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Berlin Was Not to Be for the 3AD
During those last days of the war there had been speculation,
hopes, fears, that we would take part in the reduction of Berlin,
but it was not to be. Downstream from us the 2nd Armored Division,
which like us had a bridge column, had crossed the Elbe at Magdeburg
despite heavy losses and after being denied a parachute air drop.
During this time it was learned that President Roosevelt had
died. The 83rd Infantry Division, in the same corps with 2nd
Armored, did get a less hampered bridge across the Elbe at Barby.
We the allied armies under Eisenhower, had taken thousands
of square miles of Germany which were subsequently turned over
to the Russians. For some it was difficult to understand.
From Andrew Barr's The Story of the Publication of Spearhead
in the West, the 3rd Armored Division in WWII, it is stated
that, "The 3rd Armored Division's last day in combat was
24 April 1945. We took up our role of occupation duty with division
headquarters a Sangerhausen on the following day, after being
relieved by the 9th Infantry Division. On 13 May, headquarters
moved to the southern outskirts of Darmstadt and soon after that
highpoint veterans started going home."
It was at this point that Lieutenant Colonel George F. Cake
as G-5, in command of 3rd Armored Military Government, came into
his own. He, according to Spearhead, helped formulate
the American occupation policy and set a precedent for later
military Government officials to study. G-5, it relates, as an
integral part of the division general staff was not brought into
being until late in the western fighting.
Earlier, known as the Civil Affairs Section, it was commanded
by Lieutenant Colonel William E. Dahl, who later went to 15th
Army. Maurice Rose, fighting a war, had little time for Civil
Affairs.
At Darmstadt Lieutenant Colonel Wesley A. Sweat, G-3, and
Lieutenant Colonel Jack A. Boulger, G-l, rejoined the division
on being released from captivity. Major James A. Alexander, who
had taken Sweat's place and faced promotion, took the place of
Lieutenant Colonel Harry P. Wolfe, Judge Advocate, who returned
stateside on emergency leave.
JAG Office and 45th Med Over-Worked
All through the war the Judge Advocate (of JAG), the military
"lawman and district attorney", had little to do. With
peacetime and thousands of soldiers released from combat among
a supine population, business picked up. The division legal office
became overly busy place.
Business also increased for the medics of Colonel James L.
Salmon, division surgeon, Lieutenant Colonel Charles L. Steyaart,
commander of the 45th Armored Medical Battalion and in particular
the division medical inspector. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Frank.
From treating the wounded the emphasis went to preventative medicine,
in particular venereal disease. Through the time since we departed
the states for England and until the end of combat VD had been
a very minor problem.
Throughout history the bane of armies had been dysentery,
malnutrition, VD, diseases native to the area, desertion and
mutiny. None of these affected the 3rd Armored except the threat
of VD and some malnutrition -- we had been overseas going on
two years with little fresh food, vegetables, fruit, milk or
meat. Even so, as to food. General George Marshall, army chief
of staff, said "it was a vast improvement over past issues
of campaign rations."
The medics, being in an unoccupied country, were not hampered
by civil law as would be the case stateside, in handing the VD
problem. A "chicken coop" was opened for the keeping
of infected women identified by their partners, while men were
treated by unit MD's. Anyone who has seen a woman on a treatment
table, feet in stirrups and legs spread, with an active case
of syphilis will find continence a willing alternative.
Not Enough of Anything for Civilians
Occupation life in general was not so grim. Team sports, movies,
leave to the Riviera, Heerlen in the Catholic panhandle of the
Netherlands, or even back to jolly old England, was afforded
to many. At the movies cigarettes were discarded before entry,
the butts to be picked up by small boys, who took them to grown
ups who retrieved the unburnt tobacco.
In an earlier war General Sheridan had said that "in
time of war there is never enough of anything." This applied
to a country beaten and bombed when the entire economy had been
directed toward the military. Milk cows were harnessed to pull
plows in the fields, twigs and fallen branches were harvested
in the woodlands for fuel. There was not enough of anything,
except soldiers.
