Elmer Ellsworth Shaner was born on 3 March 1921 in Turtle Creek, PA. He was the only child of George L. and Ruby (née Ayers) Shaner. By 1930, the family had moved to Franklin, Ohio. (Note: based upon census and high school records, his name may have initially been George J. Shaner through 1938). Elmer graduated from Conesville High School in 1939 with 28 other students. For a while he worked for the Hunkin-Conkey Construction Company in Ravenna, Ohio. He decided to enlist in the Army with six of his classmates and they enlisted on 11 March 1942 at Fort Hayes in Columbus, Ohio. Unfamiliar with Army policy, they thought that they would be able to stay together. After taking an aptitude test at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, Indiana, locations were selected for basic training. Some went to the Infantry, Signal, Artillery, and some went to the Engineers. Because of his experience and knowledge of tools and equipment that he had gained while working construction at the Ravenna Ohio Ordinance Depot, Elmer qualified for the Engineer Training Center at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri.
After basic training, he was retained as an instructor and promoted to corporal. He was then recommended to attend the Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, VA. The Officer School started on 7 January 1943 and Elmer completed the course on 31 March 1943. He was honorably discharged as an enlisted man for the convenience of the government and
sworn as a Second Lieutenant.
Elmer was then sent to the Shenango Replacement Depot in Pennsylvania where was processed and ordered to report to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for assignment to a theater of operation. His orders were changed and he was directed to report to Hampton Roads Staging Area, Norfolk, Virginia, for overseas assignment -- destination unknown.
At Hampton Roads, he was given his new orders and with others taken to the port of debarkation. The ship was a commercial civilian liner, the USS America which had been reconfigured to carry military troops and been renamed the West Point. When they were finally in sight of land on 6 June 1943, the captain announced that they were arriving at Casablanca, Morocco.
He reported to the Officer Replacement Depot for an assignment to a unit. Elmer had heard about Operation Torch and thought he was going to be assigned to General Patton's unit. There were no engineer unit vacancies available so he was temporarily attached to the 384 Engineer Battalion, a general service battalion. The mission of the battalion was to build and repair roads, temporary hospitals, airfields, bridges, harbor facilities, operate rock quarries and logistical depots. As he trained with the battalion, he became accustomed to actions and procedures in the theater of operation.
Elmer's first mission was to build a stockade for 100 Italian prisoners who had been captured by General Patton's army. He remained in charge of the prisoners until 1 December 1943 when the battalion notified him to report to the Replacement Depot. The base engineer was sending him to the Mediterranean Base Section Engineer Training Center, where he was assigned to the 385 Engineer General Service Battalion in Oran, Algeria. It was compulsory for an engineer officer to complete training in mine warfare and demolitions before arriving at this unit. Elmer completed the two-week course and received his instructor certificate on the 16 December 1943. The only dangerous thing about this course was that live ammunition was shot overhead while the trainees were probing for land mines. Dummy booby traps were under some mines as a reminder that the enemy used them. Probing was dangerous, mine sweeping with detectors was easy and safer. One of the primary missions of the Mediterranean base engineer was to support General Patton for the invasion of Sicily and General Clark for the invasion of Italy.
Arriving in Oran on 5 January 1944, he underwent processing and orientation before reporting to the 385 Engineer Battalion. On 10 January 1944 he was assigned to company B and remained during the war. The mission of the battalion was to build and repair roads, build temporary hospitals, airfields, bridges, harbor facilities, operate rock quarries, housing for troops and the most important was quarter master and ordnance supply depots work projects in Oran and vicinity.
On July 18, the entire battalion reassembled in the Bizerte, Tunisia area. Bizerte was a bombed-out shell of a city, deserted except for a few Arabs and naval forces of the French, British and American military personnel. The battalion began constructing radio stations, repairing buildings, rest camps, life rafts roads, depots after clearing mine fields. While in Bizerte, they were subjected to several good German air raids in which bombs dropped in the area and flack damaged tents and injured personnel. Several people were given purple hearts for wounds received during the German air raids. Elmer was lucky and was spared from being wounded by flying debris.
Italy surrendered on 8 September 1943. On 1 October 1943 the American forces entered Naples. They found that the port and everything within three hundred yards of it had been destroyed by the Nazis. The Germans, fighting a skilled defense, did not bother to defend the city but withdrew northward. Naples was the most important prize in southern Italy. The 385 Engineer Battalion was given an order on 31 January 1944 to move from Bizerte to Naples, Italy and was assigned to the peninsular base section. During the first two weeks of February 1944, the battalion moved three groups to Naples, Italy, to a new assignment under the Peninsular Base Section, Naples, Italy. The new bivouac area was located north of the city of Naples just outside of the suburb of Capodichino. The battalion started working immediately repairing the airfield runways and erecting a new portable hangar. Priority was given to reconstructing the port facilities.
While in Naples, Elmer met one of his high school buddies who had enlisted in the Army with him who was in a tank destroyer unit. He also met another high school buddy, a second lieutenant in the infantry, who was wounded in the hospital at Naples.
