Oral History Interview with Otto Townsend

Philpot: This is Jonathan Philpot, it’s February 23rd, 2008, it’s one thirty-five p.m. I’m, I’m at the American Legion in Mount Sterling, and I’m, we’re going to do an interview on World War II. So, if you want to just go ahead.

Townsend: I’m Otto Townsend, 83 years old.

Philpot: And…if you just want to… Townsend: Huh?

Philpot: I said if you just want to introduce yourself, say what, whatever you want to…whatever you think we should know about you, I guess.

Townsend: Well, I worked for Walker for fifty-five years and retired and ain’t doing nothing [Chuckling] now.

Philpot: All right.

Townsend: Working puzzles.

Philpot: That’s fair enough.

Townsend: And…I been a, I, I’m kind of a loner, I mean I ain’t been, I ain’t got much to say I don’t guess.

Philpot: Well…let’s start with, what branch of the service did you go into?

Townsend: I was in the navy.

Philpot: Okay. 1:00Townsend: Uh-huh.

Philpot: Did you, did you enlist, or were you drafted, or… Townsend: Well…I was drafted, I went and told them I was ready to go though, [Laughing] everybody else left. I was drafted and I was in the navy. I got this little old paper here, but, if you want to look at it.

Philpot: Yes, please.

Townsend: And…I was working on the farm back there then and they…I got off a little while, you know, and I …I would have probably went a little bit earlier. I went to Murmansk, Russia, Liverpool, England, Glasgow, Scotland. And I was in on…I was a 20-millimeter gunner on a liberty ship. That’s the merchant marine, but the, the navy had gun crews on it, hauling supplies 2:00that’s what we done.

Philpot: Did you…did you ever have to shoot at anything then?

Townsend: Well we had one air raid when we was up in Russia, but that’s, that’s the only, only one. That was lucky. But I was on a, they were twenty-six gun crew on a merchant ship in D-Day over there. We was at Liverpool, England, and we was on standby there, told to pack our sea-bags, just—do you know what a sea-bag is? Navy?

Philpot: Is this a… Townsend: We had… Philpot: …duffel bag?

Townsend: Yeah, it’s has some (baggage?) on it. And we, two off they, they’d take two off every the ship and hit that invasion, and we…I packed mine. So these gunners, 20-millimeter gunners they, they’s aiming to man them landing crafts, but they never did call us, we never did go in, so that’s, that’s about all I can tell you, I mean it. I was one of lucky ones, I guess.

Philpot: Well…so 3:00how, how old were you when you joined the service?

Townsend: About nineteen, I guess… Philpot: What, what were you doing before you… Townsend: I was working with Walker Construction, and then I come back, I went back working [Laughing]. Yeah, I went to work for him in nineteen and forty-two, and when I come home, why they…said that…well they were working on Main Street when I come home, they wanted me to go to work, I said, “no, not right now buddy [Chuckling].” Philpot: Did…did you have a girlfriend, a wife, or anybody you left behind when you had to go?

Townsend: One, I had a girlfriend. I did have no wife or nothing.

Philpot: Did, did you have her when you got back [Chuckles – Philpot]?

Townsend: No, [Laughing] I didn’t have her when I come back.

Philpot: Well did, did your 4:00parents write you letters then, or… Townsend: Oh yeah!

Philpot: …has anybody… Townsend: My mother died when I was ten years old, but my sister and my dad, that’s who I stayed with, me and my sister and dad, and another brother. They wrote to me all the time, yeah, I… Philpot: Did…did they tell you about things going on here or what, what did they write to you about?

Townsend: I, just write about what they was doing and everything, he was a ( ). Jjust what’s going on around here is about all they tell me. I had two more brothers in the navy, in the South Pacific, and I was in the North Atlantic.

Philpot: Were…were your brothers also drafted, and…or did they just, did they choose to go in the navy?

Townsend: I swear I couldn’t tell you. I, one of them was, I s…I’d say they both probably was. Well and we was drafted and I took the navy, see. I, but you had your choice when I went in there, 5:00marines, navy, or, and I had two brothers in the, in there, so I took the navy.

Philpot: I see, I see so, does the navy have boot camp and that kind of thing like ( )?

