Lakewood WW II Veteran Had Large Impact On Defeating German Army

At the age of 90, Lakewood World War II veteran Allan Emmons can recall conquering the German empire to the smallest of details.

He was a masterful communicator, serving his country as a radio code operator. Emmons was considered a scout, because they were positioned a couple miles ahead of their division gun batteries.

Emmons – who was in the 91st Infantry Division – breathed in life and exhaled near death while under constant fire against the German army in Italy.

"There was ammunition flying all over the place," Emmons said.

Emmons was always ahead of the heavy artillery, which consisted of 105mm, 155mm and 8-inch rounds and more. He also pinpointed the location of German forces so planes like the L-9 Piper Cub knew where the enemy was.

But on April 25, 1945 Emmons' greatest single decision came when a German convoy awaited on the other side of the Po River, which is located in the Cottian Alps in Italy.

An L-9 Piper Cub plane reported a German truck convoy on the other side of the river. The bridge had been destroyed by the Germans.

His captain said their guns were on the road behind them but Emmons knew there was a battery of 155mm Long Toms about 100 yards from their location.

Emmons' heads-up thinking helped take out the entire convoy.

Just four days later on April 29, the German army in Italy surrendered. Emmons and his wife (name) believe he deserves a Silver Star as a result.

"This war would have continued for another three weeks," Emmons said.

He was one of two out of 125 operators in the Seattle/Yakima group to enlist, rather than being drafted. Emmons didn't have to risk his life to eliminate Germany forces.

Having been retired for 33 years, he still wears that same level of passion for his country.

"I wouldn't miss that war experience for nothing," he said.

At the age of 90, Lakewood World War II veteran Allan Emmons can recall conquering the German empire to the smallest of details.

He was a masterful communicator, serving his country as a radio code operator. Emmons was considered a scout, because they were positioned a couple miles ahead of their division gun batteries.

Emmons – who was in the 91st Infantry Division – breathed in life and exhaled near death while under constant fire against the German army.

"There was ammunition flying all over the place," Emmons said.

Emmons was always ahead of the heavy artillery, which consisted of 105mm, 155mm and 8-inch rounds. He helped pinpoint the location of German forces planes like the L-9 Piper Cub knew where the enemy was.

But on April 25, 1945 Emmons' greatest single decision came when a German convoy awaited on the other side of the Po River, which is located in the Cottian Alps in Italy.

An L-9 Piper Cub plane reported a German truck convoy on the other side of the river. The bridge had been destroyed by the Germans.

His captain said their guns were on the road behind them but Emmons knew there was a battery of 155mm Long Toms about 100 yards from their location.

Emmons' heads-up thinking helped take out the entire convoy.

Just four days later on April 29, the German army in Italy surrendered. Emmons and his wife (name) believe he deserves a Silver Star as a result.

"This war would have continued for another three weeks," Emmons said.

He was one of two out of 125 operators in the Seattle/Yakima group to enlist, rather than being drafted. Emmons didn't have to risk his life to eliminate Germany forces.

Having been retired for 33 years, he still wears that same level of passion for his country.

"I wouldn't miss that war experience for nothing," he said.

Allan Emmons' experiences during WW II in Europe

This story was written by Allan Emmons and published by The Tacoma News Tribune on May 22, 2008.

I was a young telegraph Operator for the Northern Pacific Railway here in Tacoma just before Pearl Harbor and also interested in radio code operation. I was deferred for a while handling troop trains and war materials for the NP Railroad, but ready to enlist by July 1943.

My military training began at Camp Roberts, Calif. with the big guns, 155mm howitzers. I was good at math so they made me "gunner."

It was Thanksgiving day and training was over. We were put on a train and a few of (us) were were unloaded at Camp Adair, Ore. We were placed in Headquarters Battery, 91st Infantry Division. This was a communication battery for the division gun batteries. We had a brigadier general in our outfit, Gen. Hospital. Gen. Ralph Hospital. (Oh, come on) No, that's the truth. He was in World War I, a Native American and commander of a field artillery regiment in France.

