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HomeMy WebLinkAboutRobert S. Evins, Brazos Valley Heroes i . Cdr * r: 7 ' a . .. w ° k '9x 'j S. " r , "., ' � : One in a series of tributes to members of "The Greatest Generation" who served our country during World War 11 x «� W 4 ;;i5., a sw'e'. 47- x ' L x R obert S. p A • 0 ` Evins �x; n 4. For many whose stories have appeared, World War II pretty intense on the beach and we were located on the • was a difficult experience but an experience most would do right flank. Our objective was to get off the beach as soon as again. For Robert S. Evins of Bryan, 'who was a prisoner of possible and make our way to a small town nearby that had war for almost two years, it was a difficult experience and a bridge we were to take and hold. We never reached it. '' one he would not want to repeat. "On our way, we were crossing a newly mown field "Being a prisoner of war, for me, was the most when we ran into four German Tiger tanks that were waiting .' humiliating thing that can happen. Especially when you in the dark for us. We were out in the newly mown field spend years training and hardly get your feet wet in combat with no place to hide. We lost a lot of men. There was so ,' and then spend the rest of your service time in captivity." much commotion that night that we didn't realize our outfit j Evins, a native of San Antonio, graduated from high had withdrawn. I ran out of ammo, but the only thing I was school in 1938. After a couple years of working in the doing with my rifle was knocking the paint off those tanks 47. printing business and at the urging of friends, he joined the I got up and made a run for some brush along an irrigation hi l behind us. National Guard in February 1940. cana ' "In October 1940, we were mobilized into the U.S. Army "Running with me was one of my South Texas buddies as the 36th Division, Company C,141st Regiment. Company from Carrizzo Springs, Alfonso' Perez. Before we made it . C was an infantry company and I was a rifleman. Our call -up to the ditch, I had the tip of my right thumb shot off. We "'; was supposed to be for 12 months and then be discharged. tumbled over the brush and fell into the irrigation ditch. We While the Army was preparing our discharge papers, we could hear firing back toward the beach and started to wade - were allowed to go home on leave. On Sunday, December 7, in that direction, in the canal, with water up to our chins. 1941,1 was quail hunting with my family. When we returned We were without weapons because I was out of ammo and ' x s home, I heard about Pearl Harbor. I remember my mom Alfonso's weapon was fouled and wouldn't work. On the saying, 'I think you can forget about your discharge.' way back it was getting light and you could hear Germans "She was right. We began to build up the division to patrolling nearby. That was when the largest water snake I war strength. We had to do that about three times because had ever seen swam right under my nose. they kept pulling units and people out to begin other units. "We finally reached an area where the Germans had izx, • We ended up in New England, where we did snowshoe and scraped out a crossing. We were going to try to get out of ?L''' ski training. We were also taught Norwegian phrases to use. the canal and when we looked over the edge of the canal Word of this got out and Germany placed combat units and we saw two Germans coming. Since we didn't have any materials in Norway during the war to defend against our functional weapons, we didn't aim or act like we were going invasion. After the war was over, I found out that this was to shoot them, which was fortunate for us. Because, behind a planned leak by our guys just so the Germans would do us, on the other side of the canal, were three Germans with what they did. their weapons leveled at us. If the Germans hadn't been r - ' "On April 1, 1943, April Fools Day, we left New York in looking for prisoners or if we had attempted to shoot the two Germans coming from the other side of the canal, they our heavy wool uniforms to Oran, North Africa, where we would have killed us." landed in the hot sun in our hot uniforms. Some of us were tr- „ ,, sent to the front to get a sniff of what combat was like. After less than eight hours of combat, Robert Evins ,. I ended up at Casablanca guarding German POWs. It was became a prisoner of war. His story will continue next about•this time that I got a letter from home informing me week. that my brother John and his B -17 had been shot down and Robert Evins' name can be found on the Brazos Valley he was missing in action. Veterans Memorial. If you know of a World War II veteran ”' whose story needs to be told, contact Bill Youngkin at (979) "We trained in the Atlas Mountains and on the beaches • for landings. Around 2:00 a.m. on September 9, 1943, we , Brazos Valle 260 -7030. If you would like to add someone's name to the " .; � landed on the beaches of Salerno, Italy. It didn't take long y Veterans Memorial, names must be submitted to draw blood - my own - by stumbling over the barbed by August 15, 2006, in order to be engraved on the memorial wire that had been strung