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Grand Valley State University
Veterans' History Project
George Kuiper
World War II
1 hour 56 seconds
(00:00:10) Early Life
-Born in February 1926 in Holland, Michigan
-Grew up in Holland
-Father worked in the Holland Furniture Company
-During the Great Depression he only worked three days a week
-Despite having a job, the family still didn't have much
-He had three brothers
-His aunt lived with them
-Mother stayed home and took care of George and his brothers
(00:01:10) Start of the War and News on the War
-Remembers hearing about the attack on Pearl Harbor the afternoon of December 7, 1941
-In school they were discussing the events unfolding in Europe and Asia
-Always enjoyed history, so that stuck with him
-Still, he was only fifteen (or sixteen) so it wasn't of great importance
They still had family living in Germany during the war
-Father would write to them once in a while
-Had male relatives living in Germany that wound up fighting for the German
Army
-Didn't think that the war would be over before he would have to serve
-Started receiving extra physical education in high school
-Preparing all of the young men for military service
(00:03:14) Getting Drafted
-Graduated from high school in June 1944
-Received his draft notice to report for an Army physical in Detroit
-This happened shortly after he turned eighteen in February 1944
-Reported to the draft board in Holland in June 1944
-Father dropped him off there
Sent to Fort Sheridan, Illinois by train for processing
(00:04:42) Basic Training and Field Artillery Training
-From Fort Sheridan he was sent to California by train for field artillery training
-The train ride was dirty from the soot produced by the steam engine
-Travelled across the Rocky Mountains and the Great Salt Lake
-Received his training in Camp Roberts, California
-Between San Francisco and Los Angeles
-Went to Fort Hunter Liggett
-Proving ground for the field artillery at Camp Roberts
-Received basic training and field artillery training at the same time
-Trained with WWI-era artillery pieces
-Learned how to prepare a charge, load a round, and set coordinates for
�the gun
-It took seven men to load and properly fire a howitzer
-His job was to load the powder charge
-Determined the range and elevation of the round
-Received their coordinates from headquarters via field telephone
-Later in the war, his job was to lay down telephone wire
-Establishing coordinates involved trigonometry
-Could fire three rounds per minute when the gun crew was trained
enough
-Each artillery shell weighed about ninety six to ninety eight pounds
-Had to also qualify with the M1 Carbine
-Went to a firing range and shot at targets 100 yards and 200 yards away
-Marched around Camp Roberts
-There was a strong emphasis on discipline and Army protocol
-Bed had to be made just right, everyone had to have their things uniform and
lined up
-He adjusted well, although initially the coarseness of the drill sergeants was a
shock
-Believes that it would teach a lot of young people discipline
-He was a little homesick at first, but got over it
-Spent sixteen weeks at Camp Roberts
-The howitzer was pulled by a modified tank
-Could go to Paso Robles, California which was a town near Camp Roberts
-Took the bus from the camp to the town
-It was good to get off the base on Saturdays
-If you didn't have anything to do, they'd find something for you to
do
(00:17:28) Pre-Deployment
-After Camp Roberts he was sent across the country to Fort Meade, Maryland
-Stayed there for about one week
-Went to an infiltration course
-Crawling under barbed wire while a machine gun is fired over your head
-One day had to march eight miles to the infiltration course in the pouring
rain
-Afterwards had to march the eight miles back
-Did the infiltration course three times
-At Fort Meade he was still a replacement and did not have a unit
(00:20:07) Deployment
-After a week at Fort Meade he was sent up to Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts
-Stayed there for two days
-Boarded the RMS Aquitania (sister ship of the RMS Lusitania)
-Sailed alone and left after dark
-He pulled guard duty, four hours on eight hours off, looking for U-Boats
-Took seven days to sail across the Atlantic Ocean
-Weather wasn't too bad
-Some men got seasick
�(00:22:14) Arrival in the European Theatre
-Arrived in Glasgow, Scotland
-Went by train to Southampton, England
-Boarded a ship and was given a loaf of bread and a ring of bologna
-It was a small transport ship
-Had to sleep in hammocks
-Anchored just outside of Le Havre, France
-Couldn't go into the harbor because it was heavily damaged
-Had to climb down the side of the ship using rope ladders to board LSTs
-Also dealing with twenty foot high waves
-In Le Havre they boarded "40 and 8" boxcars and traveled to Paris
-"40 and 8" boxcars: capable of carrying forty men, or eight horses
-By now it was November 1944
-In Paris he went to a replacement depot and was assigned to the 191st Field Artillery
Battalion
(00:26:10) Joining the 191st and the Battle of the Bulge Pt. 1
-From Paris he traveled to Belgium in open topped trucks to join the 191st
-By the time he joined them it was mid/late December 1944 and extremely cold
-Saw a lot of American planes flying east into Germany on bombing runs
-German planes would show up occasionally and strafe them
-The first night that he joined the battalion he was placed on guard duty
