic when Picard was stunned to learn he was
getting a new job.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
We left out of Fort Slocum, New York. On the
way out there, I got a phone call from the
battery commander, which is not customary. Had he ever heard
from him? And he said, this is very short, Picard,
(05:43):
as of now, you're the unit clerk. I had been
a Canonia. I know anything about the unit clerk. But
what had happened was the unit clerk took off naval
and so and we were on our way to take
(06:05):
the boat to Europe, and so the battery commander had
to add act pretty quickly. And that's what I did
throughout the war. What the union clerk does is keep
all the records of the battles of the of each person,
(06:26):
you know, each staff member had to report to me everything,
all shots and and I had to keep records of
transfers and all the rest, and I worked with the
other battery clerks. There were we had five batteries ABC,
(06:53):
service and Headquarters, and I worked with them, but kept
all the records of battery C. I was clerk of
Battery Sea.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion trained
and waited in England for months. Picard and the other
men were still there on June sixth, nineteen forty four
D Day. Picard says it wasn't easy to get a
clear picture of how the day was unfolding because the
military was very tight lipped about what was happening.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
They were very cautious about giving the news that first
day because as you know, it was almost a disaster.
I don't say that with any fall or anything. They
had studied this and the preparation was unbelievable, but it
(07:49):
was a big operation and so lots of things went wrong.
As you probably know. The inks that came they had
they had set tanks on floats because you can't drive
those in the water, and so they came in and
(08:15):
they had anticipated the consequences. What happened was the floats
gave way and they lost all his tanks, and so
there were lots of things like that that were I mean,
if you wanted to be critical, you could. But they
(08:35):
had planned this so long, five thousand ships and so forth,
and then of course you had the landing craft, you know,
those those were very successful. But these poor guys who
were in the invasion were facing guns up ahead. So
(09:01):
it was not a very happy situation. And so they
gave us clear reports. You know, certain things they kept quiet,
but other things were given to us.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
The Allies won the day on D Day, securing the
Normandy beaches and beginning to drive the Germans out of France.
Twenty two days after D Day, it was time for
the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion to
enter the fight, starting at Utah Beach.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
We landed at the Utah Beach. This is where I say,
you know, there were lots of errors made. We arrived
at the wrong place. It was Utah Beach, but it
was not where were supposed to land. And the other
(09:54):
thing was that we arrived too late to bark because
you had to land to get off. You had to
land at high tide so that the boat could go
as far forward on the beach as possible, but then
(10:16):
you couldn't. You had to wait until low tide to
get off, and so we were late, so we had
spent an extra day. That way, we got off without
any major problems, landed up ahead, because by then you
(10:36):
could do that. You could get off the ship and
go right up to land, and that's what we did.
And what you had to do once you get up there,
you had to d D grease all these mechanical things
(10:58):
were you know, you're driving them in salt water, and
so you had to arrange it so that you wouldn't
destroyed the engine. So the first thing you had to
do was go up and degrease all of this so
(11:18):
that you can now use it. Took us one day
to do that, and unfortunately, in the first couple of days,
one of our sergeants, nice good fellow, went off driving
his truck, not being aware that it was a minefield,
(11:40):
and he hit the mine and that was the end
of him, the truck and he gone.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
That's Joseph Picard, a US Army veteran of World War Two,
serving with the five hundred and fifty second Field Artillery Battalion,
Still to come the Battle of the bulge. But up next,
the battalion sees its first major action in Normandy. I'm
Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles.
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Speaker 1 (13:05):
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus. Our guest in
this edition is Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran
of World War Two, serving in the five hundred and
fifty second Field Artillery Battalion, first as part of a
two hundred and forty millimeter gun team and then as
unit clerk. Still ahead, we'll hear Picard's thoughts on the
chaos and the cold at the Battle of the Bulge,
(13:28):
the death of his best friend in combat, and a
voyage home after the war that was rougher than expected. Earlier,
we told you about the five hundred and fifty second
landing at Utah Beach in late June nineteen forty four.