Townsend: Yeah, I went to Great Lakes, Illinois, six weeks and…went to gunnery school down to Gulfport, Mississippi for…I don’t know, a month or six weeks and they put me on a ship out of Houston, Texas [Laughing] so we, we headed to Liverpool, England. It wasn’t that very long when I went out, of course, they just take them you know, when I went ( ) it was pretty, pretty rough. But I, I mean, I, I was lucky, I was one lucky man.

Philpot: Well, let’s see…how…so I guess you spent most of your time on a ship then?

Townsend: Yeah.

Philpot: What, what was that like?

Townsend: Well it’s, I got used to it but the first, we went from Houston, Texas to 6:00Liverpool, England and I was sick all the way, and if you’re talking about sick buddy, you’ll see, but I got used to it. Worry, I was worried, I was afraid that thing was going to break in two, it was bucking and a jumping, and that North Atlantic’s rough, then I got to quit worrying and I said, well, look at, they’ve shot, you know, several ships in the convoy, you probably seen it in the news, and I said there is a lot of people out there, I don’t, I ain’t going to worry no more, and by George, I quit getting sick.

Philpot: Did…let’s see…di…I…well I guess did they let you off the boat much once you were to, to Liverpool, or… Townsend: Yeah, we’d, we got out every night wherever we want to go, but we had to be in at ten o’clock. You know, Liverpool, there wa’n’t, it wa’n’t dark or nothing by ten o’clock. But I went to Russia now, that they…we 7:00was allowed in two places down there. They had a little old picture show on a thing had been blowed all to pieces, they had sidewalks had two by sixes and stuff laying around to walk on, you know, we, it was pitiful up there.

Philpot: What, what were the Russians like? Were you around them much, or… Townsend: No. They unloaded our ship. No but I had…asked them, I mean as far as being around them that’s about all we could be around you know. Go to this old show up there, they was a guy on a thing that…tell you one thing [Chuckling] and they had a guard at the gangplank, he was right at the top, you know, kept ( ) on the top of, you’d stand up there and they, he, they had a little guard about the size of, just enough room to get down and they wouldn’t take nothing to eat, they, 8:00they wasn’t allowed to you know. But they, if you was good enough to throw that apple in that little building, so he was up here and they were down there you know, why he’d eat it, he’d eat it. But them girls unloaded our ship if their parents got killed, you know, they had a big building up there.

Philpot: Well…let’s see…did you miss anything, you know, while, while you were gone, any big events happened that you wished you’d been for, or… Townsend: No, I don’t reckon.

Philpot: Okay… Townsend: Ho, my girlfriend [Laughing].

Philpot: Did you get, did you get a letter from her and tell a… Townsend: Yeah.

Philpot: …telling, telling you it was through, or… Townsend: No, I come home, went upstairs and here come my ( ) [Laughing] I, and…I still talk to her, but I mean…no, that’s about all, well it’s been a long time, I can’t remember but they probably told me some things going on. 9:00Philpot: Now let’s see…did you have, is that, anything you know, about your, your experience in the navy that really, you know, sticks out in your mind? An…any memorable experiences?

Townsend: No, not exactly, cause all we done was just go and come, I meant the...I mean, I…it’s a lot, I seen a lot of the country, but, I mean nothing, you know, I mean big thing happen or nothing like that. Only that one air raid we had, but it’s, it didn’t amount to nothing.

Philpot: Did…let’s see…what was I going to say—oh! Was…I, I’ve heard quite a bit about pranks, 10:00especially in the, in the navy, but you know, about people playing jokes on each other? Did, did any of that happen that you saw, as far as…you know, I don’t know, knot, knots in people’s pants legs or… Townsend: Yeah they had, about all they ever done is, it, that I can remember, they had a little bar there you had free beer and stuff every Wednesday night, they’d take your cigarette lighter fluid put it on the floor and throw it up your leg, bag you know, and throw a match to it and they, [Chuckling] things like this, ho and [Laughing] and that was about the s…ah, there the several little things I guess, but, not too many, boy of course there was none too many people, you know, just twenty-six of us that’s all there was.