-It was freezing and he could see Germans and Americans exchanging gunfire
-They followed the infantry and the tanks as they pushed the Germans back
-They were attached to the 4th Armored Division
-Working with "split trail" howitzers that had longer barrels
-Pulled by trucks
-Took an hour to set up one gun
-After it was set up the 1st lieutenant would sight the gun
-He was assigned to #1 Gun in A Battery
-They would receive orders to do "harassing fire"
-Fire a shell every two minutes at the Germans to keep disrupting them
-Had to learn how to sleep through the artillery fire
-Wore long underwear, two pairs of pants, combat boots, a sweater, and a heavy jacket
-Also wore a wool cap under his helmet
-This was all just to keep from freezing to death
-Not allowed to light a fire because it would give their position away to the
Germans
-German 88mm gun crews could spot the fire and zero in on their position
-Didn't know anything about the progress of the battle or the progress of the war
-Just advanced and followed orders to carry out fire missions
-Some days they advanced a couple miles
-Other days they had to stop and bombard the German positions before
moving
(00:34:53) Rhine River Campaign Pt. 1
-The next major fighting was crossing the Rhine River at Worms in early spring 1945
-Their job was to ire shells over the river to cover the Army Engineers
�-The Army Engineers were trying to set up a pontoon bridge to cross the
river
-Had to contend with German artillery and German Me 109s
-One plane got so close that he saw the pilot's face
-Could see low level dogfights and high altitude bombers going into
Germany
-Punched through the German lines and advanced fifty miles into Germany
-The German line closed behind them and they ran out of gas for three days
-German bombers would come in and harass them
-One gun got hit and one truck was hit and they took some casualties
(00:38:22) Battle of the Bulge Pt. 2
-Once the Germans had begun to retreat, they began to advance out of the Ardennes
Forest
-This would have been near the end of January 1945
-Could see charges tied to trees along the road
-Germans were going to try to block the road but retreated too quickly
-Couldn't see any of the German frontier fortifications due to the snow
(00:40:00) Rhine River Campaign Pt. 2 and Advancing into Germany
-While crossing the Rhine River the Germans tried desperately to stop the Army
Engineers
-The Germans failed and he was one of many that crossed on that pontoon bridge
-Before crossing over some men found a warehouse and found several big cases of wine
-After they had crossed the Rhine River they had to deal with mined roads
-Remembers seeing German soldiers leaving their foxholes and retreating, some without
guns
-Got caught behind German lines for three days before they could get refueled
-Once they got refueled they kept advancing and were at the front of the advance
-Because of this they didn't see a lot of prisoners
-Went through towns that they had had to shell
-Saw the civilians living in the rubble
-Pushed the Germans back every day
-There was still some last ditch German resistance near the end, mostly artillery
harassment
-Remembers one night after crossing a river he was camped out next to a house
-German artillery was so intense that he thought it was a thunderstorm
-The next day he saw an artillery shell lodged in the porch of the house
-Had it not been a dud, he probably would have died
-Started seeing more civilians retreating east that were trying to get away from the Allies
-Had been brainwashed into thinking the Allies would kill any civilians they saw
-Proved the propaganda wrong and just drove around the civilians
(00:48:00) End of the War Pt. 1
-Got into Czechoslovakia by the time the war ended on May 8, 1945
-The 191st entered Czechoslovakia on April 29, 1945
-Saw Ohrdruf Concentration Camp in Germany around April 7, 1945
-First concentration camp liberated by the U.S. (April 4, 1945)
-Saw corpses laid out like cord wood, couldn't fathom the inhumanity
�-Went back into Germany for a while after the war on occupation duty
-Russia had begun to set up their occupation zones
-He was reassigned to the 405th Infantry Regiment for a while
-Then he was reassigned to a unit within the 4th Armored Division
(00:50:14) Field Telephone Work
-Enjoyed laying down wire for gun batteries more than being on a gun crew
-Safer than being on a gun, surrounded by gunpowder
-Rode around on a weapons carrier
-Combination of a jeep and pickup truck
(00:50:58) End of the War Pt. 2
-With the war over they were able to stay in houses and sleep in beds
-Had more contact with German civilians, and contact became more positive after the war
(00:51:44) General Patton
-Only saw General Patton a few times during the war, and that was close to the front line
-Tried to avoid him, simply felt that he didn't need to be where high ranking
officers were
(00:52:12) End of the War Pt. 3
-Stayed in Germany on occupation duty until early 1946
-Drove around Germany in a jeep, transporting personnel around the country
-Got to drive on the Autobahn
-Saw that the parts of Germany that were intact were clean and advanced
-Towns and cities had been flattened by the bombing
-Could smell rotting bodies in the rubble
-Some men in his unit would try to help civilians whenever it was possible
-Everyone mostly kept to themselves though
-He got to take a short trip to Paris
-Another culture shock seeing brothels
