Defenders of Freedom

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WATSONTOWN - Bruce Miller, 90, spent much of his service during World War II stationed on the shores of England, far from the front lines.

The Germans, however, were courteous enough to bring the war to Miller, via new and terrible weapons called the V-1 and V-2 rocket.

Miller was born in 1918 in Montoursville and went to Fairfield Center School. He left school after the eighth grade to work on his father's farm and later at a sand company in Montoursville.

"My dad was a farmer," Miller said. "We'd work at night driving truck in the quarry, then go home and do the farming."

Miller was 24-years-old when he as drafted in 1941. He was sent to Fort Eustus, Va., in January 1942.

Immediately after completing basic training, he was assigned to the 212th Coast Artillery.

"I was with them not too awful long and the whole outfit was pulled out of there and sent to Seattle, Wash., to protect the Boeing Aircraft (plant)," he said.

Eventually, the unit formed the 127th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion, which manned 90-mm cannons.

"We sat there on the white cliffs of Dover, England, and we sat there until the war ended," Miller said.

Being stationed in England - far from the actual fighting - did not insulate Miller and his unit from the wrath of Nazi Germany - not when the Germans were deploying the V-1 and V-2 self-propelled rockets that Miller called "buzz bombs."

"We shot down those buzz bombs that the Germans were shooting at England," Miller said. "They'd send the buzz bombs over and we'd shoot them down.

"I was operating radar. We'd pick them up as they were coming over. We could see them throwing them off and we'd track them until we could get a bead on them," he said. "Then we sent the information to the gunners who shot them down.

"Somebody said we shot down 1,300 of them, but I don't know if that is true," he said. "Those rascals started sending them low over the water so the radar wouldn't pick them up.

"We'd hit a couple and they'd go off course," he said. "You never knew where they'd end up."

Although the allies managed to shoot down many of the rockets, others made their way through the defenses to targets in cities such as London. In many cases, civilians bore the brunt of the carnage inflicted by the rockets.

"Me and another guy went to London and were in where the bombs landed," Miller said. "There was nothing there. Everything was just blown up."

Miller recalls having a close encounter with German artillery while sitting in a mess tent. An artillery shell landed in the kitchen cesspool and a large piece of metal from the shell ripped through the tent and landed next to him.

"It was blue as could be, it was so hot," Miller said.

After the war ended, Miller's unit was sent to France and then Germany. He was in Germany when his unit received orders to ship back to the United States.

He was discharged shortly thereafter, he said.

After his discharge, Miller went back to work at the sand plant. The owners of the company also owned an automobile service center, which he worked during the winter when the quarry was closed.

Miller eventually began working at the automobile service year round and worked there for 34 years until he retired in 1980.

Miller married Dolores Sites of Williamsport in 1963. She died of kidney failure in 1963 at the age of 34. Miller was a widower for a year and a half before marrying Lenore Stoudt of Liberty in 1965.

Stoudt was a widow with four children.

"He married five of us," Lenore said. "He is a wonderful father."

The couple, who have been married 44 years, had one son, Arnold Frantz Miller.

For many years, Miller and his wife attended annual reunions of his artillery unit. On Miller's 80th birthday, his wife made a quilt for him commemorating the unit's war service.

The quilt was comprised of patches representing the state where members of the unit came from, Lenore said.

Miller said he is proud of his military service. However, he does not understand why the United States had to become involved in Iraq.

"I don't understand why the United States decided to go over there when they've had war after war after war," he said. "We go in and bomb everything up, then go in and rebuild it and the United States pays for all of it."