A.C. Thomas remembers they came out of their pup tent [Annotator's Note: small sleep tents often shared by two soldiers] and saw the chow wagon. Another time they were under mortar [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles] fire and his good friend got hit. Thomas was born in Pike County, Mississippi. They farmed and his father worked for the railroad. Thomas was working for a gravel company when he heard about Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. His parents separated in 1933. He served in a CCC camp [Annotator's Note: Civilian Conservation Corps] before he was in the service. He went into the service on 28 February 1942. He was drafted. He was inducted in Louisiana. He went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for cook and baker school.

A.C. Thomas drove trucks at a gravel company. He went to the motor pool and drove whatever they wanted. Thomas was a corporal. He was in the 16th Field Artillery [Annotator’s Note: 16th Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division]. He was in Germany when he was transferred to the 281st [Annotator’s Note: 281st Field Artillery Battalion]. They had five men on the 105 [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer; standard light field howitzer]. They had to learn all five positions on the gun. They were the most well trained outfit in the country. They were trained in the desert out in California. He was sent to Luxembourg. They left New York on the Queen Mary. For two weeks he had to eat only bananas to get his blood right. They went in a zig-zag [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] and had two ships guarding them as they went into the English Channel. They went to an English artillery fort. They unloaded the equipment first. Thomas drove a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks].

A.C. Thomas would argue with his superiors. He was put court martialed more than once. He did not know anything about the Germans. When he was in Belgium, he could not understand a woman who talked to him. Her husband was a major in the Belgian army. The Germans shot him down. She was glad to see the Americans. She invited Thomas to a wine tasting. Thomas had been without sleep for so long until they sent him to the hospital in Aachen, Germany. He slept for 30 hours. They woke him up, fed him, and then gave him another tablet and he slept for 12 more hours.

A.C. Thomas went through Luxembourg and he saw the cemetery for the World War One soldiers [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918]. They had fresh flowers on the graves. The front was quiet in this area because the Germans were caught up fighting the Russians. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] gave the Germans three days to get out of Antwerp [Annotator’s Note: Antwerp, Belgium]. They had Christmas dinner on the 28th or 29th of December. Thomas gave some of the dinners to a family. The children remember the soldiers giving them food and chocolate bars. The hardest part for Thomas was hearing the people call for help and they could not help them. At the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], he heard that a lot. People were bleeding to death and calling for help. They got a new officer because their officer was killed in action. Thomas had his gun, a radio, and his bed. They had a reunion in New Orleans [Annotator’s Note: New Orleans, Louisiana].

A.C. Thomas was a volunteer agent for the 6th Corps. He would go out to Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] or wherever the headquarters were. Thomas had a grease gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber M3 submachine gun, also referred to as a grease gun]. When he did foreign observation, he was close to the Germans in their pup tents [Annotator's Note: small sleep tents often shared by two soldiers]. They were under a ceasefire when the Germans surrendered. The people were excited and partying that night. He used the carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. He never used the grease gun. Thomas went after a young man who ran into a bathroom. He was hiding radio equipment, and Thomas had to shoot him. They were supporting the 21st at that time. They crossed the Rhine River into the heart of Germany. When they were walking down the street, the man next to him was cut in half by bullets.

A.C. Thomas was part of the liberation of POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] in Lindberg [Annotator’s Note: Lindberg, Germany]. One man had been shot in the hand and was paralyzed. The Germans were the cleanest people they fought. If they had family killed by Americans, they were not too friendly. When the Germans surrendered, they held their weapons above their heads, then dropped them into a pile and kept walking. It was raining and snowing. During the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], it was snow and ice. The weather was too bad for air support to come in. They had the clothing and they had a good duffel bag that shed water. Once in a while, they would come around with a new uniform. They had some good officers. The Germans were ready to give up. When Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] committed suicide, they surrendered right away. They did not want to surrender to America. They got dive bombed and everyone ducked down in the half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks]. A lot of their shells just bounced off the big tanks, until they changed the shell toward the end of the Battle of the Bulge.

A.C. Thomas thought the German soldiers were too young. Most of them were teenagers. He was in Germany when the war ended. They were moving from one place to another while they worked on peace negotiations. Thomas had to carry dispatch from headquarters to the others. He dealt with Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] and some others. Thomas was trying to find the village where his grandmother was raised. He was sent to a mountain retreat in France when he started on his way home. The younger Germans could speak English. Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] thought he was going to take over all the English-speaking people. When Thomas came home, he got married and went back to work for the gravel company. He shipped back to the United States in December 1945.