VOICES OF HISTORY PRESENTS - Sgt. Arthur Logan Gilbert, 430th AAA Gun BN., Omaha Beach, WWII

[Music] [Music] Sergeant Arthur Logan Gilbert United States Army World War II Art's one of the first D-Day World War II veterans that I interviewed in my hometown here in Grand Junction Colorado it was 20 years 6 month and 1 day ago and uh it was February 12th 2004 he's featured in my second film Omaha Beach dday and just a wonderful man I remember art he was on the Honor Flight here locally I went on two of the World War II flights uh 2010 um was when I went I saw art in one of those flights but uh I met his daughter Ruth Whipple recently at a Christian Women's lunch in here where I spoke last month want to say hi to Ruth here's your dad's story I'm so excited to share the entire story that I did with you with him and also with your mom U Francis Gilbert so she talks at the end and one of the rare times I interviewed the wife of a veteran and you have to stick around and hear what she has to say say too but art went into the military 1942 as a Young Man became a sergeant during World War II he was with the 430th Triple A gun Battalion um over in Europe and was one of the second waves to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day folks that's that's that's amazing second wave on Omaha Beach I have those who landed in the first wave but art was in the second wave he's that's part of the first Army by the way and they were attached to the 29th Infantry Division on D-Day June 6th 1944 Infamous 29th division from Maryland so he was right there in the thick of it um I have some great pictures after this introduction of him uh in World War II and I just love the pictures we lost art at 91 um in 2013 I go and visit his grave often here in Grand Junction where I live and uh it's it's a memorable time for me to visit the the graves of my veterans I have about two dozen of them locally here that I've interviewed and art is one of them so I'm just happy to share his story with you art also liberated owitz in the booken wall concentration camps and it didn't have the opportunity or the for knowledge to ask him back then because I wasn't thinking concentration camps at the time that came a little later in my work but what just an amazing story I'm sure he would have told about that the liberation of those camps I have a full film on that on the Holocaust and the G's liberating the camps if you want to watch that it's called yamasa the Holocaust remembered it's a powerful powerful film I want to thank Joel SS I've worked with Joel before Joel wanted to honor his uncles default in World War II his Uncle Earl and his Uncle Don so he's sponsoring this video in this story of Arts in memory of his uncle Uncle Earl was a paratrooper in World War II killed near St L France in 1944 his Uncle Don went into military in World War II at the age of 16 also fought in Korea where he earned a bronze star so God bless your family Joel in the military history there and uh I just am so glad to work with you again and just honor you and your family right now with this uh video today with art so God bless you thank you for supporting our veterans in this this project and honoring him so okay folks if you like to sponsor or story or donate to this work there's always information in the video description in the comment section of this video if you like to do like Joel um have a loved one in your family that has served in the military just let me know you can sponsor their memory and sponsor one of my veterans in doing so so I encourage you to do that all that information is on my YouTube channel and on my website Larry caped.com so you know how to get a hold of me okay folks let's honor art Gilbert right now this is such a treat for me to share his story and one of my first veterans and I just salute art and his family and uh Ruth it was great meeting you and I hope you enjoy this and i' just like to share this with your whole family now God bless you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is around D-Day okay Omaha Beach okay I took some notes the last time we talked and I think you were with a separate detached Battalion correct 4 30th yeah right and that that was the 32nd regiment that's 32nd regiment Engineers that we worked with okay okay but basically you know I know 60 years is a long time to remember but um I just want you to kind of go back for me and I I I asked all the men pretty much you know some of the same questions but if you can just tell me what you remember about maybe the night before D-Day maybe when you realize that you know you guys have been training and that now we're really going in this is the real thing um anything you want to add as far as you know your feelings your mood the mood of the man something like that but just tell me a little bit about the night before D day and what you remember before you went in the next day oh we disembarked from Southampton England and uh that afternoon the day before we spent loading and just kind of Milling around at Southampton then we boarded up at night and uh then they started out it was a kind of a wind night as I remember it and of course when we got aboard to go across the channel the darn thing was fairly rough many of the guys were like me it didn't take much to make you become seasick the floor or the deck of the vessel we were on was so darn slick with puke that you couldn't hardly stand up and it was a miserable a miserable night