Donald Evans was born August 1923 in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. He had three brothers and a sister who was the oldest. He was the third in line. He got his first job when he got out of high school. They lived on a farm for eight years. His father was a conductor for Alan Wood Steel [Annotator's Note: Alan Wood Steel Company in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania] and got laid off in the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. That is when they moved to one farm. Prohibition [Annotator's Note: nationwide constitutional ban on production, importation, transportation and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States, 1920 to 1933] was on and some bootleggers [Annotator's Note: illegal traffickers in liquor] offered more rent, so they had to move to the farm they lived on for eight years. They had no electricity or running water. They burned wood to heat and cook. They were pretty independent. He did not finish high school and only went to the 11th grade. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Evans where he was when he heard about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He had been out carousing around on Saturday night and was asleep on Sunday. His sister woke him to tell him. It did not bother him until a couple days after that. He was too young to be drafted. He knew he would be called. Three or four fellows he ran around with all got drafted. Evans wanted to enlist. He saw his friends off on the train. He felt alone after the train pulled out. He went to the draft board and was told he had a year to go. He drove to Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania] to the enlistment station. It was full of guys. He saw a big banner that said to join the Army Air Corps and you could go to California for training. To Evans, California was the enchanted land. He said that was for him. He only knew the Army had the infantry, the armor, and the Air Corps. He had seen the movie called, "International Squadron" [Annotator's Note: also called "Flight Patrol", American war film, 1941] with Ronald Reagan [Annotator's Note: Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President of the United States]. He was young and stupid and wanted to be a gunner. He told them he wanted the Air Corps and wanted to be a gunner. He had to take papers to have signed. He did not want to go home so took the armored instead. He was accepted and given 11 days home. He was shipped to New Cumberland [Annotator's Note: New Cumberland, Pennsylvania] on 15 October 1942. He felt good but at 18 years old, you do not know much. He put his car in storage and sent the money home. They had to buy their own life insurance.

Donald Evans was in basic training and the Americans were kicking the Germans up and down in North Africa. Evans was in armor and had basic at Camp Campbell, Kentucky [Annotator's Note: now Fort Campbell, Kentucky]. Replacements started being shipped out for North Africa. He upped his life insurance. He sent most of his money home. He was not told he was going to North Africa. He left Camp Campbell on a train with the windows blacked out and wound up at Fort Dix, New Jersey. They could not get a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. They just waited around and got shots. They went to the Port of New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. It was the day before April Fool's Day [Annotator's Note: April 1 in any year], and it was raining. He walked up the gangplank with his barracks bag. He went down into the hold of the HMS Athlone Castle [Annotator's Note: RMS Athlone Castle]. It was an old rust bucket. The bunks were stacked five high. Nobody wanted the top or bottom bunks. The men were getting mad at each other and cussing. The second night they pulled into New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York]. They were leaving the United States of America on April Fool's Day. They were in the Atlantic for 13 days. Every day, they fell out on deck and did lifeboat drills. One day they heard depth charges going off, so they started paying attention. After 12 days, they were told the convoy was stopping to go through the Straits of Gibraltar [Annotator's Note: Strait of Gibraltar]. There were gates to keep the German submarines out of the Mediterranean that had to be opened. Evans saw the Rock of Gibraltar [Annotator's Note: limestone promontory in Gibraltar, British Territory] and was amazed. Way off in the distance he could see the lights on the capital of Spanish Morocco [Annotator's Note: Spanish protectorate in Morocco, 1912 until 1956; now Morocco]. They went into the Mediterranean, and they knew then they were going to North Africa.

