Chapter 15: Salzburg.

After a couple weeks or so the brass decided that the troops needed some culture so decided to put on some concerts in the Motzarteum. Salzburg's major Concert hall. Salzburg is very proud of it's famous composer Motzart. I am not sure he did much there except be born there. He died in Vienna and spent a lot of time there for that was where the action was. . Here is the flyer advertising the event. I was detailed to help put it on. I went to a concert and wrote a letter to Kay inside this program using my helmet liner for a pad while waiting for it to begin. Not easy to write on a curved surface.



I had as a roommate in the house where we were billeted a guy (Bill Blake) with a checkered past according to him. According to him he had been in the Navy, Deserted in San Francisco and then enlisted in the Army. Winding up here in the 3rd. with me in Salzburg. I don't know how much to believe. In our activities of doing what ever we did, which was not contact or organizing the actual musicians we had to go the square at the Motzarteum. While inside somewhere someone stole a can of C rations out of the jeep. When we came back he asked someone there who might have stolen it. He got an apartment number and I tagged along with him. I didn't have any interest one war or another actually. When we got to the apartment adjoining the square. A woman answered the door and he asked about the can. She denied knowing anything about it. Blake then pulled out a gun and threatened to shoot her if she didn't give it back. She continued to deny knowing anything about it. All this time I was wondering what this was all about. A can of
C rations to me was nothing. What was going on. This was after the war a couple weeks. You don't go around shooting people over a can of C rations. It would have been a murder charge and I would have been an accessory. I was real nervous about this to this day when I think of it. My life could have changed dramatically if he had done something rash. It was probably most valuable for trading purposes. There were lots of C rations. In fact for several weeks after the war all we ate were C rations. We go the mess hall and dinner was this big vat of C rations. Even though fraternization was against regulations the cooks or mess sgt was making lots of hay with their access to the food I'm sure. For well over a year the German kids were outside the mess hall as we left to dispose of our leftovers. By this time I was in Marburg at the replacement depot on my way home. More on this at that time. The Austrians would meet us at the Salzburg dump to find something they could salvage to eat.

Another minor incident happened while at the house that had far reaching consequences many years later. One day a woman and a couple little girls walked by. One was carrying a bag. I had them stop and I picked them up and had my picture taken with them. Then they went on their way. This probably took just a few moments. Ever since that time I wondered who they were and what happened to them, I had kept a large picture of them on my wall in Lake Forest Park where I lived for 53 years. Were they still alive? Did the still live in Salzburg?



One day back in the '80's I decided to write a letter to someone in Salzburg, I forget who, including a picture of the girls asking if there was some way to locate them. This letter managed to percolate to the Government TV station Salzburg ORG TV. They thought it would be a good project and started a campaign to locate them, They even got the police forensic scientists involved. They wanted him to compare facial feature to anyone who might be thought to be the girls. They kept asking me at times what I thought about this or that. Of course I had only seen the girls once for a few seconds so actually I didn't know anything. All a big show. But it was a big project and apparently it had good ratings. It was strung out for quite a while. But eventually they actually located the women who I picked up as little babies lo so many years ago. Kay and I were invited to Salzburg to meet the "girls". Meet the governor (Mayor) of Salzburg and have a week of touring Salzburg and surrounding territory. The policeman who helped locate the girls took us on a tour of the Police station and we had our mug shots taken. Shown here. It wasn't kept in their records because it doesn't have date and number he assured us.


We got all kinds of publicity in the Newspaper and on TV. Wined and dined. Toured Bertchesgarden, the salt mines, Interviewed for a book being written about the occupation by a Professor at the University there. Her name was Ingrid Bauer. Here with us interviewing me at the restaurant at the top of the pass above Salzburg. The name of the Book was Welcome Amie (American) Go Home. By Ingrid Bauer. She and another professor tagged along for a couple days on our trip to Bertshegarden and to towns we visited. This book was a project of the University of Salzburg about the occupation up to 1952 if I remember right. She interviews as many soldiers in the Occupation as she could for the book. Because I was availble I played a prominent part in the book using several of my pictures and portions of her conclusions based on my interviews. Note that camcorder on the table because I was recording the intervew. Unfortunately the battery ran down before she finished the interview. There were not a lot of soldiers around who had been there at that time. Besides even if they were she would have no way of knowing. But with all the publicity in the papers and on TV she was able to locate me easily. I stayed at the hotel owned by the manager of ORF. He is the one who made the arrangements for us to come.

This is the house in Salzburg I was billited in. I was on the second floor where the balcony is. Actually taken after we left and went to Kassel. This outfit moved and and tidied up the place.

It was a great experience all because I picked up and held two little girls.

After the Division put on the concert it moved to the Kassel area in Germany. Several hundred miles away Divarty went to a small town Melsungen about 15 miles south of Kassel. Here I became the driver for the Ex. Officer. He is flunky for the General. He sees that the generals orders are carried out. His name was Col Coyne. Someone told me he made general later. Smart guy. I'm not surprised.