April 5, 2023 • 28 mins
Lockered "Bud" Gahs was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II. In late 1944, he deployed to France with the 42nd Infantry Division, which was dubbed "The Rainbow." Over the next several months, Gahs experienced intense combat all the way to Munich and the end of the war.
In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gahs gives us great detail on one of his early combat experiences...as roughly 200 German troops surrounded about 20 soldiers in a French farm house. While one soldier was killed, the Americans repelled all those enemy troops despite the staggering odds against them.
Gahs also takes into his memories of pushing back the final German offensive ot the war during Operation Northwind. He also shares his emotional memories of encountering some of the prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp just minutes after they were liberated.
In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Gahs gives us great detail on one of his early combat experiences...as roughly 200 German troops surrounded about 20 soldiers in a French farm house. While one soldier was killed, the Americans repelled all those enemy troops despite the staggering odds against them.
Gahs also takes into his memories of pushing back the final German offensive ot the war during Operation Northwind. He also shares his emotional memories of encountering some of the prisoners of the Dachau concentration camp just minutes after they were liberated.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:11):
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm GregCorumbus. Our guest in this edition is
Lockard bud Gas. He is aUS Army veteran of World War Two.
He served in the forty second InfantryDivision, often called the Rainbow and Bud
thanks so much for being with us. Thank you. Where were you born
and raised? Sir? In Marylandand Baltimore, Baltimore suburbs and raised there.
(00:36):
What's your memory of the attack onPearl Harbor? How did you hear
that news? I can remember exactlywhere I was, I guess everybody else
and what was shocking? Things wereleading up You could feel the tustiness for
some reason. And then when thathappened, why we knew we were in
(01:00):
World War Two? Did you jointhe US Army? Did you? And
Leicester? Were you drafted? No? I wasted? Okay? Where did
you do your training? Camp Creuberand Fort Raleigh, Kansas? Fort Raleigh,
Kansas. First in the cavalry andthen next was in STP. I
(01:25):
was in the a STP for eightmonths and then they broke that up and
we became infantrymen in Camp Ruber,Oklahoma. And when did the forty second
Division get deployed to Europe November fortyfour. We arrived I think the end
(01:45):
of November in France, Marseille.And where did they put you into the
fight? First we started in thearea of Strasbourg. We landed at Marseilles,
drove our own trucks up to theStrasbourg area area, and all the
fight was happening in the north ofStrasbourg and Alsize, So that's where I
(02:07):
think the first duty I was onwas in Strasbourg, just patrolling the city,
and we were there for Christmas.Where was your first combat experience?
Was it around that area? Actually, we went north for quite a distance.
It scares me when I realized howfar north we were, and the
(02:31):
lines were very drawn, very loosely, because neither the Germans or we had
very many men. So we werefacing each other with very few men,
and both sides were afraid the otherwas going to attack, and both sides
would be in a very weak position. So nobody attacked, which was good,
(02:53):
and then we had to draw back. I guess the powers that do
decided we should grow back about twentymiles and the excuse was to straighten the
lines, but it was we wereso so loosely put and we ended up
still loosely had didn't have very mintedat all, but much better shape than
(03:16):
at first. What was your firstcombat experience like and was it different than
what you expected it to be.No, we were attacked by a company
of two hundred men. Some aress some there's a bicycle parachute battalion,
(03:38):
and there was snow. We spottedthem. I drove a truck. I
drove a truck that pulled the ourand a tank gun which was a fifty
seven millimeter and it was a rightbig powerful gun. It took a crew
(03:58):
of ten, and of course theydidn't have the gun on. But I
was detailed to to go back tothe back, and everyone's well to go
back for ammunition or food or something, and I was to go back.
