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To those of us of the 3rd Armored Division, as to the rest
of the world, the end of World War II came as a welcome relief.
As our combat experience had begun in Normandy, at Villiers-Fossard
with frantic opposition, so it ended at Dessau, near the joinder
of the Mulde and Elbe rivers, fighting officer candidates at
the crack combat engineering school.
At division headquarters cessation of combat was met with
mixed feelings - incompleteness and relief. Incompleteness came
from our being but 60 miles or so from the edges of Berlin and
we had a bridging column for the river crossing. Earlier and
downstream the 2nd Armored had effected a crossing at Magdeburg,
met considerable opposition and had been ordered back.
From whence came the order to halt? From General Eisenhower,
no less. So, on April 25th we turned the front over to the 9th
Infantry Division, but not before some strange happenings. Across
the river from us and between the Mulde and the Elbe were masses
of German troops, not the best organized and undoubtedly fleeing
the Russians from the east. Emissaries bearing white flags would
approach the American lines. Come and help us fight the Russians,
they would say. No, we replied, you must surrender and when you
do so you will come within our lines. They would depart, some
to fight some more before giving up. About April 24th, with the
division forward CP at Lingenau, a barrage hit a kitchen, proving
we were not vaccinated against shellfire. It was the last time.
Forward Echelon, on leaving Lingenau, returned to Sangerhausen,
where we had been before, only this time was different. No more
midnight reports and orders, no more shelling reports with division
artillery, no more casualty figures. Since April 15, 1941 we
had been gradually trained into a fine fighting machine and now
there was no more fighting. Rumors, however, persisted. Obviously
we would not remain where we were. Where would we go and when?
But first came VE Day on May 8th - prior to that President Roosevelt
had died on April 12th and Hitler committed suicide in his Berlin
bunker on April 30th. Things were happening fast. Among the pleasant
things of the time for the writer was the party given by the
FIRST ARMY press camp at the Elephant Hotel in Weimar on VE Day,
where many of the war correspondents were seen for the last time.
Our new division CP and center of our occupation turned out to
be Darmstadt, just south of Frankfurt and north of Heidelberg.
It could have been worse. Much worse.
The center of Darmstadt had been destroyed by bombs and resulting
fires, but our CP was on a shaded street in a residential district
with, down the street toward town, a kaserne - barracks - of
which more later. After dinner we would emerge from our comfortable
quarters to the street, there to find a child or so appraising
us. As days passed and they found that we were not ogres and,
indeed, would on occasion pass out candy or gum, their numbers
increased, like sparrows at a birdfeeder.
One must recall that Germany at this time was totally stricken,
with shortages of everything, their economy disrupted, people
scattered and few if any large cities without bomb damage. Soon
a movie house of sorts was opened for the GI's and small German
children would collect their cigarette butts, discarded as the
moviegoers entered, to take them to their parents for reclaiming.
Women foraged in the state forests for fallen twigs and branches,
to be used for fuel. Lacking other means, cattle were harnessed
to the plow to grow food. Captain Hubert Jannach of Milwaukee,
who headed one of our POW teams, told of interviewing one family
on the firebombing and the father relating when, at the height
of the fire danger and huddled in a basement, his young son asked
to be killed rather than allowed to burn to death. It was a difficult
time for the Germans.
Third Armored units were, at this time, dispersed in areas
and towns around Darmstadt and used to reinforce the activities
of Military Government. There was a certain amount of blabbing
and informing on neighbors on the part of the native population,
leading one young lieutenant to inspect the quarters of two old
maids, one of whom kept looking anxiously at one of the beds,
leading the officer to turn back the mattress and there find
two chocolate bars! At this point he gave them a good scolding,
saying that it was verboten to possess American rations, and
then took a dramatic exit out the door - and walked into a closet!
The goal of Military Government was to fill all government
offices with Simon pure officials and it was a curious thing,
but no one could be found who admitted to having been a Nazi
and, when it was so proven, they claimed they has been impressed.
Earlier in this account mention was made of people being scattered.
They were, and not all were Germans. Mention was also made of
the kaserne down the street from our CP. This was occupied by
Russians, some civilians, some soldiers. Since our role was that
of peacekeeper and maintaining order it was necessary to keep
them inside the kaserne with machine guns posted at all four
corners of the walled barracks, each gun aimed down one side,
for apparently the greatest desire of the Russians was to acquire
a bicycle and a wrist watch from the German civilians, nor was
rape considered a crime in their eyes. When, under an agreement
with Stalin, these Russians - either captured soldiers or slave
laborers - were forcibly returned to Russia on boxcars or even
flatcars they were to face a very uncertain future. The flatcars,
being without shade, were festooned with young saplings, the
butts of which were thrust into sockets on the side of the cars,
thus affording some momentary protection from the sun.
Early on the Western Europeans, British POWS, French, Belgian
and Dutch forced laborers, were evacuated, with no trouble. Middle
Europeans and those from the Balkans remained, pending transportation
being arranged. Of these the most troublesome were without doubt
the Poles, but they had their reasons. Housing was at a premium
and it was necessary to house some in bombed houses with leaky
roofs. Too, they had to be fed and we were strained to provide
a thousand calorie per day diet for all of them. The sight of
Polish women wearing GI boots with a slice of black bread smeared
with white margarine and climbing over rubble to gain entrance
to a bombed out house is one that will not be soon forgotten.
Another group were some Yugoslav officers wearing overseas type
caps made of felt and, it being summertime, white blouses. In
retrospect they all seemed to have moustaches and be quietly
dignified, awaiting their fate.
Another group, not under 3rd Armored control, was quietly
assembled in a small hotel in a town near Frankfurt. These were
German scientists who were removed from the area to be turned
over to the Russians and, with their families, brought within
the protection of our lines. They were, for the most part, physicists.
