The Excitement of a Foot Slugger

As I dig my nice foxhole.

And to the front we go,

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And at night when the big guns roar,

We hear the shells humming for ten miles or more.

And before my little foxhole was dug,

A shell came, thank God it was a dud.

I started digging with all my might,

As the shells got closer all through the night.

I got up the next morning with soaking wet feet,

My rations were gone, I had nothing to eat.

Then just as the sun began to peep through,

I started moving forward as we usually do.

We kept on advancing until this day was through,

You can see for yourself what we foot sluggers do.

This poem was written somewhere in France by Pvt. Delos Singley of Angie and published in the Monday, Jan. 1, 1945 edition of The Bogalusa News, along with news of other local servicemen fighting around the world during World War II.

Singley, now 87 and a resident of the Hilltop community near Angie, says he doesn’t remember just exactly when he wrote the poem, but it was during a long trek with the 50th Armored Infantry Battalion across France, when foxholes were often home for a few hours or however long it took to move forward.

From the Normandy Bridgehead to the campaign across the Brittany Peninsula, through France to the Saar, through the bloody winter hell of Bastogne, Singley was involved in three major battles in Southern France and Belgium under the command of Gen. George S. Patton, plus many other battles during his almost three-year tenure in the U.S. Army.

He and a cousin had decided to join up at the beginning of the war, but his father asked him not to. He was drafted anyway in late 1942. He was 21 and single, but on his first leave home he married his sweetheart, Myrtle Lee McKenzie.

He was shipped to California for basic training, which began in the desert while living in tents, then to Camp Cooke.

They left California by train for New York on Jan. 27, 1943 and on Feb. 11 they boarded a ship to an unknown destination. They landed 28 days later in Greenock, Scotland and then entrained for a 12-hour journey to the small village of Burford, England, not far from London. There, in a matter of weeks, they had a long period of training before they could enter into battle with the enemy, which was scarcely 100 miles away.

On July 10 they went across the English Channel by LST (landing ship) with all combat equipment and landed on the beach at Normandy, where paratroopers had made a beachhead on June 10. They were still shelling the beach.

Following that assignment, they joined the Third Army of Gen. Patton and operated under Combat Company B and Brig. Gen. George W. Read.

“I only saw Gen. Patton one time,” Singley commented. “I was in a ditch and he drove right down the road, big as you please.”

Their first combat mission was to take the city of Cranville, and three towns were brought under the control of the 50th Armored Infantry Battalion.  From there, they fought their way across the Brittany Peninsula headed for Hill 105 overlooking Brest — a big port city where German submarines were based.

Given a road to follow, Singley said they traveled over 200 miles in 10 days – on heavy equipment such as tanks and half tracks and also walking. Savage battles were fought all along the route, some classics.

“We knocked the big stuff out, fighting all along the way, knocking out machine gun nests. We would dismount, take it and then go. We got cut off once, as they closed in behind us and we were low on ammunition. We were told to fire at close range and not to fire extra bullets,” Singley said. “We thought we might have to give up. No ammo, no rations to eat — but ammo arrived and we fought. We had them in a circle.” 

The battalion had reached its destination and the greatest task in the campaign still was to be undertaken. The men had proven themselves, although they were veterans of only eight days of actual combat.

Inside the city of Brest was a formidable force that outnumbered them at least 10 to one. The battalion was ordered to take Hill 105, overlooking Brest, just three miles out and also overlooked every road leading to the port. It had to be in American hands because this port city was headquarters for German submarines. On the morning of Aug. 12, 1944, the attack on Hill 105 was launched.

After bitter fighting and several tough engagements, the entire infantry division succeeded in taking Hill 105. It took two weeks to take Brest.

The battle at Hill 105 is most memorable to him because of the casualties. His B Company was leading the attack, with A and C Companies in support.

“They threw in smoke bombs and the 200 men of B Company entered the area. Unfortunately there were about 2000 of the enemy dug in. Of the 200 men, only 26 survived,” Singley said. He will never forget that he was one of the 26.

