Cranking Up a Fine War: A Louisiana Soldier from Boot Camp to General's Aide - Hardcover

Col. Van R. Mayhall, USAR Ret.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1892958015 ISBN 13: 9781892958013

Publisher: ByrenLee Press, 1999

Synopsis

In 1936, Van Mayhall joined the National Guard. He was only seventeen years old and he was just beginning to court the girl who would become the love of his life. He had a lot to lose--but Hitler was "cranking up a fine war" in Europe, and Van Mayhall thought he needed to learn something about fighting.

He did learn. He trained in the swamps of south Louisiana, the coastal plains of the Carolinas, and the rural farm country of central Texas. He had attained the rank of captain in the U.S. Army by the time he went overseas in 1942.

The only route home lay through England, France, and ultimately Germany on the path of victory. Along the way Capt. Mayhall dined at Buckingham Palace and escorted Marlene Dietrich at the front lines; he served as aide to General William Weaver during the crossings of the Moselle and Roer rivers and as a company commander in assaults against the Maginot Line as a member of the 90th Division "Tough 'Ombres." It would be three years before he returned home with a Silver Star and a lifetime's worth of experience with war, to see whether the "girl back home" had waited for him.

Cranking Up A Fine War is a highly personal account of a young soldier's journey from boot camp to general's aide. Van Mayhall has a gift for capturing people and events in a genuine and often humorous way. His stories are truly a part of history, a living history woven into the fabric of all that makes our nation special.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

The 90th Infantry Division -- the Texas-Oklahoma "Tough 'Ombres" -- was having trouble on the beaches, and General Middleton seemed to be the officer to put it back together. He picked General McLain as Division Commander and he got to looking for a fighting general for Assistant Division Commander. He knew General Weaver was in the ETO and sent out a call for him. Well, General Weaver was as happy as he could be. He was afraid that he might have to fight this war from behind the lines.

When he got ready to leave Cheltenham, he asked me, "Mayhall, you want to go?"

I came back with an answer so fast it surprised me. "General, that's what I've been training three years for."

Cranking Up a Fine War is the account of a young soldier's personal journey through World War II and of the shared experiences of all the soldiers who made their way from boot camp to the battlefields of Europe on the path of victory.

About the Author

Van Mayhall was born in a small town in Mississippi, but moved with his family to Baton Rouge, La., when he was only two months old. His father was a railroad man, and the family often took the train to Gloucester, Miss., where his grandfather ran a farm and sawmill. Mayhall grew up playing with his friends on the Mississippi River levee during the Great Depression and exploring the expansive campus of Louisiana State University.

Mayhall attended Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, where he excelled in boxing, football and swimming. He spent his summers as a teen lifeguarding at the City Park swimming pool. He joined the National Guard in 1936. Only 17, he had to get his mother's permission to sign the papers.

Mayhall did well in the National Guard, traveling throughout the South and spending time with his sweetheart, Marie Roques, when he was home on weekends. He graduated from Catholic High School in 1937 and entered LSU as a freshman that fall, majoring in chemical engineering. He joined the ROTC at LSU and was assigned to the Artillery Battalion of the Cadet Corps, although he was still in the infantry in the National Guard.

He trained in Florida and in the swamps of south Louisiana, visiting home and writing or seeing Marie when he could. In December 1940 he was forced to leave LSU when President Roosevelt ordered the National Guard onto active duty to train for potential involvement in World War II.

Mayhall was in training at Camp Blanding in Florida on Dec. 7, 1941, just two weeks shy of the end of his one-year tour of active duty, when he began writing his mother to tell her he thought he would be home in time for Christmas. Just then, the little radio on a shelf in his tent began broadcasting the news of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor. Mayhall's letter home ended quite differently, and within 48 hours he was on the road toward combat training in North Carolina.

Mayhall excelled in combat training and in the spring of 1942 was promoted to first lieutenant. One of the perks of his promotion was ten days' leave - as well as permission to get married. Van Mayhall and Marie Roques were married at 8 a.m. on April 25, 1942, and by 11 a.m. were on a train to Camp Bowie in Brownwood, Texas, where Lt. Mayhall would undergo the next phase of his training. He had attained the rank of captain in the U.S. Army by the time he went overseas in September 1942.

He served as an aide to Gen. William Weaver at a replacement depot in Cheltenham, England, and had a number of adventures, including dining at Buckingham Palace and escorting Marlene Dietrich at the front lines. Ultimately Gen. Weaver was ordered to join the liberation of France, and Mayhall went with him, landing at Omaha Beach on D-Day plus 66. He saw combat in Germany at the crossings of the Moselle and Roer rivers and at the battles of Vossenack and Hurtgen Forest. He was awarded a Silver Star for his bravery under enemy fire near Brandenberg, Germany.

Mayhall was separated from service on Sept. 22, 1945, at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, but he remained in the Army Reserves until his retirement. He continued to serve his country for many years by teaching at various military schools as far away as California, sharing the expertise in river crossings he had gained during his combat tour in France and Germany. When he returned to Baton Rouge in 1945 he had a wife to support, and soon after, a baby on the way. He got a job at Standard Oil Company and started his second career, working for more than 30 years at what later became Exxon.

In the mid-1980s, Mayhall began writing down his wartime experiences longhand on legal tablets. His granddaughter, a University of Texas journalism student and aspiring writer, showed the manuscript to a friend in the publishing industry who immediately recognized its value. Cranking Up a Fine War: A Louisiana Soldier from Boot Camp to General's Aide, was published in 1999 by ByrenLee Press, an independent pu

About this edition

• Publisher: ByrenLee Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1892958015
• ISBN 13: 9781892958013
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 243