Benjamin Schleider was born in Brenham, Texas in 1921. His grandfather was a successful businessman and was very unhappy with the National Recovery Act [Annotator's Note: National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 authorized the President to regulate industry] during the Great Depression. His family had to kill cattle as part of this program which was very distressing to them. They were a very frugal family and one side had come to the United States from Germany and started the family business. They never missed a payroll during the Depression and Schleider's father worked hard to not let any of their workers go. Overall, they got along well. Schleider graduated high school in May 1939. He started at Texas A&M College in College Station, Texas, when the war started that fall. He joined the ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officers Training Corp] which was required at the college. He was there until January 1943 when he graduated. The next day he took his physical and was sworn into the Army as a Corporal. He went to artillery OCS [Annotator's Note: Officer Candidate School] at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. They had a 16 week course in artillery firing. He then went to Camp Roberts, California and selected armored artillery, joining the 6th Armored Division at Camp Cooke [Annotator's Note: now Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California]. He remained at Camp Cooke from February 1943 until January 1944 when he departed for Camp Shanks, New York by train. His untit shipped out from the 44th Street Pier in New York in a convoy of 43 ships to Glasgow, Scotland.

Benjamin Schleider was part of a convoy of 43 ships leaving from New York City to Glasgow, Scotland. The trip took 11 days. Part of the convoy went to the south to England. They had pretty rough weather. The RMS Queen Mary would pass them coming and going. She had no escort because she could travel faster than submarines. Schleider's convoy landed in Glasgow, Scotland and boarded trains to the Cotswold area of England. He was in Finstock, England in a very distinct village with construction that fascinated him. He did a lot of hiking there. Schleider and the division [Annotator's Note: 6th Armored Division] officers assembled in Batsford Park near the village of Moreton-in-Marsh, England for indoctrination by General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. He recalls this very vividly. It was raining and there were about 600 of them standing at attention as Patton arrived with General Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander 6th Armored Division] in cavalry uniforms. General Grow introduced Patton to the men. The men were shocked by Patton's high-pitched voice. He told them not die for their country but make the Germans die for theirs. The Division chaplains were offended by Patton's language and asked that he be reported. Grow talked them out of taking action against Patton. [Annotator's Note: Schleider laughs.]

Benjamin Schleider was assigned to General Grow's [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander 6th Armored Division] staff in April 1944. He thought he was going to be court-martialed after arriving back from a training maneuver. The camp was in black-out conditions when they returned and Schleider heard that there were donuts in a building. He took a screwdriver and broke in to get donuts for his men. The next day he was told to report to division headquarters and was worried. When he got there, he found he was being interviewed for being General Grow's aide. He got the job and his battalion commander warned him that working for the general would get him killed a lot sooner than if he was a forward observer in the battalion. Working for Grow was very interesting, and he treated his aides well. Grow wanted them to know everything they could about the Army. On one occasion, Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] came and stayed with them, and Schleider says he was very polite and quiet. Grow had been Patton's Operations Officer in the 2nd Army. Schleider calls Grow a frontline general. He and Patton never wanted to find a commander in his command post and not up on the line. Patton would often come down to inspect the units. Grow was conferred with frequently by other commanders due to his leadership in armor. [Annotator's Note: Schleider tells a story of Grow on the Texas border checking topographic maps.] Serving as Grow's aide was a great learning experience for Schleider.

Benjamin Schleider and his unit [Annotator's Note: 6th Armored Division] landed at Utah Beach on 18 July 1944. The beach was no longer hostile and General Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander of the 6th Armored Division] and Schleider went ashore in a landing craft to meet Colonel Caffey [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Eugene Mead Caffey of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade]. Caffey's command post was in a former German blockhouse. Schleider took his helmet off and put it on a bunk. Caffey said that was bad luck and chastised him. Everyone laughed but Schleider was very embarrassed. The division then went over to Barneville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. They were in a pasture behind the 79th Infantry Division. It was planned for them to go down the coast. On 25 July, General Wyche [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Ira Thomas Wyche, commander of the 79th Infantry Division] invited General Grow to join him to watch the bombing of Saint-Lô, France. That bombing was ferocious. Schleider and the 6th Armored Division went south towards Avranches, France on 27 July 1944. They attacked through Avranches, which was a key point strategically, on 1 August 1944. They then assembled southeast of the city. That night the Germans bombed. The US 4th Armored Division started firing antiaircraft fire. General Grow said for the 6th not to fire and stay quiet. The 4th Armored got bombed badly. After leaving Avranches, the 6th Armored Division was ambushed south at Bree, France by the Germans. Schleider was in a light tank in the hedgerows which made perfect perimeters for defense for the Germans. The Germans had an 88mm gun [Annotator's Note: 88mm multi-purpose artillery] on rail tracks further back and squads with burp guns [Annotator's Note: 9mm MP-40, Maschinenpistole 40, German submachine gun] in the hedgerows. A battery in front of Schleider got hid badly, so he tried to outrun the guns. His tank was hit by bazooka fire and a sergeant was killed. General Grow was in an armored car behind them and did not get hit. Schleider had misread a signal and went forward instead of stopping. It was a terrible mistake and he has lived with that his whole life.

