Earl Tweed was born in Fort Benning, Georgia in 1922. He attended grade school there then went to high school in Columbus, Georgia. He considers Fort Benning his home town because he never left there until he went through OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school]. He enlisted there and served in the same unit and regiment as his father. His father was a career soldier with 32 years of service. Tweed's younger brother also served. Both brothers were in the same division but different regiments. Tweed's brother was with the 116th Regiment. Both men landed in Normandy on D-Day but Tweed's younger brother and his regiment landed first [Annotator's Note: Tweed and his brother were in the 29th Infantry Division that landed on Omaha Beach]. Growing up on the base at Fort Benning was fun for Tweed. There were horses and hounds and life was enjoyable. Tweed left Fort Benning after he completed OCS in June 1942. From Benning, he headed to Camp Wolters and anti-tank warfare training. During training, Tweed fired 37mm and later 57mm anti-tank guns. During the Pearl Harbor attack, Tweed was still at Fort Benning. He heard about the attack in the afternoon on the radio when the broadcast he was listening to was interrupted with the announcement of the attack. He had already enlisted in the Army and was in the 29th Infantry Regiment which was school troops in Fort Benning. He had enlisted on 29 November 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor was attacked just over a week later by the Japanese on 7 December 1941.] Tweed left Fort Benning after OCS when he received his commission.

Earl Tweed enlisted in the 29th Infantry Regiment in a heavy weapons company. He trained on all the various weapons that were there as well as the infantry school classes that were taught to officers and enlisted men [Annotator's Note: his training was at Fort Benning, Georgia while he was in officer candidate school, or OCS]. In April 1942, Tweed entered OCS and graduated at the end of June 1942. On 12 July, Tweed left Benning and went to Camp Wolters near Mineral Wells [Annotator's Note: in Texas]. There, he trained with men from all over the world. A number of them were from California National Guard units who came to OCS. Tweed was used to seeing men from all over the world during his three month course in OCS which started in April 1942. At Wolters, Tweed was assigned to an anti-tank weapons unit. In the 53rd Infantry Training Battalion, he started training with the 37mm gun and then three months later, he went to the 57mm gun. Tweed was one of the few that received early 57mm training. The troops put in 13 weeks of training before shipping out. New officers often escorted the newly trained troops from training centers. Tweed went with a unit back to Fort Benning for paratrooper training. Another group went out under General Ridgway [Annotator's Note: General Matthew Ridgway] to Louisiana. Tweed helped deliver the 50 men which was the equivalent of a platoon. In February 1943, Tweed returned to Fort Benning to train on the 105mm artillery piece. He was to go into a cannon company. At that time, the 105mm was being assigned to infantry regiments. Tweed had already trained on machine guns, 37mm guns and 57mm anti-tank guns. After the 105mm training, he returned to Camp Wolters. He left Wolters in July 1943 bound for a division being activated. He was assigned as a company commander but without long enough service as a first lieutenant, he could not be promoted to captain. As a result, he became the executive officer of the company. At Camp Shelby, he worked across Louisiana and Arkansas inspecting troop training facilities. In January 1944, he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland to serve until such time that he would be moved out. At Meade, he had duty in the Military Police. After Meade, Tweed was transferred to Camp Shanks where he was processed for overseas duty in April 1944. [Annotator's Note: Camp Shanks in New York was the largest embarkation point for United States Army personnel leaving the states.]

Earl Tweed arrived in England and was assigned to the basic set-up of the 29th Infantry Division. He remained in England until ready to ship out for the D-Day invasion. He trained in preparation for the assault during the month of May [Annotator's Note: the Normandy D-Day invasion was 6 June 1944]. Tweed's regiment trained in the southern part of England. His regiment went to a port in preparation for offensive ship out. Tweed was assigned to Company L, 115th Infantry Regiment. The first company commander was named Lawson. That officer was wounded on 12 June. Dryden then took over as company commander. The second company commander was wounded on about 17 July 1944. That automatically moved Tweed up as company commander because he was serving as executive officer at the time.

