R: Russell Corbitt P: Paul Corbitt

Russell Corbitt served in the United States Army from June 1944 to June 1946. He was a corporal in the infantry, serving as a machine gunner (.30 caliber water cooled) during combat operations and later as a motor pool driver when the war ended. He served in the First Infantry Division, seeing combat action in Germany and Czechoslovakia.

Beginning of Interview
I'm going to read a statement from the Army. My name is CPT Paul Corbitt. I am a student in the Field Historian Course at the Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth. I am interviewing Russell Corbitt on your experience during World War II. Today's date is 13 August 2015 and this is unclassified. If you have any information that you don't want to give to me, like anything that might be classified, uh, just leave that out. I don't know what that would be exactly.
P: Alright, what is your full name?
R: Russell Corbitt
M. Russell Corbitt. OK.
P: Where were you born?
R: Greene, County, NC.
P: What date were you born?
R: 8 month 5th day of 24.
P: You are 91 years old?
R: Right.
P: And what did you do before the war?
R: Farmed.
P: And you farmed in Greene County?
R: And Wayne County too, that way.
P: What kind of stuff did you farm?
R: Tobacco, corn, cotton.
P: At that time, um, during World War II, were they not taking farmers into the Army?
R: Yeah.
P: SO if you, like your brother for instance, he went in when he was about what, 27, 28?
R: He was 28 years old when he went in.
P: But they drafted him?
R: Yeah.
P: Did they wait several years to draft him because he was a farmer?
R: They probably did I don't know…they probably did.
P: And where were you when you found out about Pearl Harbor?
R: I don't remember.
P: That's alright.
R: I don't remember.
P: When you found out they were starting a war, what did you think about it?
R: I don't know. I was in Wayne County then.
P: Were you living in Wayne County?
R: Uh huh. When they drafted me too.
P: You were drafted…and you were in the Army. Do you remember when you entered the Army?
R: 24th day of June in 1944.
P: Right after D-Day yeah?
R: Yeah.
P: Where did you start first, where was your first posting?
R: Uh, what do you mean, basic training?
P: Yeah.
R: I took basic training at Camp Cross, SC.
P: Is that Fort Jackson now or was that near Fort Jackson?
R: No, they done away with it.
P: Do you remember much about basic training?
R: Yeah! (Laughs). We got there in August and it was cold, I know that. It was in the hills. Every way which you're going up a hill.
P: Were most of the people with you draftees too?
R: Yeah, everyone in there was drafted…with me. We was out on bivouac and uh, the day before Christmas they come out there and brought us in when that breakthrough come through. Brought us in and we stayed up all night that night getting ready to come home Christmas day for 5 days from there to New Years. Fort Meade, MD. From Fort Meade, MD to Camp Shank, NY. From Camp Shank, NY to Liverpool, England. From Liverpool, England to Le Havre, France. From La Havre, France to Germany.
P: How long was the boat ride?
G: Seven days.
Break///
G: It was seven days from NY to Liverpool, England.
P: What did you do when you got to England?
R: To England?
P: Yeah.
R: They unloaded us…put us on boxcars. Well, they put us on cars and carried us through England to South Hampton in England. Then they loaded us on LSTs and carried us over to La Havre, France and we spent the night in France in a pine thicket…and I’ll never forget it. They told us to touch not one of those trees. If you do, the United States has to pay France for it. And the next morning they loaded us on boxcars and carried us all the way through Germany, I mean through France into Germany.
P: When did you get to France, around what time?
R: Well France, we left, they carried us across….to start with, we were on the boat, on the LSTs (and) set out there two days on the English Channel. Then they uh, carried us over to France one morning and we spent the night over there in pup tents, the next morning they loaded us in boxcars…like a bunch of cows (laughs). And carried us all the way in Germany. We was in the Rhineland, I reckon is what you call it…and uh, we crossed uh, we'd take, because my outfit took Bonn, Germany, and when that outfit took that bridge down below us we was supposed to have crossed there. And that outfit took that bridge we went down there and they carried us across where they took that bridge. Then we relived that outfit that took the bridge. That was the first time I ever saw the Autobahn Highway.
