Living History in Our Community

Ray Orr's Story — World War II Veteran
Ray Orr was born on May 18, 1924, and grew up in nearby South Philadelphia, with his parents, brother and two sisters. Times were hard during the Depression and Ray never made it to high school. Instead, he worked at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, as part of a soil conservation unit on the eastern shore of Maryland. By 1941, Ray had returned home and was working as a “flyboy” (apprentice pressman) for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Raymond Orr

On December 7 , 1941, “the day that will live in infamy,” Ray had never heard of Pearl Harbor and had no idea where it was — only that it was America and we had been bombed by the Japanese.

Like so many others, Ray was eager to volunteer for military service …but was turned down because he needed dental work. Nonetheless, by October 1942, Ray passed his physical and joined the United States Navy.

Ray was sent to the Naval Training Center in Bainbridge MD for basic training. His group was among the first to pass through Bainbridge, which was completed in September 1942. Ray remembered that everything was a sea of mud while he was there. After completing basic training, Ray was assigned as a Seaman 2nd Class to a large repair ship in the Navy Yard in Philadelphia.

 

En route to Africa
Before long, they received orders and were on their way to Africa. For most of these men, it was their first Atlantic crossing. Ray said he was not actually seasick, but did not feel great either. The Chief Bosun's Mate kept bringing up plates of pickles and told the men to keep eating pickles and keep their minds off being sick — and that actually helped!

The men were eager to see the Rock of Gibraltar as they passed through the Straits of Gibraltar. But they passed through at night and the Chief did not wake them, offering the sobering observation that, “if you're still alive on the way back, you'll see it then."

Their destination was Oran, in Algeria. Once in place, life on the repair ship was fairly calm, but they seldom left their ship. Ray remembered that each man had a 4 hour liberty every 12 days — which did not leave them a lot of time to look for girls or a bar!

 

From Navy life to Army life
But life on the repair ship was too tame for Ray, and after about 3 months he asked for a transfer — and the Army came to get him for the 540th and 531st Amphibious Engineers. So Ray had to get rid of all his Navy gear and was reissued Army clothing, mess kits and so on.

He stayed on the beach with the Army Engineers, all living in pup tents in a place called Arzu (sp?), which was north of Oran (Algerian coast). There were no showers and bathing consisted of a swim in the ocean.

Life was different in many ways and Ray began to wonder if leaving the repair ship had been such a good idea! They ate from mess kits and the only way to really clean them after a meal was to rub sand inside. Worse, they were bombarded by mosquitos and had to wear mosquito netting over their helmets — and sometimes all you could see on everyone's helmets were the mosquitos. Ray did catch malaria from the mosquitos and had to take Atabrine tablets for the duration.

They went as far north as Bizerte, which was all bombed out from German air attacks. From Bizerte, they left for Sicily on an LCI (Landing Craft Infantry) — a U.S. ship that actually was manned by British troops.

Ray was part of the beach masters, which included signal and radio men. The only weapon they carried when they made landings was a rifle, but they stayed on the beach during landing operations to handle communications until the Army would take over a port. Then, their job complete, they would return to Africa.

 

The invasion of Sicily
They landed on the beach in Sicily on July 10, 1943 as part of the 1st Division. The 2nd Beach Battalion landed in Licata and Ray's Beach Battalion, the 4th, landed in the next town (probably Gela). The landing was rough and they were strafed heavily by the Italians and Germans. One dreadful memory of the landing was when the units received faulty information that German paratroopers were about to be dropped. Instead, the paratroopers were U.S. troops; their planes were shot down before they could bail out but this was not discovered until they were killed by friendly fire.

Ray said the people in Sicily were starving because they were cut off from all supplies. Some of the children were so weak they could not even stand up. The men gave them C-rations so they would have something to eat. Ray's unit stayed in Sicily for about 15 days before returning to Arzu.

 

The invasion of Salerno
At Arzu, they were now living in quonset huts rather than pup tents, but plenty busy preparing for the invasion of Salerno on September 9, 1943. This time only the 4th Beach Battalion went, and remained 20 days until the port at Salerno was secure. His platoon of 40 men was part of 500 in the 4th Beach Battalion. Ray remembered the 36th Division at Salerno, who were caught in a pincer movement by German troops and suffered heavy losses.

German prisoners on the beaches at Arzu were their key to which planes were overhead. They knew the difference in engine sounds between Allied and German bombers. When the U.S. troops saw the German prisoners huddle up, they knew German planes were coming.

While on the beach, they could hear naval bombardments but could not see the ships. Nearby were cruisers, the USS Philadelphia, USS Savannah and the USS Boise. The Savannah was hit at Salerno. It wasn't too far off the beach when it was hit; they could hear the men screaming and quite a few died.

Shortly after the Salerno invasion, Ray heard through a friend that the 2nd Beach Battalion needed replacements to go to England, so he volunteered — which he thought would be a lot more fun than Africa.

 

From Africa to England; Preparing for Normandy
Ray did see the Rock of Gibraltar on his way to England, but was not very impressed by then. A more memorable occasion on that journey was that their convoy was the first ever attacked by radio control bombs. The bombs looked just like an airplane approaching. When the bombs hit the water they even threw a wake. And the bombs did hit one ship in the convoy.