Earl Tweed served with L Company [Annotator's Note: Company L, 3rd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] until 17 November [Annotator's Note: 17 November 1944] when he was wounded. The attack planned on Jülich, Germany was to begin 11 November, but, with the heavy cloudy conditions, no air cover was possible. The attack finally went forward and Tweed was wounded near Siersdorf, Germany after some rough fighting through Staheib [Annotator's Note: town name not verified]. Bergen was a town that Tweed had been committed to on the east side because the west side was the responsibility of I Company, commanded by Al Ungerlighter [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. Company K, 3rd Battalion went to [Annotator's Note: name indecipherable]. It was commanded by an officer named Smith. That unit jumped off before the 17 November. K Company was captured by the Germans and forced to walk through American artillery fire. Smith was killed during that time. That company was pretty well wiped out. New people had to be assigned to the company with many being experienced personnel from other companies. Prior to this action, fighting in St. Lo cost the company a lot of men, including the K Company commander named Newhouse [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. Newhouse had been adjusting artillery fire when the enemy spotted him. Although the invasion started on 6 June 1944, St. Lo did not surrender until 18 July. Air support for the effort against St. Lo resulted in a short fall of ordnance that killed General McNair [Annotator's Note: General Lesley J. McNair was killed by friendly bombers on 25 July 1944. Over 100 American soldiers were also killed in the incident.]

Earl Tweed spent time in England before the invasion. His company [Annotator's Note: Company L, 3rd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] was in the vicinity of Chard. There was extensive training and marching during the day. The troops also practiced landing from ships on the beaches near Slapton Sands. The local populace had previously been removed so that military exercises could occur. Over 600 troops were killed at Slapton when German E-Boats [Annotator's Note: motor torpedo boat] and submarines attacked the Allied transports. Tweed was not involved when those losses occurred during Operation Tiger. After the training at Slapton Sands, Tweed's outfit moved to Plymouth, England. Once assigned to that bivouac area, there was no exiting until deployment for the assault. Troops were all over England at that time. Tweed could see German bombers flying over his camp toward the north. Upon hearing the bombers, the men would head to high cotton. A few towns were nearby and those were the ones that were hit. Buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: German V1 rocket bombs] aimed for other areas flew overhead of the camp. The troops in the camp knew they would be there until transfer to a ship for landings. Other regiments [Annotator's Note: other regiments of the 29th Infantry Division] were stationed at Falmouth and another location. When they moved out on the fifth [Annotator's Note: 5 June 1944] they were called back because of the weather. The next day was for real. Tweed and his company had done extensive bivouacking and training prior to the invasion. They were kept occupied before moving to Plymouth for boarding ships in preparation for the assault.

