Dekker was ‘Jack of all trades’ in WWII

• Dekker

Julie Buntjer/Daily Globe Jake Dekker holds the document he received after he was discharged from the U.S. Army following World War II. On the back is a listing of the battles and campaigns he fought in, as well as the medals and commendations he received.
• Honor Flight

Honor Flight

Talk about it

Audio

• Jake Dekker talks about a plane, an electrical line and one of his closest calls during World War II.
• Veteran Jake Dekker describes how he was taken to see the bunker where Adolf Hitler committed suicide at the end of World War II in Europe.

More...

• Farm Bleat Blog: Honoring those on the Honor Flight

WORTHINGTON — At the age of 88, Worthington’s Jake Dekker said things happened during his tour of duty throughout Europe in World War II that can be forgotten, but the two things he most wants to forget remain etched in his senses today — the sight and the smell of death.

Dead soldiers, dead livestock — they are the casualties of war one can’t ignore. Despite the bad, there were some positives that came out of World War II — the liberations, the celebrations, the jubilation.

“I’ll never forget the liberation,” said Dekker. “How happy people were — the streets were just lined up.”

The liberations were a sign that the war was being won, and American soldiers would someday soon be able to return to their hometowns as heroes.

Jake Dekker grew up in northwest Iowa, near Boyden, and graduated from the eighth grade before the family moved to Sheldon. At the age of 21, while still living at Sheldon, he was drafted by Uncle Sam.

Dekker reported for duty on Oct. 8, 1942, and completed basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., before going on to mechanical school in Atlanta, Ga., and then inspector foreman school in Omaha, Neb. Once the trainings were complete, he was assigned to the 332nd Engineering Company of the U.S. Army.

A 10-day furlough allowed him to return to his family in northwest Iowa for some final goodbyes before he shipped out on the Queen Mary for a five-day journey that ended with a landing in northern Scotland.

“From there, we rode the train all the way to the southern part of England,” Dekker said. “When I got there, they issued me a vehicle — a small weapons vehicle that stayed with me through the whole war.”

Dekker said the operations at England were like nothing he could have imagined. Pairs of wooden wagon wheels were set up with a wooden telephone poles extending from the center to make it appear as though cannons littered the countryside — a trick played on the German Air Force.

“I even saw fake airports and the Germans would bomb them,” he said with a smile.

Dekker and his fellow soldiers spent a year in England, their stay coming to an end shortly after June 6, 1944 — the day the allied forces invaded Normandy, France, commonly referred to as D-Day.

“It was 4 a.m. and there was a roar up in the sky,” said Dekker. “At that time we knew it started. When there was a beachhead (shoreline secured by American troops), they ordered us to go in.”

Dekker and his small weapons vehicle boarded a ship for Normandy Beach and, about a mile off shore, they were transferred to landing barges to take them the rest of the way.

“I had to run my vehicle on a net that was lifted from the ship to the barge,” Dekker recalled. “I told them to be careful — there was a half-ton of TNT in the back of it.”

After landing on the beachhead, Dekker said the unit headed toward Cherbourg, France, where they were placed under the Army of Gen. George S. Patton Jr.

The troops were able to travel through the country without resistance because the French underground had everything under control, Dekker said. Eventually, the men moved to the north and east toward Liége, Belgium. They had been there a few months when the Battle of the Bulge broke out on Dec. 16, 1944.

The Danger Zone

Dekker lived in fear every day of his life while serving his country. There was the fear of sniper fire, the fear of the German V-1 and V-2 bombs that were shot high in the sky and landed on no specific targets, and the fear of Germans who impersonated American soldiers.

“The Germans dropped about 200 soldiers in American uniforms that could talk English,” explained Dekker. Their job was to sabotage the American troop line, but they weren’t successful. After the Americans learned of the act, they implemented a rigorous line of questioning for soldiers.

Dekker said he was stopped multiple times each day and quizzed on where he was from, what was the capital city of his state and what was his serial number.

“They caught (the Germans) because they never learned their serial number — their dog tag,” he added.

Perhaps the most harrowing of Dekker’s experiences occurred while taking part in a convoy and hearing the sirens sound to alert the troops of a potential air attack.

“I saw two planes approaching and what could I do?” Dekker said.

As the planes came closer, they could see that it was a pair of American planes, but then the pilots began firing missiles at the convoy. One such missile struck a trolley car and severed the cable, causing the cable to land on the truck directly in front of Dekker’s vehicle. There were 16 soldiers in the truck, in addition to the drivers, and they were all killed instantly due to electrocution.

“I froze, but it never hit me,” Dekker said, describing what he saw in front of him as a bunch of Caucasian soldiers whose skin was blackened by the high voltage line that landed atop their vehicle.

As it turned out, the planes they saw that day indeed belonged to the U.S., but they had been captured and restored by the Germans and were being flown by German soldiers intent on killing Americans.

While bombs and air attacks were the biggest enemy for the American G.I.’s, Dekker said he was fired at many times by snipers. Never once was he struck, however.

“You were always in fear,” he said. “I wouldn’t go through that again for a million bucks.”

Dekker’s day to day tales of war were recorded in daily letters sent via V-Mail to his parents in northwest Iowa.

“I had to promise my parents I would write a letter every day, which I did,” he said. “My sister kept them all - every letter in two and a half years.”

An end to the war

After victory in Europe was declared on May 8, 1945, Dekker and his fellow soldiers were ranked by a point system. Those with enough points were allowed to return home, while those with lesser amounts were going to be sent to Japan to continue the war effort there.

Fortunately for Dekker, he had accumulated enough points to earn his walking papers. Before he left Europe behind, however, he took an opportunity to do a little sightseeing - including bartering a pack of cigarettes for a tour of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, where Adolf Hitler had committed suicide.

The return trip home aboard a Kaiser Liberty ship lasted 10 days because of a major storm at sea. Dekker said their ship was operated by the Merchant Marines, who basically parked the ship in the ocean as swells reaching 40 feet high crashed down upon them. Many of the soldiers became seasick because of all of the rocking the ship did during the voyage.

Dekker returned to northwest Iowa after his honorable discharge on Sept. 26, 1945. By then, he had served eight months and one day on U.S. soil for training and two years, four months and five days in overseas action.

Upon his return, his girlfriend Fannie was waiting for him. The two had talked about getting engaged before he left for the war, but opted not to because of the uncertainty of his return. The two were married on February 26, 1946, and farmed for six years near Sheldon, Iowa, before purchasing a farm near Fulda. Fannie died a few years ago. The two had been married for nearly 62 years.

During his tour of duty, Dekker served in five battles and campaigns, including Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe. Because of his service, he received the European-African-Middle Eastern Theater ribbon, the Silver Battle Star, a service stripe, four overseas service bars and the Good Conduct medal. Five years ago, during a ceremony in Worthington, Dekker was also presented with the Normandy Jubilee of Liberty medal.

His next honor will come in the spring, when he hopes to join his fellow World War II soldiers on the Southwest Minnesota Honor Flight to see their memorial in Washington, D.C.

Tags: honor flight, southwest minnesota honor flight, rock county, world war ii, news, luverne, radio, veterans