It is July 4 1994. I'm Cathy Brady and I'm interviewing my Dad, John Robert Moulton Morse and wanted to ask him about World War II
You went from college into training. Is that right?
While I was in college we had what was called Reserve Officer Training
Programs which I signed up for because I was allowed to finish college
and go into the service Immediately following college that's so... it saved
me from being drafted and it saved me from volunteering right away so in
essence I volunteered for the service.
And you thought you were going to be an officer?
Yes I did. I expected I didn't think I'd go any further than being
a captain. I thought that would be far enough. I felt quite confident in
my abilities and my abilities to move up in the service.
Tell me more about when you got out of college.
I worked for about two weeks accumulated some funds. I worked down
in Philadelphia loading barrels on a freight train but then I was called
into active duty and reported to Camp Upron on Long Island and wound up
in Fort McClellan where I was the lowest of the low privates.
How did you get that news?
Well they don't just make you captain because you look good so I went
into basic training and had a great experience. One of the first things
I'd realized - it took a while, this has to do with youth, I realized that
I really wasn't that special. That my chances of becoming an officer were
rather slim and as I was in the service longer I didn't mind not being
an officer at all.
What sort of things did you do in basic training and how long did
it last?
I don't know, six or seven weeks, we were down in Alabama a and it
was the middle of summer and it was rather warm. We hiked and camped and
did dishes - all the other things the average doughboy, as he was called,
had to do. I was trained as an infantryman and I was especially trained
in the operation of a 30 mm mortar. I think 30 millimeter maybe more or
less.
It was metric anyway. What's a mortar?
A mortar is a tube into which you dump a shell. The bottom of the shell
hits, the bottom anyway, an ignition pin of some sort and it propels the
sort of a rocket out of the mortar and hopefully it lands smack in the
middle of one of our enemies or more.
Did you pick this weapon or did somebody say this is what you're
going to be doing?
They just said This is what you'll be doing.
Now that was basic training and after that you did what?
And I'm interested in knowing what choices you could make and what
choices you couldn't make.
Well I was shipped after basic training up to Northern Michigan. Actually
it was Lacrosse Wisconsin Camp McCoy where we continued training and I
became trained in winterized infantry for winter combat. And of course
I had no choices and "This is what you're doing" and I became very proficient
at that. One of the problems of course was that I'd rather be doing something
else. So I applied for the Air Corps at that time. My papers went through
and they thought that was a good possibility in the Air Corps but all of
a sudden I found that this isn't where I was headed.
I never knew that about the Air Corp. You wanted to be a pilot, yes?
Whatever. Anything but not the infantry [laugh]
Did you have friends in basic that you also knew when you went to
Michigan? or... I want to know what you did socially as far as friends
go.
Oh not really, I don't remember carrying a buddy along beyond basic.
When we got there I did make some friends because I played basketball and
while we spent the whole winter outside a few of my friends and we got
to inside at least three days a week to practice or play somewhat up there
(we'd play high school teams) It was a very good experience. I made some
friends. The only person I could remember in the service was a guy named
Swazee or Sweezee who was an excellent basketball player but in training
as far as I was concerned I don't remember anybody
Sergeant snow
Oh tell me about Sergeant Snow. You're smiling and it seems to me
you have some good stories about what you did to Sergeant Snow.
Well Sergeant Snow was an old time sergeant in the infantry. He'd been
there for some time and he had no respect for us tremendous wonderful college
graduates so as a result the feeling became mutual and we took every opportunity
we could to make things a little difficult for Sergeant Snow.
Well for example we would go on bivouacks (that's an overnight sleep out of sorts, boy scouts still do it) and we would sleep out on the ground. Sergeant Snow had been through this many times - had his own hammock that he'd brought along. So one of the things we did while he was sound asleep was cut some of the ropes on the hammock. Sergeant Snow wasn't happy but on the other hand you see the manual didn't allow Sergeant Snow to use his hammock so he couldn't complain to higher ups. So that was Sergeant snow.
Wasn't there something about a deer?
Well that wasn't' Sergeant Snow, that was another thing.
Another Sergeant?
We were in the Ottawa National Forest up in Northern Michigan and there
were quite a few deer available up there and so we didn't care for the
mess sergeant too much either - and this was actually at Camp McCoy - so
some of the boys shot a deer and hung it in the refrigerator in the mess
hall at about the same time Colonel So-and-so was going to inspect the
facilities. So he opens the door of the refrigerator and there's this beautiful
venison ready for somebody's meal. So the mess hall Sergeant really caught
the dickens for that. The rest of us were doing KP for quite a bit of time.
How old were you at this time?
I don't know, probably 21, 22 somewhere's near that; just out of college.
So your behavior was appropriate for your age.
Oh yea.
When you weren't having a hard time with your superiors, what were
your feelings about the war? At this time.
Well at this time I thought it was something you had to go to and they
wouldn't welcome you too warmly if you were in combat and that was the
way it was. Very patriotic of course. There was no doubt whatsoever that
it was necessary for us to go over there and get rid of Mr. Hitler.
What was it that you thought that Hitler was doing wrong? Was he
a threat to national security? Were you out to rescue Jews from concentration
camps? Did you know about concentration camps?
No, we didn't know about concentration camps, we did like uh.. well
there was two things. You've hit a couple of those. We certainly didn't
like his persecution of anybody. We certainly did not like his taking over
various countries.
He was bombing England at the time then?
Oh probably.
You were describing Michigan and you knew you were going to Europe.
Oh of course you knew you were going to Europe. Now what did you think
was is store for you?
