Bernard T Gaudreau

Bernard T Gaudreau, nicknamed Bernie was an American parachute infantryman part of the 101st Airborne Division during WWII.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX2NG_MvZ5c&list=PLESDfA6xEtiEj21nW_DvD-JOjbgigjQAs&index=8

On June 16 2004, Bernie sat down in the breezeway of his home in Haverhill, MA and recounted his experiences in World War II. Starting with his decision to enlist, through basic training with the elite 101st Airborne; his part in the D-day invasion in which he was wounded in battle; his recovery back in England; rejoining his unit to later jump into Holland where he was once again wounded in battle; to finally recovering and rejoining the "Screaming Eagles" a third time to finish out the war. A truly remarkable story!

Hoops: Good afternoon we are at the home of Bernie Gaudreau in Haverhill Massachusetts the date is June 16 2004. My name is Brad Hoops i'm the interviewer for the Haverhill Oral History Veterans Project good afternoon Mr Goudreau

Gaudreau: Good afternoon

Hoops: Thank you very much uh for uh participating in this project today

Gaudreau: Oh you're welcome

Hoops: Why don't we start out uh with just some uh introductory questions some pre-war

questions uh could you give us uh your date of birth and where you were born

Gaudreau: I was born right in havel on may 31st 1924 and I lived in the same house right up until the time I married and then then I I moved to Bradford which is part of Haverhill and I still live in Bradford I lived in the first house about six years and then I bought this house here which is a single family, the other one was a duplex so I've been quite happy here now we're thinking about selling this house in a year from now. But we're beginning to fix it up like you probably noticed the new driveway out there and we just had a fan installed this morning in the kitchen so it'd make it more attractive to anybody looking at the house.

Hoops: Sure

Gaudreau: As far as my service post I want to say right out that the reason I enlisted I I felt I had something to prove and I tried different things in life, and and in my own eyes I had failed, and so I thought yeah

Hoops: In what way what way do you feel in your own eyes uh

Gaudreau: Well like like I went to uh school up in Passamaquoddy, Maine that my father arranged for me to go to and uh, what it was was it was during the time of NYA, National Youth Administration and a local politician could could recommend you attending, and you could sign up for things like aircraft mechanics and get a trade out of it. I'd had only two years of high school prior to that and that was another thing that I thought I had failed in the pursuit of education in high school because I I felt like I was like a blotter I couldn't absorb any more education and and I quit after the second year of high and I I tried two or three more times and then failed and quit again so and then when I went to this Passamaquoddy, Maine school I got homesick after after about two weeks there I was shipped back on a train all by myself and uh. So by and large I felt pretty much of a failure and I thought I had to prove something so I I picked the Airborne and I figured well that's a good rugged outfit and if I can make it there I could make it anywhere. Hoops: And that's uh, correct me if i'm wrong but that was a volunteer, the, it was a parachute

Gaudreau: It was all volunteer yeah and and when we went in uh we we went to Toccoa, Georgia right from uh Fort Devens, and I took my basic training as a parachute regiment in training. And we weren't assigned towards the division until we get overseas in England at which time we joined the 101st Airborne before they saw their first combat um but let's see now uh uh help me a little bit quick.

Hoops: Yeah well let's uh let's back up just a little uh a little bit.

Gaudreau: Okay

Hoops: What uh you felt like you had something to prove, was this right uh after Pearl Harbor had been bombed or had you joined prior to that?

Gaudreau: No no I think it was more for selfish reasons more for just self-improvement and and I felt well this is something if I could do this I'll prove to myself I'm not a total failure.

Hoops: I'll be damned, and was this had you joined uh prior to the war breaking out or had the war uh broken out?

Gaudreau: Oh the war had broken out because I joined one year after Pearl Harbor day. I was in the special contingent, they saved their enlistments and they had about 40 of us leave Havel at the same time, for on December 7th 1943, which was one year after Pearl Harbor.

Hoops: 42 would have been 40, uh Pearl Harbor was 41.

Gaudreau: Pearl, well it was 42. I'm sorry yeah. Well any anyhow uh as I said I I felt I was a failure beforehand so I I really was important to me to prove myself and it turned out it was very good because after I after my service which is jumping a little bit but after my service I came back home and I felt I could do anything and I joined Western Electric and I started at the lowest paying job but I ended up as a supervisor.

Hoops: Oh wonderful, what a wonderful story

Gaudreau: And I felt I felt I had my future in my own hands. And uh I felt you know that it was a

good decision going in the Airborne.