Earl Tweed and the troops preparing for the invasion of France knew the action was coming because they were informed that airplanes that would be supporting them would have three stripes painted on them for ready identification. Three stripes were painted on each wing and the fuselage to make them readily visible in both day and night. Personally, Tweed trained and had advanced knowledge of the upcoming assault. That prepared him ahead of the action. There were a number of GIs who did not feel that they would survive the attack. Two of Tweed's men let him know of these feelings in the fighting between the beaches and St. Lo. The 116th Regiment [Annotator's Note: 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] along with the 16th Infantry [Annotator's Note: 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division] lost the most men on the beaches because they were the first assault units to hit the beach. Tweed's brother was with the 116th in D Company. Tweed's brother's platoon sergeant did a lot of work for the D-Day Memorial in Virginia [Annotator's Note: The National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia]. From his perspective that morning, Tweed could hear the shelling of the enemy positions but once he got close enough to the landing beach, he was looking out for himself. As he left the ship and climbed down the rope ladders to the landing craft, Tweed became apprehensive. With roughly 5,000 ships in the invasion, the seas were rough and the men edgy. Tweed's company [Annotator's Note: Company L, 3rd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] was lined up in the sequence required for arrival at the beachhead. The run to the beach did not take much time. The men were not in the first waves so on arrival they spotted the dead and wounded, but the previous waves had already gained the high ground the Germans had used to defend the beach. Tweed's battalion had a specially prepared map that showed the landing areas and the designated assignments. The Air Force in the early part of May [Annotator's Note: May 1944] had taken photographs of the buildings above the beach. Those became the objectives for the advancing American troops. The 116th Regiment was the first to land and they were to match up with the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. The Rangers landed to scale the high cliffs nearby [Annotator's Note: Point du Hoc]. After the Rangers reached the top, they found the German weapons had been moved inland. When Tweed reached the beach, the objective was to move inland to a small town. They worked with tanks to move forward through hedgerows. Since Tweed and his company landed closer to noon, while the 116th Regiment had landed hours earlier that morning, the action was more inland. Tweed landed with his whole company off a boat with the ramp in the center ship. As soon as Tweed's company hit the beach, they just kept moving. When Tweed saw the first person laying on high ground, his first thought was that the body belonged to his brother. He was relieved to discover that it was not his brother. Tweed had friends who were Navy frogmen who had worked on demolition of beach obstacles. They were known as frogmen or UDT, Underwater Demolition Team, during World War 2. Now they are called Navy Seals.

Earl Tweed had to revamp his plans after getting off the beach and reaching high ground [Annotator's Note: Tweed had landed on Omaha Beach with Company L, 3rd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division late on the morning of 6 June 1944]. The Germans had flooded the nearby areas. Additionally, the hedgerows were an unanticipated obstacle. Tweed's company commander was killed about 12 June. As the troops pressed inland, there were other troops and units that linked up with them. As leader of the L Company heavy weapons platoon, Tweed and his men were armed with .30 caliber air cooled machine guns, bazookas, and mortars. The Germans had their latest equipment that they threw at the Allied troops. The local hedgerows that the men had to fight through were comprised of bushes and trees growing out of the rocky ground. They served to section off the farm and pasture lands. The battling adversaries were often in close proximity on opposite sides of the vegetation. The way that the Americans finally broke through the hedgerows was by welding spikes onto a tank. The tank would ram the dirt, tree, and shrub walls and create a hole. Following that, explosive charges could be detonated to blow a gap in the obstacle. After the war, Tweed met a German who had a relative who fought in the hedgerows very near Tweed's position near a little town named La Luzerne, France. La Luzerne is between the beach and St. Lo. Tweed had several non-coms [Annotator's Note: non-commissioned officers] who would dare the Germans to come after them. Several of them were killed in the process. Just outside St. Lo, there were many small villages. One of the lieutenants under Tweed was named Morehouse. The Germans were firing artillery at them and doing a good job of it. Morehouse was directing American artillery fire against the Germans from the right flank. The Germans spotted him and unloaded on him. Morehouse's head was practically blown off. It took several hours for him to die. The first enemy fire experienced by Tweed was sporadic on the beach, but grew heavier the next day when they approached the towns on the higher ground before the hedgerows. All the civilians had been evacuated from the coastal towns by the Germans. More civilians were encountered further inland. The FFI [Annotator's Note: Forces Francaise de l’interior was teh French Resistance] was in a position to help the Allies. Germans were first encountered when they would be seen late in the afternoon. During that time, the enemy would move up in preparation for conflict. They would pull back later at night. The most effective weapon for the hedgerows was the BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle]. If the BAR man got hit, someone would pick up his weapon and carry on since its magazine held 20 rounds. The armor support during this time was good. The 747th Tank Battalion was the unit that supported Tweed's company. They were always there to help. The tank battalion commander lost many men due to shrapnel explosions inside the tank compartment. The further inland the troops advanced, the better the tankers could support the infantry. Air support was available too. Coordination with air attacks had to be close. As soon as the air attack was completed, the infantry could move up and take over the objective. Most of the flying support came from P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft. The German soldiers faced by Tweed did not give up unless they had to do so. When captured, they would throw their weapons down and move to the rear. The regular German military personnel were fighters, but when they saw a chance, they would surrender. In contrast, when the Germans had the Americans cornered, they would move in rapidly and chances of being killed increased. The most memorable experience of fighting in the hedgerows was the close proximity of the adversaries. Two of Tweed's platoon sergeants captured many of the enemy. The tankers were strung out. In the late afternoon about dark, the Germans would drop back and establish a new line waiting on the Americans to advance toward them.

