HEADING SOUTH, HEADING HOME

Shortly afterwards the division started to move south towards the Danube River where we were to perform occupation duties until we started for home. The division had already lost some men who for various reasons had earned enough points to go home. The first officer to go was Major James LaNasa. He had joined the Army before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, at a time when medical men (doctors) were asked to serve one year and then be released. Jim finished medical school and joined and hoped to complete his year of service before the U.S. got involved in the war. He wasn’t that lucky, and had to stay in until the war ended, but he built up enough points for all his service to be able to be the first of our officers to leave for home.

Before we left for the south of Germany I managed to get a leave to visit the French Riviera. Joe Forejt and I had hoped to go together, but the only time I could get to go, Joe was away at an x-ray school that I had heard about and managed to arrange for him before any of the other officers heard about it. So I went alone and all I can say is that it was good to be away from the “Army” for a week. I flew from Munich over the Alps, saw Mt. Blanc, spent a week taking a few tours that were available, mostly up into wine country, and got to see Monaco from a distance, as it was off limits to the soldiers. Odie has remarked about women, there may have been a couple of hundred, but there were thousands of G.I.’s! But I did get a glimpse of some gals changing into a bathing suit- skimpy, too- beneath a towel, from a distance of more than 50 yards!

Shortly after the war ended, the medical battalion set up a “camp” in a wooded area near the town we were in (can’t remember the name) for GI’s who were “suffering” from syphilis and/or gonorrhea. We only did this for a few weeks until we moved again. One incident stands out in my memory- one of our patients went “AWOL” but was back again in a week or so with a more severe case, admittedly from a relationship with the same gal!

I also recall while in the town of Arnstadt, our headquarters was in the large home of a German doctor. Some of my clerks went rummaging through the house and returned with a gift for me- a full carton of Portuguese sardines! They were more than happy when I returned it- I didn’t like sardines!

On September 3rd I replaced Capt. Gil Christopher as the Supply Officer. He had enough points to go home and had been in the Army for a long time before the war. I was replaced by Lt. Lee McCrocklin from New Orleans. He had been drafted while in college.

Shortly thereafter with a small group I visited Hitler’s refuge at Berchtesgarten in the Alps not far from Salzburg, Austria. This was one of Hitler’s vacation spots, high in the Alps, with a spectacular view. I have a picture taken at that window.

Within a couple of weeks I was transferred to the 304th Station Hospital from when we were near Bayreuth, a small city on the Danube not far from Passau. Before I moved I crossed the river and took a picture of the town. Many years later, Paul in his travels met up with a friend [of his] from the area who took him to area from where I had taken the picture!

The 304th Station Hospital was located in Deggendorf just north of the Austrian border in the shadow of the Alps. I was assigned the duties of assistant adjutant, replacing an officer who had gone home. The hospital had been a winter training camp for skiers. I had heard of such troops but had never seen any during the winter we were in Germany.

But it was here that I was involved in another incident. Besides the hospital there was a U.S. regiment of colored soldiers used as an engineer unit, or in other words, workmen! I had been appointed Officer of the Day on a Friday. Every Friday night there was a movie shown at a small theatre at a short distance away in town. I received orders from the Commanding Officer (whose name I don’t recall), to check every soldier returning from the movie for appearance, especially telling me that to be sure that all neckties were properly worn. I spoke to another officer [who] told me that the theatre was a “hot house” and most of the soldiers either loosened or removed their ties before the movie ended. Since the movie ended after 10 PM many never bothered to tie them properly on the way back to camp.

I was at the gate early as many of them were on their way to the theatre. I stopped a sergeant and told him about my orders and suggested that at the theatre he pass the word along that I would be at the gate checking on them and would report all who were not properly dressed. When the movie ended, everyone coming through the gate was properly “neck tied.” They all saluted me and a few thanked me! The C.O.’s office was in the corner of a building near the gate. The next day another officer told me that the C.O. was in the dark watching the incident. He never spoke to me, and within a short period of time I was on my way to my next stop- the 250th Station Hospital in Regensburg, Germany, on the Danube.

I assumed the duties of registrar, and as an additional duty I supervised a German cleanup crew. I had a young German girl who spoke fairly good English and all my orders were actually carried out by her. Within a few days after I arrived I met her in a hallway talking to a colored soldier. She later asked me about American Indians and admitted that she liked the guy. I checked his records- he was no Indian!

