It took nearly 3 years for the Allies to finally force Italy and Germany out of North Africa. When the Allied forces met in Tunisia, they had killed more than 40,000 Axis soldiers, destroyed 8,000 aircraft, and captured more than 430,000 soldiers, preventing them from returning to Europe. Germany had to supply and support an army of 500,000, which took some pressure off the Soviet Union, who were facing nearly 4 million German invaders.

By the time my father arrived in Oran, the Battle for North Africa was largely over. The goal had been to push the Axis forces out of North Africa, take control of the Mediterranean Sea, and prepare for the invasion of Southern Europe. In this third part of The Woodard Boys Go To World War II, my Father discusses his experiences in North Africa and the preparations for the coming invasion of Italy. One of his nighest priorities was reuniting with the 3rd Woodard, H.L. who was fighting with the 36th Division in Italy. — Harrison Woodard

The Woodard Boys Go to World War II

From Oran To Naples – Part 3

By Hollis Hood Woodard

(1917 – 2009)

It was like I had gone back in time about fifty years.

We left the ship at Oran, North Africa about 10:00 AM. It was like I had gone back in time about fifty years. The first thing I noticed was a camel train loading up on the dock to go inland. The dress of the Arabs was quite unusual. I didn’t have time to do much looking around before they had us in formation to march us away from the dock. It was already getting hot and we were dressed in our wool uniforms. One thing I will never forget was this red-headed First Lieutenant attempting to march us out from the docking area. He had us in columns of fours and I was in the front row on the left. As we marched up the hill we were expecting to be given the command to go to the right. This First Lieutenant got excited and gave the command, “column left”. Being on the left, I made a nice turn to the left followed by my three buddies in the front rank. When we made this turn we marched right up to a box car that was parked on the railroad track. In fact, my nose was about six inches from this car. Well the Provost Marshall came running up and started chewing on this First Lieutenant and told him to get us out of there. The First Lieutenant came up and tried to get on my case by telling me I knew we were supposed to go to the right. I told him I knew that, but he had commanded us to go left and he was in charge. We finally got out of that situation and up to the staging area. We were to wait for trucks to take us out to our camp. When the trucks finally arrived, we were all so hot that our wool uniforms were wet with sweat. They packed us on trucks and I happened to be on one that was so loaded that my rear and my pack was hanging over the tail gate. We were being hauled by another outfit because our trucks were on another ship and had not been unloaded. We arrived at our camp later in the afternoon and I was so tired I found a tent and spread out my blanket on the ground and went to sleep. I slept right through the “C” ration supper that they had passed around. I was awakened in the night about to freeze. Everyone in the tent was fishing for another blanket. We had the sides of the tent up so I got up and let them down thinking it would make it warmer in the tent. When day came the heat came back. Within an hour, we were rolling the sides of the tent back up and getting ready for the heat. When the sun was out it went over a hundred degrees every day, but the nights were very different. We were there only a short time before the rainy season hit. This was something else. There were hot rainy days followed by cold rainy nights. Our Division bugler would always get us up and play some tune that would go with the weather. One cold morning it was, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”. One morning when there was thunder and lightning he played, “Stormy Weather”.

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