WWII veteran reflects on war, honor flight experiences

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November 18, 2009

By ANDY GOODELL The Oskaloosa Herald Wed Nov 18, 2009, 02:19 PM CST

OSKALOOSA — He’s seen the memorial for where he saw combat.

Don Dye, 84, of University Park, was finally able to see the World War II and other foreign war memorials in Washington, D.C., Nov. 4 as part of the latest Iowa Honor Flight. Despite the 24-hour schedule flying out to and back from the nation’s capital, Dye said he’s grateful to have gone.

“It was a very moving experience,” said Dye.

In 1943, the day he graduated from high school, Dye enlisted in the U.S. Army.

As a private first class, he saw every country from the shores of France at Omaha Beach to the heart of the Third Reich in Germany.

“From day one in the army I was trained to be a combat soldier,” said Dye. “There wasn’t anything nice for us. We were just on the march and on the go.”

He was signed up in the Army Specialized Training Program. While enrolled, he was supposed to go to basic training followed by a university for three years. Dye intended to get a degree and be commissioned as a lieutenant.

It didn’t work out that way.

“The situation in Europe and in North Africa got so bad that they realized they’d need all the ground troops they could get,” explained Dye.

Dye said he was entrenched in quite a number of firefights while in Europe. The most significant champaign of his career, which would prove to be Dye’s last, was fought in Germany’s Hurtgen Forest. This would later prove to be the battle that provided the staging for the more well-known Battle of the Bulge, Dye said.

“We replaced the 9th Division,” said Dye. “They where just completely shredded in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. We were sent in to replace them and we also suffered severe losses, terrible losses.”

In the heat of battle, Dye was hit in the back, arm and neck by a shell from a “German 88,” which was an anti-tank and anti-aircraft gun widely used by German forces. He said that, unlike other gunfire, he could not hear the 88 being fired at him until it was too late.

Dye’s problems didn’t end there.

Once hospitalized, it was discovered that he had what was known at the time as “trench foot.” His feet had been frozen in the chilly German autumn for far too long.

“My frozen feet were the things that really got me out,” said Dye. “October this year was very similar here to what we had in Germany. It rained all the time. Then in the early part of November, we had a heavy snow. We just were soaking wet most of the time.”

While trudging through the Hurtgen Forest, Dye and his fellow soldiers also had to deal with land mines and other traps set by the Nazis as they withdrew from the American advance. It didn’t help that the ground was as hard as shale, which prevented the Americans from digging proper foxholes to avoid artillery fire. Many times a foxhole was nothing but a moot point because of “tree bursts,” a tactic used by the Germans that would cause shrapnel to rain down on American soldiers after shells were shot at the tops of trees.

There was a safe haven among all the carnage in the form of a shelter in the Hurtgen Forest shared by German and American soldiers alike, said Dye.

“The only stipulation was, within a few feet of that shelter, you laid your weapons down,” said Dye. “Our medics and German medics treated both, Americans and Germans. That’s the very place they took me to when I was wounded.”

Dye would eventually get improved medical treatment in a former tuberculosis clinic in Belgium. He would eventually fly to England before returning to the U.S. for good.

“It was a tremendous relief,” said Dye of the German and eventual Japanese surrender in 1945. “I just couldn’t believe it was finally over. All that suffering and loss and loneliness and all the rest of it was finally over.”

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Herald City Editor Andy Goodell can be reached at news2@oskyherald.com