And I went out from my truckand I shall had hit and had given
me three flat tires. So Ididn't want to drive that. We had
(04:23):
maybe a foot of snow six inchesto a foot of snow on the ground,
and they were big, big balloontires, and so I walked about
a block to get another truck withanother my friend, another driver, and
I looked up and there they werecoming out of the woods, and that
(04:47):
part of town was only our platoon, which was actually a little more than
two squads. Said squad's supposed tobe ten men, but I think we
were down to eight or seven oreight. He generally always are not full,
and so the odds were pretty bad. So we ran to a house
(05:12):
which seemed to be the only twostory house in the area. Had a
lot of one story houses, andso right away we ran up stairs and
fourth from upstairs. So that wasour first experience of real contact. What's
that like in that close quarters,little little tight The only thing about it
(05:34):
was the only place to be,was the best place to be at the
time. So we made pretty gooddecisions there, and it proved out to
be pretty good. We lost oneman right off, but then the rest
of us did well survived. Whatdid you do tactically? Obviously you're in
a fairly confined space. So wasit just a matter of keeping the fire
(05:58):
steady against them? Were you ina specific position that gave you an advantage
in any way? I stopped atthe top of the stairs, and I
knew eventually they'd be throwing grenades upthe stairs or coming in, and they
started coming in, so I hadwhat we called a grease gun. I
(06:19):
stopped them there, and the othermen worked from the windows and had some
had quite some experiences. One ofmy friends was threw a grenade out the
window and the grenade has seven seventyaccount of seven seconds, I suppose,
which tom. I asked them,it is too long, and it should
(06:44):
be more like four or five,because after you let go of the hamlet
makes it a pop. And hejust popped it and threw it out,
and they threw it right back upin the window and fortunately landed on a
bed and it was one of thosefeather beds, and it went off and
(07:10):
he dropped to the floor. Heknew it was coming, He had presence
of mind. Has dropped the floorbecause Greig goes canary goes up and he
didn't get hurt, but it wasfeathers all over the place. But it
was the right thing to do.So from then on we knew if we
dropped a canade, just to tailorit to the situation, which we should
(07:35):
have talked. Been taught that intraining. I was a little upset about
that because seven seconds is a longtime. It's a long time, especially
if you're in fairly close quarters therea number of yards away. It's a
little better, but yeah, youdon't want him to have time to throw
it back. So were you woundedit all in that No? No,
(07:55):
no, he had one of wheremen was firing out to win though,
and he had gotten up just beforeme and I got up there, and
I saw he was practically in themoon that I and I said better get
out of the window. And atthat point he just they shot him,
(08:15):
shot him in the head. So, but no one else had any real
bad wounds. You know, Iain't got splinters or something, but nobody
really shot. What did you learnabout yourself that day? Learned to think
fast, I guess, fast ashe can. That's about it. Do
(08:39):
you felt like that prepared you forthe rest of the deployment? Well,
yes, I suppose it did.Actually, we were so outnumbered, I
think all of us kind of gaveup on ever coming out of the live,
which may have been a good thing. And so the general consensus of
(09:03):
opinion was, will get as manyof them as before they get us.
So I guess we gave you up. And you know that turned out to
be positive, And said of nativeso and take the fear away probably makes
you a little more aggressive too.Oh yes, yes, But we're gonna
(09:24):
pause for just a moment. We'regonna go to a quick break, and
when we come back, we'll continueyour story here on Veterans Chronicles. We're
talking with US Army veteran Lockered BudGaz, veteran of the forty second Infantry
Division in World War Two. I'mGreg Corrumbus, and we'll be right back.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm GregCorumbus. I honor to be joined
(09:45):
today by Lockered Bud Gass. Heis a US Army veteran of World War
two forty second Infantry Division known asthe Rainbow, which will explain in a
little bit. But just as aconclusion to our story about the fight at
the house, you were awarded theBronze Star with valor. How did you
find out that you were going toreceive that? I guess it was about
(10:07):
a week later one of the othergentlemen, in fact, that our leader,
second lieutenant leader earned that and Iearned. He was in one house
and I was in another half.And I learned then that I was to
receive some I didn't know what butunfortunately, I was really feeling bad that
(10:31):
day for some reason. I didn'tgo, but he went and he was
awarded a silver star. What doesit mean to you to have a bronze
star for your actions? It meansa lot. At least it said I
did my duty at the right time. Now the Rainbow, the forty second
Infantry was also attacked by Germany aspart of its Operation north Wind explained what
(10:54):
that meant, what they were tryingto accomplish, and how you responded to
it. Okay, the Balls wasat a standstill at Baston. Bastone had
stopped had at least had did somethingto stop that advance. So they were
to standstill. And I understand theHitler. This was Hitler's idea alone,
(11:20):
which I just learned in the lastfew years. And he figured on going
underneath the balls and coming up onthe other side with some sharp troops.
So he put his sharpest he hadin that, and a great number of
them were ss and who who werethugs? There were nothing but thugs.
(11:46):
They really in many cases they weren'treal smart guys, but they were just
rough eel and I ran into himlater and had a little experience with him
later to learn more about them,which I figured ended up calling them thugs.
(12:11):
That's what we call foreshadowing, bud. So we're gonna talk about that
in a little bit. So howdid that engage? How did that combat
commence? It was just a constantshooting out the window and them shooting at
us most of the day. Therewere some laws. We ran a low
on ammunition, so we had aback off a little bit, and another
(12:39):
gentleman and I planned on trying tosee he was He was a German descent
and he knew German in the languagepretty well, so we knew they were
out there, but they did movearound some. So he and I were
going to trying to sneak out andget through the lines at night. We
(13:01):
had sort of planned that, butwe didn't have to fall through that thing,
having though, and and we woulddepend on his German to guess get
us through. I don't know what, but it was to be refined idea.
We really didn't know what was goingon around us. How do you
(13:22):
know? You know? We hadour own little fight, and up the
street was some of our own companydoing the same thing, a little bigger
contingent. They beat him back alltogether. At one time we had a
smaller contingent of maybe eight guys,seven or eight guys. They had maybe
(13:48):
twelve. How close it was thefighting right here about a little more than
I'd say about three hundred feet andtwo locate is maybe before her feet.