Earl Tweed and his company [Annotator's Note: Company L, 3rd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] came out of the hedgerows at St. Lo. They moved on toward Vire through Percy. They reach Saint-Germain [Annotator's Note: Saint-Germain-de-Tallevende-la-Lande-Vaumont] on the outskirts of Vire. The Germans were not breaking down but Tweed experienced more contact with greater numbers of enemy troops. At Saint-Germain, Tweed and his company were cut off and surrounded for about a day. The Germans were predictable when they had the last round of fighting at the end of the day and pulled back during the night. Moving from the hedgerows, the fighting was in towns and villages. The two situations were different. After St. Lo, Tweed and his company were relieved and moved to bivouac. That was followed by transport to Brest which, as a port facility, had been targeted as an objective. Later, it was found that the capture was not really needed. Tweed's outfit got into a lot of trouble at Brest. The Germans counterattacked and killed several of his men, including Clayton and Synder, who attempted to help their men. The Germans had machine guns which cut down the Americans. Synder put on a Red Cross armband and ran across the field toward his men but was shot down by the enemy. Clayton killed himself because he did not want anyone else killed. The latter was written up by a reporter who was buried in the pacific [Annotator's Note: Ernie Pyle]. Tweed's company was down to 43 men at that time. On 18 July [Annotator's Note: 18 July 1944], the 35th Division relieved the 29th which dropped back to rest, refit and replace troops. The town of St. Lo had been beaten up severely by the war. Tweed returned to St. Lo 50 years later and it looked much different. The civilians and children showed their affection for the Americans who returned on the anniversary of the battles. Tweed told them to be prepared to defend their country. Tweed did not see himself as a liberator because he was only a small part in the action.

Earl Tweed advanced from being a platoon commander with 35 to 40 men at full strength to being a company commander with about 240 men at full strength; however, the company was never at full strength. Tweed always had men he knew he could rely upon. They always seemed to be the ones in the front during the action. There was an artillery captain in the 110th Field Artillery [Annotator's Note: 110th Field Artillery Battalion, 29th Infantry Division] that showed that same tendency to stay up front during the action. When Tweed was up front, the artillery captain would come up with him and direct effective artillery fire. There was a German Jew named Herman Kahn [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling] in Tweed's command. Kahn had originally lived in Stuttgart but in the 1930s moved to the United States. Kahn was a company runner. Kahn cautioned Tweed not to try to fool the Germans into thinking that he was German. Kahn was with Tweed in Saint-Germain when he was hit with small arms fire. The rounds hit him and went across his back and paralyzed him. Tweed lost touch with him after that. While at St. Lo, Tweed was still a platoon leader. When Tweed scouted out ahead, he soon found himself being pursued by the enemy. Returning to his lines, he did not have the password. Luckily, when Tweed shouted out to the friendly forces, a soldier who had been responsible for mail call recognized Tweed's voice. That individual vouched for Tweed and allowed him to reenter the American position.