Hoops: Yeah

Gaudreau: Because I get down to camp Toccoa, Georgia, and they gave us a rugged basic training and those that washed out went to regular inventory. At one time they used to court martial if they if they couldn't uh jump out of a plane but before we got to that stage if they couldn't jump out of a plane, but before we got to that stage, if they couldn't keep up with the physical training, they washed them out and send them to regular infantry oror anything they might be suited for in the service. And uh so let's see now I I don't want to spoil my train of thought.

Hoops: Okay

Gaudreau: So we went through the basic training then we went to Fort Benning, Georgia for our parachute training, and that was about four weeks and we got five parachute jumps in which we packed our own parachutes for and this was to give us more confidence that they were going to open up. So uh a lot of the reason I went into that value there and told you about why for self-improvement reasons I wanted to join Airborne. Uh well the reason was that I felt it did help me tremendously in later life and I found the training very tough but not too tough for me and it's a funny thing when I was a kid uh the doctor come to our house and he's got pneumatic fever leaking valves of the heart and he I don't want him climbing any stairs more than necessary and he shouldn't engage in any sports so I was relegated to becoming a bookworm very rather fast my father would come home from dinner and see me playing tag rush in the neighborhood in the field, and he'd stop his car and get me and get me home and read the book again. And so uh it poured out, the doctor knew what he was doing even though they didn't have the test in those days like you kind of remember, I was about 10 years old and uh, let's see about 10 years old and I forget what I was going to go to say I guess. But then anyway anyway I became a bookworm but when I joined Paratroops I I didn't tell them that I had any history of Cardioman, otherwise they never would have taken me I thought, even in the service.

Hoops: Were you concerned about that knowing how vigorous and tough the training was, were you concerned about your health at all?

Gaudreau: No, no I wasn't concerned because I thought, the doctor had said that I might outgrow it and I felt that that I had outgrown it whatever the problem was, and I guess it was true because I kept up with a very tough physical training in Airborne basic training they used to have us getting full field equipment and and run up the side of the mountain and down again as part of our basic training .

Hoops: You remember the name of that mountain?

Gaudreau: Yeah it was Mount Taccoa that's right and it was in Taccoa, Georgia and uh the whole regiment did it, and then we lost some people on the runs and I can remember the lieutenant going to one that was down and turning him over with the toe of his shoe to make sure he wasn't faking and then he'd be shipped out. But but it was tough and but uh but I felt pride and I rejoined it. Uh so then then then we I I stayed on after my parachute training, I stayed on at Fort Benning because I I was going into a specialty, and my specialty was radio operator.

Hoops: Were now were you given that choice or were you told

Gaudreau: I was given that choice

Hoops: Okay, okay

Gaudreau: And then but it was based on an uh entrance exams that I had taken and I I showed I was adaptable to learning the morse code and so what. But but it turned out the radio operator the radio that I was going to operate was only a platoon radio and it was a walkie-talkie type. We parachuted down with it, strapped to our leg and and then we were in to in touch with our company commander and and for the platoon uh business. So everything worked according to the way where it was supposed to. And uh I I did I stayed the four weeks then I rejoined my regiment Camp Mackall, North Carolina, and uh that's where they were taking further training until we were told in late 43, see I listed in 42, we were told in late 43 we were going overseas and chances are we'd be attacking the germans to to change the course of the war. And uh so after we got overseas I can remember running and the roads had thatched roofs on the houses and we'd run by and would be counting cadence one thing or another as a as a unit and I often wondered what those people must have thought, you know and uh any anyway. Uh let's see we we uh, to get on to D-Day uh we were assigned to the 101st Airborne Division before we even thought about going over to Europe and uh the closest i'd come to the water at that point was buzzbombs were traveling over our heads when we were in our mess-kit line in the morning and they were heading for London.

Hoops: This was in England okay uh-huh.

Gaudreau: They were heading for London you know buzzbomb for those of you that might not know it it makes a noise like vroom, vroom and you never know where it's going to come down except when it runs out of fuel it comes down at that point so the germans had programmed them to have enough fuel to get to London and take out a certain area.

Hoops: How far out of London were you do you remember?

Gaudreau: We were about 35 miles were in a little town called Newbury in Berkshire county and and and we we went to an aircra- airport near there when we jumped overseas. And uh well that just about brings me up to the time that we did jump overseas.

Hoops: Could, can I back up real quick before we continue

Gaudreau: Sure

Hoops: I I don't want to ruin your train of thought but just tonight just to get a general idea of uh prior to that uh you know you went into the airborne uh to jump out of airplanes, had you even ever been in an airplane prior to that?

Gaudreau: No i've never been in and I I

Hoops: What was it like to jump out of a plane for the first time?