-Got to see Notre Dame
-Stayed in a hotel
-His travel companions brought back prostitutes at night
-The vacation only lasted a few days
-Knew that venereal disease was pretty common problem
-One soldier needed ninety consecutive shots of penicillin to treat his infection
-Did some duty with the Military Police on a train
-Stopping people from jumping on the train, or stealing anything
-Black market activity was a problem after the war
(00:59:04) Coming Home and Life after the War
-In early 1946 he received orders to go home
-Took a train across northern Germany and northern France back to Le Havre
-Boarded the SS George Washington and sailed to New York
-From New York he was taken to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey for a few days
-Took a train to Camp Atterbury, Indiana and was discharged there
-Worked as a mechanic in a garage for a few years after the war
-Started working on boats and started his own boat repair shop in Zeeland, Michigan
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Veterans History Project
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Grand Valley State University. History Department
Description
An account of the resource
The Library of Congress established the Veterans History Project in 2001 to collect memories, accounts, and documents of U.S. war veterans from World War II and the Korean War, Vietnam War, and conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere, and to preserve these stories for future generations. The GVSU History Department interviews are part of this work-in-progress, and may contain videos and audio recordings, transcripts and interview outlines, and related documents and photographs.
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
1914-
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Subject
The topic of the resource
Afghan War, 2001--Personal narratives, American
Iran Hostage Crisis, 1979-1981--Personal narratives, American
Korean War, 1950-1953--Personal narratives, American
Michigan--History, Military
Oral history
Persian Gulf War, 1991--Personal narratives, American
United States--History, Military
United States. Air Force
United States. Army
United States. Navy
Veterans
Video recordings
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Personal narratives, American
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James
Boring, Frank
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Identifier
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RHC-27
Language
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eng
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="https://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project interviews (RHC-27)</a>
Oral History
A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
KuiperG1775V
Title
A name given to the resource
Kuiper, George (Interview outline and video), 2015
Description
An account of the resource
George Kuiper was born in February 1926 in Holland, Michigan. He grew up in Holland and in February 1944 he received his draft notice. In June 1944 he reported for duty at the draft board in Holland, was processed at Fort Sheridan, Illinois and was sent to Camp Roberts, California for basic training and field artillery training. After sixteen weeks of training he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for an additional week of training and then left the United States out of Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts. He sailed over, stopping in England, and arriving in Le Havre, France. He was sent to Paris where he was assigned to the 191st Field Artillery Battalion attached to the 4th Armored Division. He joined the battalion in Belgium in mid/late December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge and was assigned to #1 Gun in A Battery and also laid down field telephone wire for the gun batteries. After the Battle of the Bulge they advanced into Germany, crossing the Rhine River at Worms, going south and seeing the Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, and entering Czechoslovakia on April 29, 1945. After the war ended on May 8, 1945 he was reassigned to the 405th Infantry Regiment and then 4th Armored Division before being sent home in early 1946 and getting discharged at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Kuiper, George
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Smither, James (Interviewer)
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oral history
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
United States--History, Military
Veterans
Video recordings
World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American
United States. Army
Source
A related resource from which the described resource is derived
<a href="http://gvsu.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/455">Veterans History Project Collection, (RHC-27)</a>
Type
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Moving Image
Text
Rights
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<a href="http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en">In Copyright</a>
Relation
A related resource
Veterans History Project (U.S.)
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Grand Valley State University. University Libraries. Special Collections & University Archives
Date
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2015-05-27
Format
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application/pdf
video/mp4