The Biography of a Rabbit Part 8

On the evening of January 28 we were told to get ready to leave. We put on all the clothes we had and I put on the flannel pajamas over my underwear, not knowing that it would be two Months before I took them off again. We divided our remaining food as equally as possible and sat around waiting for the order to march At the last minute they gave each of us a full Red Cross parcel and we were sorry we had not eaten more during the last few days. Just after midnight, at approximately 12:30 am on January 29 we were ordered to leave. I put on my overcoat carried the heavy Royal Air Force blanket and suddenly realized what a heavy load I was carrying, the miserable conditions, and that it had only begun.

Chapter 9 First March

There were about lO,OOO British and American POW's who gradually left the compound. We formed a line down the road to the southwest through the pine forest, in the cold, as the snow fell gently. We looked back, Bruce and I, at our home for the past eight months.

There was a red glow in the sky above our compound as someone, in a last act of defiance, had set fire to his barracks before leaving.

This march was to last for six days and we were to walk sixty two miles. There was about four inches of snow on the ground. and during the first mile we began to realize that we were too weak to carry everything. I took the heaviest cans of food out of my coat and threw them in the snow. I kept the powdered milk as it was the lightest and most nouris.h.i.+ng food. Soon the road was littered with food and extra clothing. We knew that we would need the food later, but it was a choice between that or falling behind and possibly losing our friends. About a mile down the road we could hear the Russian guns getting much louder (they were thirty miles away). Suddenly there were some rifle shots and we all scattered off the road, diving head first into the snowy brush. It turned out to be a false alarm so we stopped praying and got back onto the road. At daylight the wind began to blow and for the next two days we marched in a blizzard. We stopped at intervals for ten minute rest periods, dropped into the snow and just dreaded getting up again. We marched this way until noon the following day when we reached Freiwaldu, a distance of eighteen miles in eleven hours. We stopped at a farm house and the barn was full so Bruce and I laid down in the snow against the back of the barn out of the wind. During the afternoon we took turns going to the farmhouse to get warm. Bruce and I got into the kitchen and the farmer and his wife were there just looking bewildered. The German soldiers were noted for taking everything from the people in the countryside in the places they occupied and the Americans were just the opposite. After our time was up and we were warm, Bruce and I took some cans of food out of our packs and gave them to the woman.

It was our way of saying thanks to them for allowing us to get warm and we received a smile from her as thanks. Then we returned to the blizzard. Later on during the march we did pick up some things around the farms and it must have been hard for the farm people.

Having thousands of Americans crowding into every s.p.a.ce must have been traumatic for them. The British prisoners were soon mixed in with us, as all became scattered in line. They were the most amazing people I have ever known. They were always happy and singing, innovative in finding ways to carry their packs. After a few stops at farms they would come down the road with baby buggies, carts and makes.h.i.+ft hand carts created from old wheels they found. I recall one group with packs piled high in a buggy. They also found sleds which worked until the snow melted. Under the miserable conditions no one gave thought to trying to escape. The American colonel who was in charge of us recommended that we stick together for reasons of safety. We had few guards with us and they were mostly old men. The old man with our group rode a bicycle and carried a rifle. It wasn't long before he was walking too and when we had rest stops we immediately fell to working on the blisters we had developed on our feet. We even patched up the guard's feet and it wasn't long before we took turns carrying his rifle and pack. This was the only way that he could keep up and we felt sorry for him. We began again at 6 PM and marched all night in the blizzard. The next day we arrived at a little village named Muskau. Thus far all we had to eat was cold food that we were carrying and some bread the Germans had given us. We were so cold and hungry as we looked for a place to get inside.

Bruce and I found a place inside a small stone church in the center of town. We were crowded in so tightly that the only spot Bruce and I could find to sleep was next to the altar. On each side of the altar was a section filled with dirt, with many small white crosses stuck in the dirt. We removed enough crosses to make a place to lie down and when we left we smoothed the ground and replaced the crosses. This was Monday and the first sleep we had since the Friday before. We were very weak and desperately needed it. It was also a relief to get inside away from the cold and snow. We were sti11 eating cold food and more bread from the Germans. With so many men on the move, they had no way to feed us and by this time in the war they barely had enough for themselves anyway. I know our guards had even less than we did. When we started marching again we were really in bad shape. We were so weak with aching muscles and blistered feet that we began to worry about whether or not we could keep going. The boys from our barracks were still together and wanted to keep it that way. The only good thing was that the blizzard had stopped and it was beginning to thaw a little. Many of the guys were falling out now and laying along side the road. Bruce and I were having trouble and soon our knees began to buckle and we would fall down. Our legs were so weak that they wouldn't hold us up any longer. We would help each other up and go a little further. After several falls we crawled to the side of the road to rest awhile. We were worried about being separated from our group so struggled on as long as we could.

