JM:  My name is James B. Metsch. That's spelled like a match, "metsch".  I'm 78 and my birthday comes this September 30th, again.

AD:  Jim, where were you on December 7th, 1941?

JM:  Watching a football game on tv...

AD:  On television?

JM:  Radio... listening to...

AD:  Radio.

JM:  Radio... and uh... they interrupted... talked about Pearl Harbor... I uh... was very shocked.  We live in a wonderful country.  Most people respond to defending.  I tried to join the Air Force and they turn me down because I had a hole in my eardrum.  I went to Canadian Air Force... figuring they might take me and they said "What makes you think that if the US Air Force doesn't want you that we would want you?" (laughs)

AD:  Where were you living in 19...

JM:  Elmhurst, Long Island... and uh... I had one brother that was outfitting ships here in Wilmington, North Carolina and another brother who was in the Air Force.  So there were three boys in my mother's family.  My dad died when I was quite young... uh, he died at 49 and I was in my very early teens...

AD:  So what branch of the Service did you eventually get into?

JM:  I got into the US Army and I was in the Signal Corps... when you first get in they give you all kinds of tests and then they do a shuffling game and they assign you to some place and I started out in Wilmington, Delaware, at Fort DuPont, and the first Signal Company of the United States Army. (laughs)

AD:  What date was it?

JM:  Ooo... I can't remember...

AD:  1942 sometime... JM:  Yeah.  And, uh... I started schooling in radio and that was my "spec" number for my occupation work and that was radio repair.  They sent me even to Washington to a school for trying to repair coding and decoding devices.  And when I got there, I was delayed from going into classes because the FBI , were investigating me, couldn't locate the information that they had from my birth, which was in Manhattan.  I was born at 33rd & Third Avenue... I don't think I could be more "New York City" (laughs).   And the... in those days you were born in your home... and in those days it was not usual for the Doctor, who delivered you... on the kitchen table... to drink a little bit.  It was weeks after I was born, that they were able... that he registered me in the City.  And, my Grandmother, on my Mother's side, told the Doctor not to give me the name "James" because they had so many "Jameses" (laughs) pass away in their family.   So, he registers me as "John".  And that really threw the investigators for a loop... so, they wouldn't let me in school for over a week. (laughs)

AD:  (laughs) And then what happened?

JM:  Well, by the time I got back, the company I started with... uh... was sent overseas and uh... they were already gone when I was through with schooling so they sent me to uh... 94th Signal Battalion Headquarters Company and that was uh... my assignment. They were located at Di... Fort Dix, at the time and uh... we left for overseas from there.

AD:  Where did you go, to Europe?

JM:  Went to Europe... we landed in England.  Its amazing, the military had everything pretty well organized... uh, we landed on the west coast of England.   Took off from there by truck... went through little villages in England and  knocked walls down and corners of houses and everything because our equipment was so big... and uh... wound-up in the east coast, put on a ship "New Amsterdam" which was a very old ship... as the people who supplied ships to send troops in... they supplied the oldest ships going (laughs).  This Holland-American Line had... that was her introduction big ship and she's had three more since then called "New Amsterdam".  Being an old ship, it was very high and uh... when we landed... by the way, the food was horrible...  we had Indian crew who were cooking on top of the deck.  They were trying to separate liver to cook it and they had bare feet and bare hands... they were trying to rip it apart to cook it (laughs).  I was lucky enough to get one of the crew to sell me a can of sardines and a box of crackers and that's what I ate...

AD:  Where did you land it Europe?

JM:  Omaha Beach.  We got there... "D plus 6" uh... we climbed... that was one of the most frightening things I'd ever been down... was climbing off that ship with the net... it was a great big net and here the landing craft went down there and was going back and forth opening up a big space between the ship and the net and also coming back with a bang... and if you happened to hit the water between... you're dead.  Uh... you carried everything you owned on your back including weapon so it wasn't easy transfer to that rope with all this weight and then going so far... and you had to jump to hit the landing craft.  Uh... I (laughs) luck...  jumped and got in the landing craft and once in there felt very comfortable.  We headed into the Beach and thank goodness at that point the operation at the Beach was just a matter of walking off with everything you had. However, as you did in the Service, you gathered with your buddies and started to chat... what's comes next uh... while we're in a circle talking, a mine went off by itself and I had a mackinaw on and it tore the arm sleeve of the mack... tore the side jacket of the mackinaw and didn't touch me.  I figured I 'd picked-up an angel at that point and that angel stayed with me the whole war.  We went up to the farms above Omaha Beach and uh... bivouacked that night waiting for further orders... where to go.  We had a young Lieutenant who made us clear all the cow dung off the field and then in the morning, when we got up before we left, we had to go off the field bring it back and put it on the field (laughs).  He learned sooner or later that he wasn't going to do that very much longer (laughs).  At any rate, uh... we were assigned to the Third Army as their Signal Battalion and uh... we started to go north along the shore.  I don't remember why, uh... I guess that's just where the Third Army was going to get together and work its way... actually work our way to Metz.  Uh... we were at Metz, surrounding the city of Metz when uh... word came of the Bulge.  And we packed-up, we were under General Patton, we packed-up and in twelve to fourteen hours we were in Arlon, Belgium...

