All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. And now, your host for today's
program, Dale Throneberry. And good afternoon
and welcome to Veterans Radio. My name is Dale
Throneberry and I get to be the aircraft commander
today and be your host here on Veterans Radio
and for I guess about the 650th time I'm not
sure who's counting, right? But we are very excited
to have you joining us today. We're going to
be talking about a book entitled Battle Rattle.
How many of you out there know what Battle Rattle
is? Well, you've got to stay tuned to find out
what it is. It's a book by Roger Boas, and it's
about his experiences during World War II. That's
right, ladies and gentlemen, we have a genuine
World War II veteran who's going to be on our
program today. Roger is 94 years old, and I think
that you're going to find him a fascinating guest,
and he's got all kinds of stories. that he can
tell about his experiences while he was with
the artillery and with Patton's third army crossing
through France and Belgium and into Germany and
so on. And so I really want to make sure that
you stay tuned for that. I'm very excited to
interview Roger today. I think it'll be a really
great opportunity for all of us. And a matter
of fact, You can get in on a conversation if
you'd like to. Just give us a call here at WAAM,
talk radio 1600. The local number is 734 -822
-1600. That's 734 -822 -1600. Or you can call
us toll free at 844 -838 -1600. That's 844 -838
-1600 for toll free. For those of you who are
way out of the southeast Michigan area, feel
free to give us a call on that toll free number.
You can also follow us on Facebook. You can follow
us on Twitter. You can hear our podcasts by going
to our website, veteransradio .net, and click
on podcasts. And you can also listen to about,
I'm guessing about 300 of our archived programs.
We're still trying to upload all of them to you.
As soon as we get them up, we'll let you know.
It takes a little while for us to do it, especially
with the technologically challenged people that
work for us. That's Bob and me, or Bob and I,
I guess I should say. Speaking of Bob, I just
want to let you know that he came through his
surgery with flying colors and that I'm hoping
he will be back behind the microphone in the
next couple of weeks. He's doing really well
and he's got a lot of his energy back and his
spiciness back and so he's ready to go. So we're
excited to have the opportunity to get Bob back
on the air. I've got a couple of announcements
to give you today. We go and talk with Roger.
So first of all, joining me on the line right
now from the Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System.
How's that for a number, right? And that is April
LaRocque. April, welcome to Veterans Radio. Hi.
Thanks for having me on. Thank you, April. Thank
you for joining us. And I know you've got a big
event coming up here pretty soon. So tell me
all about what's happening at the Ann Arbor VA.
I will, too. Yeah. So just wanted to mention
that The VA Ann Arbor Health Care System's mission
is to honor America's veterans by providing exceptional
health care that improves their health and well
-being. And we are hosting a special program
next month to honor, in a particular way, Vietnam
-era veterans. So we're going to be hosting a
Vietnam -era veterans commemoration event on
Friday, May the 6th, from 9 a .m. to 12 p .m.
in our auditorium. And we really... You know,
our plan is to take this opportunity to honor
all Vietnam -era veterans and their families
and to provide an opportunity for them to reunite
and share their experiences with each other.
We're going to start off by having a formal opening
ceremony around 9 .30 a .m. that will include
guest speaker Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Kettles,
who is a decorated Vietnam veteran and current
Medal of Honor nominee. And that will be followed
by some live music and refreshments. And we will
also offer the Vietnam Era veterans in attendance
a commemorative lapel pin, which will be pinned
on by representatives from their respective branch
of service who will be there with us. Oh, wow.
That sounds cool. So this is going to be on Friday,
May 6th, from 9 in the morning till noon. Any
refreshments for these fine men and women of
the Vietnam Era? Yes, absolutely. And also just
wanted to mention too, we're going to have a
military memorabilia exhibit that's being provided
by a local VSW post 423 in Ann Arbor. We'll have
information about the history of the Vietnam
War as well as resource information about various
VA programs and services including VA healthcare.
