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Oral History Interview with Travis Womack, Jr., May 10, 2002

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Interview with Travis Womack Jr., a Army WWII veteran from Marshall, Texas, who served with the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division. Womack discusses his family, education, basic and airborne training, deployment to Morocco and movement through North Africa, the invasion of Sicily, the Battle of San Pietro, the Anzio campaign, going to England, marrying, fighting in Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge, disguised German troops, and the end of the war. In appendix is a detailed account of the Italian campaign written by Womack.
Date: May 10, 2002
Creator: Alexander, William J. & Womack Jr., Travis
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library

Oral History Interview with Donald Fleming, May 30, 2003

Access: Use of this item is restricted to the UNT Community
Interview with grain elevator operator and Army Air Forces veteran Donald Fleming. The interview includes Fleming's personal experiences about being a B-24 navigator in the European Theater during World War II, his education at Kansas State University, enlisting as an Aviation Cadet in the Army Air Forces, navigator training, bomber transition training, his assignment to Pantanella Air Base, various missions to Austria and Rumania, fighter escorts by the Tuskegee Airmen, and raids against oil refineries and marshalling yards. Fleming also talks about enemy flak and fighter opposition, his return to the States after fifty-one missions his crew's pet dog, correspondence with his wife, and his postwar business career.
Date: May 30, 2003
Creator: Marcello, Ronald E. & Fleming, Donald
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Oral History Interview with Charles Scheffel, May 10, 2000 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Charles Scheffel, May 10, 2000

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Charles Scheffel. Scheffel grew up in Oklahoma and enlisted in the Army ROTC in 1940. He was called up in 1941 after Pearl Harbor. He was allowed to finish out his senior year of college and was married in March 1942. He embarked on the Queen Elizabeth from New Jersey in September 1942. As leader of 200 men, he landed in Scotland and drove with them to Whittington Barracks where they joined with the British 51st Highlanders. He lists the three main survival lessons he learned from the seasoned English soldiers: having a batman to back you up, digging a two-man foxhole, and waiting for the ""crack and thump."" Scheffel how the ""crack and thump"" lesson would later save his life when he was seriously wounded when attacking the Siegfried Line. From England he went to Algeria with the British troops on the Scythia. The ship is torpedoed off the coast limps into Algiers. Scheffel made the decision to leave the British Highlanders and join up with American 9th Division in February 1943. The division went into Tunisia. Then he was sent to spend another month with the …
Date: May 10, 2000
Creator: Scheffel, Charles
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History