Before long the battalion would be in action at Saint
lo in, Normandy.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
We stayed pretty well in the area that we arrived at.
You had to leave there because that was to prepare
for this, but you were in it, and we participated
in what was called the Battle of Saint Loe at
(14:06):
that time, which was an awful battle. The streets were blocked,
we couldn't move, couldn't move ahead. We had to call
for help with cranes and tractors to pave a road
to get through, and that was a big delay. They
(14:31):
hadn't anticipated that and it delayed the whole operation.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Picard says the infantry saw the most vicious part of
the fighting at Saint Loe.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
It was severe, but it was all infantry. You know,
it was hand to hand fighting at that point, and
in artillery you don't have that there. You're a little
further back and because you just can't get into the
hand to hand fighting, so it's more defensive kind of
(15:09):
a thing. And you get signals from all the fellows
up front who were struggling and need that kind of help.
It was big stuff. We tried to destroy bruises, railroads,
military buildings, and that's what we did and quite effective.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
After several days in Normandy, the Allies began their breakout
and the rapid push east and south towards Paris. Picard
has fond memories of the road to Paris.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
That went very well. That bit went very quickly from
Saint Lox to Paris. We got a little bit of
a break when we got to to Paris. We weren't
in Paris, but the little town that we were in.
They gave us a break of I shouldn't say it
(16:09):
was a break really, because it was the opportunity to
fix our weapons, because they had been battered all along
that Saint lo deal, and so we had I think
it was four days where we were able to repair
(16:29):
all the equipment and move on pretty quickly from there.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
The US troops wanted to celebrate the liberation of Paris,
but the five hundred and fifty second Battalion and others
were held back for multiple reasons. First, US officials wanted
exiled French forces to be the centerpiece of the parade
in order to give legitimacy to Charles de gaul In,
the new incoming French government, but Picard says it was
also for their own safety.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah. Well, the French were very helpful, and we first
got to Paris, they warned us. They said, look, as
much as you'd like to communicate with these people, don't
do that because you won't know who's the enemy and
who's on your side. So don't they use the word fraternize.
(17:22):
Don't fraternize with these people who be polite, but don't
get engaged. And because the truth of the matter is
that the French underground was very helpful to us, very
very helpful. They would, you know, they knew the rail
(17:44):
schedule and they could advise you of what's coming, and
so they were very helpful.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
The next major fight for the battalion came in October
nineteen forty four in the Battle of Achan, and Picard
remembers it as a fierce battle. He also remembers the
devastating aftermath that.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
Was a real bad one. There was a kind of
assignment that they needed us because we were bombing Achan daily,
something fierce, and there was nothing left of Achen. By
(18:26):
the time we and the others got through, there was
nothing left in Achen. The buildings were ruins, ruins. But
it was a very important break that we got. And
then we went on from from Achen that that was
(18:49):
Germany actually onto Holland. We were in Holland, we went
on to the Four Campaigns. That were four campaigns during
the war in Europe, and we were part of all four.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
That's Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran of World
War Two, serving in the five hundred and fifty second
Field Artillery Battalion. Straight Ahead more on those massive two
hundred and forty millimeter guns the Battle of the Bulge
and Joseph Picard loses his best friend. I'm Greg Corumbus,
and this is Veterans' Chronicles. This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm
(19:31):
Greg Corumbus. Our guest is Joseph Picard, a US Army
veteran of World War Two and the five hundred and
fifty second Field Artillery Battalion. As the battalion fought at
Auchen and later at the Bulge, the two hundred and
forty millimeter guns became even more important, and Picard explains
how those teams did their jobs.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
Well, you had people who were responsible for the weapons,
the bombs. The shell was about this high, so you
had to have special people take care of those some
(20:12):
distance away from your gun. And then you had people
who were carrying these things. They had a tray with
four handles, and so you had four people there engineer
(20:33):
to figure calculate your settings of your gun. And then
you had a lanyard man who waited for the signal
to fire and then pulled the lanyard and all of
these people. This was a big gun, so there were
(20:54):
stations on the gun to set all this up, and
you had to learn all those positions. And before going
they had a trial to where the battery commanders assigned
each one a number so that he could see how
(21:19):
well you could cope with every position if you had
to had to do so.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
The cart also shared that each shell for the two
hundred and forty millimeters guns weighed three hundred and sixty
five pounds. He says that required a lot of powder
to send it flying.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
Now, to propel that you needed up to a maximum
of one hundred pounds of powder. I say powder, but
they were granules. You know. You had a canister that
was this high and there were four charges in it,
(21:58):
and depending on the rain, you've got your your phone
that gave you the number of charges one, two, three, four,
and that's what governed the distances you were firing. It
had a maximum distance of fourteen miles and it was
(22:21):
very accurate, very accurate. I used to call it a
defensive role because we were always helping other units. We
had targets, but it was for some other unit. It
might have been for George Patten, Third Army, who needed
(22:46):
that kind of help, and he would contact us, and
that's what we would do. So we were I call
it a kind of a defensive position. It was very effective.