Donald Evans docked in Mers-el-Kebir [Annotator's Note: Mers-el-Kébir, Oran, Algeria] in North Africa. They were told to take their overcoats. He thought it was weird because Africa was hot. The first night was very cold. They stayed in Canastel [Annotator's Note: Canastel, Algeria] for about 14 days training. It was all Arabs. He had never seen such a filthy gang of people in his life. The men were given two mattress covers they could stuff with straw. The Arabs would buy them from them. They were told they could not shoot an Arab unless they caught them stealing government property. If they shot someone who was not stealing, the United States government had to pay the family 300 dollars. The government took that out of the soldiers' pay. It was a culture shock. He was amazed that there was a sign there for Coca-Cola leaning against an olive tree where there was a store. He went in and bought a package of dates. He was eating them and then saw there were worms in the package. For malaria, they were using quinine [Annotator's Note: medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis]. Quinine comes from the Pacific, which was under control of the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese], so they started using Atabrine [Annotator's Note: proprietary name for mepacrine or quinacrine, antimalarial drug]. It was very bitter. They would watch the soldiers to make sure they took it. They were in pyramidal tents [Annotator's Note: tent, pyramidal, M1934] that were built for six, but they had ten. They had a band to play when they were in close order drill. The Arabs would sit and watch them run around. The war ended in Tunisia when they were in Algeria. They moved up to Tunisia then. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Evans if he was anxious to get into combat.] Evans though he had the best of everything. He never thought about the other guy being trained to kill him. They were back pretty far from the ocean. It was open hills, mosquitos, and stones. They were about three miles from Bizerte [Annotator's Note: Bizerte, Tunisia] and Tunis, Tunisia. In the evenings and early mornings, the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] would come over and bomb the harbor. They could hear the noise and could see the tracer bullets. The Brits [Annotator's Note: slang for British] were fighting in Greece. Evans knew they would be going on an invasion but did not think it would be Sicily [Annotator's Note: Sicily, Italy]. He thought they would go to Greece. They were still having to wear their dress uniforms and neckties. Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] was around. The Americans did not fight Rommel [Annotator's Note: German Army Generalfeldmarschall, or Field Marshal, Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel] that much, the Brits did. Patton was an armored commander, and he was tough on uniforms.

Before Donald Evans and his outfit [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] got to go on the invasion [Annotator's Note: Operation Husky, 9 July to 17 August 1943, Sicily, Italy], they all sat in the field on their helmets. A guy came to give a pep talk. It was General Lucian Truscott [Annotator's Note: US Army General Lucian King Truscott, Jr.]. He was the commander of the 3rd Division, known as the "Rock of the Marne". He did not have a necktie on and the G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] started rumbling about why Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] made them wear neckties. The next day the order came down that they did not have to wear them. They loaded into a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] and went to the Port of Bizerte [Annotator's Note: in Bizerte, Tunisia]. They put the vehicles on an LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] and then dug in outside the port. They had been strafed a few times and he was scared to death of the airplanes. He could not dig his hole deep enough. They went back to the bivouac area [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary camp] with the half-tracks and stayed two or three days. The idea was to throw the Germans off if they were watching. They went back and loaded onto the LST. Evans was on the half-track as a machine gunner. They went into a convoy and the number of ships blew his mind. It made him feel pretty good. They pulled out and then were told where they were going. He was at the rail talking to Pete Snoich [Annotator's Note: Army Corporal Peter S. Snoich] from Pennsylvania who had taught math. Pete was packing his pipe and he lost it over the rail. He leaned over to catch it and lost his helmet. They were off the coast of Sicily. Evans lived in his life jacket. He could swim, but out there, swimming is not going to do you a whole lot of good. They were told the infantry would get off first and go ashore.

