Dr. George Sibley

DR. GEORGE SIBLEY, WW II STORIES


When Pearl Harbor occurred in 1941, I was studying chemistry and was in the ROTC at Louisiana State University (LSU). I signed up for the Army Air Corps cadet training program. I passed the test and thought I was in the Air Corps. About July 1942, I received “greetings” from the draft board. I was eligible for the draft because I had not been called by the Air Corps. I was sent to Ft. Beauregard in Alexandria, Louisiana. They wanted me in the intelligence corps because I had studied two years of French and German . They sent me to Camp Barkley in Abilene, Texas, where I took basic training. I got a MOS lab technician because of my chemical background. They talked to me about OCS. Then they said I could get a college degree and come out a First Lt. ASTP. They sent me to Texas A & M. I spent three months doing nothing. They said they didn’t need more chemists. Then I was put on a train to Las Cruses, New Mexico where I studied at New Mexico State Univ. I spent a year in college to become an electrical engineer.

At the end of the year, they had field exercises for Army training in the desert. On the same day they had a test to see who could go to medical school. I qualified for medical school but was not chosen. I was sent to Yuma, Arizona for desert maneuver training with the 80th Infantry Division. Then we boarded a train and went to Ft. Dix, NJ. Three or four weeks later we boarded the Queen Mary. I was the only lab technician on board. We zigzagged so if the Germans shot at us, we could out maneuver them. The speed of the Queen Mary was greater than the German ships. The trip took five days. In late spring of 1943, we landed in Glascow, Scotland. This was spring, 1943. We took the train from Glascow to Southampton. We boarded a liberty ship and landed on Omaha Beach the summer of late July or August, 1944. This was about two months after D-Day. It was less than five miles from Omaha Beach to the front line. The first thing I saw was a German observation plane overhead. Omaha Beach was well organized at that time.

From Omaha Beach we went through Ste Mere Eglise toward St. Lo. The troops were concentrated there. My unit was Rifle Co. in 317 Infantry Regiment of the 80th Infantry Division, part of Patton’s 3rd Army. Germans didn’t expect Patton’s army to be there. The break-through occurred over a small strip of land, approximately 5 miles. They were to cut off the Normandy Peninsula. It was decided to contain the Normandy Peninsula. The next battle was at the Argentine Gap Fale where the Germans were concentrated. Enigma of war – why did the Germans wait so long to come down? They thought they had plenty of time. The German army was 100,000 to 150,000 men with several divisions. My division was strung out thin. I was given a bazooka to fire. I had never fired one. They didn’t come in my direction. I watched a tank battle from my fox hole. The fighting was tremendous, and many men were killed.

The opportunity to win the war was lost at Argentine Fale. If they had been able to bottle them up, or capture or kill the German’s in the basin, we would have greatly shortened the war. The British didn’t close. Bradley wouldn’t let us do that. Montgomery wouldn’t let him.

From that point on across France, we went south of Orleans. We were always in the country – never in large towns. Action was sporadic. We had to have a fox hole every night because of shelling at night. When we got within 50 to 75 miles from the German border, there was serious resistance.

One night a shell hit real close – within 2 or 3 feet of my fox hole. I was nearly buried in dirt, but I wasn’t hurt. Occasionally some of the soldiers would seem to lose their mind. They got up and walked around at night – they didn’t know what they were doing. You didn’t have to be there long before you knew if you would escape or be killed or wounded. Most soldiers didn’t expect to escape by fighting the entire war.

In our travels, we were frequently with a railroad. A train was parked and valuable things that the Germans had stolen were being taken back to Germany. The allies had knocked out the locomotive. The train was loaded with luxury items – French wines, art work, vases, and silverware were on board. I took a silver dinner knife out of a silver chest and used it to wipe mud from my boots. Until we got within 50 to 60 miles from the German border, we had only sporadic resistance.

After moving across southern France, we headed toward Metz near the German border. There was a big German military school where hard fighting took place. We encompassed, went around Nancy. We took our first bath in the Moselle River. There were some little villages between Nancy and Metz. I saw a mechanized gun coming in my direction. I was assigned to an outpost. The Germans saw movement as hot meals were being brought to us. On Sept. 25, 1944 I got hit with shrapnel before I could get into a fox hole. I was awarded the Bronze Star for rescuing a wounded soldier and the Purple Heart for being shot and losing my left eye. If a German saw you were hit, he would shoot you with whatever he had. They took me back in a Jeep, put a splint on my left arm, bandaged my head and eye and took me to a field hospital in Nancy. Then they put me on a DC3 that had stretchers all around the inside of the plane,and I was taken to an eye hospital in London. I was amazed when I entered the eye ward of 50 patients; there was so much moaning and groaning, asking “why did this happen to me”? I was overwhelmed and thankful to God that I was still alive. I wasn’t concerned about losing an eye. All I had to read was a medical book about ophthalmology, and that was my first interest in studying medicine. Lou Ayers, an actor and a conscientious objector, taught one of my classes. I spent about one month in the hospital in London then returned to the United States on a hospital ship. Nights were cool when I got shot, so I wore a white silk pull-over jacket that I had taken off a dead German.. I never had a face-to-face contact with a German soldier.

The hospital ship landed in Charleston, South Carolina, and I was sent to the hospital nearest home, an Ear-Nose-Throat hospital in Jackson, Miss. where I got medical help. I told the commander that I needed a dry climate and the girl I planned to marry (Bette) was in Las Cruses near El Paso, so I was sent to El Paso on a train. The train stopped in Baton Rouge where my folks were. Bette and I were married May 17, 1945. I was supposed to be discharged, but they transferred me to Brooke Army Hospital where they decided I needed surgery on my nose. They finally discharged me in October of 1945. (I still have shrapnel in my left elbow.)

I applied to medical school at LSU. I was in the first post war class (1946). Half of my classmates were veterans of WW II. The government paid for my medical education. I graduated in 1950.

My advice to young men and women: If you do not want to live under totalitarian rule, someone has to defend our country. Most of the world can only understand force and can’t value human life like Americans do.

In 2005 Bette and I were invited to the Army War College in Carlisle PA as guests. It was a great honor to be invited. I was assigned to a section and attended classes. The students are generally going from full Colonel to Brigadier General. Sometimes there are army generals in the class who haven’t gone to the War College previously. Occasionally some foreign Army generals, sailors and marines go to the college. Every year one or more civilian is assigned to each section of the War College so civilians can have an insight into training the military. Interesting subjects are discussed such as philosophy of war. I was a curiosity as I was the only wounded WW II veteran present. They put me first in line. They asked me what my experience was in France compared to what they are studying.