Finally, so far behind our group, we gave up. After many falls we decided to lay there on the ground with the others who had dropped out. Then we began to worry about what the, Germans might do to us and concluded that we might be shot. That thought was enough to make us get up and keep going no matter what. We made it to Sremburg where we were going to spend the night. When we later arrived at Nuremburg we discovered that those guys who had fallen out along the road had been picked up by trucks at the end of the line and sent by train to the camps to which we eventually marched. They got there a week ahead of us. Ironic things like this seemed to happen to me all through these years. I stayed that night in a very large building 1ike a gym or a warehouse and we were packed in so tightly that there was barely room to lay down. There was only one small light bulb hanging about forty feet up on the ceiling. You couldn't see anything once it got dark. In the night when someone had to go to the bathroom there was no light to see by or room to keep from stepping on someone. We just ran as fast as we could, with our shoes off, over the top of everyone. There was only one small door at the far end of the building and everyone that was stepped on would yell, swear and wake up the rest of us. At least it was dark so they didn't know who did it to them. When we got up the next morning they were pa.s.sing out watery barley soup from a big drum outside the building. This was the first hot food we had had in four days and we were very hungry. I got a cup full and took a big drink of it. The broth was so hot I burned my tongue and mouth so I couldn't taste the rest of it. I downed it all and was warmed inside. I was lucky not to have any back problems on this march as the weight of all my belongings in the bottom of the coat really pulled on my shoulders. When we left this place we walked a few miles to the railroad yards where we were to make the two day trip by train to Nuremburg and Camp X-111D. By this time we were all getting diarrhea from drinking the water we got along the march. It was not the same as the spring water we had in Sagan. With all the cloths we were wearing it was not easy to suffer from diarrhea. At this time we thought the worst of the march was over as at last we were getting a ride, but it was nearly a disaster. We were put into box cars, fifty men to a car with out guard. We were packed in so tightly we could not sit down and there was very little air. In order to sleep, we sat down all wound around each other and tried to Keep our heads out at best. A couple of the guys fastened their blankets across the corners on nails and made a hammock in order to make more room. It didn't help much because they were always getting in and out due to the diarrhea. There was always someone at the door in a bit of a rush waiting for the guard to unlock and open the door. Two guys would hold the victim by the arms while he let his rear hang out the door. When the train made stops we were all outside immediately with the same problem. One time the train stopped at a station in the middle of a city and we all jumped out onto the platform between the trains with the same problem. We all went right there on the platform with the German civilians walking around us. We didn't have time to be embarra.s.sed as we couldn't wait any longer. We were so miserable we didn't care any more and everyone was in the same condition. After two days of this we arrived at Nuremburg. It was approximately February 4. We were farther south now and the weather was a little warmer. We were relieved to have made the trip without being strafed or bombed by our own comrades as we knew the Allies were aiming at all the trains they could find. It just gave us out more thing to worry about. We walked three miles to the new camp outside Nuremburg. The conditions at this camp were much worse than those at Sagan. The camp had been used by Italian officers who were prisoners and it was filthy, dirty and muddy. Bruce and I managed to stay together and get into the same barracks but we had lost Ullo and the others from the barracks at Sagan. The barracks were in sections with bunks for twelve men on one side of each section. A cooking area with a table was on the opposite side with an aisle down the middle. Each man did his own cooking on a stove which we turned on its side to make more of a cooking surface. When we found something to burn, we cooked on the stove. The remainder of the time we ate cold food. It was becoming more difficult for the Red Cross to deliver food parcels to us and some weeks we got half a parcel, other weeks none. We were hungry all the time and gradually getting weaker. The water, however, must have been good here as we were finally getting over the diarrhea. I should mention one of the observations I made about men at this time and know I'll always remember. The prison experience really separated the men from the boys, as the saying goes. I suppose it was because of their background that some of the biggest and strongest men were the ones that could not take this situation. They couldn't carry packs, cook, even light a fire and needed the most help during the toughest parts. The men you least expected to would become a tower of strength. It made me realize that I was a better man than many of the men I would normally have looked up to. There was a dirt road through the center of camp and we used this for walking for exercise. We didn't get enough food to exercise much and there was no room for sports. One of the guard towers was close to our barracks and it had a searchlight which rotated back and forth at night to keep us in our buildings after dark. They threatened to shoot anyone outside after dark as there was no wide open s.p.a.ce between our barrack and the barbed wire fence with the pine woods beyond. They also didn't have the large guard dogs loose in this camp. We didn't have any hot water here so we did not take any baths or wash our clothes for two months. Our mattresses were burlap filled with shredded paper and so filthy that every day that the sun shone we would take them outdoors to air with our blankets. We soon discovered we were infested with bedbugs lice and fleas. Don't ask me why but they never bothered me at all. I would lay on my bunk and they were so thick that I could see them jump from the guy on my right to me then on to Bruce on the next bunk. Some guys were scarred all over their bodies from the bites, but I can't remember having a single bite. A boy named Lindstom was in the bottom corner bunk and he was so sick he didn't move the last three weeks we were there. His skin was Just raw from the fleas. One of his buddies was feeding him and I wondered what happened to him when we moved out of this camp as he couldn't walk. When I was in Atlantic City for discharge I met him on a street corner and had a visit with him so I knew he made it.

