Gallup veteran recalls horrors of WW II

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of articles featuring local World War II veterans.

Darrel Beehner
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Even at 83 years old, Gallup resident Jean Bateman has very vivid memories of the two years he was in Europe during World War II.

And, despite landing in France just a month after D-Day and taking part in the bloody Battle of the Bulge, not all his memories are bad. Bateman recalls clearly the women he met while in Europe: the length of their skirts, the style of their blouses, the color of their hair, the jewelry they wore.

He talks fondly of the personal, guided tour of Paris he and other U.S. soldiers were given by a Frenchman.

But along with hospitality, Bateman also remembers the hostility: the sightless stare of dead men, of the contorted and unnatural positions of mangled bodies and of skin sliding off a burned soldier's hands and arms.

Over there
Bateman joined the Army on Feb. 14, 1943.

"I did mine a little differently," he said. "I was in three days and I was in the infantry."

A member of H Company, 345th Infantry Regiment, 87th Infantry Division, Bateman was stationed in Mississippi when he told his sergeant "if you send anybody overseas, send me." Three days later he was in a convoy of ships sailing for Liverpool, England.

From there he went to Glasgow, Scotland, and then to Belfast, Ireland.

On July 9, 1944, Bateman landed on Utah Beach where Allied forces had pushed 12 miles into France.

Baptism by fire
The troops that Bateman landed with were there to replace the 1st Infantry Division.

After experiencing some minor (by comparison) firefights, attacks and ambushes, Bateman took part in his first major offensive campaign to capture a strategic hill occupied by German paratroopers.

"They sent the 2nd Infantry Division in to take the hill," he said. "Three days later they withdrew. Then they sent us in. We went in in the morning and by that night, they (the German paratroopers) were gone."

But it wasn't that easy. The troops on the ground were supported by 15 Sherman tanks. Twelve were destroyed.

"We lost a lot of people there," he said. "K Company had 224 people. That evening, they had 77 left."

Reality of war
Those who haven't been in war shouldn't believe what they see in the movies or on TV, Bateman said.

"Are you aware that when someone gets killed they stay in the same position they were in when they got killed?" he said.

Bateman recalled being on patrol on Aug. 23, 1944, when they saw a German soldier watching them.

"Someone said 'there's one in a hole'," Bateman said. But when they got closer, they realized the dead soldier wasn't in a hole. The soldier had lost his lower extremities and was balanced on his waist in an upright position.

"That was the strangest sight I've ever seen," he said.

Bateman also recalled seeing a Sherman tank get hit with armor-piercing and high-explosive shells.

"A man got out of the Sherman and his skin was sliding off his hands."

Another man escaping from a hatch in the bottom of a tank had no legs. "He'll be dead in 10 minutes," Bateman recalled saying.

Dirty warfare
Bateman spent that winter in Luxembourg fighting in the Battle of the Bulge.

"We never saw the ground all winter," he said.

Cold weather was only part of the problem.

"We would go a month or two months at a time without a bath. How do you think we smelled," he said laughing.

And when the soldiers did get an opportunity to go to the rear and get some rest, it was short-lived.

"We were sent to a static area where we could get some hot food, a bath, a change of socks and a cot to sleep on," he said. "The next night (after Bateman left) artillery hit the area and killed everyone there."

Following orders
In November of 1944, Bateman and two others were ordered by an officer ("he didn't like us") to dig an observation post near the front lines. When they got there, a rifleman told them they were less than 40 yards from the German army.

"He told us 'you go out there and you'll die'."

With no choice but to follow orders, Bateman and his comrades crept to within 30 yards of the Germans and began digging a hole.

"We were filling bags with dirt and I got volunteered to empty them."

As he was toting the bags, the Germans fired a flare, lighting up the area and exposing the American troops to potential fire from machine guns capable of firing 1,200 rounds a minute.

"I dove in a hole half filled with water and (the Germans) kept us in that cold water all night," before Bateman and the others were able to make it back the Allied lines after daybreak.

Injured
On April 29, the war ended for Bateman.

The Allies were in Germany and pushing toward Czechoslovakia when the troops Bateman was with were strafed by German warplanes and Bateman has hit by a Jeep as the troops scrambled for cover.

"I was in a hospital in England when the war ended," he said.

Going home
After being released from the hospital, Bateman spent several months in Europe before being sent back to the U.S.

"I didn't have any trouble winding down. I didn't come home until November so I had plenty of time to relax.

What did he do after he returned to the U.S.?

"I stayed drunk for a month," he said laughing.

Coming next: Jamestown resident Frank Farr was a prisoner of war in Germany when he was liberated by Gen. George Patton and his driver, Gallup resident Al Mattis.