WILLIAM EDISON PADGETT

World War II Interview


By: Kimsey M. "Mac" Fowler

Typed By: Jimmie B. Fowler



William Edison Padgett

970 Marley-Cannon Road

Dublin, GA 31021

25 October 2000



On December 7, 1941, I was over here in a cow pasture playing baseball when I got the news of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Of course, that was a long way from home and I didn't give it a whole lot of thought. But it is a day that has stuck with me throughout my life. I had only a vague idea where Pearl Harbor was and it didn't have any significance to me.



I was working with my family on the farm. Pearl Harbor was the big news for a long time. The way things were going, I knew that I would be in line for the draft and probably have to go into service. When that time came, I went willingly. I didn't have any second thoughts about going.



Before I was drafted, I did volunteer for the Marines at the age of seventeen. I had to get my parents to sign for me to go in and they signed under the pretense that I would take training here close to home (Paris Island, S. C.). I was anxious to get in service because I was working in the peanut field. It was hot and dry and I wanted to do anything to get out of the peanut field.



A friend of mine and I went to volunteer for the Marines and I talked my parents into signing. I found out a day or so later that I would not be going to Paris Island, South Carolina but San Diego, California instead. I didn't volunteer that information to my mom and dad but my sister told them the night before I was to ship out the next day. My mother put a stop to that! There went my Marine career and back to the peanut field!



I knew it would be a matter of time but in the meantime I got married and then the draft got me when I was nineteen. I was like everyone else; I wanted a deferment and did get one for six months. When the six months was up, I was offered another six months but I turned that one down and said, "If I have got to go, I got to go!" I took off and was inducted at Fort McPherson, Georgia. They sent me to Camp Shelby, Mississippi for basic training. After basic training we did a period of maneuvers up in Tennessee for two or three months. I was assigned to the 2756th Combat Engineering Company. By November, I was in Camp Kilmer, New Jersey preparing to go overseas. I don't remember the date we shipped out but we arrived in England on November 11, 1944. I don't know why they sent us to England but they did. On Christmas Eve night we shipped out across the English Channel and Christmas Day, the ship that I was on went up the Seine River to unload the trucks and supplies. The rest of my BN got off at Le Havre, France. I had Christmas Day lunch out of a tin can aboard ship.



We began to move across France and went to Belgium. All the fighting was ahead of us. At this time, about half of my Company including me transferred to the 44th Combat Engineers. We were right behind the front line in Belgium. Our main task was to build bridges and keep roads open, etc. instead of combat. Everybody knows about the "Battle of the Bulge". We were in Bastogne, Belgium.



As we were approaching Bastogne, the ground was covered with snow. It looked like any other innocent place that you might be. You could see where a lot of damage was done to the trees, homes, and buildings. But as the snow melted, it appeared as though none of the casualties had been moved. Where they died they were still there. Part of our duty was if we saw a body anywhere to drag it to the edge of the road so it could be picked up. It is unbelievable how many it might have been. Actually in processing these casualties, I went to a point where they were collecting them. They came in by truckloads and were still frozen.



They had them stacked like cordwood. It was an unbelievable sight. Later on, I did see some first hand combat but I'm a lucky man that I am here today. I got back home without a scratch.



We left Belgium and went back into Germany and went to the Moselle River. We made an assault landing across the Moselle.

We put the infantry across that river in boats. The Germans were across on the other bank because we had to do all this under artillery fire trying to move them back so they could get off the boats and be safe. Then we moved to the Rhein River. According to my information, my outfit put the first bridge across the Rhein River and this took place during the time that Patton supposedly swam the Rhein River down at Cologne, Germany. We were up above where this was taking place. We got the word the next day or so about Patton's famous swim.



After we put this equipment across the river, this bridge was left intact.

A lot of troops and equipment used this bridge after us.

I saw my closest combat from then on for the next two or three weeks. This was in the area of Koblenz, Germany. I saw a lot of casualties, we lost some men. Apparently, the German soldier's moral was getting low; they were getting pretty disorganized. I was involved in unarming a BN of German soldiers that was right on our heels. They gave up and sent us word that they were willing to surrender. About fifteen men went out and disarmed the entire BN of German soldiers. They had their arms stacked when we got there waiting on us. They could have killed us all, but by this time, they realized they had lost the war.



I heard the reason our 3rd Army (Patton's Army) took such a beating they got low on fuel and they were pinned down. As soon as they got fuel they were on the move again. Patton was known for moving real fast. A little story that I heard was that one day someone walked up to General Eisenhower and asked "where's Patton?" Ike's reply was "I don't know, I haven't heard from him in thirty minutes." They called Patton "Blood and guts".



I was not involved in liberating any consecration camps. After the war, we traveled around Germany a good bit. I went through Nurnberg and into Czechoslovakia in a convoy. We moved pretty fast, too.



We had heard rumors that the war was over but it took two or three days to get the official word. We remained hopeful but in doubt that it was so. I had kept a diary all through my service time and as soon as the war was over, I was unfortunate to have to go to the hospital because my feet had gotten frozen. They sent me to Oldenburg, Germany and flew me to Paris, France to the hospital for thirty days.

It took about two or three weeks to get back to my outfit. They had moved to Marseille, France (a sea port town). We traveled all over Germany and France trying to catch up with them. I finally got back with my outfit. I had left all my personal belongings with my Company when I went to the hospital and it got lost. All I had was what I had on. I never did see them again. So my diary was gone! That was disappointing.



I came back through Camp Kilmer, New Jersey to Fort Bragg, North Carolina to be discharged.



I left North Carolina one afternoon and got to Augusta, Georgia about nine o'clock. I checked the bus schedules and the next buses heading toward Dublin was the next day, so I negotiated with a taxi driver to bring me to Dublin. I didn't stay in Augusta long, the taxi driver and I came to Dublin!



All this time, I made up my mind that I didn't know what my career might be but I knew what it wasn't going to be. It would not be farming! I let that be known. I stayed around here about twelve months and then got a job in Macon at Georgia Kraft Company and retired in 1986 after thirty-eight years.



I bought my parent's farm in 1970 and in 1986, I moved back on the farm. I have cattle but no row cropping.

My parents were Lucian McNatt Padgett and Anna Mae Couey Padgett. I have one son, Mark T. Padgett. I lost a daughter, Vickie Lynn in 1972 when she was six and one half years old.



I have no grandchildren.



Note: Mr. Padgett was able to ship back two rifles at the end of the war. One was an Italian Rifle with a bayonet on it and the other was a 22 caliber German Rifle. Mr. Padgett understood that the 22 is what the German youth were trained with.