 “At first we almost failed and had to withdraw, but we cut off a whole German army on the peninsula at Brest,” he said.

The battalion moved on and took Hills 62 and 82 and on the evening of Aug. 29, 1944, the entire peninsula had been  cleared of enemy troops by the Battalion.

“We were surrounded many times, but it never crossed my mind to give up until I was dead — and it never dawned on me that I was going to be killed.”

Singley said it bothered him some that he had to kill people.

“The Lord knows all about it. They were shooting at me and I had to shoot back. It was hard to outright shoot a guy — but you get used to it. I always believed in giving them a chance. You told them to stop and if they didn’t, they got shot. It was war.”

To describe every battle he participated in would take far too many words. All the battles are described in detail in a history of the battalion written by Sgt. Joseph D. Buckley. Singley has a copy, from which many of these descriptions have come.

One special friend he remembers could not read and write and he would read his letters from home to him. He also wrote letters for this serviceman, Harry Wooten. In later years Wooten’s sister contacted Singley and wanted to know if her brother had suffered when he was killed.

“I was able to write back and tell her that he was killed instantly,” Singley said, adding that he never got used to losing fellow soldiers.

In December, the battalion assembled at Hollimer, where they rested until a march to Merlebach was to begin on Dec. 18. This three-day respite was the last to be enjoyed by the battalion until after the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne, an epic event in American military history.

“We pulled out on Christmas Day. They had just served us our Christmas dinner when they came and told us to mount up. The enemy had broken through. I carried my food with me,” Singley said, grinning as he remembered that he was not about to be deprived of his holiday dinner.

The new year dawned with the troops dug in scarcely a mile east of Bastogne. On Jan. 2, the attack got under way over snow-covered ground. The battle was bitter, lasting much of the month of January, the most eventful and yet disastrous month in the battle history of the battalion. They played a tremendous part in winning the Battle of the Bulge.

Singley left his outfit at the Battle of the Bulge, sent back to the hospital because his feet were frozen and he couldn’t walk. They had cut off all supply lines to the enemy and had it all captured when he was sent to the hospital. There they wrapped his feet in cotton and sent him over the channel to England. He stayed in England two to three months for rehabilitation.

“They wanted to take off my feet. They were in bad shape – just busted open. I refused to let them amputate and eventually my feet healed,” he said.

He was sent back into action – but not to his old outfit. He was to drive a 6 by 6 Army truck. While he was in the hospital and rehab, his battalion had been sent home.

“We moved a whole air base by truck!” he said, adding that he hauled lots of things. He also frequently hauled items to a rest home up in the mountains. He was there, 50 miles from the base, when he received word that he was going home. He wasn’t supposed to drive at night, but with eyes shining he remembered the happiness he felt as he drove back to the base at night anyway. He had some trouble getting the guard to open the gates at the base and let him in, but they finally did.

“I ran that old truck as hard as it would go,” he said. “It was a joyous day to be going home. If I had been sent back to my old outfit from the hospital, I would have already been home. The war was over. There were still a few stragglers, but basically the war was over.”

Singley came home to his wife and the 3-year-old baby daughter he had never met. All during the war he had carried a photo of her in a small New Testament he kept in his pocket. The Singleys would eventually have two more daughters. He went to work at the box factory for 10 years, then went into the dairy business for 11 years. After that he became a carpenter and worked for the parish school board, a job from which he retired. Late in life, kidney problems have caused him to be on dialysis three days a week.

“The most memorable thing in my life was the war. It was a terrible thing to see and do — as is all war. I will never forget it!”

He said he was lucky that he was in so many battles and was never shot. For many years, he, like many other veterans, didn’t talk about his war experiences. Not talking about it didn’t make it go away, however, and he still gets a little emotional when describing the events that are still crystal clear in his mind.

He has some special pins for his participation in various parts of the war, but this member of the “Greatest Generation” has never applied for any type of veteran’s benefits and has never asked for nor received any medals he might have gained for the time he spent fighting for his country.