Donelson Houseman was born in Dallas, Texas in 1923 and grew up there. After graduating high school, he began classes at the University of Texas in the fall of 1940. He was in his sophomore year when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941. That changed everything. All of the boys started scrambling around to see which branch of the service they would be in. As college students, they all thought they would go in as officers. Some of the service branches offered the opportunity for college students to enter the service as officers but others did not. Houseman initially tried to get into the Air Corps. His father had been in the Air Corps during World War 1. Houseman and a friend went into Dallas to join the Air Corps but both were rejected. His friend was overweight and he had impaired vision as a result of being hit in the eye by a golf ball. They both went straight to the 8th Service Command building in Dallas and enlisted in the Army. The man who signed them up was S. F. Leftwich [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. He commended Houseman and his friend for volunteering then exhorted them not to go into the infantry. Both Houseman and his friend ended up in the infantry and they were both wounded during the war, Houseman in Europe and his friend in the Philippines. After enlisting they went back to the University of Texas. This was in the spring of 1942. It was not until early 1943 that many of them were called up. Houseman was in class one day in April 1943 when he heard the chimes on the big tower playing a song. They all closed their books and left class. They all immediately received telegrams notifying them all to report to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio for induction into the Army. The University of Texas had 11,000 students at the time. Of those, 900 of them left for service in the Army. Those who enlisted in the Navy remained and were able to complete their degrees. After enlisting in the Army, Houseman took as many courses as he could in an effort to get as much schooling as possible before going into the service. By the time he was called up he only needed 18 hours to graduate. Houseman took a bus from Austin to San Antonio. There, they got their heads shaved and got all of the necessary shots. They were all split up and sent to different locations for basic training in the various service branches. Some went into the artillery, others into tanks or tank destroyers. Houseman was sent to an antiaircraft training unit. Of the 900 recruits who left the University of Texas, only about 25 went into antiaircraft units. The vast majority of them went into the infantry and were sent to Camp Maxey in Paris, Texas. Houseman and the others had enlisted in the ERC, Enlisted Reserve Corps. They were supposed to become officers after completing basic training. Houseman completed his 16 or 17 weeks of basic training in California but by that time it was decided that the Army no longer needed officers. Out of Houseman's class, nobody went to OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school]. Some applied for Master Gunner's School. There, they learned about radar and other technical matters related to antiaircraft. Houseman did not apply for Master Gunner's School because he had heard that if he remained as cadre to train incoming recruits there was a chance he would get the opportunity to go got OCS. Houseman remained at Camp Callan, California and trained new troops coming in. Luckily, about five of them, Houseman included, got orders to report to Camp Davis, North Carolina for Officer Candidate School in antiaircraft. About 25 percent were washed out but Houseman completed the 17 week course and, in January 1944, was commissioned a second lieutenant.

Donelson Houseman got a ten day leave and went home. After reporting back, he was assigned to Fort Fisher, North Carolina. There had been reported sightings of German submarines off the coast of North Carolina so Houseman's antiaircraft group was sent there. The two or three months Houseman spent there were good ones. He was in charge of a platoon of half tracks with 20mm antiaircraft guns mounted on the back and .50 caliber machine guns mounted on the front. Houseman had 15 or 20 of these half tracks in his platoon. They were close to Wilmington, North Carolina and would meet women Marines there on the weekends. Houseman heard from a friend that he was going into the paratroopers. Houseman volunteered and was sent to Fort Benning. He failed his eye exam and was sent to the infantry. He took about two months of training as an infantry officer at Fort Benning, after which he was assigned to the 106th Infantry Division. The division was training near Indianapolis, Indiana to go overseas when Houseman joined it. The D-Day invasion had taken place while he was in infantry officer training. He joined the 106th Division in early July [Annotator's Note: July 1944]. He was assigned to a mortar platoon. Infantry battalions are made up of three rifle companies and one heavy weapons company. The heavy weapons company has two machine gun platoons and one heavy mortar platoon equipped with 81mm mortars. In October they shipped out and went overseas to England. Houseman was in a cabin with 21 other men. They took turns with 11 of them in the cabin at a time. They ended up in England where they trained for about a month before crossing into France where they lived in tents and in the mud and the rain. About two weeks after they arrived in France they went into the line. Houseman heard his first shot fired around 8 December 1944.