After the siege of the Brest peninsula, Earl Tweed and his company [Annotator's Note: Company L, 3rd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] were given a short break. They were transported by train to Brest. They were then transported to a bivouac in Haarlem, Holland. Tweed's unit was designated as a reserve company. With that designation, there came three day passes for some of the men. Tweed was sent with them to Paris for three days. Upon return from Paris, the unit went back into the line. After that point, the company was shifted back and forth between reserve and being in the line to fill in gaps. Two of his platoon sergeants received battlefield commissions, including an individual named Crockett. The two individuals were transferred to Company I so experienced fighters would be available who would be qualified for leadership. A two and a half ton truck took Tweed and his men to Paris when they went on leave. The men were free to do whatever they chose including spending time with loose women. Tweed chose not to do the latter. The people of Paris were appreciative of the liberators at first but those who lived in the hedgerows were even more so. The citizens of the city of Paris were different than those that lived in the countryside. The time that Tweed spent in Holland was brief. He arrived in Haarlem and was told that he would take men to Paris. He took a shower and got into another set of clothing. He wore that clothing when a family offered him dinner that night. Tweed thought the Dutch and the French treated the Americans about equal. They understood the efforts and experiences of each other.

Earl Tweed had heard from Lieutenant Al Ungerlighter [Annotator’s Note: unsure of spelling] about concentration camps. Ungerlighter had actually seen camps. After entering Germany, Tweed saw some of the disgraceful behavior. He saw where women were forced to shower together without privacy. The Americans took it as they saw it.

Earl Tweed was wounded once during his service. That was in the 11 November [Annotator's Note: 11 November 1944] attack headed toward Siersdorf which was on the high ground overlooking the Roer River. Jülich was on the river and was the immediate objective. When the attack commenced, German artillery fire was heavy. The fire was so rough that the battalion and regimental commanders were wounded and the K Company commander was killed [Annotator's Note: Tweed is referreing to officrs from the 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division]. That all occurred on 17 November. Tweed heard the round destined for him coming toward him. He tried to dodge it, but could not do so. He was wounded along with a number of other key people. Tweed was hit by shrapnel in the right hand. His hand was torn up. The Americans knew that they would not be moving forward because they were located south of Aachen, and it was the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: the Battle of the Bulge started on 16 December 1944 in the Ardennes Forest region of Belgium]. During the Bulge the Germans mowed down American troops [Annotator's Note: Tweed is referring to an incident that occurred when SS troops slaughtered captured American troops near the town of Malmedy in Belgium]. After Tweed was hit, he went back to an aid station and had his hand treated and taped. Afterward, he went to Belgium for surgery and then to England for recovery. The plane that flew Tweed just made the coast of England. He recovered in England at Bromsgrove for two months. Following that period, he returned to the coast for transport back to his battalion.

Earl Tweed was the longest active of three company commander for his company since he was in action from 16 June to 17 November [Annotator's Note: 1944]. His helmet showed multiple battles where he participated during his command. When Tweed returned to his battalion [Annotator's Note: 3rd Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division] after recovery from his wound, he was made assistant S-3 [Annotator's Note: S-3 is a battalion's operations officer]. At this point, Tweed and the battalion reached the Elbe River. The Germans would come over the river and surrender while carrying their weapons. They were trying to avoid being captured by the Russians. The Americans were sending them back across because anything on the opposite side of the Elbe River belonged to the Russians. This was about the first part of May [Annotator's Note: 1945]. The battalion was put in a bivouac area that was comprised of decoy buildings. While at the Elbe River, Tweed had no occasions to meet Russians. He never crossed over the river but stayed on the American side. He witnessed Germans surrendering right and left. Tweed's battalion was pulled out of the line and routed to Bremen, Germany. He arrived there a few days before the surrender on 8 May when the Americans took over Bremen. There he went from S-3 to company commander of an anti-tank company. While stationed in downtown Bremen, political prisoners had to be guarded. One was a female. She killed Allied airmen with a pitchfork. Tweed's regimental commander was a colonel by the name of George [Annotator's Note: no indication of whether this is a given or surname]. The colonel returned home because he had enough service, and another colonel was sent in to take over the regiment. About 20 November, Tweed was sent to Mannheim where he became commander of a quartermaster battalion. Most of the time, German troops who surrendered gave up to GIs so Tweed did not see the incidents. The only time he witnessed a German surrender was at Brest. There, Germans approached Tweed's company with a white flag. Tweed had been ordered to allow enemy troops under white flags to proceed on to the rear. The Germans were allowed to proceed to the rear where the American regimental and division commanders took their surrender. From that point, the Americans advanced to the sub pens [Annotator's Note: submarine pens] where the German quarters and hospitals were located.

