CENTER FOR U.S. WAR
VETERANS' ORAL HISTORIES

World War II

Joseph J. Schott

World War II Oral History Interview
US Navy, USS Bates
Date: December 7, 2007
Interviewer: Carol Fowler
Summarizer: Carol Fowler
Veterans History Project

Summary

Joe Schott with Carol Fowler.

Joseph J. Schott’s friend Raymond Brandes, from their days working at Western Electric in the early 1940’s, was who informed him of this Oral History Project and got him to call and to sign up for this interview. Their work at Western Electric was testing sound power telephones, to be used by the Navy. Schott felt pleased to know that he had a connection to the Navy in several parts of his life. Security on the job tightened significantly after Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. The following month, brother Raymond Schott joined the Navy at age 17, with permission given by their mother.

Schott registered for the draft and kept his employer posted, Western Electric. His work was called “war work,” and they would have a deferment for him. Yet the draft office warned Schott, “You will go into the Army.” The draft notice arrived on a Saturday. He went to the Newark Post Office and showed the letter. The Navy was his preference. “You’re in the Navy now,” Schott was told. He was sworn in the 5th of October 1942.

A train took him to Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. The six-week training consisted of marching, drilling, taking orders and getting shots. Then was a troop train ride to Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York. Soon after, with their hammocks and ditty bags packed, they boarded trucks for Hoboken New Jersey, where a British troopship awaited them. It was December 12, 1942. Schott walked the decks that night, on watch. The ship left during the night to join a convoy out at sea. He found the ship to be ‘pretty awful’ and the voyage included snowstorms. They reached the Firth of Clyde in Scotland, near Greenock. Schott and other sailors were put on a smaller ship overnight to the US Naval Operating Base at Londonderry, Northern Ireland. They arrived on December 29. He felt lucky to be somewhere that was peaceful and got to stay for a year and a half.

Schott’s academic interests had been in Radio and Communications. For that reason, he was placed in the Radio Shop on the base. He was an Apprentice Seaman taking correspondence courses studying Radio. Schott made Radio Technician 3rd Class, Petty Officer. After more courses, he made Radio Technician 2nd Class. Schott felt greatly influenced to make this kind of progress by Radio Technician 1st Class Richard Stetson, who was ten years older, and who wrote a letter to Schott’s mother later describing their work at Londonderry. Their mission was to maintain various Allied escort ships for the convoys. These ships were the smaller types that could come up the river to the base. Troops and supplies were transported to Europe, then a week or so was spent being refurbished at Londonderry. Schott’s shop took care of Electronics.

Most of my work was installing new radio gear, direction finders, and the new thing called ‘Radar’, and they found that I didn’t mind climbing to high places, so I spent many days on top of masts.. installing equipment and clamping them on and running the cables down to radio shops on the ships… I kind of enjoyed that.

Schott would be called on the base to climb poles to install loudspeakers, with spikes clamped to his ankles. One time coming down he slipped, grabbed onto the pole and got splinters on the inside of his arms. The wooden poles were not his favorite to climb. Safety harnesses were used with his climbs. Each climb took a half a day due to the amount of work. Schott also had to drill and tap holes for the screws to clamp the wires and cables onto the mast.

Outside of Londonderry, there was a Naval Transmission Station. They took care of communications with the ships in the North Atlantic. Schott said his job was to install and maintain new gear.

Schott enjoyed Ireland and bought a bicycle from a civilian. He rode all over Northern Ireland with his friends. Once, while in a very small town, Castlerock, on the North coast, they swam in the cool water. They met a boy on a bike, who introduced them to his mother, older brother and younger sister. Schott got to be great friends with the whole Woodhouse family. They were British citizens who

were waiting out the war in the safety of Castlerock. The father was serving in North Africa with the British Army.

It was so wonderful to have a family who enjoyed me coming to visit them. My mother, my sisters, and my aunt would send little packages over to them. They weren’t poor people, but you couldn’t buy anything over there… bars of soap, sewing needles, combs… often there were toys for the children.

Sofie Woodhouse, the 7 year-old girl, is who reconnected with the Schotts many years later in France. The oldest brother also got to meet them during their trip. Contact between the families continued. Since Sofie had been so young during that time in Northern Ireland, Schott had kept her mother’s letters to him and sent them to Sofie, which gave her a peek into the family’s hardships during the war.

Schott would have liked to return to Londonderry but did not. A reunion of veterans who were based there was mentioned. However, it was the Naval Transmitting Station group, not his. He was able to share World War II period photos of where he lived in Londonderry, which were well received and used as a newsletter cover.

A Navy V-12 Officer Training program caught Schott’s eye, so he applied yet was unsuccessful. This happened to him twice. His third try applying had him taking a test and going to London for an interview by Navy officers. He was then selected to join V-12 Program.

Schott said they could tell an invasion by the Allies was about to happen:

I remember even LSTs were coming in, and LCMs from the Army. And everything was having guns welded to the decks. It was amazing to witness that. Volunteers were being sought for a 6 month training program in Photography. And we’d be guaranteed Photographer Mate Second Class. I figured; they want you for the invasion! I declined that offer and stuck to my Radio Technician work.

When Schott came back, it was on a Navy Destroyer Escort, the USS BATES. Years later he attended a reunion of the BATES. Ship personnel told him the BATES had sunk at Okinawa. Schott got to meet some of the survivors of that sinking. His brother Ray’s oil tanker ship was in the Pacific for 3.5 years and earned 8 battle stars, based on the number of times the Japanese had attacked. Both oil tankers and aircraft carriers were prime targets of enemy attacks.

