Edward Broussard, Jason Theriot, Hewitt Theriot:

-Broussard had been working in Breaux Bridge as a shipping clerk
-All his friends were signing up for the National Guard but no one knew of the world crisis
-Signed up in June 1940 and was activated in November that year; he was 18 years old
-Only signed up as he wanted to be with friends; Lafayette National Guard unit was filled up so they were accepted in New Iberia—lots of men from the Acadiana area

(5:41) Camp Blanding
-When they got to Blanding it was filled with palmetto shrubs that they had to clear out; hauled white sand around Kingsley Lake to make the beach
-Slept in tents before the barracks were built
-Had regular training, trained on property owned by JC Penny a little away from the camp
-The New Orleans Company held a Mardi Gras parade on the camp grounds
-Never knew that the war was coming

(8:13) Hearing of Pearl Harbor
-Was on leave with G Company, going to Jacksonville, Florida
-Staying at a motel but had gone out to eat when they heard the news
-They were told that “all soldiers report back to your base, wherever you are from”; drove back that night
-Once back they immediately moved out and went north to Charleston, North Carolina at Stoney Field
-They were assigned to harbors and warehouses for guard duty
-Eventually went back to Blanding and then on to Camp Bowie, Texas

(12:42) Louisiana Maneuvers
-Saw Eisenhower parade through Camp Polk
-Some units would be designated enemies in different clothes
-Broussard was just a private at the time
-Designated front lines; New Iberia was assigned the Springfield rifle
-The maneuvers lasted for 2 weeks

(18:56) Camp Bowie
-Made friends with some of the other units and no rivalry between them
-Broussard’s company spoke English well enough to not be ridiculed as the Breaux Bridge Company was ridiculed by the other units as they spoke more French than the other Louisiana companies; some fights broke out in town sometimes
-(Theriot: Camp Bowie forbade other languages being spoken, many Breaux Bridge recruits there complained at how they were treated because they knew so little English)

-While at Bowie the Army began recruiting for officers at Fort Benning; Broussard was selected to go to the officer training school at Benning; left in June of 1942
-Applied for it as he had an IQ level over 118, also got an approval from a board of officers
-Hitched hike back to New Iberia, stayed for a few days and then took a bus to Fort Benning; ended his affiliation with G Company

-Officer Candidacy School (OCS) in the 67th, outside of Benning; stayed out in the woods off the main base
-Known as “90-day Wonders” as in 90 days they could get a commission; went to lectures and had to stay physically fit; did obstacle courses
-There was a group of guys from Breaux Bridge and Franklin there
-After 90 days, Broussard got a commission

-Sent to the 92nd Infantry Division, the Buffalo Division in Breckenridge, Kentucky
-The Buffalo Division was just being activated, a Negro outfit
-Not enough 2nd Lieutenants and officers so they used the cadres of black noncoms (noncommissioned officers)
-Eventually reassigned to Blanding to the 30th Division, the Ole Hickory Division
-Went into the M Company, the weapons company of the 120th Infantry Regiment; assigned to this unit as he had background in the weapons from company of the 156th
-They were a heavy weapons company with a .30-caliber machine guns and 81 mm mortars
-Broussard was in charge of a rifle platoon, 1st platoon of the company

(35:20) Overseas/England
-Left the states February 12 and arrived at the Firth of Clyde ten days later on the 22nd, 1944
-By train they went to Bognaregus on the English Channel; moved up to Elsbury England
-Trained while waiting; lectured on German army clothing and things to expect
-No one knew where they were going or what was happening, just a lot of soldiers all over England
-Crossed the channel after the invasion; landed on Omaha beach and assigned to support 3 rifle companies
-Worked in initial combat with men they had not trained with; supported by the E Company that missed their landing in the invasion
-The beach was calm when they landed and no resistance; swollen corps on the beach
-In 6 days they cleaned up the beach
-Held up for about 2 weeks in the apple orchards in Normandy; hedges were thick and filled with Germans
-Little north of St. Lo waiting for the breakout

(46:12) Death of friends in other platoons that lead to Broussard taking over the whole company
-Lt. Condon of the 2nd platoon killed before St. Lo
-Lt. Lott in the heavy weapons platoon killed at Port Emile

(50:20)
-Relieved the 101st Airborne Division on the outskirts of St. Lo
-One of the rifle companies in the 3rd Battalion was trapped in Mortan
-Talking about where Broussard’s men were from in his platoon
-They got as far as Magdeburd, Germany and held it till the Russians could take over
-Was in battle from June to May, so almost a whole year
-A few times they had recreation areas made at monasteries

(55:53) France
-France was dirty; the farm people lived in a house with a barn attached
-The soldiers were asked to not eat the vegetables as they were fertilized by human waste
-One family Broussard had gotten close too gave him an invitation for their daughter; she was eventually married after the war and sent him an invitation to the wedding