Didn't know and didn't worry about it either. Either we were going
to the Pacific or the Atlantic theater of operations. Hopefully we could
go to the Atlantic because, quote, we thought they were more "civilized"
over there.
What were you hearing about the war while you were in training?
I dunno. That we weren't ...
Were you following the progress of what was going on?
Oh yes but we weren't too well informed. We weren't uninformed, just
that it was going on that we weren't winning everything.
We spent a very lovely winter out of Watersmeade Michigan. Most enjoyable because I learned how to enjoy the winter weather staying in the snow, have the snow keep you warm, it was a very good experience. And after this wonderful winter training as you have probably already surmised, we spent the summer in combat. So we were shipped from Michigan to a place where we were ... AP Hill actually.. where the boy scouts go nowadays, so we went to AP Hill which was sort of a staging area and then we went up the Hudson River, one little experience that might be worthwhile and took off from a place opposite Tarrytown NY. But I had the evening off and was able to go AWOL and go across the river to meet my folks who lived in Ardsley NY at the time and then we shipped out from there.
I was going to ask about your family. What was your brother doing
at the time?
Twin brother Frank was finishing up dental school at the University
of Pennsylvania.
Did he know he was going into the service later?
Oh he was in the service under the same sort of conditions as I was.
ROTC?
Right.
So you went and saw your family and then what happened?
Then we got on the boat I guess and went overseas.
Tell me about the boat.
Oh very interesting. We found that we were sleeping about six bunks
high and one of the things you hoped to do was to get near the top bunk
in case of sea sickness [laugh]. But nevertheless we were on the boat for
a bit. We were in a convoy going across the Atlantic Ocean.
Did you get seasick?
No I didn't on the way. It was very peaceful. There weren't any submarines
to disturb our peace although we were always aware of their possibility.
But nevertheless, they said "Well we'll have to have you fellas do something
on the way over" and I remember them asking if there were any barbers on
board and well I thought that would be an occupation. It might even keep
me out of the war, so I said I was a barber and as a result I was cutting
hair. I cut $300 worth of hair on the way over because I was allowed to
charge ten cents a haircut. So by the time we reached Europe I was an accomplished
barber with a pair of hand clippers and a comb.
And had $300 besides. That was quite an experience. But on the other
hand I didn't become the company barber.
You landed in England. Where?
Can't remember. But we did land, I'm sure we did. And I do remember
us on a train headed for someplace. Nobody told anybody anything as far
as I was concerned. Certainly I was not a guy that had much to do with
the outcome of the war, especially as to what direction. But we were shipped
to an area in England and had a good time there. At one point there time
they said if there was anything specific you'd rather be doing that what
you're doing and I said "anything".
But at any rate they asked who'd like to be on this detail or that detail so I thought well... At the very end of the list we had what was known as the "honey bucket brigade" and I even volunteered for that. I couldn't figure out any other way to get out of this pending conflict. But there was no way I could get out of it I guess.
I wound up... we knew about D day because we were on the Salisbury plains and we watched the thousands and thousands of airplanes and gliders that flew overhead so we knew something was happening and sure enough it was D day and it wasn't long after that that it was our turn to go over.
How did you identify yourself" When you say "we" what was your group
called? Who was your general...
I didn't know who our general was. No idea. Didn't know who our commanding
officer was by name. So I say we I'm talking about the average character
that was going to be fighting. I didn't know, wasn't' even supposed to
know where we were but I happened to see Salisbury
Cathedral which is the only cathedral in England with a big center
spire.
How did you know that cathedral?
Well when I was a little boy I was a choirboy at St.
John the Divine in New York and all along the walls they had the cathedrals
of England and the only English cathedral with a single spire was Salisbury.
So there it was. So I knew where we were. Not that I could do anything
about it.
Did you tell anybody?
Yes I told everybody how smart I was, yeah, I knew.
Were they impressed?
Well I guess they were not; there were other things more pressing.
So you didn't know what group you were in" Were you in such and such
a unit" . You were just a cog in a wheel...
I was just a replacement.
You said there were gliders? On D day. you mean they glided across
the channel? Holy cow. What'd they do?
I'd been watching all these films. Pictures of gliders loaded with
troops. They were pulled by other airplanes and across the channel. Loaded
with troops the planes were full of paratroopers and the gliders had paratroopers.
No the gliders would land. They didn't know it of course but they were
headed for Normandy where the Germans had put all sorts of spikes in the
field so they could rip apart the gliders when they landed.
[question about the gliders returning] 's OK We're the United states
We had lotsa money you could build another glider easily.
Infantry troops?
Yes.
Boy did you consider being pulled in a glider?
I considered it and put it as far away from my thoughts as I could.
Anyway we went over as replacements. And one of the reasons we won
the war I believe was that every company, every battalion would be completely
replaced by the following morning. No matter how many people were killed
or wounded.
So I wound up in Normandy tried out my French which wasn't too good on a couple of French maids but that didn't work at all.
Oh wait, wait, wait [trying to get information about the trip to
Normandy]
So how did you get there?
I was in some sort of a landing craft that let the dumper down in front
and we went out and walked up on the beach. Now people during D day had
a tough time because the sea was rather rough. Some of 'em drowned because
they had so much junk on 'em.
So we went up the beach and that was interesting and we landed at Omaha
beach and walked up the trail that you see in all the pictures these days
and found ourselves at a place called St. Mary Reese which is not very
far from the ocean. And we were in a replacement group. Ready in case someone
got wounded or killed.
Where'd you stay?
I don't know exactly where we stayed. There were tents. I was there
for a few days and next thing you know I was assigned to the 117th battalion
30th division and we were in combat and that was that.