P: This was in Bonn, Germany.
R: Uh huh. It was four lane and all…we didn't have nothing like that over here then.
P: That is where the (idea for) Interstate came from. Where was the first time you saw combat?
R: Oh (pause). First of February of 45.
P: Was that in Bonn? Bonn, Germany?
R: No, no that was way back there. Bonn, Germany was way later. Uh, it was right on the Siegfried Line. Between Germany and France. The pill boxes in the mountains. And they had the little holes about so big (shows with his hands the size) and they had the machine gun barrels sitting through them holes, the Germans did. They had electric, lights, water, all that in there. Every one of them would have a woman in it?
P: What was she doing in it?
R: I don't know if she did the cooking or what.
P: Interesting. Did you get to go inside one of them? The pill boxes.
R: Yeah I did. It was nice in there.
P: Nicer than living outside?
R: Yeah. But we had a guy in F Company that uh, when they pinned us down, and he crawled on his belly up there and took and shot that BAR and shot through the barrels of that machine gun and knocked them out.
P: That's pretty brave.
R: He never wore a helmet. He finally got killed. Yeah.
P: Did you see Panzer Tanks, Tiger Tanks?
R: Any what?
P: Tiger Tanks?
R: Oh lord yeah! I had some pictures of them, don't know what I've done with them. Yeah (with inflection), you ain't burden I did! When we were in Germany they sent me and (inaudible) over from where we was at…in a little village over to the town, and uh, those Tiger Tanks opened up on us. And I hit a hole and when it got a little bit dark I come back to the company and I looked and saw him and he was way up there in the road coming down the road running and all of the sudden he spent like a top. I said boy, they killed him. After a while he come in I said Shine, I thought sure they killed you, bout time, he said an ugly word, about time that happened I stubbed my toe. About time that shot they couldn't. When we crossed, went in that night, we went into a hospital. And the boy, the BAR man set up a table across the door like that. And them Germans would get behind that chimney over there and try to come in there, and he would have em’ stacked. And when we come out of there to set up little guns, the Germans, some of them were still moving down there. And I set mine up upstairs in a hall, in a hallway and I'd shoot out the back window. And I looked and there was a dag on Tiger Tank…coming up there. I hauled tail downstairs, to those boys I said "you better go before he'll tear it all to pieces." What happened though they shot it with a bazooka…and a bazooka, it might knock a track off…it don't blow up no dag on tank! And uh, I took off downstairs and about time I did he tore that thing all to pieces boy, I’m telling you.
P: He shot your building?
R: Yeah, he shot in them windows where that machine gun was.
P: This was a Tiger Tank?
R: Tiger Tank, yeah. The next morning, out on the street, and there was uh, one of them tanks, run up and down the street all night, and uh, we set up our gun, set up a gun, and a little ol' boy in there, nothing but a (inaudible). The bedrooms of that house, in the next room, and uh, a girl about 15, 16 years old and her mother was, I reckon it was her mother, was sleeping in the bed, and I, it was cold, I was about to freeze, I crawled right in the bed with em’ (laughs). Yeah, a lot of them boys mistreated them people but I didn't, I didn't. Uh, because they didn't want to fight any more than I did.
P: Especially at that time, at the end.
R: It was getting on with time and they wanted the war to quit. And we uh, we took, I don't remember if we took Bonn, Germany before that or not, but I was in the 18th Regiment and 18th and 16th met right on the ban of the Rhine River. And we stayed there about a week or so, and they were bringing in those things that floats on water you know, right on land and water, and we were supposed to cross there and that other outfit took that Bridge way down there and they loaded us up and carried us down there on tanks and mess and carried us across that river. And they come down the street like this, and they turn like that to cross that bridge…and when they turned there, up there boy, GIs would deal all up and down there, they cut em’ down. That night we stayed in them woods it was so dark you couldn't even see your hand in front of you, like that (shows hand). The only way, when we got ready to leave the guard would fall in the hole on top of you (laughs).
