James Matthew Weller was born in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana in July 1922. Before the war, he attended college. During his business studies, he noted that there were no other males in his classes. That enticed him to volunteer for the Army in June 1942. He spent training time in Camp Livingston and Camp Beauregard in Louisiana. Afterward, he was sent by train to Fort Knox, Kentucky for tank training. He learned to run a tank as well as load and fire the vehicle’s weapon while he was at Fort Knox. Weller also was trained in aviation engines which were used during World War II. He was assigned to the 62nd Field Artillery [Annotator's Note: 62nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion] at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia. In preparation for overseas duty, he was sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. Following that, he was sent to Staten Island where the men were outfitted in heavy weather clothes. It appeared that they were headed to Alaska. Next stop was Norfolk, Virginia where more equipment and ships were picked up for the voyage across the ocean. The ship zigzagged on the ocean. Weller became very sick. The ship landed at Casablanca, French Morocco on 8 November 1942.

James Weller landed in North Africa on 9 November 1942 while the Vichy French were still in combat with the Americans. The American tanks could not be unloaded due to lack of boats to transport them in. He was a tanker without a tank. Consequently, he and the other tank crewmen were given, three days of food, two canteens of water, three bandoliers of ammunition and ’03 rifles [Annotator's Note: M1903 .30 caliber rifle] and told that they would become infantry. They were to be assigned to guard duty but as they were being shipped to land, the Vichy surrendered and the boats were called back. Weller did not fire a shot so he did not get credit for service in the action in French Morocco. His only rifle training had been to fire three or four rounds prior to point. He did learn to throw a hand grenade. Weller was aboard the Gray Lines St. Helena. It carried many troops. He went to a rock quarry nearby and was put on a detail unloading equipment. Enemy aircraft would buzz the harbor but no bombs were dropped. It did provide for a scare to the men below. On 1 January 1943, four German bombers flew over and dropped flares and bombs on the port of Casablanca. Searchlights probed the skies for the marauding aircraft. Weller heard that several bombers were shot down. During the raid, he found himself in a bomb shelter under a warehouse. While there, he aided a French nurse in delivering a baby. The unloading of the equipment was completed and Weller was moved to Rabat, Morocco and then Constantine, Algeria. Moving closer to the front, all personal effects were unloaded before they went into battle. They were shelled for two hours by the Germans. Many people became religious with that shelling. Next, the 62nd [Annotator's Note: 62nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion] made their way to El Guettar and Bizerte where there was heavy fighting against Rommel the Desert Fox [Annotator’s Note: German General, later Field Marshal, Erwin Rommel was nicknamed the Desert Fox]. After the Tunisian combat, training was held for the 62nd at Bizerte for landings in Sicily at Licata. After dry runs at Bizerte, the men were put on an LST [Annotator’s Note: Landing Ship, Tank] on 9 July for the invasion. The landing at Licata was on 10 July [Annotator’s Note: 1943]. The LST hit a sandbar and stopped. German aircraft dropped bombs on them and strafed the men and the ship. The bombs fell so close that stenciled information on the ordnance could be read. Prior to the landing, the Germans left their Italian comrades and evacuated. The landings were a cakewalk. The Italians did not give the Americans too much trouble. Many seemed to have relatives in the United States. During the landing, the 62nd was attached to the 3rd Infantry Division. Afterward, the unit was transferred to the 82nd Airborne Division and then the 2nd Armored Division. They crossed through numerous towns along the west coast of Sicily until they reached Palermo, the capital of Sicily. There was heavy resistance at the town of Troina in the middle of Sicily. That was the first time that Weller heard the German rocket launchers that sounded like an organ as the projectiles were fired [Annotator’s Note: the Nebelwerfer fired multiple rockets which made an eerie sound]. Upon hearing the frightening noise, Weller left his tank and jumped into an adjacent ditch on top of the outfit’s executive officer. Realizing his error, he saluted the officer who promptly told him that saluting was not acceptable at the front. Weller later became friends with the officer who corrected him. His name was Major Bowman [Annotator’s Note: unsure of spelling]. With the Americans moving through Randazzo, the Germans became trapped. The Americans were given the order not to fire. This enabled the Germans to escape to Italy. After Sicily, Weller and the 62nd returned to Palermo where