We'll have representatives from the Veterans
Benefits Administration, National Cemetery Administration.
and then local resource information from veteran
service organizations, the Washtenaw County Department
of Veterans Affairs, and the Buddy to Buddy Veteran
Volunteer Program. Oh, that sounds like it's
going to be a great event, a great event. Reminding
our audience that this is on Friday, May 6th
from 9 in the morning until noon, and it's going
to be in the auditorium at the Ann Arbor Veterans
Healthcare Systems. main hospital and is this
just a local event or are VA hospitals around
the country doing similar programs? Yeah, there's
a number of VAs who are participating in this
Vietnam War commemoration time period which was
marked by a presidential proclamation on May
12th to have this commemoration period to extend
from Memorial Day of 2012 through Veterans Day
of 2025. And so I know you've got a lot of listeners
out there who aren't in the Michigan area. So
if you'd like to find out where a Vietnam War
commemoration event may be taking place in your
area, just visit their website, www .VietnamWar50th
.com. Okay, so we've got to go to VietnamWar50th
.com to find out if there's a celebration there
where everybody lives. Absolutely. There's a
map of the US and around the world, actually,
where you can see where these events may be taking
place during this commemoration time period.
OK. A lot of opportunities for people to go.
That is terrific. April, I wanted the people
to know who you are over at the VA. So what is
it that you do at the Ann Arbor VA? Sure. I am
currently the outreach coordinator for the hospital.
I work in public affairs. I'm also a social worker
by trade. And I am also the former prisoner of
war advocate for our facility. So we host a monthly
support group for former POWs. So I've been involved
in that program for a number of years as well.
That's what I thought. I wanted to get your cred
out there for our audience. Thank you. So anyways,
we've been talking with April the Rock. And again,
to remind you, the Vietnam Era Veterans Commemorative
Event for the Ann Arbor area is going to be on
Friday, May 6th. 2016 from 9 o 'clock in the
morning until noon. Be there. And we'll see you.
And April, I look forward to meeting you there.
Sounds great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank
you. All right. Other things coming up, and this
is another announcement for our Yankee Air Museum.
For those of you who live in southeast Michigan,
this is a place to go for airplanes. All kinds
of airplanes, helicopters, simulators, uniforms,
you name it, they've got it. And then they're
trying to raise a little money. So they're having
their 12th annual American Bistro night, and
that's going to be on Saturday, April 30th. And
the doors open at 530, dinners at 630, and just
need to go to yankeeairmuseum .org to find out
more information about it. Looks like a lot of
fun, and I hope to see you there. And then finally,
I've got kind of an unusual request. We've never
done one of these on Veterans Radio before. but
we got an email from one of our long -time listeners
that asked if we would announce a wedding. So
here we go. We're going to congratulate Maria
Valdez and Nathan. Nathan Kerpel on their wedding
yesterday, Saturday, April 16, 2016. So we want
to give you a very big Veterans Radio congratulations.
That's to Maria and Nathan. And thank you very
much for being a supporter of Veterans Radio.
And we hope you had a great time yesterday and
in the future. Remember, part of our slogan is
always, always remember, never forget. And I
know you'll never forget yesterday. So thanks
for letting us announce this to our audience.
All right, everybody, we're going to take a real
quick break. And when we come back, we're going
to be talking to Roger Boas. And his book is
entitled Battle Rattle, a Last Memoir of World
War II. You're listening to Veterans... Well,
the song may be This is the Army, Mr. Jones.
But actually, we're going to be talking with
This is the Army, Mr. Boas. And joining me on
the air right now is our guest for the day, and
it's Roger Boas. And his book is entitled Battle
Rattle, a Last Memoir of World War II. And let
me just give you a quick little background. on
Roger. Roger is 94 years old. And so for all
of you Vietnam era veterans out there that do
listen, this is an opportunity for you to talk
to somebody from your dad's generation. This
is the way I'm looking at it. Because as our
listeners know, my dad was in the Coast Guard
during World War II and was on an LST, which
we'll talk about in a little bit, with Roger.