P: What kind of gun did you have?
R: We was a 30 caliber water-cooled machine gun.
P: Was that a two-man?
R: Well, two men had to tote it, one man shot it. It had a water tank with a pipe to the chamber to the gun and a water can if it got too hot you know. The gunner toted the tripod and the second gunner toted the gun, and uh, the first time we were going in, the boy who was named Stanton, I’ll never forget it, he had been wounded and come back up. They made him gunner…he was the only old man, all the rest were rookies. And uh, he sat down beside a tree and he shot himself through the leg. And Sergeant Meadows was the platoon sergeant and he took that tripod up and give it to me, said "you're a gunner now." But I was small, about two days later he took it away from me and give it to a feller big enough to tote it. And I got a spot on my shoulder right now where that thing took the skin off. But I’ll never forget that particular town that first time we'd take, had a trench, a tank trap that goes all the way around it. And when we crossed it they opened up on us and everybody got back in the tank track. When they finally got out - and I couldn't get out of the dag dem thing - somebody fell out and pulled me out, I don't know who it was, might of been a German, I don't know.
P: How deep was it?
R: Deeper than your head. So I took off running towards town, they had already left me, and that chain on that tripod was rattling you know…and uh, in town one of them Germans opened up on me and I throwed that tripod over my head on the railroad track and Sergeant Meadows heard me he come back and got me. Ain't no telling where I'd end up. And we dug a hole big enough that night - we carried TNT with us because the ground was so hard, froze - it would break the ground up to dig a hole. And dug a hole and took a bed stead down and put a top over it. And we weren't just a few minutes digging then - and I heard old Crow squaw, he hollered out. He said "Sergeant, I got it in the tail." I said "what happened Crow?" He said "I got a million dollar wound." I was shaking like I don't know what, and Sergeant Meadows ask me - he called me Kid - he said "Kid, are you cold?" I said "no, I'm scared to death. They pulled old Crow in there and put him in that, where we was at, and I took the flashlight and shined it and he had a strip across his hip about that long (9-10 inches), where a piece of shrapnel went across. He said "a million dollar wound!" (Inaudible) An old man about 45 years old come toting a (inaudible) wanted to skin him and eat him but they wouldn't let him do it. But he weren't nothing but a screw up - caused everybody to get in trouble. And that's why he was there, he'd screw up somewhere else and they sent him up there. (Pauses) After the war was over I had a good time, I enjoyed it. We went in the motor pool then. Me and the company SIG officer went all the way up, we didn't go to Berlin but we went to Munich, Nuremberg, Bayreuth and all them big cities. And I enjoyed it.
P: Did you end up at the Nuremberg trials, when they were trying the…
R: Yeah, yeah I went. Well, I spent about a week there in Nuremberg. See, the lieutenant that I was driving was on jury. And he was on jury, and we went up there and I stayed and slept, some boys, I don't know what company they were, another company I suspect, and he was on jury. And they had had machine guns setting on top of them buildings every which-a-way around there - tanks sitting there. Guard is what it was for, protection. But they had them in little stalls.
P: Like a little cage?
R: Yeah, little holes about that big…and the way they tried them, everybody sit way up yonder and they'd run them in a low place down there up in front of them, up top. But they had a little stall just big enough to lay down, just about that big. And they had an MP standing at every one.
P: Was there more than one guy on trial, or was it one at a time.
R: At that time they were trying just one at a time. They might have changed it later but at that time they were. I don't know, they were trying some General and he was commander of some out outfit you know. The big wheels were the ones they wanted to get to start with.
P: It wasn't Goering or one of those guys was it?
R: (Laughs) no. I don't know none of their names they were trying. I might of did at that time but I forgot now.
P: What do you remember about General Patton?
R: I remember most people hated him (laughs). That was the biggest thing.
P: Did you meet many generals?