Schott attended pre-Midshipman School and stayed in the Berkeley-Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Those six weeks were to get them used to studying again: English, Math, Physics. His college he chose was Swarthmore in Pennsylvania. Schott majored in Electrical Engineering. He was still in the Navy and attended for 4 semesters, which included Military Navigation and a stringent exercise program.

In November 1945, Schott was transferred to ROTC at the University of Pennsylvania. No more enlisted man sailor suits had to be worn there: the blues and the whites. Now was the Midshipman uniform, like what an officer wears: shirts and ties, jackets and a different kind of cap.

By March of 1946, Schott had enough points to get out and he did. He could have stayed with the program, but was done with all the studying, and he was discharged. His prior job with Western Electric still stood, as per government regulations. His group in Newark was called Equipment Engineers. Schott was needed to help make up for the war years. By 1949, Western Electric had caught up, and he got let go.

Schott kept up corresponding with the Woodhouse family, through his college years. He treasured his time stationed at the Londonderry base and wants to tell its story. Bob Hope and Frances Langford entertained troops there in an outdoor concert where Schott got to assist with the wiring. Holiday turkey dinners were given for Irish children who didn’t have a lot and then too for British military troops, both male and female. He had his camera with him and loved photography.

Schott recalled he was at the Navy Yard where:

One of our ships came in; I remember seeing about 8 German submariners coming off the ship. They had hit their sub at sea and brought them as prisoners. I watched them come down the gangplank to our base. It was odd to see 8 men… all blindfolded, and all short.. and all with beards.

Schott was told much later that those prisoners were sent to Shetland Islands, Scotland. Also in later years, he and his wife toured England and Scotland. Since Schott had been aboard a ship named Isle of Man, he was interested in visiting that actual island, which is in the middle of the frigid northern Irish Sea. He learned German prisoners had been interned there – a safe place to keep them, as there was little to no means of escape.

In 1951, Bell Telephone Laboratories was looking for help. Schott landed a good position in the Acoustics Department. Underwater sound work for the Navy was part of his work tasks. They were under top secret restrictions at the time. Their mission had been finding and identifying Soviet ships, in 1952. He recalled they made some tests off Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and then to the Bahamas, Eleuthera Island, for 7 months to set up a laboratory there. The next location was Bermuda for a few months, doing the same work. Schott gave up that assignment and his replacement then got to travel the world.

Schott maintained his position with Bell Labs in Murray Hill. His various duties included crystal growing, processing crystals, and polishing. When he left in 1984, they had been working on semiconductor device research.

Schott had 41 years of service by 1984 – they counted his time with Western Electric, with the US Navy, and with Bell Labs!

I don’t feel like, you know.. I try to get the point across; my life was so nice with the service, I can’t compare myself to what some people did, including my brother, and all the great soldiers who did things.

In September of 2007, the Schotts went to Belgium. He had read of a Belgian woman, Regine, who had adopted a grave of an American G.I., at the Henri Chappelle American Cemetery and Memorial.

Schott had kept for five years the Star Ledger article about a Belgian woman, Regine, who with her husband tended to three graves of American heroes. The newspaper gave him an 8×10 glossy photo they had printed with the article, which he gifted to Regine. The Schotts were able to meet them and to receive a guided tour of the cemetery.

Regine had suggested they visit the World War II Battle of the Bulge museum, near Liege. It is called Remember Museum, and he would recommend it to any American who can visit Belgium. This museum is owned by a couple who have collected thousands of World War II artifacts, including jeeps and a tank. Mrs. Mathilde Schmetz the owner went all out with hospitality for a visiting American veteran, with offer of transportation and a meal.

The museum had a couple of hundred visitors come on buses, and was a larger place than he expected, consisting of many connected barns. Marcel Schmetz family used to let the Allied troops sleep in their barn, to get out of the elements. Equipment left behind on the Schmetz property is now proudly displayed in Remember Museum. Schott described the pro-American sentiment at the farm, and the owner Mrs. Schmetz wore a scarf similar to the US flag.

They loved having Americans there. I don’t think many Americans know about it. Every year at Christmastime, they get cards from ex-GI’s from all over the world…they get hundreds of them.

Schott described a Christmas card that was made by his Navy shop at Londonderry that depicted Santa wearing a Navy enlisted man’s cap that read, ‘Merry Christmas from Londonderry.’ He gifted it to his new friends Marcel and Mathilde Schmetz at the Remember Museum in Belgium.

I like meeting people. I have this thing, where I bother to do things… like locating Regine…’where there’s a will, there’s a way’… it leads to nice things.

Schott and his sons made an ancestral trip to Germany to see the village where the family originated. He wrote to the mayor ahead of time and was offered a tour. When they met, Schott offered to treat to a restaurant meal for the group. The owners sent over a bottle of wine. They insisted on not charging for the meal!

Things like that kept happening when we were there. And the boys couldn’t get over it. Such nice people.. And I found out that restaurant was the home of my great-great grandparents. I didn’t know that until I came back home! Wonderful things like that happened a lot to us. I just couldn’t get over it. The people were so nice. I know the war was a rough thing. Bad things happen. But the ones we met, the new generation; they were so nice.

Schott’s older aunts in Newark had known their grandfather to be a Union Army veteran of the Civil War. He wrote to the National Archives and was able to get some great information on the man, who had come over from Germany in 1864 and went right in the Army. The marriage in Germany listed the town and the names of parents and grandparents that was a wealth of information for Schott about his ancestry. With help from the German records keepers, Schott now has traced his roots back to the 1600’s.

Joe Schott (Left) with fellow Veterans at Museum luncheon.

Joseph Schott was discharged from service in March of 1946. Among his awards were the Good Conduct Medal, the American Theatre Medal, the European Theatre Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal.

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