727th Railway Operating Battalion- Lewis

War: World War II, 1939-1946 Branch: Army Unit: 727th Railway Operating Battalion Service Location: North Africa; Italy; France; Germany Rank: Private First Class Place of Birth: Benton, TN

Interview with Herschel M. Lewis [3/27/2002]

Lynda J. Lewis: My name is Lynda J. Lewis. I'm going to be interviewing my father, Herschel M. Lewis, at his home at 1414 Ridgeway Circle in Athens, Tennessee. Today's date is Wednesday, March 27, 2002. We're the only two people present at the current time for this interview. My father was a member of the U.S. Army Military Railway Service during World War II. Daddy, what branch of the service did you serve in? Herschel M. Lewis: The 727th Railway Operating Battalion Company C. Lynda J. Lewis: And what war was this? Herschel M. Lewis: World War II. Lynda J. Lewis: And what was your rank? Herschel M. Lewis: PFC. Lynda J. Lewis: And where did you actually serve?

Herschel M. Lewis: North Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, and Germany. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, were you drafted or did you enlist? Herschel M. Lewis: I was drafted. Lynda J. Lewis: Where were you living at the time? Herschel M. Lewis: Etowah, Tennessee. Lynda J. Lewis: What were you doing for a living at the time? Herschel M. Lewis: Working on the L and N Railroad as a brakeman. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, did you get to pick the service branch that you joined? Herschel M. Lewis: No. The senator from New York have got a bill passed shortly after Pearl Harbor that all railroad men would be put in railroad battalions. There was also 48,200 men in railroad battalions during World War II. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, the next thing I want you to do is tell us about your first days in the service, how it felt, about your training, experience, any instructors you might remember and what you did to get through all of this. Herschel M. Lewis:

Well, I was inducted the 28th day of February. I was sworn in March 1. I stayed in Fort (?) Oglethorpe(?), Georgia where I was inducted for 28 days. I left there on a troop train and on the way to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. And at that time I said I'd never go back through Missouri again because it wasn't too great, the best training. But I've been back several times since. I -- I was in training at the 32nd Battalion at the same time our officers were in training in the 31st training battalion because all of our officers came off -- most of them came off the Southern Railroad because the 727th was a southern sponsored outfit. Our battalion commander was a first lieutenant in the reserves, graduated Virginia military institute and he was the superintendent of Birmingham division of the Southern Railroad. I'm told that he signed his orders first lieutenant to a lieutenant to the colonel. He was the battalion commander. Our commander was Captain Harold C. Moony. He was a train master in Greenville, South Carolina. All of our officers mostly were all from Southern. We had the -- we had the -- the -our battalion. The battalion had 700 and something men in the battalion and battalion and the A Company was your trackmen. B Company was your shopmen and machinist, car men, and so forth. C company was transportation. We had five -- 55 men cruising in the outfit. That's what it called for. And H and S was a dispatchers and cooks, operators, and truck divers, and so forth. And, uh, so that -- that was the makeup of the railroad battalion. Lynda J. Lewis: What about your training experience? Herschel M. Lewis: Our training experience we've taken to combat engineers training at Fort Leonard Wood. But we had -- we -- we did a -- what they've been doing in 12 weeks -- in 8 weeks and we left from the -- from county -- from Fort Leonard Wood, we went to Count Shelby, Mississippi in Hattiesburg. We worked on the Southern Railroad for our railroad experience in training. We lived in Hattiesburg at the Meridian. It was halfway between Meridian and New Orleans and it was a 202-mile division. So we worked about 100 miles each way out of that. Through the week, there was a GI crew on each train. They went out on Meridian, either north or south on the freight train, not on the passenger train. We didn't do any work on the passenger trains, but we could drive the passenger train. We had an identification badge and on the weekend if you were in New Orleans, you could ride home or ride to Hattiesburg on the southern passenger train for that identification badge and all it take to get on and ride, from the Meridian side to Hattiesburg and we stayed there oh, some time, I guess, I got there long -- early part of May and we were there November. And we left -- we left there, we went to Fort Dix -- Dix, New Jersey and we boarded the old U.S.S. Dorothy L. Dix, Pier 67, Staten Island, New York, 11th December 1942 that long voyage to Oran, North Africa. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, which war did you serve in?