About a week before we left this camp, the Red Cross sent in some insecticide and we put it all over ourselves and our clothes and blankets. By the time we moved out a week later we had rid ourselves of most of the insects. Next to our barracks was a large one room building used for a wash house. It contained only some old sinks and two cold water faucets so we seldom used it. The old boards ran up and down on the sides and we were gradually taking them off the building to use for fire wood for cooking. The Germans forbade it so we had to sneak around when they were not looking. The nails would make a terrible noise when you pulled the boards off so we would loosen them very carefully during the daytime when the guards were not looking and at night we would time the sweep of the searchlight to dash out and rip one off, then run for the barracks before they turned the searchlight back and shot us. The noise of the nails was awfully loud in the night and would alert the guards. By the time we left this camp, all that was left of the wash house was the roof. We had outside toilet buildings for daytime use but no inside toilets for nights although we weren't allowed out at night. At the and of the barracks was a small room with a twenty gallon garbage can for use at night. It had to be carried out by two men in the morning and emptied into the outdoor toilet. It was almost always full and running over when you carried it. We drew cards every morning and the two low cards got that dirty Job. Bruce had terrible luck and got the low card about twice a week whereas I only did it once or twice. We didn't have any toilet paper, but. found that a cigarette pack contained four sheets of thin paper if you separated it carefully. I cut the tail off one of my s.h.i.+rts and used that then washed it out in the wash house. One day there was a rumor going around that a s.h.i.+pment of toilet paper was coming in and we all lined us to get it.

By the time it was divided up each man received three sheets. Big deal! We finally got a chance to take a shower at the other end of the camp, about a mile down the road that ran through the camp. Every so far in that wash building there was a one inch pipe hanging from the ceiling. They only turned the hot water on for a few minutes for each group so you had to work very fast. About five guys would get under a pipe and we would Jostle to all get wet as it was only a small stream of water coming out. We soaped ourselves then crowded under again to wash the soap off before the water was turned off. In our group were four or five white men and one black man. We must have made a beautiful sight all trying to get under the water at once. As I look back on it this is what was meant by true integration! On the walk back to our barracks some of the guys were too weak to make the trip and fell down. We didn't realize that in our weakened Condition the hot water was too much for our systems. The stronger men carried the weaker ones between them back to the barracks. This was the only good bath I had during the final two months as a prisoner. Each morning we had to line up outside for roll call which was the way they kept track of the number in each barracks to determine that no one had escaped. We had a bugle player who played revile when the German Camp Commander and his group came in every morning. As soon as they arrived Inside the wire he would start playing a swinging revile. He really played some hot music and we would clap and cheer which made the Germans angry. We stood there while they counted us and once in awhile someone too weak to stand would fall and lay there on the ground. After roll call we would carry them back to the barracks. Most of the weakness was caused by inactivity and having only barely enough food to survive. Once a day they gave each of us a cup of soup which was all that they prepared in the cookhouse at this camp. One soup was barley and water (mostly water) and a dirty gray color. The other was a green soup made with dehydrated vegetables.

