Mr. Walter Driggs : “JUST DO IT”

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Mr. Walter Driggs : “JUST DO IT”

aaWobbelinWalter Driggs’ story must be shared in this lesson about “Getting It Done.” Mr. Walter Driggs lived in Mexico (Calexico, CA). We had several phone interviews and he sent me materials about his experiences in WWII, including a book about the combat history of the eighth infantry division in WWII. In the back of the book, he wrote me a note that detailed, “I was born on 4/16/1922. The first time that I read this after having it all this time was : 4/13/ 2002. I got the book in 1945.” Below his note, he wrote, “67 years.” I paged through the book before I thoroughly read it and I found certain parts with a highlighted yellow circle around them. I noticed Mr. Driggs’ handwritten notes above and to the side of some paragraphs.

From Mr. Driggs, I learned about the history behind an infantry division (a story behind the story). Walter Driggs’ story is one individual who was a part of the 8th Infantry Division of the American Army in WWII. However, the actual story of the 8th Infantry Division is a story that started long before WWII. I did not realize this about Infantry Divisions. I did not understand that there was a history that followed the divisions in each war. Again, I am not and was not a “military” history connoisseur, but in interviewing so many veterans, I became informed about military history.

In September of 1940, the 121st Infantry was inducted into Federal service at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, where on November 22, 1941; it replaced the 34th Infantry as a member of the 8th Division. The Old Gray Bonnet remains to this day the emblem of the 121st, as well as its Regimental song. “Faciendum Est” – “It Shall Be Done” – is its motto. The Infantry Division’s Regimental song perfectly places Mr. Driggs into this lesson: “just do it.”

Mr. Driggs served in Europe during World War Two. As time for the invasion of Western Europe drew near, the training program was expanded to include battalion and regimental combat exercise, command post problems, and the study of German tactics. Elementary amphibious training was given to all troops. As with many other veterans that I was privileged enough to meet, Walt’s sense of humor made me laugh. I mentioned, “You were at the Battle of the Bulge.” He responded, “Yea, I am still fighting it. You can tell by my waistline.” After his joke that took me a second to catch on to, Walt continued to explain his experiences at the Battle of the Bulge.

Over a million men, 500,000 Germans, 600,000 Americans (more than the number that fought at Gettysburg) and 55,000 British fought in the battle : three American armies, six corps, the equivalent of thirty-three divisions (three airborne, ten armored and twenty infantry). There were 81,000 American causalities. In its entirety, the Battle of the Bulge was the worst battle in terms of losses to the American forces in WWII. The battle began on December 16, 1944 and was declared over on January 25, 1945. It remains the largest land battle ever fought by the United States Army.

Wobbelin Camp

Mr. Driggs liberated a concentration camp called Wobbelin Camp. He sent me a copy of a newspaper from 1945. The German Edition of the Golden Arrow paper had pictures with scenes from Wobbelin Camp. I looked at the pictures and read their captions, “Emaciated corpses, heaped in piles, were discovered by Eighth Infantry doughboys when they took over the SS Wobbelin.” I lifted up the yellow sticky note attached to the paper to find a picture of deceased emaciated corpses. On the sticky note that Mr. Driggs attached to the paper, he wrote, “I was there. When you call, I will tell you just how it was.” There you have it. That is what I was doing in this project. While someone still could, I wanted him to tell me. As Mr. Driggs wrote, I wanted him to tell me himself just what it was like at the camp. I would have that newspaper in years to come, but right now, I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Driggs – to ask a man what it was actually like to liberate a concentration camp.

The article discussed how the deceased people from Wobbelin Camp were buried. Walt referred to Wobbelin Camp as “images instilled in my mind.” His company took over the SS Camp at Wobbelin – a concentration camp. Walt described the horrific experience as he said,

“The Germans did not feed the prisoners that were left alive after killing thousands of others. I can still smell the odors left from all the killed and dying prisoners. The horror of that place was beyond belief. There was a trench about 200’ long. The bodies were dumped there on top of each other without any dignity. There was a large room with showerheads above. This is where they killed prisoners in mass. Prisoners were told to undress because they were going to take showers, but instead they were gassed. After killing the people, the showers were used to clean up the mess. The prisoners that were still alive had to take the bodies to the furnaces. There were three large ones.”

The 82nd Airborne came in after Walt’s unit. Walt noted that they were shocked at the atrocities committed at the camp. They gathered local men to help remove all the bodies for identifications and proper burials. The newspaper article that Mr. Driggs sent to me explained it as, “Under the supervision of the Eighth Infantry Division, United States Army, by whom the surviving prisoners of the camp were liberated. God is our refuge and Strength.” Mr. Driggs was a member of the Eighth Infantry Division who helped liberate the remaining prisoners in the Wobbelin Camp.

