| Title |
F. Keith Davis, Springville, Utah: an interview by Winston P. Erickson, May 25, 2000: Saving the legacy tape no. 24 |
| Alternative Title |
F. Keith Davis, Saving the legacy: an oral history of Utah's World War II veterans, ACCN 2070, American West Center, University of Utah |
| Creator |
Davis, F. Keith, 1924- |
| Contributor |
Erickson, Winston P., 1943-; University of Utah. American West Center |
| Publisher |
Digitized by J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah |
| Date |
2000-05-25 |
| Date Digital |
2015-09-16 |
| Access Rights |
I acknowledge and agree that all information I obtain as a result of accessing any oral history provided by the University of Utah's Marriott Library shall be used only for historical or scholarly or academic research purposes, and not for commercial purposes. I understand that any other use of the materials is not authorized by the University of Utah and may exceed the scope of permission granted to the University of Utah by the interviewer or interviewee. I may request permission for other uses, in writing to Special Collections at the Marriott Library, which the University of Utah may choose grant, in its sole discretion. I agree to defend, indemnify and hold the University of Utah and its Marriott Library harmless for and against any actions or claims that relate to my improper use of materials provided by the University of Utah. |
| Spatial Coverage |
France; Germany; Belgium; Utah County, Utah, United States |
| Subject |
Davis, F. Keith, 1924- --Interviews; World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, American; Veterans--Utah--Biography; World War, 1939-1945--Military operations, American; World War, 1939-1945--Artillery operations, American; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Europe, Northern--Personal narratives, American; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--France--Normandy--Personal narratives, American; Ardennes, Battle of the, 1944-1945--Personal narratives, American |
| Keywords |
16th Field Artillery Observation Battalion; D-Day; Battle of the Bulge; Occupied Germany |
| Description |
Transcript (46 pages) of an interview by Winston P. Erickson with F. Keith Davis on May 25, 2000. This is from tape number 24 in the "Saving the Legacy Oral History Project |
| Collection Number and Name |
Accn2070, Saving the Legacy oral history project, 2001-2010 |
| Abstract |
Davis (b. 1924) recalls being drafted into the army a week after he graduated from high school. He describes basic training and advanced training with the 16th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. He boarded the for England and trained there for two months before landing in France ten days after D-Day. Davis recalls combat in Brest, Saint Lo, Schnee Eifel, and Koblenz, as well as talking about the Battle of the Bulge. He also describes spending Christmas Eve with a Belgian family. He recalls the liberation of Ohrdruf concentration camp and describes being a member of the army of occupation. 46 pages. |
| Type |
Text |
| Genre |
oral histories (literary works) |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Extent |
46 pages |
| Language |
eng |
| Rights |
 |
| Scanning Technician |
Mazi Rakhsha |
| Conversion Specifications |
Original scanned with Kirtas 2400 and saved as 400 ppi uncompressed TIFF. PDF generated by Adobe Acrobat Pro X for CONTENTdm display |
| ARK |
ark:/87278/s6mp72gr |
| Topic |
Personal narratives--American; Veterans; World War (1939-1945); Military operations, Artillery--American; Ardennes, Battle of the (1944-1945) |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1019911 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6mp72gr |
| Title |
Page 23 |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1019885 |
| OCR Text |
Show F. KEITH DAVIS MAY 25, 2000 out. If they still had their wings on and were hit, they would i ther di v right int th at r th ocean, or they'd hit on land behind the submarine pens. Or if they w ren't diving straight and till had their wings, they would come in on a glide and then they would crash. Sometimes you'd s e parachutes open and sometimes you wouldn't, but we saw a lot ofB-17s knocked out of the sky from the Nazi anti-aircraft guns. They were active. But they finally surrendered the Brest, France, submarine base. So we were told to move up front again in the Saint Lo area. The Saint Lo area had a huge battle there. We didn't really get in on the huge battle. We were there just a few days after. The place was so beat up. We did get in on a lot of skirmishes, you know, but not the big fighting. We would go in these little towns in France. Sometimes they would be secure with the Americans, and the Germans had gone. But sometimes in the middle of the streets, the little streets in France, we would see a bunch of people around a girl or some girls. They were mostly older French people, and the girls were young girls about our age I guess, or younger. These French people would be beating the heck out of these girls. And then they'd cut their hair off, and they would shave their heads bald. That was for fraternizing with the German solders when they occupied this area. So every time we saw a girl with her hair shaved off, we knew that the French didn't like her fraternizing with the Germans soldiers. That was their punishment. Maybe they had worse punishment than that, but that's all we saw. If you would see a bunch of people around some girls, the girls were screaming, and the French people were hitting them. And they cut their hair off, and they would shave them bald. We'd seen so much carnage in the fighting area. Saint Lo was so flat. You've seen pictures where the posts were sticking up and everything else was flat, or there was a piece of a chimney sticking up. That is just the way it was. When we went through there our American equipment was huge in comparison to the size ofEuropean kinds of vehicles. A lot of the roads were so narrow. We went to one town that wasn't blown up all over, but the road through town was like an "L", and our big 6 x 6 trucks would just barely go through. Sometimes 21 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6mp72gr/1019885 |