Herschel M. Lewis: World War II. Lynda J. Lewis: And where exactly did you go? Herschel M. Lewis: Our first operation we landed Oran, North Africa, 26th day of December 1942. We were in Oran for a few days and we went to Tebessa, North Africa. We operated the first railroad fit full operation by American troops. We'd taken over a meter gauge railroad that ran from Oletramone (phonetic) to Tebessa on up to Sfax and Gabes. I -- I was on the crew. I was the flagman on my crew. My engineer was Claude Stomps from Brownsville, Texas off the S and P. The fireman was Johnny Marson off of Lehigh Valley and from eastern Pennsylvania. A hand brakeman was off the Southern Pacific out of Sanderson, Texas. My conductor was of the Erie Railroad in Huntington, Indiana. And we were the first railroad battalion to go overseas and take over the complete operation of the whole railroad. No -- no -- no -- including dispatchers and all. After, after the hostilities were over in North Africa, our battalion was the only battalion in Sicily. We'd taken over the whole Sicilian operation. Some places we did all Americans and some places we had the Italians work, but we -- we run there and I -- I -- when the word or when the hostility was over in Sicily, I was advanced railhead in Garbini, Sicily and may have saw the Mount Etna erupting in the summer. I was 10 miles from Mount Etna when we left Sicily. When we left Sicily, we -- we drove a truck convoy from the PBS peninsula base section, the island base section. We drove -- we drove a truck convoy for our transportation from the IBS to the PBS as the peninsula base section in Italy. We drove from Palermo, Sicily to Salerno, Italy, and they delivered the trucks to Naples. I crossed the Straights in Messina on the way to cross the Straight on an LCT, landing craft tanks, that could put six GI trucks on the Straight. And we went across Straights to Messina, which is about two miles and there's about - about two days, I guess, it was we taken this to travel that distance. We got to Palermo, there wasn't much going on on that part of the railroad down there. They sent 20 crews to Naples with a seven thirteenth, the 1st day of December, and then my outfit was moved to Naples and we'd taken over the complete operation of Naples, docks, and yard that had -- when we would leave there to go on farther north, we had 41 switch engines around the clock in the Naples docks and yards. It was some of the most heaviest work we'd ever done, I guess, it was in Naples, Italy. But Rome fell June 5, 1944. Morning of June the 6th, they called out about three crews and they didn't tell us where we were going, to just to get your stuff and be out front. We bypassed Rome and went to Civitavecchia about 40 kilometers up the coast on the Mediterranean side to Civitavecchia and we stayed there until -- well, we didn't know -- we didn't know we had a D-day in France because we went up there, there was no communication whatsoever. We went up and start cleaning up the yard from the -- from everything and we worked there and then we -- we moved on up. I was in Leghorn when they -- when the Pisa fell, but I didn't get up to the see the leaning tower and we went back from there to Rome. I stayed three days out there and we went to Rome. Went back to Naples and we shipped out of Naples

to Marseille and we landed in Marseille and we went up to Lyon, that's where our headquarters were. And we were scattered all over the south central part of France. I -- I worked as an operator. Most of the time was in Lons-le-Saunier. They had two lines coming out of Marseille up to Grenoble. The Z line coming through the mountain. We ran about three trains a day of the -- up through the mountains through the Z line. A Line went through Lyon. They run about ten trains a day through there and we -- when we left Rome or France, we went to Mannheim, Germany. Mannheim, Germany is the second largest railway center in the world. Chicago, Illinois is first and then Mannheim had a storage capacity for their yard of about 65,000 cars their size. And we -- we were still working in the -- uh, or Mannheim when hostilities were over there. In fact, we worked some, we worked all the way -- well, our first operation was from Mannheim to Heilbron, you'd go over. There was ten main lines parallel to each other going out of Mannheim toward Heidelberg, but going away from there, you couldn't get across the river because it rode up when we went out there and went a little branch line out in the country to pull in the little side track, run around the train and back up to Heilbron and that was -- that was our first operation. And then things went on and cleared up. We went all the way to -- we went into S -- ESS line GEN. It was about 10 miles beyond Stutgarter. Then we were relieved in Mannheim then. Another battalion came in, and I don't remember which one it was, but we were relieved and we started coming home on the points project. I was -- I had about 103 points and I came back and about a third of us left from Mannheim. I left -- I left Mannheim, went over to Manse, France and from there we went to Marseille on a troop train and they dropped the atom bomb in Japan some time while were in there and it slowed things down a little bit. We went on to Arles, France. From there we left on a B17 with guns taken out of it. It had 30 men and plus the crew went from there Casablanca, North Africa. Then from there, we -- well we spent the day there. We went out that night about midnight on the DC4 -- the C54. It was a four motor job. We went from there to Dakar, French West Africa. From there to the town of Brazil to Berlin, Brazil, Georgetown, British Guiana. We fueled up in each one of those places. They'd be just fueled and we left Georgetown, British Guiana the left outboard motor and went on that plane and they said we went down a thousand feet, but it had to be more than that. They -- they split us up then and put us on an old CP -- or C47, the twin motor job and from there on that we come to San Juan, Puerto Rico, fueled up in Miami, Florida. I landed in Miami the 29th day of August 1945. Went from there to Camp Atterbury, Indiana and on Saturday, we got in there Saturday night. They started processing us on Sunday. Monday afternoon, I became Mr. Herschel Lewis again. That's when the lieutenant gave me my discharge to Mr. Lewis. So that was Labor Day, September 1, 1945. I came back and went to work on the L and N Railroad and put up all 44 years on the L and N Railroad and in the Army. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, while you were in the Army and overseas in Africa and Europe, did you see combat? Herschel M. Lewis: No. I saw air raids but never, never any person-to-person combat. Lynda J. Lewis:

