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Recognizing the military service of men and women from Arenzville, Illinois.


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Howard Anderson
Gerald Beard
Albert Bridgeman
Charles Burrus
Edward Burrus
Jack Burrus
Kicky Charlesworth
William Charlesworth
Ralph Clark
Robert Clark
Kenneth Davis
Paul Dotzert
William Dotzert
Friedrich Engelbach
James Fischer
Lee Fox
Clyde Ginder
Ralph Ginder
Nathan Grant
Charles Ham
Herman Hendricker
John Herbert

Shirley Hierman
Harold Huppers
Gerald Jones
Lorenz Kleinschmidt
Walter Kleinschmidt
Louis Kloker
Glen Lovekamp
Floyd E. Musch
Albert Nicol
Leland Nicol
Wilbur Nicol
William Niemann
Earl Niestradt
Eldore Nobis
Melvin Nobis
Alvin Paul
Richard Peck

John Roegge
William Saylor
Floyd Schone
Wayne Schone
Francis Staake

Robert Stock
Warren Stock
Clifford Thomas
Wendell Wessler
Marlin Winkelman
Charles Witte
Robert Witte
Butch Zulauf
Malcolm Zulauf
Marvin Zulauf

Photos of others are welcome! Click here for more information.

  Leland Nicol
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My name is Leland W. Nicol. I just read your Web Page and would like to tell you about what happened to me in WW II. I graduated from Arenzville High School in 1942. My class had only 17 in it, of which only 6 were boys.

I was drafted in May of 1943 and sent to Westover Field, Mass for training with the Air Borne Engineers. After 3 months I was sent to Richmond, Va. where they were forming a new engineer battalion. The 1896th Aviation Battalion. I spent the rest of my Army career in this battalion.

We left Richmond on January 1944 to go overseas. After 27 days at sea we landed at Port Morsbey, New Guinea. We spent 5 months in New Guinea in the Lae and Nadzab campaigns.

Next we took part in the Biak, Dutch East Indies campaign. We spent 5 months there. We left Biak on Christmas Day 1944 for the invasion of Luzon, Philippines.
Our convoy was attacked by suicide planes several times. On January 12, 1945 our ship was hit by one of the planes. I was in the first hold with 150 others when the plane hit. Only 8 of us got out, all the others were killed. I was on fire and had shrapnel in my leg. I got out of the ship, by jumping into the ocean, through the hole the plane made, coming in. I was burned over 30% of my body. When they could not find my body, I was listed as Missing in Action.

I did have a life jacket and was finally rescued from the sea by a ship going the other way. After being on several different Hospital Ships, I was taken to the 61st General Hospital in Hollandia, New Guinea. This is where the unlikely happened. I knew the APO number for Hollandia was the same as Dean (Butch) Zulauf's. I told one of the nurses about this and a few days later, I looked up and there was Butch. It's hard to believe that 2 boys out of a class of only 6 boys, would meet in New Guinea. That night Butch wrote to his mother and told her that he had seen me, that I was badly wounded, but would be OK. My parents didn't get the telegram that I was Missing in Action till one day after Butch's mother got his letter, so they knew I was alive.

Dean Zulauf and Lee Nicol

After I was discharged from the hospital, I made my way back to my outfit, in the Philippines. After having been burned over so much of my body, the sun kept burning me over and over, so I spent most of the next 3 months back in hospitals. By this time Manila had been captured and we were there waiting for replacements. Believe it or not, Dean (Butch) Zulauf and I ran into each other there in Manila.

After we got replacements, our outfit loaded on ships for the invasion on Japan. After the A Bombs were dropped and the war ended, we went to Japan as occupation troops. I had enough points to come home and was discharged on December 17, 1945. Out of the 185 men in my Company, who went overseas only 34 of us came home, and all but 8 of them had been wounded or missing or both.

My family moved to Savanna, Illinois in 1945, while I was in Service.

Leland (Lee) Nicol, July 2001


 

Telegram to Nicol family

Telegram from Lee to his parents

Telegram to Nicol family (2)

 


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Copyright 2005, Molly Daniel. This page last updated 11/16/2017.
If you have images or text to contribute to this website, please contact Molly at bestburgoo (at) outlook.com.