F ULSHEA R MA G A ZIN E
WWII SURVIVOR
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WWII SURVIVOR
EDUCATOR, NEIGHBOR & FRIEND
WRITTEN BY JACLYN RITTER, PHOTOGRAPHY BY NANCY JONES PHOTOGRAPHY
P
eter Burland flew photo reconnaissance missions,
fought in the 2nd Armored Division on D-Day,
and bared the frigid temperatures throughout
the Battle of the Bulge. He served his country
proudly and continues to do so today. As a survivor
of World War II, Peter has spent years openly sharing
his experiences in the hopes to educate and inspire
younger generations.
of each GI in the graduating class. Three hours and a
bunch of envelopes later, the podium was empty and all
the Greeks sat in an otherwise empty auditorium. They
were told that instead of joining the Greek Battalion in
Greece, they would go back to school to learn how to
use fancy cameras and become the basis of a new U.S.
Army photo reconnaissance force being organized.
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DOG BEACH - Looking west toward Vierville Sur Mer.
Combat engineers before dawn on their hands and
keens cleared 60-foot paths through the mine fields and
beach obstacles so that landing craft could land safely.
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Now stationed at General Dwight Eisenhower’s
In December of 1942, Peter was a sophomore
headquarters in London, Peter and his photo recon
at Louisiana State University studying chemical
team were responsible for flying missions over the
engineering. While on holiday break, he returned home
beaches of Normandy to scope out German defenses
to Mobile, Alabama to be close to family. At the young
twice a week. He and a pilot would fly P-38’s just 150
age of 18, Peter asked his parents to sign for him in the
feet off the sand capturing close-ups of mines, pill
WWII draft. He and his friend were assured by the draft
boxes, barbed wire and other beach defenses. To avoid
board that if they volunteered
getting pictures of the planes’
they would be given their
wing and engine below the
We can learn about World War II
choice of branch of service.
cockpit, the pilot would have
“Everybody
wanted
the
to slip the wings alternately in
from history books and movies,
air force – handsome, flytoward the ground allowing
but no one can deny the power
by guys with sharp uniforms
for a brief second, a perfect
of learning from someone who
and all that,” notes Peter. So
shot of the beach. Early on,
both of them volunteered
the German gunners and
experienced it firsthand.
for the air force. While his
aircraft bunkers fired at their
friend got his wish, as soon as
P-38’s. With the German’s
they shuffled through Peter’s papers and noticed his
not yet having invented smokeless powder, any time
chemical engineering major, they stationed him instead
a shot was fired a puff of smoke would give away
in chemical warfare.
their location. Within seconds, the 8 to 10 P-47 fighter
bombers escorting the photo recon planes would be
After just eight days in chemical warfare training, the
along the ground emptying their guns on the white puff
military found out that Peter spoke fluent Greek. He and
of smoke. It was almost instant death for the German
150 other Greek speaking GI’s became a part of the
who fired the shot. It did not take long before the
5th Greek guerilla warfare class at Fort Ritchie. Together
Germans cease to fire on all photo recon planes. The
they endured seven and a half months of rigorous
photo reconnaissance teams were in daily contact with
training. Located in the mountains of northern Maryland
counter spies, European, Polish and Dutch underground
at Fort Ritchie, a special forces school for the OSS,
agents, and American and British Secret Services, so that
they learned close order drill, hand-to-hand combat,
they could plot all the new information gathered onto
and survival training. He and one other member were
Eisenhower’s war maps. Burland’s commanding officer
dropped off in the mountains of northern Maryland with
would then brief Eisenhower’s staff once a week with all
a map written in a language they could not speak,
new information gathered on German defenses during
one day’s worth of food, and were told to make their
the week.
way back to the base within 48 hours. “If you made
it through the course you were given high grades,”
Burland and his fellow photo reconnaissance team
Burland said. Only 120 of the 150 original trainees made
members stopped flying two months prior to the invasion
the cut. Peter Burland remembers graduation day well.
of Normandy. At that time, they accumulated all of the
The base commander stood at the podium behind a
information they had collected. This information would
stack of envelopes that contained the fate and mission
be helpful in determining Germany’s capability to
WWII SURVIVOR
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defend France. General Eisenhower and his staff used
this information in determining where, when and at what
time the D-Day assault would strike. The Corps of Engineers
built what was euphemistically called the ‘Sand Table,’
a small scale model of the beaches of Normandy, from
Peenemunde in the North Sea all the way to Cherbourg.
While the Sand Table was a miniature of the real thing,
it was not by any means small – it took up half of an
airplane hangar! “The Corps of Engineers would use our
information and even our pictures for scratching in all
of the different pill boxes, mine fields, barbed wire, and
any new defenses detected,” recalls Burland. The Sand
Table depicted every detail of topography you could
imagine. “The Corps of Engineers wouldn’t let us touch
it! It was like a piece of art.” There came a point when
all of this information had to be delivered to the units
making the initial D-Day assault. Once Eisenhower made
the decision of where they would attack, the Sand Table
was sawed into pieces and delivered to the six or seven
different Combat Divisions that were to make the initial
assault on Omaha and Utah beaches. Peter and his
team traveled with the Sand Table along with pictures
taken from their P-38s to brief these groups on what
exactly to expect when they touched ground. These
men were then able to read and study their portion of
the sand table for a few weeks in preparation for what
lay ahead.