(1:01:12) looking at photos

(1:04:10/1:06:55) Battle of the Bulge
-Sent to the line, north of Malmedy
(Going through more photos and maps)
-They were going to relieve units where the breakthrough was to happen
-Had to cross in narrow paths in the snow
-At Malmedy they wore white sheets to blend in with the snow
-Talking about sights seen in France; battle fields and the dead

(1:16:46) Spring of 1945
-Broussard’s unit only got as far as Magdeburd when they knew that the war was ending
-Were given news of the Russians moving in; captured one German soldier that told them that they’d [U.S] have to fight the Russian later
-2 types of German soldiers: those that made it their career and the young/old men that were forced
-One Frenchman stayed with them as he wanted to be a part of the fighting force; only had a little pistol and followed the company
-Other stories about travelling

(1:25:40) Heading Home
-Col. Merrill McCulloch sent word for Broussard to be sent back home; He was on line in the field when he got the report
-Was driven back to France when he was sent back over on a ship; landed in New York
-Once back home went back to USL and built a house with his wife
-Rejoined the Guard and became the Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion Headquarters in St. Martinville before being kicked out as a liability for old injuries

Transcription Begins:

Edward Broussard
15 February 2004
11 Allen St.
New Iberia, LA 70563
337-365-9080
Born: May 19, 1922
30nd Infantry Division

I was working as a shipping clerk in Breaux Bridge and all of my friends were signing up for the National Guard. We didn’t know of the world crisis at the time. I signed up in June of 1940 and we were activated in November of that same year. I was 18 years old.

I joined the Guard because I wanted to be with friends: Shirley Landry, Ellis LaGrange, JC Landry, Allen Landry, Steve Stansbury, and John Mestayer. Most of them were from here but some came from Broussard and Lafayette. Our company commander, Captain Howard Roy, was from Lafayette. Lieutenant Daigle was also from Lafayette. The National Guard unit from Lafayette was filled up, but we needed men, so they were accepted here. After we were activated in November, they continued drilling with us everyday.

I finished high school in ’38. Coach Wimbley taught English and he told us there were articles in the Reader’s Digest that showed how complicated politics were in Europe. That was my first inkling of trouble, but I didn’t associate that with joining the Guard. I joined in June of 1940.

We went on the first Louisiana maneuvers that summer and it was, well, a good time. When we got to Camp Blanding in November, it was nothing but a jungle of palmetto shrubs. We helped clear out and haul sand around the lake, Kingsley Lake. We hauled white sand where there was nothing but muddy sand. We created the beach at Lake Kingsley in Camp Blanding. They had us living in tents until they built us regular barracks.

We had regular training. We had permission to train on the property of JC Penny. I remember the New Orleans Company; it was our 2nd Battalion Headquarters Company. They put on a Mardi Gras parade and dressed one of their men up as a queen. They had a big to-do about it.

We had regular training sessions, not knowing that the war was coming. In the guard, they had trained us so well, that we did what they told us.

I was on a weekend leave with a bunch of my buddies from G Company when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. We had gone to Jacksonville, Florida. We were housed in a motel. We were out eating at a restaurant that night when they told us about it: “All soldiers report back to your base, wherever you are from.”

We went back to camp and we were told to move out. The cooks couldn’t take everything with them so they gave us a supply of vanilla extract. We had nice little buzzards from drinking that extract. When we did leave, we headed north and ended up in Charleston, North Carolina at Stoney Field next to the Citadel, a military school. We were in the same kind of tents that we had lived in at Blanding, and we were pulling guard duty.

On the way up there, from the effects of the vanilla extract, me and a medic, who was assigned to our unit, slept on the floor of this two-and-a-half-ton truck, and slept all the way to Charleston not knowing where we were going. They offered us a can of oysters, but we were smart enough not to mix vanilla extract with oysters.

The higher-ups must have felt that the east coast was vulnerable, so they sent guard units to defend it. We were assigned to harbors and warehouses and other installations. We then went on the Louisiana Maneuvers. I saw Colonel Eisenhower parade by up there in what is now Camp Polk. Some units were designated the enemy and they wore different colored bands on their sleeves. Some of our officers were taken as umpires for the maneuvers and they were assigned to units that they were unfamiliar with. I can’t say that I knew enough about decisions, because I was just a private. There were designated front lines and we were in crude conditions for sanitation. We had slit trenches as latrines. We each had an assigned weapon before we left New Iberia. They issued us the Springfield rifle, so we had weapons on the maneuvers. I can remember that we were much more intense on that second Louisiana maneuvers than we were on the first.

Maneuvers were two weeks and we were able to come home on weekends. Before going to Camp Bowie we stopped off in Lake Charles and all of our family came to meet us. I remember my mother and father and Claude and some friends of his came to see us at a hotel in Lake Charles. Our division was bivouacked in a field, but we were meeting at a hotel.

