Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (D)
Mr. Miller talks about his experience in Foggia, Italy during World War II. (4:01)Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive Interview with Dan Miller June 24, 2011 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood Also present are Mr. Miller’s wife, Winnie Miller and his son, La...
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| Format: | Electronic |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library
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| Online Access: | https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/140 |
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Electronic |
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War Years at Home and Abroad Collection |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
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Florence-Lauderdale County Public Library |
| topic |
Military life |
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Military life Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (D) Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
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Military life World War 1939-1945; Radio operators |
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Mr. Miller talks about his experience in Foggia, Italy during World War II. (4:01)Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Dan Miller
June 24, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Also present are Mr. Miller’s wife, Winnie Miller and his son, Larry Miller
Clip 4
Dan Miller: On November 20th an advanced party left A-o-u-t-n-a Air Force Base in Foggia, for the air force base in Foggia. I went on that trip on Foggia, Italy. And as we was flying over Italy, what’s that boot down in—
Clint Alley: Sicily
DM: Sicily, when we was flying over Sicily, Sicily’s mountainous and we didn’t have an air, ah, you know, any parachutes or anything on us, you know, fly just a, you know, I think it was a B-40—ah, just a transport plane and so we went to, as we were flying over that, it was just mountainous and we was flying low because you had to fly low, you didn’t want to get up high because you got Germans about to shoot you down; we stayed close to the ground. We was flying over them mountains and it looked like it was thirty feet, but it was higher than that over it. But we hit a air pocket and that plane jumped out from under us and my head hit the top of the plane—
CA: Oooh.
DM: —and when they got, it caught just before we hit the [unintelligible]. And, so, we didn’t have seatbelts or nothing, you know. I mean that plane left, dropped out from under us. But we went on in to Foggia, Italy and, ah, there was about 80 or 100 in our, 110 I believe in our company and there’s about twenty of us went into Foggia first, twenty or twenty-five, to set up communications, radio operations and I think some group came over and set the power lines for communications so they’d have, have a telephone to go to the headquarters which was five or ten miles from the town, or fifteen over to headquarters. And so they had, they didn’t have communications with power lines, that’s all they had, just telephone lines and so they set that up. I took training in that, too; I had to learn to climb a pole with those spikes on the side of my legs and things. That was part of my training. We had, we had the whole setup and so, it, we handled the communications there in Foggia. And we got there and we, we was close to this front line there that they were unloading the tanks in, right at our, the old hotel, we was in hotels and all bombed out at the top and everything there in Foggia and they were unloading tanks and while they was unloading tanks we could hear them shooting up in around, up from us, you could hear the guns. That shows how close we were there then at that time. And so we stayed there, we got there on Thanksgiving Day, we flew over on Thanksgiving Day in 1940—whatever it was there, forty—, I guess ’43 wasn’t it, ’44, ’44. And I had to pull duty that night, I had to be on the, down at the telephone hookup there, we had a set—you know, set up a hookup, I stayed up there that night and it’s on the top floor there, where the commanding officer’s office. They had a air raid that night, well it wasn’t a air raid, we thought it was and they notified us all to go down, all the soldiers go down to the basement, there’s about a three-story building we was in, we went down there, it was safer down there. But I had to stay with that radio, I was, I was on KP duty all night, or whatever they call it there. But I had to stay with the radio up there and I could see, I could see the plane, there, there was a reconnaissance plane; they was just gonna fly around and see what we was doing I think, the Germans. And our Air Force had a spotlight on it, they put a spotlight on it and I could see the plane up there, but I didn’t know whether the other plane was gonna come in there or not; it was kind of scary up there. But anyway, I thought I was going—I did start down the stairs, go down where they were, and I said, “That won’t work. I am responsible for that group.” And that’s why I had to go back.
