Robert Rupp was born in 1918 in Aurora, Nebraska. He lived there until he went to college. The worst of the Great Depression was in Texas and Oklahoma but Nebraska got their share. He remembers one morning, everything was kind of reddish-colored. It was dust from Oklahoma [Annotator's Note: Dust Bowl: period of severe dust storms during 1930s]. He would mix bait to kill grasshoppers. The tumbleweeds would catch on the fences. The dust would catch on them and they could walk right over them. His parents were farmers. He had one brother that served in the South Pacific. He started at the University of Nebraska [Annotator's Note: in Lincoln, Nebraska] in 1936 and took ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. He was commissioned after four years and he had a one year payback. He attended another year of school. He graduated one day and reported for service the next, 10 June 1941. His family listened to what was going on in Europe and the Pacific. Rupp was pretty sure we would get into the war. In 1938, he finished his two years of mandatory ROTC. A friend of his was talking about how glad he was getting out of it after that. The friend thought he was crazy for signing up for more. Two years later, he ran into that same guy. He told him he was lucky he took the advanced ROTC because now he was commissioned. Rupp told him he was not lucky; he saw it coming.

Robert Rupp liked the military. He decided while he was in school that if he was going to war, he would rather be an officer than enlisted, and in the artillery rather than infantry. That did not hold true during the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He is a flat lander and did not think much about the Navy. Rupp remembers the Sunday of the attack on Pearl Harbor very well [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, which was only a four hour drive from his home. He had gone there for Sunday dinner at his mother's sister's place. The news came through around noon. He ate dinner and went back to Fort Riley. He was surprised that the Japanese were in the war. He was mainly thinking about what it was going to do to him. He had been on active duty for about six months. Things did not change much at Fort Riley. The 3rd Field Artillery was horse drawn and part of the 2nd Cavalry Division. The 2nd was made into the 9th Armored Division [Annotator's Note: 15 July 1942] and the training really began. They got rid of the French 75s [Annotator's Note: French 75mm field gun] they were using as well as the horses. They got 105mm howitzers [Annotator's Note: M2A1 105mm howitzer] on full-track vehicles. Rupp preferred the new howitzers. The "105" was just barely big enough to take out a German tank. The "88" [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] that the Germans had, was a very good weapon. Rupp was assigned to a service battery that does all of the supply work for the Battalion.

[Annotator's Note: Robert Rupp was stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] They trained there for a while. After being made into an armored division [Annotator's Note: when the 9th Armored Division was activated], they went to California for desert training. They then went to England [Annotator's Note: in August 1944] and trained on the Salisbury Plains near Stonehenge. They were not in on the invasion [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] and crossed the channel about three months later [Annotator's Note: 3 October 1944]. He went over on the RMS Queen Mary, which ran fast enough to outrun German u-boats [Annotator's Note: German submarine]. It took about five days. He was busy training, so he did not think as much about it as his mother did. His brother had gone and worked in the Air Defense Command making airplanes in California. He then volunteered and ended up in the South Pacific in the Army. This was before the Sullivan brothers were all killed. [Annotator's Note: The five Sullivan brothers served USS Juneau (CL-52) and were all killed together when that ship was sunk.] Training in England was more of the same. He was Battery Commander and Battalion Supply Officer. There were three things good that happened to him in the service. One, he was assigned to an old line outfit with professional soldiers. The 3rd Field Artillery Battalion [Annotator's Note: 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division] goes back to the Revolutionary War [Annotator's Note: American Revolutionary War, or, American War of Independence, 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783]. Two, they had a commander that was very good and knew his job. Three, he made sure everyone knew their jobs. They were efficient, fast, and accurate. That paid off at the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. They developed a reputation very rapidly.

[Annotator's Note: Robert Rupp was assigned to the 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division.] They got on the line in late September [Annotator's Note: September 1944] and were positioned northeast of Luxembourg City [Annotator's Note: Luxembourg City, Luxembourg]. The line was not very active until the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] started. There was some skirmishing, but not a lot. His battery was in Consdorf. He had a bedroom above a tavern and got to know the owner. The townspeople had a curfew at dark, then the soldiers would come in and have a beer. The owner was a Luxembourger who had been in the Resistance and had been in hiding during the German occupation. He came out when the Allies came in. He was going to get married and had to go to Luxembourg City but did not want to travel. Rupp let him go in on one of his trucks going after supplies and they would bring him back. Rupp lost track of him because they had to leave the area, but went back to see him after the war. There was big hole where Rupp's bed had been. The Germans knew where everything was. The fact that they did not get severe damage was because they had moved the night before the Bulge started to get better gun positions. Still, they took about 800 or 900 rounds the first hour. The infantry and tanks took a lot more punishment.