Were there any causalities in your unit? Herschel M. Lewis: We had some natural deaths, but not as far as I know there was no combat deaths. Lynda J. Lewis: Okay. Daddy, would you tell me a couple of your most memorable experiences. Herschel M. Lewis: Well, one of the most I guess was the first air raid. We were in Tebessa and these three fighters along midafternoon came out of -- right out over a little sharp peak from a mountain area. I guess to try to blow up the yard, the fighter planes. They dropped three bombs. Each plane dropped a bomb, but none of them did any damage. One of them was about oh, about 50 yards from their yard office, and the next was down to try to get around the house and then went in the ditch across the tracks from the -- from the round house. So it just made a hole in the ground and then the other one dropped in an Arab cemetery, so they dropped three bombs, but they didn't drop -- they didn't do any damage. But you don't ever forget even then. Lynda J. Lewis: Do you remember another one? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, another one would be the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Naples and we were in Naples in 1944 in spring when Mount Vesuvius erupted, and I guess we thought we wanted to see it happen. But after it started happening, we didn't care about seeing it anymore. But it was quite a spectacular thing and -- and it -- well, it looked -- it looked there about like your -- your atomic explosions in New Mexico and where they exploded the atomic bombs, and that's only is probably even more powerful than them bombs was, but I'm -- I'm glad I saw it. But I wouldn't care to see it again. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, were you ever a prisoner of war? Herschel M. Lewis: No, ma'am. Um, I wasn't even close to being. Well, yeah, I was too. One time when we were in North Africa, they -- they brought a truckload of German MPs during the battle of Kasserine Pass and so forth. They brought, uh, truckload of Germany MPs into Tebessa to direct traffic.

The Americans got them, instead of them getting us, but they told -- but we were sleeping on the ground in Tebessa and the sergeant of guard came around and told us to, get up put your clothes on and go back to bed. And if they fall out of the company at night, there'll be a truck down front to get in, to get you and get you away from here. And well, I've been 18 hours coming east, so I was pretty well shocked, so I guess I just laid back down and went to sleep and next thing I knew, it was daylight and I heard the mess kits rattling, coming down and I stuck my head out, and I wanted to know where them d-hinnies were at. They said, "They didn't make it last night, but they're still expecting." So the next trip we went out going back west to Oran while they told us that, "Take anything that you got that you don't want to lose. If they come on, you will not be left anywhere. We'll pick you up somewhere on the railroad if it happens. But you will not be get picked up by the Germans." So we went on through and they never did -- they never did get that. In fact, that was the last big push I guess of the Germans in North Africa and it wasn't long after that that hostilities were over there. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, while you overseas, how did you stay in touch with your family? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, U.S. mail. They passed a law and it didn't cost anything to write home. All you had to do was put U.S. Army free and your address. And we got -- we was in New York Post Office. I don't know how they ever delivered, but they done a pretty good job taking care of the mail. But that's -- that's the only way we had of keeping up with them. Lynda J. Lewis: While you were in Europe, did you get to see any of your family? Herschel M. Lewis: Yes. I had two brothers that was in -- that was in Germany when hostilities were over. My brother, just older than me, was a truck driver for the headquarters battery and the field artillery outfit. He went in to St. Lo on the invasion of the grounds. He went on the third wave of St. Lo and he drove some in the Red Ball Express there, but he was in Leipzig, Germany. He was Roy -- excuse me -- he was older than me and he was in -- he was in Leipzig, Germany in the winter of '44 there when they -- '44 or '45. Lynda J. Lewis: '44 or '45? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, he was in -- he was in Leipzig, Germany during the Battle of the Bulge, which was in the

