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July 1, 2001
12:20 pm
Cabin Creek, West Virginia
Interview with Harlan Fraker -
77 year old WWII Hero -Cabin Creek, West Virginia Coal Miner
Interviewed by: Betty Dotson Lewis
www.appalachiacoal.com
I was invited to Cabin Creek, West Virginia by former Secretary of the State of
West Virginia, Dr. Ken Heckler
When I arrived at the gathering which was being recorded by National Geographic
and a Film Documentary Crew, I was warmly greeted by Harlan Fraker.
"Honey, what is someone looking like you doing on
Cabin Creek?"
I told him I was looking for oral histories from West Virginia Coal Miners and
Veterans for my website: www.appalachiacoal.com
I was the lucky one to capture a first time
told World War II story.
Harlan Fraker............
I was in the Invasion of France, I was just a young boy, I
had never seen no ocean, I didn’t know what no ocean was. I was in WWII, I got
3 bronze stars from the Invasion of North African, the Invasion of Sicily in
Italy and the invasion of France. I
was just a young boy and then I came back here and worked in the mines 24 years.
So, Honey I have done it all.
I say to Harlan, "This is a great story, can I record it?"
Record it, I ain’t never done anything like this before. "
I guess so"
When I was 6 years old I had to get up every morning and
milk the cows, feed the hogs and walk a mile to school, that was when I was 6
years old.
Well, a man came along I got to be 15 years old and he said, “Son, you are a good worker and everything, I
want you to go work in timber for me.”
And
that was pulling a crosscut saw daylight to dark, we didn’t have a chainsaw
back then. And that was pulling a
crosscut from daylight to dark for a dollar and ½ a day. I swear to God.
Well,
my aunt said, “Come out here to Ohio,”
I was 17 then, "and we will get you a job."
Well, I wasn’t 18 years old and I couldn’t get a job in the plant so
I had to get a job in the laundry and that was 25 cents a hour. That was what I made in laundry.
So, I got a letter from Uncle Sam, that said, “WE NEED YOU BOY"
"UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU."
I said, “Lord, have mercy", I ain’t been out of West Virginia just up
to Akron, Ohio.
I said, “I
don’t know nothing about the Service."
They said, “What do you want Marines, Army or Navy?”
I said, “Well, I will take the Navy.”
I took my boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, “Have you ever been
there?” I took my boot camp
there. They sent me to gunnery
school.
I was in the gunnery and I went to Gulf Port, Miss. to learn all about
guns and 5/8 and 38s and all that stuff and from there they said, "You are going to
catch a ship out of Savannah, Georgia".
I
caught a ship out of Savannah, Georgia and we went to Casablanca and when we got
there, before we got there, we got sunk; a German torpedo hit us and I got sunk.
I had to stay there, I don’t know, 6 months I think, I stayed in
Morocco, Casablanca.
I come back I
thought well my invasion days are over because I had done went through the
Invasion of North Africa and Casablanca and I had a ship sunk out from under me
and I thought they are going to put me, you know, back here to tell all these
other boys what happened and what to do and everything.
No, I had to catch another shock, SSM Sheridan out of Savannah, yep,
caught it and I went to (made 3 or 4 trips over there) I went to Murmansk,
Russia and that was the coldest place I have ever seen and we had one of
these big mallie engines strapped on top of the ship, big mallie engine,
took it over there and they dumped it in the water, the crane broke, they dumped
it in the water and the damn crane broke.
Well, it took them 2 weeks to get more cranes in there to put
this mallie engine in there and
their track was 10 inches wider than ours and it wouldn’t
work. We had done hauled that
thing.... and then for this to happen.
The durn 6th day of June,
Oh, Oh, Oh, I will never forget that day as long as I live. The 6th day of June I was 19
years old and we went in the Invasion of France.
We lost about 5,020 men in about 20 minutes.
I said, “Oh Lord," I got down on my knees and I said,
“God, if there is a God, just help me!”
I had never prayed before..
I
didn’t know God or nothing but let me tell you something,
I looked at my buddy and he didn’t have no head.
I went to comb my hair and brains was in my hair.
(I am telling you this, I don’t tell this to nobody)
but it is like a big dream to me anymore.
He was an ole boy by the name of Grimes, he was from Tennessee, he said, “Harlan,
when I get back home, he lived on a farm or something.
He said, “When I get back home, I am going to find the biggest cowpile
there and I am going to take my shoes off
and step in that until it squirts between my toes", but he didn’t make
it. He didn't make it.
You had a friend one day, you
didn’t have a friend the next day.
I had to bury men, ... I had to bury men,
buried over 5,000 in about 3 days. They
got their markers out there now, I didn't know how they did this, but we was diggin’
ditches and pourin’ em there. Take
the dog tags off of them and pour in
this ditch and now they got markers all over France, grave makers and
everything.