The battalion completed numerous projects during the period from February to August 1944. D Company was constructing barges during this period. In August, they were alerted for Operation Dragoon, the invasion of Southern France and ships began rendezvousing in the Naples area. It was no secret to the Germans that something was happening. Mount Vesuvius volcano was erupting and lighting the harbor area and Naples. The Army Chemical Company used smoke generators to camouflage the city of Naples and the ships in the harbor. The Germans dropped bombs, resulting in minor damage. The US Seventh Army commanded by General Patch rolled up the Rhone river on the right side. Patch's army captured Lyon, Besancon and met General Patton's Third Army at Epinal, France. As General Patch took Lyon, the 385 Engineer Battalion was directed to go to Dijon, France. The Battalion was directed to establish an engineer depot and provide engineer supplies to the advancing divisions. Routine operations included roads, airport, restarting utilities and general services for the base section. The ordnance needed depot facilities for storage. In December 1944 the 12 Battalion was directed to construct and operate a rifle firing range to requalify riflemen for possible deployment to support the troops at the Battle of the Bulge, 16 Dec 44 - 16 Jan 45. The Battalion remained in Dijon until 1 April 1945.
While stationed in Dijon, Elmer met Odette Bier.
Odette Clotilde Georgette Bier was born on 26 January 1921 at Epinal, Vosges,
France. She participated in the “Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur”, (FFI), which was the formal name used to refer to the French Resistance. She was secretary to the chief of the Bureau of the French Forces of the Interior in the Cote d’Or Region. She was also an agent who passed on confidential information to the underground for operations. She did this from June 1944 until 12 September 1944 when Dijon was Liberated. During the German occupation she saw service with the French Occupation Forces.
Odette often visited her friend Lucienne who was an interpreter for an American Colonel. One day he was at her house when Odette went to see her, and they talked. The Colonel was a very tall man. He told Odette that they often had parties and he invited her to join them. I simply said, "I love to dance but I can't dance with tall men," to which he replied, "I just have the right person for you!" The next time Odette visited Lucienne again, she was introduced to a 2nd Lieutenant who was 5 feet 4 inches. Odette had trouble pronouncing
his name, so he told her to call him Jimmy. Language seemed to be their biggest barrier: Odette did not know a word of English he did not speak French. Not letting that stop them, they started going out together, usually to the officer's club where they had a great band and both loved to dance. Odette learned to jitterbug. Elmer would pick her up in a jeep driven by another soldier. The only thing Odette did not like was coming home at 11 pm. In France that was when one began to have fun. But Elmer explained that he was the junior officer and several officers shared the jeep, and the senior officer used it last.
After a while, Odette invited him to meet here family. Odette's mother had studied English in high school and she still remembered some after all those years, but of course that did not help Elmer and Odette much when they were alone. Odette's father retired from the French army and was working as a civilian for the French army in the mobilization division. Elmer would become a frequent visitor at their home. Besides going to the Officer's Club, they went to the opera, explored the countryside riding bicycles, and had a fun while learning each other's language. They dated from October 1944 until Elmer's unit was ordered to Germany in April 1945.
On 2 April 1945 the 385 Engineer Battalion was alerted without advance notice to move from Dijon to Lunéville without delay. On 29 April 1945 company B received movement orders to depart and move to Schwetzingen, Germany. En route to Schwetzingen, the company crossed the Rhine river at Mannheim. American bombers had used incendiary bombs to burn the city, to destroy the resistance to the Americans crossing the Rhine river. As a result, Mannheim was nothing but ashes. Just across the Rhine was the city of Heidelberg. Heidelberg had been declared an open city and was not bombed and it became the U.S. Supreme Headquarters. Elmer's company's mission was to prepare a safe building for the Supreme Headquarters to occupy. Facilities were checked and electric and heating equipment made operative. He was given a vehicle to search abandoned factories for all types of material to rehabilitate buildings for troops and storage. They needed glass, nails, lumber and building materials.
The German Forces in Italy surrendered on 29 April 1945 and the Nazi Government capitulated on 8 May 1945. On 12 June 1945 the 385 Engineer Battalion received orders to move to Rouen, France and report to Commanding General Normandy Base Section. The Battalion reported to camp Lucky Strike staging area waiting to return home.
Elmer was in the Rouen staging area on 30 July 1945 when the 385 Engineer Commander was ordered to provide one 1st Lieutenant to be transferred to Marseilles, France. Being the youngest and most junior officer, he was chosen. He reported to Marseilles and was given shots and full combat gear. During the oral orientation, he was told that he was on his way to Japan for the invasion of Japan. While in route, Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 and the Captain announced that they were going home.
Elmer arrived at Hampton Roads on 20 August 1945, the place he had left two years to journey to North Africa.
Meanwhile, the 385 Engineer Battalion was inactivated on 1 September 1945 and relieved of all military assignments. On 18 October 1945 the 385 Engineer Battalion reported to camp Herbert Tareyton in Normandy, its final staging area. The Battalion departed on 23 October 1945 and arrived in Boston 6 days later. Elmer never heard from them again.
To be continued in Part 2...
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