Floyd Boyer

ASN:11080049

STL Archive Records

Company Morning Reports

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Floyd Boyer, 84, died August 10, 2009. God bless this hero.

INTERVIEW WITH A VETERAN:

FLOYD BOYER - 82ND AIRBORNE WORLD WAR II

 BY

MATT BOYER - US HISTORY - OCTOBER 1, 2001

INTERVIEW WITH WORLD WAR II VETERAN, FLOYD BOYER

What is your name and where are you from:

 I’m Floyd Boyer, Matt Boyer’s grandfather.  I was born in Massachusetts in 1925.

 How old were you when the war began?

 I was seventeen when we entered the war in 1942.

Where were you when you learned that Pearl Harbor had been bombed?  What was your reaction?

I was at home, living on a farm in New England.  I had the radio on when the attack was announced.  I went to tell my folks.  We were all surprised that Japan had done that even though the US’s relationship with them had not been good before that.  It was unexpected.

What were you doing before the war?

I as a senior in high school.

Had you thought about joining the military before the war began? 

No.

How did you get into the military?  When did you enter the service and in which branch?

I enlisted in the Army in 1943 after graduating from high school.  I trained at Ft. Bragg, NC, to be a paratrooper.

How did the war change your life?

My plans for college were interrupted.  I spent 2-1/2 years overseas, participating in every major battle.  I guess I got to see a lot of the world!

What was your job during the war?

I worked with the infantry directing artillery fire.  Then I was a replacement in the 82nd Airborne in North Africa.  We were sent to Sicily and went into Italy after the first wave of planes was shot down by our Navy who thought they were Germans.  500 of our men were killed.  Once we invaded Italy, I went in with the Rangers in a commando attack off of Naples.  We cut a road in a mountain pass and fired down on the Germans.  The Rangers held the pass.  I was attached to the Rangers and directed gunfire from British war ships.  There were German patrols who would come up the mountain to where we were.  The Rangers shot most of them but some got through.  We were fired on and machine gun bullet went off the side of my helmet.

What kind of training did you have before you went overseas?

I went through basic training then through airborne training at Ft. Bragg.

Did you go as part of a unit?  Which one? 

I was in the 82nd Airborne, 319 glider outfit.

When and where did your unit go?

First we went to North Africa, but we did not fight there.  We fought in Sicily.  Then we went to northern Ireland with the British Air Force getting ready for Normandy.  We went into Normandy in gliders at night before the beaches were hit, about fifteen miles inland.  About 200 of us went in from the 82nd with 75% loss of life.  Many gliders landed in the hedgerows, which were actually tall trees.  My back was broken and I lay in the field all night next to a moaning, dying cow.  I had been hit with shrapnel.  Around noon the next day, the 4th division came in from the beach and loaded the living onto a stretcher on a Jeep.  We were taken to an area where there was still fighting near the beach.  On the way there, we went through an area that had just been taken back by the Germans, but they let the Red Cross truck pass through.  The wounded were gathered there by the beach and the next day placed on landing craft to be taken back to England.  There were around 1500 of us.  I spent several months in a hospital in Oxford, England.

What are your favorite stories or memories about those days?

A lot of things made impressions on me.  The airborne is a three-ring circus.  We were behind the lines, not holding a steady line, and there was a lot of confusion.  I guess that night I spent with the dying cow is a strong memory!

What did your unit do and what did you do?

In addition to being in Italy and France, I had recovered from my back injury in time to go into Holland to take the bridge at Nijmegen.  This time we went in on an American glider (had been a British one in Normandy and they were a lot heavier).  Our pilot turned away from the rest of the group so we did not land with them.  It took us a day and a half to get back with our unit.  We had landed near a house and an old lady came out with preserved cherries which she gave us.  Right beside her house were 20 millimeter guns manned by Yugoslavs who had been forced to fight in the German army.  They immediately surrendered and were taken as prisoners.

My unit then was in the Battle of the Bulge.  We went in on trucks to the line in the mountains.  We fought in the mountains between Belgium and Luxembourg.  The mountains were the size of those in North Carolina.  We dug in, stayed in fox holes.  Once a big shell hit right outside my fox hole and it felt like I had a concussion.  The first thing you do is take off your helmet to see if you still have a head!  The conditions were pretty bad.  It was cold and there was a lot of snow.  I spent Christmas there.  After Germany was defeated, I rode in a truck through Germany.  There was a little resistance then. 

