David Doane, World War II Veteran Served under General Patton

By Lori Tremblay

In May of 1944, the Western Allies were preparing to deliver their greatest blow of World War II, the long-delayed, cross-channel invasion of northern France, code-named Overlord, later called D-Day.  General Dwight D. Eisenhower was supreme commander of the operation that involved the coordination of 12 nations. Months of careful planning and preparation led up to the invasion.

The real location of the attack was kept secret as Allied undercover agents, posing as German sympathizers, tipped off Hitler that the location was to be north of the river Seine, where the English Channel is narrowest.  Hitler put most of his panzer divisions there.  The German word Panzerkampfwagen means an armored fighting vehicle, which is usually shortened to panzer. The division had tanks, mechanized and motorized infantry, as well as artillery, anti-aircraft and other support elements.

On June 6, 1944, about 175,000 Allied troops and 50,000 vehicles went ashore, with almost a million more men on their way that summer. An immense army was placed in Nazi-occupied Europe, never to be dislodged. 

Five beaches were designated landing sites.  The Americans landed at Omaha and Utah beaches.      D-Day marked the turning point of the war, but at heavy costs to the soldiers. As Omaha beach was taken, over 4,700 were killed, missing or wounded out of the 35,000 American soldiers that came ashore. (nationalww2museum.org) 

David Doane, 18 years old, landed with the Third Army, under General Patton, at Utah Beach in Normandy, just six days after D-Day.

I had the honor to meet Mr. Doane and speak with him about his experiences in World War II.  At 97 years old, he is tall, cordial, and told some great stories.  My editor, Bob Hartnett, introduced me to Mr. Doane and his wife, Clara, who are neighbors of his in Wolfeboro.  The couple have been married for 76 years.

During the interview, Doane showed us photographs that he had taken during the war.  He also received five battle stars in World War II.  He told his story with humor, humility and humanity.

Doane was born in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1925.  He attended Beverly High School and trained in the printing industry.  He enjoyed photography and building boats. His father was a boat builder and built mine sweepers in Ipswich.  David built a motorized bike at age 16 and would ride it to see his sweetheart, Clara.  

Clara mentioned that at that time,” Everyone stood in lines for coffee, or butter or nylons, cigarettes or most anything. There was always a line, people waiting. I was in that line all the time for my mother, for sugar.”

 Doane was drafted on June 3, 1943, his high school graduation day. He was working that day and his parents went to get his diploma.  “I didn’t join the army,” said Doane.  “Uncle Sam waved a hand and asked me to come.” Two weeks later, he was in basic training at Camp Van Dorn, in Mississippi with the 67th Signal Battalion.  

After basic training, Doane asked for a transfer to a unit going overseas and was sent to Camp Bowie, in Texas.  He joined the 45th Medium Maintenance Company, which was later called the 550th MM Co.

On May 13, 1945, he left for Europe on the MS John Ericsson, formerly a Swedish American Line Atlantic Passenger ship MS Kungsholm (from 1928-1941), requisitioned by the US government in 1942 and renamed MS John Ericsson. This was then used as a troop transport until after the war.  Doane remembers, “It was the longest convoy that ever left the east coast…As far as I could see in both directions, were ships.”   

They landed in Liverpool, England and were taken by the constable to stay in private homes, where they were billeted the entire time they were in England.  They prepared their vehicles to reach the beach by an LST, landing ship tank, by waterproofing and putting snorkels on their vehicles. 

They landed at Utah Beach, the westernmost beach of the five landing areas of the Normandy Invasion.  Doane said that, later that summer, the soldiers went to Paris.  “General Patton had come up to Paris and while he was there, we were attached to that Third Army,” Doane explained. “From Paris, I went to Verdun, France.  We were in a building that, a few weeks before, had been occupied by a German panzer division.” 

From there, he went to Rumelange, Luxembourg, just south of General Patton’s headquarters, where his company split up.  His platoon went one place and another platoon left for another location.  Doane was in the small arms repair, which he learned in the army.  He described a time that he repaired a 50 caliber machine gun.  There was a pit in half a cellar of a house with cinders, which was used to test fire.  “As I was firing the 50 caliber machine gun,” Doane said, “I’m lucky to be here today, because all the tracers were going right over my head after going through the cinders and hitting the wall.” The rounds had ricocheted off the walls. “I think that was the last 50 caliber I ever fired there,” said Doane. 

“That’s where the Battle of the Bulge broke out,” Doane said.  It was a cold and harsh winter, and the Germans were on the offensive.  Doane remembered that his platoon was very close to the front lines and after the Third Army started to move north, the battle moved swiftly.  The army needed volunteers to haul ammunition to the front lines and to take prisoners back to prison camps.  Doane volunteered and was attached to the First Provisional Trucking Company from March to May of 1945. 

“We were given papers when we joined the trucking company and they were sealed.  Nobody could stop us for any reason,” said Doane.  He would drive 16-18 hours a day, alone, and would sleep behind the wheel, have some C-rations for meals and then leave with a truckload of artillery shells.  Sometimes he would drive at night through the forest with tiny blackout lights, not knowing what was alongside of the road.  On the way back, 50 German prisoners were loaded in the back of the open truck, sometimes with a canvas cover, to be taken to the designated prison camps.

