By: George Spiro (Ashford)
ASHFORD’S GEORGE SPIRO IN WWII
In 1943, at age19, I enlisted in the Army Sig-nal Corps and at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, trained on the maintenance of radio receivers and transmitters. I shipped out to England in Jan. 1944, 6 months be-fore D-day. I was assigned to Patton’s Third Army (3rd) which was deployed on the south coast of Eng-land preparing for the assault on German-occupied Europe. The 3rd was 100% mechanized with heavy tanks and support elements; the infantry rode. The Normandy Beach landings included water drop-offs so the 3rd had to depend on dry landings. The French ports of LeHavre and Brest were sabotaged by the Germans with sunken ships and mines. D-day was June 6, 1944, my 21st birthday. The 3rd was delayed a month while barges were floated in and attached to form a pier anchored at Omaha Beach at Avranches. The 3rd landed dry. Remnants of the pier can still be seen. I was assigned to a Signal Service Company and a section for maintaining its radio receivers and transmitters and portable power generators. The mis-sion of the Company was to monitor radio transmissions to identify and locate enemy units. The moni tors were fluent with most European languages and Japanese. The Germans were expected to use foreign talkers the way the U.S. Army used Native Americans. But the Germans spoke in clear voice. The 3rd moved rapidly across France liberating villages, towns, and cities bypassing Paris, leaving that honor to the French Army. Many times the 3rd had to halt and wait for supplies. By Nov. 1944, the 3rd reached Nancy, France on the Alsace/German border. The 3rd was ordered to head North to relieve troops trapped in Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. The 3rd then proceeded through Germany to arrive in Pilsen, Czechoslavakia on May 7, 1945. This was the fur-thest penetration east of any U.S. troops. The next day, May 8,1945, was declared VE-day. The Russians were coming to occupy so the 3rd was ordered to move to Bavaria, Germany for occupation duty. General Patton was appointed Governor of Bavaria and he died there after an automobile “accident.” I was recently awarded a medal and title of Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor for my role in the liberation of France. I was discharged from the Army in Jan. 1946. I took advantage of the G.I. Bill to achieve 2 engineering degrees, attending NYU at night. I worked for the Bell Telephone System for 40 years; 12 at NY Tel, 22 at Bell Labs, and 6 at Western Electric and AT&T. I retired in 1985 and moved to Florida with my wife, Lillian, and on to Aberdeen in 1990.
