D. Clarke Evans Photographer

Vern Ollar

Corporal, U.S. Army
1942–1945

Pvt. Vern Ollar
England, 1944

On June 6, 1944, we landed on Omaha Beach… . D-Day can be very emotional for you if you let it be. I don’t like to talk about it; no one does because no one understands unless they were there.

I was born in 1921 in Moline, Illinois, and grew up in Rock Island. I just got out of high school when I went in the Army. I was 21, just barely, in 1942 and got out in 1945. At the time, I was married, had a little girl about 11 months old, and was working at an ordnance plant. I got the draft notice, so I said to hell with it, and joined. Fort Dodge, Iowa is where I was inducted in December, 1942. They sent maybe 9 or 10 of us to Camp Sibert, Alabama for basic training and chemical warfare service. Then we joined the 81st Chemical Mortar Battalion at Camp Polk, Louisiana. We were scheduled for the Pacific theater. 

Then we went to Camp Pickens, Virginia for mountain maneuvers. They were saying we were going to Italy now. I don’t know which would be worse—the jungles or the snow and ice. We left the States in early October in a big convoy. We had to zigzag throughout the trip because the U-boats were looking for us. Most of us were seasick, and dysentery was rampant. When we got to England, we were in such bad shape that they put us into a sports program to get us back to health.

On June 6, 1944, we landed on Omaha Beach. We filled all of the inflatable packs and laid them on top of the mortars and strapped them with ropes to make them buoyant. We lost all of our jeeps, because the crews that brought them later were wiped out. 

It was a rough go at Omaha, and we found out later there was a division of Wehrmacht soldiers there. They were a crack outfit, and at full-strength. When we came in, we had no idea what we were running into. We lost a lot of guys, I heard it was over 2,800 in 10 hours. Our squad got the first machine gun nest, according to history. I don’t think we were firing over 300-400 yards. We knocked that baby out. I was the gunner and I didn’t have anything to go by. I just set it where I thought it ought to be and hit it dead center.

General Omar Bradley was the best. We wouldn’t have made it without him. He was a technician and supply type genius. We didn’t always have K-rations, but we didn’t want for ammo. I was on the 70th anniversary trip to  Normandy. D-Day can be very emotional for you if you let it be. I don’t like to talk about it; no one does because no one understands unless they were there.

We were south of the Battle of the Bulge in Dillingen, Germany just across the Saar River. We crossed the river in the morning. I was in radio then, and had a 300 on my back. The lieutenant and I went across in a little rubber boat about 5:00 in the morning. When we got over there we crawled up an embankment, and a helluva firefight broke out 20 yards to our right. They took care of it, and we ended up going into town to a big old warehouse. We had a radio set up on the second or third floor and we spotted a lot of fire power. We dropped 20,000 rounds on that in a week. I got the Bronze Star at Dillingen.

I came home in November, 1945. My little girl was four years old and didn’t know who I was. She didn’t want me in the house. I thought about going to school. I would like to have done that, but I had to get a job and make a living. I worked at a lumberyard for 12 years doing the drafting and then the estimating. Then I went into the builders hardware business. 

One day I was sitting in the VFW having a beer. A fellow and I got to talking, and he talked me into coming to Texas. We came up here, looked around the Hill Country and found this place in Ingram. This is really God’s country. I wouldn’t live anywhere else. {09-24-2015 • Ingram, TX}