along the beach. The action was by this year's Veterans Day observance. b The E gle • z•I Here when you need us. ' The late WWII Vet Sonny Franze will be the guest on "Veterans of the Valley" this week on KAMU -TV. Veterans of the Valley, hosted by WTAW's Tom Turbiville, can be 0"`" ' seen Fridays at 8:30 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. channel s co wblea y ma . , In last week's article, Robert Evins, as a member of the 36th Infantry Division, had landed at Salemo, Italy, in the early morning hours of September 9, 1943. Less than eight hours later, his unit was halted by German Tiger tanks and he was taken prisoner by the Germans ' Before his arrival in Italy, Evins had been informed by his family that his brother John had been shot down in his B-17 and was listed as missing in action. Now his family would receive another letter that their other son, Robert, was also missing in action. "When we were captured, one of the Germans who spoke very good English said, 'Don't feel too bad. We could be your prisoner before tomorrow.' That is what I kept hoping for, but it neve'r happened. Instead, we were marched to their CP where we were interrogated by a German officer who spoke perfect English. When our Navy's guns started hitting the area, they moved us up the road. Altogether there were about 30 of us, "Early the next morning, they loaded us on trucks and we headed around the mountains on very steep and narrow roads. When we stopped they had us unload and I was given. a shovel and told to dig. I thought they were having us dig our graves. My hand started to really bleed and they pulled me off that duty and put me back on the truck. The hole, to our relief, was to bury aguy who had died. I was then treated at an aid station and reloaded on a truck. "We were traveling on a nalJow road in the mountains behind a German tank when two American B-25s came by. They were so close you could almost read the nameplate on our guys. They were surprised to see this convoy and opened fire on us but didn't hit any of us, thank goodness. I bailed out of. the truck and fell dowl1 an embankment, injuring my foot. Our German driver wasn't so lucky, as he was killed. "When we got to RO!Tle the Germans marched us' around the square to show the Italians that the Americans weren't so tough after all. After the war, I saw a newsreel of that event. It was not a happy memory. "In Rome they loaded us on boxcars. In the boxcars all you could do was exist. You couldn't sit or lay down; you just stood for days. At the Brenner Pass marshaling yardS we were being bombed but they wouldn'tl,et us out. The concussions were close enough to cause the entire train to ~ jerk, but we weren't hit directly. The only food we got was what the citizens threw at us. We had no rations and no canteen . After we went through the ass, the German Red Cross gave us an apple apiece. It was like getting a whole strawberry shortcake. In Innsbruck, Austria, we were given paper cups of boiled barley and it tasted like the best soup I ever ate in my life. We were so hungry. "We ended up at the concentration camp at Dacchau, Germany. By this time, our hunger was really bearing down on us. We still had our helmets and uniforms; we were still American soldiers. We were marched to the showers, Iined'up naked and sent through the showers. Some South Africans were there ahead of us and told us the shower was also a gas chamber and'it was the same place the Jews .were gassed. We showered and hoped we wouldn't be gassed. When we came out, our uniforms were gone, We! were given various mixtures of uniforms and told we were now out of uniform and if we tried to escape we would be kiUed: After the shower, Qne of the South Africans gave me an old toothbrush. It was the best present I ever received. "We were eventually sent to Stalag II-B in October 1943. We watched the war end from there. We watched the guards, change from trained men to untrained boys and old men. I did try to escape once but was caught. I spent several weeks in solitary confinement and almost died from the cold. "What saved all of us were the American Red Cross packages that began to arrive. When we didn't have that ' we were given' 1 112 inches of potato bread, baked years before the war started, and dehydrated rutabaga for our daily rations. "In February 1945 they moved us out of the camp with the clothes we had on and our blanket:;. This became Hitler's winter death march. We were marched about 90 miles in about fou'r days In the ice and snow. The roads were rutted up and frozen. The ice was so hard and sharp that when we stumbled or slipped, the ice cut and sliced our feet as we marched. We were told we were headed to Luckenwald. I will always remember the blood on the road and the shots you heard from time to time for those who fell out. I just hoped I would make it to Luckenwald." Next week, Jh.e story of Robert Evins' liberation and return to America. Robert Evins' name can be found on the Brazos Valley veterans Memorial. If you know of a World War II veteran whose story needs to be told, contact Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030.11 you would like to add someone's