and uh we were among the second wave that went in thank goodness there weren't too many of the first wave that survived and our gun we had a 40 mimer was one of the largest guns first toore and we went to work on that pill box that's on top of the hill on Omaha Beach there's a little road that kind of goes around the side of it on what was to us the left side of that little road it was giving everybody fits we did manage to get around in that port hole on the thing and that stopped Monkey Business from inside of it so then we could proceed on up the hill there were lots of barbed wire across it mines and that thing but anyway helped the engineers clear that because we were attached to the group of the 29th Infantry and uh were to run antich defense for them so it was a kind of a confusing situation for a while tell me about what you remember about okay you mentioned uh you know a little bit about the night before but I mean what was what was the mood of the troops I mean um did you know what you're getting into that day I mean and then you you mentioned the first wave being knocked out tell me about your trip into Shore did you debar into a smaller landing craft and went down a cargo net or how did you go to Shore that morning oh we didn't go any cargo Nets we just on an LST type vehicle where you drop the front end of the thing down and you just roll out what do you remember about that I mean oh the water's not deep boys we got uh we got you in pretty close well it was about belly button deep when we went in we had waterproofed our equipment and everything to compensate for this fortunately and uh so we just kind of rolled in and rolled ashore what was going on were there artillery rounds machine gun fire what do you remember there was machine gun fire and artillery coming out of this pill box at the top of the hill they had an 88 in there and the 88 was the choice of the the German Army which was was a darn good gun mighty fine and uh but where we went in the pillbox couldn't get down far enough to get us but the machine gun fire was wicked very Wicked and we were just fortunate that we survived that you were a young man how how are you how can they train you for what you saw and experienced there I mean was it worse than you thought it would be it was worse than we had thought it would be the fortunately the cadry that we had had for our training most of the men were EXC combatants and many of them were West Point graduates that had been in action in Africa and other places of that nature and the majority of them uh instead of taking a discharge and going home they had stayed to act as a training cadry most of them had maybe one arm gone one leg gone other injuries that they had sustained so they had all been in action previously they were pretty rough on us and fortunately I think that help us survive so they were a great Bunch even though at times you thought they were real pain in the neck um I want to go back just a minute now when did you realize this was the time to go I mean did they make an announcement this is the real thing boys were going in I mean you know did anybody brief you like that or did you just was this part you thought maybe this was just another training run or something I mean well we had done several training runs previously but we knew that this was it because our officers had told us that this is it and we're really going to go this time and you just knew that by what do you call it feeling extra sensory perception or something you knew that previously we had made some runs down to South Southampton several days before different things you'd go in and they had us disconnect the Mufflers on our vehicles yeah and you were supposed to yell and sing and uh just make a lot of racket and then uh about Dawn while you all go back to where you were camped out before did they wake you early that morning did you have a last meal I what was again on the ship going over oh we didn't do much eating that night our outfit didn't we'd had a good lunch we had a good lunch at noon and that evening nobody was really hungry he just had a sense we had been issued rations for about 3 Days To Carry with us he had some extra cans of sea rations and some K rations you put in your pocket these big old fatigue pants that you had with the big pockets on the legs and we had them stuffed uncomfortable but then who knew if you didn't have it with you you didn't get it what was the mood of the other troops I mean were you guys did you have a prayer service I mean was there a chaplain aboard what kind of preparations did you make anything like that oh we had a chaplain with us uh he was a good man he made it all around kind of talked to us all in that particular craft a little bit uh but uh nothing special I think everybody was with his own thoughts and guys that had been uh all that that didn't have too much to do with any religion of any kind or thought much they were pretty quiet and uh they thought about it a lot so well when it got to be Dawn and you approached Shore I mean was there a lot of anxiety was do you remember seeing boats being hit in the water going in or anything like that what was oh yeah you did what you were seeing the sky would look like a Fourth of July celebration they were all kinds of tracers and things because uh our 50 caliber machine guns that we had were loaded with Tracer elements and you lots of that in the sky and that was coming from both sides so uh you