| 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 26 |
| Format |
application/pdf |
| Setname |
uum_slohp |
| ID |
1019888 |
| OCR Text |
Show F. KEITH DAVIS MAY 25, 2000 packed up and got some of our stuff out. We didn't get all of it out. WIN: Keith is showing us a part of a book ofhis memoirs and he has some pictures in th r . He just showed us a picture of him by a machine gun, a large gun. So continue. KEI: Okay. After Paris we were headed for the German border. And we went up to a little town in Germany. It wasn't a town. It was just a place. It was called Auw, Germany. We set up our command post in this house, and this house was kind of isolated. It was, I guess, kind of farm land, but it was quite mountainous. The mountains were about like they are in Utah. They were pretty steep. In this house we put our command post on the first floor. It was a two-story house so we slept up in the attic, or on the top floor. The top floor was like an a attic. It wasn't really lived in, but it had a flooring on it. A bunch of us were up in the attic. I put my bed roll by the chimney thinking that would be a warmer place than anywhere else in the attic. They didn't have fires because they'd show the smoke, so it didn't matter where you were. We were at Auw, Germany, and we had our command post, and then our OPs were sent out--flash OPs up in the mountains and our sound OPsin the surrounding area. We were doing our job there. This area was not defended by the Americans or allies too much because most of the fighting at this time was to the left of us up around and toward Belgium. We were really near Belgium, but there was more activity to our left and to our right. In these mountains, I guess, they thought the Germans wouldn't advance here because the terrain was really rough. WIN: They were down south around the Siegfried Line and then they were north up where the British had the strength. KEI: Yes. That is where the strength was. So we were pretty lightly defended here. But they weren't too worried I don't think because they didn't think anything would happen in these mountains. When we were in this place at Auw we saw the German buzz bombs, the V -1 s. They 24 |
| Reference URL |
https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6mp72gr/1019888 |
