Ed Brown
Interviewer: Andrew Hamilton
Interviewee: Ed Brown, M.D.
Method of Interview - E-mail
Date(s) of Interview - 4/19/06 - 4/22/06
Ed Brown, M.D. - Ed Brown is a world renowned Medical Doctor who has traveled around the world, helping countries set up medical systems. He is a published author, and had a brief stint in the Army. This is the transcript of the interview of Ed Brown, M.D.
Q - " Surely my dad has spoken to you about my upcoming U.S. History project. The project requires an interview of someone who was involved in WWII in some way. I understand that you were involved with the Liberation of Italy, specifically in the Po Valley area. If you could send me some information including what branch of the military you were in, your rank, unit number, etc. The name of your operation, and any other knowledge you might deem necessary. Also, if you could include the area you were in (if not the Po Valley). Another bit of information I would like to know - How do you feel you contributed to the victory in Italy ?"
A - " I'm very happy to provide this information, although my war service in Italy was very brief.
I joined the Army when I was 17 and in my first year of college. I was younger than the others kids in my class, and because they were 18 and most of them had been drafted, I didn't want to be left behind. My father had to sign my enlistment papers to give his permission, and the Army sent me to Italy just before my 19th birthday in March 1945 -- and the war ended just two months later.
I was trained as an artillery spotter -- one who determined where our own artillery shells were landing and corrected the fire of the gunners. We used two different methods of determining where the shells were landing -- one by their sound and the other by their flash -- and although it might sound like a dangerous occupation, it really wasn't, as long as our gunners didn't make a mistake. So we just heard the shells going overhead and landing. In a protracted battle, the infantry would have been in front of us, and it would have been at them and not us the enemy would be firing with their artillery. In Italy , however, everything was moving very quickly by the time we arrived, and we never had an opportunity to do very much of that for which we were trained.
We sailed from the large seaport of Hampton Roads, Virginia, on an Army troop transport without knowing where we were headed. Ordinarily these ships would travel in a large convoy of ships, so that the German submarines that were in the Atlantic Ocean would not be able to pick off a single ship by itself. However, because our transport was a converted passenger ship, it was fast enough to travel by itself, zigzagging across the ocean to confuse any submarine that might be there. Once we were at sea where there was no danger of our communication with anyone, we were told that we were headed for Italy .
We arrived in the Bay of Naples in southern Italy after passing by Gibraltar at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea and stopping briefly in the port of Oran , Algeria , to unload some cargo. The port of Naples was filled with sunken ships, the result of heavy fighting that had gone on there long before, and we were received kindly by the Italians, who were now our allies. Italy , under its dictator Mussolini, had been allied with Germany until the American and British armies gained control of southern Italy , causing the Italians to surrender and come over on our side.
From Naples we were transported to Livorno ( Leghorn in English) in an old Italian ship, and we camped for a week or so near the town of Pisa , waiting for our equipment to catch up with us. While there, I was able to visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa on a Sunday afternoon, from the top of which I watched hundreds of American bombers headed for Bologna to the north -- and listening to the distant thunder of their bombs being dropped.
From there we headed north by truck into the Po River valley in northern Italy, driving by night with lights off, and stopping during the day to eat and get ready for the next night's drive. By now the Germans were surrendering in large numbers to the north, and long lines of German trucks and cars would sometime pass us in the other direction, being herded along by one lone American soldier in a jeep, headed for a prisoner of war camp. My best buddy was driving the truck in the back of which I was sleeping, and one morning he told how he saw many tanks on each side of the highway that night. He waved at them and they waved back, but not until he realized that they were dressed in black uniforms did he know they were Germans -- who were as confused as we were.
One day, while stopped at a large, abandoned Italian estate near Milano, an Italian excitedly came into our encampment shouting, "Benito finito!" He told how Benito Mussolini, his girlfriend Claire Petacci, and several other Italian leaders had been captured in the mountains to the north, were executed, and were now hanging upside down by rope in a gasoline station in the city a few miles to the west of us. By now it was apparent that the war had not much longer to go.
The following day we entered the town of Saronno , about 20-30 miles north of Milano, which the Germans had fled the day before. We stayed there awaiting further orders, but because all was confusion in the German ranks just to the north, we just stayed there for more than a week until word came that the German army in Italy had officially surrendered. Two or three weeks later we were put on board freight cars on a train, and traveled all the way south to the port of Bari on the Adriatic Sea, from which we boarded a troop transport to take us back to America.
So as you see, I can't claim any honor for having helped to liberate Italy , although we were prepared to do whatever might be necessary to bring the war to an end -- and we were grateful that we thus all survived the war. Our unit was the 617th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, attached to the Fourth Corps of General Mark Clark's Fifth Army. At age 18 I was a lowly corporal, and didn't get promoted to sergeant until after we returned to American. We assumed we would be sent to the war in the Pacific after a brief furlough, but in August 1945 the Japanese surrendered, and we were home free. I was not discharged from the Army until more than six months later, spending my last months in Ft. Sill , Oklahoma , where I had started my Army duty -- and back in the same barracks.
That's not a very exciting story, so I'm sorry you don't have someone to interview who had a more distinguished war record -- but I understand that there aren't all that many of us left! For me, having grown up in rural western New York outside of Buffalo, joining the Army and seeing that part of Europe was a very exciting adventure, and I would not have missed it for anything."
Q - " Regardless of whether or not you saw any action while in Italy , it is still a quite fascinating story. Just the fact that you were willing to aid your country at the age of 17 (my age) goes to show the patriotism and sense of service to your country that you had. I still have a few questions left:
1.) How would you have felt if you were sent to the Pacific theatre?
2.) At the time you left for Italy , were you in a relationship? If so, what were her feelings/views of you going to Italy ? (Home front point of perspective)
3.) What were your initial reactions when you first received word that you would be going to Italy ?"
A - " Thanks for your kind words!
It would have been very difficult if we had been sent to the Pacific Theater from Italy , but knowing we were going home first, I didn't give it much thought.
I had a girl friend my age, a senior in high school, whom I was able to see for a week just before going overseas, but since we were absent from one another anyhow, I don't think she was particularly concerned about my heading out, not knowing where I would be going. She wrote to me several times a week while I was in Italy , so it wasn't much different being separated from her there than in Fort Bragg , North Carolina .
When our ship headed out to sea the rumors began flying as to our destination, which we assumed would be somewhere in Europe, most likely Germany , and I don't recall even thinking of the possibility of Italy . Everyone was excited about the whole thing, so when they announced it was Italy and handed out little booklets telling about the country and some simple Italian phrases, it became a real adventure, especially after passing the famous Rock of Gibraltar and then stopping just for a few hours at the North African seaport of Oran. Of course, we were all on deck, straining our eyes as the port of Naples came into view. All in all, it was a momentous time."