if you weren't scared why you were lying to anybody because you all were and that makes you pretty quiet tell me what okay when you got to shore you went on the beach right okay tell me about that experience what you remember were you being shot at personally were anybody being hit around you what were you seeing in what was going on oh there were some guys that got hit that weren't very far away from you and uh you just reacted in instinctively because of our training that we had had and uh you didn't stop and think good gosh no you got busy and tried to eliminate the problems that were coming up ahead of you and you had to keep going stuff was coming in behind you and you had to keep going and you just had this urge to do and go uh did you see the first wave the casualties of the the first wave I mean what were you oh they were all around my goodness they were people all around everything that you could imagined was there they were pieces of them and there were whole guys and all of that but there were lots of them laying you just had to get rid of that I mean ignore that and do your thing and go was there a point where fear might have come over you or you just thought what am I doing here were you just real focused on your mission what you had to do we were focused on our mission we had fear yes we were all frightened uh you were [Music] scared and uh badly scared but at the same time you react instinctively on what you had been trained to do and he just did it how can they prepare you for something like that did you know how bad the first wave had been did you know how bad it was before you went in this as a second wave or did anybody tell you like it's pretty bad up there nobody tells you you don't have time to have somebody come back and say hey boy this is that that that you just could see you could see and that registered in your mind then you still see that so could you actually see the first wave landing and then them getting shot up from the water when you're still out in the ocean or oh no you couldn't hardly see that but there was just like it was a matter of just kind of a mass confusion you might say so you didn't see that we weren't close enough to see that we could hear a lot of that but you didn't see until you got right there and then you were were oh so darn busy that you didn't stand and you didn't look way over there man you concentrated on the area that you were right there to do now what kind of craft did you get off on how many people were on your craft how many men the landing craft when you landed on the beach was it a small ship or a big one it was a small one that we got off of on the landing craft I would say that was probably maybe 75 what do you remember about the actual Landing with their Navy crew on board that said this is it we're opening the door you guys get off what do you remember about that had a Navy crew on the back there I think there were five in that Navy crew and of course the the guy that had charge of that thing dropped the front end and said this is it boys this as far as we go out you go so out we went and he says what not deep we got you close as I say it was about belly button deep were you able to see all over the gun whales I mean were or were you was it too high and you couldn't see what was going on oh you could see over the top of that yeah were you seeing other boats coming in at the same time oh there were thousands of them it seemed to be you looked out back around over there and it just seemed like they were all over the place and they were and uh there were quite a few planes of flying there were some of ours and there were some German planes come down and strafed a little bit and uh that was mostly the Faulk wolf 90 and so there wasn't too much we could do with that except uh I had a a quad 50 Mount there and we used that I don't know as we got anything with it but anyway we tried tell me about your job again what what was your specific job that morning and tell me about that I was chief of section on a 40 mm we were basically an anti aircraft outfit and I say we had been assigned to the combat engineers to run and I make defense for them and uh we were a separate Battalion unattached that meant that they could send us anywhere we wanted to go or wherever we were needed and we went as a separate gun section and sometimes we went as a whole battery and other times we went as a battalion Battalion normally is a th000 men I had 32 in my section I had 140 mm and a half track and several 50 caliber machine guns and so but I was a book sergeant in charge of that what we call section and some of the other sections that they had only had seven or eight men and I had 32 in mine so were you giving orders on the beach were you setting up your stuff I mean well we didn't we didn't take time to set up we had to be on the move and we were a mobile unit so we didn't set up at all we just did our things on the move when we first went in and we did that a great deal all the way through and so wherever you thought you could do some good you did it did you realize how big or did you realize the importance of D-Day at that time or had that dawned on you yet I mean that you were involved with one of the largest Landings ever I mean well we knew that they were going to have three places there we had Utah Beach and Omaha Beach and the British went in I don't remember what they call theirs British was off to the left Utah was to the right of us