It was difficult to put together. Came in two parts,
(23:07):
the carriage and then the tube, and they were separate,
and they needed a tank for each one to tow it.
And when you reach your destination, you know, you got
your destination from the engineers, and when you reached there,
you needed a construction crane to put this thing together.
(23:33):
So it used to take us an average of four
hours to put this thing together to operate.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
One of the most difficult moments for Joseph Icard came
in November of nineteen forty four when his best friend
Raymond Bulldock was killed while in his tent that night
while combat raged nearby.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Yeah, that was said. We weren't totally clear as to
whether Germany had the two hundred and forty And the
other thing too that was very important was the battle.
That two hundred and forty millimeter the old fues detonated
(24:19):
when it hit the ground. If it's coming your way.
The theory was hit the ground because once you were
on the ground, when it detonates, it goes this way,
so you're safe. Well, they had come out with a
new foes that detonated in mid air. They would set
(24:40):
it and they would go in mid air. Well, we
were stopped in that area, and what happened was one
of those bombs came in and detonated over our area.
(25:05):
It's all lion and all these pieces of iron fly all.
Bulldock and his friend you were two, two to a tent,
and it was a rainy night, six o'clock in the evening,
and these two guys were riding home to their wives,
(25:28):
and all of a sudden, one of these big bombs
come in and bull Duck got a piece, big piece
in the neck and got killed instantly. And next to them,
his buddy lost both legs. Now, this is just a tent,
(25:52):
it's just a white and lost both legs from another
big chunk, and the tent, of course, was shredded.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
By mid to late December, the focus on the Western
Front was almost entirely on the Battle of the Bulge,
as Adolf Hitler launched a major offensive in hopes of
turning the tide of the war back in his favor.
Picard says he remembers poor communications and a lot of
confusion while fighting at the Bulge.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
The problem with the Battle of the Bulge is is
utter confusion because the communication was poor, it was defective,
so you're really struggling to figure out what's going on here.
And as you know, we had very shoe people there,
(26:49):
and we had very huge trained people there, so we
were really against the defensive. Eisenhower General Eisenhower decided that
rather than send people in one by one, let the
Germans go to this given point no further. When we
(27:12):
get to that point, then we will have a strong
enough defense to beat them. And that worked. But I mean,
it was the coldest winter of the century. Because we
were a little further behind, managed fairly well. You know.
(27:36):
The poor infantrymen of course got the brunt of it
because they had trench feet and so forth. But we
manage fairly well and were successful in helping beat them.
For us, it wasn't as severe as what you've seen
(27:59):
on TV. For the poor infantryman.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
More than eighty years later, but Card vividly remembers what
he heard and saw at the baults.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
Well, you know, especially in that kind of weather, you know,
the weather has something to do with it, and the
noise that this thing made is unbelievable. You know it's
so deep. And to give you an idea, when one
(28:32):
of these things landed near where we were and the
next day I wanted to see the damage it had done,
and it had a thirty foot span and the whole
(28:53):
was I went down in and had a picture taken.
