Finally, A Hot Shower After More than Two Weeks!

On July 7, Dillon Summers wrote home to his family for the first time in at least a month.

Dillon with his sister Hazel before shipping out overseas

"Hellow, Mom & family.

"Will drop You a few lines today to let You know I am still well & doing O.K. trusting every one there is in good health & doing fine.... I had a nice hot shower Yesterday. The first one since I've been here."

"Here" was Normandy, France, where he had arrived with the other men of the 391st Armored Field Artillery Battalion, 3rd Armored Division. He had landed there on June 20, 1944, D-day minus 14. He hadn't had more than a hands-and-face sponge bath from an army helmet in 17 days. It was summertime. And he was cooped up inside an M4 Sherman tank for much of that time. No air conditioning. Not even a fan to circulate the hot, dank, sweat-fuel-and-cordite-permeated air inside the vehicle.

M3 Sherman in the mud

Shortly after Dillon had arrived on Fox Red sector of Omaha Beach, a four-day-long storm, one of the worst storms experienced in the English Channel in 40 years, hit. It dumped rain on the Allied beachhead and across the bocage, the small fields separated by dense hedgerows from which the U.S. Army had to drive the German defenders. It remained damp and muddy for days afterward. Everything--uniforms, boots, bedrolls, etc.--was damp or downright soaked.

Daytime temperatures reached 90 to 100 degrees. Inside a tank, the temperatures could reach 130 to 140 degrees, with engine and transmission heat, steel armor radiating solar energy into the vehicle and multiplying the discomfort of the crewmen.

Exhaust fumes; unburned fuel odors; the smell and smoke from fired shells; the stench of sweaty, exerting bodies; and excrement and liquid elimination from the crewmen--they ha no bathroom facilities aboard, and it was too dangerous to get out of the tank. It all combined to create a devilish environment.

For most of us, showers aren't something noteworthy enough to write home about. But for Dillon, living under such inhospitable conditions, it most certainly was.

Can you imagine going without a bath in those conditions for two weeks or more? I feel yucky if I miss my daily shower. When traveling, I might go two days without bathing, or when camping, three. But certainly no longer. It would be unimaginable. But that was reality for tankers and infantrymen alike during the combat of World War II.

We civilians are so soft, so used to modern conveniences that we are apt to complain about the most trivial things. We can't imagine what it's like to live the way soldiers who experienced combat in World War II had to live even while risking their lives.

The infrequency of bathing was not the soldiers' only hardship. Meals were also another problem. During combat operations, the men generally were limited to available army rations, the ingredients of which varied according to the sort of ration it was, and they came in a variety of packages.

World War II C-ration

C-rations, enough for one soldier for one day. B-rations, often called 5-in-1 or 10-in-1 meals, enough to feed one man for five or ten meals or ten meals for five or ten men. K-rations, which often was standard fare for tankers like Dillon. Each type of ration was designed to provide the soldier with 2,500 to 2,850 calories a day.

Dillon's tank and crew. The caption misspells his last name; it should be Summers. Pierce was a friend of his, and Fullerton was the forward observer. The crew had named their tank "Hot Hedy," but it was hot for another reason as well.

Realizing the conditions under which our World War II ancestors had to fight should increase our respect for what they endured to ensure our freedoms and gain them back for the people of Europe who were occupied by the Nazis. It should also make us grateful for what we enjoy and so often take for granted today. It should stifle our complaining about our own conditions.

If you would like to learn more about what it was like for "the greatest generation" on the battlefields of Europe during World War II, especially for tankers in the 3rd Armored Division, check out my book Dillon's War. Available on Amazon.