Leon Skubitz
World War II Veteran of D-Day
A lifelong resident of southeast Kansas, eighty-nine year old Leon Skubitz willingly and bravely served the United States during World War II and was a part of The Normandy Invasion. He received many awards and metals, including being decorated for bravery, earning two Purple Hearts, receiving two expert riflemen awards, and attaining the rank of Sergeant Major. It was my good fortune to meet Mr. Skubitz at a time in his life when he was ready to share his World War II experiences. He was prepared and anxious at the first opportunity to go to war for his country and to risk his life to preserve the freedom of all Americans; and that is why it is an honor to know him. A friendly, outgoing person, Leon Skubitz not only opened his home to me, but also his heart and some personal experiences that will remain with me forever.
*[I was born on] April 30, 1913. I was born on a farm, lived in Fleming (in Cherokee County, Kansas) practically all my life, until my mother died. I worked in the coal mines too. I went to the coal mines when I was sixteen years old. I remember that because I was just sixteen when I went in. Some guy come up to me and said, “Leon, you know we can go to Oklahoma and get a card to go out and work for the government and they’d pay us a dollar and a half an hour.”
I went home and I told my dad, he said, “Son, if you can get a dollar and a half an hour, you go.” Leon went (laugh). Now Leon went and got his certificate to make a dollar and a half an hour for the government. I went through the eighth grade and that was it. [All I remember about childhood is] working in the corn field and [that] I worked on a farm and my dad worked in the coal mines see, until I was sixteen years old, and then I went to the coal mines. I first went to cut the rock out of the coal, you know like in the mines they did. And then I finally graduated from that. I ended up being a top man. I used to go out steam fitting. We’d call that steam fitting for working for the government, course I was making a dollar and a half an hour and it just kept going up and up.
They [the Army] wouldn’t take me. My mother was living and someone had to take care of her, and my sister was taking care of my mother at home. We never did put her in a hospital or no place. She was sick all the time. So after my mother died, I can’t remember the day, I was still going out working for the government. I got tired of waiting for ‘em [the government] to call me. So I went to Girard and I said, ‘Say, my mother died and I’m free to go anytime you want to call me.’ They called me in about six months.
Anyhow, I went to the Army and Gariglietti, he was sheriff, took me up there to (Fort) Leavenworth. I think my first stop after we come from Leavenworth was in Arkansas. [We went to] Little Rock, Arkansas; and that’s where I start taking my training. [My first impression was] I liked the Army. See we took training, hard training. We had to go out and march and handle a gun and had to go out and shoot a gun; but I shot a gun all my life. Sergeant [showed] us all [how] to handle a gun. He’d give me an old three; I knew what an old three was. He showed me how to lay down with a gun and a target would come up. He said, “You try to hit the center of that target.”
I said ‘OK,’ course I was just a buck private then.
So he stepped aside of me and he said, “Now [they] are going to put up a target and you shoot at it.” Bam, bull’s eye (laugh), bull’s eye right away. Every time I shot that target, they put up a flag see, and that was bull’s eye (laugh). Sergeant looked at me and said, “ I don’t need to show you how to shoot a gun (laugh), and he walked away. They made us march. They made us run. They made us do everything. I was in good health. Nobody wait for Leon, nobody (laugh). No kiddin’, I ain’t a kiddin’, I am not braggin’. I’m just telling you the facts. Pretty soon I got to be one stripe, two stripes, three stripes. From Little Rock we went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma to school troops, live ammunition. We would go through the procedure there with live ammunition. They would have live ammunition shooting over us, and we would be close to the shells. Officers from different countries would come there as we were running through all of this. That was when they shipped us out.
We had to quit that because they moved us south into Texas on a train, and we went all the way around Texas. We was going to New York from there, see. We went south there to Texas here (looking at map) as far as I can remember. Then we followed the ocean all around clear up north into Scotland, see. Of course, we had to get off and get on boats and everything else to get to Scotland. Took me out to Wales. We come all the way around Wales, and then we’d come into Utah Beach.
