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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJames W. "Wilbur" Bird, Brazos Valley HeroesBy Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle First of Two Parts The headline on the November 3, 1943, edition of the Caldwell newspaper read: "44 Burleson County boys killed, wounded, captured or missing in action." James W. "Wilbur" Bird of the Harmony Community of Burleson County was one of those `boys' missing in action but presumed captured. Bird and his battalion, or what remained of them, were captured by the Germans on September 13,1943. He would remain a POW of the Germans until the war in Europe ended in May 1945. Wilbur Bird now resides on the property he was born on and property that has been in his family for more than 100 years. As related by Bird, "I was born on our farm in 1919 and graduated from Caldwell High in 1938. Back then there wasn't much to do job-wise. I farmed, worked in a produce house, in a grocery store, any place that would hire me. "In 1940, a friend of mine who was in the National Guard suggested I join. He said the training was easy' and I could earn a few dollars each month. The last part was what appealed to me, so I joined. The enlistment was to be for one year, but in 1941 we were activated and sent to Camp Bowie near Brownwood, Texas. "I was near the end of my one-year commitment, and on Sunday, December 7,1941, I and a bunch of the fellows had climbed to the top of a hill outside camp we called Sugarloaf Mountain. When we returned to Camp Bowie, we were told about the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor. Iknew myone-year enlistment was about to be extended. I also remember thinking, `What does that little country think they are going to do with us?' "I was in the motor squad as the gunner because I qualified as an expert on the 60-mm gun. We trained for several months and on April Fool's Day 1943 the 36th Division, the Texas Division, boarded a ship to Africa. We spent 13 days at sea before landing at Oran, Africa. We were trucked at night to our bivouac area. I shared a pup tent with Ed Story, also from Caldwell. "When I awoke, the scene was beautiful with vineyards below the hilltop we were on. Ed hadn't awakened yet, but two Arab kids were sitting outside our tent. I threw some candy I had on top of Ed and those kids jumped on him to get that candy. Ed thought the Germans had already gotten him. "We trained in the Atlas Mountains for compass training and on a ship where we were trained for beach landings. Getting over the side of a ship into a landing craft in rolling seas is no easy job. If you didn't do it "We boarded ship for what we were told would be the invasion of Italy. I was part of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division. We knew we were to be the first Americans to land on European soil, we just didn't know where. "After being at sea for a couple of days we were awakened one morning at 3 a.m., fed breakfast and told to get into the landing craft to hit the beach. They told us,'When the ramp falls you will see the outline of some hills,' which was to be our objective. We didn't get much resistance to begin with except for some tanks we ran into. We made it to the top of what we were to take and hold. "On our way up the hills, we were walking in single files when two planes strafed us. We shot down the second one. It turned out the second plane was British and it was after the German plane that had attacked us. That pilot was boiling mad. But he wasn't the one getting shot at, we were. "After we got into our positions, our CO called all of the non-commissioned officers in for a meeting. He told us to have the men dig in because we probably would be facing an artillery barrage which would be followed by a tank attack with infantry. His last instructions were that we were to hold at all costs. We all knew that meant to hold until we were killed or captured. "When daylight came, I was still digging. I broke the pick I had because that ground was so hard. There were Germans on hills in front of us that allowed them to look down on us. That morning of September 13,1943, was pretty quiet, with just some refugees passing through our line. Then about 1 p.m. all hell broke loose. We were under continuous artillery barrage for the rest of the day. You knew if you stuck your head up, you were dead. "I remember thinking if we can make it to dark, then maybe we can get out of here. What we didn't know was the Germans had gotten behind our lines that morning. Being surrounded and isolated, we couldn't hold out and most of our battalion was captured by the Germans, to include our battalion commander." September 13, 1943, would become a date Bird would never forget. Next week: Bird's time as a POW and his escape to the American lines. James W. "Wilbur" Bird's name is found. on the Brazos Valley Veterans Memorial. 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 James W. "Wilbur" Bird died on Wednesday as this second half of his military history was being prepared. He was buried in the Masonic Cemetery in Caldwell on Saturday, under the direction of Strickland Funeral Home. ~We are printing this column today in his memory and because it is important to remember the veterans of World War 11 and the mighty deeds They did for this country. By Bill Youngkin Special to The Eagle Second of Two Parts On September 13, 1943, James W. "Wilbur" Bird, along with most of the men remaining alive in his •battalion, were captured by the Germans and would be held as POW's until near the end of the war in Europe. "The Germans walked us all night to some valley. We had no food or water along the. way. When we stopped, I had one package of orange drink and asked the platoon sergeant if he could find some water I would share it with him, which I did. "The Germans marched us for several days, but I remember one night they shot some goats so we could make a stew. I will tell you that stew was mighty good! Most