they were allowed to bathe in the Mediterranean and fraternize with the local population. He ate well and enjoyed the time and food there. The local population seemed to hate Mussolini and what he had gotten them into. There were USO shows and passes to go into Palermo. The outfit was told to line up all tanks and equipment and leave them for the French forces. Weller, at the time, was a crew member in an M-7 Sherman tank that had a 105mm gun mounted to it. The tank was driven by a Pratt and Whitney airplane engine. Weller went from being in the gasoline section to an M1 tank operator and then to the M7 crewman. He would move between being a tank member to being a mechanic. There were shortages of personnel so people would be cycled to where they were needed. He changed personnel over three tanks. He spent two or three months at Palermo before being loaded onto a British ship for transfer through the Straits of Gibraltar. The men were told that they were going home because they had been in two campaigns. Instead, they ended up in Glasgow, Scotland. From there, they moved to Oxford and then Banbury, England.

James Weller enjoyed his time in England. He trained with his new M7 tank in Slapton Sands from February to May [Annotator’s Note: 1944]. The new tank's forward body was cast in one piece instead of using bolted segments like the equipment used in the Mediterranean. The battalion [Annotator's Note: 62nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion] would cycle between base camp and training sites. They learned to fire their 105mm M7 artillery while aboard an LCT, Landing Craft, Tank, bouncing on the waves. The 62nd was transferred from Banbury to Dorchester, England. The men were put in a sealed camp. They viewed maps and were told that they were going to attack the French coast. They were brought to a port and made ready to attack the mainland of Europe on 5 June but a delay of one day was necessary for the weather to break. Some men worried about the third invasion being their third strike and being out. On board the ship, they were informed that they would be in the first wave. They were to fire their 105s in pre-bombardment after the airplanes had attacked. Starting 1,000 feet offshore, the guns would fire every 100 feet until they reached a point too close to do so. When they could not fire over the ramp, they turned around. The 58th was assigned to the 29th Division. They marked the targets for the battleships Texas and Arkansas and the cruiser Augusta [Annotator’s Note: USS Texas (BB-35), USS Arkansas (BB-33) and USS August (CA-31)]. The battalion went ashore in the early afternoon. It took ten hours to get the 18 tanks and 600 men ashore. The battalion was not attached but was available for emergency use. One of the battalion's batteries attempted to advance but the fire was too heavy to do so. The LCTs remained out of the range of the German 88mm artillery until the early afternoon. The infantry who had earlier attacked the enemy emplacements were slaughtered. The word was given for the soldiers to move inland rather than just die on the beach. Ultimately, they overran the German positions and provided safety for the LCTs to bring the tanks ashore. The beach was a mess. It looked like a wrecking yard with all the disabled equipment. There were bodies and blood everywhere. Some landing crafts took direct hits. There was confusion on the beaches. Troops had not landed on the planned beaches. Weller’s group did so, too. The advance inland started. They passed through Bayeux and on to St. Lo. They found difficulty in their progress through the hedgerow country. If there was a gap in the hedgerows, the Germans had them zeroed in for their artillery. Many tanks were damaged until obstacles from the beach were welded to the front of the armored vehicle. It worked like a pitchfork. The tank then could ram the hedgerow and pass through it. That helped the advance after struggling there for weeks. The progress took the battalion to Mortain and the fight there prior to catching the Germans in the Falaise Gap. The German 7th Army was trapped there and nearly wiped out. It was a bloody scene with dead Germans and horse everywhere. The breakout of central France brought the outfit to the Belgium border where they ran out of fuel and ammunition. If the Germans had learned about the lack of supplies, it could have been disastrous. The Red Ball Express helped resupply them allowing for continued movement into Holland. The Germans flooded the dikes in Holland. The Allied armored vehicles had to withdraw. In Holland, Weller and his unit saw a family that had been forced to stay indoors for the duration of the German occupation. It surprised him that children had to be kept strictly indoors without the benefit of sunlight. It was sad. When the armor withdrew from Holland, it returned to Belgium at Monschau on the Siegfried Line. It was called the hinge. The tankers fired their 105s at the obstacles and pillboxes but the rounds bounced off. The tanks could not cross the Siegfried Line dragon teeth. While considering options, the weather turned very cold.