[Annotator's Note: Donelson Houseman served in the Army as the 81mm mortar platoon leader in Company D, 1st Battalion, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division.] They took over positions from the 2nd Infantry Division. The situation had been pretty static for about a month. Houseman's division was put in the line to get a little combat experience. On 16 December [Annotator's Note: 16 December 1944] the Germans started that offensive [Annotator's Note: the Ardennes Offensive, also referred to as the Battle of the Bulge]. They had sent out patrols that reported hearing enemy tanks moving and this was sent back to higher command but nothing was done about it to strengthen their positions. Two regiments of the 106th Division, the 422nd and 423rd Infantry Regiments, were in line and were hit by the main brunt of the German offensive along with the 28th and 99th [Annotator's Note: 28th and 99th Infantry Divisions]. The two regiments of the 106th suffered few casualties as a result of the strong defensive positions they were in. There was some pretty heavy fighting in Houseman's sector on the first morning before the Germans pulled back. They were not hit by tanks directly because of their position in the woods but Houseman did have to call in fire on enemy tanks he could see passing through the town of Bleialf. Bleialf was defended by Houseman's regiment's cannon company. They continually called for artillery fire but it never came. Houseman later learned that the artillery had been wiped out. On the afternoon of 18 December, they received orders to withdraw and try to fight their way back to the American lines which, by that time, had been pushed back some 20 miles to St. Vith. They were out of food but Houseman learned in prison that he could live a long time without food. They were also out of ammunition. Houseman's platoon was out of 81mm mortar rounds so they collected rifles from the dead and became a rifle platoon. There were units coming to their aid but they could not get through to them. They did not get any support at all. The night of 18 December, they attacked and took a hill held by the Germans. They dug in for the night as best they could in the frozen ground. Houseman did not dig a hole because he was busy tending to his men. After the sun came up, they were hit by a massive artillery and mortar barrage. Houseman was hit in the arm by shrapnel. His company and battalion commanders were killed as were a number of other men. Houseman jumped into a foxhole with another soldier. He then tried to get his men to move off the hill which they did not want to do. Houseman took his men down the hill and joined up with some others from the battalion. It was chaos. The snow was falling, they had no maps, and nobody seemed to know what to do. They had to cross a firebreak that afternoon and when they did Houseman was hit again, this time in the leg. He was able to continue on and finally ended up in a clearing where there were a number of wounded being treated. Houseman sat down and promptly passed out. When he woke up it was dark and he could hear German voices. That is when he found out that they had surrendered. Houseman did not know it at the time but Col. Cavender [Annotator's Note: Colonel Charles C. Cavender] had surrendered his 422nd Infantry Regiment and Descheneaux [Annotator's Note: Colonel George L. Descheneaux, Jr.] had surrendered his 423rd Infantry Regiment.

It was night when they [Annotator's Note: Donelson Houseman and his fellow prisoners] started marching back. Houseman was helping the wounded who had leg injuries. Marching on the road was difficult because it was clogged with Germans. Houseman had never seen so much equipment in his life. They were marched to the town of Auw where they were herded into a field. By this time it was morning. Houseman was beginning to feel the effects of his wounds. The next day, the wounded were separated from the healthy prisoners. Houseman was held in a small building in the town of Prum. There were German wounded in the building too. Houseman went up on the second floor of the building after someone told him that there were some American wounded up there. On the second floor, Houseman encountered two wounded enlisted men. Both of them were in very bad shape. One, Sergeant Gallow, had lost his legs. The other, Blanton, was paralyzed from the neck down. Houseman stayed there for several days. On Christmas Eve [Annotator's Note: Christmas Eve 1944], some German women brought some small decorated Christmas trees. They were primarily for the wounded Germans but the Americans were there. They all started singing Christmas carols. Around 31 December, Houseman was told that he would be sent to a stalag [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war camp]. He had been captured on 19 December and had been in that building for a while with nothing in the way of medical treatment. He went upstairs to see the two wounded enlisted men. Gallow was gone and Houseman knows he did not survive the war. Blanton was still up there when Houseman left but he is not sure if Blanton survived or not. Houseman and the other prisoners were jammed into the back of an open truck. There were two air force officers in the truck who had been severely burned. Both died before they reached their destination which was Stalag VI-G near Cologne.