This soup had black bugs, about the size of ladybugs, floating on top of it. Some of the guys could never eat this soup but I was so hungry that I did. At first I took my spoon and skimmed all the bugs off the top and ate the rest. I wondered why it was so crunchy until I discovered that there was a beetle inside all the dehydrated peas in the soup. After that I just stirred the soup up and ate it as fast as I could. These two months were very nerve wracking due to the continual bombing of Nuremburg which was only three miles away. The Americans bombed it almost every day and the British at night.

Nuremburg had a large railroad terminal and was a favorite target.

When the bombs fell, the ground and barracks would shake and everything fell off the shelves as the windows broke. During one raid the bombs were so close that one wall of our barracks moved Six inches. At night we crawled under the lower bunk together for safety as we couldn't leave the building. In the daytime we look two bed slats with the blanket folded on top and held it over our heads to go outside and watch the bombing. This was to protect our heads from all the shrapnel that was falling on the camp. The camp was right in the middle of the ring of big German anti aircraft guns that circled Nuremburg. One of these guns was in the woods just over the fence from our barracks and the noise was terrific. We watched the smoke rising from the city of Nuremburg those days and nights. When the British bombed at night they dropped flares which lit up the entire area and the searchlights that were probing the sky. We watched from our windows and worried that a bomb meant for the railroad yards so near us would fall on our camp. We had begun to dig trenches, but they were only a couple of feel deep so we never used them. We were more interested in just standing around and watching the planes go over. We began to see more of our fighter planes flying down low and one day a P-51 flew very slow1y over the middle of our camp, only a hundred feet up. We could see the pilot and we all ran around waving our arms and yelling at him to get out of here before he was shot down. We began to hear rumors and sounds of battle again and were told we would be moved. We didn't know where, but after the poor food monotony and misery we had had for two months, we were glad to be leaving this place. We didn't need to prepare for this march because we had nothing but the clothes on our backs and blankets so were ready to go any time.

Chapter 10 Second March

On April 4 we began marching to the southeast away from the advancing Americans. It would have been nice to wait there for liberation, but the Germans had different ideas. At least now we knew it would not be long before we would be free. The Germans did not guard us much this time and we were nearly on our own as we marched.

Our ranking officers made the decisions to march mostly at night to avoid mistaken attack by American fighters. We also had ten minute rest breaks every hour and the Germans gave us enough bread and soup to keep us alive. We went through the railroad yards at Nuremburg and saw the bomb damage. We were glad to get out of there before another raid came. Our line was soon spread over seven miles and we made the decision to stay with the group instead of trying to escape into the woods and head for the American front. Probably some of the crazier ones did try it.

We spent the first night in barns and any building we could find. The weather was much warmer and we enjoyed the nice spring days. I pinned a sock to my pant leg, found a pop bottle in a trash pile. and carried it full of drinking water. When we went by houses the Germans stood along the road watching us and very often they would fill my bottle with fresh water. The Germans in the areas that had not been bombed were friendly, but those in the cities were more hostile. The American fighter planes were flying over us every day and we could see the smoke from the bombed cities all around us.

The second day I was on a blacktop road and just coming out of a wooded stretch where I could see the line up the straight open road ahead. Some P-51s came over and started shooting at the line of men about a quarter mile ahead of me. The men dove to the side of the road and spread out a POW sign we had made from strips of white cloth to be used on just such an occasion. The planes stopped shooting, but not before two were killed and several wounded. I was lucky to have been still in the woods where we could dive for cover in the trees.

After that we marched at night when we could but that too presented problems. It was so dark at night that we suffered from vertigo and had trouble walking. We finally pinned small pieces of white cloth on the back of the one in front of us in order to have something to follow. Sometimes we walked with a hand on the shoulder of the one in front too for orientation.

