Lionel Baxter served in the 941st Field Artillery in Battery A [Annotator's Note: Battery A, 941st Field Artillery Battalion]. He was born in LaFarge, Wisconsin in 1923. His parents moved around. His father was in the cheese business. Baxter entered service out of Richland Center, Wisconsin. He had one brother and one sister. He was the oldest. His father worked throughout the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945] but got emphysema [Annotator's Note: a lung condition] in his later years. Baxter had to work during the Depression years hauling wood. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Baxter if he recalls where he was or what he was doing when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He was living outside of Blue River, Wisconsin. It was a great shock to hear that. As a young guy and a senior in high school, he figured he would be in the service. He was drafted and sworn in on 8 February then went in on the 15th in 1943. He was inducted at Camp Grant, Illinois and sent to North Carolina for basic training at Fort Bragg.

Lionel Baxter trained on howitzers. They went through [Annotator's Note: training] in eight weeks because they were needed in Europe. They loaded on a troop train and went to the California desert for about three months. They thought they were going to the Pacific, but they went to Boston [Annotator's Note: Boston, Massachusetts] and then to England. They set up camp and did more training. They got orders to go to the marshaling yards. They loaded pipes on LSTs [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank]. He landed in Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France] on D-6 [Annotator's Note: six days after D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. There were bodies floating around. They went into Saint Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France] for six weeks. They were strafed by airplanes. They dug foxholes and covered them with trees which protected them. They then started marching through France. He was in the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. A Major was bucking for a higher rank and kept pushing them so they could get ribbons and medals. He finally got hurt and was out for a long time. He came back and pushed them through five campaigns. Baxter got five battle stars [Annotator's Note: a device worn on a campaign ribbon to indicate the number of campaigns a ship or individual took part in], but never got hurt. Baxter was in artillery. The Supply Sergeant heard Baxter had typing skills, so he got out of a lot of things to do the typing for him. He also had KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police].

The worst thing [Annotator's Note: about the war] for Lionel Baxter was that after the war was over, he was a guard at Buchenwald [Annotator's Note: Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany]. That sticks in his mind, the cruelty of Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] and the men around him. Today, we have some of those white heads [Annotator's Note: Baxter means skinheads, young people of a subculture characterized by close-cropped hair and heavy boots, often perceived as aggressive] pulling the same thing and he does not understand it. The people slept on wooden bunks with angled boards instead of pillows. They were skin and bones. That got to him. He saw lamp shades made of human skin. That threw him for a loop. At that young age, he did not give a thought as to it making him aware of what he was fighting for. It does now. He wears his cap [Annotator's Note: World War 2 Veteran hat] and people thank him for his service. That is a great honor. Baxter does not remember how long he was at Buchenwald. He had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to get out of the service. He left Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] to come home. Going over, he was on a ship for two weeks. During the trip, the captain said they would have a Thanksgiving dinner and they did. He had gone over on the James Parker [Annotator's Note: USAT James Parker], which was a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] but he does not remember what ship he came back on.

Lionel Baxter was trained to handle ammunition [Annotator's Note: as part of a gun crew in Battery A, 941st Field Artillery Battalion]. A Supply Sergeant found out he could type so he had him do his typing. Training in the California desert was hot. They slept on cots made of canvas, which would rip. They did not do anything from ten o'clock in the morning until three o'clock in the afternoon due to the heat. They trained on 155mm howitzers [Annotator's Note: M1 155mm howitzer]. Over in Europe, they used the British 4.5 [Annotator's Note: BL 4.5-inch medium gun] and were right behind the infantry. Baxter was a linesman, and a forward observer. One night, he was calling quadrants back to the Battery and could hear a noise they thought was Germans. It was two horses. Another time he went to headquarters to get supplies. When he came back, the jeep driver, Richard Young [Annotator's Note: unable to identify] said they were heading the wrong direction. They had some good times and bad times. When he was training in the desert, he thought they were going to the Pacific. He had no feeling about where he was going. Now he is glad he was sent to Europe. His brother was on an LSM [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Medium] and did island hopping. His brother told him that his captain was a religious man. They went to an island where there were a lot of naked girls [Annotator's Note: native islanders]. The captain had his men give their shirts to the ladies to cover them up. Baxter was at the age that he knew he had to go fight. He never got home before going overseas.