R: I met two, a two-star and a one-star. At one time, there was a river they call Switzer River. It runs way down. And A Company tried to take, to cross that river that morning, and the Germans just about wiped them out. And he was up on a hill, and this one-star general, I won't never forget - his name was Hest. He stood up in that command car and said "we are going to cross that river tonight not but one man get on the bank on the other side." And he took off the other way. And they toted stretchers and mess like that all day in there, and boats. There wasn't a shot fired that night that we crossed it. But half of us didn't know how to paddle a boat, one of them turned over out there and it was COLD. It was in February,
P: You could swim though?
R: No, I couldn't swim. I can swim a little bit but not much (laughs).
P: You would've found out pretty quick huh?
R: Yeah (laughs). There were six to the boat.
P: Where were you at when you found out that the war was over?
R: In, Ukagraf, I mean uh, Einzel, Czechoslovakia.
P: How far is that inside of Czechoslovakia?
R: It was along the border of Germany. It was part of German-Czechoslovakia, Germany took it during World War I and they let them keep it. That is where they had them great big logs, as gates and mess. Because the woman that I slept there in her house, we stayed there in her house about a month or two, he brother was Mike Snow from Goldsboro (NC). He ran that shop up there. She wrote me a letter after I got home. She had two little boys. Her husband gave me a big knife and I gave it all away - I wished that I had kept all of it but I didn't.
P: Did you meet any Russians, Soviets while you were in Czechoslovakia.
R: I didn't meet any Russians. I met a lot of Englishmen. They came down after the war was over, they'd visit us and we sent men over to visit them. I didn't go over there. I went on a week vacation one time up in the mountains and that was on the border of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. There was a big post that big sitting on the corner of all of them. It was real steep and I took pictures of them and they looked like they were small sitting at the bottom, those boys skiing you know. That is where they tried to learn me how to ski and I found out real quick that I didn't want to learn how to ski. But that train that we went up on that day went through a mountain, all the way through the mountain and had a track in the center of it that pulled it. And that castle in there, they said it had gold door knobs, I don't know, I didn't go in it, but they said it was Hitler's summer resort. That is what they said, I don't know. But some of the boys went in there, I didn't go in it. I did go across one of those trolley cars across, over to another place over there, one of the cable cars. I thought about that thing, if it broke… (Laughs). And the only way you could get back was to go across it too.
///PAUSE///
R: The war ended that morning and they came out and told us to take the gun out of action, the war was over. And we got up town in Einzel, and you couldn't even get in the street there were so many people coming in. There was a field over there I bet you over a hundred acres, most of them were civilians, parked over there. And our job was to carry them back to different places. We had to. I was in motor pool then, and I’d escort them to different places. And I always wondered when you'd carry them there they'd put them in prison, in jail, when we'd get in those towns they'd put them in jail. They probably did that to sort them out you know. Probably did. A little lieutenant would go with us and we had buses we'd go on, civilian buses.
P: Did you see any of the concentration camps, what do you remember about that?
R: I don't remember but I went and saw them.
P: Was that in Czechoslovakia?
R: Yeah, there in Czechoslovakia there was one there and they about perished those people to death too. Now my brother, he was a prisoner for 42 days.
P: That's Albert?
R: Yeah.
P: How did he get captured?
R: Well, he got one of his testicles shot out. They sent him to the hospital, he was in a rifle company, and when he got out of the hospital they sent him right back to the front line. And the same day he went to the front line the Germans captured him and two more guys.
P: I guess that he couldn't run away from them?
R: And he stayed there 42 days. He weighed right at 200 pounds when they got him and right at 42 days he got back he weighed 125.
P: This was about 1944, end of 1944?
R: He got in as prisoner in 45. January of 45. When they got him out he went right back to the States.
P: He didn't have to go back…?
R: When he got shot, they took him out of the hospital and carried him back to the front lines. Right after he got to be prisoner they didn't. They were needing people then. When that breakthrough come over there and all that.