Little did we know that we were going to be stationed about 2 miles in front of our division gun batteries when we went on line in Italy.

We left Camp Adair on March 9, 1944, by trains that were all Pullman sleeping cars. Each train had about 20 cars each heading north. At Tacoma, Wash., we took an eastbound route over Stampede Pass on the old Northern Pacific rail line and continued east through Chicago and Washington D.C. To camp Patrick  Henry at Hampton Roads, WA. We were there in assembly area by the docks.

We were transported to the deportation dock the evening of March 15, 1944. Our HQ Battery consisted of 125 men -- 11 enlisted and 15 officers. We were the communication battery for the gun batteries, message section, wire section, metro section, radio section and the officers, the brigadier general, a couple of colonels, majors, captains, lieutenants and two chaplains.

We were lined up on the dock in front of our ship at parade rest and Capt. Hunter made a farewell-to-America speech. I remember it all too well.

"Men, we will be going into combat and as Headquarters Battery for our firing batteries, most of our positions will be in front of our gun batteries. It is up to our unit that they are effective. We know we are going to lose some of us, some killed and some wounded. I can even give you a prediction of about 10 percent. So we don't know who, but we do know how many, pretty close. So your chances of getting back home are not all that bad. Now from a double line and we will board the shop." Below deck we were stacked five high, and jam-packed in the hold.

We left Hampton Roads on March 15, 1944 and arrived 18 days later at Oran. Algeria, in North Africa. Oh man, it was a rough ride and one storm we went through the waves came up to the bridge. Our Liberty ship was loaded down to the gunnels and water was washing over the deck most of the time. Most everyone on board was seasick. I never have been seasick so I positioned myself at the bow almost every day.

Our convoy consisted of 125 ships moving at eight knots. We finally entered the Mediterranean Sea and calmer water, past the Rock of Gibralter debarking at Oran. The country and air smelled musty.

The local kids hung around our camp and would steal anything they could get their hands on. One item they all wanted was our blue laundry bag with the tie string on top. They would cut two slits in the bottom an make trousers out of them.

We did more training in Africa. We were there a month. We then boarded an old Polish ship and headed for Italy. The ship was awful and dirty. It had been used to transport prisoners to different parts of the world. A lot of us came down with ringworm. The boat was full of worms. We had C rations on board. Thank goodness. We were to be sent to Anzio, Italy, but on the way the 36th (or 38th) Division broke through and we were diverted to Naples, Italy, and put in the line just north of Rome the first week of July.

Our radio truck and the kitchen truck were moved into combat position first. Little did we know that we were under German observation and they were watching us set up. We chose kind of a flat rolly-polly position. Our radio truck set on a knoll and a couple of hundred yards to our left the kitchen truck and crew were setting up. It was a batter target than our truck. The German gun batteries waited for a bunch of men around the kitchen truck then there in a couple of rounds of 88s. Our kitchen truck was destroyed, the water barrels for washing mess kids were full of holes, the lister bag was shredded and equipment in the area was full of shrapnel. But amazingly, not one of us was hit. This was our baptism by fire, our general told us. What was left, we moved out and farther behind real fast. Our first day of combat did not go well at all. Our HQ Battery and our radio truck set up camp farther back in a more secure position, but still in front of our gun batteries.

Our 91st Division went right down the middle of Italy and we kept pushing the Germans farther north taking Florence, San Gimenano, Pisa, Laverno and dozens of smaller villages on our way up Highway 65.

We had too many radio operators in our section and that was me. I was a spare. Capt. Hunter sent me down to Florence to our Piper Cup airstrip that was set up in the race track. They needed another cook. I still had a private first class rating. We did well with what we had to work with, and the boys had lots of beans, french toast and whatever we could put together. I was there until about the first of September. One day Bill Mauldin, the Army's Stars and Stripes newspaper cartoonist stopped by and we had the chance to meet him.