The sky was full of German planes and right before it got daylight, Donald Evans was on deck and could see the Italian searchlights on shore sweeping the water [Annotator's Note: before the start of Operation Husky, 9 July to 17 August 1943; Sicily, Italy]. The infantry started ashore, and the German aircraft came alive. He saw one coming right towards their ship. There was so much noise, he could not hear the guns being fired. He could see the guns twinkling. The plane went across them. The LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tanks] are very thin, and it takes nothing to sink them. Sparks were flying and then their guns open up and shot him down into the Mediterranean. None of his guys were killed, but some were wounded. One of the wounded men was named Harry Sutch [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] was from Phoenixville [Annotator's Note: Phoenixville, Pennsylvania]. That was their welcome to combat. They went ashore and started reconnaissance. He was scared to death all the time. Reconnaissance is also to draw fire from the Germans. They went out on their half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks], but not all the time. They also went on foot. They are the guys that get shot up first. Their equipment was light, so they did not get involved in tank battles. Often, they went into the line as infantry. After the war, Evans went to Carlisle [Annotator's Note: Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania] to look up the battle casualty reports for the 66th Armored Regiment. There were 43 pages of reports. The next highest was 36 for the tank company of the regiment. So the reconnaissance had the most casualties of the unit. As soon as they made contact, the radio operator would call platoon headquarters and give the location. If they thought they could beat up on them, they would. Most of the troops out there were Italians who were not much for fighting. When they surrendered en masse, they would come out carrying suitcases like they were going on vacation. They did not want to fight. The Germans could not trust them. One time they were outside of radio range, so spotter planes came out to look for them. They came upon a railroad tunnel and went in. It was piled up with ammo. They went into Palermo [Annotator's Note: Palermo, Sicily, Italy] after going through a pass where they lost a lot of men. Palermo had capitulated and the civilians were on the street. When the war was over [Annotator's Note: the combat in Sicily], Evans was put on guard duty at ammo and gasoline dumps. They were put on a huge gasoline dump in an olive orchard. Italians wanted the gas too. Things were not too strict. Italian girls would come out with flowers, chicken and spaghetti. The G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] would forget about the rules and give them cans of gas.

In Europe, they said the Americans were happy-go-lucky all the time and they were. There was a saying, "some people fight for honor, some for money, but the Americans fight for souvenirs." Donald Evans believes that is true, but not in France, Belgium, and Holland. The Germans were the enemy, and every German house was looted. What was German was yours. When it came for them [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] to leave Sicily [Annotator's Note: Sicily, Italy], they turned in their equipment. It went to the French 2nd Armored Division. They left in November [Annotator's Note: November 1943] and landed in Scotland. They took a train to England. They were so happy because they could understand the language. They went to Tidworth Garrison [Annotator's Note: Tidworth Camp in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England] that had been a cavalry base for the Brits [Annotator's Note: British]. The name has come up in Afghanistan. In Tidworth Garrison, Evans was in a station that was named after a famous battle in Afghanistan. He saw it again when we [Annotator's Note: the United States] went into Afghanistan [Annotator's Note: War in Afghanistan, Operation Enduring Freedom, 2001 to 2014, Operation Freedom's Sentinel, 2015 to 2021]. Wherever he looked, there were piles of American equipment. It was unbelievable the amount of stuff that had been shipped across a submarine infested ocean. America was called "The Arsenal of Democracy." They did more training in England. There was a lot of rain, and it was damp. He had a seven day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] and went to Glasgow, Scotland. They could go to town at the end of the day on a six hour pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He wrote home all the time. A lot of that was sunk. Evans is surprised he got out Sicily unscathed [Annotator's Note: Operation Husky, 9 July to 17 August 1943]. He had a lot of close calls. The older guys are the ones who take it. It is hard on them. If you were 30 years or older, you were called "Pops". They were the guys that would break down the quickest.

Donald Evans got orders to ship out around June [Annotator's Note: June 1944]. He thought they [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] were going on the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] in April when the day would be longer. As the time got closer, they got stricter, and the training got tougher. In early May, they got armored cars [Annotator's Note: M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car] with a turret, a 37mm [Annotator's Note: 37mm gun], and a machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun]. They traded in the half-tracks [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] for those, and he thought they really had something then. They took everything out of the barracks and hit the roads that were jammed with vehicles. Then they turned around, came back, and unloaded. The G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] were cussing and blaming the officers. It was all on purpose though. They trained for a couple more weeks. The Americans controlled the skies but let the reconnaissance planes come through some times. They went down to Dorchester [Annotator's Note: Dorchester, England]. The sky was full of planes, and they figured the invasion was on then. They went into camps with high barbed wire. Once in there, they learned where they were going and then did not get out. They did not want the men out in the town. Nothing loosens the tongue more than a little alcohol and a "babe" [Annotator's Note: an attractive female]. They then loaded up and had heard on the radio that the invasion was on. They loaded up onto LST-313 [Annotator's Note: USS LST-313; a Landing Ship, Tank]. They had gone to Sicily [Annotator's Note: Sicily, Italy] from North Africa on LST-1 [Annotator's Note: USS LST-1], the first one ever built. Evans has the history of it. When they boarded, they left from Weymouth [Annotator's Note: Weymouth, England] on LST-313 on the evening of D-Day. He was on the top deck. It was raining. Everybody was scared and not talking. They started across the Channel [Annotator's Note: English Channel] with a French corvette [Annotator's Note: small warship] guarding them. About one o'clock in the morning, they heard explosions. He looked out and one of their LSTs was on fire and it sunk with some of the 66th Armored [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] aboard. Then everybody was really scared. They got there [Annotator's Note: off the coast of Normandy, France] on the end of the first day [Annotator's Note: 6 June 1944]. The place was a wreck. The sky was full of barrage balloons and there were ships and ships and ships. There were wrecks of vehicles.