I was at the 250th for a little over two months when I was transferred to the 30th Field Hospital, a “paper” unit used for officers returning to the U.S. On January 29th, 1946, I arrived at Camp Phillip Morris at Le Havre France. One of the first persons I met was Bernie Margolis, who I had first met at Camp Barkley in Texas at OCS. He was from Providence and went with me to the 102nd Division, and he spent his time in Co. D throughout the war. On February 3rd, we set sail on a Liberty ship, arriving at Camp Kilmer, NJ on February 16th, going through a hurricane, taking 13 days to do a trip that should not have lasted a week! Sick as a dog!

Two days later I arrived at Fort Devens. Odie and Sam Pires were there to drive me HOME- February 19th, 1946.

COLONEL EATON OUT, COLONEL FRAMSTER IN

I recall that sometime before Col. Eaton left, he had told me to write up requests for Bronze Stars for the officers in our headquarters. I did so and the next day I completed them and put them on the Colonel’s desk, as he was out. Later he returned and after starting to look them over he called me into his office and asked me for the one that was missing- mine. I told him that I had written his, and that if he felt I deserved one then to write it [himself.] He started to curse me then ordered me to return to my desk. Eventually I also received a Bronze Star, which he wrote!

It was a few weeks later when a Lt. Colonel Felix Framster came into our headquarters and I asked him if there was anything I could do for him. He said, “Don’t you know who I am?” Then he showed me a copy of an order that appointed him Commanding Officer of our Battalion. The same order had a second line- Lt. Colonel was being transferred to an Army hospital. The order was dated a few days earlier than when this when this all occurred, but we had not received a copy, which was unusual.

Col. Framster asked me if I could have someone take him to Co. D’s kitchen, as it was mid-afternoon and he hadn’t had lunch. I had someone take him to Co. D and sent another to find Col. Eaton who was somewhere in the area. When Eaton came in, I took him into his office, his former office, and then showed him the order. After reading it, he started to cry and after a few moments he told me why. He was being transferred as executive officer of a hospital whose Commanding Officer was a man who he knew from past experience, that he was not liked by him, and that he could expect a lot of trouble. He finally recovered. He waited until Col. Framster returned and I left them to talk for a while. Then Eaton left to pack and get ready to leave the next morning.

Col. Framster really took charge, unlike Col. Eaton who used to allow us to do whatever we thought was best on many occasions. Framster kept a close observation on all that happened and actually there were no problems, all of us in headquarters performed our jobs satisfactorily, regardless of who the Commander was.

Just before the war ended, on one of our moves, we passed a sign indicating [it was] the hospital that Col. Eaton had been transferred to. After we got settled, I asked Col. Framster for permission to visit Col. Eaton, which he okayed. Col. Eaton’s hospital had taken over a big German hospital. At the front door I asked for directions to the office of the executive officer, “left on the 2nd floor”, with signs nailed to the door frames. The last door on the left was for the “Executive Officer.” As I turned in I heard a voice from across the hall- “MACE!” It was Col. Eaton sitting at a desk, the sign on the door said “Comm. O.” He told me that a few weeks after he joined the hospital, the C.O. had fallen, broken a leg and had been returned to the States, and he had been appointed C.O.! What luck!

A few weeks later Col. Eaton showed up at our headquarters and asked me to get Joe Forejt, Gil Christopher (our supply officer) and then offered the three of us positions at the hospital with promises of promotions. We all turned him down when he said that we would have to remain in Germany [as] the hospital was to be retained for occupation duty.

THE GERMANS SURRENDER

On May 8th the Germans surrendered, while we were at the Elbe River. Daily we could see the German soldiers crossing the river fleeing from the Russians and surrendering to our troops. A bridge at Stendhal which had been blown up by the Germans while fleeing from our troops was partially rebuilt, but many came by makeshift boats, and some swimming. They were ordered to leave all weapons on the other side, why I could not understand, and I saw a pyramid of guns more than 20 feet tall, and for days the road from the bridge was an unbroken line of Germans being led to a collecting point to our rear.

An agreement of the Allied leaders gave most of northern Germany to the English troops for occupation, and slowly the American units began to move to the south. Since we were nearest to the English troops, our division was the last to start for the south.

But one other went before our move. Col. Eaton had received a call from an old friend, a doctor in a hospital to our rear and had been invited to attend a party they were having to celebrate the end of fighting. This wasn’t the first time he had received such invitations and usually took off for two or three days to attend. He had discovered that a man in one of our companies had been a piano player in a New York night club, and for these trips he would have the man drive his Jeep and be useful at the party. The afternoon after he left, I received a call from division headquarters from Col. Chaille that the Commanding General was to visit the Medical Battalion on an inspection the next day. Since the Colonel was away, I mentioned to Major LaNasa that as ranking officer he would have to greet the General. He said, “Not me!” so I looked at our two Captains, who both refused. That left me, a 1st Lieutenant!