We were sent to Camp Bowie, Texas for more training. It was a little more intense because we were at war. We made friends with some of the other guards units, but mostly we stayed together like we had been in Blanding. We didn’t have too much problems in our company with complaints about speaking French, but in the Breaux Bridge Company they spoke French a lot; they were ridiculed by some of the other people who were not familiar with our culture in south Louisiana. They spoke French and poor English and they were laughed at. There were some fights that broke out in town, which originated from knowing that those boys were from F Company.

We didn’t speak as much French as the Breaux Bridge Company. But I spoke it pretty well. I spoke French before I could speak English. I didn’t learn my name until I was in the first grade.

While we were at Bowie the Army was recruiting for officers to go to Fort Benning. I was selected among many of the noncoms. I left Bowie in June of ’42. I applied for it and you had to have a certain IQ to qualify. Plus, you had to have an approval from a board of your own officers. If they approved of you, you were given your orders. When my orders came out, J.C. Landry from Jeanerette and I hitch hiked from Bowie to New Iberia on our way to Benning. We had requested for travel time to go on leave for a few days in New Iberia. We went by bus from here to Benning. That ended my affiliated with G Company throughout the war. I went one way and they went the other.

I went to OCS at Benning. We lived in barracks out in the woods where we were set up to go to school. Everyday there were graduates leaving. They called us “90-day wonders,” because in 90 days you could get a commission. We were given lectures and we went through obstacle courses. You had to be physically fit. There was a group of us from the area going to school there. There were guys from Breaux Bridge, guys from Franklin. Bubba Bayard was a friend of mine from Franklin. After 90 days, I got a commission.

I was sent to the 92nd Infantry Division, the Buffalo Division, in Breckenridge, Kentucky. J.C. Landry was sent somewhere else. The Buffalo Division was just being activated. It was a Negro outfit. They didn’t have enough 2nd Lieutenants and officers so they used us to guide a cadre of black noncoms until they received some officers. When you went into their barracks, you knew you were entering a black community. There was a lack of discipline. But they were fairly good soldiers. I was in charge of eight noncoms and they respected me as much as I respected them. I stayed a few months with this outfit until I was reassigned back to Blanding and joined the 30th Division, the Ole Hickory Division.

I went into M Company, which was a weapons company of the 120th Regiment. I was assigned to this unit because of my background in a weapons company with the 156th. We were a heavy weapons company with .30-caliber machine guns and 81mm mortars. I was in charge of a rifle platoon, 1st platoon of the company.

We left the States on February 12, Lincoln’s birthday. We arrived at the Firth of Clyde on Washington’s birthday, ten days later on the 22nd. It took us ten days to cross the Atlantic. This was in 1944. We went by train down to Bognaregus on the English Channel. Later, we moved up to Elsbury England to make way for the soldiers who were building up for the invasion. We trained as we would train anywhere else. We were lectured on German army clothing and things to expect once we got there.

We loaded onto a ship in the harbor and stayed there for a day or so. This one corporal, Crosby, couldn’t stand the pressure, and through himself from the deck of our ship into the hole of another ship parked right next to us. He fractured some bones and was brought to a hospital. He suffered from battle fatigue, without ever going into battle.

There were soldiers everywhere in England at that time. Everybody had a girlfriend, too. Paul Theriot was from here, and he was in our outfit. He used to come and visit with me from time to time.

We landed on Omaha beach on D+6. We landed in the same place where the 1st Battalion’s rifle companies landed. We were a machine gun platoon and we were assigned to support the rifle companies, A, B and C. During initial combat, we had to work with men who we had never trained with. Our three rifle companies, who we were supposed to land with, had to be supported by E Company, who had missed their landing as well. So it’s a wonder we didn’t suffer more casualties because we fought with men who we had never trained with. We stayed this way until the battle line was set up at Saint-suan-Toutnai.

The beach was calm when we landed. We didn’t have any resistance when we got there. We came in on Higgins boats and got wet as hell. There was swollen corps all over the beach. They were dead Germans and some American dead.

Within those six days, our forces had cleaned up that beach quit a lot. We hit resistance once we got onshore to the apple orchards of Normandy. The hedges were thick. We were held up a little north of St. Lo waiting for the breakout. In the slaughter, some of the cattle were killed. There was one cow that was killed right near our foxholes and had started to swell. It was during the day and we couldn’t move out to burry her. So we left her until it got dark. The smell was terrific.