That’s where we jumped off about eleven o’clock that day. Man, that big shell, little shell, everything was coming in. They hauled us in, the infantry; we had to jump off into the water, which was about chest high. Man, when I landed I was right here (to my chest) and full of ammunition. Why I had ammunition strapped all over me so we could get ammunition to the beach. I can remember I swam with the waves, and dead bodies all around me. Guys jumping off in water over their head, and they was so loaded down they drowned right there. A lot of ‘em drowned and a lot of ‘em got killed by boats and things.
Well anyhow, when we hit Utah Beach, we couldn’t get up because they had those big rails so that we couldn’t get to the bank. I was scared to take a step. Thought it’d [the water] go over my head just like the rest of ‘em done. I kept fooling around, went a little further, and I grabbed that rail. Then I got to the bank. Boy, I laid on that bank. The bullets was coming in, big ones, little ones, middle-sized ones, everything. [I] never got hit. We dug in right there in the beach; and that three, four hours, seemed like ages. It was all sand up this beach see. About a quarter of a mile was trees, and that’s where we wanted to get. We got there before dark, and actually that’s where we spent the night. One ole boy, he kept walking around out there, and [a] guard hollered at him. “Halt, who are you?” He didn’t give a password or nothing. He shot him. Right there, killed him dead. Killed his own man [because] he didn’t say nothing to him. That taught us one thing--if they holler, “Hey, who are you?” you give the password! We didn’t get no sleep that night because the Germans weren’t far from us.
The next morning we started for the Germans. Man, we was firing, you wouldn’t believe me. You just can’t possibly believe what I went through. I had to walk through this field. In the little towns, they had bushes and little trees all around their big yards. In each corner they had machine guns shooting at us; and we was out in the open coming at ‘em. My buddies, right next to me, was getting knocked down. I kept on firing at that machine gun that was firing back at us. I don’t know, I must have been pretty close to ‘em because they stopped and left. I looked and heard a little tank going to the north. [It] was going away from us. I didn’t fire at him (laugh). I didn’t want him turning around firing at me (laugh). Anyhow, I got through that mission.
I remember one place, we was coming along the road and the machine gunner was blasting anybody that would run past that open space. We’d time him (laugh). He’d shoot, somebody would run across. He never hit me. Here was another guy across the road in a hole throwing hand grenades at me. I’d pick the hand grenade up, and I’d throw it back at him (laugh). So, I kept him busy too. That was always that way. It was always that way. Every second you never knew. You tell me. You mean, the good Lord didn’t have a hold of my hand there? You bet he did!
We’d always have a tank with us you know, ‘cause they had to hit those other tanks that was ahead of ‘em, [that] was always shooting at us. We’d come up onto the hill, and they’d set that tank over the hill. Man, we’d pile off that [tank] and hit the trees. I [was] just sitting there with my gun by a tree, and they hit that barrel of that tank and killed everybody in the tank. A shrapnel hit my gun; and course, that was right there by my eye. I thought sure he knocked my eyes out. I rubbed my eyes and done everything, and pretty soon I could see a little bit.
I went overseas as a Sergeant see; but then, boom! Just one over the top of the other kept coming to me ‘cause I never got killed. That was the simple reason. Somebody had to run [the] company. I run [the] company. I couldn’t understand why the General called me off the firing line one day. My captain sent the runner for me. But anyhow, the runner come to where we was having an awful hot battle. He said, “Captain wants you to come to the headquarters. The General wants to see you.”
I said, ‘What does the general want to see me for when we are out here fighting?’ So I went up and saw Captain Watson.
He said, “Sergeant, the General wants to see you. He’s going to give you a field commission.”
I said, ‘Oh, wait a minute, he’s not giving me no field commission (laugh).’ I was a Sergeant see; he wasn’t going to make me pay for my stuff with a commission. I said, ‘I’m going to stay as Sergeant.’ Everyday they kept talking and [the] General sent for me again (laugh). I said, ‘Something’s going on here, something’s going on here.’ I went back and told the Captain, ‘Now he [the General] knows I’m not gonna take a commission.’