Benjamin Schleider and the 6th Armored Division were moving to Brest, France as an exploitation unit. There were no solid lines and German units were going back and forth to get to Brest and deny the Allies access. on 4 August 1944, the 6th Armored was in Merdrignac, France assembling to go capture Dinan which they had already passed. While stopped to turn around, Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] drove up to meet with General Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander of the 6th Armored Division] and asked him what he was doing there instead of heading to Brest. Grow told Patton about Dinan. Patton was shown a telegram with these orders, but Patton told them to go to Brest anyway. They traveled all night to the outskirts of Brest, and Grow decided to attack from Guipavas due to favorable terrain. Schleider and others started walking down to Hill 105 and saw it was occupied by Germans who started firing at them with 20mm guns [Annotator's Note: 20mm antiaircraft guns], a vicious weapon. They spent six weeks fighting there. It ultimately took six infantry divisions to take the Brest garrison. The German 266th Infantry Division was trying to come into Brest. The US 15th Tank Battalion caught the lead vehicles and MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] directed them into a pasture, where all of them were captured. The German Commander, Karl Spang [Annotator's Note: German Army Generalleutnant Karl Spang] had dinner with Grow that night before being sent off to a prisoner of war camp. Ernie Mitchell [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant Colonel, later Major General, Ernest W Mitchell, Jr.] went into Brest under a white flag and urged the German commander to surrender. The Germans refused, all very proper and very respectful.

[Annotator's Note: Benjamin Schleider was served in the Army in the 6th Armored Division as an aid to the division commander Major General Robert Grow.] General Van Fleet [Annotator's Note: US Army General James Alward Van Fleet] and the 50th Armored Infantry Battalion were on the Daoulas Peninsula opposite Brest, France. The 6th Armored Division went to check on them when some B-24 Liberators bombed the submarine pens there but caused no damage. They then went to the east of France to head towards the Rhine River. They were the first unit to come into contact with the forces coming up from the south. They were east of Nancy, France and were ordered onto the defensive. Their logistical support was diverted to support Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery] and Market Garden [Annotator's Note: Operation Market Garden, Netherlands, 17 to 25 September 1944] during this time. They had two engagements there. [Annotator's Note: There is an odd break in the tape and Schleider doesn't finish what he was saying.] On 30 September 1944 there was a meeting where General Eddy [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Manton Sprague Eddy] recommended the 35th Infantry Division withdraw to behind the Seille River but another general thought Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] would not be happy about it. Patton was furious when he learned of it and came down to see General Grow and told him, "we do not withdraw, we attack!" He told Grow to attack and eliminate the Germans the next morning. That night Grow slept on the ground in a trench coat for only one hour. The 6th Armored Division suffered 41 killed and 120 to 130 wounded but they drove the Germans out.

Benjamin Schleider was serving with the 6th Armored Division when they started welding flanges to the steel tracks hoping they would help in the mud. Several generals and commanders were at the command post to meet Generals Marshall [Annotator's Note: US Army Chief of Staff, General of the Army George Catlett Marshall, Jr.] and Handy [Annotator's Note: US Army Deputy Chief of Staff, General Thomas Troy Handy] who were visiting. Schleider thinks Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] really liked his division and was a great friend of General Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander of the 6th Armored Division]. The Seille River was a major obstacle that had an artificial lake upstream. General Eddy [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Manton Sprague Eddy] came down to see Grow and told him he was worried about that lake. He thought the Germans would bomb the dam and flood the valley as they tried to cross. The decision was made to bomb the dam before the Germans could to release the water. Eddy was worried about the continuing rain though and around 8 November 1944 he and Grow decided to tour the terrain of the area. Eddy recommended telling Patton they should put off the mission. They arrived to see Patton and told him their thoughts. Patton told them that 11 November is his birthday and he's been lucky on his birthday. He said that they could go along or be replaced so they decided they would go. The next morning, they started the mission and the rain stopped.

