Chapter 21: More of the Occupation

After my return from Berlin we settled down doing our occupation duties. I was still driving the Ex, Officer Col. Coyne. There was the one prison camp at Marburg under our jurisdiction. There was a book written by James Bacque titled "Other losses" that claimed a million or so German Prisoners were starved in American and French prison camps under miserable conditions. It certainly didn't happen where we were in charge but the U. S. did participate in some reprehensible incidences such as Operation Keel Haul which turned over huge numbers of persecuted Russians back to Stalin to be sent to the Gulag. Few ever came out. These were the ones who fought for Germany after being captured. No one ever claimed this was not an atrocity. Just like war, immense governmental operations of all kinds which is too huge and mystical for the ordinary human with limited information to understand. So operation Keel Haul rests in the dustbin of history.

I can believe the French were capable of it from what I saw of prisoners when I returned from Le Harve and got lost on my way back by a different route. You can see from the picture of the prison camp that these prisoners were well housed. What they ate I have no idea.

When we were doing duty we got an opportunity to look around. Here is a picture of me in front of a dump for destroyed war planes.

Occasionally there would be a formation to give a medal to someone who had been recommended for it but had not yet received it. That is what this formation is about.

I, with the letter needs no description.

More tomorrow hopefully

The Post bar had a bouncer, and you paid for your beer with this script as there were no American money. There were usually a lot of women in the bar at the invitation of soldiers because they were permitted. This was at the time there was extreme hunger and want. So women were easily had. Take a look at the picture of Darmstadt after the raid.

One time the Col had been trying to find a tailor to modify one of his uniforms. This was shortly after I became his driver. Apparently he had had trouble finding one. He asked me to see what I could do about it. So I just went to the neares twon and started asking where there was a tailor. No problem. Shortly I was directed to a tailor. So I went back and got it done for him. Later he asked me how I managed to find the tailor. I simply said. "Ask Questions" That seemed to make an impression as if no one had thought of that. Later one day in my room the lieutenant who was a West Point grad. came in and told me out of the blue that "to be a sergeant you have to be a soldier and I was not a soldier." I suppose I didn't jump to attention quickly enough and what ever planes to make me sergeant evaporated with my response. I didn't have any idea I was being considered for the promotion in the first place. If I had known I would have jumpted more quickly. So the promotion went to Blake. This is one of my regrets that I didn't make sgt.
Oh well, my mother didnt' have me to make me a soldier. This also meant that who knows what it might have done if I had made sgt and stayed in which meant I would have no doubt gone to Korea later and I might not be writing this now if that had happened. So who knows but God what is the best for you. What seems bad might have turned out for the best all along. As I am still here at 86 what I did seems to have worked. From dodging automobiles to not making sergeant way back in 1946.

Look at Bill's war. 4 years in ww2 with the 3rd Infantry Division