Eugene Hildebrand
Joe Mattingly
Mr. Thomas
US History H, Period 3
11 May 2006
Interview with Eugene Hildebrand
Q:When did you join the armed forces?
A:I joined when I was 17 years old. I really wanted to be sent into pacific to fight the Japs. Instead, I was placed in Europe
Q:What group/division did you fight in?
A:I fought in what was called the Special Support Group. I was in the Navy.
Q:What were the soldiers in your group like?
A:I remember boot camp when one of my friends, who was extremely religious, had a condom put in his bed and was extremely angry about it. Overall, the guys in my group were really good guys. We all had nicknames. We called the captain of our ship Snuffy and everyone called me Sly Fox. There is a humorous story to this nickname. I got the nickname in the town of Falcom, which is in southern England, while I was getting my hair cut. My hair was cut by a good-looking gal and I got a date with her. When I went to pick her up all the guys were waiting at the door for me. I went in but she had left and so I came back out and they all began to laugh at me. I said that I was going to be a Sly Fox and make her fall for me. That didn’t happen.
Q:You fought in Normandy?
A:Yes, that was my first time in combat. There were 3 different types of boats that the Navy used. There was and LCF, the F stood for Flck, an LCR, the R stands for rockets, and LCG, and the G stands for guns.
Q:What was the initial trip to Normandy like?
A:We made it halfway across the English Channel through the storm. The boats had flat bottoms. You add the extremely big waves it was a very rough ride. We could barely see the other ships. It was a good thing that they called us back.
Q:How hard was it on the troops?
A:It was extremely difficult. However, I really didn’t have to worry because I would not be storming the beach. Everyone felt sorry for the soldiers who had the storm the beach. They were already worried enough, now they had to think about the attack even more, causing them more stress.
Q:When did they finally decide to send you guys back out to sea?
A:Well we had to wait until the night of the next day and we never got any sleep so our eyes were pretty much a dark red. But what they did was they brought a meteorologist and told us when it was safe to go back out to sea.
Q:Could you describe the battle?
A:There were an innumerable amount of ships that went as far as the eyes could see. Our job was to take out German guns that were deployed along the beach. We also had to watch for German planes. Lucky for us, though, we had already decimated the German air force so I only saw one German plane the whole time during the battle. I remember seeing one of my friends, who was in a different boat get stuck to the bottom of the goat by his gun while the ship was sinking. A few other sailors attempted to save him but drowned with him. I did not learn about his death until a few months later.
Q:Could you describe the German defense?
A:Lucky for us, the German’s commander, Rommel, who was also one of their best strategists, was not at Normandy during the battle. Rommel went to Berlin to celebrate his wife’s birthday. Soon after he left we attacked. This is good because if Rommel had been there he probably would have moved the troops south to handle our attack. I believe that if Rommel would have been there the Germans would have had a very good chance of defeating us.
Q:When did you touch the Normandy beach?
A:I didn’t touch it until a day after the battle. We had all the coffee so all the troops were coming to our boat to get some coffee.
Q:Did you fight in any more battles?
A:No, I was stationed in California just in case there was an attack by the Japs. However, I was let go on a medical discharge not to long afterwards.