Tennessee Maneuvers

On the train I was on guard duty with Carl Tuszynski. We sat in the cab of one of the vehicles. We were out of the wind but there was no heat. I had an earache and it "broke" and started to discharge. This happened to me so many times as a child it didn't seem like a very big deal.

On Dec 20th we woke up at our destination. Back in Kansas the boys from Tennessee said it would be warmer down there. Imagine my disappointment when I stepped off the train and slipped on the ice beside the track. This has been happening to me ever since. I went to Southern California and froze at the Tournament of Roses Parade. One winter I went to Tucson, Arizona to escape the winter and they had their first snowfall in five years. In each case the natives said it was unusual.

Actually it was not as cold as Kansas but since we were in the Field all of the time it was much more miserable. It rained sixteen days in a row (the record is 40).

We not only had to dig fox holes we had to dig in the howitzers. Boy did it get muddy. We were in the woods near Gailatin, Tenn. but we kept moving around. The little book says I went on sick call on the 23rd and 24th.

On Christmas day I worked K.P. and ate Turkey with a rusty spoon. Then I went to Carthage and took a cold shower (apparently first shower since leaving Kansas). The diary said, "Most miserable holiday I ever hope to spend." On the 27th I slept in a hay stack and dreamed that I was home.

There were lots of fire missions day and night. I can't remember whether we used live ammunition or not. At midnight on Dec. 31 somebody hollered "Happy New Year." Someone else hollered, "At Ease!".

In the back of the 1943 diary I found a list of nine men who had borrowed money from me. They were all crossed off but two so I guess I collected fairly well. The 1944 Diary indicates that one guy still owes me 500 Francs.

January 2nd "Got colder and raining harder". On January 3rd we got a lecture on malaria. Now I remember we had to sleep under mosquito nets in the middle of the winter. On January 5th we got up at 3 a.m. and got to bed around midnight and rose again at 4 a.m. the next morning. My ears and feet were both bad at this time. Some of us had trench foot which seems to be a circulatory problem from wearing shoes and socks day and night and your feet being cold and wet most of the time. The feet were numb when they were cold, which was most of the time, and when they warmed up they would hurt. I got it back every winter after the army for quite a few years but it finally went away.

On January 6th my little book says that Jernigan got hurt gunning but I don't remember the details.

On Sunday Jan. 9th I walked in the snow in bare feet and on the 11th I soaked my left foot in a stream. Somebody must have told me it would help circulation.

One of our pastimes in the army was to sing songs. I remember singing with Sgt. Mule Cole, Leroy Hoffman, Roy Agee, Billy Williamson, and I'm sure there were others. On the 15th a doctor at the Aid Station said I had a "perforated ear drum" and might get a C.D.D. (a medical discharge). That night I went to town with Tuszinski and Fullford and slept in a bunk for the first time "in a month." "The idea of getting out (of the army) tickled me. I wrote home." The idea pleased my mother even more.

I paid 50¢ for a shower on the 16th. On the 17th I checked into an army hospital. Another doctor said the ear was not perforated and on the 21st a doctor used a syringe and forced some air in back of my ear drum and my hearing came back. By now the idea of a medical discharge didn't sound so good and I wrote "Made up my mind I was going back (to the outfit) and serve for as long as they wanted me." I wrote home and more or less bawled my parents out for wanting me home when I needed to do my part in finishing the war. It was a very discourteous letter because at first I wanted out as much as they wanted me out. I regret the letter.

On the 23rd and 24th I wrote a long letter about Tennessee Maneuvers and I think I still have it somewhere. January 26th I rejoined the outfit and was greeted by the officers & men "Great to be back."

The booklet The Valiant 275th AFA Battalion covers Tennessee Maneuvers in one sentence but many of the men expressed the opinion that up until the "bulge", Tennessee Maneuvers was tougher than combat.

We ate supper on February 1 at Camp Campbell, Ky.

DeLoyd Cooper is the Historian for the 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion Association.
Copyright © 1999 DeLoyd Cooper. All rights reserved.
Revised: November 4, 2004