Philpot: Hum, okay… Townsend: Then they took…said they were going to take it to rest camp if you’re on the ship so long you get a rest camp, and I went to Charleston, South Carolina, and I, and I ( ) depot it wa’n’t open, there wa’n’t much rest camp. 11:00Philpot: What did you get? I’ll look here. Did you get any, any medals or anything, citations for anything, or… Townsend: Oh, just I got a victory medal and a European and African and another one I don’t know. No big medals you know, amount, amount to nothing. That’s just to see if you was there, then I got it.

Philpot: Did you get…or did anybody get I guess for that matter that you know of…tattoos or anything like that?

Townsend: No, I didn’t get no tattoo.

Philpot: ( ).

Townsend: My brothers, they got them all them. I didn’t, I didn’t get no tattoos.

Philpot: But…I’ve heard that some of them you know, mean certain things, like if you go across something or other you get a bird or something like that, I… Townsend: Yeah.

Philpot: …I don’t know, you know, anything about that though.

Townsend: Yeah, woman over there, them women got them too.

Philpot: Well let’s see…what, 12:00what did you get to eat while you were over there.

Townsend: We got good eats, buddy!

Philpot: Really?

Townsend: We, we was on this merchant ship, see, and, I mean it was owned by the, a company.

Philpot: Oh, oh s…okay I see.

Townsend: The Bull Line they called it, and…we had plenty to eat. I meant, when I was in Great Lakes and I went up there (twenty?), I think there was 95,000 up there, they had them little whole beans for breakfast and stuff like that. That wasn’t too good [Chuckling]. But, you ( ) to Gulfport, Mississippi, they say “what do you want for breakfast? How do you want your eggs” and stuff like that. I like to died, boy.

Philpot: Yeah.

Townsend: But I mean, we had plenty to eat, I can’t kick on that, but it was the merchant marines and it—we’d go and set down at a table just like this, they’d bring it to you.

Philpot: Huh!

Townsend: Yes sir! 13:00So were the gun crew on their ship, see. But…they’d bring it right in there and we had plenty to eat, I, I can’t kick on that.

Philpot: Were you treated, I guess, were you treated differently from the rest of the crew since you all were, were military and they were merchant marines or… Townsend: If a merchant marine would like you, son, they’d do anything in the world for you. They’d give you money, they made good money, you see, they even belonged to a union and everything, and if we done anything to this ship now, we w…we got on a brand new ship, and they had it magnetized, they called it, went from Houston down to Galveston, they put cables all the way around it, and we helped them, and it wa’n’t long I got, we got a check. They mailed us, I, I didn’t think we were going to get paid for it, but they paid everything, anything you’d done. Only your gun, you had to keep your gun clean, and gun tub, and stand watch. I stood watch from four to eight in the morning and four to eight at night.

Philpot: Were you, were you…or, I guess 14:00what were you watching for, as far as that went?

Townsend: Well, just anything that didn’t look right, I meant.

Philpot: Did anything ever happen, as far as rowdy behavior or anything like that?

Townsend: We had to report everything we seen, and I seen lightning one night and I called up ( ), I said, “they’s an awful lot of lightning over in there” [Chuckling] and ( ) over there they said, don’t get—they called me Kentuck, they said, “Kentuck, don’t, don’t get excited,” they said, “that’s the front line.” because they’re fighting back there, and that’s you got to shut me up a little bit. I was close enough you could see in, you know, a flashing.

Philpot: Right-right.

Townsend: And I, but I never was in just a regular, you know, combat.

Philpot: Did you…did you have any friends that, you know, that, that got put into the regular… Townsend: Do what?

Philpot: Did you have any, you know, any, any friends that you went like through boot camp or from here that you joined with?

Townsend: Never seen a soul I knowed. 15:00I hear the boys that I’m running around with, and out of Gulfport, Mississippi, well that was my girl friend, off of, and she, she told him, you know, and he, he called me and said to meet on Saturday night and then he called me and we was moving out, at that post I come to see, and the on…only person that I’ve ever met.

Philpot: Did you, did you make some good friends while you were in then?

Townsend: Oh yeah, I made a lot of good friends.

Philpot: Was anybody in particular that you know, did you still keep in contact with any of them?

Townsend: No. They all live away from here and I, I didn’t have nobody here, so.

Philpot: Is there ever any kind of reunion or anything?