and we were in the center you might say and uh so we had been told that that we were and we knew fairly well what we were trying to get to I think the first little village that we came to after the top of the hill was I believe it was St Maria and that was the first place that we hit we proceeded on in till we got ST Low ST Low was was a problem and it took us a little while to get around that how I mean talking to was there a lot of resistance though when you landed or were you on the beach for a while or did you just go right Inland from there I mean were you pinned down at all or what oh we were pinned down until we eliminated that U pillbox on the top of the hill there and then after that when that was resistant yes but uh there wasn't too many guys up there I don't know don't remember how large a unit they had but uh it was quite a re bit of resistance after we got up on top but uh and of course they had seems like they had a lot of their units off someplace else on a maneuver type thing and had not expected this to come in there because well the weather wasn't the greatest and they I'm sure they had thought we wouldn't be there so you surprised them probably to some extent yes I know oh reading and hearing about them later on that they tried to tell their superiors that what was out there and they told him that they didn't think so you guys have been drinking but at the same time they made a very good accounting for what they had up there thank goodness they didn't have any more than they did do you remember seeing people that were hurt or wounded and you you wanted to help them but you couldn't stop because you had to keep going I mean did you see a lot of that or we saw some of that yes but then the people or the civilians that were were still around were there were tickled to death to see us and uh the uh while the German servicemen you didn't see too many wounded ones because most of them were beyond that they' been eliminated and you have a natural instinct to help somebody but then he had Medics for that and we had other things to do so we did and left them were there anybody in your team or your squad or whatever the 32 people that you were any of them get shot or wounded or killed or oh we had some yes oh I think we lost two or three there but fortunately we're seem to be Charmed I guess you know looking back now Now 60 years you know and the freedoms that we have in our country today and the flag and all that what does freedom mean to you you know based on what you went through or or just in general what does freedom mean to Art Gilbert our freedom is very dear to us we have the ability to go wherever you want to go you have the privilege of being able to do what you want to do to work at what you desire to do you may always may not always find the job that you particularly want but you're free to find any job that you can do and that as you want to do uh you're free to raise a family you're have the freedom to own a house a home you have the freedom to own an automobile you have the privilege of going to school we have so many freedoms and we don't appreciate the ones that we do have and seeing the oppression that people have had I can't tell you about the Iraq and these places that they are but I can am aware of the oppression that they had 50 60 40 years ago I have had the privilege of going on over some parts of the world since then and uh goodness people haven't anywhere near the Privileges and the freedoms that we do here what what do you what back in World War II were you drafted or did you enlist I was drafted I was going to enlist but at the time I uh that came along I was working on uh projects in California I helped build Camp s Louis abys poool and Camp Roberts and Camp cookie at uh Santa Maria and I was working on the Santa Margarita Dam just outside of St Louis abiso for a water supply that was a a very large Dam and made quite a lake behind it similar to what um Blue Mesa is it's a big a big Reservoir big lake and I was working on that and I had the position of being the concrete inspector for that particular project how did you perceive Hitler I mean when you went into the service I mean what was your view of the world situ situation then I mean obviously you knew about Hitler what he was trying to do how did you see that what was your thoughts on that in high school we had had a very good history teacher and uh they had brought up the current events of what was going on in the world and Chamberlain and Hitler Stalin these places and uh what they had been doing 38 and 39 to parts of Europe how they just went in and took over and U that's one reason I had gone to California to work for this engineering company that I knew they were trying to build up their reserves and these kind of things and I took advantage of that opportunity I did fig that sooner or later we were going to have to somebody was going to have to do something about what was going on in Europe so you pretty much you know I mean you look at today's situations in the world and you saw Hitler as a threat as an evil force that needed to be stopped basically is that right or yes however we can't police the whole world now we're trying to what are your thoughts looking back on D-Day what what does D-Day mean to you now 60 years later I look at it as I was privileged to participate in that and to help overcome that the oppressions in that part of the world uh I don't know how else we could have done