One thing I've heard a lot inmy interviews this week is how well American
forces did despite being outnumbered. TheGermans had a whole company. Oh here
(14:13):
we go again, this is badlyoutnumbered. Yeah, yeah, that's why.
I don't think it was stated toomuch. But I think most of
the guys that give it up altogether, will we realize the numbers, and
that does something to release your fear. You know, no, we're never
going to get out of this thing. So somehow another set you free.
(14:37):
Take more chances. You're going toget it in. Yeah, so might
as well through everything you can.Yes, And so as you started to
succeed against these overwhelming odds, howdid that change your mindset and what you
thought you could accomplish? It wascertainly encouraging. I had a plan that
(14:58):
they should have had. They shouldhave set the house on fire and the
basement because they got in not inthe basement, of it in the first
floor. They got into the firstfloor and fired up to the floor.
That was a little hairy because bulletscome around through. How did you respond
to that? Don't move otherwise theycould hear you. Yeah, they hear
(15:20):
where you were. Nothing last long. But it was an idea. But
if I were them, I wouldhave set the whole first floor on fire
smoked us out. Now you mentionedthat this is the SS you're dealing with.
How are the SS different as fightersthan the regular? Very mocked They
just the regular probably becomes like wewere. They were drafted or made to
(15:50):
fight. We weren't ready to fight. I could have gotten out of fighting,
I suppose, But they were notnot professionals, and the SS especially
train but in order to get atypical good SS um they had to come
(16:12):
from pretty tough stock. I wouldthink, Yeah, they're tougher men.
Now, the SS is mainly knownfor harassing innocent people. Usually they're rounding
people up, or they're terrorizing peoplewho really couldn't fight back. Yeah,
they had got a gay a littlebit extra fun out of that. It
(16:33):
seems like they struggled once somebody whowas equal to their firepower or better could
could return it. I don't knowabout that. They they just just for
dumb fighters. Some ssor hear thatand do way with me. But they
were thugs, so whenever you weredefinition of thugs are pretty well, that's
(16:57):
them. Didn't have too much unchand I had one later on after a
couple of months later, we wereguarding railroad terminal that they were bringing wood
in and the ass were put andwe're put to stalling this wood up for
the civilians because this was after thewar, and we were chosen to watch
(17:23):
them, and our orders were toshoot to kill. You don't get that
very often, so if they startedrunning away, if we kill them,
there was no question. So that'sa little out of the ordinary. It
gives you a little idea what otherpeople thought of Bud. We're gonna pause
(17:44):
one more time. We'll come rightback and talk about the rest of your
story right here on Veterans Chronicles.Our guest is Lockered Bud Gas. He
is a US Army veteran of WorldWar two forty second infantry division called the
Rainbow. I'm Greg Corumbus Veterans Chronicles. We'll be right back. This is
Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus honoredto be joined today by Lockered bud Gas,
(18:06):
the US Army veteran of World WarTwo, and the forty second Infantry
Division known as the Rainbow and budTowards the end of the war, you
took part in the liberation of Dakaoconcentration Camp. Tell us about coming into
Dacao and coming to realize what washappening there. Okay, I was maybe
(18:27):
an hour about at least in anhour after the first of our troops entered
or discovered it, and they hadsomewhat of a fight the first people.
We didn't have any fight with him. In fact, we were surplus.
Daka is only nine miles north ofMunich. The overall idea was to capture
(18:52):
Munich before the Germans would start kickingup, so the big drive was to
get there in a hurry. Sothey sent us our company, our anti
tank company on the road to Munich. But first before that, they told
(19:12):
me to take my squ out andwe'll go through the woods which has ran
alongside of the camp, because theythought the guards were putting on the guard
of the prisoners and trying to escape. So our our plan was to clear
that woods. That's that's what theytold. So we're walking through and all
(19:36):
of a sudden the bushes start shaking, and here comes these these guys with
the stripes. Well, of coursewe were ready to shoot them, but
we saw they were pretty skinny andemasculated, and we believed that they were
inmates and not guards. And onecame over to me and hugged me all
up. And here he's all fullof sores and and skinnymall bones. They
(20:03):
were really so wonderfully grateful that wewere there. And one of them dropped
down and kissed my boots, andthat brought a tear to my eye.
That's pretty hard to take. Wereyou aware of what the Germans, that
they even had these camps and whatthey were doing there? No, no,
(20:26):
not before we found that only orSon. We went on to many.
How shocked were you? You musthave been completely shocked if you had
no previous knowledge of this. Yes, I really didn't get to see the
whole camp right off. I couldkind of see in there, and I
saw bonnies and so forth. Butsince they were already they didn't need us.