AD:  Where in Belgium?

JM:  Arlon.  It's a pretty large city... it was Christmas time and we went to the local orphanage, it was run by a group of nuns, and told them we wanted to take care of the kids for Christmas.  We collected, amongst all the fella's in our outfit... their mirrors, their shaving lotion... anything that you could have made a gift out of... we put up a big Christmas tree in their lobby and decorated it with toilet tissue... (laughs) ...it was a real fun time.  At that point, things started to get hot.  Um... the Generals had no communication to England or to the rear.  So, that was the first real serious job we had to do... went in and uh... got the radio transmitters all working and I can remember one... (laughs) one of the Generals as soon as he could hear somebody and talk to somebody he'd push me away and say, "That's good enough!" (laughs) ... could have had it perfect in few more... in a few more minutes but he wanted to get on that radio and start calling-in planes.  They called-in flights, I forget how they identify them, they were big flights... and then he'd say, "Double them!" (laughs) And they told him how many more flights were coming and he say, "Double that!"  It was very rainy, at the time, or foggy, so the Germans had a big advantage, they knew how to come down through the valleys, artillery couldn't get them... the valleys weren't broad enough and the planes couldn't see them so they had to have sight-to-ground communications in order to stop this German Army... which they did.  Uh... the village that was surrounded by the Germans... uh... that was so wonderful in their defense... I'm trying to think of the name of it... At any rate, uh... it snowed like the dickens... we were covered with snow.  And, I can remember how great some fella's were... uh.... young fella' with a jeep, and what was known as a "399 Radio", drove in and his radio was out.  He had his hand all bandaged-up with blood showing through.  I suggested that he go to our medics and have his hand taken care of because it takes a while to figure out what's wrong...  He refused to leave the jeep because the minute we had it working he was going back... and his buddies needed him.  And, that's the kind of  people we had in the Army... loads and loads of nice people.  Uh... I would be sent out daily to a big transmitter someplace or other, usually up on top of big hills along (?) villages.  I worked with a buddy by the name of McGoff (?) and he was a genius in radio work.  He had worked with some of the original founders of radios...  absolutely a genius... unfortunately, he was quite a heavy alcoholic and when we're out, first thing he was always looking for was getting a drink.  We were in this little village, being directed by a young Air Force man who was supposed to be our guide, and one of them wanted to get out and go onto this tavern and I was sure the woman, behind the glass windows in the tavern, was waiving and "no"ing (?), saying "Mosh... mosh!" (?)   So I got a hold of McBonn (?)... McGoff and put him back in the jeep and said, "We've got to go on from here!"  At any rate, when we got to the spot, way up overlooking this village, the uh... fella' said "Where you been?"  and we told him that we were in this village... he said, "You couldn't have been, there's a whole German Division in that village!" (laughs)  I said, "Well, they didn't want to expose themselves, that's why they didn't... didn't rap us up!" At any rate,  he said, "You get this damn thing fixed and I'll show you where they are..."  At any rate, we got it fixed.  He called-in the flight... I remember the name of the flight, "Pink Pig".  They rotated over... above where we were... and he was saying such and such a coordinate, "There's a barn, in that barn there's a tank" and the guy, in charge of the flight, would enumerate (?) one bomb and they were fighter bombers, down to take care of them... barn...  Sure enough, when they hit it, there was a tank in there and the Germans started all over the place.  Whole town was alive with Germans but they never bothered us because they didn't want to expose that they were there!

AD:  What... what... country were you in, at this point... still in Belgium?

JM:  Uh... still, I believe still in Belgium... uh... not sure... but uh... I was lucky.  I had a fabulous partner who knew the business of radio.  I was more of a soldier than I was a radio repairman.  So the "team" worked very  well... We fixed many, many transmitters all over the place and uh... got to see an awful lot of different areas, during the War, because we would go to where ever they needed us... and uh..

