WWII vet James Krebs to speak at Myers Inn

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

World War II vet­eran James Krebs, who still fits into his orig­i­nal uni­form com­plete with Pfc. Stripes, will speak to mem­bers of the Big Wal­nut Area His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety at 7:30 p.m., Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 11, at Myers Inn about his war experiences.

Born in south­ern Colum­bus, Krebs went to Cor­pus Christi Catholic Grade School and then Colum­bus St. Mary’s High School. He was only 15 years old when Pearl Har­bor was bombed and he wanted to enlist right away.

James’ two older broth­ers, Bob and Al, had already enlisted so his mother talked the twins James and Jack into wait­ing and fin­ish­ing high school. Even­tu­ally Uncle Sam drafted the twins when they were 17.

James and Jack were inducted into the ser­vice at Ft. Hayes in Colum­bus, trained in Infantry and moved up in Patton’s 3rd Army dur­ing the Lib­er­a­tion of France. Because the Ger­mans were push­ing into the coun­try in the north, their infantry unit was trucked 300 miles through rain and snow to get to the front.

James and Jack’s unit fought through the Siegfried Line into Ger­many, and fought for 42 days in the Bat­tle of the Bulge as mem­bers of a bazooka team, earn­ing both broth­ers Sil­ver Stars for their bravery.

In Feb­ru­ary of 1945 they were ordered to cross an open field when Jack was shot and wounded. James ran to his brother’s side and was also wounded when he knelt beside his brother.

James picked up his brother and ran to the aid sta­tion with him.

“I felt blessed because I had a few min­utes to say a prayer with my twin brother before he died,” James said. “I con­tin­ued on to the aid sta­tion still car­ry­ing my brother. At the aid sta­tion they dis­cov­ered I was shot in the leg and had 18 pieces of shrap­nel in my back.”

James recov­ered and spent the remain­der of his mil­i­tary ser­vice as a mem­ber of the 1135th Com­bat Engi­neer Group (CEG). When the army needed to move, his unit opened the way for them. The 1135th CEG cleared the way for Pat­ton to cross the Rhine.

Fol­low­ing the war, James and his two older broth­ers returned to Colum­bus. James mar­ried, they had a daugh­ter, and, after 13 years in Colum­bus, he and his wife found land in Sun­bury where he built the house in which they have lived for 40 years.

Krebs worked for WCOL Radio as an engi­neer, retir­ing after 40 years. He worked for WTVN Chan­nel 6 for another 10 years, retired again; took a job with North Amer­i­can Avi­a­tion and retired again. Krebs also drove a school bus and served as a greeter at Meijer’s.

Dur­ing his life­time, James Krebs has retired six times.

Over the years, Krebs has spo­ken to many school classes and other groups.

“I have my diaries I kept dur­ing the ser­vice which remind me of the things I saw and did,” Krebs said. “I never wanted to talk about it with my wife, daugh­ter and friends, but now I real­ize I can help peo­ple under­stand this time in history.”

The Myers Inn Museum is located at 45 South Colum­bus Street in Sun­bury. Mem­bers of the Big Wal­nut Area His­tor­i­cal Soci­ety meet on the sec­ond Tues­day of each month at the Myers Inn Museum Meet­ing Room.

Posted by Gary Henery on Sep 5 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.