Interview of Ervin Stocks
Transcript Number 079

Today is September 11, 2001. We're in the Columbus County Library of Whiteville, North Carolina. Today we're talking to Ervin Stocks of Lake Waccamaw, who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II.

ERVIN: I entered the U.S. Navy on September 28, 1944 and ended up in Raleigh, North Carolina. I went to the training center of Camp Perry, Virginia, right outside of Williamsburg, Virginia. I spent three months in basic training. After finishing basic training, I came home in January, the first week of January 1945, for a week's leave. After a week's leave at home, I went back to the outgoing unit at Camp Perry, Virginia and after about a week in the outgoing unit, I was assigned to the U.S.S. Philadelphia.

The U.S.S. Philadelphia at that time was in the dry-docks in the Philadelphia Navy Yard being repaired and having a new bow put on it. It had the bow destroyed prior to going into the dry-dock. She had blisters put on each side which made the ship wider by about four feet or more. 

One time we were in dry-dock, the war ended with the Germans, and that was one of the greatest celebrations and glorious feelings that I have ever had in my life. I was on my way down the street in Philadelphia. It was about 5:00 o'clock in the afternoon, there about, when the automobiles came to a stop, horns started blowing and by the way, where I was walking was about two blocks from the Independence Hall. The bells were ringing, horns were blowing and church bells, that is. I asked someone, what in the world is going on? They said that the war had just ended with Germany. 

Well, I went on to the house and the next day I went back aboard the ship. Through the routine, we all had our celebrations and we began to carry on with our work and get the ship in sailing condition to move out. We were thinking for the Pacific. We took a shakedown cruise after we left dry-dock. We went down in the Caribbean and had target practice down there and tried out all the engines and what-have-you. We found out what was wrong and what needed to be checked out and fixed before we pulled out on the next mission. 

So after shakedown cruise, we came back to Norfolk, Virginia and all the time we were waiting there thinking that we were heading for the Pacific. My brother Nathan came home from Normandy after being over in North Africa, Sicily and Italy. He came home with a discharge. I went to my commanding officer and asked for a pass to come home, which was denied. He said we were under 24 hour sailing notice and could not release any man for any good cause. 

Well, I went downtown and sent a telegram home and asked my brother Nathan if he could, please come to see me, he and my wife. If they couldn't come, to please send me enough money so I could go home because I didn't have enough money to come home. I was thinking I'm going to jump ship. I wanted to see my brother because I remembered I'm going and I want to see that man. I hadn't seen him in four years or about four years. 

So word came that we were under 24 hour sailing notice and we did prepare to sail the next morning. We didn't know where we were going. As we got out to sea, I was assigned the lookout on the ship. By the way, that was my station, my battle station and my duty station, watch station. As we departed and went out to sea to wait for further orders, not knowing what was going on, after we waited scuttlebutt began to come around. 

Hey, we got the President of the United States. We were going to escort him. He's on another ship and we're to meet with him. After a while, here comes the U.S.S. Augusta, a heavy cruiser and I was aboard the U.S.S. Philadelphia, light cruiser, a CL41. We didn't know where we were going, but anyway, they didn't tell us that, but anyway, we headed for Europe. 

Going to Antwerp, Belgium and taking the President of the United States to the Potsdam Conference which was in Berlin. I didn't know where he really was going. We knew he was going to Germany, but we didn't know where. It was in Potsdam I read all this and by the way, this is the book that he wrote. It's his memos of his first year of decisions. A lot of this information is in here that went on at that conference. 

We had a nice trip going over. It was very cold and I had never been in weather that cold. I thought I'd freeze. It was so cold up there. We didn't have foul weather gear either. The ship didn't have enough of foul weather gear to assign to all the men and therefore, at wartime, we had to do with what we had. 

After about eight days of crossing the Atlantic, we went into Antwerp, Belgium. Going up to Antwerp, Belgium, I saw some of the real damage that had been done in the war. The ships were sunk all over. There were ships sunk and we had to maneuver around to get through the channels to get around these old, sunken vessels, allies and enemy ships. 

We reached Antwerp with the President of the United States, Harry S. Truman. His party left to go back to the conference. I have some notes here of some of his words that he wrote. 

It says, "No public announcement was made of my departure for obvious security reasons. Special arrangements had been made up for the presidential party of 53 assistants, advisors, newsmen and help arrived at the Augusta's berth at Newport News, just before 6:00 o'clock in the morning of July 7. I went aboard at once". Now this is before we are leaving Norfolk, Virginia and this is what he's saying about his preparation for that trip. 

