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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEverett C.Martin, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Dr. Everett C. Martin Jr. of Bryan lives on the same land on Old Reliance Road that has been in his family since 1867. He is the fifth generation to have lived on the land. As related by Dc Martin, "I was born in April 1922 in Kurten, where my Dad, a World War I veteran, served as the vocational agriculture teacher. l graduated from Stephen F. Austin High in Bryan in 1940 and immediately enrolled at Texas A&M, becoming part of the class of 1944. We were the first class not allowed to graduate because of the.war but I was able to graduate in two years and eight months with an animal husbandry degree. "We were sent to the OCS instead of being directly commissioned because the West Point graduates in the Army were complaining about there being more Aggie officers than West Point officers. I was sent to Ft. Benning, Georgia, for infantry OCS and was commissioned in early 1944. After I was commissioned I~came home before heading overseas and to see this girl named Kay who was attending Baylor with my sister." According to Kay, "I was sitting in class in Old Main when I saw Everett walking up in his uniform and his gold bars. I wanted to jump out the window. My parents had warned me about Aggies and here I was wanting to jump out a window to be with one." Shortly thereafter, Martin received orders for Europe and sailed over on the Queen Elizabeth. "We sailed without escort because we were so much faster than the German subs.' We landed at Liverpool, England, and the next day I was delivered to and landed on Omaha Beach. I was to be a replacement officer, as were all the others on the beach. We had to answer a roll call by giving your first name and middle initial when your last name was called. The guy next to me answered Jack S.~Everyone started laughing and that helped relieve the tension we' were all feeling. "1 joined Company C, 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division in Patton's Third Army just the other side of Paris. I was the first replacement officer in my unit as a platoon leader. My platoon was given the assignment to set up an outpost one-half mile ahead of our front lines. That night it was cold and the two. men at the point crawled to an abandoned pillbox. More worried about the cold than the Germans, they. were soon surrounded by a 60-man German patrol. They radioed back about what to do. 1 told them that when they heard them coming, to throw as many grenades as they could. If they ran out, chunk rocks because the Germans wouldn't be able to tell the difference. We were able to get them some help before they ran out of renades. That was my first time to command men in a orrrbat situation. "The next night we sent out a patrol and I went with them. We were going through heavy woods, and the men bunched up. I told them to spread out and I moved out to the left flank, where I discovered a German setting up a machine gun ambush. I captured him. I think the men began to appreciate the fact that I had good training. "Our next patrol was to check out a small village and see if it was occupied. Again, instead of sending my men out, I went with them. That was the first time someone shot at me, fortunately missing and hitting the concrete-wall above me. The Germans were there in that village waiting for us. I was. the only one on that patrol that wasn't killed, wounded or captured. I managed to get back by wading out in awater-filled ditch." "It seemed that we never knew exactly where we were or what our overall plan was. We just did what we were told to do. But I do remember where and what we were to do at the Battle of the Bulge. When Bastogne was .surrounded, we were 100 miles away. We ate our Christmas dinner on the way to relieve Bastogne. The 4th Armored had broken through and cleared the road and the 6th Armored, which included us, went down that road tp Warden, Belgium; just, outside Bastogne. "The woods there are like a checkerboard, with one square connecting to another square. When we attempted to go from the point of one square to the other, the Germans opened up on us. I managed to crawl back to a tank who helped me call in artillery. When the artillery lifted, we charged across those points, .sweeping the Germans out of those woods, capturing several. "Our commanders then had our companies line up for a frontal charge on Warden, where the Germans were dug in. A frontal assault across open ground is not something an infantryman would choose to do unless there was no other alternative. Here we were being ordered to do that and do it in knee-deep snow. I thought we all would probably be killed. The Germans had 88's, anti-aircraft guns, and when our tanks went over the hill, those 88's started knocking those tanks out right and left. Their concentration on our tanks allowed our frohtal assault to reach the town, where we pushed the Germans out. "Warden was low ground, so we went back up. on the hill again where we stayed in that terrible snow. The artillery directed at us was so constant that I had two trees fall across my foxhole because they became so riddled by shell and gun fire. During this time, we had new replacements fresh from the states come to our unit on trucks. A lot of them left, dead, on those same trucks that brought them." Dr. Everett Martin's story after the Battle of the Bulge will continue next week to include the action that led to him being awarded the Silver Star. