Veteran Don Moffitt received a Purple Heart in World War II

• Don Moffitt

World War II veteran Don Moffitt displays some of his wartime memorabilia. (Julie Buntjer/Daily Globe)

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• World War II veteran Don Moffitt explains how he received his Purple Heart.
• Moffitt describes being attacked during World War II.

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• Veteran Al Schnieder fought for our freedom

Holland man earns five battle stars, Bronze Star and Purple Heart during World War II

HOLLAND — More than halfway through his tour of duty as a radioman following the U.S. Army’s front lines through Europe, Don Moffitt and his fellow soldiers in the 3rd Armored Division came upon the city of Nordhausen, Germany, and its Nazi labor camp. There, they saw hundreds of emaciated bodies stacked in piles outside the Brausebad, the bath house that doubled as a gas chamber.

For Moffitt, the sights and smells reinforced why he was there — serving his country and battling a German military intent on taking over Europe.

At age 20, Moffitt was on the verge of seeing his best friend report for the draft when he decided to enlist in the Army. Though he had hoped to stay with Woody Lepper, the two Pipestone County boys were separated within a couple of weeks. Lepper went to work as a medic and was assigned to the Hawaiian Islands, and Moffitt would eventually be sent to Europe.

It was November 1941 when Moffitt entered the service at Fort Crook, Neb. He was soon transferred to Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Camp Polk, La., before entering radio school at Fort Knox, Ky. For nearly two months, he was trained in International Morse Code.

“I can tell you more International Morse Code than I can tell you what I done yesterday,” he said with a laugh.

Moffitt would go on to train in the Mojave Desert before transferring in early November 1942 to Camp Pickett, Va., and then to Indiantown Gap, Pa. He eventually boarded the Capetown Castle, a British ship, in New York Harbor, and traveled to Great Britain with the nearly 250-men contingent that made up the 3rd Armored Division.

“It took us 12 days to cross (the Atlantic Ocean),” he said.

They spent the next six to eight months in Great Britain before being sent into battle.

Five battle stars

Moffitt and his fellow soldiers started across the English Channel on D-Day, June 6, 1944, but the wind came up, and the ship was turned back to Southampton, England. About 10 days later, they made their second attempt, this time landing on Omaha Beach.

“And that was our start,” said Moffitt, who earned battle stars for Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes and Central Europe.

“We got in the Battle of the Bulge, too,” he said.

As a radioman riding in a half-track, Moffitt followed behind the soldiers in the front line as they battled their way toward Germany.

Despite his training in Morse Code, he rarely used it on the battlefield. Instead, he and his fellow soldiers communicated via voice radio to keep each company and division headquarters apprised of what was happening.

“I was on the radio two hours, then off two,” said Moffitt. “We were always behind the front line with the half-track.”

“We got shelled quite a little, too — mortars and artillery,” he added. “The first foxhole I dug was about six feet deep, and I never dug another one that deep again. Three guys jumped in on top of me when we started getting shelled, and they pretty near squashed me to death.”

When he and others in his contingent were taking enemy fire, Moffitt said he always thought about a prayer his dad had taught him long ago.

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die — and then I’d stop right there, mid-sentence,” he said.

Death was something they saw every day, but it was nothing they wanted to dwell on.

His Purple Heart

As American troops fought their way through Europe, they were occasionally welcomed into communities by the townsfolk. Such was the case in Charleroi, Belgium.

“It was just like a parade,” Moffitt recalled. “The Belgians were out handing us cakes and drinks. I was up in the ring mount (of the half-track), taking the cakes and drinks and passing them back to the radio operator.

“We got to an opening at the end of Main Street, and the Germans had us zeroed in, and they started firing at us,” he added. “The captain jumped out of the half-track and … said, ‘Back it up,’ to the driver, Al Schnieder of Worthington. (Schnieder) no more than backed it up and a big mortar shell lit right in front of the truck. I had my hand right up on the ring mount and a piece of shrapnel went right through my arm, and that’s how I got the Purple Heart.”