When the General arrived with his entourage of officers from division HQ, I went out and saluted, then welcomed the General to the Medical Battalion. The General returned my salute, and then asked me if I was the ranking officer present. At the time our three collecting companies were spread out over an area of almost 100 miles, (the war was not officially over, but our troops were through fighting.) The General asked for Col. Eaton. I replied that he had left for a visit to the collecting companies before we knew of the General’s visit and [that] we had not been able to contact him. Col. Chaille, standing next to the General, looked at me with a face that clearly said, “Liar!” The General told me to send out the ranking officer. I saluted and went inside our office and told LaNasa that the General had requested his presence, and I think he was ready to crap his pants! The General didn’t stay long, and I believe Jim wanted to go somewhere and rest!

PAST THE RHINE AND TO THE ELBE RIVER, GERMAN ATROCITIES

The Germans had not been able to blow up the Rhine bridges so much that they couldn’t be used. Repairs were made and the Rhine was crossed the first week of April 1945. In about 10 days we reached the Elbe River, which was as far as the Allied troops had agreed to go according to the agreement of the Allied leaders. We were less than 50 miles from Berlin and felt that we could have reached Berlin before the Russians, but most of all, the Russians wanted to take Berlin to pay the Germans back for what they had done when in the early part of the war they went into Russia and killed thousands of civilians and ruined the city of Stalingrad.

So we sat back and waited. On April 15th, the day after we reached the Elbe, some troops of our 405th Regiment came upon a barn in Gardelegen still afire and with smoldering bodies of 1016 Poles, French, Dutch, Belgian and one American. Three escaped alive. I visited the area the next day while the bodies were being removed by the people of the town and being buried in a large, common grave. A sign was put up by our troops, and I believe that it is still there to this day. I mention this because there are still people to this day do not believe the Germans committed the atrocities that they were alleged to have committed.

More graphic photos here

On our way across Germany we came across a Prisoner of War Camp in Dachau [more graphic photos.] I do recall that I stopped there and went in and saw the ovens, still with some bones of PoW’s that had been cremated.

ON TO THE RHINE RIVER

After crossing the Roer River it became evident that the final battles would be at the Rhine. The Russians were beginning to move through Poland and into Germany. We wondered why they wouldn’t surrender, but I guess Hitler always felt the German soldiers were the most superior. But in my opinion I always felt that although they were great fighters, they didn’t have the ability to make decisions, that they could only follow orders, while the American was as good a fighter but was able to adapt himself to many occasions by thinking of ways to survive. As a result the German soldier didn’t always know what to do if things weren’t going the way they had been trained to fight.

As we approached the Rhine we were stationed in a Catholic Hospital, the Holy Trinity Hospital operated by nuns in Krefeld. Most of the patients had been taken away except those that were so serious that they couldn’t be moved. These [patients] were placed in a wing of the hospital and we used the facilities near the highway. The mother superior spoke a little English and while we were there she used to come to see me and kept asking if we were going to pay for using the hospital. I told her we had no means of paying, but suggested that she wait until occupational troops arrived and speak to them. She thanked me, although I’m sure I know what the answer would have been. But she was a charmer. I know she got our cook to give her some food for her patients during our stay there.

 

A~ Palenberg

B~ Krefeld

One day while there a couple of nurses from the MASH unit that had been with us at the Roer crossing paid us a visit; they were in another part of the city. One of them asked to use a bathroom and later she told us she was combing her hair in front of a mirror, when the chaplain came in with his hand already on the fly of his pants when he realized it was a woman. She almost fainted from shock!

Another incident that hit the Army newspaper during our stay in Krefeld- One of our company ambulance drivers got drunk one night and took off in his ambulance for the bridge that had already been blown up by the Germans. He wound up in the water practically unhurt, but the Army Times had a great headline, “Medical Battalion Spearheading the Attack on the Rhine!” Our 327th!

Mickey

This is David writing this post, not my father.

In an earlier post, he wrote that when he came back from Europe in WWII, everyone had started calling his older brother 'Mickey', and he didn't know why. He had been called 'Junior' when he left for Europe. The reason he had become known as 'Mickey' was "that during the war a song named "Mickey" had become quite popular and he began to sing and whistle the song so much that everyone started to call him "Mickey.""

I am not sure that this is that song, but it is the only one I could find that came close:

David Maciel, 11.07.10, Bristol, RI