Townsend: I ain’t, I never hear from none of them. Of course they was all down south and I had a, I got their address and stuff and everything, but lost them, I don’t know what, whatever happened to them.

Philpot: All 16:00right…how, how d…have you…why I mean I assume you’ve joined the American Legion, but…have you joined any of the other veterans organizations and… Townsend: The American Legion is all I belong to.

Philpot: I really don’t know, honestly if that, the difference much between the American Legion and VFW and all, and all that. Is there a reason for joining this one versus any of the others?

Townsend: I don’t know. I should have joined the VFW, but they didn’t have, didn’t have nothing here and I didn’t fool with it.

Philpot: Okay…let’s see…a lot of these questions are, are not as…you know like, did you have a sports team or anything, you know, that you were a fan of before you left that you tried to keep track of, or… 17:00Townsend: Nah. We had a little old ball ( ) [Chuckling] and were playing out there in the country, but I mean, I ( ). I never was much for sports ( ).

Philpot: Okay, let’s see…well, do you remember…or can you tell me about…the…when—the day the war ended, as far as victory in Europe, or victory in Japan?

Townsend: Well, I was on the, when the war ended in Japan, there wasn’t much going on where I was, but when the, see it ended in Japan first, didn’t it.

Philpot: Yeah.

Townsend: Yeah and then the Germany now, I was in South Carolina. I was at of ( ), we had, as I was telling you about, we went, they said there is important news coming on at three o’clock, and we figured the president is going to speak, you know, then on, and so on that town gave it, gave it us, We could do anything we wanted to do. They wouldn’t arrest you or nothing, 18:00and I never was much to (clears throat) drink and I went there, we, we just had a one barrack down there you know, and the marines had a barracks and I went, you ( ), guys watchman at the gate said “what are you doing sober?” Oh I said, “I never did drink much.” I said, “I, I did drink a beer tonight.” Well, he said “we need you.” [Chuckles – Philpot] I said, “why?” He said “when these police and them bring these drunks in.” He said, “you take them to the barracks.” I said, “well I don’t know where all of them live,” and he said, “don’t make no difference, just throw them in every way.” [Chuckling] And I mean all the women and everything was real good to us, I mean. But…they blocked the streets off down in Charleston and, and they get drunk and everything then. But I can’t hardly, 19:00I believe I was on a ship when, when the…Germany—I meant Japan.

Philpot: Did…were, were people pretty happy about Japan, or were still focused on the fact that you still had Europe to deal with?

Townsend: Well they was, they was pretty happy that…when Japan surrendered, but they, it wasn’t long after that until Germany went down too, you know, and they, they surrendered.

Philpot: Okay, let’s see…well, this is kind of a, a big question, but…how, how did your service and experiences overseas affect your life?

Townsend: [Chuckling] Philpot: How do you answer that, right?

Townsend: I don’t know how to answer that, but it didn’t interfere with my life none, 20:00I felt just the same as when I went over there as I did when I come home, I mean that didn’t, it didn’t affect me or nothing.

Philpot: Was it good for you to go? You know? Good experience, or… Townsend: Oh yeah, I’d say it was, it was a good experience.

Philpot: Okay.

Townsend: But…I wouldn’t want to go back, but it, it was good, and I was seeing a lot of the country and a lot of places. Yeah, I, I’d say it was a good experience. But now these boys…all army and in them front lines and things, they, they…I’d say they most of them now they won’t remember.

Philpot: Yeah.

Townsend: That boy was in here, I think he was. Elmo, I think he was…because I live out there by him. We all growed up out at Libby out here. Yeah, I, I, I got a lot of experience.

Philpot: Of…of all the places you went, would, did you have one that you liked the best?

Townsend: Any what, O…Occupation?.

Philpot: No, of the places that you went, was, 21:00was one of them, I mean… Townsend: Yeah, I… Philpot: …did you like Liverpool the best, or… Townsend: Well, e…it been blowed up pretty bad. I believe, if I was going, I’d go to Glasgow, Scotland. I believe that was—well, Liverpool was nice, I lay down in the park with them women every night. But you had to go home at ten o’clock though, because of that curfew at ten o’clock. No, I lay down, we…I’d lay down in the park, ( ) about just right, ship here and ( ) little park right there, and, but I believe Glasgow was, I believe I’d take that.