"And at my previous request, nothing more than the customary Navy honors of the side boys, guards of the day and piping over the side were rendered. Captain James H. Foskett, Commanding Officer of the Augusta, was at the quarterdeck to meet me and showed me to the Admiral's cabin where I was to live near the crews. Within an hour after we arrived at dockside, the Augusta was underway and we had heard as we left Hampton Roads, it was the heavy cruiser...." Now he's wrong, it was the light cruiser, the U.S.S. Philadelphia. 

"These two ships formed Task Force 68, commanded by Rear Admiral Abner McCann, who was charged with the mission of transporting the President of the United States this part of the year and back. No other escort, either ship or air was used. The Philadelphia went ahead of us and made a smooth path in what otherwise would have been a rough sea so that those of us who were not good sailors did not suffer from seasickness. 

"As soon as we passed the sweep channel leading through the mine fields at the entrance of Chesapeake Bay, and reached the open sea, the Augusta held an abandon ship drill. The third day out, the Augusta left formation to take a position for a gunnery exercise. The Philadelphia was used as a target ship. This was what was called an offset project. That is, deflection site scales and the gun directors controlling the fire, as well as Army guns concerned were offset so that the fall-off shot was forced to reach to arrive at the line off the target. Thus, while the fire was actually directed at the target ship, the shots landed some 500 yards or more from the stern of the Philadelphia. 

"I witnessed this practice from the navigation bridge through binoculars that had also been offset to the same degree as had the first control instruments causing actual misses to appear as hits on the target ship". And it says, "On the same day, the first news stories about correspondents accompaning the party were released for publication transmitted to Washington." 

"By high-speed circuit, Press Secretary Ross had hoped that all information concerning my trip could be withheld until the party was safely ashore at Antwerp, but a news leak in Washington had occurred that night when a columnist broke the story on the radio newscast and he'd no longer considered it necessary hold up release of the story." 

"On July 14, our eighth day underway, we entered the English Channel, where we were met by the light cruiser, H.M.S. Birmingham and destroyers. They escorted us along the southern coast of England and as we passed over, we were so very close to in shore that I got an excellent view of the famous White Cliffs. I was much impressed by joining up maneuvers of the escort force and signaled Rear Admiral Cunningham Graham, the British commander, my appreciation and admiration of the precisions of the maneuver.

"As we entered the North Sea, H.M.S. Birmingham and the destroyers, which had proceeded ahead of us, reversed course and passed us to port in column with cruiser leading. As each ship passed the Augusta, the crews, officers and men were in ranks along the fore port of 8-ship crew up here to shout in union, three cheers for the President of the United States. After I received this message from Admiral Cunningham Graham, "Well, it had been a great honor for us to have had the privilege of escorting you through the English Channel. On behalf of the officers and men escorting for us, I ask you to accept our sincere good wishes."

"On the last night of the voyage, we were forced to restrict our speed to ten knots because of mine fields in the North Sea and wrecked buoys were marking the location of sunken vessels and allied ships. I was up early the next morning, which was Sunday, to watch the hundreds of wildly enthusiastic Belgians and Hollanders, who'd thrown their little towns along the ship estuary and cheered our ship as we passed by. It was clear that the news of our arrival was no secret." 

"As we passed Flushing, Holland, I received a message I was reading from the Beurgermeister. Just above Antwerp, we passed an American Army camp where we observed thousands of GI's waiting for ships to take them home. At one turn in the rear where there were no cheers from the persons who watched the Augusta standing in the shore, there was a large group of German prisoners of war cooped up behind barbed wire in allied prison camps. It was difficult to realize that I was looking upon the scene of the devastation of war which had just ended.

"Along the riverbanks, I saw very little evidence of damage caused by the war. Everything appeared peaceful and in order. Large herds of fat cow could be seen grazing in the green meadows along our way, but as the Augusta moved slowly to the harbor of Antwerp and proceeded to the municipal dock, I could see something of the war's devastation and the wreckage from bombing. 

"The Augusta moored at 10:04 a.m. on July the 5th and the Philadelphia had tied up the stern. We had come 3,387 miles from Newport News in nine days. During the nine days, I had been in constant contact with developments at home and in other parts of the world through the unique facilities which had been set up aboard the ship. The office of the first lieutenant of the Augusta had been made over into a communications center which was complete in every detail. This was designated as the advanced map room and complemented to the map room in the White House. Here messages were received and transmitted in virtually volumes and were dispatched at the White House for all practical purposes."