AD:  In the Third Army, that is?

JM:  That's right and that was uh... quite an experience... I 'd never want to go through it again and never wanted to miss it!   I think most fella's feel that same way.   Uh... I can remember leaving one of these radios and we fixed and we tried to take a shortcut back to the roadway and we were going over a big hill, in the jeep, and machine gun started.   You didn't look for them (laughs) you just kept going with your head down.  I can remem... recall trying to get back to our outfit on a major highway... macadam road and I saw this tank coming and thought, our boys are here... I went right by them and they went right by me and it was a German tank going the other way.  Uh... there's an awful lot of confusion when you're in the Service... you don't have everything at your fingertips.  We were at the Remagen Bridge when we captured it.  Sounds crazy, but the first one across the Remagen Bridge was a Signal Company... we we're way ahead of where we were supposed to be.   The British were standing there so the fellows took a jeep and went across. The men from Germany were all..., by that time, all old men or children and they were in a tunnel it was a railroad bridge... railroad went right in that tunnel and they were trying to defend it but with the power the... the US Army had...

AD:  Was that your outfit that crossed the Bridge.. those guys from your outfit?

JM:  That's right...

AD:  Remagen, that's famous... yes.

JM:  Uh... I'm trying to think of the General in charge at that point.  Uh... he radioed back to Paris where they were holding meetings on how to cross the Rhine and who crosses first and they decided back there that Patton was going to cross first and where he was going to cross... We ruined all their plans (laughs).  At any rate, aft... that was a wine district and believe me, the American soldiers knew how to find alcohol every place they were...  Uh, one of our men drown in a vat of wine... he was up trying to get in... fell in and couldn't survive and he drown.  When we left there, every gasoline tank... we had these five gallon tanks on our vehicles... every one was filled with wine.  And... (laughs) it's quite amusing but that's just what happens when you're in circumstances like that...  At any rate, we finally crossed... oh, we had an awful couple nights of artillery from the Germans because they wanted that Bridge down.  We were alerted that they were sending men in water suits to try to send uh... explosives to blow the Bridge.  We were recruited as Infantry those two nights, to protect the Bridge.  And we were in this great big chateau over looking the river... gorgeous home of some sort... while we were waiting to be posted we'd sit in this gorgeous old living room polishing our bullets, figuring it was going to do 'em some good... (laughs) it didn't do any good...  That's what you do to stay occupied when you're going to face something.  We were stationed in a forest around this beautiful old estate and told to shoot anything that moved... anybody (?)....  (laughs) I was scared to death because in our outfit were so many guys that were not trained defenders in any way whatsoever.  They were real gun happy and they were put on this line trying to protect the area.  And, as the artillery would hit the trees it'd explode up above.  I remember getting so frightened that I had to upchuck and I was afraid to make noise in case the guy next to me thought something was happening to me and shoot me.  So I bit the bark of the tre, that I was standing behind, in order to control my stomach... I was throwing-up, being frightened.  So uh, that was... morning came and I don't think you even saw that even the leaves... shot-up... because all night long the fire... the firing was going on.  Yet I didn't see a German.... and we got all of them.

AD:  After this, where did... where did the Third Army go... where did you guys go after you  crossed the Rhine?

