Robert Hille - 1284th Engineer

[Walt's Daughter]

Began a new friendship with a veteran named Bob Hille.

 

 

July 2014 - (talked to him on the phone on Nov 13, 2014)

Hi !! My name I Ralph Robert Hille and I was a T-4 in the S-2 section of Headquarters Company of the 1284th. I have lost track of all that I knew except for my buddy Victor Karpenko who lives in San Francisco. I will be 89 on July 30th and have many good memories of my service. I haven’t seen any reference to the nick-name our outfit had. One of the HQ guys was an inventive art type and he came up with the name “Big Ass Bird” which was displayed on all of our vehicle bumpers with colors used to depict what company. One fond memory was a trip several of us made to Bagio in northern Luzon. There was a small restaurant that had oysters which , of course, I had not seen for quite some time. What a feast we had that day. Regards, Bob Hille

 

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AS of today I have gone through ten photo albums with nothing to show for the search. I have a few more places to look so I haven’t given up hope. I have given photos to grandkids etc. for school projects and I probably didn’t get them back. I don’t know how much your Dad told you about the outfit but we had quite a history. It would be a lot easier on me to discuss what I remember over the phone rather than typing it on the computer. Our phone number is XXXXX and I would be glad to hear from you. Regards, Bob

 

 

Hey Bob:

Got to thinking the other day...would you be interesting in writing down some of your WWII memories of the 1251st/1284th for me? Is this a possibility? Think it over and let me know.

Smiles,

 

Marion

 

 

I’m thinking about it for now. Regards, Bob

 

 

Okay, think hard! ha-haa! Marion

 

 

Some things you forget and some things you can’t forget, even if you try. Going through Aachen and Juelich both of which were nearly leveled from heavy bombing, you could smell the dead under the rubble. Can’t forget that. On the other side of the Rhine, all kinds of anti-personnel mines had been laid but the ground had sunk enough that the trip wires had been exposed an because they were not stainless steel they had rusted a bit and were real easy to see and avoid. When the war with Germany ended we were, I think, near Dusseldorf and we were billeted for a few days in a mansion which was the home of a Emil Kurdorf (?) . The basement had been made up as a training school for radio operators. My understanding was that Kurdorf was a big-time financier of Hitler. The third day we were there a lady came down to the basement, went to the door if the walk in vault, dialed the combination and went in. Came out a minute later and left. I guess she had stroke somewhere to enable her to do that.

A few days later we were having problems with rifle fire from some teenage kids who I suppose were part of the Hitler Youth structure. Our guys took care of that problem.

We were docked in Hollandia, N.G. when news of the atomic bombs reached our ship. We had visions of going home since invasion of Japan did not appear to be part of our plan any longer. No such luck. We went on to Manila and then we were sent to northern Luzon. I remember going up into the mountains to a town called, I think, Bagio. There was a little café there and we went in to see what they had and perhaps eat. To my astonishment they had fresh fried oysters which I had not seen since leaving home. What a feast!!!

I can remember being somewhere in Holland and we saw a great number of launching sites for the German V2 rockets. Good thing we won when we did.

There was one day on the journey to the South Pacific when we were all called up on deck at daybreak with life vests.. After 30 minutes and sunrise we were allowed to return to below decks. We guessed that the concern was possible Japanese subs in the area and we were called to deck as a precaution. I remember two things very vividly upon our return home. At our port of entry to the US was a huge sign that said “Through these portals pass the greatest soldiers in the world”. One of my first meals in the US was served by POWS. I saw fresh milk, my first since leaving home. Drank a whole pitcher all by myself. I remember a discharge seminar where we were reminded that were we no longer allowed to talk at home like we talked in service. We needed to clean up our mouths.

As I told you on the phone, I play poker every Thursday with the same seven guys. We got to talking about the GI bill one time and it turned out that of the eight at the table, six of us had gotten degrees using that bill and none of us could have afforded school with out the help of that bill., Sometimes congress does things right. I can’t think of anything else right now so I am signing off. Regards, Bob

 

 

Excellent, Bob. Sure glad you are sharing all this with me. I love hearing this and I know others will too. Everyone is always eager to see whose memoirs I'm going to upload next. We all consider this a great honor to hear from our "boys".

Gratefully,

Marion

​PS. Don't be shy about sharing more...​

 

 

don’t think I told you about my mad on for the Red Cross. I and others paid for just about anything and everything we got from the Red Cross including GI coffee and GI lemonade—even while in the field.. Not so The Salvation Army---never cost a cent and I got a lot from them. A story related . When we landed in England (Avonmouth) we loaded onto a train. We were loaded into a compartment with our duffle bags and sat waiting for the train to become fully loaded and we would move out. Those trains have those belts attached to the doorway with holes that allow you to drop the window down in steps. Our window was all the way down;. It was kind of dark and visibility was low. A head came toe the window and a definitely southern accent voice said Y’all like some coffee and a doughnut? This turned out to be a young lady from Atlanta and a volunteer with The Salvation Army. Regards, Bob

 

 

Dear Bob:

Thanks again for sharing additional memories. Can't wait to start a page for you. Hoping you can find at least one photo from the war, so I can add it to the top of the memoir page.

You know, other vets have told me the same thing regarding the Red Cross, so I guess I am not surprised to hear about this from you. Seems absolutely ludicrous that they would charge their own fighting soldiers. That pisses me off, as it does others.

Smiles,

Marion