Battle of the Bulge and that was -- that was the eastern -- in the eastern sector of the Russian part of Leipzig. So he brought us a truckload of American personnel from Leipzig to Frankfurt and when he got there, he came on down to Mannheim, spent the night with me in Mannheim. So I got to see him then, and then about three or four weeks later his outfit moved to Darmstadt right out of Mannheim, and he came in and, uh, to Mannheim, wanted me to go out and spent the night with him. And I went up and made arrangements and went out and spent the night with him. At 12:00 o'clock that day, they told him to get his stuff ready, be out in front of there at 1:00 o'clock, and he left. And he flew home the same route I did, but I was three days ahead of him coming home. So he got home about, got back in the States about well, 3rd or 4th day of September, '45 and the other brother he -- he was -- he'd gone over. He was the oldest. In fact, he passed away January of last year. He was 86 years old, but he didn't go overseas as early as we did, but we had three -- three sons -- my mother had three sons in Germany at the same time and lucky enough, we all three came home without a scratch. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, I've heard you talk about this all my life. So would you please tell us what the food was like. I know you loved it so much. Herschel M. Lewis: Well, first place I haven't ate a Vienna sausage since I left old country and I don't intend to. And years ago my wife liked to cook Spam. She was fixing up something so after long, I told her if you want Spam, you arrange to have it on the day I'm out of town because I was gone. I was gone every day and got a big laugh out of that, but I haven't eaten a piece of Spam since and I ate a few other things that they had there. I guess I'm a little peculiar about my food, but I can have pretty much have all I want now, so I don't have to eat that stuff. Lynda J. Lewis: Did you have plenty of supplies while you were over there? Herschel M. Lewis: Oh, enormous. World War II was actually a battle of production and we had the food, we had the supplies, we had everything. Is unreal how many -- how many planes and how many locomotives that we worked with -- we were -- in Europe particularly, not in Africa, we had -well, we did, we had 12 that had -- we had 12 of the meter gauge railroads and worked in Africa with and they had several of the -- oh, American locomotives and American equipment on the standard -- the standard gauge. They were still using the old General Pershing steam locomotives from World War I were still in service World War II and in Europe and they still had the American box cars down there. The European boxcars had one axle under each end, where our cars all have two axles under each end. Of course, they could haul a hell of a lot more. But they had the 40 homies.

Lynda J. Lewis: What's a homie? Herschel M. Lewis: 40 -- what did I say? 40? Yeah, 40 homies and 40 men and __++ and that's still -- that's still on there, the boxcars over there. Lynda J. Lewis: Were you under any pressure or stress during the war? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, not pressure particularly. I mean the first place I love railroad. So that made our job a lot more to do -- to be doing something that you like, even a war, makes it a lot easier than doing -well than doing what them poor infantry man done, the combat because we -- we were not -- we were a service outfit and a not combat outfit. And we hauled lots of, lots of everything. Lynda J. Lewis: Did you ever do anything for good luck? Herschel M. Lewis: No. We already had the good luck. Lynda J. Lewis: How did the guys in your company and all entertain themselves? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, there wasn't much time for entertainment. We eat, sleep, and work and that was just about it. Lynda J. Lewis: Did you have much leave time? Herschel M. Lewis: No. You said -- you just, just work. Well, hostilities were over, I did get a three-day pass to Paris after hostilities were over. But then that's the only -- that's the only time I really had to on

the -- that I was away from the -- from the battalion. Well, like when you like -- when we -when we was in -- in Italy, I went in to Rome one day. I went to the St. Peter Basilica and I even went to -- I'm not Catholic, but I don't mean anything when I say that. I went -- I went to the -- well, the -- Pope Pius VIII I guess was the pope at that time. And when -Lynda J. Lewis: At the Vatican? Herschel M. Lewis: At the Vatican and went there and got a, went to, uh, oh. Lynda J. Lewis: A ceremony? Herschel M. Lewis: He'd come out and did a little talk to all of us and they gave us a travel medal and my, my fireman, Johnny Marshal, and his wife was Catholic and he wanted my medal for his wife's sister and I gave it to him. I kind of hate that I did that, but he wanted that medal for his sisterin-law, so I gave it to him. Lynda J. Lewis: Do you recall any particularly humorous or unusual events? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, well the funniest one I guess I ever saw Captain Mooney came up the pass one time in Lons-le-Saunier and we had -- we had a engineer that had the shakes palsy stuff, I guess, and we had a first lieutenant that had the same thing and lieutenant -- Lieutenant Hickey, he was from Cleveland, Tennessee and he was trying to pay off and he was trying to hand a Shaky Parker his money. They couldn't get together. Parker said, "Oh, hell. Lieutenant, lay down. I'll pick it up." Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, can you tell me what you thought of your officers and fellow soldiers? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, our, our battalion commander was -- he was -- he was a lieutenant in the reserves and he wasn't ever that high up, but when he went in, he wanted everything military. But we had a little