P: Why did they let him out of the prison camp? Did they do a prison trade?
R: Some outfit took the town and they took the prison camp too, the American Soldiers did.
P: Did you get shot or wounded?
R: No. I had the skin knocked off my leg (from a landmine) but I didn't turn it in. I sure wish that I had now. I could've got a purple heart and been drawing a check.
P: If you can find two people that saw it, you can get one now (jokingly). Albert (Russell's brother) he came back and had two kids in the same year, didn't he?
R: He got married in 46' and had three youngins in 48'. He got married in December of 46' and Charles Albert was born in January of 48' and Linda and Daniel were born in December of 48' (laughs). And didn't have but one ball!
P: That's all you need. You only need one.
R: He found that out. He was about 31 years old when he got married. He was 10 years old when I was and I was 21 when he got married so that would give him…
P: You got married the same year?
R: He got married, I believe it was October or December of 46' and I got married January the 3rd of 1947.
P: And when did you come home?
R: 6th day of June 1946. That's when they discharged me at Fort Bragg.
P: So you were there for about a year after the war ended?
R: I stayed over there for about a year after. We were occupation troops.
P: Where all did you go? You went to Germany, Czechoslovakia…
R: Well actually we went through England, France…I went to Poland, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. See Germany ain't no bigger than the state of Texas.
P: You were a driver right? You were driving a jeep?
R: After the war was over. I toted a gun and dag on ammunition during the war.
P: You weren't lucky enough to have the…So after, when the war ended in Germany, did you think that you might have to go to Japan?
R: They told us, everybody that had the amount of time that I had…to fall out the next morning and we would go back to the states…but the next morning they said "fall out the war is over." The war ended in August. That way we didn't come home. If they'd give us two, three more days we would be way across coming home. I'm sort of glad that they didn't now because I learned a lot…met a lot of people. There weren't many men over there. There was a strip in the Stars & Stripes over there one time that there women would ask the men to get them pregnant because they didn't have men. I read that in the Stars & Stripes. One time they had in there, the Stars & Stripes, this German woman went to see a company commander and wanted to know where her "night fighter" was. A black man had told her that he'd got a shot to turn him black to fight and when he got back to the states he'd get another shot to turn back white. And he'd come home and she'd wonder where he was at. That was in the paper over there…I read that.
P: After the war was over, were there any German civilians trying to fight, trying to kill Americans?
R: If they did I didn't know anything about it. They were so glad to get that thing over with…they were about ready to quit. Now we had a few heavy battles but uh, that last month we didn't have competition at all. In April they didn't. But in February and March there was some rough stuff then. We were in the Hurtgen Forest for a while…then we'd take Bonn and that bridge blowed up and all that. And I remember we crossed that bridge I dug a hole in an open field and there was a building where they put sugar beets for curing, keep them from freezing in the winter time…and I dug a hole right in front of that…and I dug that thing about so deep (about 5-6 feet). And this first lieutenant just come over there and they were shelling us, I mean they were shelling us one after another, he jumped down in that hole and laid down, scared to death. The next morning things calmed down and the company commander came down and said "who is that down there?" I said "I don't know, it’s a lieutenant." He made that lieutenant "get outta there!" (Laughs). He talked junk to him. Now we had a company commander that was a captain and a shell fell into the hole with him. That took care of him. Him name was Streeter.
P: You didn't have good luck with Commanders? You said that you had a couple of commanders who died right? Every commander that you had was killed?
R: I remember about 3 or 4. And then after the war was over we had a few little ol' first lieutenants and second lieutenants. And all come home and all we had was first lieutenants. We had one, he was a first lieutenant. His name was Aimes cause his sister was with the Red Cross over there and someone's hat blowed off or something and the one driving the truck backed over top of her and killed her. He was an old hillbilly, I mean he was. Good fella. Had one name Easley. I don't remember no other ones.
P: Thank you very much for your time and assistance with this project. You have a very interesting and unique perspective. Thank you for your service to this country.
R: And I thank you for your service.