Jan

Sep 19, 20224 min read

WWII: Revis and Oswald

Updated: Oct 17, 2022

So much information! Two different families with wartime service during WWII.

The Revis Family Tale of Kenneth Revis

Information from the biography Just a Soldier

All of the photographs in this section are from that book.

I managed to get a hard copy of Just a Soldier directly from the author a few years ago. You can download the eBook version from Amazon. Click here.

Kenneth Lyle Revis

Kenneth was the son of Harris and Naola (Edwards) Revis. They are featured in previous posts. He fought his way through the Battle of Brest, the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Leipzig, and more whose names I am not familiar with. I will highlight a few of his insights and list his many hard earned military decorations. For a deep dive into his day to day movements and battles during WWII, I encourage you to get his biography, Just a Soldier: The Story of Kenneth L. Revis, written by his grandson, Steve Revis.

Kenneth with his mother, Naola Edwards Revis in 1941.

For a complete list of Kenny's siblings, please see last week's post, Frontier Folk.

In late October of 1944, Kenny had acute appendicitis and was operated on at the 107th Evac Hospital in Belgium. Not down for long, he was back at the front for the Battle of the Bulge at Hellenthal Germany in February.

In March 1945 he was crossing the Rhine and protecting an American pontoon bridge from German attack. The following is an except from the book mentioned earlier:

"Another interesting story from Kenny came from Bad Honnigen, and I remember him telling it to me very well. Kenny and one of his buddies were assigned night guard duty watching the river for demolition commandos coming via the river. They had set up in a concession stand that stood along, and looking down on the river front. Enemy snipers were still in the area, and possibly civilian snipers. As they both leaned on the serving counter looking out over the river, a bullet came whistling in right between them and hit the back of the stand. After creeping back up to look, Kenny spotted what looked like a large log coming up river against the current.

He said to his buddy, 'Logs don't float up river. That's a damn German.'

They were both armed with rifle grenades. Now rifle grenades are meant to be fired by placing the butt of the rifle on the ground and firing it up and out like a mortar shell. They have a tremendous recoil that is reputed to break men's shoulders if fired from the shoulder. He got so excited that. he panicked and brought the rifle up to his shoulder and fired the grenade. The recoil sent him backwards and head over heels, but the grenade hit the target and the log was all gone. Good shot, Kenny!"

The photo of Kenny relaxing with a cigarette is at the corner of Gustave-AdolfStrasse and Lessingstrasse, Leipzig, Germany in 1945.

His medals:

Bronze Star with Valor and Oak Leaf Cluster for second award

Army Good Conduct Medal second award

American Defense Medal

American Campaign WWII Medal

European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal

World War II Victory Medal

National Defense Service Medal

Korean Service Medal

Korean Defense Medal

French Croix de Guerre Medal

UN Korean Service

United Nations Medal

Republic of Korea Service Medal

He served with the 23rd Infantry Regiment/2nd Infantry Division in Europe 1944-1945

"I was just a soldier" -Kenneth Lyle Revis

The Oswald Family Tale of Four Brothers

Philip, Albert, Robert, and Earl c.1941

Information from newspaper clippings, family documents, and the biography Japanese Destroyer Captain.

I do not have a copy of Japanese Destroyer Captain. It only contains a few paragraphs about Albert Oswald's last moments and I have quoted them in this post. You can find it at Amazon here.

The Oswald family lived at 1189 West Sunset Avenue in Decatur, Illinois--just across the street from the new (at the time) Woodrow Wilson school.

Philip F. Oswald

1922-1995

Navy Fireman Second Class

Submariner

Albert Pershing Oswald

1920-1942

Navy Fireman First Class

USS Colorado, USS Barton

KIA Battle of Guadalcanal

Purple Heart, American Campaign, Asiatic Pacific Campaign

The commander of the Japanese destroyer tells of ordering the torpedo launch which sunk the USS Barton, from page 134 of his book:

The Barton sank only minutes after the first torpedo struck, carrying down with her 164 men: 13 officers and 151 of her crew. Forty-two survivors were rescued by USS Portland and twenty-six by Higgins boats from Guadalcanal.

Photo of Lily B. Revis and Albert P. Oswald. c.1941

Every time that Lily would look at this photo she would say that she was heartbroken when her Uncle Al did not return to her.

Robert Edwin Oswald

1921-1997

Seaman First Class

Pearl Harbor

Robert was the last of the brothers to go on active duty.

Earl Edgar Oswald

1917-2007

North African Campaign

Army Sergeant

Purple Heart (Oak Leaf Cluster), European Theatre of Operations (3 stars)

Earl's sister Lucille was always cooking or baking or canning in the kitchen, keeping busy all the time. She wrote down two of Earl's recipes and I have shared them here.