Donald Evans [Annotator's Note: and the 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] went ashore [Annotator's Note: at Gold Beach, Normandy, France on 9 June 1944]. They had great control of the air. They did not even get their feet wet. They had floating ramps from the shore to the LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank; Evans was aboard the USS LST-313]. They landed on the third day. It was a mess. The first night on guard, they dug in their machine gun. He saw the German bunkers and the wrecked equipment. They went up to a field where they de-waterproofed the vehicles. He had a Tommy gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun] that he leaned against the vehicle. He heard a machine gun off and he got scared. A gunner in an armored car [Annotator's Note: M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car] had stepped on his foot trigger. Luckily, no one got shot. They dug in for the night. He could not wait to kill some Germans. At night, the Germans started dropping flares. The flared would light up the area brighter than noon day. It scares you to death because you are exposed. They dropped butterfly bombs [Annotator's Note: a German two kilogram anti-personnel submunition, or cluster bomb]. They got through okay. The next day they did recon [Annotator's Note: reconnaissance]. There were still a lot of parachutes hanging in the trees. All over Normandy there are a lot of churches. The Germans would be up in the steeples. The artillery would knock them down. They were walking through a field and there was a sign for a German minefield that a German forgot to take up. Then he was afraid to take a step. He saw a church with a steeple. They got down in the grass. He looked through binoculars and he could see Germans digging in. Artillery fire knocked the steeple down. He saw the Germans scatter. They were called back. They got bombed a little that night. The next day the Germans were shelling them.

Donald Evans and his unit [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] were doing some reconnaissance [Annotator's Note: in Normandy, France, July 1944]. The Omaha [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France] and Utah beachheads [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, France] were not fully linked up. The 101st Airborne [Annotator's Note: 101st Airborne Division] were in Carentan [Annotator's Note: Carentan, France] and had taken a beating. The 82nd [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] was in Saint Mere-Eglise [Annotator's Note: Sainte-Mère-Église, France] further up the coast. The Germans were getting ready to counterattack Carentan. They called for armor and the 66th Armored Regiment went up. They went to Mihiel [Annotator's Note: Saint-Mihiel, France]. The 17th SS Panzer paratroopers [Annotator's Note: 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Götz von Berlichingen"] were there. They went up with tanks and armored cars [Annotator's Note: M8 Greyhound Light Armored Car] and started shooting in the hedgerows. They were full of Krauts [Annotator's Note: period derogatory term for Germans]. They tied themselves into trees. They were fighters. Later on, Combat Command A [Annotator's Note: Combat Command A, 2nd Armored Division] had gotten a letter from Maxwell Taylor [Annotator's Note: US Amy General Maxwell Davenport Taylor] that said they had killed 800 Germans there. They also lost a lot of men. If you stand up in the armored car you could get shot by snipers. Evans was in one as a radio operator. The armor is not very thick. He was in the platoon commander's car. The commander was in the turret. Towards the end of the day, they were still in there fighting. The commander hollered that "there was a Tiger" [Annotator's Note: German Mark VI heavy tank; known as the Tiger] in the field. Every guy wants to see the biggest thing. Evans was certain they were going to get knocked out. He went over to the driver's seat. The lieutenant bailed out. Things quieted down and the driver got back in the car. Evans radioed in that they needed help before it got dark because they were trapped and surrounded. Regiment said no help until daylight. Someone gave the order to make a break. The fields were surrounded by hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation] with just one opening. They all made the break for it, and everybody was on their own. It was a mess. They got out and scattered. A guy from the 101st was lying along the hedgerow. They took him out. He knew he was going to die and told them to just get out of there. They wanted to get him out so he could die with them. The next day the Germans had been taken care of and things were a little different and they just did recon [Annotator's Note: reconnaissance] work.