it and we waited too long to do it so you see dday as being a very significant part of our history it was needful that we went into Europe the way we did if we hadn't it might have been been worse than it was but you do look at it it's something that we needed to do right it's something that we really needed to do do you by chance know why they named the beach Omaha Beach do you know what where that name came from have did you ever hear anything like that because I haven't why did they call it Omaha in Utah Beach well they had to have everything designated and I don't know why they specifically picked those particular names I couldn't find that either I don't know in fact Omaha Beach was divided up into sectors or like six sectors yes Fox and dog and you know whatever the code names that were there but um I always wondered what what the reasoning was behind that but let me ask you another question now um I'm talking in schools some to kids about World War II and Omaha Beach and D-Day if you could talk the kids today what would you tell them regarding freedom and you know what you did in World War II and and maybe some advice on how to live their lives based on you know the freedoms that we have today because we take a lot of them for granted so what would your message be to the younger generation to the kids as a veteran today I would encourage them to study history they don't seem to be teaching or studying history much and you you know history is very very important to the whole world it's is important to the world as memory is to Man Without memory you can't do anything at all and if you don't study history you lose the thoughts of any of the freedoms that you are experiencing don't quite know how to explain that but uh they I think our young people have so many many things and so many many privileges that uh they're really not aware of until they begin to lose them and if we don't study history I'm afraid that we will lose them because there are many elements that are working against the freedoms that we have and so you think it's important that we remember right I mean you're you're saying it it's it's important I I I I believe that we if we don't remember we're going to forget so I mean as far as looking back on dday I think we need to remember the sacrifices that were made yes uh the sacrifices were made not only to the servicemen that served in the armed services but the sacrifices that many of the people made at home people today don't realize that we had rationing in effect that you were rationed in terms of automobiles and automobile tires and batteries and gasoline right now you go get all the gas you want but that time you couldn't then food items sugar butter fruits were rationed in other parts of the world were also and some are now I guess when we were in England an apple an orange or banana were an extreme luxury some of those were only allowed one of those a week and same way here at home before I forget on take tell me again um you are a sergeant yeah give me your regiment Battalion or company again so I can have an on tap tell me again I was in the 430th triaa Battalion we were a member of the 19th Corp we were in the first Army and Omar Bradley was our Commanding General of the first Army our immediate Commanding General of our particular division with General Timberly and say we were attached to the 29th Infantry Division and was in the 32nd Regiment of combat engineers okay okay do you by chance have your old hat old army hat or anything no I don't do you have any old pictures I asked you for a couple old pictures did you find anything yes I've got some pictures was now were you married during the war yes I was to Francis yes okay I wonder if could come in here I want to ask her a couple questions anyways I just you know when I have the opportunity to talk to some of the wives can you just tell me from from the give me a home perspective of the war from home I mean I've asked all these guys about questions about being overseason in battle what was it like to be a wife of a soldier that was fighting over in Europe I mean tell me your thoughts that you remember what were the hard times the fears so just tell me a little story about the home front okay okay well I um lived with my parents I had our oldest child was um about um oh I can't think how many months but anyway uh we lived in California with them and I was never able to go when he was in the states I never was able to go and and stay with him so then uh he when he left while we um uh stayed with the folks and had a um our own room and all and I was with a group of ladies that were all young and had their first child and we had a group and we met and uh visited with each other and the uh there was a how you were Lonesome and any news that you heard about the war it always um um frustrated you and uh it was a very lonely time very lonely and I didn't hear from him too often because they were in the main fighting and um I knew that he was there for a purpose and that it was my um obligation to hold up this end of the the uh well marriage whatever and um it uh was real hard to um bring up your child without their help of course I had my parents that helped with it but um I uh did a little babysitting to help out with finances and um we I met um through letters from uh wives of the men that were with art overseas and we made uh friends with correspondent and um I felt that it was a good cause that they were