CA: Um-hm. |
| title |
Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (D) |
| titleStr |
Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (D) |
| author |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| author_facet |
Florence-Lauderdale Public Library |
| id |
FLCPLwar140 |
| url |
https://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/war/id/140 |
| thumbnail |
http://cdm15947.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/war/id/140 |
| _version_ |
1705462192809181184 |
| spelling |
Veteran Interview with Dan Miller (D)World War 1939-1945; Radio operatorsMr. Miller talks about his experience in Foggia, Italy during World War II. (4:01)Florence-Lauderdale Public LibraryFlorence-Lauderdale Public LibraryDan Miller2011-06-24sound; textaudio/mp3; text/pdfEnglishPart of the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library CollectionMay be protected by U.S. Copyright laws. Contact the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library for permission to use.Florence-Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Dan Miller
June 24, 2011
Florence, Alabama
Conducted by Clint Alley and Rhonda Haygood
Also present are Mr. Miller’s wife, Winnie Miller and his son, Larry Miller
Clip 4
Dan Miller: On November 20th an advanced party left A-o-u-t-n-a Air Force Base in Foggia, for the air force base in Foggia. I went on that trip on Foggia, Italy. And as we was flying over Italy, what’s that boot down in—
Clint Alley: Sicily
DM: Sicily, when we was flying over Sicily, Sicily’s mountainous and we didn’t have an air, ah, you know, any parachutes or anything on us, you know, fly just a, you know, I think it was a B-40—ah, just a transport plane and so we went to, as we were flying over that, it was just mountainous and we was flying low because you had to fly low, you didn’t want to get up high because you got Germans about to shoot you down; we stayed close to the ground. We was flying over them mountains and it looked like it was thirty feet, but it was higher than that over it. But we hit a air pocket and that plane jumped out from under us and my head hit the top of the plane—
CA: Oooh.
DM: —and when they got, it caught just before we hit the [unintelligible]. And, so, we didn’t have seatbelts or nothing, you know. I mean that plane left, dropped out from under us. But we went on in to Foggia, Italy and, ah, there was about 80 or 100 in our, 110 I believe in our company and there’s about twenty of us went into Foggia first, twenty or twenty-five, to set up communications, radio operations and I think some group came over and set the power lines for communications so they’d have, have a telephone to go to the headquarters which was five or ten miles from the town, or fifteen over to headquarters. And so they had, they didn’t have communications with power lines, that’s all they had, just telephone lines and so they set that up. I took training in that, too; I had to learn to climb a pole with those spikes on the side of my legs and things. That was part of my training. We had, we had the whole setup and so, it, we handled the communications there in Foggia. And we got there and we, we was close to this front line there that they were unloading the tanks in, right at our, the old hotel, we was in hotels and all bombed out at the top and everything there in Foggia and they were unloading tanks and while they was unloading tanks we could hear them shooting up in around, up from us, you could hear the guns. That shows how close we were there then at that time. And so we stayed there, we got there on Thanksgiving Day, we flew over on Thanksgiving Day in 1940—whatever it was there, forty—, I guess ’43 wasn’t it, ’44, ’44. And I had to pull duty that night, I had to be on the, down at the telephone hookup there, we had a set—you know, set up a hookup, I stayed up there that night and it’s on the top floor there, where the commanding officer’s office. They had a air raid that night, well it wasn’t a air raid, we thought it was and they notified us all to go down, all the soldiers go down to the basement, there’s about a three-story building we was in, we went down there, it was safer down there. But I had to stay with that radio, I was, I was on KP duty all night, or whatever they call it there. But I had to stay with the radio up there and I could see, I could see the plane, there, there was a reconnaissance plane; they was just gonna fly around and see what we was doing I think, the Germans. And our Air Force had a spotlight on it, they put a spotlight on it and I could see the plane up there, but I didn’t know whether the other plane was gonna come in there or not; it was kind of scary up there. But anyway, I thought I was going—I did start down the stairs, go down where they were, and I said, “That won’t work. I am responsible for that group.” And that’s why I had to go back.
CA: Um-hm.http://server15947.contentdm.oclc.org/u?/war,140 |