Gaudreau:

Well i'll tell you the first few times it was exciting like going on an amusement ride that was beyond your ability to take and but after that you became a little bit nervous about the jumps because you saw that in spite of your training you still could get hurt. You can oscillate underneath your chute as you're coming down and have the wind just take you up and put you down on your back on the ground and you, ploop, land on a rock. And I saw what good people were getting hurt and well-trained people were getting hurt so that made me a little bit leery uh about about this parachute jumping but I I I stuck with it and I got 18 jumps and approximately before I went over to to France and and that was we made two combat jumps the first one was normandy and we went in first of all let me say going going over the English Channel it was like looking down and seeing all the ships. It was almost like from shore to shore you could walk on board the ships there were so many.

Hoops: It must have been an impressive site.

Gaudreau: It was it was very impressive and uh I've heard it described as the biggest amount of minimum material and ships that was ever assimilated for one endeavor of any war and probably would be the biggest one in the future too because we went to the atomic bomb as you know and that eliminated the need for a heavy engagement uh invasion forces. So anyway anyway uh we we pair we we implaned about say quarter of a 10 a little before 10 o'clock in the evening and then we flew around out over the English Channel and formed up so we were in the formation that they wanted.

Hoops: Yeah how prior upon taking off how how much sooner before then had you got your orders and knew exactly what what was going to happen where you were going what uh

Gaudreau: Well while we were at the airport we we were at the airport for two or three days and they had sand tables laid out and they showed us the topography of the area that we're going to jump in and where we were uh committed to stopping the germans from reinforcing down in the invasion beaches then we were going to jump about four or five miles inland. And the way it worked out we did and when we first landed a lot of the planes were detour toured off their plan and uh we were dropped mixed up with with other regiments from a division nobody in the stick I was in was was in the same field I was it was quite a mix-up and uh.

Hoops: Can you tell me a little bit about what uh what your feelings were were like uh on the on the plane right over and what your fellow soldiers were what you were.

Gaudreau: Well the plane ride over first I was awestruck at the number of ships underneath on the ocean going over and I felt I felt good about it because I felt Well they're putting a lot of effort into this and so i'm sure i'm sure we're going to have a good outcome and uh, let's see now, well anyway if I can continue on.

Hoops: Sure certainly yeah

Gaudreau: We we uh we parachuted down and there was nobody around in the field I landed in. And but I I met five or six people but none of them were from my regiment as soon as I went to the edge of the field which was encompassed by hedgerows, and the hedgerows as I couldn't describe it there's a built up area with trees on the circumference instead of the rock formations that you see in New England it was trees and it was an obstacle even tanks couldn't get through too well they tell me that some of our tank men, uh not necessarily Airborne tanks but uh regular tanks they they found that when they got to the hedgerow country that they if they put a pair of like steel labs like forklift trucks they could take out these trees a lot better than if they just tried to run over them they'd get with their belly showing and they'd be more volatile.

Hoops: Weakest part of the tank is the belly right, yeah

Gaudreau: Yeah. So uh so we have these little clickers uh, for a password we're supposed to click them once and of course you you press it you gotta release it so it ends up with two clicks and uh the the party that you're checking for him to acknowledge the password he has to give you two clicks back and uh we used that I understand some some Airborne didn't I heard that after that they they didn't use them because they thought the germans were wise to them but I think it was a good good password and uh I mean I remember when there were five or six of us joined all from different regiments uh we joined together if there was an officer or non-com, he became the leader of the group. And uh I can remember some some men running down the road opposite of hedgerow, and they were definitely germans they were running in formation and you could hear their boots strike the earth, and we didn't let we didn't give them the two clicks at all because we didn't want to reveal our position to them and uh we were just glad they ran on by. So that then we we we went in about four hours before the seaborne troops went in and uh about four hours after we started collecting the six well I got back with my regiment again and we started in one of the towns that uh that was on our list for for uh cleansing and curing it so to speak. And uh we we found that uh oh let's see now, I'm sorry for this lapse.

Hoops: That's that's fine no problem yeah.

Gaudreau: Well anyway anyway uh I got wounded in this first town and and we we've gone down one side of the village, it was a little country town, and there was homes and then there was right across the way was the fire and so forth, and we'd gone down the end of one street and toward the center was fields and I think the germans were there and uh, I'm sorry.

Hoops: That's okay

Gaudreau:

And uh we uh we we we were starting back from the end of the street and I got shot through the left arm it was an explosive bullet which was outlawed by Geneva Convention rules but somebody had used their spare time to file the tip of a bullet I have the bullet here and two pieces of shrapnel that I get hit with later in holland and i'd like to show them to y'all so remind me i'll have my wife get them out here here they were in the picture that you read on page three or the powder I was holding it in the palm of my hand they took a picture of the the hardware that I got hit with. So anyway,

Hoops: What did that feel like was it, what does it feel like to be shot in the neck.