The Germans had the Americans up a tree for six weeks after the landing [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], tying them up in the hedgerows [Annotator's Note: man-made earthen walls that surround a field that are often overgrown with impenetrable vegetation]. Donald Evans was part of Operation Cobra [Annotator's Note: also known as the break-out at Saint-Lo; Saint-Lô, France; 25 to 31 July 1944]. The first or second day of that was the worst day he ever had. The German tanks were dug in, and the Air Force could not knock them out. There were Germans everywhere. They got on a road, and they could not advance. The Germans kept shelling the road. They were told some German Mes [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft] were on the way. They would have strafed them, but they did not come. They got off the road at dark. They were too tired to dig in, so Evans crawled under the vehicle to sleep. The Germans flew over dropping butterfly bombs [Annotator's Note: German two kilogram anti-personnel submunition, or cluster bomb]. The next day he got wounded. His vehicle was hit. He got out and there was firing everywhere. He went down a hedgerow where an abandoned half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] was. It had a .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] in there. There was a kid [Annotator's Note: young soldier] cowering in there who was so scared he could not talk. Evans got on the gun and would fire bursts into the hedgerow. A lieutenant came up, looked in, and said he needed men to go on a patrol. Evans did not want to go down there. He took that kid and left Evans on the gun. Soon, the kid came back with a hunk of shrapnel hanging out of his mouth. Evans got out after being told to get to the rear. He went over to the hedgerow and there were two guys cowering there. Evans knew if they did not get out of there, they were going to die. The Germans knew they were there. Evans led the way, and they were getting shelled. He saw an opening and got near the top. A shell landed. The say you do not hear the one that gets you. He hit the ground and then got up to go. He heard another and it blew him through the opening. He did not know what happened to the other guys. There were medics there who got him back to the aid tent. He was put on a jeep taken to an operating tent. All he could see was litters lying on the ground. They cut his clothes off, and he got a shot of Pentothal [Annotator's Note: proprietary term for thiopental, barbiturate drug used as a general anesthetic]. He had shrapnel in his back, legs, and hands. He woke up naked under a blanket on a litter out in the field. A C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] landed alongside the tent, and he was loaded on board. He could see out the window from his spot. They flew over the area, and he could see the foxholes. He could not believe that everybody did not get killed. He hoped he never, ever had to go back.

Donald Evans landed in England and went to the 187th General Hospital for more surgeries and then to another hospital near Cambridge [Annotator's Note: Cambridge, England]. He put in for a furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. The day he was going on the pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], he had new clothes and borrowed money from the Red Cross. He wanted to go meet a buddy in the Air Force who was in England. He got into town and had to change trains in London. He did not have a full dress uniform on. He got to visit his friend. He fell asleep and lost his ticket. He got back to the hospital and the ward boy came in. Evans was put under "arrest to barracks" for going to town. That night they were handing out the Purple Hearts [Annotator's Note: the Purple Heart Medal is award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy]. The next day he was on his way to a replacement center. He went to a little village [Annotator's Note: British Lichfield Depot, known as the 10th Reinforcement Depot for the Americans; Lichfield, England]. Colonel Kilian [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel James A. Kilian, known as "Beast of Lichfield'] ran that, and they treated the G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] pitifully. Kilian was called before Congress after the war for his actions [Annotator's Note: court-martialed in May 1946]. Evans went to Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach, Normandy, France]. They laid on the beach in the sun with their equipment and found out they were supposed to go to Omaha [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France]. They went to a new replacement center. The men were cussing and had bad tempers towards each other. The next day they went to Belgium to another center. He got close to the lines at Maastricht, Holland. Evans went to the rear of his regiment and his supply sergeant was there and he was a buddy. Evans asked him to do him a favor and wait a day to say he was back. Evans wanted to go to town. He and another guy went into Maastricht which was a big city and a big supply dump. The Germans were bombing it all the time. They heard music and saw a light under a tavern door. It was jammed so they went to look for another place. The civilians had dug foxholes near the sidewalks. A German plane came over, Bedcheck Charlie [Annotator's Note: nickname given to aircraft that performed solitary, nocturnal operations]. He scared Evans to death. He heard a bomb whistling and Frank [Annotator's Note: no last name given; unable to verify identity] was in the hole. Evans went a house to get on the roof to be away from the shrapnel. Evans decided then to go back to the bivouac [Annotator's Note: temporary camp] and join his company [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division].