And so this is our opportunity. So if you want
to ask Roger a question, Later on during the
interview, please give us a call here at 734
-822 -1600 or 844 -838 -1600. Right now, I want
to welcome Roger Boas to Veterans Radio. Glad
to be with you, and thanks for calling. It was
my pleasure, sir, and I want to thank you, and
I thank your publicist, Tricia, for sending me
your book. I found it to be a really excellent
read. Oh, thank you very much. So, okay, let's
get started. What motivated you to write this
book entitled Battle Rattle? Well, I'd written
a lot of letters home during the war. And then
I forgot about it. I did other things, other
jobs I had in San Francisco. But as time went
on, I thought I should read back those letters.
And as I read them, I thought that they were
something that my grandchildren should know about.
Because it talked about the war and about my
feelings about the war. And so I really wrote
it for my grandkids and for their friends. And
that's how it got started. Well, it's probably
something that many of us wish our parents had
written because a lot of our parents, it sounds
like you were the same way. You didn't talk much
about your military experience for a long time.
No. In fact, it's so interesting. When I came
back from the war, my And I'd been in combat
straight for 39 months. My parents never discussed
it. And I had other friends who had come back
and we were bewildered. Why was this subject
not to be discussed? It was off limits and it
was a strange, odd feeling that I never did appreciate.
I can kind of relate to that and probably from
my own generation is that many of us when we
did come home Nobody wanted to talk about it.
And it's not that, you know, not that we the
veterans didn't want to talk about it. It's just
that nobody wanted to hear us talk about it.
Maybe that's what it was. I don't know. I'm sure
we're going to get into that a little bit later
on because you do mention, you know, your experiences
when you came back finally. So let's talk about
life before World War II. This is kind of a history
lesson for all of us. How would you describe
America pre -World War II? Well, it was a very
neutral sort of a country. Definitely not wanting
to get involved in war from a congressional point
of view and from many of the most important people.
I happened to have been a debater at college
and we would debate whether or not the United
States should support Great Britain in its battle
against Germany that started in 1939. And we
were almost alone in the feeling that the U .S.
should go in and help England. The great feeling
was, let's stay the heck out of it. Really? That's
something that we never really learned in our
history classes, that there was such a debate
over whether we should get involved or not. Say
that again, please. I said that that was not
something that was covered in our history classes
in high school, that there was such a big debate.
over whether we should have gotten involved in
World War II or not? No, that's right. The political
leadership was very much against getting involved.
Congress was against getting involved, many of
it. We were a country that wanted to stay away
from war. We'd had enough apparently in World
War I. And so we delayed for a long time going
to help England. And in fact, it was a strange
thing. We were just sitting in our fanny when
all of a sudden, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor
on December 7th, 1941. And so the ones that were
incurring our wrath and we declared war against
were the Japanese. And strangely enough, and
very oddly, Adolf Hitler, the head of Germany,
nine days later declared war on the United States.
And so we immediately then were at war not only
with Japan, but also with Germany. If Hitler
had kept his mouth shut, that might have been
a very different situation. That's for sure.
I had never really thought of it that way. I
just thought, you know, one just naturally followed
the other. I guess not. Roger, I hope you don't
mind if I call you Roger. No, that's just fine.
Okay. You had the ability to travel to Europe
prior to World War II. Your mother and your grandmother
and you all went to Europe in 1935. Can you tell
me what did you notice as a 14 -year -old seeing
Europe just before World War II? Yes. I didn't
notice much in England, strangely enough. I was
guided around England by a major who'd been in
World War I and we saw the sights, but there
was no feeling that England would be soon shortly
at war. I picked up concern about war when we
got to Vienna, my mother and I, and had dinner
with a very nice couple who were Jewish. And
they said they were scared. Yes, that Hitler
might come into Austria and if he did, they didn't
know what would happen to them. And that's exactly
what happened. And they disappeared and I've
never heard, they just disappeared. I don't know
what happened to that poor couple. So what I
picked up in Europe in 1935 was a concern in
a couple of places. One, Austria from the Jewish
people that we had letters of introduction to.
another in we went to Russia and Poland and in
both Warsaw Poland and in the cities we visited
in in Russia there was much talk that war would
be that war would come about with Germany and
this was well before the war started but they
were right I think that's interesting. We're
talking with Roger Boas, whose book is entitled
Battle Rattle, Last Memoir of World War II. I
want our audience to kind of understand where,
in your background, is that your family originally
was Jewish, but then you've converted, you didn't
convert, but your relatives converted to Christian
science, correct? Yes. My family was Jewish.