name to the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial, names must be submitted by August 15, 2006; in order to be engraved on the memorialliy this year's Veterans Day observance. .. One in a series of tributes to members of 'The Greatest Generation" who served our country during World War II In February 1945 the Germans moved the American POWs from Stalag III-B to a new camp at Luckenwald, j~ ahead of the advancing Russian army. That march to ' Luckenwald became known as Hitler's Death March. It was a march that Robert Evins of Bryan survived. ~The thing I remember was the ice and the cold. The ruts in the road were frozen over with ice and it was tearing our teet up. We were walking like zombies, one foot in front of the other. Half the time, I don't think I was fully awake. fach 'night you hoped you didn't freeze to death. Each morning you had to have help to get up. I don't know how many died, but we all knew that if a man fell out and you stopped to help, there were going to be two of you." After the POWs reached Luckenwald they were housed in large tents and again segregated by country and by rank. "When the Russians arrived they had a tank battle just outside our fence. The Russians who liberated us were Mongolians with white officers and non7coms. Those guys were brutal with the local Germans. It was like Genghis Kahn all over again. After they moved on, the Russian MPs who showed up were mostly women. "When they ran the Germans off, their tanks knocked down our fences and we were able to mix and mingle a little bit. I walked over to the officers compound and spotted an Air Force guy who still had his leather flight jacket. I asked if he knew my brother John. He told me he not only knew him but was the pilot of the plane John was on when they ,were shot down. He also told me that my brother had been killed. He promised that if he made it home, he would go by and visit with my parents in San Antonio and explain what happened to John. "The Russians told us to stay where we were and that we would be taken to the Black Sea to go home: That did not sound good to most of us. One of the guys with me was named Petroni, whose parents were Russian immigrants, and he spoke Russian well enough for us to communicate. About five of us, induding Petroni, decided to head for the American lines. We were several miles from Luckenwald and were crossing a field when a convoy of Russian soldiers came by. They unloaded and came over with weapons pointed at us. When Petroni told him we were American POWs they hugged and kissed us and let us go. We caught a ride on a Russian truck and then a replacement tank that was being driven by a six-toot Russian woman to Jutenbog, Germany. "I had two teeth that had abscesses and I was in bad shape. In Jutenbog we asked a Russian officer if they had a dentist. He took me to their dentist, who sat me on a box in the middle of a street, pulled out his tools and pulled both teeth with no medication. I remember him lightly slapping my face, so I must have fainted, But I sure felt a whole lot better with those teeth removed. "When we received the Elbe River, the Americans were on the other side. They came over and trucked us back on May 6, 1945. I was back in my Army before the war had ended. We were deloused and given new uniforms and fed. You couldn't eat very much because our stomachs had shrunk. We were flown to France, where General Eisenhower met.with us before we headed home. "I left for home on June 6, 1945 - one year from the D-Day landing - and got to Newport News, Virginia, on June 19, 1945, where we were fed by German POWs who were roly-poly fat. We . looked like walking skeletons, which we were. After I got home to San Antonio I was discharged and I started school at A&M in the Fall of' 45. I entered the Game Warden Program in 1947 and remained there until I retired." The pilot of brother John's plane, true to his word, came and visited with the Evins family about John's death. In 1952, John's remains were found in France and he was buried in San Antonio in 1953. In 1955, 10 years after his discharge, Robert Evins received his purple heart for the . wound he suffered at Salerno in 1943. Robert Evins, in addition to his memories of what happened, has drawn sketcties that are gallery quality of what he has described in his story. There are several sketches of the POW camp, the rail car he traveled in, even all of the contents of an American Red Cross package. "All the time we were prisoners, we kept order. We were American soldiers and we remained soldiers even though we were POWs. Before my wife's death, she wanted to go over to Europe and visit where I had been, but I just couldn't do it. I'm lucky to be alive. I guess I'm just a survivor." Robert Evins' name can be found on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. If you know of a World War II veteran whose story needs to be told, contact Bill Young kin at (979) 260-7030. If you would like to add someone's name to the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial, names must be submitted by August 15, 2006, in order to be engraved on the memorial by this year's Veterans Day observance. ..