Third Armored troops were scattered throughout the area, ostensibly
to keep order. One, was it the 703rd?, found itself with a champagne
factory at hand. Lucky 703rd!
Non-fraternization had been decreed by those on high, but
how persons of two countries can occupy the same space with no
economic, recreational or social intercourse, except that of
a designated few, escapes comprehension, such was the case with
us. It began in the most simplistic case. Division headquarters
was located on a tree shaded street in a residential area. After
the evening meal, when it was still light, one would venture
into the street. There, hanging around the entrance, would appear
a child or so of pre adolescent years, thin and shy. A bit of
candy would be offered and accepted. The next day there would
be another child or so.
The center of Darmstadt had been fire bombed, with considerable
destruction to the center of the city. Captain Hubert Jannach
of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was one of our prisoner of war interrogators
and told of speaking to one German family caught in a basement
with flame all around them when the child, a son of early school
age, pled with the father to kill him to prevent his burning
alive.
Dealing with Displaced Persons & Allied POW's
We were saddled with another civilian type problem. Marshall,
in his victory report, says that some five and a half million
displaced civilians and liberated United Nations prisoners of
war were uncovered in Germany. Add to this 130,000 Italian prisoners
and 3,050,000 German prisoners with an additional three million
German troops disarmed after unconditional surrender and there
was a whale of a job getting everyone sorted out and sent home.
The 3rd Armored had its share.
For the 3rd Armored, the displaced person (DP's) and allied
prisoners of war were near. Just down the street from division
headquarters was a German kaserne chock full of Russians, both
DP's and released prisoners of war. The kaserne was a four walled
affair and it was necessary to place a machine gun at each comer
to ensure that the inhabitants remained in place, for they were
of the opinion that winning the war gave them the right to unlimited
revenge, including rape, looting and the securing of a wristwatch
and bicycle. One Russian interviewed, bare to the waist, drinking
some alcoholic beverage (schnapps?) was antagonistic, disdainful,
boastful and might have had some idea of what he faced on his
return to the Motherland.
We also had on our hands a number of Poles, men and women,
slave laborers for the most part. Both housing and feeding them
constituted a problem. Some of the housing was in partially bombed
houses or structures, which did not meet their approval. In feeding,
we attempted to give each at least 1,000 calories a day and the
sight of a lone pole eating a slab of brown bread covered with
a layer of white margarine was considered unremarkable. The Poles
were not without cause for which they had good grounds, but our
facilities were limited.
There was also a scattering of Yugoslav officers, wearing
summer off-while blouses and fell brimless "overseas"
caps. They were oddly withdrawn, polite and remote.
When finally the orders came to send the eastern DP's and
ex-prisoners of war home it was no deluxe affair. Those who could
not go in cattle cars left on flatcars, with newly cut small
trees upright to provide a modicum of shade. God only knows how
they were received on their arrival at their homeland, as Stalin
felt that all prisoners of war were deserters.
There were other nationalities in our area to be repatriated,
including French, Belgians and those from the Netherlands, but
they gave no trouble whatever. There must have been some Italians,
too, also in the same category.
Over in nearby Frankfurt am Main, General Dwight D. Eisenhower
had set up SHAEF headquarters, from where he attempted to enforce
the non-fraternization and denazification policy. Nearby in a
small village was another group whose place of residence had
recently been changed. These were German scientists, physicists
and the like involved in rocket research, including the V-1 and
V-2. They, with their wives and families, had been evacuated
from the large area to be turned over to the Russians. At Wiesbaden,
or nearby, was the 12th Army Group, Bradley's command, and VII
Corps was over near the Rhine. While we had the German scientists
evacuated to our area. General George had removed horses with
fine blood lines from his area.