When we came to the village of Neumarket, the first thing we saw was a long section of railroad track balanced on the roof peak of a two story house as the result of a bombing. The next two days of rainy weather left everything in mud and we were miserable. We were caught along the open road with no buildings so we spent the night in the open in the cold rain. 1 just stepped off the road and lay down under a pine tree, covered up with my overcoat and tried to sleep. In the morning my overcoat and blankets were soaked and weighed a ton, but I had to wear them because I would need them again. I never even got a cold and was thankful for all the shots we got in the service, thinking they must have helped.

One sunny day after a night's march we stopped at a farm house to spend the day and rest. Bruce and I were in an apple orchard just behind the barns. Within minutes there were little fires going everywhere and we could smell strange odors of food. Eggs and chicken, and whatever else could be found around the barns, were cooking. Bruce got some eggs and potatoes while I got a little fire started. We cooked in rusty old tin cans we found in junk piles as we had no other utensils. We must have cleaned out some of these farms but it was either that or starve. Sometimes along the march the Red Cross trucks would catch up with us with some parcels that we divided among us. We also discovered that the mounds of dirt in fields near the road covered stacks of potatoes or rutabagas to keep them from freezing. We would dig out the rutabagas and eat them raw.

When we stopped in the small villages we took over all the empty churches and buildings for sleeping and guys would immediately start out to trade cigarettes and anything else we had for food. I was never any good at this so Bruce used to scrounge for us. In friendly places we did quite well at this as the people were desperate for American cigarettes. This type of marching and spreading out in farms and villages kept us mixed up with different guys all the time. We were all in the same situation so it didn't matter, but Bruce and I were still together. I don't know where Ullo was by this time.

One day we crossed the Danube River and there was a large unexploded bomb sticking up out of the pavement in the center of the bridge. We walked a little faster until we were by it. Towards the end of this march I remember being in a large open area near some buildings when a heavy rainstorm started and we all ran for cover inside them. One lone figure was laying out there under his coat in the rain and n.o.body helped him inside. He must have been separated from the friends who had been helping him. I found out later that he was John Bradey from Victor, N.Y. and when I got back to Camp Kilmer in New Jersey he was there and still sick. We became acquainted and he borrowed a clean s.h.i.+rt from me to wear home. He promised to return the s.h.i.+rt and about four weeks after getting home his wife sent it to me. There was enclosed a letter telling me that he was it the Buffalo VA hospital very ill from having a ruptured appendix. It had happened when we left the first prison camp, so he had suffered with that through two marches, two camps and all the way home. The will to survive was so great that it had kept him going all that way.

All the pilots in England must have been briefed on our location because during the remainder of the last march and at the last camp we were never again bombed or strafed while cities all around us were bombed. Our fighter Planes were flying over in increasing numbers as the time went on. We were fortunate to have been shot at only the one time when marching in open country. After ten days and marching 91 miles we arrived at the last camp in fairly good condition due to the frequent rest stops and warmer weather.

Chapter 11 Stallag VII-A at Moosburg

Stallag VII-A at Moosburg was a very large camp as prisoners were moved here from al1 the other prison camps to keep them from being liberated. We found some of the men here who had dropped out from that first march from Sagan. All the barracks were full, and large tents were put up between the buildings and that is where Bruce and I found ourselves a place. They were large tents and we slept in rows down each side on the ground. We were on an incline and when it rained the water ran right through the tent sometimes in a real river when the rain was heavy. We finally gathered rocks and piled them up about three inches high and slept on top of them. One night I woke up during a downpour and found that my shoes were floating away down the small trench we had dug around our beds. I decided that between that and the water coming through the bullet holes in the tent I had better find a dry place for the rest of the night. I felt my way around in the darkness until I found a barracks building, then crawled around on my hands and knees in the pitch black among the bodies on the floor. I found a place and squeezed in between two bodies and fell asleep. When woke up I was back to back with someone and we both sat up at the same time. He was a big guy from India with all the robes and turban on his head, a big black beard on his face.

He smiled (half his teeth were missing), I smiled, said "good morning" and got out as fast as I could.

