Teaching History Matters

I received this press release and am passing it on with  notes and the interview I conducted 14 years ago with one of the panel members.

As part of an intergenerational project focused on collecting oral histories of local elders, a panel of World War II veterans from the local community will speak  on Wednesday, April 25^th from 6:30-8:00 p.m. in Gannett Auditorium in Palamountain Hall at Skidmore College. One veteran is a POW from the infamous Stalag Luft III, the setting of the movie, The Great Escape.

Panel members will include:

Earl Morrow, Hartford, NY. Army Air Corps. B-17 pilot, shot down over Germany and held a POW for nine months.
Jack Springer, Kingsbury, NY. US Navy, South Pacific
Bob Addison, Glens Falls, NY. USMC, Guadalcanal etc Edson’s Raiders
Gerry West, Fort Edward, NY. USMC, Guadalcanal etc Edson’s Raiders

The following interview was conducted by Matthew Rozell and recorded before a classroom full of students on October 22, 1998.

Matthew Rozell: Our guest today is Mr. Earl Morrow. Mr. Morrow, can you tell us how old you are?

Earl Morrow: Seventy-seven.

 Fifty-four years next month,  Mr. Morrow was a captain of a B-17 Flying Fortress during WWII. He was the commander of the aircraft that had nine crew members on it. His mission was to fly over Nazi-Germany, daylight missions, and basically drop bombs to try and reduce the enemies’ capacity to wage war. He is here to tell us a little bit about his experiences. About fifty four years ago next month,  on his seventeenth combat mission over enemy territory, Mr. Morrow and his crew went down. They were shot down by German flak and German aircraft and he was taken prisoner. He remained prisoner  until the Allies under General George Patton came through and liberated him. He actually got to see General Patton. So he is here to tell us a little bit about his story, and to remind us that even though it was fifty-four years ago and that it seems like an eternity to us, it’s not for him. And we have to remember what his generation did, because it could happen again.

Mr. Morrow, you said you flew in 17 combat missions.  Did you find that many of them, obviously from what we heard, the hardest part was the return trip?

It varied depending on where you were going. We lost one engine just due to mechanical failure one time going in, which caused us to slow down and we were pulling full power on the other three all the way in. That’s when they really worked to stay in formation. When you are sending up a thousand airplanes a day on a single target, if you are on the outside of a formation and you’re making a left turn, you are going to have full power just to stay in. On the other hand, if they are going the other way you are on the inside, then you are going to be stalling out. So when you really haven’t got your full power, then you’ve really got problems. We only saw fighters three times in the 17 missions, and all three times they were on us after we had hit the target.

I have a photograph here, maybe I can get Mr. Morrow to explain who’s in it. This is a photograph of Mr. Morrow and his crew. He had 9 men in his crew. I asked Mr. Morrow to list the ages of the crewmembers. In the front row kneeling you had the officers.

(Pointing) This one was me, the captain of the airplane. (Pointing at another) Co-captain, he was an older gentleman, he was so old, he was 27, we called him “Pa”.

 How old were you?

I was 22. This is the navigator.

When we take off we have to get in to formation. He had all the maps and everything. And if something happened, to lead the formation, it was his job to get us back. It did happen a couple of times, and he got us back in good shape. This is the bombardier; he’s just a month older than I am. This gentleman over here was just a little older than the rest of us. He stayed in the service and he was a top turret gunner. He retired in ’72 as a brigadier general. When we were flying, he was a sergeant.

This was our radio operator; he was killed in action the day we were shot down. This is the waist gunner; he was also killed the day we were shot down. Robert Carter was a ball turret operator, which is the worst position you can be in on the aircraft. You are down underneath, you can’t even see it on here (pointing to a model airplane).  I got in it once and the sergeant put his foot on my back and shoved me in. You can’t see the airplane, all you got is your two guns down there and you can turn that thing up, down, all around, but it has stops on it where you can’t shoot your own airplane. That’s the worst place to be in. He (Carter) also was killed in action that day.

(Pointing again at photograph of crew) This gentleman didn’t go with us that day because they took the gun in the radio room out. They took it out and they decided it wasn’t of much value, which it wasn’t, and the operator would go back and work on the waist guns, so we would leave one man home.

This one was a tail gunner, and he survived.

 Your waist gunner, Joe Calerno, who was killed in action on the second of November, 1944, the day you were shot down. He’s not real tall in this picture and that’s because, how old was he?