They tell them, the families, they are sending their boys
back home. They didn’t send them boys back home, they sent a coffin back home.
We buried them and we just had a big ditch, we had a big ditch and
bulldozed over. We just had a big ditch. We throwed the Germans, the Italians,
everybody in there, in the same ditch and covered them over with a big
bulldozer. You couldn’t
pick out one...now, the people here, they think...when they say,
“Oh, we are going to send the body back", all they do is send the coffin
back. You know, to make the family
feel good. They are still over there.
I
get over there in England, I didn’t know their money or nothing.
You see they count their money by 20 cents and we count by 25. Well, a Shilling is 20 cents just like our quarter is 25, a
pound note is like our five dollars but it is only worth four dollars, a pound
note, they count in fours instead
of fives.
North African, la, mercy,
I seen women, you know how the
cobble bricks streets are, "You ain’t
never seen them, have you, darling"?
These cobble bricks, our horses went by and done their
business in the streets and these women was out there in their aprons picking up
corn to eat out of that horse dung. They
was hungry, honey, they was hungry. You would not believe it.
These women was out picking
that corn up and hiding in their aprons for something to eat.
You don’t know what hungry is.
Then
I come back home. I couldn’t
settle down, I still had the war on my mind.
I couldn’t settle down. I
went around 4 or 5 years. I
couldn’t hold a job. My mind was
tore up. I just couldn’t focus.
Then finally I did, I got to where I could hold down a job, I worked for
24 years in the mines.
I had a lot of little ole girlfriends in New Castle, England,
Liverpool. Well, I was just 19 and
them girls was just 14; 14 years old back then
you was a grown woman. I had a lot
of girlfriends.
I want to go back.
I would love to go over there to Casablanca and North African.
I would love to go back. I
know everything has changed now but I would love to go back and put my foot on the
ground that I walked on when I was 19. And
Sicily, I would love to put my feet
on the ground there in Sicily and where I went for the Invasion of France, I
would love to put me feet in Normandy.
Invasion,
that morning I will never forget, Lord, the only thing I ever knew was get out
here and shoot squirrels or something, I
didn’t know they was going to shoot back at me. I
didn't know men was going to shoot back at me.
You talk to one boy one minute and the next he was gone.
I was feeding a 20 millimeter and my buddy was running the 20 millimeter
and I looked around and he wouldn’t shootin' anymore. He stopped shootin'.
He didn’t have no, he didn’t
have no head and I when I saw that I said, “Lord, Lord, have mercy.
Mommy, Mommy, where are you?"
I wish I was
back there eatin some cornbread and beans and some taters.
I was just a young boy, Hell, I didn’t know. I
didn't know what life was all about.
Well, I had trained there in Gulfport, Mississippi,
Biloxi. "Have you ever been there?"
I trained
there. I didn’t know.
(I am telling you this sweetheart and I don’t ever tell nobody
nothing). We got sunk there in the
English Channel. We struck a mine
there in the English Channel going in there in the Invasion of France.
Sunk that ship. It all seems
like a dream anymore. We had men
stacked up high as a 2 story building, blood running down street. Blood
ran in the streets just like water in a creek. Shooo... Taking dog tags off each one of them, you got so you
didn’t care, you knowed good and well you are next and I pulled through it and
I don’t know how but I said, “God, I said, “If there is a God up there, I
said, I want to know who He is.”
I
said, “I don’t want no twixt and tweens, I want to talk to the Main Man."
I
was desperate, I said, “ I want to talk to the Main Man", and I believe he
brought me through. I do. The
Main Man brought me through.
Come back home, I couldn’t hold a job, my nerves was all broke, tore
up, I couldn’t hold a job.
My Daddy would say, “Go out and get you a job.”
I would get a job but I couldn’t hold it.
My mind was so tore up and finally I did settle down and I worked 24
years in the coal mines here in Cabin Creek, West Virginia, right at the foot of this hill
where we are today. Where you came to today.
I went in the mines there. I
worked underground. I run the
shuttlecar, I could run anything they had, I run the continuous miner.
I asked Harlan what all his medals
were for:
I shot down 2 German planes. I shot down 2 German planes,
they was Straffins, called them Straffins.
I don’t know if you know what I am talking about.
I got 2 Bronze Stars for that, then I got a Bronze Star for going in the
Invasion of North African.
Everything is on my record out there in Washington D.C. I
mean I don’t know where they keep the records but they told me DC.
I have been through Hell and I am 77 honey and I see these young boys, I can remember
the time when I pulled a crosscut for $1.50 a day and all I got was cornbread
and beans and taters.
end of interview
I gave Harlan a hug and thanked him for his story. I told him how sorry I
was he had to go through that. He thanked me for listening. He raised up
out of his lawn chair and strolled up on the bank, laid down in the cool grass
beneath a big Oak tree, he laid his head on both hands cupped together.
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