[Annotator's Note: Robert Rupp was in Consdorf, Luxembourg with the 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division whne the Battale of the Bulge began.] The moved on 15 December [Annotator's Note: 15 December 1944] to new gun positions. It was a damp, foggy morning, about 35 degrees. They could not identify somebody at 100 yards. He does not know how the observers were picking out targets. They set up a battalion defense line because the Germans had infiltrated during the night. They used cooks and clerks on the line. Their battalion commander was third generation Army and had them firing into all of the approaches into their area. They fired constantly for ten days. They were Combat Command A, 9th Armored Division. The 60th Armored Infantry Battalion had moved because they got mauled. They moved to be behind their artillery battalion, so Rupp had to move one behind them. They fired about 26,000 rounds, one round every 40 seconds night and day for ten days. That was out of 18 guns and was an Army record. Rupp offloaded all of the trucks he could and formed them into two teams. They made 150 mile turnarounds to the rear. They rolled constantly; they ate and slept on the go. He does not remember being out of his jeep for five days. He saw some sputniks [Annotator's Note: V-1 flying bomb; pulsejet powered pilotless munition] going into Russia. They were always lucky, and they always made it back to the guns.

[Annotator's Note: Robert Rupp served with the 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division. His battalion fired 26,000 rounds over ten days during the Battle of the Bulge.] They were relieved after ten days. They needed new barrels and he thought they were going back to do that. They got turned around at Neufchâteau, southwest of Bastogne [Annotator's Note: Belgium]. CCA [Annotator’s Note: Combat Command A, 9th Armored Division] had held the south shoulder of the Bulge. CCB [Annotator's Note: Combat Command B, 9th Armored Division] had been in tough fighting but held their area. CCR [Annotator's Note: Combat Command Reserve, 9th Armored Division] was on the line where the American 1st and 3rd Armies pushed through and made a bulge in Bastogne [Annotator's Note: Bastogne, Belgium]. Brigadier General McAuliffe [Annotator's Note: US Army General Anthony Clement McAuliffe] was there. The Germans sent in a demand for surrender. McAuliffe said, "Aw nuts". The 4th Armored [Annotator's Note: 4th Armored Division], Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.], came up from the south. Rupp watched them going by. They were running twice as fast as they normally ran tanks. They were breaking a corridor into Bastogne. CCA of the 9th Armored was assigned the mission of supporting the 4th. Instead of going to rest, they went back into combat right at Christmas. They were moving all night long. They attacked Christmas night and relieved the people in Bastogne. The Bulge started to collapse about a month after that.

Robert Rupp does not remember much about it [Annotator's Note: the later stages of the Battle of the Bulge] because they had a pill that was issued to keep them awake. You took it for 35 hours and then had to have a period to sleep. They just kept taking them. They made a reputation quickly. When the dumps [Annotator's Note: ammunition dumps] saw their trucks coming in, they would be loaded first. They only fired about 57,000 rounds in the whole war and they fired almost half of that in the first ten days they were in combat. They were in combat from October 1944 until the war ended. They ended up at the Elbe River in Czechoslovakia. They were in position and firing east in May [Annotator's Note: May 1945]. Things were winding down; there were lines of German soldiers moving back to the rear. Rupp was moved again and put back on point. He returned to his old position and the 69th [Annotator's Note: 69th Infantry Division] was there. The 69th got credit for being the first to meet the Russians [Annotator's Note: on 25 April 1945]. The Germans were all coming their way because none of them wanted to be captured by the Russians.

[Annotator's Note: Robert Rupp served in the Army as as an officer in the 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division during the Battle of the Bulge.] The Bulge was Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] idea. His generals did not want to try and do what he wanted to do but nobody was brave enough to tell Hitler that. Hitler drafted 15 year olds and older men. They did not know what the kids were going to do. The older ones did not really want to fight. About the second day of the battle, Rupp took ammunition up to a gun battery. Every time Rupp was visible he would draw mortar fire. He told the battery they were under observation from somewhere. He told them to do point blank firing into the woods. Rupp had a soldier who could speak German tell the soldiers in the woods they could surrender. About six of them started running towards them with their hands up. All but two of them were shot by their own men. This told them what kinds of German soldiers they were dealing with. One was ready to surrender and the other was an SS trooper [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization; abbreviated SS] who would shoot his own soldiers.

Robert Rupp did not really feel animosity towards the Nazi soldiers. He did not come across any concentration camps. The day the war ended he was moving through Czechoslovakia and went into a maintenance bivouac [Annotator's Note: a temporary camp]. After he got his battery started doing maintenance, he took his jeep and drove through the lines. He wanted a souvenir handgun. He went to a little German town and put out the word for guns to be put in the back of his jeep. He got enough guns for each of his men. Around the corner was an area with some prisoners, but no Americans. The Army Civil Affairs people were just a day or two behind them. He found a German captain and let him keep his service weapon. He told him to keep the prisoners where they were until Civil Affairs arrived. Back in April [Annotator's Note: April 1945], they were moving almost off the map every day. He ended up with his battery in Germany and they took over a burgermeister's [Annotator's Note: master of the town; magistrate] house. A young officer came in who spoke English and said he was an aid to the commanding general of the Polish Cavalry. They were in a camp right outside the town and the general wanted instructions. He told them to stay in camp. That night, Rupp was sleeping in a room next to the street. About three o'clock, some women were screaming outside the window. They owned a beer shop. One of his men was drunk and breaking the glasses in their shop. He was waving an M3 [Annotator's Note: M3 .45 caliber submachine gun, also known as the Grease Gun] around. They sent him back to his section. The Polish aid came to Rupp's window around daylight. They had started getting some harassing fire. The aid asked permission to move to the rear, anticipating a German attack. Rupp told them to stay put. They had been told that anything of military value should be turned in by the civilians. That morning, sabres started to appear outside the office in a big pile. They had belonged to the Polish officers. Rupp allowed the officers to reclaim their sabres.

