T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Lee Berwick COLLECTION: 4700.0289
IDENTIFICATION: Battle of the Bulge (WWII) Veteran, Livestock Judge and Breeder
INTERVIEWER: Cecil Phillips
PROJECT: LSU History
DATES: 13 May 1993 FOCUS DATES: 1930s-1993
ABSTRACT:
T #399
Describes early life in a tenant farming family in Johnson's Bayou, Louisiana; small high school in Creole; finding contacts and funds through which to attend LSU; studied agriculture and participated in various extra-curricular ag-related activities and organizations; began the ROTC program as a freshman; discussed the mood on campus with regard to the pending US involvement in WWII; describes several classmates seen in an LSU yearbook from that period; how he felt and where he was when he heard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor; graduated in the spring of 1942, received orders to report to Camp Wheeler, Macon , GA; was assigned to M Company (heavy weapons) of the 424th Infantry of the 106th Division as executive officer; trained in TN over the winter, felt it was good training for Europe; shipped to Gourock, Scotland in 1944 on the Aquitania; transferred to the Belgian-German border to replace the 2nd Infantry Division on the front line; got oriented to local area and life under battle conditions; heading to the front line to hear the rumbling of incoming German vehicles; experiencing the artillery barrage of the first German push in the Battle of the Bulge; front line companies overrun;
T #400
Berwick ordered to "restore the line;" describes taking charge of I Company and engaging the enemy; takes over 100 prisoners in ensuring battle, some high-ranking, and saves American troops captured earlier; ultimately has to retreat before the German advances, sees good friends and comrades killed in duty; describes leading troops in retreat across the Auel River, being shelled repeatedly at every stop along the way to safe territory; The Bulge is pushed back in January of 1945, causing the greatest American losses (8,863 in 72 hours); describes American troops forced to surrender after being surrounded without food or water; receives Silver Star, Bronze Star and French Croix DeGerre for extraordinary feats in battle; describes General Middleton as commander; ends war duties as head of an American prison camp for German soldiers, describes conditions in the camp, demography of personnel; returns to Louisiana and to LSU and tries to enroll but misses deadline by days; becomes assistant professor of livestock production and enrolls simultaneously as a graduate student; felt more comfortable teaching the other veterans; begins to restructure draft horse production class into a quarter horse unit (Light Horse Production) with purchases from various breeders in the southeast; became a livestock judge and started his own business in breed improvement; married Margie Allard and converted her family farm to cattle production; started his private quarter horse program with money from oil drilling on land purchased soon after marriage; served as a livestock judge all over the United States and abroad; discusses business and techniques of stock judging; began racing quarter horses and thoroughbreds at a track he built and named Delta Downs; describes losing wife and son in farmhouse fire, daughter Kathryn survives; meets second wife Betty and marries in 1984; receives triple bypass heart surgery; reflects on training at LSU and lessons learned that have stuck with him, favored teachers and mentors; closes interview in separate session to discuss coincidences experience in the war; finds personal letters and diary of Louisiana friends in abandoned German tank; loses and finds class ring in front line; meets first cousin Rufus Marshall on the front lines in chance radio communication, both survive to return to Louisiana at war's end; has lived a "charmed life."
TAPES: 2 TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 2.5 hours
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 53
OTHER MATERIALS: two issues of The Cub detailing Berwick's adventures in WWII, a newspaper article by George Morris about same, release forms, edited transcripts
RESTRICTIONS: none