conflict when we was in Sicily, and there's another guy trying to take over his battalion really and he had enough guts to stick his finger and his head and tell him, he said, "Don't you ever say another word to a man in my command. If there's anything that needs to be said to him, you tell me. I'll say it, but don't you ever say another word to a man in my command." And from then on he stuck up for us and was a pretty -- and our company commander, he was a great guy. He'd come back and made us resident vice president and president of Southern Railroad of New Orleans and he came to our reunions. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, did you make any close friendships while you were in the service and did you continue any of those? Herschel M. Lewis: Oh yes, we, we had lots of good friends. In fact, about a week ago we went to Chattanooga and had lunch with a guy out in my outfit who was from Green County, East Tennessee. He'd gone to Toledo and went to work on a New York central. So he's not well today, but we see him oh, periodically every couple of months or so, and we got another friend that lives in Georgia that we keep up with. We, we keep up with a lot of people that left. Like my crew in the Army, I stayed -- I stayed on the same crew from the time we went to work in North Africa to Mannheim, Germany. I worked 44 years out on that railroad and I never worked with one man that long at one time. But I stayed -- we stayed on the same crew all the whole time we were inservice overseas. But they're all gone now but me. Lynda J. Lewis: But did you say close or in contact with all of them up until the time of their death pretty much? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, we had reunions, and we had -- we had a good, good, good attendance all the time. Lynda J. Lewis: When did you stop having reunions? Herschel M. Lewis: Um, our last reunion our 52nd reunion after World War II in Pittsburgh at the GranTree Marriott. Lynda J. Lewis:

That was in 1997? Herschel M. Lewis: 1997, that was the 52nd reunion we'd had since World War II and we'd been to all of those except for 12. So 52 would be. Lynda J. Lewis: Forty. Herschel M. Lewis: Forty. And 40 reunions, and we've had three reunions we -- we discontinued. This is from military railroad service veterans, we had 16 battalions and -- and, but we were in, uh, Hyatt Regency in Schaumburg or -- Schaumburg, Illinois right out of Chicago, a suburb of Chicago in '96, and they voted that we would discontinue -- because well, we were losing so many men, we just didn't have enough people and some of the people that were secretaries in our outfit, they were ready for us to quit. So we quit, but my battalion went on and went on and we had three more -- well, we had three more reunions. We had one in Huntsville, Alabama. Then we went to Louisville two years, and this past year, we were still going to have another one, but it was a weekend of the September 11, so they wouldn't fly in. So we didn't -- we had more people out that day, men and another guy and my wife and his wife. And next day we had another guy and his wife and we didn't think they was coming, so we left. We went in on Thursday and spent the night Thursday night and left Friday about noon and they came in after we left. So I guess that would be our last reunion or trying it. Lynda J. Lewis: Daddy, is there anything that you would like to add that we have not covered? Herschel M. Lewis: Well, not -- not really. But if -- if same circumstances existed again today, and I could do it with the same people I did it, well, I definitely would love doing it again. But I wouldn't -- I wouldn't take a million dollars for it, nor would I give a dime really to do it again. Lynda J. Lewis: Okay. Thank you very much for your time and sharing all these things with us. Lynda J. Lewis: This is Lynda Lewis, the interviewer of this tape. I would like to say that my father's brothers

that he referred to were Grover Spencer Lewis, who was born 10/26/15, and Marvin Roy Lewis, who born 3/12/17. My mother says it was Roy Marvin. My daddy said it was Marvin Roy. I'm not really sure. They are both deceased. But they were all -- all three brothers were in Germany at the same time during the war. And like he said they did all get back safe without a scratch. Also, my parents were in charge of my father's or the military railway service for all of the military railway service. They were in charge of their annual reunions for about from '93 to '97. They did all the planning and arrangements and everything and they were secretary, treasurer, and arrangements chairman, and as such, they were in touch with every person that was retired military railway veteran or not retired, but had served in World War II, World War and in the military railway service. They were in touch with them to mail them newsletters, to collect dues from them, and to arrange all the comp things at the conventions that they had annually, usually in September around the country. They tried to rotate so people from different areas could get there without a lot of trouble. And in addition to that for the last -- how many years? Lynda J. Lewis: For several years they would meet on a regular basis with eight to ten other couples that the men had served with my father in the military railway service during World War II. They were all from southeast Tennessee and they would meet on a regular basis for lunch, just to get together and relive the war and chat and visit. And so they have information about all that and from other people too. But it is something that I've heard about all of my life in various aspects. Thank you.