Here’s My Heart A LEGACY OF LOVE AND WAR Leigh W. Callan Copyrighted Material Ah, love, let us be true Here’s My Heart: A Legacy of Love and War To one another! for the world which seems Copyright © 2015 by Leigh W. Callan To lie before us like a land of dreams, All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means—electronic, So various, so beautiful, so new, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without prior written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, a review. Nor certitude, nor help for pain, For information about this title or to order other books and/or electronic media, contact the publisher: And here we are, as on a darkling plain RiverMont Press, LLC 3 Central Plaza, #166 Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Rome, Georgia 30161-3233 Web address: www.rivermontpress.com Where ignorant armies clash by night. —Matthew Arnold To contact the author: E-mail: [email protected] “Dover Beach” (1867) Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950984 ISBN: 978-0-9967381-7-0 Printed in the United States of America Cover and Interior design: 1106 Design, Phoenix, AZ To loved ones separated by miles and duty: May you stay connected for all time through the written word, allowing your story to touch generations of family yet to come. Contents Foreword..........................................xi Preface ..........................................xix Prologue Before War, There Was Poverty .......................1 Call to Arms .....................................7 Part I: The Stateside Story Of Love, Marriage and Combat Readiness Letters from November 26, 1942, through October 5, 1944 Chapter 1 Early Courtship .......................13 Chapter 2 Becoming an Officer ....................35 Chapter 3 The 2nd Lt. and His Lady................49 Chapter 4 To Marry or Not to Marry? That Is the Question ....................57 Chapter 5 Self-Doubt Creeps In ................... 61 Chapter 6 Bare Soul, Open Heart .................. 69 Chapter 7 Reversal of Fortune.....................77 Chapter 8 Together, Yet Still Apart .................85 Chapter 9 Separated Again ....................... 95 Chapter 10 Moving Out ......................... 105 Chapter 11 Deployed............................ 109 vii Here’s My Heart Contents Part II: The Overseas Story: England–Belgium–Germany Chapter 27 Definitive End—The A-Bomb ............ 369 Of Deployment, Combat and Victory Chapter 28 The Waiting Game Intensifies ............377 Letters from October 5, 1944, through June 11, 1945 Chapter 29 Homeward Bound .................... 399 Remembering Fall 1944 .......................... 116 Epilogue ........................................401 Chapter 12 On Foreign Soil....................... 117 Author’s Notes ...................................405 Chapter 13 In England Waiting for Mail............. 139 Chapter 14 Crossing the Channel .................. 155 Chapter 15 In France Awaiting Combat Assignment.... 159 Chapter 16 In Belgium during “The Bulge” ........... 165 Chapter 17 Coping in the Ardennes ................ 181 Chapter 18 Respite in Verviers, Belgium . 211 Chapter 19 In Germany The Roer Pocket ...................... 243 Chapter 20 The Rhine at Remagen The Ludendorff Bridge ................. 249 Chapter 21 Rest and Recreation on the Riviera........ 269 Chapter 22 Back to Duty......................... 275 Chapter 23 Victory in Europe Tour of Buchenwald ...................285 A Story from the German Side......................302 Chapter 24 The Aftermath and Mopping Up .........305 Part III: The Overseas Story: Southern France Of Post-Combat Assignments and the Agonizing Wait for Passage Home Letters from June 19, 1945, through November 15, 1945 Chapter 25 Whither Hence and When?..............343 Chapter 26 Staging Down ........................ 361 viii ix Foreword M any things define a person. Looking at rem- nants of my father’s life, I found much material to sort through, including letters, scrapbooks, souvenirs, photographs and Dad’s unpublished written memoir. In prioritizing and collating the material, I have come to know my father, Doyle Kennedy Whittenburg, in ways I did not while he was alive. What began three years after his death as a compilation for family posterity has revealed far-reaching truths. These things defined him: His own father died in 1928 when Dad was eleven; his mother was left to raise five children through the Great Depression. She raised them well. He loved, respected and honored her throughout his life. He was a lieutenant during World War II (WWII) serv- ing in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). His antiaircraft artillery (AA or AAA) unit earned three battle stars, one each for the Ardennes Campaign, the Battle of the Bulge, and defense of the bridgehead at Remagen in the Rhineland Campaign. He processed the significance of his role in world his- tory for the rest of his life, telling his