[Annotator's Note: Donelson Houseman served in the Army as the 81mm mortar platoon leader in Company D, 1st Battalion, 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division. He was wounded and captured on 19 December 1944, three days after the start of the Battle of the Bulge and spent the rest of the war as a POW.] When they arrived, the officers and enlisted men were separated. Houseman was put in a large room with other wounded American officers. The camp [Annotator's Note: Stalag VI-G] was huge. There were 10,000 or 15,000 prisoners in the camp. Houseman had not eaten much since his capture. In the camp they were given a sixth of a loaf of bread per day. Once a day they also got a cup of watery soup. There were no doctors in the camp but there were a few enlisted medics who could do little more than change bandages. Houseman's leg wound healed quickly but the wound in his arm got badly infected. When the medic changed the bandages the pain was terrible. Houseman had been in that area for a little over a month when he learned that he was being moved. He and a number of others were marched through the city of Cologne to the town of Siegburg. At Siegburg they were loaded onto railroad boxcars. They were packed in so tight that they could not sit down. Everybody had dysentery from the bread they had been eating. They were on the train for about three days before arriving at Limburg, Germany, near Frankfurt. When they arrived at Limburg, Houseman learned that a lot of the officers of the 106th Infantry Division who had not been wounded had been on a train that was bombed by the British and many were killed. A badly wounded officer who was there told Houseman about the event. The officers who had not been hit were sent to the oflag, a prison camp for officer's, in Hammelburg. Houseman ended up in Stalag XII-A in Limburg. There, he was put in with the enlisted men. His hand was getting worse so he was finally moved.

Donelson Houseman was put in a truck, along with about five others who were also in bad shape, and sent to a town near Limburg. They were put in a hospital for German wounded. There was an American doctor in the hospital named David Havith [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] who had been captured when the Germans overran a 101st Airborne Division forward medical area. Houseman was put in a room with 20 or 25 other American officers and one Russian officer. The Russian officer, an American officer named David Reed [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] and Houseman became good friends. The Russian had been captured at Stalingrad and had picked up the German language pretty well. The American doctor told Houseman that he had been sent there to have his arm amputated but that he had some sulpha powder he was going to put on Housemans's hand to see if it would help. It also helped that his bandages could be changed every other day. The food was better too. They received a third of a loaf of bread and a third of a potato per day. When Houseman arrived at the hospital he weighed 112 pounds. When he left he was 121 pounds. They were near where the bridge was crossed at Remagen. There were several people with radios who got the news when the Americans had crossed the Rhine River. When they heard about it, the prisoners started getting excited. The Germans told the prisoners that they were going to walk out anyone who could walk. Dr. Havish asked the Germans to leave Houseman along with the bed ridden. Reed was allowed to stay as well but their Russian friend was marched out. About three days after the Germans left, tanks of the 9th Armored Division arrived. The tanks knocked down the gates and entered the hospital. The tankers left the Americans with rifles and machine guns and left them there. In England, Houseman learned from an American enlisted man who had marched out with the Germans that night that a Russian who was with them killed the German guards. When the American tanks showed up the Russian jumped up on one of them and rode off to go kill Germans with the American tankers. Houseman does not know what happened to his Russian friend. He wrote to him after the war but never heard from him. That is when Houseman was liberated.

Donelson Houseman experienced a terrible event after he was liberated. He went into town and could see the tanks [Annotator's Note: tanks of the US 9th Armored Division] driving by. One of the tanks went off the road and fell down into a deep ravine, killing the crew and the eight or ten infantry riding on the top of it. Houseman was put on a DC-3 and flown to Paris where he spent a few days in a hospital. He then flew to England where he spent a few weeks in a hospital. Finally, he was put aboard a ship that took him back to the United States. After returning to the United States, Houseman spent a year and a half in the hospital. His wrist was fused and he was unable to move his fingers. He had to go through physical therapy. He also contracted an infection in his bones. He had multiple operations on his hand but they were not very successful. After the first operation he was told that it would take three months for him to heal. He would be given a 30 day leave after which he would have to return to the hospital. Then they would give him another 30 day leave. During his first leave, Houseman went to the University of Texas and registered to take 18 hours that semester. He and his wife had a car that his father had given him. They went to Austin but could not find a place to live. This was in October 1946. By then, everyone was out [Annotator's Note: out of the military after wartime service] and was going to school. Houseman got married right after he got out. He and his wife were staying in a motel that went for one dollar per night. When Houseman took his first exam he got a telegram notifying him that his leave had been cancelled and that he was to report back to McCloskey General Hospital. He ignored the telegram and took the remainder of his exams. After he finished his last exam he and his wife drove to the hospital. When they arrived they discovered that the hospital had been closed. That was why he his leave had been cancelled. Houseman eventually ended up at William Beaumont General Hospital in El Paso. He had to have another operation and stayed there for about six weeks. Through a friend, Houseman secured a transfer to the hospital at Fort Sam Houston. There, he ran into a doctor who had a private practice in Dallas and convinced him to get him released from the military hospital. Houseman had returned to the United States in May 1945. It was December 1946 when he got to the hospital at Fort Sam Houston. The doctor got Houseman transferred to his practice. After a year and a half in Army hospitals, Houseman was finally out.