“Yeah,”
he said, “He doesn’t want you for field commission.
He wants to decorate you for bravery.
So I went. You’d thought
I was his brother or something (laugh).
Anyhow, he said he wanted to decorate me for bravery, and he did;
and I’m still getting money today from that. I come out a Sergeant Major.
[I was in the] 170th Battalion [in] Oklahoma, 1943.
Lieutenant Weiss was our commander. 
I never let my men go where I wouldn’t go. I’d always go with ‘em. They had an old building underground; it was about two stories up. Me and this guy we had to go and see what was ahead of us. I said, ‘Hey, look right ahead of us. That’s a bunker.’ We went around away from the door where they could come up to that door to shoot out. He kept shooting as us; but they wasn’t hitting us. We was over there. And boy, pretty soon all hell broke loose. They showed their big shells. One of my boys got this (showing back of the knee) part shot out of his leg. I was down on my hands and knees, and I put a tourniquet on him. After I put the tourniquet on him, boom! Boy I got hit right here (pointing to his left shoulder). It came out a hole about that big (size of half dollar). It went through my ribs and everything. Didn’t break a rib, but it sure cut me a lot of places in there (laugh). They never did sew that up, and I was five weeks healing.
[Another time] they were shooting down this trench they had built, and I’d time it. I’d time how long it took ‘em. I only had to go about six feet, but I thought I better time that right. He shot in there with that big gun. I’d count, ‘One, two, three, four.’ I said, ‘I can make it.’ As soon as he shot, boom, I jumped in there. I jumped in this one and went this way. He kept shooting at me (laugh). And that’s when I was shot already. I thought, ‘I don’t think I can make it; I’m going to try. I have to make it.’ Every step I didn’t know if I was going to make it or what. Anyhow, I had to go in a trench and I jumped on [a] wire they had. I walked on that wire; I had to get away. Pretty soon I come to the place where there was a river. [I made my way back to the camp, and] the first thing he [one of my men did] was give me a shot. He said, “I can give you a shot; we’ll radio the crew.” In the meantime, this was a river where we was at, see. The river runs here, and our people were here on this side. They gave me a shot and she [the nurse] said, “Now they radioed across and there is going to be a man there with a truck.”
He [the doctor] said, “He’ll come up with the truck and he’s got a boat waiting. He’s going to get that boat and wait for your signal.” It got dark by that time, see. He said, “You flash your light at him, and he’s going to flash it back.” Here I was out there walking in water up to my waist. Every once in awhile I would flash my light, and nothing would happen. Pretty soon I flashed my light; and boy, he signaled back. He brought his truck up there, see. That’s all the farther we could come. Oh boy, when I saw that light, and he come out there to pick me up. I said, ‘Wait, I know there’s other guys coming behind me.’
He said, “I can’t wait, I’m to pick you up. I’m to take you across and get you to the medic.” I couldn’t believe it; he left those other guys walking out there some place in that water. I don’t know whether they were ever got or anything. But I do know he got me across; he docked that boat. We jumped in the truck and he said, “ Come on, I’ll take you to an aid station.” Well, he didn’t have to beg me to go, I was ready to go; and I went to the aid station. I could tell you some more, but I ain’t gonna tell you.
Good lookin’ nurse (laugh). I don’t have to say no more (laugh), do I (laugh)? Ol’ doc, he pushed me back (laugh), laid me back down, and I was passed out. That was the end of me (laugh). I ended up in a hospital, what little hospital they had. They shipped me to England. [After the injury], I had to go back. It took five weeks being in England, see. They shipped me across on a C47. Man, I couldn’t ride in the tail end of that because it was this way and that way, and it made me sick. I got off that night and we was still in our territory. Next morning, I said, ‘Yeah I’m going to get some place else.’ So I got up there, where there was a nice seat. I had a radio in there (laugh); nobody was going to take that away from me (laugh). I rode down across to England, see. Boy, I was lucky.