There were prisoners of all nationalities here: Scots, Turks and Indians as well as English and American. There were about 27,000 of us so it was a large camp. Some of the Scots had their kilts and bagpipes and they would march around the open area we had for a softball diamond, playing the bagpipes. We played softball again here and I got a baseball uniform which I carried all the way home with me for a souvenir. I played third base because it was next to the latrine, which I needed again as I was once again suffering from diarrhea and dysentery. When I wasn't batting or playing third, I sat in the latrine and came out only when they needed me. My problems were probably caused by the bad water gotten on the last march and it was so bad that I had to run for the latrine every time I started to eat. During the worst times I gave my food away to Bruce or someone else who needed it.

I can't remember who was still with Bruce and I from our squadron in England or the camp at Sagan. It is possible that Ullo and Barlow were there with us, but it is only Bruce that I remember clearly. At the corner of the camp by our location the guard was a red headed German from Brooklyn who spoke with the Brooklyn accent. He was brought up in Brooklyn and had been drafted into the German army while visiting Germany. There was only one fence around this camp so we could go over and talk to him, sometimes giving him one of our chocolate bars as he had little to eat. One of the guys traded with him for a camera and film which he used to take pictures. I signed up for copies and received them several months after returning home.

Those pictures are included in this chapter.

Moosburg had been a center for Red Cross parcel distribution and therefore food parcels were issued again one per week to each of us, thus providing adequate food again. We had no provisions for cooking so the art of making stoves from tin cans began In earnest. Some were simple and others very elaborate with wheels that turned by a handle to force air through the fire to increase the heat and help when burning green or wet wood. Bruce and made a simple one with two tin cans with the fire in the bottom one. It was a good enough setup for the little we cooked. The open areas between the barracks were filled with those little stoves at mealtimes. We were getting German ersatz coffee which was bitter and resembled coffee only by its color. We drank it because we needed something hot. There were also all kinds of cigarettes in camp when American cigarettes were not available. I tried some of the Turkish cigarettes and they were so strong it would knock your socks off. British and Italian cigarettes were also quite plentiful so I had plenty as I didn't smoke much.

We were only thirty miles from the concentration camp at Dachau, but we knew nothing about it at this time. After we had been here two weeks we began to hear the big guns to the west of us and knew that the American front was-getting closer and that we would soon be free.

The rumors began again that we might be moved again to the east, but the Germans must have realized that there were too many of us to move and that the war would soon be over anyway. To the west of us was a hill with trees on the top and open fields on the slopes facing us.

We began watching those fields waiting for the American troops to come. On Sunday morning April 29 the guns were a lot closer and we were very excited. The German guards had about all disappeared so we knew it wouldn't be long.

We were watching the top of the hill and saw the little L4 spotter planes flying low and directing the artillery fire. Bullets from rifle fire began hitting the camp and next to my bunk one guy was sitting against the center tent pole writing a letter when a bullet hit the tent pole and dropped into his lap. He put the bullet in his pocket and we headed for the trenches which were about six feet deep and ran throughout the camp. We looked up at the hill and the tanks were just coming out of the woods toward us. In my trench there were several British prisoners and of all things, at a time like this they had their 1ittle stove and were making their morning tea. Nothing could stop them from doing that.

Someone came running across the open s.p.a.ce and jumped in the trench yelling 'Mail Call". I had a letter and when I opened it, there in the trench, I found it was from Eastman Kodak Company telling me that a Job was waiting for me although not the job I had 1eft. They sent greetings and hoped I would soon return. I can't imagine how they knew where I was and what an odd time to receive that letter, with the bullets flying all around.

Chapter 12 Liberated

The rifle fire soon ceased and we were all running around the camp excited and yelling. It was just eight days less than a year that I had been held prisoner and, as happy as I was, you can imagine the feelings of the men who had been held for two or three years. We saw a tank coming down the road into camp, ran to the main gate, broke it down and rushed out to meet them. So many of us climbed all over the tank that you couldn't even see the metal. The soldiers in the tank threw out whatever food and cigarettes they had to us. The second tank rolled into camp and General George Patton, with his two pearl handled revolvers, was riding on the top of it. He was one general who was right at the front with his men. Our cheers of celebration were just deafening as hundreds of us poured out of camp and ran around the countryside, thrilled to be free. Before long guys returned to camp with horses and wagons, buggies and anything else they could find.

