Charles "Chuck" Abdinoor from Essex County, Massachusetts, was born on 14 January 1926 to the late Michael and Selma (Hyick) Abdinoor.
Graduated High School in 1944. The boys in the Senior Class were all hyped to go into the Service. I enlisted for the Marine Corps, but ended up into the Army Infantry. I was 18. Chuck enlisted the service on July 19, 1944 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Chuck took seventeen weeks of basic training at Camp Blanding, Florida, then seven days at home, a short time at
Camp Dix, Maryland and than
Camp Shanks, New York before going to the European Theatre of Operation (ETO).
Embarkation on the SS Volendam, a Dutch ship with an English crew. 7 days on the Atlantic Ocean. Seasick and lousy food, hard boiled eggs with beets, that was enough to make your stomach roll. Hardly no eating those days, we threw it up anyway. This happened to mostly all.
Landed at Le Havre, boarded 40 and 8´s, crammed in like sardines, standing up with full knapsacks, loaded with all you owned. I believe it was November 1944. Loaded off at a Repple Depot, do not know where. We received our weapons, the M1 Garand rifle and zeroed them in. Next day, boarded 2½ ton trucks and drove all night through blacked out towns and villages. Only stopped for P-call. Got off trucks, became assigned to B Company, marched at night into blacked out conditions. I joined the company with a bunch of other replacements. And this was on the edge of a wooded area.
Little snow, but cold, cold weather.
We were told to dig in that night, on the outskirt of woods, paired two to a foxhole. The ground was frozen, you could not even dig six inches, too hard.
We made enough noice and received a baptism of fire from artillery, lost quite a few men from tree bursts, bad place, lot of casualties, baptism of fire …
I still remember these tree burst that came in on us, and we were trying to dig a foxhole. John “Johnny” Askew was my partner and he had it, lost his nerve, eyes bulging out and was screaming blue murder at the top of his voice, enough to wake up the neighbourhood. He just broke up, they took him away in a jeep, never heard of him again. As for dates, I do not remember, we went from day to day, not knowing what date was what.
I believe we were in the Hürtgen. I was just a kid, following the leader, as they say. Whatever you are told to do, you do. We just took orders from the Platoon Leader, the Platoon Sargent, down to the Squad Leader.
Chuck survived the Hürtgen. With the start of their engagement in the Belgian Ardennes, to reduce the German Bulge, he became assigned to A Co 330th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Platoon, CO Lt. Paul J. Reed.
Foulkes is a comrade in the Third Platoon. In the Harz we lived outside, kitchen truck would come up and feed us, mostly with K rations. It was much easier that way, as they were moving most of the time.
We were then in a village, in a basement, it was cold and a lot of snow on the ground. We boarded five tanks, and were to take a town that morning. We were stopped by a german tank that was dug in. It knocked out three tanks in a row. We only had two tanks left. They called off the attack, and that was when one of our tanks knocked off a german tank that was crossing a long stretch of land. I believe that it was a meadow. The snow was covering everything. Two men jumped out of the tank and started running. The tanker fired another round at the two men. They did not seem to get up, so I presumed they were dead. This was while we were on a hill overlooking the countryside. I would estimate the german tank was about a mile away. We could see the landscape from where we were. Captain DeSantis gave me a pair of stockings and told me to put them under my shirt and keep them dry. We moved to a village and we were in a basement of a house. That was where we were left out, while pulling a listening post that night. Sylvio Allard and I, On two an Off two. It was a horrific experience, especially just getting our baptism of fire, when we joined the company. Although at the edge of the woods the night before we were under a barrage of artillery or mortar fire. We suffered casualties there. I remember belgian women spitting and throwing things at the Germans that were captured.
After the Bulge he moved into Germany again, fighting his way East and into the Harz Mountains, near Bad Harz and Wernigerode.
Chuck liberated the KZ (Konzentrationslager) of Langenstein.
After VE-day we were at Bavaria which was not too bad for us. After we left Bavaria (Bayern), I was put in the 4th Armored Division. From there we were put into the 66th Constabulary and were broken up into a detail of about twelve men.
I was a sergant so I had a squad of men.
We were stationed at Schwandorf, it´s here where I got Arno, my German Shepard dog.
Our job was to board trains and look for war criminals, esp. Martin Borman. We did not find him, but we did manage to raid houses of known nazi sympathizers and brought them to the CIC for further questioning. SS were searched.
Also checking German civilians and soldiers returning back to their homes. The roads were busy with all the traffic.
We drove an M8 Reconnaissance car, a halftrack and a jeep
At times we conducted raids at Displaced Persons Camps, which housed men and women that survived the Concentration Camps; they overran Germany and stole from the German civilians; this was a tough job; these people were forced to work for the germans, and yet, when they were released they overran Germany and we were forced to apprehend them and turn them over to the authorities; sometimes we had firefights with them, they had weapons also.
We were on our own, did not have to answer to anyone except our Major Ennis, who showed up about once a week.
We were also in controlling black marketeers, they were the worst; we had fire fights with them.
Following is a short story Chuck told me at the 83rd Reunion at West Point about his transfer from B to A company.
"One day in the Bulge, we were put out on listening post. We were on two hours on, two hours off. This was a cold night, the company was in a barn and basement. The other man that was with me was Sylvid Allard, incidently he was shot through his mouth and lost his jaw an teeth. This was in the Harz Mountains. He survived but now back to the Listening Post. We were not relieved at daybreak, one of us went back to find out why. Turned out the company had moved out during the early morning and forgot us. We started walking did not know where? Through mine fields and no roads. Finally an ambulance came in view. We hailed it, it was one of ours and got a ride back to Btn. Hq. and reported in. We got holy hell there and S-2 1st Lt. put us out on a night patrol (crazy). When I finally got back I was put in A Company, 330th and finished the war with this company. My squad was even the first one to liberate the concentration camp."
Charles Abdinoor, 89, of Dracut, died peacefully, Saturday, November 28, 2015 at Boston Medical Center, surrounded by his loving family.