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www. veteransmemoria/ org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030. By Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Second of Two Parts Dr. Everett C. "Red" Martin Jr. arrived in France in September 1944 as a replacement officer in Company C, 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division of General Patton's 3rd Army. His first action was as an infantry platoon leader along the Siegfried Line. When the Battle of the Bulge ended, Martin's Company was back to where he started the war -the Siegfried Line. As related by Martin: "After the Bulge, we began a push against the retreating Germahs which brought us back to where I had entered the war, along the Siegfried Line. We were required to make our second crossing of the same river. This is always dangerous because you are exposed in an open area. "The Germans were in concrete pillboxes on top of the hill above the river with us at the base of the hill next to the river. As a result, all those German machine guns were firing over our heads. When they opened up it sounded like a printing press was in operation just above our heads. "When we finally pushed the Germans out of their dugouts and pillboxes, you could tell they had been there because of the smell. We all smelled bad, but their odor seemed worse than ours. When our tanks crossed the river, if there was a pillbox we couldn't take, our tanks would just cover it up, burying all within. "That was where I lost my Jeep driver, who was trying to get back to us with some much-needed.ammo and supplies. We had lost so many people from our company, but I was especially saddened at his loss." Company C had lost so may men that Martin, had been given a field promotion and was now the commanding officer of Company C. As he recalled: "We were formed into a task force which was designed as aquick-strike unit. We were composed of two tank companies and one infantry company, my Company C." One action involving Martin's task force occurred at a bridge on the Main River at Frankfort, Germany. Martin has a copy of a newspaper clipping that recorded the event. In the article that appeared in newspapers across the country was a statement from Martin sent to his parents in a letter. The statement demonstrated a central theme in his life. The excerpt from the article reads as follows: "Voicing the average American fighting man's belief '' in the power of prayer and trust in a greater power, Lt. Martin stated in a letter to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. E.C. Martin: `The Lord is with me and keeping me. It sure helps to have a Savior to share everything with."' The action described in the news article has the headline "Lt. Martin Leads GI's Across Main River in `` Germany." 'i According to Martin: "Our task force reached `, the Main River, which had tour bridges leading into ; Frankfort. The Germans had blown three of the bridges antl the fourth bridge, although still standing, was so badly damaged that our armor could not cross on what was left of the bridge. "It was to be the job of my company to get across that bridge and keep it open so we could take Frankfurt. The Germans had that bridge zeroed in with their ^~~~. artillery and mortar, and we lost a lot of men crossing , that bridge. I really appreciated our medics, who came '' onto the bridge to attend to the wounded and then stayed with the wounded. We managed to cross the bridge, and by nightfall we had captured a city block on the other side of the river. That night the 5th Infantry Division came through our lines and they ended up taking the rest of Frankfort." It was this act of leading his men across that bridge that inspired the newspaper report. It also was the reason he was awarded the Silver Star for valor in combat. "From that point on, our task force took quite a bit of German land that we later gave back to the Russians. The Germans were surrendering in droves. When our task force ran into Germans who wanted to surrender, we just motioned them in the direction our column came from. We didn't even take time to search them for weapons. We just kept rolling." At war's end in Germany, Martin, now a captain, was sent home. "On the way home I wondered what I would do with my degree and decided that I would return to school to become a veterinarian. I married Kay in 1948 and received my degree in 1950. Back in those days, the vet school gave away its services locally, so there were no local veterinarians. We moved to Jacksonville, Texas, in .Cherokee County, where I conducted my veterinary practice until I retired. I moved back to the homeplace here in Brazos County in 2003. "Looking back at the war and the losses we suffered, one might wonder why I survived without receiving a scratch. I think the Lord spared me so he could use me in his service." Because he was spared, Martin has been involved with mission work in Ethiopia, China, Brafil, Mexico and Belize and currently is involved in the prison ministry here in Brazos County. If you want to have a name added to the Veterans Memorial, for more information, to make a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 veteran whose story needs to be told, contacf the BWM at www. veteransmemorial. org or Bill Youngkin at (979J 260-7030.