The blast was so powerful that the leather-banded wristwatch Moffitt was wearing was blown right off, and his body blew up like a balloon. He was taken to a nearby home, where a couple offered him a place to stay on a cot in their basement.

“I spent about half a day there and finally got over it,” he said. “I’ve had four bypass surgeries since then and stints put in some of my arteries, but the (Veterans Administration) doctors don’t claim that concussion burst was any part of it.”

Moffitt considered himself lucky to have just a shrapnel wound. The captain who had exited the half-track lost his leg in the attack, and other soldiers were killed. Schnieder, the half-track’s driver, was also hit with shrapnel just above the eye — an injury that earned him a Purple Heart as well.

In addition to his Purple Heart, Moffitt was given the Bronze Star for meritorious service in support of combat operations, and the Presidential Citation Ribbon for outstanding performance of the 1st Battalion in action against the enemy in September 1944. That honor was given in recognition of being the first allied unit to breach in the Siegfried Line, for which the 3rd Armored Division became known as the “Spearhead” Division.

While the shrapnel that earned Moffitt his Purple Heart was the only visible wound he suffered in World War II, he had several close encounters.

“One time we were back, I don’t remember where … we parked our half-track out in this field, and they started shooting mortars,” he recalled.

Most of the soldiers ran toward an overhead bridge for cover, but Moffitt took shelter underneath the half-track.

“The first shell was a little short, the next one was pretty close,” he said. “The next one went over the top, and then they quit firing. I was so scared I tried to get out of there, but my rear end got caught up on the axle, and I couldn’t get out. I finally cooled down, and I got out and went back on the radio.”

War chest

Moffitt has a small cardboard box and another plastic tote that contains some of the souvenirs he collected during his tour of duty in World War II. There’s the Nazi flag he found in the home of a German officer after it was raided and a collection of German medals, too.

“There was nobody in (the house), but clothes were hanging around,” he said.

Other treasures include a compass, paper money and coins taken off of a dead German soldier. A pocket watch, said Moffitt, was lifted off a dead German at Paderborn.

“He was lying dead alongside the porch, and he had this purse sticking out. I took the money out,” he added.

American soldiers thought nothing of taking items off the bodies of their enemies.

“They did off us,” Moffitt said simply.

Going home

Moffitt’s younger brother, Royal, also served in the European Theater as a member of the 75th Infantry during World War II. The two never met during the war, though it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

Royal’s division had passed through Huy, Belgium, one night, and Moffitt went out the next morning in hopes of seeing him. Just before crossing a river to get to where the 75th Infantry was, however, the Germans began shelling his vehicle and forced him to turn back. It wasn’t until both brothers returned home safely that they were reunited.

After the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan, Moffitt was transferred into the 6th Armored Division. He had been told he would be going to the South Pacific, but he was sent home instead

He came back through New York Harbor, and then went on to Camp McCoy, Wis., for his honorable discharge as a T-5 (Technician, fifth grade) on Sept. 27, 1945. After his paperwork was completed, Moffitt pocketed the $300 check he received from the U.S. Army and hitchhiked his way back to Holland.

“I didn’t want to spend (the money) on bus fare,” he said with a laugh.

Moffitt operated a bulk business with Standard Oil Co., for the next 14 years in Holland. It was there that he met his wife, Betty, who was working at the bank at the time. The couple will mark their 64th wedding anniversary this October.

After his stint with Standard Oil, Moffitt went to work for the Holland post office, retiring from there in 1985 after 25 years.

The Moffitts have three sons, Ron, of East Chain, and Rog and Steve, both of Pipestone. They have eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Within about a decade after World War II had ended, the soldiers of the 3rd Armored Spearhead Division began hosting reunions in Branson, Mo. The reunions were conducted every year up until a few years ago.

“There’s only two or three of us left,” said Moffitt. “I’m 90, and another is 93 — he lives in Peoria, Ill.”

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