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134th Infantry Regiment

"All Hell Can't Stop Us"

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Corporal Lorens Woodside

35th Quarter Master Company - 110th QM Regiment

Corporal Lorens Woodside

 

Corporal Woodside was from Cozad, Nebraska and joined the Nebraska National Guard 5 Sept 1940 to 22 Dec 1940. He entered the Army 23 Dec 1940, and trained at Camp Robinson, Arkansas. He was a Rifle and Carbine Sharpshooter but he drove a truck. He was in the Army 5 1/2 years, over 1 year spent overseas. Cpl. Woodside fought in the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes, and Central Europe campaigns. He was awarded the American Defense Ribbon and Good Conduct Medal.

He married Viola Wikoff, 23 Feb. 1944 in Kansas. After his service they settled in Southern California, where he lived until his passing Aug. of 2001. Below is a letter that he sent home in May 1945.

Hannover, Germany May 18 (1945)

My Darlings,

Gee Honey no mail again, in fact for about 4 days. And Gosh have I missed it. Boy sure wish they would get on the ball. Course I'm in a bad mood. Mommie I haven't much to say tonight so I'll kinda tell you just what we have done here. And perhaps save a lot of talking when I get home. First we landed in England about 25 or 26 of May a year ago. And in France D+30. There was only about 10 divisions here then and by Gosh to look back at it the small post of France we had then if the Germans had known our strength and had tried they could have driven our whole beachhead into the ocean. We loaded on boats the 4th of July in a town near Plymouth England and landed here the 7th and was committed into action on the 9th North of St. Lo. We were at Lisdon. Well everything went as wars go. The days before the big push off on Hill 122. Bob, Harker Harvey, Sgt. Lance, Reed, myself, Morgan, Edlund, hauled 4 loads of ammunition up to the 134th. This was our first taste of the real front lines. Because there were machine guns all around us and we were under German 88 fire and was also mortar fire all the time. No one was hit but we sure found fox holes in a hurry. That began the clearance of the 35th.July 25 was the first big bombing the allies had in our sector. It also helped the breakthrough of St. Lo. 3600 of them and they all went over our area. One of them had engine trouble and unloaded his whole load of bombs and they hit all around us some within 200 yards of the area. Also in the same area we were bombed by the German's but lucky us they missed by about 100 yards. Boy you should have seen some of the foxholes we were digging about then. 5 1/2 - 6 ft deep then we took brush and anything we could find and put them on the top and covered them with dirt until you could hardly see it and then we made our beds in it and there we slept, a moles life it was.

After the break through of St. Lo and the crossing of the river there we were released from the 1stArmy and into Patton's and started following him, but we were stopped at Mortain and were thrown into action again there. Because the Germans had attempted a breakthrough to cut off our supply lines. Of course it didn't work and we made history. About this time the German's had planes over every nite and it was about that time Pop Hanson and I had that long black out drive I told you about. After Mortain we went on Le Mans and then some trucks went to the Inf. to motorize them in the spearhead attack through France. Well we went about 100 miles that day and were just outside of Orleans) Well most of the truck were there But Bob, Dudley, Harvey, Haviland and Morris were the ones who went and they had quite a time and the next day & nite. The German's shelled Orleans all the time and have two trucks were hit. Not bad but the still carry the scars. None of the men were hurt. So about this time the rear echelon was over 130 miles back and had to be moved. So 30 trucks took off to do that. Well within the next 48 hours we drove 550 miles and had them caught up. It was here I burned my face and eyes so bad. You see I was a machine gunner up until the time I was busted and we had them mounted on trucks and had to ride with them all the time. After Orleans we went on to Nancy and a little town some miles south of there. We were bombed and scattered by our own planes here. And in the pictures I sent home are bomb craters that was in our area. The ones with Bob, Haviland and Howard and the rest in. Wow did I sweat blood that day.

We were in Nancy for about 6 weeks and then came the big push which Metz fell in. We only had a small part to do with Metz. But a little. And this push ended us in Germany at the Saareguemines Well we were pulled out of there and were suppose to go into a rest Camp in Metz. We had no rest until then. And the same time the Belgium Bulge. Se we only had Christmas over there. And what was considered a stage over on the way to Belgium, no rest. But we were there for Christmas and even through the Germans again were starting to send planes over were felt pretty good and had a damn good dinner. Then on to the Bulge. We did a damn good job. So they told us. It was awful cold and had lots of snow.

After the Bulge we went back to Metz and were still suppose to get that 10 day rest but it was the same thing and we went into Southern France to the 7th Army. This is where all the small pictures with all the snow on the trailers were taken. By God it was cold there. On the way down we stayed overnight in one town where we couldn't even find room enough to house 180 men. The town was so completely torn up. We hit a couple of blizzards worse than some I've seen in Nebr. And they were bad there. But they didn't matter much we had to go anyway.

When we left there we went through Verdun and stayed overnight there and so on up to Holland where we kind of had to wait until all got there. Stops to reorganize they called it and into the 9th army. In which we ended up. We went into a holding position for a long time and finally things broke loose and we crossed the river and here we had 21 trucks mobilized the Inf. Again-Dudley and I spearheaded this one with our Machine Gun Trucks. And what a time we had. It wasn't so cold by this time we sweat it out. We would haul the Inf. up to town and we would move in Venlo, Holland the Ing took 4 blocks and we moved in with 21 trucks and went to bed. The next morning we moved on. We hauled them about 12 miles more and they rode tanks from there into Rhineburg. Well we still up for that rest. Which we finally got. The pulled us out of Rhineburg and back to Bouggen (sp) for 10 days. We had 6 trucks in Rhineburg and one was hit pretty bad by artillery again. After the next crossing of the Rhine I crossed on D+1 and boy that night the Germans sent out some planes and tried to bomb the bridge loads over the Rhine. Man oh Man did the A-A-A do the sky up pretty. Looked like Rose Bowl on the 4th of July (I Think). They again didn't do any good so we pushed on and were in the Ruhr Pocket for awhile. Then all at once we were pulled out and mad over a hundred mile move into Germany and ended up on the Elbe River where the war ended for us. We were pulled a couple three weeks before the surrender. Since we have moved back to Hanover And swearing out the ETO-PTO or home.

Well Mommie I guess that's about all I have for tonight. I have been writing over 1 ½ hours now and it really time to quit.

I love you my Darlings. I love you so much honey. I love you Mommie, I love you, I love you, I love you so much my darling

All my love Darling

Lefty

 

Thanks to Nancy Woodside, Corporal Lorens Woodside's daughter, for providing these photos and information. She would like to hear from anyone with information about the 35th Quarter Master Company or anyone who served with her father. You can reach Nancy Woodside at kivasmyangel@yahoo.com

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