I'm Jewish. However, in the late 1800s, my great
-grandmother, who lived in Texas, Texarkana,
Texas, became a friend of Mary Baker Eddy, the
founder of Christian Science. And so she, my
great -grandmother, became one of the first Christian
Science practitioners in Texas. And then she
had two children, two ladies, one of whom was
my grandmother. They were Christian scientists.
And then my grandmother had a daughter, my mother,
Larry, and she was a Christian scientist. And
then my dad went to the Jewish temple. When he
married my mother, he became a Christian scientist.
And I also then went to Christian science Sunday
school. What kept my dad from being a more recognized
Christian scientist was the fact that he liked
to smoke cigars and have a highball every once
a week, and that was not allowed in Christian
science. He was a kind of an outrigger Christian
scientist, but we all followed the religion.
That's very interesting because you had mentioned
in your book that you had some experiences with
anti -Semitism when you went to Stanford. Yes,
the experiences were what you would call oblique
or not bold. That is, I was Jewish and as a result
I was not invited to any of the Stanford fraternities.
They didn't have a Jewish fraternity there and
the non -Jewish ones didn't want people like
me. And so that was the first time I really felt
the effect of anti -Semitism. Not that I didn't
have a nice life at Stanford, but being not allowed
on fraternity rows, so to speak, bothered me
then as it still bothers me. It was a pure prejudice.
Many of us can't understand that looking back
70 years and seeing that some of these things
were occurring that long ago. You mentioned that
on December 7th that the Japanese attacked Pearl
Harbor. What do you remember of that day? I was
picking up a colleague from school and we were
driving from San Francisco to a seminar on literature
being held by one of our professors at Stanford.
And we picked it up on the radio. And all of
a sudden, it dawned on both of us that life as
it had been for us was over. That basically we
were at war. The Japanese had attacked us. And
I appreciated the fact that very shortly, and
it happened the next day, that President Roosevelt
would declare we were at war with Japan. What
we did not anticipate was that we would be at
war with Germany almost simultaneously. All right,
and part of your experience at Stanford, excuse
me, was that you were joined ROTC. Is that correct?
Yes, I like I have always liked riding horses
and rode horses ever since I was about seven
until recently and Stanford's I had a field ROTC,
Reserve Officers Training Corps, was based on
horse drawn field artillery guns, 75 millimeter
guns, drawn by horses. And so everyone rode a
horse. Officers enlisted men, all the cadets.
And I found that perfectly wonderful. We roamed
the backwoods of the campus on those horses days
at a time and went to camp on horses. And I found
it a very pleasurable existence. But as a result,
on graduation day, I graduated as a second lieutenant
in the field artillery. Field artillery. This
is where it's going to get interesting, folks.
So here we go. So Roger is now in the field artillery
unit, and he's going to start his training. And
so where did you begin your training, and can
you kind of describe a little bit about what
it was like? I had 30 days at a place called
Camp Roberts, which was an army station in California
midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
That's the first time I began to meet people
with very different attitudes, especially the
Southerners. They wanted to go in and kill those
Germans. uh... so you might say bloody -minded
went from there to uh... the artillery school
at port still and there they warned us that and
there have been uh... they warned us that the
british were not holding up there at the end
of their responsibilities militarily i couldn't
believe it i was a great man of the british but
they were right the british were screwing up
apparently and on the battlefield of those days.
And then from Fort Sill, I was sent to the Mojave
Desert, which had been made into a military area
by General Patton as a major general, and I joined
an outfit called the 4th Armored Division, which
consisted of tanks and self -propelled guns.
And I became a forward observer, a field forward
observer in the Fourth Armored and stayed there
with them in the Mojave Desert. Then we went
to Texas and then we went to England. And after
kind of a glorious vacation -like time in England,
we crossed the channel and everything changed.
Well, we're going to talk about that in a minute.