Donald Evans stayed with his division [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] through the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] which was something else. When the Bulge was over, he and four others stayed in a home with a Belgian family that had three boys. The buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] were coming over. They were in Trix [Annotator's Note: Trix, Belgium], not far from Liege [Annotator's Note: Liege, Belgium]. They were okay as long as you could hear them. When the engine went out, they came down. Instead of sleeping in their beds, the civilians would sleep in a cave at night. So Evans and the men had the run of the house for two weeks. It was warm, they could take hot showers, and could listen to the BBC [Annotator's Note: British Broadcasting Corporation]. He got to know the people and went back to visit them after the war. The outfit went up to Germany and readied to cross the Rhine River. He was afraid of crossing that river. The tanks were shaking the pontoons. There was a big canal called the Dortmund-Ems Canal [Annotator's Note: Dortmund-Ems-Kanal, Germany]. Their mission was to check out the bridges. They had to find a bridge to get the infantry across. The bigger bridges were blown [Annotator's Note: destroyed]. They had one more to check. There was not any fighting at the time. As soon as he saw the bridge, he started firing in case there were Germans there getting ready to blow it. They did blow the bridge and that ended that. They were called back to another town where they had a firefight. His assistant driver was hurt, and they were short a man. They were stuck in a field to watch a town. They fought alongside the Brits [Annotator's Note: slang for British] going across Germany. They were told that when they see the Brits going through the town, to radio in as the town was already zeroed in for artillery. It was a beautiful day, and they were just kind of lolling around. The tank commander got out and went back to see a sergeant. Evans told him to get orders to move the tank because they were out in the open. As they spoke, a bullet hit the tank between them. A guy came walking out of the town with his hands up. He had on the uniform of a German railway worker. He wanted permission to go through, but they would not let him and sent him back. Evans always was messing with his gun sights. He was lining one up on a house in the village. The town was full of civilians. He turned the turret and saw tracers going into the timber of the house. He shot a couple of shots into a farm building. A guy came running out of the house and said it was on fire. White flags were coming out all over the place. Evans heard a shot coming in. You get your ear tuned to how close they were. He knew the next one would be on target. He yelled to get out of there. The assistant driver had jumped down and crawled under the tank. They ran over his foot. Evans was going to get out. He held onto the guy until they got out of there. They were called back for the night. They took shelter in a German house with Germans there who were saying "raus, raus" [Annotator's Note: German for "out" or "get out"]. They cooked their food in their house.

Donald Evans and his outfit [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] got orders to mount up. They were told they would be gone all night behind German lines. Evans carried a P38 [Annotator's Note: Walther P38, 9 mm semi-automatic pistol]. He had taken a watch off a guy in the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], and he traded it for the P38. He did not want to take his Tommy gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun] everywhere. He took the P38 off because he did not want to be captured with one. If he was, he would be shot with it. Both sides did that. They left that night. He took naps off and on. They were spaced pit on a road. A German train came by with a lot of troops. The Americans opened up on it. He could hear them hollering and screaming on the train. The engine blew up. They went until daylight and took a break. It was a quiet morning the day before Easter [Annotator's Note: 31 March 1945]. Everybody piled out of their vehicles. Evans was walking with another gunner named Vincent Egan [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling]. They were going to get Jim Cherry [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] and make coffee and smoke. Cherry had a Sherman tank with a 105 howitzer [Annotator's Note: M4(105) Sherman, officially Medium Tank, M4] and was in the turret. Suddenly, Jim grabbed the .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] and swung it around. A German truck was coming up the side of the road. It had passed other guys. Jim shot it and it turned over on its side. The driver was killed, and the assistant driver was wounded. The G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] went through everything on the truck. They were told to mount up. They should have known Jerry [Annotator's Note: period slang for German soldiers] was in the area. Evans did not have a gunner. His commander said he was going to get some sleep in the front. Evans was up by himself. A jeep pulled up alongside. Shorty Mercer [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] was in it and offered to be his loader. He got in. They were the fourth or fifth vehicle in the line. He saw Lieutenant Roger Moreland from Syracuse, New York coming up the road. He got alongside and said they were just going down to reconnoiter a little bridge. He said everybody gets a chance to go first and now it was Evans's turn. The tank driver stared swearing but they did what he said. Evans saw a big red flash, dropped down in the turret, and started reaching to turn it, when the shell hit. The turret turned cherry red. You cannot talk for a second because the oxygen gets sucked out. The driver said he was getting out. Evans jumped as far as he could to get away from the tank. He realized he was hurt. He went into a ditch. There was firing from both sides. The Americans broke off the fight and then the Germans did.