President Truman Reviews Division Troops
While at Darmstadt, newly sworn in President Harry Truman
arrived, en route to the Potsdam conference which ended 2 August
following a 16-day session. In the midst of it Churchill was
defeated at the polls, to be replaced by the Laborite Clement
R. Attlee. Of the original Big Three, only Stalin remained. En
route Truman had reviewed our troops, during which time he told
our General Hickey that he would obtain the best advisors possible
to face his trials as president.
The 3rd Armored had a small part in the Potsdam Conference,
sending troops to Berlin to be of whatever use was called for.
Lieutenant Lloyd Evans of division headquarters, who was with
the detachment, on his return reported that the Russians kept
our men in a compound, pretty much herded like sheep.
While we relaxed at Darmstadt and nearby towns, it was learned
that 1st Army was destined for service in the Pacific, specifically
in China, where it was said the terrain was suitable for tanks.
It was suspected that our route would be via the Suez Canal and
not by way of the good old USA. We had suffered more battle casualties
than any other armored division in the European Theater of Operation,
10,371 according to Spearhead, 10,105 according to Robert
J. Icks in his book Famous Tank Battles and 9,243 as counted
by the final report of the Adjutant General's office, although
there is some doubt that the latter included casualties of the
703rd Tank Destroyer Battalion and the 486 AA Battalion, both
attached but considered organic by all in the division, for they
never left us in combat. For comparison, the 101st Airborne Division
had listed 9,328 battle casualties, the greatest of that type
division.
So when Hiroshima was bombed 6 August and Nagasaki three days
later and the age of the atomic and nuclear war arrived, followed
by the surrender of Japan on 14 August, it was met with relief
and a sigh in the 3rd Armored.
Many since have bemoaned the fact of a nuclear world, but
for us it was a happy event which brought WWII to an end. It
has been said endlessly that nuclear was is inhuman. So was combat
with the club, the spear, the longbow, Greek fire, catapults
and gunpowder, as well as rockets. The only difference is that
with nuclear war civilians are subject to attack, the area is
wider, and the results more lasting. It does make a difference.
"The day Japan capitulated orders were issued from the
War Department suspending the redeployment operation throughout
the world," General Marshall said in his victory report.
By 10 November the division was inactivated, but by then many
had gone stateside, most from one of the holding camps around
Le Havre, such as Twenty Grand and others named for cigarettes.
For the time being the 3rd Armored was no more. We had fought
the good fight.
Work Continues on Spearhead in the West
While most had gone home or been redeployed, some stayed,
to our advantage. These were those who wrote and had printed,
at no expense to the troops, Spearhead in the West, the
combat history of the 3rd Armored.
"It is a factual summary," says Andrew Barr, "of
a complete record compiled as of 2400 hours each night on the
basis of reports received from combat groups, as well as administrative
units, during the previous 24 hours." This was completed
by the division staff.
Authorization was Paragraph 2, Section V of Etousa Circular
86,25 June 1945, "within the limits of availability
of paper and printing or other reproduction facilities."
Therein lay the rub.
Remaining in Europe to head this effort were Lieutenant Colonel
Barr, G-2, and Lieutenant Colonel Wesley A. Sweat, G-3, aided
by Major Murray Fowler, who wrote the Official Record of Combat
based on G-3 reports, and Sergeant Frank M. Woolner of Shrewsbury,
Massachusetts, who wrote the popular portion of the tome, with
T/4 Glen A. Davison heading the production team and T/4 Robert
L. MacHose assisting in drafting and composition.
Photos for Spearhead in the West were had from the
team of 1st Lieutenant Thomas S. Noble, Jr. and our own T/5 Marvin
H. Mischnick, while T/Sergeant Gerhard S. Schachne (now Sharon)
"distinguished himself" while in combat and did the
same as interpreter, and more, for the team. Private First Class
Carl C. Bonebright, a low point man, was driver of a sedan put
at the disposal of the team. Before it was over, planning nearly
extended to the cutting of trees for paper, so disorganized was
post-war German production.
End of Saga.
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