JM:  We crossed... went up a great big hill with a Convoy... I can remember my equipment was a two-and-a-half ton truck with a bus bay (?) in the back, two work benches and trailered a three-quarter ton "howie ring" (?)... I didn't think the truck would ever make it up the hill and we got going... and I'm sorry I can't remember names... but we were heading into Germany.  Actually, we were heading towards Vienna... I'd have to look at a map to see why...  And, we came to a town that the Germans had one of their prison camps in.  There was a little British Air Force Officer who was at the town... he had just been liberated out of this prison... it was my first experience with a German prison which was horrid!  The inmates there were like children... and they just roamed around looking for something to eat.  They'd fight over a potato... They tried riding bicycles that belonged to the Germans that lived there... they couldn't even ride a bicycle but... really, the whole experience was shocking, watching them.  I was left behind at that town because I had a vehicle with a Major or a Captain and we were instructed to act like Military Police until the Military Police could catch-up with us.   At any rate, while we were there, a German priest came in with two great, heavy women jibbering like mad, in German.  I guess I was one of the few people who could understand what they were saying, but I didn't understand correctly and uh... what I understood... they had a little farming village and that village was uh... being held by SS Troopers and they were abusing their women and so the Major, Captain whatever he was, said that... "Will you go out and take care of it?.  And, he had his little British Officer go along with me as company, and the big heavy women showed us the way to where they were... in the back.  We got above this village and I instinctively gave the British Officer my machine gun and said, "You cover me while I go down..."  He called back to me shortly and said, "Belymey, they're Yanks".  And I said, "Well, you keep covered, don't exposed yourself, they won't understand your uniform... you're liable to get killed".  I said, "I'll go down myself."  He had given me this Belgian pistol he had liberated... put into my jacket.  When I got down into this town, one street this way, one street that way, really nothing of a town and uh... when I got out of the jeep I took my hand grenade out of the package that was always taped to the steering wheel and started into the town... I got to a corner and I got a carbine in my head and (laughs) it turned-out this fellow wasn't going to give himself up because he could get into big, deep trouble. Uh... we stood there for so long... and I had pulled the pin on the hand grenade and held it out and said, "Ok, you hit me and you're gone too because this hand grenade will go off!".  I don't know how long we stayed there but he finally turned-over the gun to me and I took him back in.  He was a member of the... oh, I'm trying to... "Redball Express"... that was the trucking concern that the military had developed to keep them supplied and they were very, very good... they ran trucks constantly.  And uh... what they had decided to do, was take over this village and left one guy to take care of it and visited this village and visit the young ladies that lived there...

AD:  Are these Americans?  This is an American guy?

JM:  Yep.  Actually, "Red Ball Express" was all black.  I'm not knocking the blacks... this is their way of living... And they did one helluva' a big job of delivering the needed supplies we needed, constantly... but uh... this is how they operated that little place... and how... the reason I was so happy to go out and find this... I knew she was calling them SS Troops and I thought I'd pick-up a pistol (laughs).

AD:  So, where did you go... this is now somewhere around 1945, I gather, where did you go from there?

JM:  Nuremburg.  Uh... we were permitted to occupy any buildings or facilities that the Germans had occupied whether we were in France, Belgium... no matter where.  In Belgium, the place in Arlon that we lived in, from our outfit, was a great big old castle... and uh... talk about that angel... we had a great big room in that castle... wood floors... we brought in our cots set them up in there... Germans had a "Bed Check Charlie", a small plane that would come over every night and drop a bomb or two.  One night, he dropped one on this building... went right through the building, through the room we were in all the way down to the basement... never blew-up!  (laughs) I say (?)... angels all over the place, protecting me.  At any rate,  uh... when we were in Nuremburg, we took over a big brewery... again, the guys inbibed (?) pretty heavy.  They wanted to and they could...  We were in this brewery when word came that the German Army had given-up.  Everybody celebrated and we were told to stand pat (?)... we'd get our orders.  About four or five days later, our orders came and all the equipment we had to repair... radios, service things, which we had a lot of German equipment because they had good equipment... when we captured their stuff we used a lot of it.  We were told to take it to the dump and get rid of it. (laughs)  All of our equipment that we waited months and months and months to catch up with us... uh... we took to the dump and dumped it.  I understand that was to protect industry in Europe from collapsing because the Americans left so much behind. At that time they were negotiating with France for trucks.  France needed truck transportation and farmers needed equipment badly.  The big negotiation was that... if we gave them the equipment, they wouldn't sell it for more than "x" number of dollars. Let's say, a truck couldn't bring more than $3,000.  They finally settled with the French government and we turned-over all the stuff to them... in the way of rolling equipment.  Uh... I tell you the technic... (?) and little incidents which absolutely amazed me...

AD:  How long were you in Europe, after the War ended, Jim?

JM:  I had all the points to come home but I had the wrong MOS (?) number and they wanted me to sign up, stay in, and go to Washington and work there.  But uh... I was long overdue when I finally did come home.  I can't give you the date... I came home on one of the beautiful American ships, "SS America".  And uh... once I had a friend who was Sergeant-Major of the Theater in Paris, Irish man (?) from Boston, and I said "For God sakes, get that number off my record or I'll never get home".  Sure enough, by the time he got that number off my records... now there still in St. Louis, my master record but uh... the movement came to get me back.... I was sent back  to Paris.   While I was (?) in Paris, I was uh... ordered to fix many of the theatre's PA systems because they were entertaining the soldiers.  Uh... the owners of the theatres were so grateful that they gave me a lifetime box seat... I'm the only thing that was visible to them from the US Army... I went around to the Red Cross and gave them this box seat and they were thrilled.  They wanted to know did I need any cigarettes...   And they finally said, "What did you do in Paris for leave?".  I said, "I use to go to the horse races... or I 'd like to go to the horse races..."  The one girl who was in charge of the French Red Cross, lit up... she said, "You wait here I 'm going to my office.   She went to her office, wrote a note, she said, "My brother is head of the French Racing Commission." (laughs) Ann-Marie DeCargelai (?)  She said, "...when you go to the racetrack just hand the men at he gate this and... you'll be greeted by my brother."  At any rate...