(20:48):
You just kept moving along. Yeah, So they sent us on to
get too many and what happened whenyou got to Munich. Well, I
got the honor of, I think, driving the first truck into the middle
of Munich, which is the Roighthouse, which is the government building. If
you've ever been there, you've everbeen there. The Marian plazas, that
(21:11):
big concrete plaza in front where allthe figures from the clock are, and
they weren't there of course. Anyway, I was the first truck to drive
up there. Of course we didn'tknow what was there. And that's a
little touchy when you just take offand drive someplace because you're really not ready
(21:34):
for a fight. You know,you're in a truck and you're good targets.
But that all came out very peaceful. There were other trucks that came
and other troops that came right behindus, and we went into the offices
there. They were full of Germanarmy officers offices, and we brought the
(21:56):
officers out and still to watch andtheir lovers so forth, and they were
peaceful. They do was all.So it wasn't any action there. Now,
the liberation of Dakaut happened in lateApril, and so Munich was a
little bit after that, and sowe're getting very close to the end of
(22:18):
the war in Europe. Was Munichyour last action or was there a little?
Essentially and that wasn't much, whichwasn't bad today, which brings us
to the explanation of why your divisionis known as the rainbow. Oh,
rainbow was in World War One.Macgonthur was his head and if you can
(22:41):
look on the patch, just ahalf of rainbow right. During World War
One it went all way. Wereon the other half, but they lost
half there were men, so theycut the patch in here. They have
a They had a really big reputationthat we were supposed to match. That's
a good thing, but they didhave a great reputation and the author did
(23:07):
well. It was interesting though,because I saw, I think it was
in studying for your interview that ifyou look at the path that your division
took, yeah, it was,it looks like a rainbow. Unintentional I'm
sure, Well, I don't know. Our rainbow bosses and in generals were
(23:27):
pretty rainbowish. I've also this isnot actually a story about you, but
I've heard that you've told a storyabout a fellow soldier named James Hickey,
Yes, who on the one hand, was a very bad at predicting his
own future. Go ahead and tellokay, he was in my squad.
(23:48):
And when the Germans came, Iwasn't with my squad. I was with
another squad, but the house wherewe were staying, and I had just
left. Suddenly they realized that therewere Germans in the kitchen. So and
and when I left, I wasat last home watched I woke somebody up,
(24:11):
and they've as as it happened manytimes, they fell back to sleep.
So they had no warning. Sothey all ran and jumped out the
front window, except Hickey, whowas an old man of about thirty two
or thirty four years old with threekids. He went in to see what
(24:32):
was going on in the kitchen,and of course they had him right there.
So they had, let's call hima good German and a bad German.
The good German wanted to keep himalive, of the bad German wanted
to do with him away, runright away, because they had no way
of handling. But finally the goodGerman prevailed and they left and they were
(24:53):
running back to their to their lines, and they were running across the field
and the show hit. He killedthe bad Germans. Okay, we got
him out of the way. Sothe good Germans said to Hicky, he
gave him his He gave me hispistol. He said, we don't know
who's in those woods by now,so if there's Germans, I'll take my
(25:14):
rifle and take you prisoner. Ifthey're Americans, you take me prisoner,
depending on who's in there. Sothat worked out pretty good for Hicky,
but it didn't work out that greatfor the good German. No, it
didn't either. He was he waseventually killed or killed right after that,
so both the Germans were killed.He said Hickey rolled in a into a
(25:37):
ditch in the tank kind of almostrun right over him, but he survived.
And Hickey was had a personality ofhis own. He was always an
up guy and good to be with, and when he was had had had
a close when his voice would alwaysgo up real high. So we knew
(26:02):
when Hickey was was having a littletrouble with things. Better watch. How
did you find out the war wasover? Oh? I think it was
in the air. You know.Here we were. We were maybe I
don't know, ten miles south eastof a Munich on a farm, so
(26:22):
it was kind of in the air. We had no no action after MUNI
really till Mountain anything. And actuallywe knew it had to come to an
end sometime and everybody an So youweren't surprised at all. No, not
really. Well, but we're justabout out of time. But as I
(26:44):
always like to conclude our interviews,given your tremendous service to our country,
what would you say you're most proudof from your time in the military.
Oh, gosh, I guess um, I was proud of them away,
every everybody acted under pressure would beone thing I'd be proud in my group,
(27:04):
and I think it was generally true. I was. I was proud
of the general soldier over there.They married, many married men didn't behave
but most of them did, believeit or not, and the other guys
were well behaved. I think proudof the American Army at that time.
(27:26):
So I guess that would be answerto that question. Well, Bud,
it's been a pleasure to meet you, and I thank you for your time
today, and I thank you mostof all for your service. Well,
thank you very much. Lockard budGas is a US Army veteran of World
War Two. Veteran of the fortysecond Infantry Division known as the Rainbow.
(27:48):
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is VeteransChronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center.