Donelson Houseman believes that the magnitude of the German offensive [Annotator's Note: the German Ardennes Offensive, also known as the Battle of the Bulge] was not realized [Annotator's Note: by the US Army high command]. By the time Houseman was assigned to the 106th Infantry Division, the older Army divisions were already in combat. He feels that going into combat with a division was a benefit compared to being assigned as a replacement to a division that had already been in combat. He is really disappointed that he did not get into the paratroopers. When Houseman deployed overseas he left out of New York. He was eager to get into combat and did not have any real thoughts about leaving. That was not the case when he got back. He was very happy to see the United States. When he crossed the Red River he knew he was home. The British had agricultural troops that were women. They were in uniform. All of the British people were committed to the war effort. Houseman was only able to get to London twice. It was an eerie feeling seeing such a huge city with no lights at all. Houseman attended a church service at Saint Paul's. The service was held in the basement. During the service a buzz bomb [Annotator's Note: German V1 rocket bomb] hit nearby. Houseman jumped several feet off the ground but the priest just continued on with his service. After the service the people just went on with their lives as if nothing happened. The British were a very resilient people.

Donelson Houseman was confident in his training. What worried him was that he did not know where he was. He was taken to a location and pointed to his command post. He did not see the sun the whole time he was there and that was very confusing. He never had good maps but he did have a compass. He got disoriented because the Germans he was facing were to the west of him because of the way the lines curved around. When they pulled out he had no idea where he was going or who was where. He was confident in his ability to call in mortar fire and he was confident in his men. During one assault, German tanks were moving down the roads and across the fields. Houseman called 81mm mortar fire down on the tanks. He does not think he hit or damaged any of the tanks but is sure he hit some of the enemy infantry accompanying them. Once the enemy tanks and infantry got into Bleialf he had to stop calling in fire because there were friendly troops in the town too. The weather during the Battle of the Bulge was terrible. It started snowing and raining. The clouds were very low. Houseman and his fellow soldiers were not prepared for that type of weather. The leather combat boots they wore just soaked up water. After the war when he was sent to McCloskey General Hospital [Annotator's Note: in Temple, Texas], he was sent there with the assumption that his arm would have to be amputated. There were many cases there that had frozen feet and were having their feet amputated. Houseman was lucky. His mother had knitted him a heavy wool vest sweater which he wore under his field jacket. After Houseman was wounded [Annotator's Note: for the second time], he was dropped off at a casualty collecting point in an open field where he passed out. When he woke up and discovered that the place had been overrun by the Germans he could not believe it. He woke up with German soldiers pointing their rifles in his face. He did not even have a chance to destroy his gun. At the time he was carrying an M1 rifle. He had been issued an M1 carbine but had gotten rid of it in favor of the rifle. He also carried a pistol.

As Donelson Houseman was marched off to captivity, he passed long lines of German vehicles. He could not believe it. He had never considered the possibility that he would be captured. He was also stunned by the amount of material and number of vehicles the Germans had. Houseman felt defeated. He had lost. Houseman was never mistreated during his captivity. Some of the enlisted men were. The Germans neglected them more than they mistreated them. Houseman does not blame them because they did not have anything either by that stage in the war. During the ten or so days he spent at Prum, the Germans he was with did not receive any real food either. Houseman did not have as much contact with the German guards as other prisoners did. For the most part he was in a bed and the Germans would just slide his food under the door. One of Houseman's best friends was a lieutenant named Mack Lowell [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. Mack was shot in the head by a German guard when he tried to walk out of the camp at Hammelburg during the Major Baum deal [Annotator's Note: Houseman is referring to what has come to be known as the Hammelburg Raid which took place from 26 to 29 March 1945. The raid was an unsuccessful attempt led by Major Abraham Baum under orders from General George Patton to liberate the Hammelburg prisoner of war camp]. When the tanks of the 9th Armored Division broke down the gates of the hospital Houseman was being held in he knew right away that he had been liberated. Following the 9th Armored Division was the 2nd Infantry Division, which Houseman's division [Annotator's Note: the 106th Infantry Division] had relieved on the line. They arrived a day or two after the hospital was liberated. The time Houseman spent in the military was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. It has caused him to appreciate things more and to look at things differently. Houseman's father traveled around Oklahoma for an insurance company and while doing so he dated a woman who later married General Short [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant General Walter Short]. General Short was the commander at Pearl Harbor and was disgracefully dismissed, after which he moved to Dallas. The Shorts became good friends with Houseman's parents and he knew them after the war. Short was humiliated. Houseman feels that Roosevelt and Marshal did not inform Short or Kimmel [Annotator's Note: Rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel] of the severity of what was coming. The United States had to enter the war after they [Annotator's Note: the Japanese] bombed us. The United States declared war on Japan and Germany declared war on the United States soon after. The best description of combat is in the book Company Commander by Charles MacDonald.