Lionel Baxter and his unit [Annotator's Note: Battery A, 941st Field Artillery Battalion] went through the outskirts of Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France in August 1944]. Women were climbing up on the tanks and giving the guys kisses but he never got one. His trip overseas was rough. It was raining and the waves were coming over the bow of the ship. He had a job carrying a globe around to show the men where they were. They spent two weeks going over. They landed in England. They trained in England and moved to Exeter [Annotator's Note: Exeter, England] where there was an airport with B-47s [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft]. Baxter had never been in a plane. They went up to see if they could get a ride, but the gates were locked. They had gone out with the paratroopers [Annotator's Note: for D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He then got his orders to go over. A lot of the planes never made it back. Baxter's son worked in London [Annotator's Note: London, England; later in life] some, but Baxter never had the ambition to go visit him. During Normandy, Baxter's unit was getting vehicles ready to go over. He had gone overseas in May or maybe March [Annotator's Note: of 1944]. He interacted with the English civilians. The town had a band one night and they were told not to go. A group decided to go and got reported to the MPs [Annotator's Note: military police]. Baxter and a buddy tried to go over a fence but got caught. They went to a big chateau and were put in a jail. Their Second Lieutenant was mad at them and made them weed the grounds as punishment. He got along fine with the English. They were in a guarded place and did not have too much to do with them.

Lionel Baxter and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Battery A, 941st Field Artillery Battalion] landed on Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: Omaha Beach, Normandy, France on 14 June 1944]. It was sickening. Bodies were floating around. They unloaded and went up to a little village to get to Saint Lo [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France]. It was in bad shape. The bulldozers made a path through for them. The churches and buildings were standing, but the windows were blown out. It was quite the sight. At Saint Lo, they were shooting Long Toms [Annotator's Note: M1 155mm howitzer, nicknamed Long Tom]. The concussion from the shells caused him to need hearing aids today. He cannot remember all of what he did. They were strafed by airplanes. They moved out and some planes were flying over. A plane was strafing and the ack-ack [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] shot it down. It just missed their headquarters kitchen. Baxter read about the Malmedy Massacre [Annotator's Note: Malmedy, Belgium, 17 December 1944]. They were not far away from that. They could hear the machine guns shooting the men. They did not see it but heard about it. They were more determined as the war went on, to get it over with and get back home. That winter was cold. He would try to stake his tarp in the frozen ground. He used his shoes as a pillow. It was bad. In basic training they had the first snow they had in years. One guy would sleep naked no matter how cold it was. The 941st was hooked up with the 172nd Field Artillery [Annotator's Note: 172nd Field Artillery Battalion] from New Hampshire. A lot of the guys were from the South and could not hack the cold weather. Baxter had seen snow from the day he was born in March [Annotator's Note: March 1923].

Lionel Baxter says they [Annotator's Note: the German Army] had some fast-moving vehicles and had the 88s [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery]. They could shoot straight at the tanks and blew the heck out of his outfit [Annotator's Note: Battery A, 941st Field Artillery Battalion] for a while. Then things turned around. In Southern France, they had a hard time getting them out of there. They sent men down there to help. Baxter was everywhere after they got the British 4.5 guns [Annotator's Note: BL 4.5-inch medium gun] when the war was about half over. They were right behind the infantry. Baxter interacted with German prisoners and had to guard them. They had an enclosure full of SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] troops who would not do anything they were told. They were belligerent. Baxter did not like them. They were mean. Baxter says the poor guys who fought in Vietnam [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975] had an awful time. Baxter was cutting weeds when the war ended. The lieutenant called him into his office and said he had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to go home. When he had gone in, the pay was 21 dollars. Overseas, it was 79. He had no place to spend it, so he sent it home.

Lionel Baxter went through an opening in a huge gate [Annotator's Note: at the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany] and could see bodies lined up to be burned. The ovens had partially burnt bodies in each one. He went through a place with human skin lampshades. It was gruesome. He did not stay in the offices long as he did not like it. He cannot remember too much about that or Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] death [Annotator's Note: 30 April 1945]. Baxter never heard of any acts of revenge. He got out in November 1945. His parents lived in Avoca, Wisconsin. Baxter got out and rode the train. His sister was in high school at the time. He went in the drugstore and surprised her. They got a ride to the factory and surprised his folks who did not know he was coming home. He was glad to get home. His family needed an extra hand in the cheese factory.

Lionel Baxter did not have much to celebrate with when the war was over. Baxter was discharged in November 1945 in Illinois. He was a T5 [Annotator's Note: US Army Technician Fifth Grade or T5; equivalent to a corporal; E-4]. He was lucky to get that. He did not sign up for any Reserve time or staying in. He was glad to get out. He feels sorry for the guys who go in for four or five overseas deployments. That is crazy. He likes civilian life. He did not take advantage of the G.I. Bill. He was in the cheese business with his father. He had no problems from nightmares or post traumatic stress disorder or transitioning back to being a civilian. Buchenwald [Annotator's Note: Baxter was a guard at the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany] is what sticks in his mind the most about the war. Baxter fought because he was drafted. He would not have volunteered to fight even if he had known there were camps like Buchenwald. The war did not change his life. He came home and did what he did before. He has no idea what the war means to America today. People do come up and thank him for his service. He feels it is important for there to be a museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] that teaches future generations about the war. They say they are the Great Generation, but he does not know about that.