Our radio truck took a close miss, within a couple feet by an incoming 88. Our driver, Paul Clark, was killed, radio operator Chester Horton got a piece of shrapnel in his back, Sgt. Sercie was also hit and our truck, an oversize 4x4 with a canopy and seats on both sides in the truck bad was blown upside down and totaled. So I was called back up to the front for the duration of the war. I was also awarded HOrton's T-5 rating as he was sent back to a hospital in the States.

In October 1944 our 91st division kept working up Highway 65 farther north and driving the Germans into the Alpine Mountains, about 35 miles north of Florence. There, 5th Army Gen. Mark Clark ordered that we hold position for the winter. Our HQ Battery dug in to some shelled-out tone houses. We were eon the southeast side of Mount Adone and behind some hills so we were not in the German direct line of sight, but we were to be target for the German guns all winter.

Our gun batteries were a couple of miles to our rear and we were holed up all winter in theses shelled-out stone houses. On one side of Highway 65 and two on the other side of the road. We backed our radio truck up to a hole in the wall and we radio operators were on duty four hours on and four hours off, 24/7. We had a fireplace in the little room we occupied, but couldn't use it. We rigged up a 5-gallon GI gas can, drilled a hole at the bottom and rigged up a copper tubing to an empty two-quart coffee can, dilled it with sand and we managed to get a little fire out of it. WE got that idea from some lymies. That's how they made their tea.

Fifth Army High Command HQ wanted the German divisions kept in Italy, and we were the bait. This was so the opposing German divisions would not get into France. WE were under artillery fire almost daily day, but only near misses. One day the Krauts threw a couple of 88s into us and Pfc. Green and I dove into a pit down down a few stairs. A hunk of shrapnel went through an oak door and hit Green in the helmet. I was standing right next to him. It made a big dent in his helmet but didn't go through. That one was too close.

One day some of our men that the general thought were not doing enough were given a duty of filling sandbags. They were under observation, and the German artillery threw in an 88. One of the wire crew boys had his jacket shredded but just a very small wound across his back. Can't think of his name right now. He told us in private that the general could fill his own sand bags.

Our radio section's job was to always monitor the radio, night and day, and especially to maintain contact with our observation planes, Piper Cubs, and forward the fire missions to our captain, Capt. Hunter, would select a gun battery to fire the missions. Our radio transceiver was VHF and every night we changed frequencies, around 170MHZ with plug-in crystals. At night we used Morse code for our metro section for windage and other information pertaining to our gun batteries.

Sunny Italy was not sunny at all. We were in mud most of the time and when not mud, snow. We were in 3 feet of snow at this winter position and during January it got down to zero a few times.

April 12, 1945, the day President Roosevelt died, was the day our infantry boys were to make the big push up Mount Adone and our drive to get those Germans out of there. Around midnight every big gun we had opened up on the mountain. We dropped 3,911 rounds of 105 mm, 155 mm and 8-inch rounds. The Lymie boys brought in twelve 8-inch guns to support our barrage. This was awful, and so close to the end of the war, too. The next morning, Capt.. Hunter said to us, "you radio section men take the radio truck up to the top of Mount Adone and let u know what's up there. The engineer crew have swept some of the rut road for mines." Sure, our radio truck was always on the point. We were the first truck to go through there. Somehow, we missed the mines, but our wire crew truck behind us wasn't so lucky. They were blown to pieces and the crew either killed or arms and legs blown off. Our infantry boys killed were all over the mountain, and so were the German boys. When we got to the top and there was a crew stacking our boys on one side of the road and German boys on the other. Pretty ugly sight. One infantry boy was dead and hanging over a barbed wire fence. Hard to forget sights like that.

Our infantry regiments pushed the German 65th division down the mountains and onto the flat lands and to the other side of the Po River. Our HQ Battery was not too far behind, but as usual, our radio truck and section was right in front with the tanks. The while town of Bologna was out to greet us and we got the flower-and-wine bit and the whole grand entrance thing. I remember our little radio truck, always first again, was sandwiched in between two tanks inching our way through people going through town. We tried to pass a tank in front of us on the right side when we got to the open and the tank pushed us off the road and we almost rolled over in the ditch. Scraped the driver side up a bit, but we pushed on.