Benjamin Schleider and 6th Armored Division were advancing into Grostenquin, Germany. The 35th Infantry Division was aligned along a heavy tank trap which was a major obstacle. The 6th Armored was going to try to get across and bulldoze soil into it. Germans were dug in on a nearby hill with a water-cooled machine gun MG-08 [Annotator's Note: 8mm MG-08, Maschinengewehr 08, water cooled machine gun]. Schleider thought they would be hit by mortars and they were. One concussion knocked General Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander of the 6th Armored Division] to the ground. Schleider told the general they were wasting their time up there and they escaped down the hill. They continued on to the Saar River but then were pulled to go to the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes Forest, Belgium] and relieve the 4th Armored Division and the 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne, Belgium. They then attacked from the northeast. There was a lot of enemy action, but they were only fighting a few hours at a time due to weather and the weakening of their defenses. Van Fleet [Annotator's Note: US Army General James Alward Van Fleet] brought the 90th Infantry Division up and helped fill in the lines. They ultimately made it through the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: defensive wall built by Germany in the 1930s] and by the end of January 1945 it was all pretty well over. They went over to the 3rd Army Headquarters on 2 February 1945 and Schleider attended dinner with Grow, Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.], and many other officers. [Annotator's Note: Schleider gives details of a lot of Patton's conversations.] At the dinner, Patton talked of his idea of what evolved into the armored personnel carrier. Patton also described Montgomery [Annotator's Note: Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery] as "Static Monty."

Benjamin Schleider was present at a meeting where Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] complained of having units drained away from him to assist Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery] in crossing the Rhine River. The Remagen bridge [Annotator's Note: Ludendorff Bridge, also known as Remagen Bridge or the Bridge at Remagen] was captured on 7 March 1945. The 6th Armored Division was placed in Reserve to the south with the 7th Army which upset Patton. They stayed there until they attacked through the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: defensive wall built by Germany in the 1930s] to Kaiserslautern, Germany and the west bank of the Rhine River. A bridgehead was established at Oppenheim, Germany. The 6th Armored crossed there on 25 March towards Frankfurt. As the first units got to Mörfelden, a German artillery round shaved off the face of General Hines [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel John L. Hines Jr.]. [Annotator's Note: Schleider pauses and gets very emotional. The tape is momentarily stopped.] German aircraft strafed them during the attack on the Rhine. [Annotator's Note: Schleider stops again and says he is embarrassed for crying.] They had a very hard fight going into Frankfurt, Germany. They traveled up the autobahn towards Kassel where they ran into heavy resistance. [Annotator's Note: Schleider shows the interviewer a picture of Patton and other generals]. Hines had 39 operations after the war to repair his face. Schleider saw him in 2000 at a 6th Armored Division reunion. [Annotator's Note: Schleider shows more pictures and talks of the Miranda Act thinking he is not on camera.]

Benjamin Schleider and the 6th Armored Division took Mühlhausen, Germany with serious, but spotty, resistance. There was a good-sized road network around there [Annotator's Note: he gets a map and looks at it offscreen] and taking it disorganized the Germans. This was the last of the major fights his unit had with the exception of river crossings. They moved forward and arrived at the Buchenwald main camp [Annotator's Note: Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar, Germany] which they secured [Annotator's Note: in April 1945]. They did not have to fight because the German military had evacuated. The 9th Infantry Battalion [Annotator's Note: 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division] had been signaled by Russians who had been the camp and sent in a patrol. The small patrol was overwhelmed by the occupants of the camp. After leaving Buchenwald, the 6th Armored went on and secured several river crossings. They were to wait for the Russians to link up so there would be no accidental firefights between them. In Freiburg, Germany, which was no-man's country, they looked for the Russians but did not find any. Once the Russians arrived, Schleider was invited to lunch with them. The Russians consumed incredible amounts of vodka. On 8 May 1945, the Russians were across the river from them. On VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], the Russians fired a lot of guns in celebration. The 6th Armored Division withdrew and went back to the Fulda River. The war was over.

