The story that follows is based on the actual experiences of Lawrence Carlton, a member of the Army Air Corps in World War II. Mr. Carlton received his draft notice in 1942 after completing his first semester at Harvard. Originally trained in the Army in radio operations, Mr. Carlton found himself serving as a cryptographer during his tour of duty in the East. Mr. Carlton returned home to Windsor, Connecticut, in 1945, and went back to Harvard where he finished college and attended medical school. Now retired, Dr. Carlton shares his World War II experiences with children in Simsbury as well as men and women in local retirement homes. Dr. Carlton lives in Simsbury, Connecticut.

Real War

Drafted. Participation in World War II had been nearly inevitable; that's what the guys at the Army Air Corps said. They were antsy, having been stationed in the barracks just outside a base in Bombay, India. For nearly all the guys, it was their first time out of the country. After having been scattered throughout the United States for training, they were brought together in Bombay. The young men couldn’t help but feel isolated from the war; they had not yet found themselves face-to-face with an enemy. For now, the war seemed abstract.

The hum of city life in Bombay was like a radio station with imperfect reception. In an instant, the channel was inaudible. Like nothing the men had beard before, explosions so loud they sounded as though they had taken place only a couple hundred feet away. In that instant, the soldiers felt like the boys they really were. The explosions crackled, and they couldn’t help but exchange glances to validate the sound.

The next thirty minutes were a blur. The boys didn’t know what to do. There was no superior officer with news of the incident.

Out of nowhere came the order to head to the docks. Cramped like sardines, the soldier boys were jammed in military trucks and jeeps, driving straight toward the sound of the explosion.

Larry Carlton couldn’t stop the internal dialogue running through his mind. “It’s war. Who’s attacking? What am I going to have to do? Did I forget anything at the barracks?”

Outside, with each bump of the jeep on the rough terrain, he could see the sky clouded with smoke and, toward the coast, a fiery red. It seemed that everyone who had a car or mode of transportation was escaping the city. An endless stream of cars, and yet the soldiers were going right into the heat of things.

Larry couldn’t resist the feeling of excitement.

Yet that excitement fizzled just as the fire on the docks did. With all of the commotion surrounding the docks, the soldiers thought they were coming face-to-face with the enemy, something they yearned to do, if only to make the war tangible.

Who would have thought? American troops were called in, not to annihilate an enemy, but for manual labor. The Army Air Corps had the manpower to move munitions.

Larry stepped out of the army jeep, the area was surrounded with thick black smoke. And as it thinned, he saw the cause of the explosions. The dock was full of ships, but they were charred, some still on fire. Every couple of minutes, the soldiers would hear small explosions within the ships, which were now infernos.

A ship carrying cotton had caught on fire. Just one ship. The fire had spread to a part of the ship that contained munitions. When the flames reached the munitions, the entire ship had exploded and burning sparks flew to nearby ships in the dock. Larry Carlton worked through the night to remove the remaining munitions from surrounding ships, and worked for the next two weeks salvaging munitions and bodies. When he finished his duties at the dock, 19 Norwegian ships had been counted as destroyed, and 4000 men were dead. Perhaps the most real part of the war for this soldier was an accident.