Veterans Day and my Pappy

Today is Veterans Day. On August 27, 1943, my paternal grandfather, John Alexander Otto (1911-1991), a lifelong resident of Easton, Pennsylvania, enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 32. The outcome of World War II was still very uncertain at that moment — it was uncertain whether fascism would triumph over the United States and the Allies. Pappy, as I called my grandfather decades later, went on to serve as part of the U.S. ground operation in Europe from mid-August 1944 through the end of the war. 

Dad got some of the details of Pappy's service history down in writing, and those papers have long been tucked inside my copy of The 84th Infantry Division in The Battle of Germany (more on that afterward). Here's the full transcript of those notes, with some links, clarifications in brackets and annotation:

Inducted Sept. 17, 1943, at New Cumberland, Pa. Left New Cumberland Sept. 23, 1943. Arrived at anti-aircraft training center at Fort Eustis, Va. Took basic training at Ft. Eustis and went to school to learn to be a radio operator.

Left Ft. Eustis Dec. 31st and arrived at Camp Davis Jan. 1, 1944.¹ Attended communication school at Camp Davis, N.C., for 12 weeks. Left Camp Davis Mar. 25 and came home on furlough for 6 days.

Reported to Camp Stewart, Ga.,² and was assigned to 445th AA [Battalion]. One week later this outfit was de-activated and all men were transferred to other outfits. Was sent to Fort Jackson, S.C., and assigned to [Battery] C 557th AA [Battalion] as radio operator. July 1st was promoted to PFC.

July 17, battalion entrained for port of embarkation. Arrived at Fort Slocum, N.Y., next day. July 23rd left New York aboard Queen Mary.³ Arrived in Scotland (Gourock) July 30th. Boarded train and traveled through Glasgow, Edinburgh, finally arriving at a small camp about 30 miles from Manchester, Eng. 

Aug. 15th [1944] boarded ship at Southampton and landed on Omaha Beach, Normandy.⁴

Sept. 5th traveled in convoy to [Villeneuve-Saint-Georges], a suburb of Paris. Remaining there only a few days we joined First Army forces in drive forcing Germans out of [northern] France and Belgium. Crossed German border Sept. 14th and penetrated Siegfried Line for a distance of about 10 miles. Here drive halted.

Replaced by another ack-ack outfit and withdrew to city of Luxembourg. Remained there 2 weeks. In mid-October, outfit moved to vicinity of Visé, Belgium, about 10 miles from Liège, [Belgium]. Remained in this area about 6 weeks. Joined 84th Division Thanksgiving Day, in town of Geilenkirchen, [Germany]. Remained with 84th Division until about 2 months after Germany surrendered [on May 8, 1945 — VE Day]. At that time we were doing occupational duties in a small village about 30 miles south of Heidelberg.

Left there last week of June. In 4 days we arrived a Deauville, France, across harbor from Le Havre. Remained here 1 month and then crossed channel to England. Stationed in various parts of England, notably Birmingham and London.

Departed Southampton Jan. 15th, 1946. Arrived in New York Jan. 29th. Discharged [Fort] Indiantown Gap Feb. 3rd.

So, Pappy was a radio operator in Battery C of the 557th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion. And that battalion was attached to the 84th Infantry Division (nicknamed "The Railsplitters") in late November 1944. The 84th was intensely involved in the Battle of the Bulge, which began on Dec. 16, 1944, and lasted until late January 1945. But the above notes give no details about the crucial period between Thanksgiving 1944 and VE Day, when my grandfather's battalion would have been involved in the most intense and stressful combat.

Robert Beckhusen's grandfather was also in the 557th, as a master sergeant. In a 2017 post on Medium, Beckhusen details some of what his grandfather — and likely my grandfather — experienced during the bloody final months before VE Day. Beckhusen also explains that the 557th's job "was to protect and assist the infantry with M45 Quadmount and 40-millimeter anti-aircraft guns. Shooting down German aircraft was the gunners’ number one priority, but their weapons also helped provide covering fire for the infantry when they advanced." 

As a radio operator, Pappy would have been a crucial cog in the success of these operations.

Beckhusen's post includes details of the 557th's heroics and the horrors it faced: In February 1945, positioned on the banks of the Rhine, the battalion fired more than 250,000 rounds to give cover to the 84th Infantry. Dozens of members of the 557th were killed in action, many by either German artillery or mines. Very late in the war, the 557th was actually overrun and nearly 50 soldiers were captured. But the prisoners were soon released by the Germans, who were more focused on their own escape at point, with the Nazis' surrender clearly imminent.

That brings us to the book at the top of this post. "The Railsplitters" are the subject of The 84th Infantry Division in The Battle of Germany, which was written by Lt. Theodore Draper (1912-2006) and published by The Viking Press in May 1946. It focuses exclusively on the period of November 1944 through VE Day. So, even though my grandfather wasn't a "Railsplitter," this is the book that best conveys the order of events that unfolded during Pappy's time on mainland Europe. The book also describes the attitude of civilians encountered by the 84th during the final push to end Adolf Hitler's aggression. One excerpt from Draper's narrative:

"It was noted that Hannover was a dividing line in terms of German sentiment toward American forces. Roughly, west of Hannover the attitude had been relatively co-operative. Along the Rhine, the white flags were plentiful and people quite freely expressed themselves against the Nazi regime, although it was always difficult to judge the sincerity of these sentiments. East of Hannover, however, the change was marked. White flags were scarce and more people in conversation identified themselves with the Nazi regime. For this there probably were several reasons. The war had not touched the country to the east as much as it had the Rhinelanders who suffered from the most severe bombardments — the most suffering, the less sympathy for the Hitler regime. From Hannover to the Elbe, the region was mainly agricultural, lacking either a strong aristocracy or a strong working class. The middle class in this zone was half shopkeeper, half farmer, precisely the social group that was most vulnerable to Nazi propaganda."

In the end, the Nazis were defeated. This was thanks in large part to the millions of Americans such as John Alexander Otto who served and put their lives on the line to end the threat of global fascism. Because of them, Americans today are free to live and work where they want, worship (or not worship) however they choose, own property, get an education and receive information from a wide variety of media sources that are protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution.⁵ Democracy reigns, for now, as we approach our nation's 250th anniversary in 2026.

On this Veterans Day, and always, we owe tremendous thanks to my grandfather, to the Greatest Generation, and to all U.S. veterans. 

Footnotes

1. Camp Davis was built by the U.S. Army in December 1940 as an anti-aircraft artillery training facility. 

2. In June 1940, Congress authorized funding for the purchase of property in coastal Georgia for the purpose of building an anti-aircraft artillery training center. It was officially designated as Camp Stewart, in honor of American Revolution general Daniel Stewart.

3. The RMS Queen Mary was absolutely vital as an Allied troop transport during World War II. On one Atlantic passage, it carried more than 15,700 soldiers. By war's end, it had transported more than 800,000 troops.

4. August 15, 1944, was D-Day Plus 70.

5. This is vital, because authoritarians of the past and present aim to restrict and control the free press, and thus dismantle democracy. They do this in ways that tend to be more subtle than overt, but are insidiously effective either way: They villainize journalists and even threaten to prosecute them. They deploy considerable legal and economic levers to pressure the owners of media companies into self-censorship aimed at self-preservation. They gaslight the people by constantly discrediting factual reporting. And once media outlets are weakened by these attacks from so many angles, they either close up shop or are ripe to be snapped up by wealthy individuals who share the aims of the authoritarian regime. That's how democracy ends.