Summary of George N. Raterman's services in World War II

[The following paper was written to describe George Raterman’s World War II service.    It was written as a school paper by grandson Randy Monnin.  It was based on interviews that he conducted with George on January 11 and January 18, 1986.]

In September, 1942, George N. Raterman, my maternal grandpa, was drafted into the U.S. Army.  He had just gotten married and had one daughter, my mother.   He left his small hometown of Russia, Ohio by bus and travelled to Fort Hayes in Columbus.  From there, he went to Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana for his physical examination and his location assignment to Camp Lee in West Virginia.  At Camp Lee, he took basic training, coast artillery training, and later, advanced training.

After six months of training at Camp Lee, my grandpa was selected to go to Officer’s Training School at Camp David, North Carolina.   The training consisted of dawn to dusk training, both physical and technical in coast artillery corps.  He graduated from Camp David as Second Lieutenant George Raterman.

He was assigned to Fort Bliss in Texas, but had a two weeks leave of absence, which he spent in Russia with his wife and daughter.  Then, my grandpa, grandma and mother went to live together in El Paso for three months.  Then they returned to Russia, while Grandpa stayed in Texas.

At Fort Bliss, they formed their own cadre of non-commissioned officers known as the 784^th C.A.C. (AW), Coast Artillery Corps (Automatic Weapons).  One month after this they received their enlisted personnel, who were all new draftees.  Training of the new men began immediately.  Grandpa was in charge of the Second Platoon, Battery C.  While there, they maneuvered in the desert both day and night.  These maneuvers were war games played in battlefield conditions.

After six months, the entire battalion was moved by train to Estrella Air Base in California.  Further maneuvers were conducted in the mountains and valleys.  In February of 1944 they received orders to move the battalion by train to a port of debarkation in Massachusetts.  For the trip across the United States, the battalion used two troop trains.   One train took a southern route and Grandpa’s train took a northern route through Canada.  The trip took four days.

He was promoted to First Lieutenant and they embarked for England.  He was on the liberty ship ‘Susan B. Anthony’.  The entire assembled battalion consisted of approximately 50 ships with destroyer escorts.  On one occasion, German subs were detected in the convoy area and depth charges were released by the destroyers.

Eleven days after they embarked for England, they landed in Wales.  They received their equipment, assembled it, and set up defenses around various ports in Wales.  George’s battery was assigned to Port Talbot.  The guns that they used were twin 40mm and 50 caliber machine guns.  His platoon had four of each.   While they were guarding the docks, the US invasion forces were being formed.  They could see the invasion ships on the horizon.  The invasion known as D-Day came about on June 6, 1944.

He stayed at Port Talbot until June 26.  They packed their equipment in cosmoline and moved down to South Hampon, England for the trip to France on D+21, June 27, 1944.   They crossed the English Channel and landed at Omaha Beach.  The landing was harassed by enemy airplanes and mine fields.  They gathered together close to the beach near St. Lo.  They consolidated forces and brokeout from St. Lo. To the south through France.

Grandpa’s outfit was assigned to the fourth army.  Their orders were to advance and occupy the territory down to Brest, France.  After this was accomplished, they moved east to Nancy, France.  Again they consolidated and made preparations to move north into Belgium.

The first move was to Leige, Belgium.  It was there they came under around-the-clock bombing of the German V-2 Buzzbomb.  These were pilotless missiles that were propelled by gas.  When the fuel ran out, they dropped to the ground and exploded.  It was at Liege where they suffered their worst casualties.  On one occasion, grandpa and the other troops were sleeping in an abandoned building.  When they woke up, only half of the building remained standing.  While at Leige, Hitler mounted his winter offensive aimed at Bastogn and Leige.  Hitler was repelled and his retreat into Germany began.

The outfit moved northeast to prepare for the crossing of the Rhyne at Remagen.  While in convoy, they saw an example of what the Air Force could do to a city if the Germans resisted their advance.  Julich was a city about the size of Sidney, Ohio.  Wave after wave of bombers bombed Julich until nothing was standing and you could see over the rubble from one side of town to another.

After crossing the Rhyne, they received word that President Roosevelt had died.  They swung south towards Cologne, Germany.  It was there that they took up defense of the Air Force landing strip.  They stayed there until the end of the war.

Duty at the airbase was not much of a hardship.  They erected permanent tents, slept on cots, and had hot cooked food.  Before, they had no tents, slept in bedrolls, and ate food of the K ration variety.  The K rations were hot or cold and consisted of two hard crackers, a small can of a variety of meats or vegetables, a bullion cube, and four cigarettes.  While in Germany, the water had to be boiled beforeit was drank so most of the liquids drank were either cider or wine.

During the war, in the letters that grandpa wrote home, he was not allowed to reveal his location.  So he worked out a code system with my grandma.  My Dear Wife meant he was in England, Dearest meant he was in Belgium, My Dear Daughter meant he was in France, etc.

Fighter planes were based at this strip until the war’s end.  The B-29 bombers were also stored on this airstrip.  At the end of the war, they were in occupational duty to keep peace.  They had time and transportation to visit different places.  Grandpa went up in the Alps, and to Hitler’s retreat at Burchessgarden.  It is at this point where you could see five different countries.  He also travelled through Switzerland, Italy, and Austria.

In September, 1945, their outfit was broken up.  Some men were transferred to other companies and those with enough service points started on their way home.

In the latter part of October, Grandpa sailed from LaHavre across the English Channel to South Hampon.  From there they went to an Air Force staging area to await orders to come back to America.  Grandpa’s orders came to ship out on the 8^th of November aboard the Queen Mary.   They arrived in New Jersey five days later on November 13.  The next day he was on a train heading for Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana.  On the 15^th of  November, he was sent home from the Army arriving that night in Sidney.  He was united with his family that night after 36 months of separation.  He was finally separated from the army on February 1, 1946 as a Captain in the Reserve, Captain George N. Raterman.