Gaudreau: It felt like somebody had hit me with the side of the shovel and knocked me down but but it wasn't a whole lot of pain because the shock of being hit and wounded,

Hoops: And the adrenaline rushing

Gaudreau: Uh compensates for the pain somehow I don't know what the answer what the explanation is but I I've always heard that sometimes when a fellow has a grievous wound he doesn't feel as much pain as you'd think he would because because of the certain amount of shock that sets in and kind of takes care of the pain. Uh so anyway we oh I I motioned like this [pointing his right index finger to the left] where I thought the shots were coming from because after I fell there was a wall on one side of me and they put two more shots near my head and spat it against the wall so I I motioned like this [same hand gesture] to the two fellows I was with in the direction the shots were coming from and they stuck their rifles around the corner and just fired random in that direction and when they did I get up and I ran to the cover of the nearest barn that the the two two fellows who had fallen behind. So then we went up the street and we at the heads of the company street, uh the head of the town's main street where where we had set up company headquarters it was kind of like behind a hedgerow uh that's where the wounded was being taken and as well as german wounded that were taken and we we waited for uh seaborne troops to come up to us to take us back to England and uh the first one I saw incidentally was a black man he was driving the truck that come up to take us back and at that time the blacks were relegated to right mostly driving jobs and things like that

Hoops: Segregated from the army weren't they

Gaudreau: They weren't in combat units

Hoops: Yeah, yeah

Gaudreau: But uh I appreciated what this fellow did

Hoops: Yeah

Gaudreau: Even though he only drove a truck

Hoops: Yeah

Gaudreau: And and took me back and one odd thing when when I was in the truck, they put me aside this young german soldier, and um his his arm was hanging by shreds and and I I I was to hold his arm steady from the motion of the truck so he wouldn't be just too much I thought was a little bit incongruous because uh you know half hour earlier we're trying to kill each other now i'm trying to help him yeah but we became two human beings right and both be too young to be doing what we're doing because I i just turned 21 the week before I parachuted in the normandy and and he was not even as old as myself. Uh or another thing when would I forgot to mention it but when we were flying over looking for a drop zone, a lot of the planes were being shot down and I saw at least one go down close to us and I learned afterwards that the plane that I was supposed to have been on and moved the last minute so I could be with my uh lieutenant and be his communication, being a radio operator, the other plane went down with everybody on board and nobody got out alive, and I had been bunkmates with these people for all the time we were in England, so that was tough to take, learning I didn't know at the time that they would they were the ones shot down but I learned after they were one of the planes that went down and nobody got out. So anyway, uh I went to went to England and uh they they they put us on board a ship and they put the germans down in the belly of the ship with a hull to the ship and we were on an upper deck and uh I heard one shot ring out I figured after it must have been some german trying to act up or escape or something, but I never did find out what it was i just assumed I wouldn't be told anyway so

Hoops: Yeah, yeah

Gaudreau: So uh after we I went to England they took out the the bullet and and I I had a certain amount of time that I had to recuperate in the hospital and I was given a leave to go to I I decided to go to Ireland, and I went to Belfast, and an interesting thing which most people don't know is the southern island was taboo for any Americans to go down there because because you couldn't go to Dublin for instance because they knew the germans were refueling their submarines in Southern Ireland really and that's not common knowledge I don't know why it was held back but probably it would have raised too much hell telling the people about it at the time because every town they go in that's a lot of Irish I half Irish myself yeah and and I would have resented maybe hearing that but it was true we couldn't go down there because of this german usage to refuel the U-Boats and the U-Boats was prying on troop ships and they were running floated so uh.

Hoops: How long were you in recovery? how long did it take you to recover from your wounds?

Gaudreau: It took me about uh only about two months and then then I was about two weeks uh see no bones were hit fortunately it was all flesh wounds and what the bullet did was it it went right through my left arm up here you can see the it looks like a vaccination but it exited the other side then it went into a backpack I was carrying I was running at the time and so it was about an inch away from my heart and when it went in my backpack it turned around on a lighter fuel bottle I think that I had in there because they took it right out from this armpit so it re-entered my back to at the gas that it made going going through the arm and to this day I still have small pieces of metal in the in the blackwound and and that then I went I went in this I went uh to in the veterans hospital in west Roxbury to have it analyzed uh a year or so after I was out of the service and they told me that I went in there because I had scar a lot of scar tissue in the wound and that was causing me discomfort when I take my bus home from from working at Lawrence and they told me they couldn't remove all of it because they would have done more harm than good by trying to get all they left very very small maybe size of pepper you know pieces of metal in me and to this day i can't have a certain type of MRIs I guess you call them because anybody with metal in their body can't go through the procedure so so that that has been always been a factor in in any medical exams that I've had and i've had a few because I had a artery replacement triple triple artery replacement in my chest and I remember they couldn't they couldn't do that so to get back to where I was at, uh oh yeah I went to Ireland and uh it was it was funny we we got a couple of girls up there and I must have been another American at the time and uh they were talking about being in the Saint Patrick's day parade and having their rosary beads out, and uh they were kind of chastised for that but we're walking in the crate with the rosary beads. So uh any anyway we we I I I went through all that and uh I probably could have come home but when I I wanted I was young I was young and I wanted to uh stay with my outfit that I've trained with.