It was raining and I remember one particular night, I took four boys with me, and we went out to see if we could find where the Germans were. Oh, did we find ‘em. They would go on one side of the hedge, and we were on the other (laugh) side. They were just a talking away, you know; and then here we was going on this side. Yeah, they wanted to see if we could find ‘em. We found ‘em! We left ‘em alone too. When we went back, we knew exactly where [to tell the rest of our men] where they was at. Oh yeah, everyday was that way. Everyday, everyday. You never knew one second that you wasn’t going to get hit with a bullet. Could have been a big bullet [or a] little bullet.
One morning, real early, we heard ‘em rumbling and coming, tanks and everything. I said, ‘Boy they’re sure coming in today.’ ‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘Be careful.’ ‘Don’t shoot,’ I said, ‘Don’t you shoot at ‘em; we’re the only ones here.’ Here come these things I looked at and I said, ‘What is that?’ American jeeps was leading ‘em see. Here come a whole division of the German Army. They wouldn’t surrender to nobody but the 90th Division, ‘cause we fought ‘em all the way through. And they surrendered to us! Boy, was I happy when I saw that jeep (laugh). We was all back in this mountain all by ourselves, it was something else. The Germans said, “You people don’t know how to fight a war. You are supposed to come this way (showing on a map), and then you come this way. I guess we sure surprised ‘em.
Ok, now here we come into Prague, Czechoslovakia. That’s where we had to stop to let the Russians come in. The Russians had to go to Berlin. We thought we was going to get to go to Berlin, but we didn’t. They stopped us there and pulled us back to Germany. That was over fifty-five miles. And we got there first, of course. ‘Cause man, they [Germans] were surrendering to us like flies. We had to come back to Nuremberg, Germany. So we stayed right there, and that’s where I was discharged, right there.
I came back in ’45 and my nephew come down to Missouri. He said, “Leon, how would you like to go in business when you get out? He said, I could buy that grocery store;” It was just a block from where I was staying with my sister on 15th and Smelter.
I said, ‘Yeah, that’ll be all right John.’ U and S Grocery, we named it, Uranker and Skubitz (laugh). I couldn’t sit still long enough to work in a grocery store (laugh). The next thing I done was took a little vacation. I went to Michigan. My nephew was home, and we went on a bus. I come back and I was restless as could be. So I sold out to him one day. That was the best thing I ever done (laugh). [After that] I worked over at the Gas Service Company. I retired from there.
[In] ’57, Dorothy and I got married. Boy, she was a brilliant woman. Why she kept me I don’t know (laugh). She was brilliant, don’t think she wasn’t. She run that (Pittsburg State) University for seventeen years. She had three Presidents there, and that’s a job. I taught her how to fish. I taught her how to play golf. I taught her how to hunt; she’d be my bird dog (laugh). Oh, we had a lot of good times.
[When I came back from war] my life, I just continued on. Nothing Army. I put all my stuff [up], and did not touch it for fifty-five years. Yeah, he [my nephew] wanted to take me back there [to Utah Beach], just to show his son. I told him, ‘You wouldn’t know it.’ [All that’s left now is] cemetery, I saw pictures of it. I got a letter from a friend of mine, he wrote me a letter, he was there. He said, “In one minute they could find you any place in that cemetery and have that man’s name. You see one place; it’s just like all the rest of ‘em.
[Years later] My nephew come, he said, “Leon, I want to take you on our 50th anniversary to Utah Beach. I want Jamie to go with us,”-- his son, young fella.
I said, ‘You might go, but I’m not.’ I wouldn’t go. I won’t even talk about it. I had all my stuff put over there (pointing to a room in his house). One day my wife, after she was sick said, “Leon, what are you going to do with all this stuff you’ve got?”
I said, ‘I don’t know babe, but I’ll sure do something.’ So I went up to see this lady and I talked to her (at The Finishing Touch [on 622 North Broadway]). I’ve got two expert riflemen see (showing his awards). Yeah, this is purple hearts. One of these is for [bravery].
*Text within [ ] was not
said by interviewee.
This oral history was researched and prepared by Matthew Plank, Spring 2003.