He flies back from Germany to Plymouth, England. He meets with the King of England. They get on his yacht and he's been invited to have dinner with the King on the ship, on the King's yacht, which he does. If you would like for me to read some of his....

INTERVIEWER: Well where were you at this time?

ERVIN: At this time, I was on ship and waiting for his return.

INTERVIEWER: Shivering cold, were you?

ERVIN: Right, we were just doing our routine work.

2ND INTERVIEWER: Did you get to go ashore at Plymouth?

ERVIN: Yes I did, yes I did. I went ashore at Antwerp and I have to say this. It is a beautiful city what was left, but a lot of it was torn up. The big bombs was what hit Antwerp. I went to visit this prison that he's telling about. It was the worst camp that was in Belgium where the Germans treated the prisoners of war. Civilians and everything, if they had any, it was a security risk. It was terrible what I saw there. It's hard to imagine what civilized people will do to a person that's held prisoner. They had torture chambers there and to listen to the stories that they told, it was just hard to believe that anybody could do what they were doing to those people or did do to those people. After going through that...

INTERVIEWER: Excuse me, who told you the stories about...

ERVIN: Pardon me?

INTERVIEWER: Who told you the stories about the cruelty.

ERVIN: They had people there that would take you through and explain the situation. They also had, the Germans was their prisoners, at the time that I went through. The allies had made a concentration camp for the Germans. They'd been, well, they'd been liberated by the Battle of the Bulge.

2nd INTERVIEWER: How long were you in Antwerp?

ERVIN: We were in Antwerp, I can't recall how many days it was, but it was about a month. All the time that he was over there consisted of about a month from the time that he left the United States and went over there until we got back. We left on the 7th of August. We returned on the 7th of September. No, we left on the 7th of July and we returned on the 7th of August. 

On the way back from over there, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima which was on August the 6th I believe.

2nd INTERVIEWER: It was August 6th, I think. Do you remember how you heard the news of that?

ERVIN: Yes I do. I was at work up on the battleship. I was in the 1st Division which was consistent to the bow help, the work up on the bow of the battleship. I was at work and somebody said that they dropped the bomb that destroyed a whole city. Well that was the scuttlebutt coming around. Well, we looked at one another and thought boy, they're getting, you know, they're telling them pretty big now. 

So, I went up there and looked on the bulletin board and sure enough, it was posted on the bulletin board where the bomb had been dropped. It stated that this city, it was reported, that it was virtually destroyed. Well, I said the war is not going to be much longer now. We'll soon be home for good.

This is what the President has to say about that. "Back from Potsdam since 8 am" (now he's come back and he's meeting with King George) "Back from Potsdam since 8 am by August the 2nd, had lunch with Britain's King George VI on the yacht boat, the Renown, in the King's cabin. He showed me the sword which had been presented to Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth. The King said it was not properly balanced. 

"We had a nice, appetizing lunch on board the Renown, soup, fish, lamb chops, peas, potatoes and ice cream. As soon as we had returned to the U.S.S. Augusta, the King returned the call and we put on the same formalities. He inspected the guard and looked over the sailors and took a snort of ?Hagenhad and signed the ship's guest book and collected an autograph for each of his daughters and the Queen. After some more formalities, went back to his ship." 

We'd been crossing the Atlantic ever since at the rate of 645 miles every 24 hours. On August the 6th, during the westward crossing, the first atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. Word almost immediately was sent to the company aboard the U.S.S. Augusta and Truman enthusiastically announced the news at 2:06 pm. The ships reached port on August the 7th, the date of the atomic explosion over Nagasaki. 

Now, I was serving as a lookout all this time and coming out from the English Channel, I saw something afloat bearing zero, zero, zero, which was about, looked to be about 200 yards away from the ship. It was straight ahead. I recognized it as being a floating mine and I reported it to the bridge. The man up on the bridge on the phones acknowledged my report. The ship did not change course. I reported it a third time, I mean a second time and yet the ship did not change course. The man on the bridge with the phones was acknowledging my report and I reported it a third time and he acknowledged it a third time. By the third time, that ship gave such a, and we were so close on that mine, that the ship laid over to one side, it turned so sharp. We had a hitch straight on, right straight on the bow had he not turned when he did because at the time that I reported it the third time, I didn't know whether the ship had turned in time to avoid hitting it or not. 

2nd INTERVIEWER: You were right where it would have caught you too, on the bow?

