Don's army history

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y 2 , 1996 at

Moon Lake

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f was drafted and went to Camp CaIian in Cali.fornia (La Jcita). We quarded the coast there wi th the art i I 1 ery quns Then tr was transferred to Ei Pas,:, Texas and there I was trained as an i.nf antryman. They put me as a BAR man. It's something on the order of a machine qun. lle always had f ive sr six hand grenades sn us and Learned how to prili the pirr and throw .

them" Before X was trained for ihe infantryrnen, f was rrn the art i 1iery guns arrd T drove ha i f - t. rack (a truck with froni wheels and has traeks on the back) " ThaL's

what hle move the biq rnri

th.

chcsen to

be

around

Wh

i 1e we

i"ras

9Orurr

That's h*w f a tank dr i rrer in Texar they

qlins uias .

transferred me into the infantrymen. We had to crawl through barbed wire in barricades. There were imitation mines during the first part of training. If you hit one, they would spray paint on you. They would fire machine guns but they were just tracers so you would not get injured. Then a week before I was shipped out, they run us through obstacle courses and then through the barbed wire and they had real anmunitlon. You had to crawl with your back packs on and stay down low so you wouldn't get hit. Then f was shipped to New York. f can't remember the camp that was there but they issued us all of our clothes and rifles (an M-1). Then they took us down to the ocean and made us jump off of the ship into the ocean with our pack and rif1e. That was scary! f went down into that sa!.t water and didn't know if T would get back up aqrain or not! You had to hold your legs together so it wouldn't split you in two. I seen that happen to one man. Then we hrere shipped out on the Queen Mary. When I was on the Queen Mary I was cailed to guard up on top of the ship. I was lucky because f got to eat separate because at times the guys would get sick and it would be a mess in the regular eating room! This was from sea sickness.

They served us in a separate dining room. I think we ianded in Belgium but f can't remember where the Queen Mary landed in Belgium speci.ficaliy. Then we were stripped to replacement camps. I had at least 50 close friends in that camp with me. There was one particular guy. He was quite an elderly guy (in fact, a Fiillbiliy).

He was kind of like a dad to me ali the way through training. He couldn't read or write so he had me write to his family for him.

Then I would read his letters to trim that he would get from home.

Anyway, him and around 50 real close

friends I never seen or heard from them after the repiacement camp. I don't know if they were kiiied or what. He was always gettin' in trouble for not keepin' his shoes on.

He said because of the type of guy I was, he wanted to check into my church.

I always had a word of prayer and i f anybody said anything, he would jump down their throats. It was quite a while, then, they come to me with the papers and said: "Go get in the tank."

The first place we went up to was Fort Mi edi

nq i n Wi esbaden-Schi erstei

Germany on

n

the Rhine River.

General Omar Bradley was over

the tank battalion.

Our orders

him. When I got in the tank there was the assistant driver, the machine gunner, the heavy gunner (we started with a 60mm gun, then urent to a 90mm), an artillery man for the machine gunner, a.rr artillery man for the heavy gunner and f was the driver and the captain over all in the tank. f and the assistant driver were protected by armor-piercing steel plate between us and the gunners and ammunition suppliers. There was the same thing came from

between the gunners and suppliers and the arnmunition. There were

15 tanks and we got a bridge built then moved up to Berlin. Time after time again, the infantry would get on our tanks and ride up.

Then every once in a while we were called to take out an enemy

pillbox with our

9Omm

machine guns.

We

would encounter strongholds

where the enemy had our infantrymen pinned down with hand grenades

or Bazookas and we wouid fire our

to knock them out. The only thing that could harm us tanks was if we would get a track knocked off and then we would be a sitting target for bombers. The Germans had a gun that was called the "Railroad Gun" that could blow us up. When it went over you it sounded just Like a steam engine. But they were so big they had to move them on railroad 90mm's

cars, so the 824 could rea1Iy bomb them. One stronghcild the Germans had (their last big one) was calted the Siegfried Line just outside of Berlin that was a huge concrete waI1 reinforced with steeI. The tanks could not get through so the 824 Bombers had to blow it open for us. So the infantrymen could not get over, there was ra.zoy sharp wire along the top. It was about five feet hiqh and ran aIi along Germany. They had several pillboxes throughout Germany that we had to put out of commission. One day the infantrymen declared that Berlin was taken so we moved in with our tanks. the machine gunner had the turret open to be abie to shoot any snipers that were left.

Some German threw a hand grenade into the turret.

Someone ye11ed, "Grenade!" and f believe the machine qunner jumped out. I can't remember much except men yelling and screaming and I saw a iot of blood. A piece of shrapnel came through the peekhole and got me in my right iet. The assistant driver didn't get

5

touched but everyone else in the tank was kiiied.

The last thing

f remember is when they declared BerIin taken for sure. We went to a gatherlnq place for tanks to gather. f got out of my tank and the next thing I can remember f was in a hospital in a straightjacket. This one doctor come in and counselled with me and told me my leg was okay and r realized how lucky r was that my iife was spared! f h,as transported back to the Wiesbaden army camp.