We got our truck in with the infantry boys. This was real messy. There were scattered Germans laying around, dead, dead horses, shot up German vehicles and some just out of fuel. Our HQ Battery and all of our gun batteries were, I guess, a mile or so behind us. German soldiers were surrendering to our infantry and we drove our radio truck forward and parked it in a grape vineyard on the South side of the Po River and threw a camouflage net over it.

The Germans blew up the bridge over the Po River, so we stuck until the engineers could put some pontoon bridge together. During the night a battery of four 155mm Long Toms moved in about 100 yards or so from our position. WE did not know they wer there, and how not our 91st Division guns. Never did find out what outfit they belonged to, but they surely came in handy in the morning.

The next morning, I was on duty n the radio truck. I twas April 25, 1945. Our observation pilot, manning a L-9 Piper Cub plane, came on the air, very excited and said, "Net control, we have a German truck convoy, bumper to bumper, on the other side of the river and we can take out the whole convoy. Looks like they are about ready to take off."

Real quick, I got on the phone with the battery Commander, Capt. Hunter, Captain, we have a German truck convoy just across the river, about ready to leave." He said to me, "We can't fire that mission, all of our guns are on the road behind us." I said, "Captain, there is a battery of 155mm Long Toms just a hundred or so yards from our radio truck." So from there our captain took over and got in communication with the gun battery and with my getting things going with the observation plane we took out the whole convoy. Two days later the German division surrendered. I have pictures of them being marched up four abreast when we got on the other side of the river. We totaled out their trucks, guns, ammunition and horse-drawn artillery. I have one picture of the convoy that we destroyed, not a very good picture, but some proof. Most of the Germans scattered to live another day. The Germans were surrendering by the hundreds, 800 just in one bunch. And we had to round up Italian men to help us keep them under control.

Our 91st Division and the 10th Mountain Division got in behind the remaining German divisions and the whole of the German army in Italy surrendered on April 29, 1945.

When we got on the other side of the Po River, and with our infantry regiments busy rounding up the German division, our captain asked our radio section to "get out of there and see what's out there." Here we go again, out front. And I mean really out front. Our radio truck was the first American vehicle to go north of the Po River. We expected to get blown up at any minute. After a few miles north, maybe ten or or twelve, we drove into a farm yard and the farmer came running out of his house, yelling, "vine qui, vine qui." He motioned us over to a haystack and pulled it aprt. Here was vino, about 10 gallons, hidden in the haystack. So the four of us go to our mess kit cups and he said, "No, no, per voi." And he loaded it in our radio truck. He saved it for the first Americans. That was us, the radio section, 91st Infantry Division Artillery, HQ Battery.

We got in touch with our military by radio and let them know everythign looked clear up this way and that evening the rest of our batery pulled up with us. Next morning we headed north. Every 55 minutes on the road our HQ Battery convoy would make the rquried rest stop. This was known as the "piss stop" regulation convoy stop. We would all unload and standing next to our vheicl eon the right side, with peter in hand, relieve ourselves. Might as well throw that little item in. It is a regulation thing with army convoys.

There wasn't much opposition until we came into Travaso and a little small-arms fire there but no damage. We holed up in some empty houses. There was a trail of fresh blood from an upstairs window and down the steps. Someone got shot just before we arrived. We were told to hold our position there at Travaso and wait for instructions. We were there until May 8 waiting for further instructions from division headquarters. The war was officially over on that date.

We loaded up and took off for our new HQ site. Capriva, Italy. We moved into the "Castle," the former German High Command Headquarters of Mediterranean theater of operations. The place was fantastic. It had about 30 rooms and we stayed there for the duration of our occupation duty which was July 25, 1945.

In the conference room were hung Michelangelo and other masterpiece paintings. We had a relaxing time and did a lot of sightseeing day trips in northern Italy. One day we had a visit from Primo Canero, the heavyweight boxing champion of that time. He lived in Udine, a short distance from our location. I put my hand in his and my fingers didn't even reach up to his. He was a giant of a man.

