Kenneth Pugh--Central Europe

Ken was a heavy truck driver for the 357th Antiaircraft Artillery Searchlight Battalion. He volunteered to help set up the equipment so entered France a month and a half earlier than the rest of his unit.  He crossed the English Channel by landing barge, docking at Le Havre, France in late fall of 1944.  Ken drove the truck right off the barge.  He managed to smuggle along a British motorcycle, that later came in handy.  After the unit was fully deployed, Ken’s job as truck driver was to move the power generator in and out of the bombing area.

Ken on a British Elco motorcycle

The generator was fueled by gasoline.  This was obtained from supply depots and transported to the units in 5 gallon cans by 2 ½ ton trucks also known as deuce and a half.  “It was safer to transport the fuel by can than by tanker because of the danger of strafing.”  Empty can were discarded because the fumes could ignite from stray sparks. 

“If I heard a plane approaching, I wasn’t a hero.  I’d head for the ditch.”  He recalled one time coming to an intersection and hesitating.  They did not go through it and it was a good thing, too, because a German 88, a field artillery piece, began blasting the intersection. 

When they arrived in France, the Luftwaffe was still quite active.  The Germans were using a remote controlled V1 bomb to strike British targets.  “This bomb had a Volkswagen motor but not a good muffler and you could hear it coming.”  Ken said, “We were in an area called “Buzz Bomb Alley.  We would use our searchlights to try to shoot these bombs down.  Eventually our soldiers captured their bases.”  Then the Germans developed the V2 rocket.  This was bigger and could fly higher than the V1.  The searchlights could not reach them.

“When I was in France, kids would come up for food.  There were refugees everywhere and the orphan children would hang around the military bivouac area hoping to raid our garbage cans.  There was one little French boy named Pierre that we adopted.  He was only about eight or nine years old but very intelligent.  He rode with me in the truck all over France. 

He even had an Eisenhower jacket.  A French lady made him a uniform out of one our old ones, complete with sergeant stripes.  Pierre would salute other soldiers with a vocabulary that was not entirely appropriate.”  Cpl. Pugh could not, however, take this young boy across the border into Belgium with their military unit.  Before they left France, he drove him back to the port area where they first found him.  To this day, Ken wonders whatever happened to young Pierre and if he survived the war.

A few weeks after arriving in Belgium, the Battle of the Bulge occurred.  Ken remembers Christmas with their pup tents in the snow.  He remembers eating turkey that holiday.  Because of his childhood, he could speak German fluently.  Perhaps German (Plattdeutsch) was not the best language to use when Ken tried to barter at a local farmhouse for fresh bread and eggs.  He and other soldier were dressed in their American fatigues but heard the back door slammed as they were making their requests.  The Belgian farmer had sent his daughter to the local American MPs to tell them that there were German soldiers at their home wearing American uniforms.  Ken and the other soldier were arrested and they had a difficult time trying to convince the American MPs that they really were Americans.

Ken holding a "Tommy" gun in front of a bivouac tent

Ken Pugh never was in any actual hand-to-hand combat but he saw much of the remains of war as they made their way across France, Belgium and finally Germany. 

He was issued a 45 Thompson submachine gun.  According to Ken, this weapon could be dropped into the sand yet still could fire.  It had only three moving parts.  He carried the weapon in a gun rack located between the driver and the passenger in the truck.  They also carried flares.

Driving across the war region was difficult because of lack of signs but also because of the blackout.  Blackout conditions meant that shades of each house and business would be pulled. 

“For vehicles, there would be little lights inside the bumper so an oncoming vehicle could see you but you would be completely dark from above,” said Ken.  It was dangerous.  “You would never know if a bridge was out.”  Ken had to drive to the Netherlands for supplies.

mess hall tent

While in Belgium, a Flying Fortress B17 airplane was having problems after a bombing raid.  It could not make its way back to England across the channel because of heavy fog.  Even though the plane was a good four to five miles away, the 357th AAA Searchlight Battalion was able to pick it up on their radar.  They telephoned the airbase, who contacted the pilot in distress.  Their radar guided this pilot and plane safely to the ground somewhere in Belgium.  The 357th never did find out what happened to that plane and crew.

The searchlight battalion was called on to light up river crossings.  They were also used to blind enemy antiaircraft.  “Because of our large lights, however, we were a pretty big target.”  The fighting was mostly over by the time they entered Germany.  “I was very fortunate,” said Ken.  He was making a truck run into Frankfurt when VE day was proclaimed.  Ken said that the German population celebrated almost as much as the American troops.

On October 28, 1945, Lt. Colonel Arthur A. Adams wrote these words in a unit history:  "It can truly be said that the unit has served well in the roles assigned to it.  Those long, silver beams have searched swiftly through the blanketing darkness, stood perpendicular and still as welcome beacons, painted dangerous waters white, saved damaged and lost aircraft, and expedited movements and construction, when military necessity has said, "Let there be light!""