ERVIN: I was and I figured that I saved over 70 buddies there. The captain called me down and he congratulated me for this reporting it, good report. So, I felt pretty good about it, but I was doing my duty, nothing that anybody else that was on was supposed to do his duty.

INTERVIEWER: Why wasn't there a response at the time of your first report?

ERVIN: That's a very good question, a very good question. This is a breakdown in communications. It happens. It happens in combat. It happens in other places and in the military as well as in civilian lives. Communications is one of the most important things there is in combat or anything else. If you have a breakdown in communications, it can throw havoc in the whole operation. This I think, there was a breakdown. Now, I don't know, it would take a captain's court or a general's court martial to find out. I don't know. I never asked. I wondered about it, but just being a seaman on the ship, what could I do going up against it. I don't know, I don't know. 

It's very important that everybody is on at his station carrying out what he is supposed to be doing there. It's very important. This should be emphasized and it is emphasized in the service. It's very much emphasized. The man at the bridge that was on the phone that received my....I feel confident that he gave it to the O.D., which was Officers of the Day. Now, the captain, I don't know if he was aboard or if he was sitting in his chair most of the time. He would be sitting in his chair, I could see him from up above and I'd be looking down on him and see him, but I can't remember if he was down there at this particular time. 

From the lookout who reported this to the man at the bridge who received the report and then he relays this report to the O.D. The O.D. is supposed to relay it to the helmsman. Somewhere, through the four stations, the communication is broken down. It just broke down. The helmsman never got the word. He never got the word so the ship didn't turn. We could have had some disaster. I felt pretty good being that I saved this ship. I mean I saved it. I saved this ship from hitting that. I felt pretty good about it. 

After we got back in to Norfolk and after the President had gone on home back to Washington, I asked for a transfer. The reason I asked for a transfer was that I wanted to see my brother. We didn't know if we were pulling right back out and going to the Pacific or not. So, the war hadn't ended. The transfer was approved, but he was in Washington, D.C. He had gone to Washington and got him a job there. 

I got on the bus, I said, "Well, I'm going to see him in Washington". I got on the bus. I was on my way to Washington and we entered one of the cities on route from Norfolk to Washington. I can't remember now which city it was. Bells were ringing, horns were blowing, traffic stopped; I thought what in the world is going on. I opened the window and I asked somebody, I said, "What's going on here?" He said, "The war is over". Oh Lord. (MUCH LAUGHTER) 

I was thrilled. I got to Washington, D.C. and I'm telling you that was a mad house there. You couldn't move. You couldn't do nothing. I had to go downtown, mean I didn't go out to celebrate downtown, I got a cab and I went to the address where my brother was living. I had a room. I went to bed. They were out celebrating. 

2nd INTERVIEWER: They were all in the know?

ERVIN: They were out celebrating. I went in to lay down and went to sleep. Some time around 2:00 o'clock, they came in and woke me up. I stayed there, I think for, oh, about a couple of days and I said I'm going home. I can't get nothing to eat around here. Everything was closed down. You couldn't find food and nobody was open for business. No cafes. Well, we found one little place down the street that you could get a little if you would wait long enough to get it. 

That was about the end of my military duty as far as the war was concerned. Then I was assigned, later on, I went back. When I reported back, I went aboard the U.S.S. Pillsbury, DE133. Now DE, the Pillsbury DE133 was the first ship that the United States Navy ever had that captured a U boat.

2nd INTERVIEWER: I'll be darned.

ERVIN: It captured a U505 during the war. She received a Presidential citation for that.

INTERVIEWER: What was your duty assignment?

ERVIN: What was my assigned...?

INTERVIEWER: On the DE.

ERVIN: On the DE, I was a lookout on it. We operated with a carrier, the U.S.S. Solomon and at that time, the war was over and we were training Marine pilots. It was, I had to keep count of the planes going and coming. There were a lot of those planes that crack up coming in. The pilots not experienced, they were new pilots and inexperienced. Sometimes they would come in and hit that ship and crack up. I've seen them come in with the wings a little bit low and then a wing pop off. 

2nd INTERVIEWER: Where was the destroyer escort based? In Norfolk?

ERVIN: No, it was based in Green Cove Springs, Florida. At that time, Green Cove Springs, Florida, it was a small, we were on the, they had one little carrier, the U.S.S. Solomon and the Pillsbury and the Flaherty and the Pope. They were the three ships assigned with the carrier down there. We would go out and stay for a couple of weeks and come back in. It was routine, it was boring, very boring. You weren't going anywhere, just being out there on the water, back and forth, coming back in on weekends. It was very boring. I stayed on there until March the 12th, I believe it was. 

