Woods, Sherby (1918-2007)

https://reflections.mndigital.org/catalog/stc:9864#/kaltura_audio

Biographical Information: Sherby Roy Woods was born August 17, 1918 in Iowa, where he worked on his family dairy farm. After they moved to Minnesota, he worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps and the lumber industry as a heavy equipment operator in northern Minnesota. Woods was drafted into the Army on October 14, 1941 at the age of 23. During the war, he was attached to Company B, 6th Armored Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division. Discharged as a Technician Fifth Grade, Woods worked in heavy equipment and demolitions during campaigns in North Africa and Italy. After returning to the U.S. in 1945, Woods married Cora Lillian Moe, attended heavy equipment maintenance school on the GI Bill, and began a long series of treatments for a facial injury at the Veterans’ Administration hospital. He worked on heavy equipment for Milaca County until his retirement. He passed away on January 23, 2007 at the age of 88 and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Milaca, Minnesota.

Transcript Summary: Sherby R. Woods described his experiences serving with the 6th Armored Infantry Regiment in the 1st Armored Division during World War II. He described his upbringing on a dairy farm in Iowa and argued that his experiences as a hunter and a heavy equipment worker for the Civilian Conservation Corps in northern Minnesota made him better prepared for war than many others. Woods described his training and several wartime experiences. These included helping train the first Ranger battalion, driving heavy equipment including tanks, and working as a demolitions expert in campaigns from the invasion of North Africa to Italy’s Brenner Pass on the border of Austria. Woods shared many of his thoughts on the war, including his opinions of Allied soldiers and Axis Power POWs and what he described as the poor training given to replacement troops. He also described how the war changed the U.S. military, including his improvised invention of a more efficient automatic transmission system for light tanks. After the war, Woods chronicled his employment as a heavy equipment operator and his recurring struggles with finding adequate treatment for a tic douloureux injury through Veterans Affairs. Woods concluded the interview with a discussion of contemporary events such as apartheid in South Africa and stated that embargos are a more effective tool than war.

Interview by Richard Olson

Includes archival material