How did your unit first come into contact with the enemy and how did it go?

See #9 (Italy) above.  

Could you tell me about the major events you remember from those war days?

See 9 (Italy), 13 (Normandy), 14 (Holland), 18 (Battle of the Bulge).

What were your living conditions like?

Probably the worst were in the fox holes during the Battle of the Bulge.  It was wet and cold.  We had to sleep in sleeping bags in the fox holes, but you didn’t want to sleep too soundly or you might not ever wake up!  Of course, the rations weren’t high cuisine either.  The best food was on the ship when we got shipped back to the States.  For good food, join the Navy!  In Italy, we were housed in people’s homes that had been taken over by the government.  In France, we stayed in an old French training camp that was like a big auditorium and slept on cots.

What were the native people like where you were?

The English were very friendly.  They had been in the war much longer than we had and were very determined.  They were going to see it through, no question about it.  We didn’t have much interaction with the French but they didn’t impress me as too friendly.  In Italy, we rode into Naples in British tanks.  The streets were full of people, giving us wine and apples.  Some of the soldiers were falling off the tanks after too much of that wine!  The Italians were very grateful to have been liberated. 

What did you do and your friends do for fun?

We played a lot of baseball.  We also played cards a lot, especially poker.  In England, we’d go to the pubs; they were like community centers.  Sometimes we’d get to see a movie on the base.  We smoked a lot of cigarettes, Camels and Lucky Strikes; they were part of our k-rations.

What were the biggest morale boosters?

In that war, the fact that you were a unit together.  We knew we were there until the end and our morale was always pretty high.

What were some of the funniest things you saw?

We slept in the post office in Naples the first night after liberating it.  After that red wine we’d had, a couple of boy scouts could have taken the division!

Out of all your experiences during the war, what surprised you the most?

Man’s inhumanity to man.  Seeing the wounded shot.  When the Germans surrendered to the Russians, the Russians mistreated them, kicking and hitting the wounded.  They hated the Germans.  We arrived at a concentration camp the day after it had been liberated.  (I couldn’t get him to say much more about that part).

What you like to mention that I haven’t asked about?

War changes everyone.  Most soldiers were only 18-20 years old.  Man’s inhumanity to man is so much worse during a war.  But this was a justified war; it had to be fought and it had to be won.  There’s no glamour in war.  It’s something you don’t want to go through again, but there were a so many remarkable experiences in it.  There weren’t too many dull moments!

Sometimes it’s better not getting what you want.  I was friends with a radio guy and wanted to be on the same glider with him when we went into Normandy.  Due to all the equipment, we were split up.  Everyone in his glider was killed. 

Did you receive any medals?

I got the Purple Heart for being wounded in Normandy.  I got a glider badge with two bronze stars for Normandy and Holland.  The Dutch gave us medals also.  From the Belgium’s I got a medal that was rope-like.  I was given two President’s citations and medals for the fighting in Naples.

When did you get to come back home?

After Germany surrendered.  There was a point system for the months you’d been overseas and the high pointers out of the 82nd and 101st got to go.  We went to Marseilles, France, to disband and be shipped out.  It took 4-5 days on the ship to get back to Boston.  There were several thousand on that ship; we slept on cots and had really good food.  We landed in Boston Harbor in 1945.

Did you keep up with any of the guys from the war?

Not really.  I never went to the division conventions – our grandmother didn’t want me to.  Once the war was over…you don’t forget it, but you want to put it behind you and move on. 

What kinds of weapons did you use?

Rifles, machine guns, grenades, tommy guns.  The Germans were well equipped too.  We were up against the SS and the Panzers.  They were good soldiers and we respected each other. 

How do you think the 82nd will be involved in our retaliation against the terrorists?

I imagine the 82nd is getting to go now.  Gliders weren’t very effective in World War II and today they use helicopters.  Some, not many, parachute in.  The Rangers are the best and the toughest; they’ll get a lot of action.  There won’t be huge armies but troops of 300-500.  They’ll probably land near the terrorist camps and hold them until more troops come. 

I want to add that I’m really proud of my Grandpa Boyer and how he willingly risked his life to help keep our country free.  No doubt about it – he’s a hero.