James Weller knew something was going on while he was near the German border. The OPs [Annotator’s Note: outposts] and reconnaissance were reporting an extensive amount of activity and noise could be heard nearby. It seemed to indicate that something was going to happen. The potential for a German offensive was discounted by those further up the chain of command. The Germans began firing on Weller’s outfit [Annotator’s Note: the 62nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion]. The outfit had veteran members from the campaign in Sicily. They managed to repulse the Germans. The offensive was not repelled everywhere. Further south, the enemy broke through the American defenses and made their way to Bastone on their way to Antwerp. The weather turned very cold. Weller was a Southern boy who had never seen that much snow. He refused to let his Yankee friends know how cold he was. They advanced toward Malmedy and then Bastone to use their artillery to assist the defenders. With the cold weather, the 105mm gun on the tank could not operate unless it was warmed up. The men began to collect urine to deposit over the gun to warm it. This method was replaced by heating icy water in a five gallon can over the engine exhaust coming from the tank. The men were too busy to think of that simple solution. The cold weather finally got to Weller and he contracted pneumonia. He was put aboard a C-47 [Annotator’s Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] and flown back from the front. He received medications and recovered. He was going to be sent to a tank replacement area for assignment to a different outfit. He was headed to the 2nd Ranger Battalion headquarters CP, command post. Weller told a major that he had been with the 62nd since North Africa and wanted to return to his outfit. His message was received. The officer told him to go. Weller eventually returned to his outfit after an exciting trip. That was the highlight of his combat days. He thought he was surely dead at that time. He had mixed feelings about whether he was scared or not, but fifty years after the event, he had nightmares about it. He woke up feeling the knife at his throat. He had sweats and was screaming and yelling. After the Bulge, his unit moved forward through the Siegfried Line.

James Weller and his outfit [Annotator’s Note: the 62nd Armored Field Artillery battalion] passed through Aachen and other German towns on the way to Kassel. There were two eagles on the train and he took one home as a souvenir. They advanced through Merseburg then took part in a large battle at Leipzig. The American troops were headed toward Berlin when they received the word to go no further. The Russians were to take Berlin. The news angered Weller and some members of his outfit. The Germans surrendered on 8 May [Annotator’s Note: 8 May 1945] and the 62nd was moved to Stuttgart. After being there a month, they moved to Czechoslovakia. Next, the 62nd went to the Elbe River where they met the Russians. The Soviets were in ragtag uniforms. The Americans were guarding bridges to prevent DPs [Annotator’s Note: displaced persons] from crossing out of Russian territory. The original mission for the 62nd was to take a German gasoline factory. They took six out of 18 tanks and the rest of the tank crews were used as infantry. Weller was billeted in a convent in Czechoslovakia. The nuns were removed from the convent. He met a nice Czech girl who spoke broken English. He showed her that he was an old farm boy and knew how to milk a cow. From the convent, he was billeted next in the home of a Czech family. The man smoked a pipe and played a clarinet. He played for the polka dances in the town. Weller ran across the same girl that was milking the cow. Weller became friendly with the locals and would provide them with some of his supplies. The girl gave him a picture. The Czech host where Weller was billeted identified the girl in the picture as a nun. The Czech man said that she was being friendly in order to get to the United States. Weller lost interest as a result. Weller had 99 points but he had to wait to be sent home. All he needed was one more point to reach 100 to enable him to return home via a flight from Casablanca. While waiting to go home, an officer offered him and his buddies 14 days of leave in Paris. All they had to do was transport a jeep and some trucks to the city. The men had three months of pay in their pocket and Paris sounded attractive. They took the assignment and drove from Czechoslovakia to Paris. The Red Cross put them up in a hotel. During his 14 days in Paris, he and his buddies went to Pigalle where the Can-Can dancers and fun people were. Weller started drinking champagne even though he was not normally a drinker. He was enjoying himself prior to being hit on the back of the head with a sledge hammer. The next thing he knew, he was in a French hospital. He was locked up for two days just for drinking French champagne. He paid the price. Someone said that he had been given a “Mickey”. One of his buddies went to see him in the hospital and spread the word that Weller was sleeping with multiple women. If he did, Weller did not know anything about it. His buddy said it was true. He was in bed with three women. They were three French nurses who were treating him. [Annotator’s Note: Weller laughs at the rumor] While volunteering at The National WWII Museum, Weller was approached by a young woman who said he was her father. Weller was taken aback by the statement. Someone had put her up to it.