Now the guys [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] were gone, and Donald Evans was in a ditch [Annotator's Note: after being wounded when his armored car was hit]. He looked up, could not see, and thought there was smoke from battle. He could hardly talk. Asher [Annotator's Note: Harold Asher, phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] was laying there and not saying anything. The Germans got quiet too. Evans knew his face was hit. His hands were burned so he was afraid to touch it. He wanted to die, but he thought if he died there, his family would never know what happened to him. He asked Asher how he looked and was told he looked pitiful. He had a first aid kit on his belt. The tank was burning, and they laid there. He had some German medals in his pockets he was trying to get rid of in case he was taken prisoner. He told Asher he was getting out of there. Asher said he would go with him. They took a few steps. The ammo was going off in the tank. They ran into a few Germans. Evans was blind and could hardly talk. They were taken to a German officer who spoke fluent English and was rip-roaring mad. Evans was waiting for the burp gun and was hoping it would be right to the chest. The German was yelling at Asher and saying he had shot and killed a German officer. Asher was saying they did not. Evans thought he heard a round being chambered. After the war, he asked Asher what that sound was. Asher said they were putting on bayonets. The officers said that he guessed that was war and they could put their hands down. They got put into a Kübelwagen [Annotator's Note: German light military vehicle]. They traveled and the car stopped. Civilians gathered around. Evans heard P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] or P-47s [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] and was thinking they were going to be strafed and killed. Evans had his 2nd Armored patch on and one of the Germans was talking about it. They were in the car with the body of the German officer that had been shot. They stopped at a military base. A German came in and then left. Evans was really hurting then. They asked for morphine [Annotator's Note: narcotic used to treat pain] and the German told him that the Americans were supposed to have everything. He came back and gave him some. Evans fell asleep. He woke up alone and on a litter being carried up a flight of stairs. He was laid on the floor where some German girls were. They cut his uniform off and stood him up. They gave him a bath and put a nightgown on him. He was put in a bed, and he was scared. There were other wounded men there too. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer stops to change tapes.]

