HomeMy WebLinkAboutCalvin C. Boykin, Jr., Brazos Valley HeroesIn early 1943 Calvin Boykin, who had just finished the
fall semester of his freshman year at Texas A&M had a deci-
sion to make. Join the military now or be drafted soon. He
volunteered, joined the Army and began his training in a
newly formed tank destroyer unit. On Valentine's day 1944,
he and 15,000 other soldiers disembarked from what had
been a luxury liner, the Isle of France, now a troop transport,
in Scotland.
"They first had us long security for the invasion
troops. After they left. I was up to my elbows in soap and
water washing pots and pans, when I heard over the radio
that our troops had landed on D-Day. I thought here I am
kwashing pots and pans and those guys are doing something
important."
It wasn't long till they left the pots and pans behind as
we headed over as part of the 7th armed Division in Patton's
3rd Army. Boykin's first duty after landing was to "convince"
the Germans that had been bypassed by the allied invasion,
to surrender.
"The first Germans we ran into were two guys talking
to a French woman in an apple orchard. They hadn't heard
us coming so when they say us, they threw up their hands
before we could throw up ours, so we took them prisoner."
On the way to liberate Paris, Boykin's co npany came
upon a cavalry unit outside of Rambouillet that had been
ambushed and was under fire.
"They tried to warn us of an '88' the Germans had
across the field. Before I could traverse my vehicle around,
they fired the '88'. You could actually see the projectile
which looked like a torpedo as it crossed the field toward us.
It went underneath my vehicle tearing out part of the wheels
and making a mess. We returned fire and we, as well as the
cavalry unit, were able to get out of their line of fire. We had
lost our first man but the cavalry unit had lost seven."
The French wouldn't allow Boykin's unit to be the first
into Paris, reserving that for themselves. Instead they were
sent over the Moselle River where they lost a lot of tanks and
then on to Holland. Things were fairly quiet for awhile until
the winter of 1944, when Boykin's unit began supporting the
infantry near the Ruhr River.
"The battle was fierce and bodies were everywhere in
the snow. Everyone was cold, wet and miserable. We cap-
tured a concrete pillbox and we all got inside so we could get
warm and stay dry. Instead we all got the flu."
On December 16, 1944, the Germans started their
counter offensive which later became known as the Battle of
the Bulge.
"On the 17th we were sent down to St. Vith. I could
see my platoon leader, a quiet, cautious fellow who had said
to us earlier that he would do his best to get us all home, in
the jeep ahead of my vehicle. I saw him reach up and touch
his son's baby shoes he had hung form his dash. I knew
then we were headed into trouble."
The 7th Armored's column was 'cut' by Germans on
the way down. Eighty soldiers were captured and were
machine gunned down by the Germans. Boykin's unit held
out at St. Vith but were surrounded just like the U. S. Forces
at Bastogne.
"The only difference was at St. Vith, when asked to
surrender, we didn't have anyone with enough wit to tell the
Germans, 'Nuts' like the Commander at Bastogne."
The German offensive halted on December 29, 1944.
"From then on, it was piecemeal battles until we crossed the
Rhine River at Remagen. We stayed on the west side firing
our 90 mm guns in support, day and night until we
crossed."
"After we crossed, the Germans began to give up in
large numbers. The German commanders, I later read, real-
ized that the men left would be needed to rebuild Germany.
With the Russians advancing from the east and us from the
west, we had German units looking for American and British
units to surrender to. I had one whole German infantry com-
pany, or what was left of one, surrender to me."
After the hostilities ceased on May 7, 1945, Boykin's
unit was sent to Leipzig, in the Russian zone to oversee a
large POW camp.
"One day I was notified that the German commander
wanted to see me, so I took off my weapon and went into the
camp. The commander handed me a message for my com-
manding officer. He told me I could read it as it was in
English. It was a petition from all the German soldiers in the
POW Camp to join the U. S. Army to help us fight the
Russians. I told him the Russians were our allies. He replied,
'you will find out they are not.' He was. we later learned,
right.'
After the war, Boykin re-enrolled at A&M and married
a SMU graduate in 1946. After graduation he worked for the
Soil Conservation Service, obtained his masters degree
from A&M and was on he staff of the Agricultural Economic
department for several years. Later he was involved with the
Economic Research Service with the USDA, here and around
the world, until his retirement.
"I've made several trips back to the places I served
and I vowed to myself and the guys I served with, that I
would write about what we did. So in 1995 1 published
Garela Bete: A History of the 814th Tank Destroyer Battalion,
1942-1945. 1 hope the guys approve. I am proud of them
and what we did."
Calvin Boykin's name can be found an Panel A-3 of the
Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. For more information, to
make a contribution, or to nominate a veteran, contact the
BVVM at www.veferans-memorial.org, or Bill Youngkin at
260-7030.