The 2nd Beach Battalion landed at Plymouth, England, on Thanksgiving Day of 1943. They remained in England for 7 months, practicing for the Normandy invasion, and were based at Slapton Sands. This location was chosen because it matched the Normandy terrain where Ray's battalion would land (Utah Beach).

Before starting invasion preparation, though, the men had nine days leave in London. They went to dances and movies. Ray thought the English were the toughest people for morale he met during the war. He remembered being in a London movie theater one night when the movie stopped, the lights came on, and an announcement was made that bombers were over the city and anyone who wished to leave for the tubes (subway shelters) could go. Not one person left.

During preparations for the invasion, they would go out on ships to practice invasion tactics. One night during that time, a German sub sneaked in, torpedoed an LST and sunk it. Ray was on a nearby LST. The fact that a German sub penetrated this far was not revealed to the public for over 40 years.

 

D-Day and the Normandy Invasion
Ray served in reconnaissance with the amphibious engineers, and landed on Utah Beach about 0600 on the morning of June 6, 1944, remaining 30 days. They suffered casualties but, compared to the losses on Omaha Beach, theirs were minimal.

Ray felt that their LCVP (Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel) landing on Utah Beach —although very rough —was much easier than the landing experienced by those who landed at Omaha Beach. There were mortars fired all around them as they approached the beach. Many men drowned because the ramps on some boats were opened as soon as they hit sand — but actually they were on a sand bar and the water quickly became deep again. The LCVP that Ray was on got in pretty close, fortunately.

They were pinned down on the beach by German 88's for most of the first day and couldn't do anything at all. The saying was, “If you can hear the 88's you'll be all right. If you can't hear them it's bad.”

By dusk on June 6th, all you could see, for about two miles, were parachutes — Allied troops. After the paratroopers landed, things started to turn around. Everyone worked together in his unit — putting down road matting, unloading ammunition, and in general doing whatever had to be done to secure the landing and get troops on their way. Ray's unit saw only two or three German planes over Utah Beach and these were shot down. The Allied forces already had air superiority.

Ray was in Normandy a month, and left on July 4, 1944, when his unit returned to their base in Cornwall. Here exciting news came — Ray's unit would be sent home for a 30 day leave!

 

Home on leave and on to California
They arrived in New York, thinking they were safe and through with war. But at the end of their 30 days, they were sent to Camp Pendleton in California. And training for an invasion started all over again, but this time in the Pacific.

Ray had seen enough and he was very nervous about what was to come. He was supposed to meet with camp doctors about his nerves, but overheard someone say they would tap his spinal fluid and if they didn't hit it right, he could be paralyzed. That did it! He and a friend went AWOL and hitchhiked into Nevada. The MP's found them and brought them back again.

Next, he was assigned to an APA (troop transport), the USS St. Mary's. There was one platoon of amphibious engineers. When they would make a landing, his platoon were to be the ones who would go in until everything was unloaded, then return to the ship.

Ray just couldn't accept returning to this type job. So he and another man went on leave to Nevada and did not return. This time, when the MP's brought them back to San Pedro CA, the ship was getting ready to leave. The captain refused to take them back aboard. And missing your ship during the war meant an automatic general court martial. Both men did six months in a marine brig as a result — not a pleasant experience at all. All you did all day was work, work and work some more.

 

Next stop: Okinawa
All prisoners leaving the brig had the same experience — you were shanghaied by the Marines, and were taken straight to a ship that was about to leave port. Ray's new ship was headed to the Pacific. They landed in Okinawa after the invasion there and Ray was put in a boat pool, running small boats (landing craft) as part of practice for a landing in Japan.

While on his ship in Okinawa, the captain called everyone topside for an announcement. The chaplain then announced that the war was over; Japan had surrendered unconditionally. Instantly, Okinawa experienced a celebration similar to New Year's Eve as horns blew and people celebrated everywhere! Ray was always grateful to former President Truman for his decision to drop the atomic bombs. He believed that doing so saved the lives of so many Americans and of many more Japanese than died in the bombings.

Ray remained on Okinawa seven months, running a boat pool for ships. The boat pool was called the “hot bed system.” Ships were so loaded with men returning from the war that some slept at night and others used their beds to sleep during the day. The boat pools shuttled them back and forth to Okinawa when they weren't sleeping to reduce the numbers of men actually on board.

 

Returning stateside
Ray returned to the States on emergency leave when his mother was sick. He flew from Okinawa to Guam. But the closer you got to the States, the harder it was to find an available seat on any airplane. He knew he stood no chance of getting a flight to Pearl Harbor, which was the next stop en route home. So he boarded a ship headed to San Francisco, followed by a train back to Philadelphia.

While on leave, Ray met a Navy Commander from his neighborhood who was assigned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Ray asked if there was any way he could be reassigned there. The Commander ran the 401 building at the Navy Yard, which was the Outgoing Unit. This is where Ray would have to report to return to the west coast. Instead, he went to work there as a Master at Arms for about 2 months until the entire unit was shut down. And so Ray returned to San Francisco until he was discharged in July 1946. After the war he returned to work at the Philadelphia Inquirer as a pressman.

Ray Orr passed away on August 31, 2005, at the age of 81 years. This information was extracted from a taped interview he gave several years earlier.

Click here to read the story of Ray's wife, Mary, a World War II veteran as well.