Benjamin Schleider was with the 6th Armored Division when it arrived in Buchenwald [Annotator's Note: the Buchenwald concentration camp in Weimar, Germany] after it had been captured. The 6th Armored Division’s surgeon went immediately and arranged for a hospital to be set up at Altenburg [Annotator's Note: Altenburg-Nobitz Luftwaffe Base, now Leipzig-Altenburg Airport in Thuringia, Germany]. Schleider went to the camp where he saw that the only way some individuals could show they were alive was by slowly blinking. It was shattering to him. [Annotator's Note: Schlieder pauses in reflection.] He only stayed for about 30 minutes. It was a major medical operation to save these lives. Schleider calls seeing the crematory ovens "macabre." [Annotator's Note: Schleider pauses again.] In early July 1945, General Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander of the 6th Armored Division] and Schleider went to see General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] in Bad Tölz, Bavaria. Patton had occupied a villa that had been owned by the publisher of Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] Mein Kampf [Annotator's Note: My Struggle, or, My Fight was Hitler's 1925 autobiographical manifesto] as his personal headquarters. Schleider and Grow had dinner there with several generals. Patton had just come back from the United States where he had a visit with the President [Annotator's Note: President Harry S. Truman]. Patton asked for a command in the Pacific and Truman told him that he could not tell him why, but that the war in the Pacific would be over soon and there would be no need for him to go there. Patton and Grow were disappointed by that, but Schleider was not as he did not want to go to the Pacific. Patton told a story about being at Fort Myer [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base-Myer-Henderson Hall, Arlington County, Virginia] in the 1930s when he and his wife went into a chapel on their first Sunday there. The chaplain spoke for almost an hour and on Monday, Patton told him there was nothing he could say that he could not say in five minutes. The next Sunday, Patton sat in the front row with his watch out and the chaplain only took ten minutes to finish his sermon.

Benjamin Schleider explains that when the 6th Armored Division was on an exploitation mission they would have an infantry division behind them to take over. The armor's job is to keep moving. The 76th Infantry Division, commanded by General William Schmidt [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General William Richard Schmidt], was not following closely enough to suit General Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander of the 6th Armored Division]. It was very important that the areas that they by-passed be contained by the infantry units. Grow complained about the 76th not keeping up and Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] came down to talk to him. The 76th kept up from then on. Schleider was present at nearly every meeting of the generals. He says there is an unwritten code about being discreet about publicly disagreeing with each other and he never did hear anything other than Patton complaining about Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery]. Schleider thought Patton was an outstanding general. Patton told Grow that the 6th Armored Division was a much better division than the 4th or 5th Armored Divisions and Patton wanted the XX Corps commander, John Walker [Annotator's Note: US Army General Walton Thomas Walker], to take the other division commander down to the 6th for a visit. He also wanted Grow to go visit that general so that it was not obvious as to what he was doing. Patton was always on the ground when a new unit came in and gave them instruction. Schleider said Grow was much like Patton and used to tell him that people are not curious enough, he wanted his patrols to be curious. Schleider thought that General Gaffey [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Hugh Joseph Gaffey] was a nice, quiet, man. Schleider knew General Gay [Annotator's Note: US Army Brigadier General Hobart R. Gay] very well and got along well with his aide. Gay was a good chief of staff for Patton because he was good at smoothing things over and could keep Patton on track.

Benjamin Schleider was impressed by seeing men in high places who had no hesitancy about talking to someone higher in rank. He had not been brought up that way. Grow [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Robert Walker Grow, commander of the 6th Armored Division] had a meager background and yet he had a leadership quality that was worth studying. Schleider does not feel the war changed him much. Combat did mature him, and he says that you cannot tell somebody what it is like to experience combat. Combat also makes one understand that you cannot just tell somebody to do something and then leave off your responsibility. He thinks the war changed the world politics and opened up globalism. It is somewhat leveling as to the differences between peoples. He does not recommend it as a form of travel but that it gives one the benefit of recognizing the world. As a family, Schleider's grandchildren are the fifth generation of military service. Coming home from the war was very welcoming. 12 million people had been in the armed forces, so the shared experience was quite large. A lot of people had glory, but a lot of people had immense suffering. Eliminating the two antagonists, Japan and Germany, helped have peace in the world and it was disappointing the Soviets did not get on board. He recalls being on a high piece of ground in Rochlitz, Germany and watching the 9th Armored Division and more crossing the river. General Grow said to him that if we would only go all the way to the China Sea, we would not have any more problems. Schleider feels that The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana is becoming more and more of an educational facility which he hopes it will continue. War is ephemeral, there are great inventions that come from the necessities of war. He does not advocate for war but there is some achievement in having to plan for it.