They took over this big German garage. Then I was T-Sergeant over mechanics driving tanks. I had eight men under me. They went to pick up ail these trucks and we wouid get them ready to ship back overseas. After a while they quit doing that and just would take bul ldozers and bury aI I these trucks and jeeps or just dump them in the ocean. I think they shipped the biggest share of the tanks back, or gave them to Belgium. Everything was destroyed in Frankfurt. There was nothing ieft standing! So the engineers establ ished a few bui ldings--especiai 1y an l"tP camp so they could guard the prison camps and the SS Troopers. All regular German army personnel had been released. Only SS Troopers were kept in the prlson camps. The SS Troopers were tried and many were executed. Some of the younqf ones such as serQleants, captains, lieutenants, had to appear in court and take oath that they would never form action against the United States or Russia or any other nation just Iike the Japanese did. f was assigned to clean out a small

b

just outside of Frankfurt. I was assigned to be an I"lP Serqeant over ten men. We were issued gas masks and chemical suits Each man was assigned five SS men to watch over and check on in the prison camps. So the ten men I was over had five SS men under each of them and we went into the rooms in the prison camps and had to clear out the bodies of men who had been sLarved to death that were stacked in bunks on top of each other. We had to check for dog tags. Some were American, some Russian, some BeIgium, etc. army personnel and some were Jewistr prisoners all mixed together in the same camps. They loaded the dead men on to trucks that would take them and dump them into big trenches that had been dug by bulldozers. If they had dog tags on them, they were identified by their countries so the families could be notified. But most of them were Jews. After we elot the barracks cleaned out we had to go through the *furnaces. We cleared the bodies out and then these furnaces were bombed and destroyed. In these furnaces were places with hammers where the SS men had hit the Jewish people over the head and

prison

camp

then had thrown them into the furnace. There were men, women and children of all ages. I was standing there and this one man called over to me, "Here'S an American!" He had been On the bottom Of a

pile of bodies we cleaned out. He was stilI breathing. He was skin and bones and could not stand on his own. We rushed him to a hospital but f never heard any more about him. The SS men were required to help with aIl of this cleanup. They were not issued any masks or suits. Even those of us who had the masks could only stay *Dad used the word, "furnaces"

as incinerators.

but he said they were the

same

thing

j.n the

buildings a short time before the stench would come through.

You would bend down to pick up a body and it wouid fall apart from decay. This camp did not have the gas chambers. They just used the hammers to kiil them first.

After we cleaned up this camF, i was released and sent home. I was never so happy in aii my l"ife to get back home and back in America and the freedom that we enloy!!! the German peopLe heated their homes in the winter? Their houses are built on top of the animaLs' barns. They put their cows, horses, goats, whatever, under their

Note of interest:

Do you know how

houses in these barns. The body heat fron'l t.he animals going

up

through vents is what keeps their houses warm. This is only in the

country. They had "honey wagons" that would come along and clean out tanks that held human waste and streams that held the animal was

te

.

at l"loon Lake in ihe High Uintah Mountains. ft was taken down word for word as told to Laraine W. Marsing (a daughter-in-1aw) by Danaid C. Marsing. Laraine and Don's son, Dennis, had just returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. where they vi.si'ued the Helocaust ]"{useum.

The preceding was recorded on the afternoon

of Juiy 2,

1996

a

Laraine asked Don if he would let her record some of his army experiences for his children and grandchildren. Thus this record

to be. Camping at l,loon Lake with many family members and friends has been a tradition in the l"larsing family for many years, spanning a few generations.

came

Additional statistics looked up after returning home: Drafted: I Jan L944 Departed overseas: 24 Jan 1945 Arrival overseas: 1 Feb 1945 - France Tank Battalion: 825th Tank Destroyer Battalion Company 'A' Highway AbIe

Departed Germany: 20 l'lar L946

Arrived in U.S. r 30 Mar 1946 - sent to Fort Douglas Dischargedr 7 Apr L946 - as Technician Fifth Grade

\

Additional History Grandpa related to his grandson Spencer one afternoon at Aunt Linda's house after Spencer got home from lraq:

After Grandpas training he departed to war during the Battle of the Bulge. He arrived in the winter months and told us how cold it was. He told us how he had seen some guys frozen stiff from being exposed out in the elements.

Grandpa also told us about an experience he had while guar,ding some of the SS. One of the SS men found out

that Grandpa was from Utah and took quite an interest in him. This particular SS guy who spoke English quite well told Grandpa that he knew all about Utah. He mentioned several cities including Ogden and some of the streets like Washington Blvd and even some of the smaller towns Iike Roosevelt. He also related several facts about the State to Grandpa. Grandpa was obviously quite surprised and asked him how he knew all this stuff.

The SS trooper said that he was going to be in charge of Utah when Hitler took over the United States.

\,VHEREAS the Army of the United States of America was unable to award the Purple Heart to Donald C. Marsing due to a Iack of information in their

military records, AND WHEREAS the above named veteran was truly wounded while in action on his tour of duty in Germany during World War II, AND FURTHER \{HEREAS said veteran was treated in a German hospital while recovering from the shrapnel wound received in a tank from an exploding hand grenade and then returned to \{iesbaden Army Camp, THEREFORE since Donald C. Marsing completed his tull tour of duty in the Army of the United States, having been wounded in action, and having received an Honorable Discharge, BE IT THEREFORE RES0IVED tlrat this tourteenth day of December in the year 2008, is declared by his family to be the day we honor him for his honorable military service to these United States, BE

IT FURTHER RES0IVED that we, the undersigned, his family, present him with this Purple Heart Pin in recognition of the wound we know he received in action during his service in World War II.

\,YITH

Att

OUR IOVE

Your Family,