World War II, Clarence Roe

Clarence Roe, of Salisbury, was surprised to receive draft papers in the mail. He had spoken with the man who ran the draft in Sedalia. He thought Roe wouldn’t be called to serve for at least a year.

Roe was working at Safeway on Fifth and Ohio and was going to get married on June 7, 1942. He was told he could only have a three-day honeymoon. He was sworn in at Jefferson Barracks on July 16, 1942. Then he was sent to Sheppard Army Air Field in Wichita Falls, Kan., to serve with the Army Air Force. Not long after he arrived someone told him, if he qualified for sharpshooter, he would be sent to the front lines. So, Roe decided to miss the target every time.

He was chosen to work with the military police. When he was going through his physical, the dental clinic insisted one of his front teeth needed to be pulled, along with his four wisdom teeth. Roe was very reluctant to do this. He hurt his front tooth when he was 12 years old. He went ice skating at Starke’s pond, east of Sedalia, and took a terrible fall. The roots of his left front tooth were pushed up inside his mouth.

“Oh it was cold and I was bloody. I reached in there and straightened my tooth up and went back home to Mom,” he said. She took him to the dentist, who told Roe he had given himself a root canal. He said as long as it didn’t hurt, there was no need to do anything.

Roe asked the clinic if he would receive a replacement tooth and was told “No!” He got fed up and walked out of the office. Before he got to the barracks, a jeep with two military police officers showed up and loaded him up.
They told him they would handcuff him to the chair, if they needed to, but he would get those teeth pulled. He had no choice but to comply. They placed a sandbag next to each tooth, hit them with a chisel to break them loose and threw away all of the pieces. After that, he had to have five fillings.

Because he missed his assignment, he was sent to answer the telephones. Since his front tooth was missing, he spoke with a lisp.

A lieutenant asked how long his tooth had been missing. Roe told him the story. The lieutenant was mystified and immediately called the lieutenant colonel at the dental clinic. He told him he had to replace the tooth, because Roe didn’t give consent. After much bickering, the clinic was forced to make him a new tooth.  
Roe stayed in Texas for 18 months. His wife joined him and his oldest son was born there.

OFF TO EUROPE
Later, he was chosen to go to Europe for the D-Day invasion. He reported for duty with the Eighth Air Force in northern England. He was told they didn’t have anything for him to do and to come back in the morning. Roe started walking the streets and was approached by an Englishman, who asked him if he would like to join him for a pint. They walked down to the coal miner’s union and enjoyed beer and food. Roe did this for eight days. The ninth day he was told they were taking him to the railroad station. He was put with the Ninth Air Force, 36th Fighter Group.

He got on an old British freighter in Southampton, England. They sailed into the English Channel and could see Omaha Beach. On June 6, 1944, at 2:25 a.m., 32 battleships and destroyers were behind him.

“Sitting there, I could see Omaha Beach. They were shooting these big shells over our heads — that concussion from the shells took the leaves off the trees and took my ears too,” Roe said. They were shooting at the Germans on the hills, so the troops could invade the beaches.  

The Germans were well-prepared though. Land mines were strung throughout the beaches and obstacles were scattered about. Ships would get caught on them and the men became easy targets. The Germans also built a huge sea wall at the foot of a 150-foot bluff, which had thick concrete walls with pill boxes. They were round and when shells would hit them, they’d bounce off. The Allied Forces had to throw rope ladders over the wall, sneak up and throw hand grenades to kill the Germans. Sometimes the Germans would spot them and cut the ropes killing everyone on them.

The firing continued for more than 24 hours. Roe’s crew could do nothing but sit and wait. After things settled down, he boarded a Higgins boat that took him ashore about 7 p.m. The dead American soldiers were being hauled away as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the Germans left their soldiers. As the Americans walked through the dead bodies, some men looked for keepsakes. The Germans had the best pistol in the world, so everybody wanted one. The Germans used this to their advantage and placed fake guns in their belts with grenades attached. When servicemen tried to take the pistols, they were killed immediately.

“There wasn’t anything they (Germans) didn’t do,” Roe said.

Roe’s crew wasn’t too far from the beach, when they set up their first airfield that night at Sainte-Mere-Eglise.

BATTLE OF THE BULGE
When Roe was in England, Gen. George Patton chose the 36th Fighter Group to support him. They flew the P-47 Thunderbolts. Roe’s job was to pull planes that had mechanical problems off the runway with a Caterpillar.
Patton kept his men on the move by going to a different location every 10 days. The men were divided into two teams that consisted of 38 men and three officers. The teams leapfrogged each other all the way through the war.

Roe’s group was later sent to Battle of the Bulge. Each man carried 50 pounds on their back. Their packs included
a raincoat, overcoat, a change of long johns and a shirt. Just before they got to the Bulge, the men were given a pair of four-buckle over shoes. A lot of men tossed the shoes aside, because they were in the way and they weren’t in snow. Roe kept his. The men who didn’t have them lost feet and toes from frost bite. 

They lived off K-rations, which contained dehydrated food, four cigarettes, four or five pieces of toilet paper and a candy bar. The men would eat the food and chase it with water. About 15 minutes later, the food would swell up in their stomachs and they’d be full. They received a second box to eat later and would stick it on their belly so it wouldn’t freeze.

Roe slept in 4 feet of snow under his raincoat for 10 days. They couldn’t get their planes in or out, because of fog, so they were forced to sit and watch.

“On Christmas morning, that’s when the sun came out for the first time. The sky was black with planes. Boy, there wasn’t much left of the Germans when they got through,” he said. “We just waited until they got the Germans out and then we packed up and moved after Patton.”

For Roe, the Bulge was harder on him than D-Day.

THE TRIP HOME
When the war was over, the men were sent home by points. Roe was one of 100 men loaded onto a Liberty ship. When they were in the Northern Atlantic, they were hit by a huge storm near where the Titanic sank.

The waves went over the top of the ship and the main propeller came off. The ship was guided by only two little ones. That was the scariest moment of Roe’s service.

“Two men got their heads crushed in. They didn’t tie themselves in the bunk,” he said.
They had to stay in their bunks for about 18 hours. This was the closest Roe came to dying.

Finally, the storm died down and they got to see the Statue of Liberty.
Roe served three years, three months and 29 days and was honorably discharged as a corporal.