We've got about two minutes to go until we have
to take a break. You mentioned all this desert
training in the Mojave Desert in California because
you thought you were going to be going to North
Africa, correct? Yes, we were definitely destined
for North Africa. And then Rommel, whoever it
was, was running the German side. was ordered
by Hitler to stop. And so we didn't, we were
not sent to North Africa after all. Right, because
evidently the English finally decided that they
were going to turn around and really fight, as
you mentioned earlier. They weren't following
through, although, you know, that's all hearsay
for a lot of us. But yeah, the English had stopped
the German approach to Egypt, and then Rommel
was... forced to surrender. I mean, he didn't
surrender, but he was forced to surrender after
Hitler told him not to. And I guess that kind
of put him in Hitler's doghouse for a little
while. Right. So you went from there to... In
about a minute, do you think you can describe
your journey across the Atlantic to England the
second time? Yes, when I went in 1935, it was
a luxurious trip with my mother and grandmother.
everything, lovely meals and dance music and
all that sort of stuff. Going there on a troop
ship was a very different story. There were ten
of us in a room, ten second lieutenants in the
room in bunk. It was even worse for the enlisted
men. And all of us to get away from the crowded
depth went up on deck day and night to get the
fresh air. But the crossing, other than the fact
that I met some people that were important to
me, was uneventful. And we landed in England
and were sent to the old town of Devisas. And
we occupied the British barracks there until
we went into France. Okay. We're going to take
a break right now. Roger, stay tuned. Don't go
away. And we're going to take a quick break,
folks. We're talking with Roger Boas, the author
of Battle Rattled, and we're getting ready to
go into France right after D -Day. You're listening
to Veterans Radio. Stay tuned. And we're back
on Veterans Radio and my guest today is Roger
Boas. He's the author of a book entitled Battle
Rattled, Last Memoir of World War II. Just to
remind you that Roger is 94 years old so he is
truly one of the unfortunately few remaining
World War II veterans out there. And he was in
artillery and he was part of Patton's Third Army.
And so now we've arrived in England from all
of his training in the States. So forth. So Roger,
tell me a little bit about what England was like
for the Yanks coming over. It was like a, it
was like a fairy land. I mean, it was the English
and certainly in London, they welcomed us with
open arms. There were, there were quite a few
Americans, but not too many. Everyone was very,
very receptive to us. There was a joke going
around that, as I recall, said there were three
things wrong. Overpaid, over sex, and over here.
That was the way some were describing it, perhaps
quite correctly. But in my own experience, everyone
I met in England was polite and receptive and
very glad to see it. And so being in England
was like a Like a vacation, a theater, museums,
going up to the Shakespearean country of Stratford
-on -Avon. Everything was just great fun. That
changed when we crossed the Channel, but England
was just a delight. Well, you were there for,
what, eight months before the land? Yes, around
six months. Right before, what am I talking about,
D -Day. Right, before D -Day. and uh... we were
you part of our patents magic show for the germans
with the fake can't have a look at the work this
way we met patten uh... and uh... we being the
officers in my division there are five hundred
of us uh... met him in the uh... auditorium of
of of the facility we had uh... borrowed from
the from the british uh... and that he was introduced
to us by our division commander the new commander
of the third United States Army which had not
yet gone into action and we went down to the
English Channel and camp and then then crossed
the channel a couple of weeks later and went
into Normandy and couldn't really move we were
I was in an armored division, but it couldn't
move. It was kind of locked in those orchards
of Normandy. And finally we broke through, broke
through the German lines that were opposing us
and came to the French town of Avroche. And it
had taken a terrible beating from the air, including
the fact that it killed American general, Lieutenant
General McNair. But as we started driving through
Avroche, There, standing on a rather large army
jeep, you can call it that, with twisting boots,
two pistols, a beautiful helmet, medals, looking
like a million bucks, and saluting everybody
as we went by, was General Patton. And he took
us through Europe, and we all... greatly respected
him, almost loved him. He became our leader for
life. It certainly sounds like that when you
describe him in your book, you talk about that
where he's saluting everybody as you're driving
by on your way into France. I wanted to kind
of back up just a little bit because I think
it was a really important part of the story is
that when you landed on the beaches of, I think
it was Utah Beach, how difficult it was to get
off the beach because of all the wounded that
were coming back through to England. Yes, I had
been trained and as I mentioned in the Malawi