But I look about this big in this tremendous hole,
and that's what that shell would do. So we use
it effectively.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
In addition to the intense combat, the other major challenge
was the cold. Brutal cold. Picard says it was rough
for the artillery guys, but he says they still had
it much better than the infantry.
Speaker 2 (29:24):
Unlike the infantry that was constantly in the cold. We
would go to a busted up building to get away
from the breeze, from the wind and the cold. I mean,
you didn't have any heat, but you at least were
(29:47):
out of the wind. When we were off duty, we
were in some of these old wrecked buildings just to
get cover. So we fed fairly well.
Speaker 1 (29:59):
But car It says the cold also took its toll
on the big guns.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
It did take effect because we had to do some
repair work after the bulge. The cold caused damage to
the equipment we had, but once the battle, once the
(30:25):
Bulge was over, we were able to repair these weapons.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
The Bulge was Hitler's last major stand. From there it
was a matter of getting across some key rivers like
the Roar and the Rhine and shoving the Nazis deeper
into their own land. Picard says controlling the bridge at
Ramagen was hugely important, and he still marvels at the
pontoon bridges the army engineers built across the rivers. Finally,
(30:52):
in early May, the Germans agreed to an unconditional surrender.
Picard describes the relief and the dramatic journey home.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
The word came very quickly. Everything stopped like a clock,
joy and wonderful feeling about winning the war. And I
have pictures in that pamphlet of the battery commander and
(31:27):
all these people that on that day that are in
that pictures that I had taken, and I never did
give him to him because we in short order, you know,
they had the government had really planned a nice method
(31:52):
of getting our people home, and that was an experience too,
because you've got sixteen million people that want to go home.
Now impossible. So they used every kind of ship to
(32:14):
ship you back. I had a point system. I came
back from Lahab, France. I got on a ship there
and it was it was not a very good ship.
And away home we hit a storm. One of the
(32:36):
seams let go and water was coming in, so they
slowed down to three nouns an hour, which is really nothing.
You're not gaining anything. Finally they were able to repair
it and we got to Newport News Christmas eve. Well
(32:59):
we got there. When we got to Newport News, the
base was closed, nobody there to get us off the ship,
and so the chaplain radioed in and they got a
crew together to get us off the ship and prepare
a dinner for us at three o'clock in the morning
(33:22):
Christmas morning. So it was a very merry Christmas, believe me.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
But Car did not share his story for many years.
That changed his mind as fewer and fewer World War
Two veterans were still alive, and he's still proud to
have done his part to win the war.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, I did the best I could with what I
was assigned to do. You know, it started as a cannoneer,
ended up as a unit clerk, and even that was
important because you wanted to report correctly what was happening
(34:04):
and what was happening to our people, and just how
well we were doing with our assignments. You kind of
felt that you had a I won't say major part
in the war, in the ending of the war, but
certainly an effective, effective part of it. So when people
(34:30):
asked me what I thought of my duties, I would say, well,
I'm no hero. I'm just one of sixteen million people
who fought this war and the fact that we all
worked together brought an end to it, and that's kind
(34:55):
of the way I looked at it. I mean, I
was just glad kugoo my pie.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
That's Joseph Picard. He's a US Army veteran of World
War Two serving in the five hundred and fifty second
Field Artillery Battalion. I'm Greg Corumbus and this is Veterans Chronicles. Hi,
(35:22):
this is Greg Corumbus, and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles,
a presentation of the American Veterans Center. For more information,
please visit American Veteranscenter dot org. You can also follow
the American Veterans Center on Facebook and on Twitter. We're
at AVC update. Subscribe to the American Veterans Center YouTube
(35:43):
channel for full oral histories and special features, and of
course please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever you
get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening, and please join
us next time for Veterans Chronicles
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