Edward L. Rowny
Q ..
Where did you get your black officers?
A
We originally started with all white officers. Washington decreed that we would
replace all our white officers with black officers by the time we were committed
to battle. We didn't achieve this goal. We went into combat with nine out of ten
black officers. While we were training at Fort Huachuca, we sent our smarter
enlisted men to officer's training school. Many of these soldiers, after finishing
OCS [Officer Candidate School], came back to the same units they had left. This
was, in my opinion, a mistake. Although they had higher IQs, they were seldom
among the better soldiers. The men they commanded didn't respect them. The
units were commanded largely by the NCOs.
92d Infantry Division, Italy
Q ..
After you arrived in Italy in 1944, what kind of work did your battalion do?
A
My engineer combat battalion spent most of its time clearing minefields. The area
was heavily mined. We tried different ways of clearing minefields, for example,
snakes, cordite, and flails. In the end, we wound up with the old reliable method;
probing with bayonets. We were out in the front lines, clearing the way for the
infantry and armor as they inched along. I'm certain you've seen the famous
cartoon: A long line of tanks behind a single engineer soldier probing for mines
with his bayonet. We had only partial success. Quite often vehicles were blown
up trying to traverse a "cleared area? It was a messy business. We also
maintained roads and built bridges. On one occasion there was a flash flood which
took out a bridge across the Serchio River. We had to put in a bridge in a hurry,
because the Serchio separated a regiment from the remainder of the division.
Q ..
What type of men did you have in your battalion in Italy? Were they good
engineers? Did they respond to their training?
A
Our men were rather good so long as we kept them back of the front lines and
away from enemy fire. Under fire, it was a different story. You should remember
that my battalion, as was our division, consisted of marginal soldiers. All the
better Negroes had either volunteered or been drafted earlier. Most of our men
were substandard physically and had low IQ scores. They did reasonably well on
engineering tasks so long as the jobs did not entail actual combat. In combat, the
troops didn't do very well.
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