James Weller picked the Army for enlistment because his father had served in World War I in a submarine. The submarine had been hit by another ship in New York harbor and his father had a scar on his head as a result. His father had advised him to join the Army because he felt it was safer to be on the ground. Weller had learned to fly before the war and he wanted to get into an aerial reconnaissance group at Fort Sill in the Army. In 1939, he enlisted in the Marine Corps at age 17. He had not been honest about his age. He was too young to join without his parents’ consent. When Weller reached the West Coast to begin training, he was sent home because his mother had gotten a lawyer and demanded her son return home. He was pulled out of the Marine Corps and sent home. If he had stayed in the Corps, he may have ended up in Guadalcanal. Although Weller liked the uniform, he was glad he did not stay in the Marine Corps. At 19 years old, all the men his age were in the service. He saw nothing but females in the college classes he attended. He was getting tired of school. His parents gave their consent and Weller joined the Army in New Orleans. After induction, he went to Camps Livingston and Beauregard. He did not mind his service but would repeat it only if the politicians and president would serve in front of him. Weller has seen the loss of freedom of people in Europe and Africa. He advises the youth today to value and protect their freedom. Most of the younger generation is not familiar with what is going on worldwide. As the years pass, Weller finds himself losing some of the details of dates and towns that use to come readily to him. Scholars such as Marty Morgan train to educate themselves on those details. Weller can speak French and German and can use hand signs to communicate. Sometimes he would do so and find the individual he was speaking to could understand English. Although some of the French were friendly with the Germans, most were sympathetic to the Allies. Nevertheless, some of the French provided intelligence to the Germans. For the most part, the people of France, Belgium and Holland appreciated what the Allied forces did to liberate them. There were spy rings in both North Africa and Europe. The Muslim and Arabs were foreign to the Americans with their religion and tendency to scavenge American supplies. The Arabs were able to scale heights to take Allied equipment and clothing. George Patton [Annotator’s Note: General George S. Patton] told his men if it persisted that they should shoot the thieves. That could be part of the bitterness toward Americans in that part of the world. Weller’s experience was worthwhile to guarantee not only his freedom but also the freedom of those countries liberated. Weller’s commander, General Donald V. Bennett, said in his book that the whole world was holding its breath with the invasion. Failure would have meant that America could have been defeated. Without victory on Omaha Beach, Normandy and the Cherbourg Peninsula the outcome of the war might have been completely different. Weller’s generation did some good. The hardest part of D-Day was getting off the beach. The Germans were heavily entrenched on the heights. There was a 100 feet of open beach to get to the enemy. That was why Weller’s generation is referred to the Greatest Generation. In several days, there were massive amounts of equipment on the beach. Weller rode onto the beach in his armored vehicle. It took ten hours to get all the battalion’s 600 men and 18 tanks ashore on D-Day. The job of Weller’s unit offshore was to mark the enemy targets onshore by firing on them. Other units such as the 741st Tank Battalion and the Duplex tanks with propellers and rubberized shields may have gone in sooner than Weller’s but the 62nd [Annotator’s Note: 62nd Armored Artillery battalion] did the work assigned to them. The Duplex tanks had a bad time in the rough seas that morning. Many of them sank and many of the crewmen drown. Weller and the 62nd were lucky to get to the beach. The infantry should be commended for what they accomplished on the morning of the invasion. Likewise, soldiers that carry a