Dykes, W.E., St. Helena Parish, Louisiana
File prepared by D.N. Pardue and submitted by Inez Bridges Tate.
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Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives
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From "St. Helena Vets Remember World War II: Personal Interviews
With World War II Vets", published by St. Helena Historical
Association, 1995.  Compiled and edited by Inez Bridges Tate and
reprinted with permission.

     W.E. (Bill) Dykes was born in Baton Rouge and lived there

until his parents bought a farm near Montpelier when he was

about eight years old.  He graduated from Pine Grove High School

in 1942.  He attended L.S.U. that summer, enrolling in an accel-

erated course in which he earned as many credits as was usual

during a regular semester.  He left L.S.U. and enrolled at 

Spencer Business College where he completed his course of study

in about a year.  During the time he attended Spencer, he worked.

If he had a day job he could attend night classes and vice versa.

     Bill enlisted in the Merchant Marines in August, 1943 and

left for duty in December.  As he was still under 18 years of

age, his mother had to give her written permission for him to

enter.  He went by train to the U.S. Maritime Training Center

near St. Petersburg, FL.  He and the others were threatened with

court martial because the train was late - it was due in at 12

and didn't arrive until 1:30.  He took the engineers course

there.  They enlisted for "two years and to go anywhere in the

world."  At the end of six months, he was issued his seaman's 

papers and passport and in the summer, 1944 went aboard a tug

boat at Tampa, FL which went up the Atlantic Seaboard to New

York Harbor.  They stayed in New York three days, then they

picked up two railroad barges, each 410 feet long, and two small

tgs behind the barges.  Railroad tracts were attached on the top

side of the barges.  It took them 44 days to cross the Atlantic

to England.  He said there was an Army man, a Navy man and only

one gun aboard.  They went to the port in Falmouth, England and

then to Plymouth, England.

     In Plymouth he was walking down the street so far from home,

alone and lonely, when to his surprise he met Reed Chapman from

Montpelier.  They threw their arms around each other.  This was

a great day and cheered him much, Bill said.

     The railroad barges were taken to Cherbourg, France.  These

tracks were used to keep our men supplied with ammunition as

they advanced across Europe.  He said Cherbourg was on the peak

of the English Channel and from there Germans could shell

England.  This was an underground facility which held 10,000

Germans at one time.  Bill toured a part of it.

     Leaving the barges, they proceeded up the English Coast to

Wales where they picked up 500 telephone poles which were trans-

ported across the English Channel to Brest, France.  On returning

across the English Channel, they hit a mine.  They did not sink

but took on a lot of water.  Bill stayed wet all night and as a 

result, developed pneumonia.  He was hospitalized for two weeks.

When he was realeased from the hospital, he and a friend took a 

train to Paris.  The train that was supposed to take one and

a half hours took eight hours.  There was no food aboard and you

could not buy any in Paris.  They finally got coffee and a 

doughnut at a USO.

     Returning to the seaport, he worked his way home on a boat.

He then signed aboard the Wisteria, a hospital ship, which was

bringing the wounded home from the European Theater.  There were

nine doctors and 24 nurses aboard and the trip only took eleven

days.  If a man failed to show for a trip, Bill said, then any-

one could advance to fill his position.  On the first trip he 

was an oiler, then a yeoman, a baggage man, then an embalmer.

This caused him headaches as he had three cases.  Luckily a re-

turning soldier who had worked as an embalmer as a civilian was

aboard and assisted Bill.  They brought the bodies to port.  On

his last trip he was the purser and in charge of payroll.  They

had sixty to seventy thousand dollars on ship and were authorized

to pay those aboard who were due their pay.  A big responsibility!

     Merchant Marines who served during World War II were not

recognized as veterans until late 1992 or 1993.

     Returning to Montpelier in 1945, Bill operated a dairy for

a while.  He started his business in 1946.  He and his family 

continue this feed, seed and fertilizer business today - the

oldest continuous business in Montpelier.

     Bill served as Mayor of Montpelier from 1962-1972 and as

Senator from 1972-1985.  He remains interested in the workings

of the government, on a local and state level.

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