I left the U.S.S. Pillsbury to go to Camp Sheldon, Virginia, for my discharge. We left from down there and I went to Camp Sheldon, Virginia, which is right outside of Richmond. I received my discharge from there and I arrived, I believe it was on the 17th. I received my discharge and came back home a civilian. 

My duty in this Navy, it was no combat and I wanted to see combat. I went in there to see combat and I wanted to see it. I didn't. When the lady asked me would I come before you and tell what my experience was in the war, I told her, I said, "Well, I didn't do anything exciting and there's nothing really to report".

2nd INTERVIEWER: Well, it's important.

ERVIN: I said, "Well maybe being with the President's task force..."

INTERVIEWER: Did you see the President?

ERVIN: Only from a distance. He was on the Augusta and I was on the Philadelphia. They came by in review, on the Renown, on the King's yacht. They passed us in review and I could see him. Everybody was on deck manning the rails. It was what they called...everybody was there in their dress.

2nd INTERVIEWER: In their dress uniforms?

ERVIN: Yes, and we watched the King and the President come by and I did see him from a distance, but that was all. I didn't get to meet the President or shake his hand. I wish I could have. He had a, whenever he took command of this nation, when Roosevelt died, he was an inexperienced man. He didn't even know they were making an atomic bomb. He didn't even know it until he was sworn in as President of the United States. So, he says here.

INTERVIEWER: How did you earn your bread and butter after you got out of the Navy?

ERVIN: How did I what?

INTERVIEWER: How did you earn your bread and butter after you got out of the Navy?

ERVIN: Oh, well I went back to the farm. I came back to the farm and they had a program, a rehabilitation program. I believe it was $300 a month, I mean $90 a month which we received for three months of rehabilitation. We had mustering out pay. I don't recall what the mustering out pay was, it was so long ago. I believe mustering out pay was about $200.

2nd INTERVIEWER: I think it was $200.

ERVIN: I think it was $200. I came back home, no job, no income and that little bit of rehabilitation money, I don't know what I would have done without it unless I went back to live with my daddy just like I did before I went in. That's what I would have done. After I made a crop, I says I've got to do something, I can't make a living on this farm. So I began to think, what can I do? Being about 20 years old, I said, well, I need to train myself for something to do. So, I went to Atlanta, Georgia, to barber school. I entered barber school in September of that year. I couldn't get in North Carolina. I tried to get in North Carolina, but I couldn't. The schools were full. They had two schools in North Carolina and they were both full and put me on a waiting list. I went to Atlanta. I got in a little earlier and I would have had to wait until the next spring to get in North Carolina. I went to Atlanta and got in September. 

2nd INTERVIEWER: You went on the GI bill, didn't you?

ERVIN: I went on the GI bill. Had it not been for the GI bill, I would have not gone to barber school. And let me say this about the GI bill, that was the greatest thing that this nation of ours has ever done for its citizens. We people went over to serve and we didn't get any money. You didn't and I didn't. It was very little money, but when we came back at least they had a program back here. We could go to school and be what you can be if you choose that.

INTERVIEWER: It opened the door into a whole new life, if you wanted to walk through that door.

ERVIN: That's right. The people that went to college would have never been able to go to college.

2nd INTERVIEWER: That's exactly right.

INTERVIEWER: Absolutely.

ERVIN: If it had not been for the GI bill, and I know so many of my friends around here, we talked about it. What would we have done had it not been there? I had friends that went off to college that went to, some of them went to Carolina, some of them went to State, some of them went to other schools. Today, they are retired, they made a good living and they would have never been able to make that good living had it not been for that GI bill. It's the greatest thing this country has ever done. I often think, why can't it be extended to everyone who is capable? If you want an education, get it, I mean it. I didn't get an education. I was took out of school and had to work on the farm. I didn't finish high school. I kept taught, as you know my English is not good.

2nd INTERVIEWER: Well, it's all right.

ERVIN: Had I had the opportunity and the ability to acquire what I would like to have, well, I'm better off with what I have.

INTERVIEWER: You've learned an awful lot of things in your life?

ERVIN: I learned a lot, I have learned a lot.

INTERVIEWER: What did your military experience teach you?

ERVIN: My military teaching was discipline and teamwork. If you're out there to do something and it takes more than one man to do it, you can't do it by yourself. It takes a team. Pulling together and working together, you can achieve anything you're capable of achieving. 

INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much.

ERVIN: You're welcome.

2nd INTERVIEWER: Well, you did all right, Ervin.