rifle today and face combat are to be commended. In the beginning of the war, the United States was ill prepared for the start of conflict. The 62nd was part of the Louisiana maneuvers. Troops trained with sticks not guns. Trucks had the word "tank" written on them because of lack of armored vehicles. The 62nd also participated in desert maneuvers prior to shipping out to North Africa. Weller received 13 weeks of basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky then joined the 62nd at Camp A.P. Hill in Virginia after the two maneuvers. The 62nd went to Camp Kilmer after Virginia and then on to Staten Island to ship out. It was a rush job for Weller to become a part of the 62nd prior to its assignment to the invasion of North Africa.

After James Weller’s 14 day leave in Paris, he was trucked back to his original base in Czechoslovakia. He received some good and bad news. He had been called to return home but he had missed two boats because he was in Paris. Consequently, he had to wait until the next rotation. A third boat, which was a Liberty Ship called the Kingston Victory, came for him. He had to exit Czechoslovakia and go to Munich en route to Le Havre, France. He went through one of the mustering camps for the return to the United States. He spotted German submarine pens located nearby. Some were damaged. The ship sailed for home. The food was good but some of the men got sick. The steward on the ship opened the door of the freezer and told the men to pick what they wanted to eat. Weller craved ice cream and milk. When he got tired of that, he ate pork sausage. Some of the sausage was pretty greasy and some of the men got sick. It was both a fun and bad trip. Weller met men from all walks of life and states while in the service. Some men thought Weller had web feet since he was from Louisiana. Some men were good and some were not. Weller served in seven campaigns and three invasions.

James Weller pondered whether the accomplishments and sacrifices of the World War II were worthwhile. He sees conflicts today as being a Third World War which started with the seizure of the American embassy in Iran in 1997. A lack of reaction by the United States enables new attacks. The country does not appear to be the power it once was. Korea and Vietnam were fought as if the country did not want to win. The same situation exists in the fight against terrorism. There are too many rules of engagement instead of turning the troops loose to win the war. The rules of war are different. The people in the areas of conflict are all dressed the same. They look like civilians but fighters are among them. Patton [Annotator’s Note: General George S. Patton] told his men to be wary of the Arabs. They might shake your hand and then put a knife in your back. The men stayed on alert because there were good and bad civilians. Even in Paris, it was necessary to watch your pocketbook. The same is true of New Orleans. Weller was in law enforcement so he knew about situational awareness. His pocket was almost picked in the French Quarter of New Orleans because he lost his attention to the person behind him. In combat, a soldier can smell the enemy. A person becomes like an animal that can feel danger. They had to sleep with one eye open. The new generation has to be protected. Many of the young people are educated but lack common sense. Engineers failed to protect New Orleans from Katrina’s failure of the levees due to the subsurface soil conditions. In 1947, there was flooding even in the highest parts of Metairie [Annotator’s Note: Metairie is located near New Orleans in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana]. After the service, Weller worked with a construction company. In the beginning, the pace of activity in the office got to be oppressive so he became a heavy equipment operator. He married in 1951. It was a struggle to survive but Weller and his wife both worked to make ends meet. She made 40 dollars per week and he made 60 cents per hour. The couple had just come out of the Depression. His father carried ice on his back for 25 cents an hour. Weller was born in 1922 and experienced the Depression. If a person had a job, he was lucky. Everyone was poor but did not know it. Today, a couple has to have money or a welfare card if they have children. What Weller used to make in a year is made by his grandchildren in a week. That has created the high prices today. Proportionately, the income today is about the same as that of Weller during his early days of work. Weller would supplement his income by working as a US Marshall during the winter. He would carry prisoners to jail. One repeat offender took Weller’s gun from him. After a scuffle, the weapon went off and the prisoner was wounded. After the fact, Weller was informed that the wounded prisoner was to be considered an escape artist.