For more information, please visit AmericanVeterans Center dot org. You can
(28:12):
also follow the American Veterans Center onFacebook and on Twitter. We're at AVC
update. Subscribe to the American VeteransCenter YouTube channel for full oral histories and
special features, and of course,please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever
you get your podcasts. Thanks againfor listening and please join us next time
(28:34):
for Veterans Chronicles
Welcome to Veterans Chronicles. I'm GregCorumbus. Our guest in this edition is
Lockard bud Gas. He is aUS Army veteran of World War Two.
He served in the forty second InfantryDivision, often called the Rainbow and Bud
thanks so much for being with us. Thank you. Where were you born
and raised? Sir? In Marylandand Baltimore, Baltimore suburbs and raised there.
(00:36):
What's your memory of the attack onPearl Harbor? How did you hear
that news? I can remember exactlywhere I was, I guess everybody else
and what was shocking? Things wereleading up You could feel the tustiness for
some reason. And then when thathappened, why we knew we were in
(01:00):
World War Two? Did you jointhe US Army? Did you? And
Leicester? Were you drafted? No? I wasted? Okay? Where did
you do your training? Camp Creuberand Fort Raleigh, Kansas? Fort Raleigh,
Kansas. First in the cavalry andthen next was in STP. I
(01:25):
was in the a STP for eightmonths and then they broke that up and
we became infantrymen in Camp Ruber,Oklahoma. And when did the forty second
Division get deployed to Europe November fortyfour. We arrived I think the end
(01:45):
of November in France, Marseille.And where did they put you into the
fight? First we started in thearea of Strasbourg. We landed at Marseilles,
drove our own trucks up to theStrasbourg area area, and all the
fight was happening in the north ofStrasbourg and Alsize, So that's where I
(02:07):
think the first duty I was onwas in Strasbourg, just patrolling the city,
and we were there for Christmas.Where was your first combat experience?
Was it around that area? Actually, we went north for quite a distance.
It scares me when I realized howfar north we were, and the
(02:31):
lines were very drawn, very loosely, because neither the Germans or we had
very many men. So we werefacing each other with very few men,
and both sides were afraid the otherwas going to attack, and both sides
would be in a very weak position. So nobody attacked, which was good,
(02:53):
and then we had to draw back. I guess the powers that do
decided we should grow back about twentymiles and the excuse was to straighten the
lines, but it was we wereso so loosely put and we ended up
still loosely had didn't have very mintedat all, but much better shape than
(03:16):
at first. What was your firstcombat experience like and was it different than
what you expected it to be.No, we were attacked by a company
of two hundred men. Some aress some there's a bicycle parachute battalion,
(03:38):
and there was snow. We spottedthem. I drove a truck. I
drove a truck that pulled the ourand a tank gun which was a fifty
seven millimeter and it was a rightbig powerful gun. It took a crew
(03:58):
of ten, and of course theydidn't have the gun on. But I
was detailed to to go back tothe back, and everyone's well to go
back for ammunition or food or something, and I was to go back.
And I went out from my truckand I shall had hit and had given
me three flat tires. So Ididn't want to drive that. We had
(04:23):
maybe a foot of snow six inchesto a foot of snow on the ground,
and they were big, big balloontires, and so I walked about
a block to get another truck withanother my friend, another driver, and
I looked up and there they werecoming out of the woods, and that
(04:47):
part of town was only our platoon, which was actually a little more than
two squads. Said squad's supposed tobe ten men, but I think we
were down to eight or seven oreight. He generally always are not full,
and so the odds were pretty bad. So we ran to a house
(05:12):
which seemed to be the only twostory house in the area. Had a
lot of one story houses, andso right away we ran up stairs and
fourth from upstairs. So that wasour first experience of real contact. What's
that like in that close quarters,little little tight The only thing about it
(05:34):
was the only place to be,was the best place to be at the
time. So we made pretty gooddecisions there, and it proved out to
be pretty good. We lost oneman right off, but then the rest
of us did well survived. Whatdid you do tactically? Obviously you're in
a fairly confined space. So wasit just a matter of keeping the fire
(05:58):
steady against them? Were you ina specific position that gave you an advantage
in any way? I stopped atthe top of the stairs, and I
knew eventually they'd be throwing grenades upthe stairs or coming in, and they
started coming in, so I hadwhat we called a grease gun. I
(06:19):
stopped them there, and the othermen worked from the windows and had some
had quite some experiences. One ofmy friends was threw a grenade out the
window and the grenade has seven seventyaccount of seven seconds, I suppose,
which tom. I asked them,it is too long, and it should
(06:44):
be more like four or five,because after you let go of the hamlet
makes it a pop. And hejust popped it and threw it out,
and they threw it right back upin the window and fortunately landed on a
bed and it was one of thosefeather beds, and it went off and
(07:10):
he dropped to the floor. Heknew it was coming, He had presence
of mind. Has dropped the floorbecause Greig goes canary goes up and he
didn't get hurt, but it wasfeathers all over the place. But it
was the right thing to do.So from then on we knew if we
dropped a canade, just to tailorit to the situation, which we should
(07:35):
have talked. Been taught that intraining. I was a little upset about
that because seven seconds is a longtime. It's a long time, especially
if you're in fairly close quarters therea number of yards away. It's a
little better, but yeah, youdon't want him to have time to throw
it back. So were you woundedit all in that No? No,
(07:55):
no, he had one of wheremen was firing out to win though,
and he had gotten up just beforeme and I got up there, and
I saw he was practically in themoon that I and I said better get
out of the window. And atthat point he just they shot him,
(08:15):
shot him in the head. So, but no one else had any real
bad wounds. You know, Iain't got splinters or something, but nobody
really shot. What did you learnabout yourself that day? Learned to think
fast, I guess, fast ashe can. That's about it. Do
(08:39):
you felt like that prepared you forthe rest of the deployment? Well,
yes, I suppose it did.Actually, we were so outnumbered, I
think all of us kind of gaveup on ever coming out of the live,
which may have been a good thing. And so the general consensus of
(09:03):
opinion was, will get as manyof them as before they get us.