Hoops: Was it once again because just did you feel like you still had things to prove to yourself or you confident yourself or was it just being the commanderie?

Gaudreau: Yes it's the camaraderie I think that I had with the fellows of the group I'd been with them so long and everything and I felt I'd wanted to see the war through with them and I felt they had made good progress since uh since I was hurt but uh

Hoops: Were you able to keep in touch with them while you're hurt and find out what their progress and how they were doing.

Gaudreau: Well the only way I kept in touch was reading the stars and stripes and uh a little later on I'll get to that, I went to Ireland on on leave for four or five days and then I rejoined my outfit oh yeah and I parachuted in the normandy regular regular combat duty uh but that's what I mean by being young enough that you're resilient enough that they wanted my type to be in there yeah and uh we parachuted into normandy and it was a 50-mile allied corridor that we jumped up through Belgium.

Hoops: Normand or Holland?

Gaudreau: Well between France and and Holland

Hoops: Oh okay

Gaudreau: It was a 50-mile corridor that we, Canadian Airborne, the English Airborne and so forth. Uh and anybody that was trained Free French Airborne uh we made a 50-mile corridor and then troops could move up the corridor and go into Germany and they made a movie out of that a Bridge too Far and uh I think the English had jumped at the far north end of it and they jumped the bridge too far they were in this town they were they had a water that was keeping them from where they would have been safer the water of the river I think. Any anyway in Holland I was I was unfortunate enough to I was fortunate enough to last a couple of months a couple of months before I was wounded whereas Normandy I was wounded the first day this time I last about two months then we were in the in a farmhouse and I was with a lieutenant and a few other non-commissioned officers were there and an 88 millimeter mortar comes right through the roof uh it put the lieutenant on on out of commission as well as myself I got that [points down] and I had the right clavicle bone broken my shoulder by another piece of shrapnel and they carried a seat chart [?] on doors and put us on a Jeep and get get us to hospitals staying within the American lines but a funny coincidence was uh when just prior to being wounded the lieutenant got us all together as best he could under combat conditions and he said "Look," he says "you people are looking pretty seedy you've been here a couple of months and you've you've all have beards and" he says "I want you to shape up, look like soldiers and by tomorrow's inspection" and he says "the comical power" he says "and you too Gaudreau for morale purposes" because I didn't have any beard I was too young but but I accepted it and and I always thought it was funny afterwards you know he says "you two could do it for morale purposes." so anyway uh oh one after being wounded in Holland I we were close to close to Belgium and and they they put me in Liège, Belgium in a hospital here on as part of my evacuating church into England and uh while I was there it got hit by a buzz bomb which was very unusual for about the bombs to hit in that area but I could hear the people outside and they evidently wore cobblest uh wore shoes wooden shoes on cobblestone up there and this was Belgium though this was Liège uh not Holland but I could hear their feet running and I could hear them I could hear this vroom vroom and then nothing and then I heard people screaming running for cover.

Hoops: You knew the sound from the from England from your previous experience?

Gaudreau: Right but I I couldn't get out of my bed i wanted to get under my bed for cover and and I was on about the fourth floor and I I couldn't because I had an ace bandage around my uh shoulders uh a figure eight bandage rather around my shoulders and and my leg was in the cast even though it hadn't been operated on yet to keep me from moving it or it was well bandaged and uh so all I could do was put the blankets over my face and and say a few prayers i'd be all right and again I guess I said the right prayers because all I got was little bits of glass in my ear it blew out all the windows in the building and there was a door with the foot in my hospital bed it was blown off the hinges right across my bed and uh the concussion did this you know so first thing I know a nurse was coming through and she had a little blood running down shaking she was wondering if you were okay taking the check and as to who was hurt and who wasn't and I I I all I had was little fragrance of glass in my hair so I was lucky again so that was about it and uh after after that then I really could have gone home but but again I wanted to stay with my office because

Hoops: For a third time

Gaudreau: For a third time because by then the Germans were on the run and we were fighting in Germany for it for a change and so it ended up my units were sent to Berchtesgaden which was the summer Hitler home Hitler summer home and uh it was kind of in conquest that they were sent there because the Eagle's Nest it was called by and my Division was called the Screaming Eagle division so uh I rejoined them in Austria it wasn't right at Berchtesgaden but it was nearby Berchtesgaden and I rejoined them there and uh again I I wasn't put on limited duty uh even though i'd broken the shoulder and had the knee wound they were all fixed and I got I still got the shrapnel from it uh but I I didn't want to go home in that fashion.