James Weller volunteered as a gung-ho young man looking for trouble. He enjoyed his war years and the people he met. The service felt like being on a team. It gave him responsibility, common sense and leadership. That was important in his life. It gave him a sense of direction and gave him adventure. In the military, there were good days and there were bad days. Some had little or no action and other days involved combat. In the deserts of North Africa, the treads of the tanks would dig down in the sand. They had to keep moving all the time. There were different types of attack formations used by the tanks. There were V shaped formations, flank attack formations and others. At Kasserine pass there were numerous tanks lost because of the lack of mutual protection in the formation of the tanks. Weller and his unit [Annotator's Note: the 62nd Armored Field Artillery Battalion] were lucky but the guys knew how to do their job. Most of the servicemen were not highly educated but they had common sense. Today’s generation needs to think before they act.

James Weller volunteered at The National WWII Museum. The Museum keeps the public aware of the sacrifices made by the warriors of the Second World War. Every conflict should have a similar representation. The younger generations should be more aware of the price of freedom. He tells them to get all the education they can. The future will hold many high technology advances. There have been so many advances in automation. It is obviously different from the days when Weller grew up. He had a sardine can with a crystal in it that he used to catch two radio stations. Later a Philco radio came on and that was a miracle. When window fans were introduced, the public thought that was a big improvement even though it brought dust into the house causing clean up problems for his mother. When Weller returned from service, he bought a washing machine for his mother. It had a ringer on top to squeeze the water out of the clean clothes. Everyone in the neighborhood came to see her new machine. The wooden ice boxes were replaced by a refrigerator. The life of the refrigerator was short-lived. There were no replacement parts. In 1937, the WPA [Annotator’s Note: Works Progress Administration] put gas and water lines in Metairie [Annotator’s Note: Metairie, Louisiana]. That alleviated the need to bathe in a wash tub and reduced the requirement on the fireplace to generate heat. The range that the family purchased had such a small flame that it took a long time to boil water. The same was true for taking a shower. It took time to reheat water so the family had to pace each individual accordingly. The Weller family had an outhouse at the time. A person had to go outside with a Sears catalogue to relieve them self. The family had a couple cows and chickens at the time. In service, Weller would cycle between being a corporal and a sergeant. He told his officer that he did not want responsibility. He wanted to follow and not lead. The family had a cistern to collect water. There was lack of electricity. The first TV was amazing. Today’s high definition viewing on television is wonderful. The best invention is the microwave to expedite food preparation and lessen clean-up. Coffee makers are great, too. Today’s toasters replaced having to hold the bread on a stick over a fire. Everything in the old times was the hard way. That is the benefit of living in today’s world. News is more rapidly spread. It is amazing to go from Weller’s early day when it was very rough to today’s living with luxuries and beneficial medicines. During the Depression, a person that lived to 40 years old was lucky. There are medications to aid with all kinds of health problems. In the old days, Weller would go to town in a surrey with horses. That would not necessarily be a solution today because of the problem with the cost of feed. Weller wants to live a long life but does not want to be a burden on others. Children today do not want to be bothered with their parents who need assistance. When Weller left for the war in 1942, his parents had black hair. When he returned in 1945, their hair was gray. His father joyously celebrated his return. Weller’s story of his D-Day experience is a part of The National WWII Museum third floor exhibit. It is shown on a continuous loop in the D-Day exhibit.