So I guess we gave you up. And you know that turned out to
be positive, And said of nativeso and take the fear away probably makes
you a little more aggressive too.Oh yes, yes, But we're gonna
(09:24):
pause for just a moment. We'regonna go to a quick break, and
when we come back, we'll continueyour story here on Veterans Chronicles. We're
talking with US Army veteran Lockered BudGaz, veteran of the forty second Infantry
Division in World War Two. I'mGreg Corrumbus, and we'll be right back.
This is Veterans Chronicles. I'm GregCorumbus. I honor to be joined
(09:45):
today by Lockered Bud Gass. Heis a US Army veteran of World War
two forty second Infantry Division known asthe Rainbow, which will explain in a
little bit. But just as aconclusion to our story about the fight at
the house, you were awarded theBronze Star with valor. How did you
find out that you were going toreceive that? I guess it was about
(10:07):
a week later one of the othergentlemen, in fact, that our leader,
second lieutenant leader earned that and Iearned. He was in one house
and I was in another half.And I learned then that I was to
receive some I didn't know what butunfortunately, I was really feeling bad that
(10:31):
day for some reason. I didn'tgo, but he went and he was
awarded a silver star. What doesit mean to you to have a bronze
star for your actions? It meansa lot. At least it said I
did my duty at the right time. Now the Rainbow, the forty second
Infantry was also attacked by Germany aspart of its Operation north Wind explained what
(10:54):
that meant, what they were tryingto accomplish, and how you responded to
it. Okay, the Balls wasat a standstill at Baston. Bastone had
stopped had at least had did somethingto stop that advance. So they were
to standstill. And I understand theHitler. This was Hitler's idea alone,
(11:20):
which I just learned in the lastfew years. And he figured on going
underneath the balls and coming up onthe other side with some sharp troops.
So he put his sharpest he hadin that, and a great number of
them were ss and who who werethugs? There were nothing but thugs.
(11:46):
They really in many cases they weren'treal smart guys, but they were just
rough eel and I ran into himlater and had a little experience with him
later to learn more about them,which I figured ended up calling them thugs.
(12:11):
That's what we call foreshadowing, bud. So we're gonna talk about that
in a little bit. So howdid that engage? How did that combat
commence? It was just a constantshooting out the window and them shooting at
us most of the day. Therewere some laws. We ran a low
on ammunition, so we had aback off a little bit, and another
(12:39):
gentleman and I planned on trying tosee he was He was a German descent
and he knew German in the languagepretty well, so we knew they were
out there, but they did movearound some. So he and I were
going to trying to sneak out andget through the lines at night. We
(13:01):
had sort of planned that, butwe didn't have to fall through that thing,
having though, and and we woulddepend on his German to guess get
us through. I don't know what, but it was to be refined idea.
We really didn't know what was goingon around us. How do you
(13:22):
know? You know? We hadour own little fight, and up the
street was some of our own companydoing the same thing, a little bigger
contingent. They beat him back alltogether. At one time we had a
smaller contingent of maybe eight guys,seven or eight guys. They had maybe
(13:48):
twelve. How close it was thefighting right here about a little more than
I'd say about three hundred feet andtwo locate is maybe before her feet.
One thing I've heard a lot inmy interviews this week is how well American
forces did despite being outnumbered. TheGermans had a whole company. Oh here
(14:13):
we go again, this is badlyoutnumbered. Yeah, yeah, that's why.
I don't think it was stated toomuch. But I think most of
the guys that give it up altogether, will we realize the numbers, and
that does something to release your fear. You know, no, we're never
going to get out of this thing. So somehow another set you free.
