HomeMy WebLinkAboutBasel Wheeles, Brazos Valley Heroes
One in a series of tributes to me ers 0 "The'Greatest
Generation" who served our cou~try during World War If
When Basel Wheeles, now of Franklin, was growing up in the Easterty
Community of Rober1son County, survival was all most folks had on their
minds.
"I was born in 1923, and most of my life that I can remember growing
up was aoout surviving.We lived from one poor crop to the next until my
Dad had to give ~ up and moved us to Austin. limes weren't much better
there. In 1940 I enrolled in the CCC, or the 'Tree Army' as we called it
"They paid me $8 per month and sent my folks $22 per month. It was
a difference-maker to my family. We mostly fenced govemment land, and
I became a pretty good comer-post specialist. On JanUlllY 28, 1941, two
of my friends and I enlisted in the Army.
. "We were sent to Dodd Reid in San Antonio, which is where the
cemetery is now. The Army was good for me. I got all the food and sweet
milk ~ou wanted for breakfast and the other meals were just as filling. I
put on weight and I was treated like a man. I learned to be responsible for
my actions and I learned to trust the man next to me, even if he wasn't
my best buddy.
"I ended up in the 2nd Infantry DMsion, 12th Reid Artillery, at Ft. Sam. ,
We were sent to Ft. Sill in December of 1941 to fire for the Des school
there. The night of December 6, 1941, was the coldest night ever. I had
on alllhe clothing I had. I was thinking we were goirig to freeze to death.
The next day shortly after noon, they assembled us and told us about
Pearl Harbor. I
"We loaded onto trains and headed for Ft. Sam that day. On the train
down I remember thinking about what was going to happen. We knew we
would be headed to combat real soon.
"We did a lot of training, to include going to Wisconsin for snow ski
training. There we were, mostly Texas boys that hadn't been in over 2
inches of snow our whole lives, leaming how to ski. I picked ~ up so quiCk
that I became an instructor."
. .
. In the summer of 1943 Wheeles and the 2nd Infantry DMsion headed
for Northern Ireland, landing near Betfast in ~ber. By that spling they
were in Wales, preParing for what would be the invasion of France:
"When they had us waterproof our equipment, we .figured we were
headed to a beach someWhere. We just didn't know where or when. On
the 3rd of June 1944, we marched under the cover of darkness to Barry,
Wales, and loaded onto a Liberty ship known as the Louis Kossuth. We
. headed across the Channel on the 6th but when we got to the coast of
France, we were in the wrong position. We were headed into Utah Beach
and we were supposed to be on Omaha Beach.
..
"A destroyer came by and shouted instructions for us to move. The
Germans on top of Point Du Hoc had a field piece. I saw the overshot and
then the undershot on the destroyer. They realized what was happening
and !lied to get out of the way, but the Germans were really good and
put the next shell in the fantail of the destroyer. At this same time the
Battleship Texas and a cruiser passed by shelling and cleanng Point Du
Hoc. I knew the war, for me, had started. .
"We wMed our turn and on the 8th we went ashore. I was in charge
of three trucks carrying ammo and an observation plane each. When we
landed on the beach, we evacuated as soon as possible. We headed for
St. Laurent Sur Mer. One of my guys was so scared I thought he was
going to kill himseif or some of us. I did not consider myseif scared,
although my light leg had a hab~ of wanting to shake a bit
"As we headed up the roa~ there were dead Germans laid out on both
. sides and hundreds of German POWs .coming down the road. That was
th!l first day. The Germans counterattacked and ~ was pretty hard for the
next three days before we could get out of the hedgerow country. German
paratroopers were dug in at St. Lo and ~ took about two weeks to clear
that area before they sent us to Brest.
"Brest was where the submaline pens were located and they had
their paratroopers, submaliners and el~e troops there. To clear the
Germans out of Brest, we had to go from house to house. We would shoot
a hole through a building, check ~ out and then shoot a hqle in the next
building until we cleared the area."
By mid-December 1944, Wheeles and the men of the 2nd were on the
German/Belgium border when the Germans counterattacked. ~
"We didn't know what was happening at first. The Germans went
around us and captured our quartermaster at Bulligen, Belgium. We had
to tum our guns and kill off our spotter planes to keep them out of Getman
lands. I knew we were in a tight spot when my C.O. called me to the
CP to get a bazooka team together to try and stop the tanks that were
approaching our rear. They retreated and we moved out. From then on,
~ was chase the Germans across Germany until this war ended. When .
. ~ ended, I was in the hOSPMI with haif my platoon. We had oonlracted
diphthelia, so we were told. Alii know is, I was so sick I remember an
orderty dragging me, holding my feet. I told him I wasn't dead yet and for
him to drag me by my shoulders."
Wheeles had the points to be one of the first home. He was discharged
on June 25, 1945, but reenlisted in 1948 and made a career in the Air
Force, where he retired.
"I've had some opportunities to get together With the guys I served
with and have gone back to vi~ France and Belgium. The best advice
I can give someone who might do that is let the other fella tell his story
like he wants to."
Basel Wheeles' name can be found on the Brazos Valley Veterans
Memolial. if you know of a World War II veteran whose story needs to
be told, contact Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030. if you would like to add.
someone's name to the Brazos Valley Veterans Memolial, names must be
submmed by August 15, 2006 in order to be engraved on the memolial
by this year's Veterans Day observance. '
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