war stories over and over again. xi Here’s My Heart Foreword He loved a woman completely and steadfastly for 63 accurately remembered. The details revealed by letters and memoir years. He gave her emotional and physical support in about his circumstances, environment and human experience pro- caring for their children and home. Few women have vided a roadmap for my brother and me. We followed our father’s been loved the way he loved her. track, sleeping where he slept, praying where he prayed, bathing where he bathed and meeting people he met and remembered for He supported his three children in every endeavor and the rest of his life. was immensely proud of his family and his home. He My mother’s voice and presence in the story is strong. Indeed, it was generous of spirit if not of material things. is her story as much as my father’s, although in the early stages of He was an ardent observer of nature and, having much this project, her presence was largely inferred through his responses insight about even the smallest of events happening to her letters. None of her letters survived, because he was unable around him, always eagerly shared his observations. to keep them during the hazards of war. Now past her ninth His guidance fostered in us the same curiosity, steering decade, she has actively participated in this project by sharing her us toward our careers. own memories. I am fortunate to have her by my side to answer questions and make clarifying comments. On my request, she has The majority of my father’s story is told in his own words through written her own memoir chapters from the home front perspective, his letters to my mother during the war years. Therein is a compre- helping to complete and greatly enriching the narrative as a whole. hensive story representing any US soldier training for combat duty This project was initially intended for family only, but I gradually in any era and every war. It is the timeless story of a soldier falling came to realize the material could be of value to others interested in in love and then having doubts about wartime marriage. It is the reading about firsthand experience from WWII and to those in current story of overcoming fear to do unimaginable duty while maintain- service as they cope with separation from loved ones. Much can be ing a love connection through words on paper. A story of love and discovered about social adjustments in a wartime culture by reading survival both, it is a guide for coping with separation under extreme Dad’s in-the-moment observations and opinions, which offer free circumstances. The backdrop is WWII, but this story—so very inti- access to the daily mindset of this citizen soldier and the opportunity mate and personal—is about the soldier and his lady, not the war. to experience the highs and lows of his journey as if by his side. The events that occurred during the war years led to important One thing I know. On the fifth day of transcribing his words transitions in this soldier’s psyche—classic coming-of-age conver- sixty some-odd years after they were written, I fell in love with this sions. Self-doubt led to self-confidence. A loner became a lover and young man who became my father. And I understood why my par- loyal life-mate. Prejudices developed and then abated. Patriotism ents’ marriage lasted for sixty-two years, “until death do us part.” and resulting heroism grew from his deep love and caring for his people back home. EDITORIAL CHOICES His experiences in Europe impacted my father so much that he This book focuses on my father’s words from wartime letters wrote several chapters about them for a memoir some forty years and a subsequent memoir. A prologue from his childhood memoir after the fact. I am amazed by how much specific information he sets the stage and a short epilogue of postwar events completes xii xiii Here’s My Heart Foreword the story. I have relied on two US Army publications to validate or her “deer.”) Understandably, he often misspelled foreign words. complete certain descriptions of military activities: Unit History Most of these I have caught and corrected. A few remain a mys- of the 639th AAA AW Battalion and more specifically Battery D tery. Some abbreviations that Dad used to save valuable space on History of that battalion, both written by the participating soldiers Victory mail (or V-mail) are herein written in full. His references and produced by the army following V-E Day for distribution to to “the Army” are left capitalized since that important entity is troops in the units. Dad’s copies are frayed and dog-eared from very much a character in this story, as is, in one instance, “Home.” repeated use as references through the years. Certain events are Dad’s most consistent inconsistency is using lowercase “army” for supported by online histories of other army units; excerpts are cited general adjective use, such as “an army camp,” but using uppercase in place.