(14:37):
Take more chances. You're going toget it in. Yeah, so might
as well through everything you can.Yes, And so as you started to
succeed against these overwhelming odds, howdid that change your mindset and what you
thought you could accomplish? It wascertainly encouraging. I had a plan that
(14:58):
they should have had. They shouldhave set the house on fire and the
basement because they got in not inthe basement, of it in the first
floor. They got into the firstfloor and fired up to the floor.
That was a little hairy because bulletscome around through. How did you respond
to that? Don't move otherwise theycould hear you. Yeah, they hear
(15:20):
where you were. Nothing last long. But it was an idea. But
if I were them, I wouldhave set the whole first floor on fire
smoked us out. Now you mentionedthat this is the SS you're dealing with.
How are the SS different as fightersthan the regular? Very mocked They
just the regular probably becomes like wewere. They were drafted or made to
(15:50):
fight. We weren't ready to fight. I could have gotten out of fighting,
I suppose, But they were notnot professionals, and the SS especially
train but in order to get atypical good SS um they had to come
(16:12):
from pretty tough stock. I wouldthink, Yeah, they're tougher men.
Now, the SS is mainly knownfor harassing innocent people. Usually they're rounding
people up, or they're terrorizing peoplewho really couldn't fight back. Yeah,
they had got a gay a littlebit extra fun out of that. It
(16:33):
seems like they struggled once somebody whowas equal to their firepower or better could
could return it. I don't knowabout that. They they just just for
dumb fighters. Some ssor hear thatand do way with me. But they
were thugs, so whenever you weredefinition of thugs are pretty well, that's
(16:57):
them. Didn't have too much unchand I had one later on after a
couple of months later, we wereguarding railroad terminal that they were bringing wood
in and the ass were put andwe're put to stalling this wood up for
the civilians because this was after thewar, and we were chosen to watch
(17:23):
them, and our orders were toshoot to kill. You don't get that
very often, so if they startedrunning away, if we kill them,
there was no question. So that'sa little out of the ordinary. It
gives you a little idea what otherpeople thought of Bud. We're gonna pause
(17:44):
one more time. We'll come rightback and talk about the rest of your
story right here on Veterans Chronicles.Our guest is Lockered Bud Gas. He
is a US Army veteran of WorldWar two forty second infantry division called the
Rainbow. I'm Greg Corumbus Veterans Chronicles. We'll be right back. This is
Veterans Chronicles. I'm Greg Corumbus honoredto be joined today by Lockered bud Gas,
(18:06):
the US Army veteran of World WarTwo, and the forty second Infantry
Division known as the Rainbow and budTowards the end of the war, you
took part in the liberation of Dakaoconcentration Camp. Tell us about coming into
Dacao and coming to realize what washappening there. Okay, I was maybe
(18:27):
an hour about at least in anhour after the first of our troops entered
or discovered it, and they hadsomewhat of a fight the first people.
We didn't have any fight with him. In fact, we were surplus.
Daka is only nine miles north ofMunich. The overall idea was to capture
(18:52):
Munich before the Germans would start kickingup, so the big drive was to
get there in a hurry. Sothey sent us our company, our anti
tank company on the road to Munich. But first before that, they told
(19:12):
me to take my squ out andwe'll go through the woods which has ran
alongside of the camp, because theythought the guards were putting on the guard
of the prisoners and trying to escape. So our our plan was to clear
that woods. That's that's what theytold. So we're walking through and all
(19:36):
of a sudden the bushes start shaking, and here comes these these guys with
the stripes. Well, of coursewe were ready to shoot them, but
we saw they were pretty skinny andemasculated, and we believed that they were
inmates and not guards. And onecame over to me and hugged me all
up. And here he's all fullof sores and and skinnymall bones. They
(20:03):
were really so wonderfully grateful that wewere there. And one of them dropped
down and kissed my boots, andthat brought a tear to my eye.
That's pretty hard to take. Wereyou aware of what the Germans, that
they even had these camps and whatthey were doing there? No, no,
(20:26):
not before we found that only orSon. We went on to many.
How shocked were you? You musthave been completely shocked if you had
no previous knowledge of this. Yes, I really didn't get to see the
whole camp right off. I couldkind of see in there, and I
saw bonnies and so forth. Butsince they were already they didn't need us.
(20:48):
You just kept moving along. Yeah, So they sent us on to
get too many and what happened whenyou got to Munich. Well, I
got the honor of, I think, driving the first truck into the middle
of Munich, which is the Roighthouse, which is the government building. If
you've ever been there, you've everbeen there. The Marian plazas, that
(21:11):
big concrete plaza in front where allthe figures from the clock are, and
they weren't there of course. Anyway, I was the first truck to drive
up there. Of course we didn'tknow what was there. And that's a
little touchy when you just take offand drive someplace because you're really not ready
(21:34):
for a fight. You know,you're in a truck and you're good targets.