Earl Tweed served in Germany on occupation duty as commander of an anti-tank company. He held that command until the unit was processed to return home on 19 November [Annotator's Note: 1945]. That was about the time that Tweed was transferred to Mannheim for quartermaster duty. While at Mannheim, Tweed was given a 45 day furlough to return to the United States. He then returned to Mannheim. He became S-3 [Annotator's Note: battalion operations officer] in March 1946. His wife joined him in Germany. She was one of the first wives to go to Germany after World War 2. They lived across the river from Mannheim and stayed there until he was transferred to the infantry near Salzburg. He stayed there until he returned home in June 1947. His daughter was born in September 1947. His furlough back to the United States while he was stationed in Mannheim occurred approximately February or March 1946. After returning to the states in June 1947, he remained on active duty until May 1949. He acquired a business and continued his work to get a degree. He was called up for the Korean War. He could complete his semester courses at SMU [Annotator's Note: Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas] because he would leave for Korea in December. After SMU, he was sent to Fort Benning for advanced officers' course. After the surrender of Germany, Tweed knew that there was a possibility of his unit being transferred to the South Pacific for the continuation of the struggle against the Japanese. After the German surrender, the 29th [Annotator's Note: 29th Infantry Division] was being broken up as men with sufficient points were allowed to go home for discharge. During his service in Korea, Tweed served with I Corps which was comprised of all the Allies who sent troops to the conflict. The II Corps was the designation for ROK [Annotator's Note: Republic of Korea] troops and the X Corps was comprised of all American troops. I Corps headquarters was near Panmunjom. Artillery fire was difficult because of the close proximity to Korean positions. Tweed's brother was in one of the divisions, possibly the 25th, that went to the Yalu River. When Tweed entered college after active duty, he used the GI Bill to assist him in his education. He experienced no difficulties in transitioning from soldier to civilian. He had acquired a lumber and hardware business with his wife. The couple lived in the same home in Dallas for over 71 years. In Korea, Tweed's I Corps duties was as assistant G-3 [Annotator's Note: general staff operations officer]. His commanding general was General Waters [Annotator's Note: General John K. Waters]. Waters was married to Patton's [Annotator's Note: General George S. Patton] daughter. She died while Waters was in Korea. He was sent home for 30 days as a result. He returned to Korea but was eventually sent to Fort Hood. Tweed returned to the United States after his Korean service in February 1953. He returned to SMU as soon as he returned and completed his final requirements for his degree. Tweed had started at A&M but switched to SMU before going overseas. Tweed knew he was going overseas because he had finished his reserve training and the military needed people to serve in Korea. Tweed was flown from Dallas to California to Wake Island where an engine on the airplane malfunctioned. After repair, the plane flew to Japan and then Tweed transited by ship to Korea. He returned to the United States after Korea and was separated from the service as a major in April 1953. He had been promoted to major in November 1947. He considered staying in the military but there was so much facing him.

Earl Tweed made friends during the war. That was a big deal. All of them are gone now. Tweed fought in the war to keep the Germans from coming to the United States and to liberate those already captured. The war did not change his life much because he looks at himself not as an official in the military but as an active person. His service today means to him that he provided liberation to many people particularly the French. When he returns to France, Tweed insists that the French do for their country what the Americans did for them. Many people today are wet behind the ears as far as knowing about World War 2. Older people will greet the veterans but some people’s attitude has led us astray. It is important to future generations to teach what World War 2 means because it saved the world. Tweed and his wife made a trip to a Norwegian country several years ago. One of the things that hit them was that the guide on the flight did not know anything about the war and she was the daughter of the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.