One time, while taking prisoners back, a tree branch struck and killed one of the prisoners.  The others pounded on the roof and asked Doane to stop.  “I stopped at the bottom of the hill, a real country setting with farmhouses.  I let them all off,” said Doane. “They all went in different directions to houses and came back with water.  They took the guy off the truck, put him by the side of the road and covered him up and they all came back.  Every one of them.” 

“The trucks we drove were two and a half ton, 10-wheel GMCs and I loved to drive them,” Doane said. One night, he was returning to his outfit for a shower and a bed to sleep in, which was a rare occasion.  The MPs (military police) stopped Doane and asked him for his license.  He told the MPs to follow him back to camp and he would get one.  It was about midnight when they got to camp and while the MPs waited, David went to wake up the commanding officer of the day to tell him what he needed.  He told the officer that he had been driving since he’d been in the army and never bothered to get a license. Fortunately, they were good friends and the officer said, “We’ll fix that!” He went to his office to make a license giving Doane authority to drive all army vehicles, even tanks! 

Doane talked about the strict rules that Patton demanded of his soldiers. General Patton had a book to go by that covered all the aspects of the army.  If a soldier fell asleep at guard duty, he got the death penalty.  Patton was well known for giving the Third Army talks, peppered with vulgarity.  He was not always popular with the higher ups, who considered him to be a bit ruthless. Doane remembered that Patton slapped a soldier in the hospital and later apologized for it.

One of Patton’s rules was that soldiers had to wear a steel helmet until 5:00 p.m. and after that, they could wear their overseas cap.  Doane remembers deciding to go to Luxembourg City, where Patton’s headquarters were.  He went with his overseas cap and it was early afternoon.  He saw an MP truck go by and right behind the truck was Patton.  Doane told me that they had to pick up every soldier that was out of uniform. “So, Dave Doane was issued into the back of the hat truck,” he laughed.  “It was just a holding situation, not a prison.  We weren’t court martialed, either.”

One dangerous situation that Doane experienced was when he decided that he wanted a military motorcycle.  He took off in his truck and went on the Autobahn and came into contact with a whole row of American trucks, about 20 tanks, and they turned off the road.  Doane followed them.  He saw buildings on fire and he realized that they were taking the town.  “I turned around and thought, I’ve gotta get out of here in a hurry!” He took a side road to get back to the Autobahn when suddenly, there was a loud boom and his truck fell into a crater from a shell.  The motor mounts on the engine broke and it dropped down both pedals flat on the floor.  Doane was really concerned because he needed to get out of there fast.

A German man came down on a bicycle with a white flag, wanting to help.  Doane didn’t know whether the man was armed, so he refused the help and told the German man to go.  Doane jacked up the engine with the tire jack, took the tire chains and put it around the engine. He locked them somehow and had just enough pedal to clutch or brake, as needed.  On the way home, there were craters in the road everywhere.  

When Germany surrendered, the news reached the soldiers and they were elated.  Because of his five battle stars, Doane was able to get out early after the war ended. “They sent me to a cigarette camp in southern France,” he said. “They were all named after cigarettes. I was in Phillip Morris, in pyramidal tents, six-man tents.”

Doane explained that after the war, Germans were taken and put into service to officers to take care of problems.  “Well, the problem in that particular camp was there was never enough hot water for showers.  So, we went to chow one day and we heard a boom!  The Germans got so mad because they had received so many complaints about that, that they fired up the boiler and opened all the drafts.  It got so hot, it blew the boiler up!”  He heard that it went up 100 feet in the air.  “I don’t believe that, but it went up in the air and landed right across the corner of a tent.”  There was a man in the tent, who fortunately did not get hurt.  

Coming home was another adventure.  “I was on a ship from southern France, in what I call the perfect storm.” Doane said.  Once they had gotten far out in the Atlantic, the waves were so high, that the ship was going way up and crashing down.  “Plaster was coming down.  I go out, outside the ship.  The water is coming over and I am getting wet.  I ruined my camera, by the way.  I would grab a pole or something and hang onto it.  I enjoyed just being out there.”  He said that there were only 15 out of 1500 men that ate.  Everybody was sick.  “You can imagine what that’s like.”

In Doane’s own written account of the war, he said, “I saw a lot of Europe, received five battle stars, drove thousands of miles in dangerous territory, surrounded twice by the enemy, had to leave my truck and duck behind a dirt pile on the side of the highway as a German plane strafed the vehicles on the road.  God was with me all the way. “

Happily arriving in New York Harbor late in December of 1945, Doane was home in time for Christmas.  He and his beloved Clara were reunited, and they married in February of 1946.  They lived in Lynn, Mass. for 37 years.  In 1985, they moved to Wolfeboro and have been active in their neighborhood community.

Doane worked for three different printing companies, including Daniels Printing Company, which moved from Boston, Mass. to Everett.  He worked with large six color printing presses.  One of the companies printed maps for the government. Doane got his motorcycle and rode it to work.  He had it until about 10 years ago. 

 His wife, Clara, worked as a visiting nurse and also worked at nursing homes as they raised their family. Later, Clara began quilting and made many quilts for her family.  David built model boats, in great detail, from scratch.  

The Doanes have two sons, Peter, a doctor and David, Jr., who works in the printing industry. They have four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, with one more soon to arrive.