But that all came out very peaceful. There were other trucks that came
and other troops that came right behindus, and we went into the offices
there. They were full of Germanarmy officers offices, and we brought the
(21:56):
officers out and still to watch andtheir lovers so forth, and they were
peaceful. They do was all.So it wasn't any action there. Now,
the liberation of Dakaut happened in lateApril, and so Munich was a
little bit after that, and sowe're getting very close to the end of
(22:18):
the war in Europe. Was Munichyour last action or was there a little?
Essentially and that wasn't much, whichwasn't bad today, which brings us
to the explanation of why your divisionis known as the rainbow. Oh,
rainbow was in World War One.Macgonthur was his head and if you can
(22:41):
look on the patch, just ahalf of rainbow right. During World War
One it went all way. Wereon the other half, but they lost
half there were men, so theycut the patch in here. They have
a They had a really big reputationthat we were supposed to match. That's
a good thing, but they didhave a great reputation and the author did
(23:07):
well. It was interesting though,because I saw, I think it was
in studying for your interview that ifyou look at the path that your division
took, yeah, it was,it looks like a rainbow. Unintentional I'm
sure, Well, I don't know. Our rainbow bosses and in generals were
(23:27):
pretty rainbowish. I've also this isnot actually a story about you, but
I've heard that you've told a storyabout a fellow soldier named James Hickey,
Yes, who on the one hand, was a very bad at predicting his
own future. Go ahead and tellokay, he was in my squad.
(23:48):
And when the Germans came, Iwasn't with my squad. I was with
another squad, but the house wherewe were staying, and I had just
left. Suddenly they realized that therewere Germans in the kitchen. So and
and when I left, I wasat last home watched I woke somebody up,
(24:11):
and they've as as it happened manytimes, they fell back to sleep.
So they had no warning. Sothey all ran and jumped out the
front window, except Hickey, whowas an old man of about thirty two
or thirty four years old with threekids. He went in to see what
(24:32):
was going on in the kitchen,and of course they had him right there.
So they had, let's call hima good German and a bad German.
The good German wanted to keep himalive, of the bad German wanted
to do with him away, runright away, because they had no way
of handling. But finally the goodGerman prevailed and they left and they were
(24:53):
running back to their to their lines, and they were running across the field
and the show hit. He killedthe bad Germans. Okay, we got
him out of the way. Sothe good Germans said to Hicky, he
gave him his He gave me hispistol. He said, we don't know
who's in those woods by now,so if there's Germans, I'll take my
(25:14):
rifle and take you prisoner. Ifthey're Americans, you take me prisoner,
depending on who's in there. Sothat worked out pretty good for Hicky,
but it didn't work out that greatfor the good German. No, it
didn't either. He was he waseventually killed or killed right after that,
so both the Germans were killed.He said Hickey rolled in a into a
(25:37):
ditch in the tank kind of almostrun right over him, but he survived.
And Hickey was had a personality ofhis own. He was always an
up guy and good to be with, and when he was had had had
a close when his voice would alwaysgo up real high. So we knew
(26:02):
when Hickey was was having a littletrouble with things. Better watch. How
did you find out the war wasover? Oh? I think it was
in the air. You know.Here we were. We were maybe I
don't know, ten miles south eastof a Munich on a farm, so
(26:22):
it was kind of in the air. We had no no action after MUNI
really till Mountain anything. And actuallywe knew it had to come to an
end sometime and everybody an So youweren't surprised at all. No, not
really. Well, but we're justabout out of time. But as I
(26:44):
always like to conclude our interviews,given your tremendous service to our country,
what would you say you're most proudof from your time in the military.
Oh, gosh, I guess um, I was proud of them away,
every everybody acted under pressure would beone thing I'd be proud in my group,
(27:04):
and I think it was generally true. I was. I was proud
of the general soldier over there.They married, many married men didn't behave
but most of them did, believeit or not, and the other guys
were well behaved. I think proudof the American Army at that time.
(27:26):
So I guess that would be answerto that question. Well, Bud,
it's been a pleasure to meet you, and I thank you for your time
today, and I thank you mostof all for your service. Well,
thank you very much. Lockard budGas is a US Army veteran of World
War Two. Veteran of the fortysecond Infantry Division known as the Rainbow.
(27:48):
I'm Greg Corumbus and this is VeteransChronicles. Hi, this is Greg Corumbus
and thanks for listening to Veterans Chronicles, a presentation of the American Veterans Center.
For more information, please visit AmericanVeterans Center dot org. You can
(28:12):
also follow the American Veterans Center onFacebook and on Twitter. We're at AVC
update. Subscribe to the American VeteransCenter YouTube channel for full oral histories and
special features, and of course,please subscribe to the Veterans Chronicles podcast wherever
you get your podcasts. Thanks againfor listening and please join us next time
(28:34):
for Veterans Chronicles
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