F ULSHEA R MA G A ZIN E
When all of the troops had been debriefed and no more
lectures were scheduled, Eisenhower’s Aide informed
the crew that they were to be assigned to the actual
divisions that were going to make the initial assault on
Omaha Beach. This came as nothing short of a surprise.
The men were divided into groups of twelve. Six men
were now responsible for interrogating the prisoners
of war and the other six, like Peter, were assigned to
(artillery) photo reconnaissance. Peter was now flying in
Piper Cubs 800 ft. above land looking for German panzer
units. “Any tank that the Germans had, was equipped
with a super high velocity cannon, which was absolutely
death to an armored unit,” recalls Burland. The artillery
observer would radio in the coordinates where enemy
tanks had been spotted, so the 2nd Armored Division
artillery battalions could find them and obliterate them.
After D-day took place, Burland and his team were
packed into a convoy of landing ship tanks (LST). Infantry
were packed into six boats and fitted into one LST. They
sat cramped in tight quarters for several hours. While
many were sea sick, tired, and sore, as soon as those
doors opened they had to be prepared to fight. Their first
objective on ground – relieve the paratroopers that had
landed in Carentan five days earlier. The paratroopers
had been fighting for days and had no food and very
little ammo left. When the troops from the 66th Armored
Regiment and his group arrived, they were the heroes
of the day.
Continuing with their photo recon intelligence gathering,
the war progressed into the heart of Germany. “The
Battle of the Bulge was the toughest part of the war,
largely because of the weather,” remembers Burland.
Bad weather kept most planes grounded so Burland
and the photo recon team now scouted the area by
jeep. Peter remembers breathing through his wool
scarf to avoid inhaling ice fog and coming down with
pneumonia. “The temperature during the Battle of the
Bulge was minus 20; we didn’t eat for three days and we
didn’t turn off the engines in our vehicles for two weeks.”
They had joined forces with the 83rd infantry and
together they worked to trap the German spearhead
against the Meuse River. While it is known as the largest
and bloodiest battle fought by the United States in World
War II, it was an important one. It was the beginning of
the end for the German Army.
Peter points out photogaphs in
his collection taken during WWII.
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In January of 1946, Peter was discharged from the Army. He
had served for three full years and had reached the rank of
Master Sergeant. That month, he returned home and registered
once again at Louisiana State University to finish his chemical
engineering degree that he had started prior to the war. When
he received his bachelor’s degree in 1949, salaries were still
low and did not look promising. With two years left on his GI
bill, Peter remained at LSU and earned a master’s degree in
chemistry. Peter brought back as much memorabilia as he
could carry from Berlin. Over the years he has accumulated
enough to create his own World War II museum. Would you
believe that the creators of the popular movie ‘Fury,’ starring
Brad Pitt, flew out this way to meet with Peter and see his
pictures and artifacts? With Peter’s help, and the help of five
other 2nd Armored Division survivors, this war movie is a fairly
good representation of this monumental time in our country’s
history.
His favorite piece of memorabilia is his jeep. It is a replica of the
one he drove in Normandy, even bearing the same name, ‘Hell
Bound 2’. In fact, you may see Peter driving this very jeep in the
next Fulshear city parade!
Peter Burland continues to serve his country today by
giving frequent D-day lectures and educating today’s
youth on America’s history, and his part within it. “I feel if
my story doesn’t get out, then it is going to die with me.”
Peter Burland is a true hero, not just for what
he did, but also for what he continues to do.
His love and passion for life is evident to any
who meet him. There is certainly nothing
ordinary about Peter Burland!
DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WE SHOULD ALL KNOW? Email us at info@
fulshear.com with the subject line “someone you should know”
and tell us more! d
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Peter Burland’s replica WW II jeep.
Interesting Facts
• Did you know that it was a court martial
offence to drive with your jeep windshield up
during the war? The windshield had to be down
whenever within five miles of a combat zone.
If the sun caught the windshield and flashed,
you had just announced your presence to the
enemy.
• The jeep’s headlights swing inward so that
one could work under the hood in the middle
of the night. One lug wrench, one pair of pliers,
and one screw driver was all you needed in
combat to repair anything on the jeep.
• While in a fox hole, one of their own bullets
went up and came right back down again,
ripping off the heel of Peter’s boot. A week
later, a flight of Messerschmitt was following the
bombers and one of their 9-millimeter machine
gun bullets caught him in the same heel and
ruined another pair of boots!
• The average age of a soldier on D-day was
26. Peter Burland was 19.
PETER D. BURLAND
2nd Armored Division - United States Army - Medals & Awards
• In some of the pictures taken from the P-38s,
paths would seemingly disappear into the side of
a cliff. This led the photo reconnaissance team
to assume they were building underground
passage ways. Our spies in France found out who
the engineers were that were designing and
building these passageways between bunkers.
Peter and a few others would boat over to Le
Havre every Saturday from Dover and pick up
these French engineers and bring them back to
a small shack on an English beach, where by
flashlight they would scratch in on their maps all
the fortifications they had built and planned to
build. Before morning, they would boat these
men back to their vacant dingy that was tied
on to their fish traps offshore Le Havre. The men
would then fish their traps and return to shore
with a perfect cover-up story.
W W W.FUL SHE A R. COM
F ULSHEA R MA G A ZIN E
• Normandy was part swamp. Over the years
the French dug channels, forcing the water to
drain off. Knowing that our paratroopers were
going to drop off somewhere in that area, the
Germans re-flooded the area during WWII.