Philpot: What, what was…what was it like? I don’t guess we talked about it very much.

Townsend: It…it was just a lot but like any other of those place there they…had good restaurants and ten-cent stores and things like that, and you, if you want a bottle 22:00of beer you had to take it down the basement, they call them pubs over there, and you be [Laughing] I never did drink that, they brought a big bowl, about that big and…and to…and the dime stores they, they’re about the same, they’re about same they are here.

Philpot: Was, was… Townsend: They, they’re called different names you know, I went to get a pair of shoe strings and that girl say “what in the world are you talking about,” she said, “we ain’t got no shoe strings here?” I pointed down there, she said, “oh them, them’s shoe laces.” I said, “oh!” just things like that you know, they’re different but… Philpot: Right, right.

Townsend: And they tell me what it’s worth at, and I hold my hand full of change out there, they’d take what they wanted and one old girl told me she said, “you want to be careful now, they, they’re just libel to take more [Chuckling]” Of course they probably would, but I made it, 23:00( ) it, it’s just about like going shopping here.

Philpot: Was, was Glasgow damaged when you were there, or was it… Townsend: No, it wasn’t like Liverpool, it, it was damaged, now, Russia was blowed all to pieces, Murmansk. We took them some locomotives up there on that cargo, that’s up on the deck, you know, train engines, locomotives, you know, them old steam engines. We take about six up there, then they had food and ammunitions and stuff like that down in the deck.

Philpot: Was that…you know, I don’t know, really know much about what all went on in Russia, so I, I… Townsend: ( ) boy it’s pitiful up there. They was all blowed to pieces, maybe a building that had one room left or something, they stand there and, of course before your time, I guess, that they had these old lard buckets, you know, four pound or two pound or something but and the, 24:00the people would be lined up, I don’t know for half a mile and they go through there and they, they’d be in this, some building had something or other, they’d just throw in that bucket and that’s all they had to eat, ( ) so that, it’s pitiful over, I meant, that’s the only thing got pretty close to me. We’d pitch an apple out there one day, and they asked us not to do it, said, them kids, you know, didn’t know what it was…never had nothing, I mean ( ). But Liverpool now, when I was there, it, it was, all right, I mean, there wasn’t no…air raids or nothing there.

Philpot: Right, right.

Townsend: But Russia, I’m telling you it, it was pitiful up there. Of course every, they done, done and gone when I got there you know, but it, I seen the aftermath of it, it was,it was pitiful.

Philpot: Let’s see, let me see if there is anything out here I, I 25:00ought to ask…well, let’s see…is there…anything that, that you learned from your, your service experience that you, you know, you think could be of value, you know, to future generations or anything?

Townsend: Oh no. I didn’t do nothing but take care of that gun, cleaned it, and I had the gun tub, you call it, big round thing, the gun sat in the middle of it, you know.

Philpot: Did you all name the gun or anything like that?

Townsend: Do what?

Philpot: Did, did, did you have a nickname for the gun?

Townsend: No, they had, I don’t know, there was about four-twenties and a five inch thirty-eight, and they had a bunch of them on there. They had one, it had pro…projector they call it, that’s a (pin?) there, you know, you have the powder keg about that long 26:00[Chuckling] ( ) blow up on you, ( ). Old ship with old batteries, you know.

Philpot: So. Well…is there anything that you want to add or talk about that we have not covered so far?

Townsend: I don’t know of…don’t reckon, no.

Philpot: Any particularly good memories or, or… Townsend: Yeah… Philpot: …anything.

Townsend: I still think about it once in a while ( ), but they, but I mean I was just one of the lucky ones, I meant.

Philpot: Okay.

Townsend: A lot had it made, a lot didn’t, I meant, it was rough.

Philpot: All right, well, that seems like a good place to stop then, and… Townsend: Yeah.

Philpot: …I’ll…go ahead and turn this off and then I, I’ll get you to sign this release form I told you about. Thank you very much for talking to me.

Townsend: Yeah I, I meant, I just talked about all I knowed, I told Adrian when he called me, I said, I don’t know a whole lot, I was 27:00just riding, going and coming, you know, [Chuckling] but, it’s a, it was a good experience, I mean.

“END OF INTERVIEW”