Meanwhile George Pat-ton was removing fine horses from his area.
With the Potsdam conference of President Truman, Stalin and
British Prime Minister Churchill coming up shortly after mid-July,
the 3rd Armored was called upon to furnish troops for housekeeper
service there, one of whom was Lieutenant Lloyd Evans of Des
Allemands, Louisiana. Then President Truman arrived, to review
our troops and, when General Hickey commented that he had an
awesome responsibility, replied that he would get the best help
available.
In the midst of the Potsdam conference Churchill, defeated
at the polls, was replaced by Clement R. Attlee of the Labour
party, which surely must have been a tremendous disappointment
for the man who had led the British to victory. At the end of
the conference and on his return to the division CP Lloyd Evans
reported that the Russians had herded our forces into a compound
and placed guards over them, not, he said, a comfortable feeling.
During this period there were two clouds, as it were, hanging
over our heads. One was that we were slated to go to China -
it was said by way of the Suez Canal - and the other and a lighter
one was non-fraternization. How two peoples can occupy the same
area without communication is beyond the comprehension of the
writer, but it was so directed. An example of the failure of
the latter is found in the following account: At the end of the
war the incidence of VD rose rapidly, leading to the tracing
of the carriers and the incarceration of the female offenders
in what was called "chicken coop". At this time the
writer was rooming with Lt. Col. Samuel B. Frank of Cleveland,
Ohio, the division medical inspector. One day after lunch he
asked if the writer would like to accompany him on a visit to
"the chicken coop". This was done and in the course
of the inspection there was encountered a rather nice looking
young woman pensively looking out a window. With us was a young
medical officer, a small fellow who had studied at the University
of Bonn and spoke fluent German. He inquired of the young woman
as to her problem and she replied that she had been going with
one of our soldiers of German extraction whose intentions were
both honorable and serious, but that she had been turned in by
a mischievous and jealous neighbor, and so it proved. To such
practices non-fraternization led.
All that was going on at this time was not so serious. R&R
leaves for what else. Rest and Recreation, were in order. One
rather senior officer took his R&R on the Riviera, where
he engaged in more recreation than rest, resulting in a stay
in hospital. Another less senior officer who in the latter course
of the war had acquired a magnificent German touring car, on
taking leave for the south of France, loaded the back of the
car with sparkling wine (a product of his area) and several friends
and on arrival across the border from Monte Carlo attempted to
cross, to be told that no one in uniform was allowed. They beat
an orderly retreat to the cafe across the street from whence
they had started and persuaded their waiter to lend them his
surplus clothes, taking their uniforms as security. Imagine the
sight of four happy Americans of differing size clad in clothing
of a same size bumbling across the frontier! It was, the waiter
later told them, to make one laugh. The casino was, of course,
their objective and shortly after arrival at the green baize
gaming table one of the party from a certain large state in the
Southwest desired a smoke, whereupon he took out a sack of Bull
Durham and proceeded to roll a cigarette, naturally enough spilling
some tobacco from the ends. This brought on a frenzy of brushing
on the part of the croupier, knocking the fragments of tobacco
from the table. Again, according to eyewitness accounts, it was
to make one laugh.
Other leaves were granted to Herleen, in the panhandle of
Holland and back to England, where many of us had left friends.
In one of the latter cases inquiry was made of the American as
to what was to be done about Germany. Get them back on their
feet as soon as possible was the reply, much to the surprise
and even consternation of his hosts - but then, they had not
seen the actualities of the situation. Recreation was engaged
in places not so far from our CP. Those two intrepid outdoorsmen
and conservationists, Sgts. Frank Woolner and Glen Davision,
acutely perceived that during the war years the game population
of the state preserves had gotten badly out of hand and in a
cooperative effort to alleviate this situation had considerably
reduced the deer herd. As they were housed in a building affording
kitchen facilities they were able to make use of the carcases,
naturally being opposed to waste, and even went so far as to
invite a certain staff officer - provided he observed the niceties
- to a meal of venison. Those two were all heart!
There were other means of recreation close by. At a party
in a school down toward Heidelberg one officer began playing
a guitar and singing "The Red River Valley," surely
a classic American folk tune, to be met by cries of recognition
by some Estonian girls - to whom non-fraternization was not held
to apply - as being one of their old folk songs!
Lighter moments were observed at even higher headquarters.
At Twelfth Army Group Hq. at Rhine/Main one evening the writer,
a visitor to the press came, attended a performance of "The
Drunkard" where, on arrival, a bottle of champagne was placed
on the table before each member of the audience, among who was
General Omar Bradley, accompanied by an attractive grey haired
WAC. At intermission barbershop quartets sang such songs as "Only
a Bird in a Gilded Cage," and the like. It was a festive
evening. In the Pacific area unexpected things were happening.
An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima August 6th, followed
by a larger one on Nagasaki on August 9th, with VJ Day following
on August 14th. At the time the writer happened to be at the
Stars & Stripes office near Frankfurt when the news came
over the wire - there was no Armed Forces Network at the time
- and arrived back at the division CP in time to be the first
to inform General Hickey. It was a heady sensation.
With the end of the war in the Pacific it was obvious we would
not go to China. Membership in the 3rd Armored melted as the
snow in a hot sun following a long winter. Those with high points
- long service, medals, family - went first. Many qualified for
return by air, of whom the writer was one, but on arrival in
a replacement depot near Metz, France, and crawling over the
tailgate of a 21/2 ton truck was told by a fresh faced second
lieutenant, "no planes."
That truck was my last contact with the 3rd Armored of wartime
years. By November 9, 1945 it was inactivated at Aalen, Germany,
a mere shadow of its former self.
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