In England, all the officers had liquor allowances. We were three platoons in three sections and we’d get together at 1st platoon’s headquarters. They were best friends of mine. We decided that after our first combat action, we would sit down and get drunk…it never happened…because Lieutenant Condon, who had 2nd platoon, was killed before St. Lo. And none of his men wanted to get his personal effects together, so I had to. That took care of one liquor ration. He was killed by enemy rifle fire. The other lieutenant, Lieutenant Lott had the heavy weapons platoon. He was killed at Port Emile (Fort Eben Emael). That’s when I took over the company. I had all of this liquor in my bedroll, so I called over a platoon sergeant and gave it to him to pass out.

Lt. Lott was in charged of the mortars, 81mm. He had devised a drawing of distances and increments to put on mortars. He became so effective with it that he would set up his mortars behind the headquarters regimental CP and through his mortars as far as the 4.2mm rounds could go. We were always supposed to write up the article about his plan, but we never did get to it. We were going to send it to the Rifleman Infantry Journal at Fort Benning. That was an unorthodox method of being accurate and going against what the book teaches.

We relieved the 101st Airborne Division on the outskirts of St. Lo. We had an incident at Mortan. One of our rifle companies in 3rd Battalion—K Company I think it was—was trapped up there in Mortan.

The Ole Hickory Division was from Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. They were just like we were; they had been in a National Guard unit and had been federalized. They were tobacco growers and they taught us how to BBQ in the ground: dig out a hole and put your ambers on the hole and put your meat on it.

I had a good company. Most were from Wilson, North Carolina.

We had this one Frenchman who stayed with us as for quit awhile. He wanted to be a part of our fighting force. He had a little pistol with the folding trigger. Headquarters never knew that we had an extra man fighting with us.

Lieutenant Jack Weyman had found a dog in France, a black Dotson, and he took it with us. His name was George and he followed us all throughout Europe. Everybody got attached to George.

The supply sergeant had gotten a radio from this motor pool. I kept it in my jeep between my driver and myself. When we stopped and set up a CP, they would take the radio down and connect it to the field phones so that the men could hear some Glenn Miller music.

In France there was this dead horse on the side of the road, all puffed up. This Frenchman was slicing steaks off of the horse’s rear end. They had no meat! How they survived, I don’t know. I was lucky. I got hit by two bullets; one hit my field jacket and another hit my canteen cup. War is hell.

France was a dirty place. The farm people lived in the house with a barn attached. Their cattle and the people would come through the same door. They asked us not to eat the vegetables because, in some places, they were fertilized by human waste. It’s kind of hard to refrain from grabbing a bunch of carrots or turnips when you hadn’t had any in a while.

I had an invitation from a French family for their daughter, a teenager, who I had become friendly with. She got married some years later after the war and they sent me an invitation. I became friends with this family because I could speak to them. Our French down here is like the ancient Parisian French.

During the Battle of the Bulge, we were sent to the line north of Malmedy. We were called to relieve units where the breakthrough was going to occur. We couldn’t use lights or smoke at night. We had to travel to these little narrow paths in the snow. We ended up in this little town. I was the company commander by then, Company M. the CP of a heavy weapons company is always close to if not part of the battalion CP. So we were in this town. I was in this big house and we stayed there for a while. And when we pushed through, one colonel in our outfit had devised these bootees for the soldiers to wear made out of GI blankets. He got in touch with some sewing outfit in Belgium and they made a lot of bootees. That saved a lot of soldiers from frostbite.

While we were at Malmedy, we got all the white sheets that we could find to camouflage ourselves in the snow. We pushed through and got to St. Vith. On our move, we came across this field where Americans were killed; they were slaughtered there and it was called the Massacre at Malmedy. It was a gruesome sight to see those bodies in the snow. By the time we moved up the Germans were pulling back. They were ambitious and thought that they could get to the English Channel.

We got as far as Magdeburd, Germany and the war was ending. We had wounded this little German soldier and he could speak some English. Most of them could because it was required as a second language in the European countries. He said, “Why ya’ll fighting us now when you’ll have to fight the Russians later on.” For many years I thought that we would be going to war Russia, just as this little fella had told me.

We held up there because the Russian were driving to Berlin from the opposite direction. They told us that they wanted the Russians to take over Berlin. I went as far as our outfit went. We were only two officers in the 120th that went from the beginning to the end and didn’t get wounded or miss a day of fighting. \All the rest were killed or wounded.

I was on the line in the field when the call came to send me back home. Col. Merrill McCulloch had send word for me to report to the battalion. He told me, “You going home.” I got on a train with some other guys and we became fiends. We played Hearts the whole way back. I’ll never forget that.

They sent me back to the States for rehabilitation and I got assigned to Miami, Florida; it was a recreation center there. They secured the best hotels; we were at the Shelburne Hotel in Miami. I was married then and my wife came for a few weeks. I was discharged some weeks later.

I was in Europe for 15 months. Everybody did what they had to do to survive.

After the war I rejoined the Guard and became eventually became Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion Headquarters in St. Martinville.

(Photo of .30-caliber machine gun.)