fighting for and um just prayed every day that he would come home so um it uh was a hard time but it um my parents gave me a lot of support and uh my brother and uh I had two sisters and uh they each helped out I went to stay with them at different times but the um the main thing was U the lonesomeness and I believe that U I wasn't alone in that so um were there fears of his safety obviously they were were there friends of yours maybe whose husbands were killed or how did they tell the wives you know in the movies you know you see Western Union come with a telegram or chaplain will come is that the way it happened in the world were you ever around any of that or concerned about that yes there were a couple that um I lived in San Louisa biso and there were a couple of the girls that um got the uh Telegram s and um that just made you um more fearful that uh the um that it would happen to him but um I prayed a lot and uh I don't know it was um the girls that their husbands did did get killed were um of course angry at first but um it was [Music] um we grew closer with each other at this time and it were you ever with one of those women when they got a telegram or no I was not you do you know how that was delivered I'm just kind of curious was is it well um somebody dies what did they do to notify the family well the um government sent someone out there were most of uh the women that I was with were Army Wives and there was an Army person that uh came and told them and I I was not there when they did this but they just um let them know what had happened and that was um about as far as I knew about it but they um it was very hard on them very hard did you did did Art write you letters did you write letters back and forth tell me about that yes we um wrote letters when he first went over I um the mail was very good but as it uh the time went on I didn't hear from him like for three four months and um then that made me worry that something had happened but um I still have some of the letters I think that he uh had written and um they were little um oh small letter letters just little note papers but he uh was able to tell me a little bit about what he was doing and uh my letters went okay and I sent him packages with uh food and things in it and of course I sent pictures of our son and um so we were able to correspond quite a bit do you think it was different back then during World War II than it is today with or do you think there's some similarities with war and and families and you know being gone well I feel that um uh World War II was not as um um publicized we didn't know uh then what they know now with TV and uh so many the media is so much more um available to what's going on and yes I do think there's a difference you think it's good to have more Media or was it better in World War II when you didn't know everything well I'm from um I feel that um it was better that we didn't know what was going on I just um it's something that uh we have to go through and um to hear it all the time it it frustrates you and um you worry about them anyway and to hear all this why I think it's really um uh worse than when we were in the war in World War II I um if I had known what was going on I don't think I could have taken it as easy as I did oh I'm not sure when he came home from the war did you have a celebration and then did talk much about the war or not uh he never talked too much about the war we um uh just Jo in the last four or five years has he really said a lot of told us different things that had happened but um uh we celebrated yes we were real happy to get him home but um I can't remember that we had a party or anything just the family got together and um but he um he didn't talk about it too much when he first came home so I don't know and we didn't ask too many questions because it I think it bothered him to have us ask questions is is he do you consider him a hero yes I would say so he um has some things that um uh oh some papers that um he was had brought home that were um things that he had done they had uh shot down several planes and things and yes I would say he was a hero to have come out of the war and uh I think that he was uh good for his crew and I think he did well okay well I think that's good I just wanted to get a little bit more of your perspective of the war and you know your thoughts being here in the home front yeah because I hear so many of the stories from the war but I don't hear Too Many from the home and I just want to start Gathering a few stories like like that so well yeah did you have kids at that point you had small kids no I just had uh the one boy we had um um he was born in March and Arthur left in August and he was home once to see him and then uh we didn't have any children he was gone 3 years or so and U when he came back while we we didn't um we lived in California and U we had our um middle child um both uh here in Grand Junction so it um we when he first came home we moved to Gateway oh okay and he was doing some work up there and uh our second child was born in 48 so he was a little uh ways off from five years between our two but um I don't know what I'd have done if I had more than one child because it was um oh hard to um discipline and just take care of them so do you spell your first name f r a n c i s e s f r a n CES okay okay uh e is the woman's name and then s is the man's okay let's it [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]