Once the war ended, Robert Rupp was in an area of Czechoslovakia for several days. The Germans just poured in. There was a big, open field area and it was completely loaded with prisoners. None of the Germans wanted to be captured by the Russians. Some Russian soldiers had broken away from their own outfits and arrived at an American battery. They were good fighting men and they got along fine. When the main Russians [Annotator's Note: the Russian Army] got closer, those particular soldiers left the area, apparently not wanting to go back to Russia either. Rupp and his men were mainly doing their own maintenance. They were not there too long. He ended up shifting to occupational duty at the Elbe River [Annotator's Note: northern Czechoslovakia]. They had a guard on one side of a footbridge. They could walk across the bridge and talk to the Russian soldiers, but they could not step off the bridge. They would sell them Mickey Mouse watches. The money they used was money that had been printed for them and it was interchangeable. They were selling the watches for 100 dollars or more. He does not know where they got them. One night, a guard called and said he had heard automatic fire across the river. Rupp went down and heard it as well. He thought it was a Russian soldier who got scared. They did that for about three months and then went home.

Robert Rupp was anxious to get home, even though he had only been gone about 18 months. He had a Bronze Star [Annotator's Note: 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] with a V [Annotator's Note: valor], which gave him good points toward going home. He just missed getting a Purple Heart [Annotator's Note: award bestowed upon a United States service member who has been wounded as a result of combat actions against an armed enemy]. In April [Annotator's Note: April 1945], they were moving along a small country road and some artillery fire came in. Rupp heard a sound and his driver made a noise. A piece of shrapnel had gone by Rupp and hit the driver just enough to draw blood. The driver got the Purple Heart and the five points toward going home. Rupp had six or eight close calls himself. [Annotator's Note: He had earlier convinced some Germans to surrender and when they ran out to do so, their own soldiers shot them.] When the prisoners were being shot at, a bullet hit a branch just over Rupp's head. This was still better than being on the front lines. He makes no claims about being a hero. He does not remember much about coming back to the United States. He had decided to stay in the Active Reserve and ended up with 37 years total service. He joined the Minnesota National Guard and retired as a Colonel. He did use the G.I. Bill. He had no job or contacts to go back to. He already had his college degree, but he went back to school in Minnesota. In 1947 and 1948, he got offers from all over the country and went to Iowa State University [Annotator's Note: in Ames, Iowa]. He then joined a publishing company and became editor of The Farmer Magazine. He spent 34 years there. Without the G.I. Bill, he would have gone to work. A lot of G.I.s [Annotator’s Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] were going into conservation work so they could be outside. The G.I. Bill was an excellent program.

Robert Rupp was surprised by the atomic bomb drops on Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. He believed it shortened the war and saved lives. It is now more of a headache than an asset [Annotator's Note: having nuclear weapons]. He is not sure he agrees with the arrangement we made with Iran [Annotator's Note: Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, 2015]. We could have an agreement and keep a sharp eye on Iran. Rupp feels the war broadened his horizons. He has a lot of close friends from the war. He has gone on a reunion rendezvous annually for 37 years. They were all about the same age and had similar backgrounds. There are only a few still around that still mail each other [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview]. The thing that impresses Rupp the most was how efficient his battalion commander was [Annotator's Note: later US Army Major General George Ruhlen]. After the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], they put in for some award and were turned down. Rumor has it was because they had not lost enough men. They only lost 13 during the whole war. When Russia collapsed in 1991, some German battle reports were found that had been written by the commanding general of the German division across from them, the 276th Volksgrenadiers [Annotator's Note: 276th Volksgrenadier Division]. He wrote he could not move due to the sustained artillery fire. Rupp's was the only armored division [Annotator's Note: Rupp was a member of the 3rd Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 9th Armored Division] on the line when the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] started. They resubmitted and received a Presidential Unit Citation in 2001 at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

There was not much of a question for Robert Rupp about whether to fight or not. He knew a couple people who got deferments, but everybody just assumed you were going to be in it. He is proud of what he did. He would not want to get into another one. It is surprising that 70 years after the war ended, how much deference people have for World War 2 veterans. He was on an Honor Flight [Annotator's Note: flights conducted by non-profit organizations dedicated to transporting military veterans to visit Washington D.C. at no cost to the veterans] to Washington, D.C. and he was surprised by the people who would congratulate him, including teenage boys. He feels that most Americans consider the war a success. He knows people wonder why we have to have war. He thinks the war gives people a satisfied feeling as far as America is concerned. He thinks the Museum is valuable as a record of what has passed and to try to find other solutions. The war should be taught but it depends on how they are teaching. No future war is going to be fought the same way. He feels we need a strong defense. He had a lot of friends in service and he does not regret any of the time he spent, nor any of the time he spent in the Reserve. It was time well spent.