Being a radio operator, I set up loudspeakers in the courtyard and played records of the Andrew Sisters, Frank Sinatra and other greats of the times to pass away time when not busy doing chores. One day we were all ordered out to the courtyard in our best uniforms, and two-star Gen. William Livesay drive in. What's going on? We all stood at attention while Gen. Livesay pinned the Silver Star and Bronze Star medals on Gen. I Hospital's tunic. Geez, big deal. Here all of us were taking care of this guy all this time. Sandbagging in his motor home on every location change etc.

I had a nice girlfriend in town that did our laundry, sewing and pressing our uniforms. I paid her with soap and candy bars. One day when I saw her by the town water pump, she had a bad cut on the heal of her foot. I hauled the water buckets up to her house and then went back to th CAstle and got some sulfa powder and bandages for her foot from our medic. After that she called me Doctoro Allando. Real sweet girl. Spent a lot of time with her.

About 10 of us were selected to psend 10 days at the Lake Como resort. This was great and a first-class place located near the Swiss border and in the Italian Alps. Others in our battery were sent to other resorts in northern Italy. On antoehr occassion we had a truck go to Venice. That was a great day, too. Lots of pictures and toured the canals in a gondola just like tourists.

July 25. Time to load up. Our 91st Division was selected to go to Japan, as were a full-strength division, of about 15,000 men and equipment. Some of us were to go by train and the rest by trucks to Volterna, in southern Italy for departure to the USA.

Three of us radio section men were assigned as guards on one of the passenger baggage car heaped with duffle bags. No bunks or windows. WE were just to do the best we could and with a couple of boxes of "C rations" tossed aboard. As our train slowly moved out of Udine, a young girl was running beside our baggage car, yelling "Napoli, Napoli, grazi." Well now, we halted her aboard. Not supposed to do that, but...you know. She was great company on the way down though. Think she was pregnant...If not probably was when we let off at Naples. Hey, not me.

Took a couple days to get down to the lower end of the boot. There we killed a little time waiting for our ship. We spent more days on the beach. One day I was assigned to stand guard over a couple German prisonersthat were digging a sumphole for us. Couple of nice boys, I tossed them each a Coke and a couple of cigarettes. And for the first time, the thought went through me, "Hey, these are nice guys, I wonder why we killed so many."

Aug. 8 and the headlines in the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper, "Atomic bomb destroys Hiroshima." Whatever that is, we didn't know.

"We were boarded on our ship, the LaCross Victory, about Aug. 30, 1945. We were so loaded that there was no room for a couple hundred of us to get in the ship so we had cots topside. All the way across. ON Sept. 2, as we were passing the Rock of Gibralter, it was announced over the ship's speaker system that Japan had surrendered. We arrived in Boston Harbor Sept. 8 to a big fanfare dockside. Well, I guess so. Girls were handing out ice cream. That's the first we had in a couple of years.

We were transported to Camp Miles Standish outside of Boston to await our rail transportation to Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis McChord). That was a wild ride. We were loaded in a sleeper, wartime, a Pullman car with vertical bunks. Not much better than a box car. Guess we had about seven cars in our train to the West Coast. I remember out of Chicago we were 12 hours behind the Empire Builder and we came into Seattle on their block. At Fort Lewis we were allowed to go home for a month's leave. Then we were sent by train, this time in genuine Pullman cars to Camp Rooker, Ala., for a formal discharge by our division commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Livesay. All 15,000 of us lined up on the parade grounds as the general said goodbye.

We were there three days and give our honorable discharge and 300 bucks cash, and told to find our way home. I made it home by train, no Pullman this time, to Tacoma, Nov. 23, 1945. I turned 88 on Feb. 27, 2008. I've had a great life and wouldn't have missed the Army experience for anything. But I was awful lucky to have made it all the way back home. Lost some of my good Army friends. It's always a shock when one is killed.