Hoops: Yeah

Gaudreau: And and I felt well if we're lucky it might not be any more fighting because it wouldn't look like the Germans were really on the run by by November of 45 there were 44 I think it was when I was wounded. So um so anyway I rejoined them and fortunately the war ended in I think it was May of 45 and we were sent home by point accumulation which had to do with how many months overseas you were and so forth and so on as opposed to I thought division at a time would be sent home some of those division members had only been with us a month or so and others like myself had been with them from the first combat that they saw.

Hoops: Would you get additional points for injury did that help

Gaudreau: I don't know I don't know if you did or not but it may figuring just of figuring because I went home ahead of a lot of the people in my division and it was strictly based on my points and I know the points primarily was by how many months you'd been overseas already and I had I was wearing three six-month ash marks which indicated a year and a half overseas so oh I still have my Eisenhower Jacket i'd like to show it to you after it has my all all the ribbons on it and so forth and parachute wings it's quite quite nice nice thing I'll ask my wife excuse me can I ask her to get this for ya.

Hoops: Well actually what we'll finish the interview, I'd like to do then after the interview is i'll take the camera I'd like to see your shrapnel and your and and possibly a portrait of yourself and uh we'll figure out all that.

Gaudreau: Yeah like on the Eisenhower Jacket and I got in one arm and I had an American flag on the screen door and the girl took my picture that's why you saw it with a flag background

Hoops: Yeah

Gaudreau: Uh so so that that was about it was my service

Hoops: What uh if you remember uh from the the group that you went over with or trained with to the group that you came home from the war with how many were left uh in your unit from

Gaudreau: Uh well actually actually I I I was segregated one of the yearly ones out because most of the colors I trained with we even killed a wound so badly they was some home already and uh I would say I would say that they must have had better than 100 percent turnover of people there's very few even my company commander he was killed there's very few that uh were living by that stage I was one of the lucky ones. There might have been a few non-comms but they evidently didn't didn't have the points I had because I think I was one of the early ones sent out sent home.

Hoops:

Do you remember remember the day that you heard that Germany had surrendered and what everybody was thinking how you felt that well it's a relief?

Gaudreau: Well it was around the middle of May I think but uh what impressed me was there's a lot of people that thought it was too bad that Roosevelt had died about two or three weeks earlier and it was in prayer I was in France at the time and and uh they thought that was too bad because he he had been instrumental in most of the activity during the war and then he he had to die just just before uh in other words he couldn't see the benefit of all of the activities that he had made all plans that he had made he he was the one that went to Yalta and different places for agreements with Stalin and Churchill and really got things going in fact I can remember when before we parachuted into normandy he visited he visited the airport we were at and we were just hunkered down and hoops waiting waiting to be told to get in the plane and uh he was talking across the way i could see him talking with some of the Airborne troopers and we would we have so much equipment on us that for us to uh get up from a sitting position we had to have help and somebody else because because our rifle was across all our other equipment plus I had this radio on my leg I had a combat knife on the other leg and I had bandoliers of ammunition around my chest and then I had not only my back parachute on but a a reserved parachute up front that I wore up front and I remember being on the hot talker and I don't know if I get nervous or what but my parachute uh the reserve shoot that wasn't supposed to be used unless unless your main one didn't open it spilled out on me right on the hot tub and my lieutenant uh said "here take mine" and he made me take his and he had no parrot no reserved parachute but I later learned that a lot of the Airborne troopers in the 82nd they they discarded their reserves anyway because there wouldn't be time for them to open if the main one didn't they jumped in 400 feet did something something like that and it was designed so that parachutes would just be open break the descent of their ball and they hit the ground and go with it and uh so so they they knew if if the reserve was needed you wouldn't have time to get it out anyway so in fact uh Americans evidently thought more of the lives of the Germans because they they they parachuted with only one parachute on them to begin with they never used reserve shutes and so I I think it was a case of dollars and cents.

Hoops: Wow, wow, so the the war ended in May of 45 how much longer than before there was over before you actually were shipped home do you remember?

Gaudreau: Oh yeah actually I got home around early December and I went back to uh uh Camp Myles Standish I think it was it was a Massachusetts uh camp down the cape or something and uh I I was discharged on December 3rd 1945 so...

Hoops: It was six seven seven months later.