AD:  So when did you get back home?  What, did you come back... to New York?

JM:  Came back to New York... Uh... I think the thing I remember most about getting back home... is here I was back in the States, and the trains we were put on at the railroad yards to go to New Jersey to be discharged, were smothered with fella's selling ice cream pops for two dollars a piece! (laughs) and I said, "I knew we were back home..."

AD:  What did you do after you got discharged, Jim?  How old were you then, by that... by this time now?

JM:  Oh, trying to... early twenties, uh... I went back to the company I had left to go in the Service which was a retail company in New York City, Fifth Avenue, W.K. Sloan... very fine home furnishings company.  I was lucky... I met my wife there... best gal I've ever met.  At any rate, she was in Personnel... she teases... she looked at the records of the fellows coming back and she picked me. (laughs)  We uh... had a fine company... I ... very distressed because that company was about a hundred and ten years old when it was rated... in those days, when I first got back, many corporations in the States, were being rated by these pariahs who had looked-up what they owned and who they could capitalize on it... and we owned a big store, eight stories high, at 47th and Fifth Avenue, a quarter of a block.  We owned a warehouse, 29th Street between 10th and 11th Avenue and it was again seven or eight stories high, the whole block long for our warehouse.   We had a fleet of about 65 trucks for delivering furniture and this was too tempting for this guy Soboloff (?) to turn up... he found one person who helped him in rating (?) this company a fellow by the name of Ben Coates (?) who was the son-in-law of John Sloan and uh... he used his knowledge of the Sloan family in order to get the stock for Soboloff to take over...    They were very good to me, as a company, but they were protecting and making their own interest...

AD:  Did you retire from this company?

JM:  No, I was asked to go to the West Coast to run their West Coast operations, San Francisco, and uh... I knew I  couldn't.... I feel I couldn't trust them so I looked for other work.  I got a hold of the management of Drexel (?) Heritage which is a North Carolina company and they were pleased to take me on.  So, I went from retail... at that point I was up... I lived in Woodbridge, Connecticut and opened up a store in New Haven.  I was opening many stores for them and uh... they gave me a territory that included a great deal of New England and eastern Canada.

AD:  By now, you're married to this lovely lady and had a family I'm sure...

JM:  Oh, and how!... I'll tell you one other instance that my wife, I don't think recalls... but I was wheeling a baby carriage, along Vine (?) Road in Stanford Connecticut where we lived, with our first child, and the air raid sirens came off... it broke my heart!...

AD:  How many children did you two have?

JM:  Three... three boys.  Uh.... I guess I skipped-over an awful lot of things that happened to me in the Service but uh... its hard to remember things unless something brings something to mind...

AD:  Yeah... where do you live today, you are retired... I guess so?

JM:  I'm retired.  I live in North Carolina, here in Sunset Beach in a place called "Sea Trails" which is a complex of three different golf courses.

AD:  I know, I've played it.

JM:  You have? Well we have a wonderful home, thanks to my wife who was a smart investor in her day... and uh... we overlook 14th Fairway which is a par 5 on... what's the name of that course... "Maples (?) Course".

AD:  I have one last question for you Jim, I ask to all the people that I interview, what did you think about us dropping the Atom Bomb when they dropped it?

JM:  I felt so good about it... uh... because the people that worked in that Pacific Theater really, really gave up an awful lot... and if they had to go into Japan... Japan was so strongly against surrendering anything that they would have really be beaten-up.  Uh... my brother who was in the Air Force was down in Europe, was put in a prison camp, escaped that, got back to England, but he couldn't fly in Europe, once you escape from a prison camp, so they sent him to the Western Theater and he uh... was B-17 crew and I knew he was going to be in trouble over there [video camera starts to run out of tape or battery?] ... so the Atom Bomb ended the War for everybody... [tape abruptly ends].