Walt’s hearing was limited to one ear. To explain that to me he said, “When watching TV, it seems like the language is Greek or some other language. If it were not for the written message on the bottom of the screen, I would not get any news.” He joked, “The problem with my hearing being limited to one ear is that it drives my wife nuts. She thinks my only response is “What” and “Huh.””

Mr. Driggs also spoke of the causalities that he saw with his very own eyes. Walt started by telling me a story about one day when it was daylight and he was on the beach and saw something coming out of the water. He waded out into the water and noticed that it was what was left of a sailor. He described, “His face and eyes were gone and only one ear was left. I dragged him to the shore and then had to leave because there was firing up above. On his jacket was the name Bell.” Walt also shared another brief memory that would pop into his mind throughout his life. He could not remember where it was, but there was a time when some of his troops were frozen, “literally frozen,” he exclaimed. Seeing casualties, seeing “death” like that must have been something that was difficult for the at time “teenage” soldiers. Many decades and a well lived life after the war – the vets still vividly remember the causalities that they saw when they were in WWII.

These next stories are stories that Walt told me as he prefaced, “the following events are not in chronological order, but they are images I live with every day.” World War Two was seven decades ago. “Images I live with every day,” Walt paused …..  “That’s a lot of days.”

People Are Resourceful When They Need To Be

Mr. Driggs began, “we were at the back of a tank. There were about ten of us in all. The tank started to button up, so we knew that there was trouble.” There was a machine gunner and a German was throwing a hand grenade at Walt and his fellow soldiers. They all slid off the tank and went for a ditch that was next to them. Everyone made it into the ditch except for Perry. When he stood, he took the grenade in the stomach. He fell off the tank and Walt pulled him into the ditch. At this point, he was still alive and his intestines were spilling out. Walt then described, “I rolled him onto his back and his intestines were mixed in with his clothes. I cut his shirt away and gave him a shot of morphine. I put his intestines back in his stomach and sprinkled my packet of penicillin over his gut. I used his belt to help close the open stomach.” Still conscious he asked Walt if he was going to die. Walt told him, “Hell no!” About twenty minutes later, a medic showed up in a jeep and “we loaded him on a stretcher and I helped take him out of the ditch.” Before I could ask Walt if Perry made it, Walt shared, “I still wonder what happened to him? ….. Did he make it?”

You Don’t Want To Kill, But You Don’t Want To Die Either

Walt described an encounter that he and another G.I. (who was from Colorado) had with two German guards. Walt and the G.I. from Colorado were given orders to cross the Elb River and see what the enemy strength was on the other side. He explained to me that they both had lamp black out on their faces and took off anything (clothing, etc.) that might shine. He said that they did not have weapons, only their trench knife. He told me that they did not have weapons because if they were captured, it would be better for them. It was 2:00am when they were taken to the water’s edge and they were presented with a flat bottom boat with two paddles. Once across the river, it was two miles to the camp. I pictured that night during World War Two as Walt described, “There was enough moonlight to see.” They saw two white tents and there were two guards. Walt put his hand over the guard’s mouth, so that he would not yell out. The guard bit Walt’s hand and Walt could not get it loose. The other G.I. came over and stabbed the German guard to death so that Walt could get loose. Walt paused, then added, “I still have the scar where he bit me.” Before I could interject, Walt added, “What is really sad was that both of the Germans were only kids, about 12 or 13 years old.”

After serving in WWII, Mr. Walter Driggs lived a full life and he had a successful career. He personally built the Maintenance and Operations Section of the County’s sanitary sewer and drainage system. Mr. Driggs would never say, “I can’t do it.” I sat there with Mr. Driggs’ book (about the combat history of the eighth infantry division in WWII) in my hand, knowing Driggs would soon pass away like many others from his generation.

Having the history everyone had access to (what the books said), having had an interview with him, and his notations in the book that detailed his experiences in the Infantry Division, from these pieces, I had to now tell his story. I spoke to him and I heard his stories. I was privileged enough to have the opportunity to ask him my questions. He told me how it was. I now sit here with the newspaper from 1945 that he sent to me with his own handwritten sticky notes attached to the paper and I remember Chasing Time with Mr. Driggs a few years back. It was a brief opportunity to speak with someone who was at the Battle of the Bulge and someone who helped to liberate the Wobbelin Camp. I am glad that I seized the opportunity while it was available to catch Mr. Driggs’ story.

 

Victoria
Victoria
Victoria produced the film and wrote the book, Chasing Time. Victoria is a writer as well as a high school English and social studies teacher at a magnet school. She has a BA as well as three Masters Degrees (Language and Literacy, European History, and Italian). She is fluent in Italian. Currently, she is completing her PhD in Neuroscience researching similarities between contributing factors that lead to Alzheimer's Disease as well as Autism. She loves to learn, to read, to write, to travel, everything about Italy, and to meet new people and hear their stories.

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