Gaudreau: Yeah actually I was in in I went in December uh 7th 1942 which was the year from Pearl Harbor date and I come out December 3rd 1945 so it was just short of three years that I spent my service

Hoops: How many times in that three year period were you able to come actually come home had you been home? So basically you hadn't been home for

Gaudreau: Uh no I hadn't no so once i've been home yeah once i've been home after basic training I was allowed to go home and then after I got my parachute wings because I that's when I started smoking I was on the train I was bored to death and I see different people lighting up so I I lit up and then the next 50 years i've been buying cigarettes but I gave it up back around 1940. let's see I gave it up, I don't know about a year before I I I uh retired uh I was 61. I gave it up because I felt like I wanted to get out in good health I better quit smoking.

So that's what I did

Hoops: Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the feeling like uh you know being away from home for three years in very tough conditions to come home and see your family uh say sleep in your own bed a nice home-cooked meal from mom what was you remember coming home did they...?

Gaudreau: It was a good feeling it was a good feeling to be back with family again and uh I remember my father when I was in the service he thought I was gonna going in the coast artillery and he thought well that's good he'll be safe he'll be riding up and down the coast and then he gets a letter from me and my sister is reading it to him and it says I was under going Airborne training so he said what he was a little bit amazed at that but uh oh incidentally uh one thing that helped me a little bit at times we had from our family there was somebody in every branch of the service that there was we were like the Sullivans out in Boston there where they had them all in the same outfit except we were spread out I was an airborne I had a brother that became a Marine pilot visit Corpus ChristI Texas. And uh then I had a my oldest brother was in submarines he was in Pearl Harbor as a home base and my sister Eyleen she was the second about the second oldest in the family she was a navy nurse and then I had my brother Russell and my stepfather Kenny were in the navy and coast guard so every branch of the service had somebody in there oh I had another brother that was I didn't mention he was in the Army but but it was more after the war than before but he was still probably drafted.

Hoops: Did your parents ever talk about uh feelings I mean having all all you the service and particularly you and very uh

Gaudreau: Well I know I know it bothered my father a lot because my youngest brother see we were a large family we were seven boys and two girls that grew up and then in addition my father married again after my mother died and he took on a widow that had three children and then they had a baby since so that's why he he went down on the draft board and when they were thinking my half brother was was going to be drafted and and he appealed for them to get him home because he had so many in the service already and then they uh they saw the reason for all this sort of this request and they they give them a draft equipment and he never served and he was just glad I guess but he thought he was missing out on something but but it was a reasonable request for him I don't know certainly yes because he was running a business he ran him he had a couple of barber shops one in Havel and then he had one down Hampton Beach and there was three or four barbers working down there my brother was a marine pilot he went through he became a doctor after the war he went to toughs medical and he also went to DC four years and he did it on the GI bill I never took advantage of the GI bill I but I did go back to cable high and I I got my equivalency certificate from high school but it wasn't under the GI bill it was something on my own while I was working so I guess that's about it what uh.

Hoops: What uh and and and we'll we'll finish up here

Gaudreau: I want to show you my uh

Hoops: Certainly I wanna

Gaudreau: My jacket my Eisenhower Jacket

Hoops: I certainly want to see that

Gaudreau: And and the material I was hit with that I took home as soon as what was your question?

Hoops: I was just going to ask uh you know after the war uh you came back uh went to work for General Electric married had children

Gaudreau: Western Electric

Hoops: Western Electric I'm sorry

Gaudreau: Yeah and I became a supervisor after about 10 years and then I worked 10 years as a supervisor and then I got caught in a down sweep

Hoops: Yeah

Gaudreau: Of people and I had to give up my supervisor but but I I had I had a grade that was ungraded it was almost as good the pay was just good and I just didn't have the responsibility yes yeah so that was good

Hoops: And married in uh had children?

Gaudreau: Oh yeah married and had three children uh the thing of it is in when I get married in 47 uh before then I I had gone through and gotten a pension from from the government from my war wounds and they never knew I got married and I never thought to tell them and so they never knew I had three kids and just recently I went in and I told them it's been about 50 years i'd like you to reevaluate my pensions here I shouldn't be getting more perhaps and they ended up they they increased my almost 100 percent with my pension and then they they said because I'm married and and got a wife now they they give me 63 dollars a month for her as part of the allowance and that never takes into uh consideration the fact that we had three kids between us who would have more dependence if I do enough to ask them beforehand to re-evaluate my pension you know but but they they were free and they dated it back to the time of my request uh and they gave me uh retroactive money so I felt water used

Hoops: Well in closing really I, one question I like to always ask well two questions one was uh how do you feel like that the war changed you I know you said that uh you went in to prove something of yourself hopefully you did that