desert and in Texas and then in England and one
thing I was never felt or even thought about
was fear and once we landed once we crossed the
channel and saw all those bodies lying on their
stretchers either dying or going to a hospital
a fear hit me and that fear never ever left me
I can't say it never left me because like when
I would play poker at night I wouldn't think
about it and when I actually went into some Forward
observer action it left me but by and large I
found myself fearful for the rest of the war
and It was combating that fear that was difficult
and One way to combat it was to start shooting
at people So that's what I did. I started shooting
at people And unfortunately, it sounds like shortly
after you arrived in France you and another buddy
of yours ran across two Germans and luckily you
shot first. Yes, that to me has always been a
very unfortunate incident. When I say unfortunate,
I don't think it should have happened. Or another
way of putting it is I'm not proud of it. But
the other soldier, Sergeant Plaza, his name and
I were reconnoitering in the Normandy area, Orchard
area and so forth, and down the road toward us
come two German soldiers about our age, and we
were in our early 20s. They were fully armed,
but they weren't carrying their arms as if they
were going to attack or shoot. They had them
just shoulder them over their shoulders, so to
speak. And they were talking. And my sergeant
and I really didn't know what to do as these
two Germans approached us. And so we cried halt.
And they did not halt. But they didn't aim their
guns at us. It didn't even look as if they saw
us. And they came walking and we yelled at them
again halt. And when they did not, we shot them.
And they both dropped. dead i believe that what
i didn't examine the bodies and i often wondered
if that was that that was a necessary action
if these two young germans would have gone on
and uh... been people members of the community
of course look at their germans were pretty bad
and they were pretty rough but that it left a
big question in my mind I think it would leave
a big question in your mind because you know
even though we are and you were you know we're
taught to kill the enemy it's it's it's one thing
to talk about doing it and then it's another
thing actually doing it because with artillery
you're using you know you're blasting people
from far away. Yes the artillery was as a forward
observer I would see the the shells hit but I
couldn't really tell what kind of damage was
going on. Once in a while something blew up and
I could tell we'd hit a vehicle or a gas truck
or something like that But when you're shooting
at close range It's a very eerie feeling if you
were the other guy that the other guy is shooting
at you it's legit But when he's just walking
down the road and if got something with the other
fellow It's legitimacy begins to be questionable
I think that's something that many people, especially
infantry guys, have to deal with when they're
in battle. You never know. It's like you said,
you don't know. If these guys had finally noticed
you, if they had pulled their guns out, then
you would have been okay with it. This is kind
of a different situation. Let's try to move on.
As you go across France, you ran into a couple
of other interesting experiences. Could you talk
about the one where you ended up in the church
tower? When I ended up where in a church steeple.
Oh Yes We had left Normandy and had been ordered
to Brittany by our army commander and told to
try and destroy a German U -boat pins Which were
based at the port of Loria, France Which is on
the coastline in Brittany So I, as a forward
observer, a field artillery forward observer,
was ordered by my battalion commander to find
an observation post where I could bring down
our guns. We had 18 105 millimeter howitzer guns
on the German, those German elements. protecting
the German sub -pins. And so in the town in Brittany
of Kodas, C -A -U -D -A -N, there was a church
with a tall steeple. And I went up in it with
my crew and I could see from the steeple, which
was about 20 feet high, The German guns firing
here and there See them clearly and so I brought
down counter fire on and Got pretty close I could
see some of them exploding we were getting it
and I can see them moving the guns and Then darkness
came and we came down from the steeple when I
say we me and my crew And then the next morning
early I went back up, this time accompanied by
Colonel Alex Graham, who was my battalion commander,
and who wanted to see what was going on. And
we hadn't been up there for the half an hour
or so. Then all of a sudden, something we were
doing gave us away. Maybe a flash from our binoculars
or our battery commander's scope. But they started
firing at the church steeple. and Graham and
I and the plaza and the other guys, the radio,
etc. just raced down the stairs to the main floor
not too soon because they found the church people
and they blew the top off maybe 25 minutes, 25
seconds after we'd gotten down to the floor and
we were very lucky No one hurt no one killed
and they'd blown the top off the steeple and
We then the next day pulled out and went across
France to the town of Troy Many many years later
40 or 50 years later With my brother -in -law.
