BBC HomeExplore the BBC
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

15 October 2014
WW2 - People's War

BBC Homepage
BBC History
WW2 People's War HomepageArchive ListTimelineAbout This Site

Contact Us

My unlucky War

by privatebob

You are browsing in:

Archive List > World > France

Contributed by 
privatebob
People in story: 
Martin Wilcox
Location of story: 
The village of Carentan
Background to story: 
Army
Article ID: 
A2312399
Contributed on: 
18 February 2004

Fighting as a private 1st class in the 135th division of the US army I crossed many towns and rivers, taking many lives with my tompson sub-machine gun. On saturday 16th of May in the year of 1942 we came across a small French village by the name of carentan. It was originaly on the itinery to take shelter there but soon discovered that the village was already being held captive by a small group of german panzer divisions. There were 4 tiger tanks in total so we immediatly sent for paratroopers to back us up. With their help we used a small stock pile of panzerfausts to take them out. We decided to take refuge there for the night. At 0600 sharp the following morning 3 more tiger tanks barged through the village walls. We destroyed them with ease but noticed that several of the german officers at set up a mortar team. Behind them we 20 to 30 german infantry troops. For some reason the mortar team werew not armed so we managed to take them hostage. One of the german officers however shot them proveing that they were of no importance of them. Down a large hill behind the village stood the 20 to 30 soldiers equiped with 1 mg42 team. In one of the village bulidings was a small range of german weapons along with several more panzerfausts. We used a scoped kar98k to take out the men surrounding the mg42 and the panzers to take out the men that were in sight. We took out around 24 men in total and soon saw that there were only 3 men remaining. We could see entrenched in a small ditch but were guarded by the hills. We did not know what kind of weapons they carried so decided to use the remaining mortars. We took out 2 of the men. Although there was 1 man standing he did not surrender. We kept watch of him or over an hour until he suddenly came jumping out of the ditch. He must of been mad. He held no gun of any sort but a loaded motar which he was actually carrying in his hands and aimin at us. He ran yelling towards us. and we made a quick dive to the side and tried to take him out with our guns. We missed and as we went to reload he fired it right at the floor beneath me. I was hurtled 20 feet into the air befor landing on my face in a hedge. Luckily I sustained no injurys apart from cuts and bruises. The crater he had made was more than 4 foot deep. Our rifle man shot him in the head to take him out. After that we spent another night in the village only to get taken prisoner by some passing germans. We survived through the rest of the war in a POW camp in Marseille.
This was the story of my life.
And Will be told through the the generations of my family. Please email me if you are a veteran of world war 2 from what ever country. I have spent many years grieving those who have perished and now want talk to and admire those who have survived. Please contact me at pfox18@aol.com

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.

Archive List

This story has been placed in the following categories.

France Category
icon for Story with photoStory with photo

Most of the content on this site is created by our users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced. In the event that you consider anything on this page to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please click here. For any other comments, please Contact Us.



About the BBC | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy