Victims of war. 50 years later

We meet little girls in Austria

Chapter 14: Safe in Divarty.

When we arrived in Divarty there was not a lot for me to do. Besides I didn't operate a radio for several months because we were busy managing the occupation and had no time for training. We could not do both. Only later when we became established in permanent posts could the normal duties of an army begin. With the confusion of millions of refugees what to do with them was our first priority. So later we were sent up near Kassel Germany where we had to deal with huge numbers of refugees. Both homeless Germans freed concentration camp inmates and volunteer workers from other countries. More about this situation later. Immediately after the war our main duties were to disarm the German and Austrians. Part of this was to dispose of the small arms that were collected. More on this can be read in the blog billswar.blogspot.com. Bill Sheldon was in the Third Inf. from it's organization at Ft. Lewis Washington. He was also a radio operator in the 39th FA Battalion. His wife Virginia Sheldon made a book of his experiences with pictures and I am making a blog of them. Be sure to take a look at a real hero. They put me to driving a truck to the dump a couple times I have posted them here again if you want to look.


Dumping Garbage







House,in Salzburg where I lived until we moved to Melsungen near Kassel



But for my immediate duties was driving a truck. Here is a picture of the house we were billeted in.

Now I come to an episode that I am not very proud of. It's the subject of looting. Looting went on from generals looting trainloads of treasure to privates looting anything they could get their hands on. The Russians looted entire factories. Some had greater opportunity that others. So some didn't do much. Some had the integrity to not loot. It wasn't just Nazis doing the looting. The army was very lax in putting a stop to it. Maybe it was because after 2 or 3 years of war a certain mentality was more or less built in. After a couple years of unrestrained killng and destroying it was hard to stop. Also the desire to make the Germans, all the Germans pay. So the military looked the other way for a while. I managed to send home 3 machine guns. The German Schmeiser, the Burp gun and an Italian army rifle which customs caught because I either didn't secure adequately or they were x-raying packages by then. I kept them a while then gave them to a Fire Chief in the Seattle Fire Department who properly disabled them so they were not usable according to law. I was nervous about keeping them in working order. I also looted some things from the house which got on my conscience and one reason I went back to Austria later was to try to give it back to the original owner if I could find him. But I couldn't even find the house after all these years. However this turned into a great trip for other reasons. More about this later.







D Gudgel in front of HQ at Salzburg









As I was new I was curious about what was going on. Which was nothing. I went into the HQ trailer used to keep records which was not used any more because the war was over. I looked around which had been the brain of the Divarty. Left on one of the counters was the last situation report of the war. It is reproduced here. I have the original.
Check out Bills War

Next, Salzburg activities.

Chapter 13: Salzburg

    You can see a larger picture by clicking on the picture

I was sent to Salzburg from Worms. By truck I am sure although I don't remember the actual ride. What I mean is I don't remember riding in a truck from Worms to Salzburg. I do remember when we were on the way to Salzburg Austria we passed by some parked jets off the autobahn. The Germans used the autobahn instead of an airfield in order to hide the jets. Much easier to hide them from American planes.

I have not been able to locate the picture of me and the others who occupied a tent while waiting for assignment there at worms. The picture was taken the day the war ended in Europe.

Shortly after the war ended there was a big push to get the troops home. Some had been overseas for 3 years without a break. No six months tour then home. You have to remember that in those days and the nature of the war when you went overseas you stayed there unless there was a death in the family and there was a way to get home. Otherwise you stayed. The Third Division men where I went next in Salzburg had been overseas from 1942 when it landed in North Africa. So the men there stayed overseas for more than 3 years without a break. The furrow about spending a year in Iraq I don't understand. Except they think the war on Terror might last 20 or 30 years. That might make you give pause. An infantryman in ww2 was subjected to horror's equal to those in Iraq I would think. But in any case I am against all war. Don't call me one of the Greatest Generation just one of the greatest suckers. Pat Buchanan agrees with me that our entry into WW2 was not necessary. What does that do for Roosevelt's reputation if correct? The Japanese didn't just one day decide that they didn't have anything else to do and say to themselves. "Let' s go bomb Pearl Harbor that sounds like it might be fun." This does't mean I overlook the tremendous atrocities they committed in China and against Americans. Fusel wrote his book about "War Without Mercy" It's hard to make soldiers wage civilized war. Because by it's very nature war is an atrocity. Atrocity begats atrocity. On both sides.

But back to Austria. The Third Infantry in it's fight through Germany went through Munich, then outside Salzburg it captured Bertchesgarden and finally ended the war in Salzburg. The Third occupied a large area of course. Salzburg the central area because that is where the Generals wanted to be. Then the Artillery battalions spread out to the surrounding towns

As they began sending the guys home with the most points who had been away for 3 years they began replacing them with us guys in the replacment depots. So within about a week I was sent as a replacement to Salzburg. Assigned to HQ Battery, Division Artillery Headquarters. (Divarty) You can bet Generals always pick the best for themselves. In this case Divarty was somewhere on the edge of Salzburg. When they captured Salzburg they wanted this house so ordered the people out to make room for us. The commander had given them 45 minutes to vacate and when they complained that was not enough time they were told you have 10 minutes instead. Of course that meant everything in the house was still there when I got there. A number of us soldiers occupied the house.

Allowing 10 minutes to vacate their homes seemed be pretty standard. I just read yesterday in an article about another instance when the people got 10 minutes to vacate under similar circumstances. It is hard to imagine the immense power the soldier of an occupying army feels protected as he is from any retribution by the subjected population. This should be pretty obvious from what is going on in Iraq. When you can at a whim, without fear of punishment shoot to kill, This is not the soldiers doing really. These are conditions imposed on him by the circumstances.

Even by the time I got to Salzburg we still carried our carbines where ever we went because the army didn't know the extent of opposition we might expect. Eventually they took them away and we went unarmed when it became obvious that there was to be no armed opposition. That the war had really ended.

For a considerable time the US Army was a shambles. New untried and untrained replacements replaced the best army in the world. The 3rd infantry division was the best of the best. The most combat experienced. They talk of Normandy landings but the 3rd had made 5 amphibiousAnzio. The 3rd was one of the combat outfits that spent the most time in combat and suffered more casualties than almost any other outfit. About 33,000 casualties. Anyway,we new replacements took advantage of this to make do with our situation. There was lots to do but not training. Disarming the Germans and Austrians for one. Collecting arms and finally destroying them. As a radio operator there was not much for me to do in that line of work. So I ran an errand occasionally. Or took something to the local dump. There were a lot of hungry Austrians and we always collected a crowd when we took things to the dump. Here is a poor picture of me at the dump. Sorry I was so slumped over. But a better one with kids climbing all over the truck. The other radio operators had not been transferred out yet so there was no radio operating for me. The artillery battalions occupied various town around Salzburg. The 3rd Inf. occupied Salzburg. The Commanding General Collins in a hotel in Salzbug.




During a long period the effeciency was next to zero. It was the better part of a year before the army really began training again. It's a good thing we didn't have a shooting war with the Russians because you can be sure they didn't disarm as we did.