I went and his son -in -law We got in the car
and drove back Dakota and Couldn't find the church
That's one and I went up to an ATM machine where
there was a older couple of man and woman I Spoke
rather rotten French, but I asked him in my poor
French Where's the where's the church? All they
said no church And I said look I was here in
1944 and there was a church Ah, they said. And
they took me and my companions by the arms and
walked us up the block to where there was sort
of like a county office building with men and
women working behind desks. And they took us
upstairs to the room where the regional council
would meet. It was empty at the time. And behind
the chairman's chair was a photograph of the
church. And it appears that the day after we
left this town and crossed France to Troyes,
the Germans came in and blew that church up from
top to bottom. And it never was replaced. But
there, looking at it in the council room, was
the exact church. very much revered by the citizens
even to this day. That's a cool story. I like
that one. I want to make sure people read the
book, so I'm not going to ask you to describe
all of the adventures that you had crossing France
and so forth. We're talking with Roger Boas.
His book is Battle Rattle. It's the last memoir
of World War II. I do want to get into though,
when you came upon the discovery of... Ordruff?
Ordruff, yes. The concentration camp. Can you
tell us about that? Yes. We, my battalion and
regiment were going down the Autobahn in combat
formation and we see a very nice building, a
residential building, but Quite different from
the others much more modern designed by a modern
German architect obviously and looking quite
posh and So Bob Parker my battalion commander
and I and I was the adjutant I Just pulled out
of the column for a minute and went into this
building and went up looking around The occupants
weren't there, but there were servants there
And we learned that it was the residence of the
IG Farben head. IG Farben being the company that
made all kinds of stuff, including the chemicals
used to gas Jews in concentration camps. And
we looked out from the window, I think of the
second or third floor, and across the street
we see a pile of bodies, dead bodies. We raced
down the steps and across the street and enter
what was an auxiliary concentration camp, auxiliary
to a much bigger one 40 some odd miles away called
Buchenwald. And this was at Ordres. And there
were a whole bunch of bodies right in the middle.
And they'd recently been shot. And the guards
had left and some were still bleeding. And many
had starved Davids. They were Jewish. And they
were in striped uniforms, shot through the head
and made into sort of a pyramidal pile. I'd never
seen anything like that before. And in fact,
a couple of days later, three of the high generals
Eisenhower, Bradley, And Patton came to look
at this place. And Patton threw up. It was so
awful. Terrible sight. I can only imagine. I
want to transition though to an experience that
you had after you came back. You were in your
granddaughter's class in San Francisco. Can you
hear that story with the person that you met
there? Yes I Saw that camp in on April 4th 1945
and It was a site that never left my mind and
Many years later in the 2000 like 2012 or something
like that I went to the graduation, eighth grade
graduation, of my grandson at a school in Northern
California's East Bay area, Prospect Sierra School,
and they had invited various people, old timers,
wives, widows, sons, grandsons, etc., to talk
about World War II and personal experiences.
or experiences that have been handled down. So
I was there talking as were others. And then
they had lunch. And I sat at a table with a bunch
of old timers, being one of the old timers myself.
And there was a fellow sitting on my left. And
he had been speaking at the and saying he'd been
a concentration camp survivor. And I said, what
camp were you in? This is at lunch. And he said,
Ordruff. I said, hell, my battalion commander
and I opened up Ordruff ourselves. We were the
two first Americans in it in April 4th, 1945.
He just drops his food and puts his arms around
me and says, you're my savior, you're my savior.
They just kept repeating it. But the war, it's
so strange. Here we had probably met in April
of 45, and now we're having lunch together in
2000 and something at a private school. It is
amazing that coincidences, it's like everything
is destiny in some sort. We're running up against
the clock, Roger, so I want to talk about...
when you came home and you kind of did, you know,
you were suffering, you felt you were suffering
from battle rattle, which was the term that was
used during World War II for post -traumatic
stress. So what was it like when you got home?
