The Travels of Uncle Bill Spratt

By William Spratt

A story told by Sargeant William Spratt about his experience being the main body gaurd for General Hodges and many other Generals. He was the WWII driver of General Hodges, General Patton and at times Eisenhower. This biography follows his life during his army career and life after the war. This book is a

• Language: English
• Publisher: the kdp publisher
• Release date: Mar 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869323125

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The Travels of Uncle Bill Spratt

William Spratt

Copyright © 2023

All Rights Reserved

Dedication

To the men and women who fought and served for our country. Those who never were able to tell their stories to be preserved and part of this country's history.

Acknowledgment

William A Thompson, the nephew of William Spratt

Is the first to be thanked. He spent hours listening to Uncle Bill's Diaries on cassette tape and transcribing them into our family book. Phil Thompson, for your contribution, your input, your photos, and your support. Linda a Haskell and Decindra Parker for not giving up and letting the diary tale be told and saved for history so others can enjoy it. Victor, for your wonderful guidance on this book.

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgment

Preface

Dad and Granddad Spratt

The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and California

From Induction to Departing from Europe

Arrival in Europe and Time Spent in England

D-Day, June 6, 1945

Excerpt from Diary:

From Normandy to Paris

From Paris to Germany

Return to Home and After the War

1971 Return to Normandy

Recent Times and Reflecting on the Past

Bridges, Old and New - Connections to the Past

About The Author

Preface

This is a transcription of audio tapes recorded by William Adrian Spratt about his experiences as the driver for Lieutenant General Courtney H. Hodges during World War II. The order of this written transcription varies from the tape recording to provide for a truer chronology. The tapes were recorded by Uncle Bill in 2002 at the age of 86 and include his memories of his army service during World War II and other topics of interest.

Dear Uncle Bill,

A word of thanks -- First, for taking the time with your tape recorder to share your memories with us. More importantly, a very special thank you for your dedicated service hardships and for risking your life to protect and defend the freedom that we enjoy (and often take for granted) today.

Certainly, recalling many of the memories is painful to you, but with those painful memories, you must also feel a very deep sense of pride in the service you gave to your country and General Hodges. As we, and others in our family who will follow us, listen to the tapes and read these transcripts, we too will share our pride and grow to appreciate the sacrifices that you and others of your generation made to protect our country and freedom.

Warmest regards and thank you.

A very proud and grateful nephew and family,

William A. Thompson

April 6, 2004

Private William Adrian Spratt

San Antonio, Texas – 1941

Dad and Granddad Spratt

The card below is from old Bill Spratt my grandpa, William Spratt. I was named after him.

This was his business card. He made stone and gravel roads and did sewer work, concrete, and earthwork in Grover Hill, Ohio. Grandpa first started a tile mill. They took clay, put it in a form, heated it, and made tile for drainage. They don't use tile anymore. Now, it's all plastic pipe. The tile would break and clog the system up. That was a big thing back in his day. Later on, he had a crusher. He crushed stone in Junction, Ohio. It was between Defiance, Ohio, and Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where the Erie Canal and the Wabash Canal joined. They formed into the Miami and Erie Canal. They called this place Junction. I think there were 52 taverns there. It must have been a little place and must have been all taverns. I guess people riding those canal boats must have drunk a lot. That's where grandpa had his crusher. All the roads were sand or dirt then -- no paved roads. That's how he got started, crushing up the stone. He had big scoops with horses and would scoop out the dirt and level the road off. He would haul the stone in and fill the road up. That was the first hard-bound road we had. There's one right out here near Rossford, Line City Road, that he built.

Dad said when he was 18 years old, he was in charge of a group up in Liberty Center, Ohio, and put a road in there. Dad played on the football team with the Liberty Center people. That was quite a thing -- until they got too far away from Junction and had to haul that stone so far. He finally went broke. Later on, they moved out to Westin, Ohio, off of Route 6. He became Justice of the Peace. The state troopers would pick people up and haul them into grandpa. He'd fine them so much. They had set rules on how much to fine for each violation. He could marry people. He was quite a guy back then.

In Paulding County, before the tile, he had a big farm. Back then, everybody traded stuff. They didn't have much money, so they traded things. Grandpa took in a lot of wood to make into 2 x 4s and siding. He built this great big two-story house; I think he built it for $24. I suppose all he had to buy was nails. Grandma T. has the pictures of this place with Aunt Gladys on her pony and our great, great grandfather sitting out in front with a big, long beard. She had a lot of pictures. That was near Rose Elms, Ohio, where my dad was born.

Another thing there at Rose Elms when dad was 10 years old, he and his brother heard there was a steam engine. They heard something about steamboats and steam engines. They heard there was one coming down the Allglaze River. They were just 10 years old. They packed a lunch and walked 3 or 4 miles down to the Allglaze, and they sat there all day long waiting for the steamboat to come by, but it never did. That was where the canal boats came along. They pulled the boats with mules. We have one now outside Grand Rapids now. They redid part of the canal and the lock. You can ride in a canal boat and go through one of the locks with mules pulling it. It's quite a thing for people now days to see how they did way back then.

Dad had twenty-five dump trucks at one time, and International talked him into buying a couple of new ones. He bought two, and they gave him a good deal on them, but he had to mortgage the rest of them. He had all the work in town at the time, digging five subways for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Wall Construction Company of Elmira, New York, was doing the work. They didn't come up with the money for a long time, and Dad charged gas, oil, and everything to keep the trucks running.

Finally, after a long time, they finally sent some money into the bank and said go ahead and start writing checks on it. That was on a Saturday. So, on Saturday morning, he wrote all kinds of checks to the drivers for gas, oil, and everything. Well, on Monday morning, the banks didn't open. That was the start of the Depression, about 1931 or 1932. All the checks bounced. Of course, the banks opened, but nobody could get any money.

Everything got pretty bad here. International came along and took all the trucks. He couldn't pay for the trucks or anything. Well Dad stripped them. He took a bunch of parts out and took them over to the house. Joe Shapiro bought the chassis. He had a junkyard near us. After it was all over, he bought the chassis for $75 a piece. He dragged them over to the house and got the trucks going again. So then time went on; it was in the middle of the Depression, and the WPA came on doing different projects.

I had one of the trucks in my name working on WPA with my truck and making $2.50 an hour for the truck and driver and everything. We got going again that way. Before that, we'd been working on Anthony Wayne out on the old canal bed. Two big banks on each side. We were cutting those down and making a sidetrack for the Nickel Plate Railroad. That was 1932. We went by the Lucas County fair ground. They were going to have a big auto race there on Sunday. I took some pliers and cut a hole in the fence so I could go through the hole and go in to see the auto race.

Later on, the WPA came along. They had people shoveling dirt by hand, and I would haul the dirt away. Later on, we hauled big stones in there to make a base for the canal bed, paved it, and now it's a big road. It's U.S. 24. It comes out here just 3/4 of a mile from where I live now. It's part of 24 heading into Ft. Wayne. We dug out the old Erie Canal and made this nice road out of it. That's another big part of history.

Lester Spratt

The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and California

In 1933, I was pretty young, and the three Cs (Civilian Conservation Corps) started. It started on the same day as Bill Thompson's birthday in 1933. A friend of mine said he was going to California. He was in the CCC and was supposed to be on relief. He was on his way to California, and I was anxious to go too. I got on dad about it, and he got a hold of another trucker. He got a hold of this Keefhaufer, a councilman, who had a