of the time all we had to drink were grapes we picked from the vineyards nearby. Whenever we did find a well, we would drink the water using our helmets. "They finally loaded us on trucks and hauled us to a rail yard where they loaded us like cattle into boxcars. It was so packed you couldn't lie down. That first r>rght in the boxcars, our planes attacked that rail yard. You could see the tracks below our car being blown up. We were just hoping they wouldn't hit us. "We went through the Brenner Pass, and after several weeks of travel we arrived at Kirstenburg on the Oder River. The camp was called Stalag 3B. On the road the Germans treated us pretty well, but in the camp they treated us like dogs. What we lived for were the Red Cross packages. With those and what the Germans provided, we managed to not starve to death. "In the camp we formed a band, had a library and held church services which were performed by some of the guys. Some of the time some of the German officers would attend our services. "During the late winter/early spring of 1945, the Germans moved us out. We left Stalag 3B at night. We marched all night and all the next day in snow that was 6 inches deep. We spent that night in a barn. I dug myself a hole in the hay and slept warm for the first time in awhile. We arrived at another camp, I don't remember where, and stayed one night. They split us up each time we stopped. Our group ended up at the Buchenwald concentration camp. "Buchenwald was one of those concentration camps where they held the Jews and others, and it was loaded with lice. They said they would let us take a shower if the weather permitted. We heard the rumors about the showers being used to gas people to death. When they marched us into those showers we could see showerheads, but we also saw other nozzles. The doors were like the doors of an old ice house. We were worried, but they just used the shower nozzles to let. us get rid of some of the lice. As we were leaving, they were bringing in a group of women. I hope they got to shower and not the gas." . "We left the next day and by sundown all our guards had left. A friend and I decided to try to get back to our lines. We reached a river bridge that night and were stopped by German guards. When their lieutenant came and we explained how we got there, he took us with him. He fed us and let us sleep in his quarters on mattress beds. "The next morning, he sent a guard with a tommy gun with us to help us get back to our lines. We walked up on a roadblock guarded by two SS officer. They took our guard and his tommy gun behind some building and told some old German men who were sitting there to watch us. When they left, we took off running. We hadn't gone very far when we heard that tommy gun go off. We knew they had killed our German guard. "At one stop we ran into some other POWs. We found some old bicycles and rode those bikes to where we thought the Americans might be located. When we got there, we found Russians. They gave us food but took our bikes. We were worried they weren't going to let us leave when we heard a tracked vehicle coming and saw the white star of the U.S. Army. "When thatAmerican officer saw us, he pulled over and we all Ibaded on board. At our lines they de-liced us and put us on a plane to Rheims, France, where I got a hot shower and my first set of new clean clothes in almost two years. God, that felt good! "They sent us home as fast as they could and I was discharged shortly after the Japanese .surrendered. I had married before I left for the army and now had a son. I. had several jobs after I was discharged, until my wife and I started a daycare business in Austin in the late 40's which we expanded until we sold in 1982. We moved back to the farm and my wife died on September 13, 2002, the same day I was captured in 1943. "Thinking about those times, I often think about that German soldier the SS guys killed and I think about my time as a POW. It was a tough time, but I never lost hope." 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 1l veteran whose story needs fo be told, contact the BWM at www. veteransmemorial. org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260-7030. Honoring veterans The 36th was the first t l onoring the memory of J " o and on continental Europe, liberated the first European capital ames W. Wdbm-~~ Bind and thousands f - Rome -and fought its way up o other officers and men who served in the 36th (Texas) Infantry Divi i the Italian Peninsula. In late summer, 1944, the 36th s on in World War II is the goal of this letter. The division was aNati landed in the invasion of south- ern France. Combat, often fierce, on- al Guard unit. My hope is to help o took it northward through France and then across th Y unger generations to appreci- ate the fact that as the truth e Siegfried Line and southern Ger- , goes, "freedom is not free." B many into Austria. By VE-day in May 1945, the division had ca razos Valley Heroes in The Eagle on Sundays relates m i p- tared top Nazis, including Reich- ov ng stories from veterans. Thanks for b marshal Hermann Goring, who had been chosen as Hitler' pu lishing these. Atop the second half.of Bird s story (Eagle Mar h s suc- cessor, and 175,000 "official pris- " , c 16) was the simple notation that he "died on Wednesday." oners of war. HENRY L. ALSMEYER h R At the end of World-War II the ~.,~. ran , 36th Infantry fought its way into Bavaria and Austria. Many were not there for f"mal roll calls. A World War II Army division had at any one time, as I recall, more than 10,000 officers and men • . Nearly 6,000 men of the 36th `.. gantry were killed. Men from across the U.S. joined the divi- sion as replacements for combat casualties endured by what origi- nally was the "Texas Army." A total of 12 units of the 36th Infantry received Presidential Unit Citations, and 15 officers and men received the Medal of Honor: Eighty others received - Distinguished Service Crosses , and many others received lesser combat honors. 1