I couldn't wait to get home and when I got home
I found it to be perfectly dreadful. My parents
were lovely to me, but I couldn't relate to them
or to anyone. I found I couldn't focus on anything
or that I couldn't make decisions. I knew something
was wrong with me, but I didn't know what. I
was a practicing Christian scientist in those
days, so I went to a Christian science practitioner
who tried to help, but it was no success. I felt
lost. couldn't focus, couldn't make decisions.
And that sort of aura hung around me for seven
or eight years. What I didn't know then that
I know now was that I was suffering from what
in World War I they called shell shock. In World
War II, we sort of loosely called battle rattle.
My division psychiatrist was the battle rattle
doctor. And what I had was a good case of post
-traumatic stress disorder, which no one knew
anything about at this particular time. You mentioned
in the book, and again the book is Battle Rattled
by Roger Boas, B -O -A -S, and I encourage all
of you out there, whether you're in the military
or civilian, or you had somebody that was in
the military, to get a chance to go and read
this. It really filled in a lot of blanks for
myself. And I think it would help us understand,
because you mentioned in the book that they trained
you for a year and a half, but nobody trained
you how to come back. And that was kind of your
mission. Your message at the end of the book
is, how do you bring these people back? Yes,
all the training was go get them, shoot them
down. And almost no attention to, here's how
you react psychologically if you get shot at.
or if something bad happens to you or your friends.
So all of us were exposed. Some handled it better
than others. My colleagues seemed to handle it
best if they stayed in the service. It was a
framework of protection. But for those of us
who got out like me, it was up to you. And in
my case, I had a very bad time handling myself.
I think if I hadn't come back. If I'd stayed
in Europe either as a serviceman or as a civilian
and gone to say Oxford or Cambridge or a school
in France, I'd have been a lot better off. But
coming home where parents and friends did not
want to talk about the war, didn't talk about
the war, and you yourself were wondering what
the heck is happening to me, it was a bad scene.
Well, I want to remind everybody, it's not that
Roger was not successful after World War II.
I mean, he was very big in public television
and you were trying to explain these things to
people through, it sounds like a really great
television program for over 13 years. You ran
a successful dealership and you got involved
in a lot of different things. I want to, you
know, people with post -traumatic stress, you
know, they just... deal with it the best way
that they can. They still have to go on with
their lives. I got lucky. I was not dealing with
it well at all. And having trouble making decisions,
etc. And one day I'd been home five or six years,
out of the blue, a friend of mine, actually an
Austrian refugee, a very charming, bright chap,
a professor of economics. I said to me, Boas,
in his German accent, Austrian accent, why don't
you try public television? And public television
was just getting started. And here in San Francisco,
it was called as it is today, KQED television.
And I went down. The only show they had right
then was a cooking show out of popover and stuff
like that. I talked to the head of the station
and he said, let's give it a try. And so I started
helping, being a co -producer and on the mainstream
of a show we called Profile Bay Area. And it
helped pull me out of the slump. My mind got
better, the PTSD started to slow down, and I
loved public television. So that was a change
in my life for the better. It's a great way to
end our interview, too, I think. Unfortunately,
we have to stop this now. We've run out of time.
Thank you so much, Roger, for being on our program.
This is Roger Boas. His book is Battle Rattled.
Please go out and buy this book. Tell everybody
you know about it. I think you're going to enjoy
the stories. Some of them are very humorous.
Some of them, of course, as anybody who's been
in the silvers knows, that, you know, you've
got some funny stuff goes on and then some terrible
things that go on. So I want to thank you very
much for being on our program. Great pleasure.
And thank you for the invitation. I much appreciate
it. Thank you, Roger. All right. That's it for
today, folks. That's Veterans Radio. And we'll
be coming back next week. And we're going to
be talking about benefits and services. such
as Roger was talking about, where we're trying
to help these veterans that are coming back today.
And so I encourage you to tune in next week.
Until then, you are dismissed.