I understood that some men packed up their belongings and started west toward France as they couldn't wait any longer. They traveled west by catching rides on the supply line vehicles. Most of us, however, stayed in camp as we had been told we would be transported out in a couple of days. When the day came to depart I left the heavy overcoat and took only what I needed. I took the baseball suit and the Royal Air Force blanket along with me, but somewhere near this time I must have discarded the long orange sweater that had served me so well during the cold of winter. We marched out of camp a couple of miles to a large flat gra.s.sy field where DC-6 planes were going to fly us to France. It was a nice warm spring day and we had to wait a couple of hours for the planes so we spread out our blankets on the gra.s.s and sat down to chat. It was a special time because we were just beginning to realize that all the friends we had made would soon be separated from us, never to be seen again.

The planes finally came and when it was time for me to board I had to make a big decision. I stood there looking at that nice blue air force blanket laying on the ground. It was so heavy and I didn't know whether or not I could carry it all the way home or not. At the last minute I decided to leave it there on the gra.s.s. I have always regretted leaving it and bringing the baseball suit instead. Bruce and I got onto the same plane and flew to a place along the French coast. Along the way we flew over Paris and I at least had a chance to see it from the air. We were put in an area with barracks known as Stage 1 and were told to stay in that area only. Bruce and I found beds together, left our gear and walked down to the mess hall. We each got one of the cheese sandwiches they were pa.s.sing out and they were really something. They were two slices of white bread each two Inches thick with a one inch inch thick slice of cheese in between.

The bread tasted like angel food cake to us after all that hard black German bread; it was unbelievable how much flavor there was in white bread. We were to eat in this area only for the first day, as, due to our weakened condition, our diet and amount was to be limited. The second day, in Stage 2, we went to a different, mess hall and on the third day to Stage 3. Each day we received more food. As there were no fences between these areas some guys would go to all three mess halls for the same meal. The man named Irons (who had won the mustache contest back in Sagan and still wore the mustache here in France) was in the bunk next to me and at night we heard him moving around at all hours. We later discovered that he had a helmet full of food and was eating all night. Some of the guys got sick from eating too much and there was a rumor of one man dying from eating too many candy bars.

It was almost Mother's Day and each man was allowed to send a Mother's Day greeting telegram home. I sent one to my stepmother so everyone at home would know that I was okay and heading home. After three days here we were taken by truck through the city of LeHarve, France through narrow streets with the French people waving along the way. When we arrived at the harbor a liberty s.h.i.+p was waiting for us.

After coming over on such a huge s.h.i.+p, this one looked like a rowboat and we weren't too excited about crossing the Atlantic on anything so small. We got on board and were surprised that there were so few of us, about 200, and that we were not at all crowded. the bunks were hammocks put up below decks and I was in the bow. We sailed across the English Channel on water as smooth as could be and enjoyed this part of the trip. When I was out on deck I stayed in the middle as the s.h.i.+p was so narrow you could stand in the middle and see over both sides. We sailed to Southampton, England where we joined a large convoy heading home.

Being an American s.h.i.+p, the food was wonderful and I had no seasickness to spoil my appet.i.te. The meal just alternated between steak, chicken and turkey. After each meal we took oranges, apples, or bananas up on deck and ate them while laying in the suns.h.i.+ne.

Although there were only about 200 of us, one meal we ate 75 jars of peanut b.u.t.ter. The seas were quite calm the first few days out, so we spent most of the time on deck to avoid the dark and unpleasant below decks area. There were s.h.i.+ps all around us and I could count twenty plus destroyers for escort as there were still German subs operating.

At about the middle of the Atlantic we ran into very stormy weather with high seas. When you were an deck it sometimes looked as though our s.h.i.+p was alone and the other s.h.i.+ps would come up from behind the swells only to disappear again. While laying in the hammocks trying to sleep at night we would hang on to keep from falling out. The bow, where I was, would come way up out of the water, shudder quite violently, then fall to hit the water hard. The force was so hard that it gradually broke all the light bulbs in the ceiling. This weather was probably normal for the Navy, but airmen were not used to it and worried about what might happen. After a few days like this the weather improved for the remainder of the trip home.

When we emerged from the storm there were only about one third of the s.h.i.+ps left in the convoy and we wondered what had happened to all the rest. We later learned that they had turned off for other ports. The guys from the South were heading for southern ports and those of us from the Northeast were going to New Jersey ports. As we neared the U.S. the seas were much calmer and for a couple of days we enjoyed sitting on deck and watching the porpoises swim around the s.h.i.+p. We landed in New Jersey and were taken to Camp Dix from which we had departed a year and a half before. It was late May and we were looking forward to being home by Memorial Day.

