Herman Yates was born in Anna, Illinois in November 1921. He had eight brothers and sisters. His father was a farmer. He worked in coal mines, then the railroad, and then farming. After Yates graduated from high school, he applied to a program to learn airplane maintenance in Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois]. He spent a year and it was closed down. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Yates where he was when he heard the news that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] Yates was playing poker when he heard the announcement over the radio. He was drafted three days after he was married. He was inducted in Chicago and was then sent to New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana] for basic training at Camp Polk [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk in Vernon Parish, Louisiana]. He did not particularly enjoy it. His wife joined him for their first anniversary. In February [Annotator's Note: February 1943], he was headed to California to Camp Coxcomb [Annotator's Note: Riverside County, California] for desert training. He was in an armored division and had to learn jeeps and half-tracks [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks]. They did a lot of hiking to train for Africa. He was in a mortar squad. He started the 25 mile hikes carrying the base plate in temperatures of 110 degrees. By nightfall, a vehicle would come and get the ones who could not make it. Very few made it and he was one of them. His wife came to California. Yates got a telegram that his father had a stroke. He returned home with his wife. With two days left on his leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], he and his wife hitchhiked to Chicago. Chicago was a soldier's town. He returned to the desert for about three weeks and then moved to Fort Benning, Georgia. He stayed there about a year. He was not fond of being in the war itself. He took training as a radio operator. He was transferred to the Company Headquarters for the rest of the war.

After training at Fort Benning [Annotator's Note: Fort Benning, Georgia], Herman Yates was transferred to a Port of Embarkation in Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He was then transferred to New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] and spent the next few months there. He left on D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] on the RMS Queen Mary. He was on the deck and one of the sailors with the ship came by and told him he was too late for the invasion. That was the first they heard of D-Day. They were headed to England by themselves. The whole Division [Annotator's Note: 7th Armored Division] was onboard. They spent a lot of times in cabins, built for two people that had six beds for two people each. They played card games around the bathtub. He never got seasick. They got British food. He never ate breakfast because it was kidney pie. He just drank coffee. There was nothing he enjoyed for lunch. They went into Scotland. They got on a train for south England. They got on a half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] and drove to France [Annotator's Note: 11 August 1944]. They had landed on Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France]. There were not many signs of the invasion at that time. They did not have time to look around.

Herman Yates unloaded and went through Saint-Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France] and headed down toward Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France]. They went through Avranches [Annotator's Note: Avranches, France]. While was back in England, the Major called him in and said something in French. Yates answered in French, so his job became helping them get trough French towns. He had taken French in high school. He was assigned to reconnaissance. The Division [Annotator's Note: 7th Armored Division] was there to keep the Germans from retreating back to Paris. Their Division was assigned to Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] Third Army. His first or second night in bivouac [Annotator's Note: a temporary camp] he had contact with a man who came into the camp. Yates asked where the Germans were, and he told them they were gone. They had not encountered any Germans by this point. In one town, they came under fire and the driver backed them out of the city. Yates asked someone where the Germans were, but they were reluctant to say. He called headquarters and they sent four airplanes in. They bombed the city nearly out of existence. They then traveled hour by hour, combing for Germans. A kid came up to his vehicle, speaking French and broken English. The kid stayed with them in their half-track [Annotator's Note: M3 half-track; a vehicle with front wheels and rear tracks] until they got through some towns when he said he had to go back. The kid did not want to be shot as a spy. Yates got a jeep and took him back as far as he could. They came under some mortar fire in their bivouac but that was it. A day or two later, they headed out.

Herman Yates was asked to go on reconnaissance with an officer and a driver to a little town where some Americans were supposed to be. Yates saw what he thought were French coming towards them, but they were Germans. Yates and the others turned around and went back to their unit [Annotator's Note: 7th Armored Division]. That was his first encounter with Germans. A day or two later, he went into an orchard where they were to encounter some resistance, but they only got some mortar fire. He picked up a French boy who told them the road was mined. Yates called it in to who he thought was a sergeant at Headquarters. He told him about the mines, and the person said he did not give a goddamn and to get down that road. Yates thinks it was the big boss [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. The language he used was very "Patton-ish," but he never confirmed it was him. They started down the road and saw the two jeeps in front of them disappear. The lieutenant told their driver to get out of there. He made a right turn which put them in a bad position. They got out of the vehicle. Yates lost his medical equipment and helmet. One of the men had been hit in the elbow. Yates tried to get the man into a safe position and when he did so, a mortar shell landed between his legs. He was rescued pretty quickly. The American tanks were coming up to join the fight. One tank was headed right for him and he saw it. He waved and the tank was able to go around him. He was put on a jeep. He never passed out. His medicine had been used on the other man. He was taken back to the field hospital where they operated on him. He was told he was lucky he was not paralyzed and did not lose his legs. He still has some shrapnel in his body.

[Annotator's Note: Herman Yates recovered from the surgery he underwent after being hit by a mortar round in France.] Herman Yates was loaded onto a plane to England the morning after surgery. He had been in France for 16 days, but in reconnaissance "you do not last for long." He was in England for about five months. He was sent to Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England] and boarded a hospital ship. They were in heavy seas in a convoy back. The ocean was so bad, they had to stop. He could see the other ships, but they would be hidden by the high waves. They arrived in Boston Harbor [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts]. He was standing on deck as they came into the harbor, but was told to go back to his bed. They did not want anyone standing up when they came in, in case the news press was there. His wife did not even know he had been in combat yet, because he had not been able to write. He called her from Boston. He feels he received adequate medical attention. He was recuperating so they sent him by train to Denver, Colorado. He spent five weeks there. He went to another town and then was discharged. He learned he had gotten the Purple Heart [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] and Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest award a United States service member can receive for a heroic or meritorious deed performed in a conflict with an armed enemy]. He got to see his daughter who had been born while he was in England.

Herman Yates never fully recovered from his wounds in World War 2. He is still on the Veteran's pension plan. When he got home, his wife asked him if he had seen his kid outside. He did not know it was his daughter [Annotator's Note: she had been born when he was overseas]. He took advantage of the G.I. Bill. He went back to work at his original job until he was told he had to join the union. He went to work for a toy manufacturer and was doing well. He was told he was working too fast, so he left there for college in Engineering. He got his degree and worked in the field. Back in Chicago [Annotator's Note: Chicago, Illinois], he did some work for a man who later got him a job after college. Yates did not have a hard time transitioning into civilian life. He went to California once looking for work. He went into aerospace work south of L.A. [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California] He was working with astronauts and he documented the controls of some space capsules. His company lost their contract and he moved to northern California to work for Ford [Annotator's Note: Ford Motor Company] in aerospace. He ended up supervising people writing instruction books. He went to Germany as a supervisor of maintenance manuals for the Department of Defense. The Germans were very friendly. He was on the Mosel River. He became friends with one German and had dinner with him one night. That man introduced him to a bowling group that met once a week. Another German took him under his wing, and showed him all around. Yates thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is very worthwhile. He was primarily interested in the armored part of it. He enjoyed New Orleans. He was sponsored there by the 7th Armored Division Association. Yates thinks the war changed the country. Being victors in a total war like that changed the country. He thinks it will continue to get better.