A German medic came in who spoke English to Donald Evans [Annotator's Note: after being wounded and captured when his armored car was hit by a German shell]. He did not interrogate him. The wars' end was only a month off. He told Evans it was not a hospital, and they had no medicine. They just kept putting damp patches on his face. They called him Donald. They fed him and they did not have a whole lot themselves. He did not sleep, and he was tired and exhausted. He was worried the wounded Germans blamed him personally for their wounds. He fell asleep and then the girls were waking up and feeding him. The German came in and kept asking about the Russians. They were scared of retribution. He told Evans a story about the war. He was in what we called the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] which was then called the Ardennes Offensive with a medical group. His bus was strafed. They had a little banter between the wounded men. The German came running in one morning, saying his comrades were coming. Evans started to cry. Evans waited all day for them to come get him. He fell asleep. The next morning he heard a .50 caliber machine gun [Annotator's Note: Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun] outside. Some civilians told them he was up there. They came in the room and gave him some cigarettes. He said to give some to the Germans. The next day he got picked up in an ambulance with a black driver. He could tell by the sound of his voice. He went to a first aid place. Infection had set in. He got penicillin. He went to a hospital in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] for a few days. He still could not see. He went to England by air to a hospital. They set the litter on the floor late in the day. The G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also, a slang term for an American soldier] there were getting ready to eat. The First Sergeant came and told him that he was back at Tidworth [Annotator's Note: Tidworth Camp in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England], where he had started from when he went to Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. He said that his unit [Annotator's Note: 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division] had become their favorite unit and that they tried to follow them through the communiques as they went through Europe. He told him to get messages to him for anything he needed. Evans got a bed and they brought chow. A G.I. came to feed him. Evans thought he would never see again and wanted to feed himself. They argued about it, but he relented for that night, so the guy did not get in trouble. When he had to go to the bathroom, he was lost. After a couple of days, he would shave by himself. He was on an eye ward. The men would play tricks on each other. They would gamble at night playing poker [Annotator's Note: a playing card game]. They would play late and some of the guys did not like that. A guy named Hannigan [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] was a big kid. They made Hannigan's bunk collapse when he laid on it.

Donald Evans had a couple of operations and could see [Annotator's Note: after being wounded when his armored car was hit by a German shell on 1 April 1945]. Life was better. He had to go everywhere in a wheelchair as they would not let him walk. He was operated on in the evenings. They had to be awake for eye surgeries. The surgeon was Major Clark [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity] who was helped by Captain Brown [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling; unable to verify identity]. The used a magnet to get any shrapnel out. His first night took an hour and 45 minutes. When they left, he got a shot to kill the pain. He woke up about one o'clock in the morning in terrible pain. The nurses would give them what they called "the blue 88" because it would knock you out like the German 88 [Annotator's Note: German 88mm, multi-purpose artillery]. He was there until about July [Annotator's Note: July 1945] and was shipped home. He left from Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England] on the Santa Barbara [Annotator's Note: unable to verify vessel]. He sat at a table to eat, had a nice bed, and could stand out on deck. It beat going over. They came up the river into New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: New York, New York]. He could see pretty well then and a band was playing "The Jersey Bounce" [Annotator's Note: American jazz song]. There was another song about Pennsylvania. Everybody was trying to see the Statue of Liberty. He got off the boat on Staten Island [Annotator's Note: Staten Island is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] and went to a hospital for three days. He got to call home and the food was good. He came down one day and the Dodgers [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn Dodgers, now the Los Angeles Dodgers, American professional baseball team] were playing on the tv [Annotator's Note: television]. Most of the guys had never seen a tv. He was sent to Atlantic City [Annotator's Note: Atlantic City, New Jersey] by train. The train stopped in Philadelphia [Annotator's Note: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]. The Salvation Army and Red Cross babes [Annotator's Note: period slang females] would come on with baskets of goodies. They got to Atlantic City when a storm was coming up. They were on the boardwalk and the wind blew half a sign advertising Calvert's Whiskey down near them. He was there until the end of August [Annotator's Note: August 1945].

Before he went in the service, Donald Evans never went to church. Over there, he prayed all the time to be kept safe. God is no dummy. He knows the prayers to be for physical salvation. God only hears the saved and not the sinners. He only hears sinners when they pray for spiritual salvation. When asked if he has any regrets, he always says he only regrets he was not a born-again Christian when the was in the service. Life would have been easier because God would have helped him carry the load. He reads his Bible every day. He had put his car in storage while in the service. Tires were rationed during the war. His dad took the car to get inspected so he could drive it. Before the war, a guy asked him what he was going to do and offered him a job when he got back. Evans went to see his girlfriend and his tire blew out. Just as that happened, Harry Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States] came on the radio to announce the end of the war. Everybody was out in the street whooping it up and he was trying to change the tire. Some guys helped. He went to get tires for his car and was given papers to get signed by his employer. He said he did not work, and that guy said he could not get tires. He had to go to work. America is the greatest place in the world. Evans never thought he would see 90 [Annotator's Note: years old] and see the first President who does not believe in God [Annotator's Note: unable to identify]. America is going the same way. America will pay someday. You do not make a fool out of God and get away with it. It is still the best country in the world.