Felix Sparks, commander of the US Army, world war two survivor testimony summary

 

Felix Sparks from Arizona, united states of America. Son of a miner who lost his work before I finished junior high school. The major depression of the economy changed the future prospects. Joining the army 1936, nineteen years old. Stationed at Pearl Harbor and promoted rapidly to an officer, assisting the platoon leader of forty men. 1940 after the attack on Pearl Harbor the general mobilization started. Promoted to captain, commanding 200 men. June 1943 deployed overseas into world war two. To make a practice landing campaign in North Africa, practicing for the invasion of Sicily. July we landed in Sicily, it took thirty days to clear it of the German troops. A very bloody operation with the Germans pulling out of Sicily and Italy. South of Naples the Germans were waiting for us, we lost a lot of men fighting for a full week attempting to establish a breach, then pursued the Germans through the hole. Germans retreated to a defensive position which we were not able to penetrate for six months, until May 1944. German infantry had a tough defensive line thirty miles south of Rome. We sat there trying until we had built up enough strength to find a crack. Our division with three others had the task to make the landing at Rome but we couldn’t take Rome for several months. Artillery is the biggest casualty producing agent because the shell fragments hitting everyone in the blast radius. A shell can kill ten but a rifle kills one at a time. 75% of our casualties and German casualties were inflicted from shells. We took German prisoners in Sicily, Italy. Bogged down there for four months we lost more than 100% of our regiment strength which means new replacement come all the time. Finally May the break out took Rome and our division was pulled out to Naples for preparing the invasion of south France. Twenty-seven years old on the shore of south France, My job was to get ashore ten minutes after the first wave of Operation Neptune, rapidly as possible to get control of our units and determine how to assault the German position so that the tanks can get ashore ten minutes after each hour. In south France the Germans had pulled back troops and were under-manned. We had 5% casualties, a smashing success. We drove along rapidly capturing thousands and thousands of German troops that we cut off. We shuttled them to the rear. When we reached the lower Alps mountain’s at the border of France and Germany the defenses became tough. From now on heavy casualties on both sides. Very bitter, very expensive. 100 miles into the mountains, heavily timbered, German fortified position. It would take me all day to take a mountain top, the next day I have to do the same thing in the next mountain. Battling with few replacements, stretched thin with no relief. The battle in the north of France was becoming expensive. Christmas 1944 I crashed into Germany. Then came the battle of the bulge. The Germans made a desperate attempt to break through our troops in Belgium, we had to pull some of our out and send north to reinforce them. We were stripped of troops. I was made of an attack they named operation north wind. Meanwhile the Germans attacked our division in the mountains and pushed it back ten miles. I went back to our regiment, we withdrew and hit the German penetration head on. We were half strength. The Germans did not gain another inch but we paid for it. In our regiment we lost five full companies. In each regiment is nine companies, we lost five companies in that battle along with elements of others. We paid very dearly. I lost all three of rifle companies, I had 200 left from 1,000. I was in my darkest moments because I lost a lot of good men. They were not weak men. March 1945 at the edge of Germany the Allied armies made a major push and we keep moving keep moving keep moving. Don’t let the Germans get reformed, reorganized. 24 hours a day, searchlights at night, tremendously exhausting, bitter battles, taking heavy casualties. I crashed through the Rhine river using bridges furnished by the Army Corps of Engineers. Driving and driving into Germany. On a tributary of the Rhine a group of Germans defending a city. We took heavy casualties but nothing like the Germans. You can’t use artillery to amount to anything in a city, you have to go in by hand. Germans made another stand at Nuremberg, we captured several thousand outside the city. Germans were regrouping near Munich. I was designated as task force commander of a Battalion of 54 tanks, artillery batteries, engineers to proceed rapidly as possible to Munich bypassing all opposition. Opposition would be cleaned up by following forces, I was to barrel into Munich without stopping. I divided into two prongs and we smashed. Such tremendous fire power. 28 April thirty miles from Munich I got radio You are to proceed immediately to capture the concentration camp at Dachau. Upon securing that camp you are not to allow anyone in or out. A company deploy to the left of the gate and we ran into a railway train, a spur line from the city into the concentration camp with 39 passenger box cars. Each car was filled with human bodies, thousands, horribly emaciated. I could see that my men were getting very angry. We were hardened combat veterans, in combat almost two years. Our unit spent more time in combat than any other division. Death was a constant companion of ours. Our men got furious and some broke down crying. We followed the track into the camp, fanned out, two lead platoons in skirmish formation. Lead scouts forward, we climbed the masonry wall. My men found fifty German soldiers and lined them against the wall. When my back was turned I heard the machine gun go off. He said, they were trying to get away. Suddenly the whole place erupted, thousands of prisoners tossing bodies in their outstretched hands, tearing at them with their hands. We kept the prisoners in, that was the mission.