Chapter 13 Home Again

When we arrived at Camp Dix the first thing we did was go single file through a room for a medical checkup. A doctor was standing there and asked "how do you feel?" I said 'Okay' and he said "Next". That was the extent of the medical checkup we got and of course no one complained about anything because all they wanted to do was to get home again. We were afraid that if we told of any problems they would put us in the hospital and keep us for weeks. We didn't want that to happen......even John Brady with the ruptured appendix went through the line quickly.

The next step was to go into a room where a sergeant made out our income tax and gave us some of our back pay so we had money to get home. They took out 188.00 to pay the income tax on my salary for the year I was in prison camp. I don't know how they had the nerve to do that after what we had been through. They talk about how badly the Vietnam veterans were treated when they came back, but I think what happened to us was just as bad. We didn't have any crowds to meet our s.h.i.+p or parades to welcome us back either. We later discovered that we should have insisted on more medical help and reported our health problems so they would have been in our medical records. A few years later when I needed treatment for my back, there was no way to prove that it was service connected. When I did try a few years later to get some compensation at Buffalo and Rochester VA centers for stomach and back problems all I got was a runaround.

I sent a telegram to my wife and told her I would let her know when to come to Rochester, then I sent a message to my father to tell him of my return to the country. I went to the PX one day and drank a half gla.s.s of beer. I discovered I wasn't in very good shape yet and had to go back to my bunk to lie down for several hours to recuperate from the drink. After all I had been through I weighed 124 lbs. only two pounds less than when I entered the service, however. I had at least a half dozen Army blankets and I mailed two of them home and later wished I had mailed a lot more as they were nice blankets and I sti11 have one.

When it came time to find out where we were going next we lined up in front, of the desk of an officer who was giving out papers to report to a large recreation club in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

It was one of those fancy places with tennis, golf, swimming and horseback riding for two weeks of rest and relaxation. The line got shorter and the man ahead of me got his papers. It was my turn at last. The officer stood up, announced that the resort was filled up and the rest of us were to go home for two weeks then report to Atlantic City for rea.s.signment or discharge. I was so disappointed as this would have been such a nice honeymoon for Lettie and I. Another example of how things worked for me in the service.

We made preparations to go home and soon it was time to say good-by to Bruce. It was a very hard thing to do after the two years we had spent together and all that we had been through. We agreed to write often and get together when we could.

I met another man, Jim Smith, the nephew of Ray Smith who worked in the Canandaigua post office and we decided to come home together. He lived in Newark and I decided to take the train there with him. We were none too neat traveling on the train as we were still wearing our old dirty uniforms from prison camp. At Newark I took a bus to Canandaigua as I had not notified anyone that I was coming. I wanted to make it a surprise so I got off the bus at Main Street and didn't even take a taxi home. I had all, my belongings in a bag which I threw over my shoulder as I walked home up Chapin Street. I didn't even see anyone I knew along way home. When my father got home from work I was in the bathroom shaving and I walked out and said 'h.e.l.lo'.

Two days later Lettie arrived in Rochester and I borrowed my father's car to go pick her up. We stayed with my father several days and then decided we would leave as it was difficult to get along with my stepmother. We rented a room at Lowes Tavern on South Main Street which was a combination tourist home with room and board. We spent the next two months at different places like Niagara Falls, Hill c.u.morah and around the lake. We were entertained at dinner parties by all the friends I had before entering the service. I bought a used Chevrolet coupe with the back pay that I received so we had transportation.

During these first few weeks at home I began to realize what three and a half years in service had cost me in terms of my position in life. Here I was at 29 with no job, a little money and a car. All the friends who had escaped being drafted, some legally and some not, had really prospered. Most had made a lot of money working in defense jobs, had new cars and homes of their own. After giving up three and a half years of your life for your country, the reasons others didn't go and their prosperity was always on one's mind. I wouldn't have done it any other way, however, as the good times had in the service far outweighed the bad and those memories will always be with me. I was lucky to have had the chance to fly those airplanes and make so many wonderful friends not to mention the exciting experiences.