Gaudreau: It gave me a lot of confidence yeah and and I felt anything I turned my mind to I could do as well as the next guy and uh I think it served me in good stead from that angle

Hoops: Yeah what uh in closing is there anything that uh I didn't bring up that you'd like to talk about or do you have a closing comment or a thought that you'd like to end the interview with

Gaudreau: No uh no I I the only thing I want to say is, I think in the fact that I was taken from Havel at an early age and I saw something in the world I I feel indebted to the service

Hoops: Oh right I think it should be the way around I think we should as a nation be indebted to you well I certainly thank you for your service yeah well

Gaudreau: Thank you

Hoops: Thank you for the interview uh and once again thank you very much for your your service

Gaudreau: I'm sorry I got a little emotional yeah you know I think of these fellows that were lost

Hoops: Yeah that's understandable sir

Gaudreau: Yeah okay okay why don't we uh shut off uh we'll get the camera and I'd like to take a look at your your jacket

Hoops: Okay I'll get out my Eisenhower Jacket

Gaudreau: We wore an Eagle patch on the left shoulder this is the rank I held in the in the service technician fifth grade I call it this this is the Army rifleman combat badge this is the purple heart with clusters I earned and this is the European theater of operation has some stars in there for the stars we see a lot of these are awards like this here in Belgium tours here that was a divisional award so I get to wear it and and these stars in here it's through the European Theater of operation and combat that we saw but I didn't see all the combat I only saw Normandy and Holland of course there's very few in the Division saw all of them and up top here is a parachute wings with two stars on it which indicate we had two combat jumps I had two combat jumps that's all the division had anyway. So that's about it and this this is uh they call it uh I feel what we call the ruptured goose or something like that and everybody that was discharged got one of the ruptured duck. Uh and we've got one of these and they wouldn't take any money from us when we went to travel to go home we were in this patch or like I went down South and visiting the girls that I had in North Carolina and I didn't pay anything I stopped to see my sister in Bethesda Maryland at the time this must be a presidential citation with a cluster because we got it for Normandy and we got it for uh Bastogne, Belgium that that's what this Belgian Fourragère was from from the division being at Bastogne, Belgium.

Wife: Your body Bernie

Gaudreau: Oh yeah

Wife: this is another button

Gaudreau: These are the two pieces of shrapnel and I had them in my hand for the the filming. These two pieces of the shrapnel that was in my body the smaller one in my left knee and the larger piece broke my right shoulder a clavicle bone and this this was the explosive bullet that was they took out from my left armpit and an interesting thing on any of these if you if you were to look at it under the magnifying glass you can still see the underwear I was wearing and the the blood stained clothing was taken from the time

Hoops: And I didn't uh record this is your purple heart here

Gaudreau: Yeah this is the purple heart the metal itself and one of these is a good conductor I'm not a good conduct but that that might be good conduct the other one is bronze star or one is bronze star so I get mixed up what you switch but the bronze star is something like the purple heart but again it was a divisional award so it wasn't for me as an individual it was for the division the combat outfit that we wore into combat and it has baggy pockets the Germans had a name for this outfit they called us the devils and baggy pants because they had baggy pockets on the side that we carried munitions in and I I I haven't really had my picture taken in this uh as opposed to my Eisenhower Jacket

Hoops: How old were you in this picture

Gaudreau: Oh I must have been about 20 years old it was before I went overseas so it was I I was not 19 or 20.

Hoops: Get this picture to me

Gaudreau: Uh this is a dress uniform it has an Eisenhower Jacket with all the insignia I'm entitled to wear and I the insignia today shows a little more because it's a culmination of all my time in the service show stars on the parachute wings to show I have two combat jumps and uh shows a purple heart with with one cluster there's no purple heart there so this must have been taken right after my basic training before I went overseas.

Adulthood

Since it was said in his interview that he was at Camps Toccoa and Mackall, and Fort Benning, it is assumed that he was part of the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Bibliography

Gaudreau, Bernie (16 June 2004). "Bernie Gaudreau - His Full Interview (World War II)" (Interview). Interviewed by Brad Hoops.

https://dp.la/item/4bc1175fef0699a2f028abd633a10f78

Gaudreau, Bernard. "World War II Army Enlistment Records". Access to Archival Databases, National Archives.

"Bernard Gaudreau, Army veteran; 83". Boston.com. 24 June 2007. Retrieved 29 November 2022.

"Eleanor D. Gaudreau January 10, 1925 - May 16, 2019". The Haverhill Gazette.

"Bernard T. Gaudreau". Boston Herald. 21 June 2007.

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/202731354/

http://www.afgs.org/olb/obits/Obits_Vol_142-B.pdf

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/42392474/obituary-for-bernard-t-gaudreau-aged/

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