He was 18. He went in the service, kind of told a fib about his age because they wouldn’t take anybody under 18.

So that’s his crew and I’ll pass that around. I have another photograph of Mr. Morrow standing next to his airplane. Now did you fly the same throughout all 17 missions?

I had one airplane-we only flew it three times. The rest of the time they were putting it back together from battle damages and so forth.

Here is one of the landings you had to make when the landing craft was shot off.

The landing gear collapsed there due to the drag link on the gear, and it had been about three-quarters shot off when the weight of the airplane settled down and the left gear just collapsed, and we made a 180 degree turn. We were almost stopped anyway, so we didn’t do any damage other than the props.

 They were pretty twisted up. Can you, and I’m sure you can, think of a lot of particular instances that really stand out in your mind when you were captain of the ship? You had so many men dependent on you. You all had a job to do. What was it like to, well what kind of relationship did you have with your crew?

I think I had the best crew that was over there. We all had nicknames for each other. I told the guys right off the start. There were four of us that were officers, commission officers, and the rest of them were non-commission officers, but they were the highest ranked sergeants you could have. I told them right at the beginning, ‘I don’t want any one of you to ever salute me, unless there’s somebody standing over there that expects you to, then do it.’ We were all in this small machine, well it’s a big machine but you crowd nine men in it, it’s small then. When you’re going over there and they’re shooting at you in a small space, you better know who your buddies are and I know I could depend on anybody in that crew. It took a while for the men to get faith in me, because we were the ones to get that airplane off the ground and get it back on the ground. We got shot up, keep it in the air as long as we could and get it back and we made landing before we got overseas. That’s probably the best thing that’s happened to the crew. We made landing on a dark night, we had a real problem and were afraid the thing might catch on fire, we made landing in almost a cow pasture where they had two flares on one end of the field and two flares on the other end of the field. We got the thing in there at night and the next day they sent somebody up with equipment to fix the airplane. They stripped down the airplane, they made three passes at daylight before they got in. So the crew had decided I was a pretty good pilot. The proof I got later on was on a forced march. My bombardier had complete amnesia and I was taking care of him and keeping him going.

This was after you were shot down?

Yes, at the P.O.W. camp, and he finally looked at me and he said, “I know who you are. You’re the best damn pilot in the world.” I kid him even today. You had to get him knocked out completely with amnesia before he would admit it. The truth comes out then. But every man in the crew did his job and did it well.

Technically, when you were off duty, you weren’t supposed to fraternize with them.

Once we were over seas and not at base you could just do about what they wanted. As a matter of fact, I had a bicycle, and I could never find my bicycle because some of the enlisted men, they didn’t give them bicycles, our bicycles were always gone. We would fraternize with them, we’d go to town, we’d do it a lot and you’d go together.

So, to get to know each other was really important. Mr. Morrow also brought in some of the citations in the wars that he got, and not every veteran gets these medals. When did you get this medal?

1990.

Can you describe this medal for us?

That’s a POW medal, it shows the eagle, but all around it is barbed wire so he can’t fly.

(to students) And this of course is perhaps one you’ve seen before.

That’s a Purple Heart, issued to people who were killed in action or wounded in action. I got it just a year ago, the reason for that was we had no medical records and Congress finally passed the law that all POWs could apply for it and they would determine that you were probably wounded in action. You would get it so I got it last fall, it was 54 years later…And then when I applied for it I got a letter back from the air force asking me to be patient.

I have an account of the last mission Mr. Morrow flew. What did your crew call you?

Shad.

I had gotten married just before the crew got together, and they said I kind of got skinny and so you could hardly see my shadow I was so skinny, so they called me “Shad”. That was the name of our airplane. The crew did all, I let them name it.

I’m going to read this account and then maybe we can talk about your experiences when you were in captivity.

(Mr. Rozell begins to read) ” It was early in the morning on November 2^nd 1944 that we were awakened and informed that we were going on a bombing mission. We got dressed and ready for breakfast in the mess hall. It was a cold and rainy morning and we got fresh eggs for breakfast. No one was talking much, it seemed that everyone was buried in their own thoughts. After breakfast we went to the briefing room and got the bad news. We were going all the way into E. Germany (pointing to E. Germany) to bomb a synthetic oil refinery in Mersburg. We knew that the Germans would have put up all they had, as they were short on their oil supply.

We had 16 missions and we had seen enemy fighters only 3 to possibly four times. It was assumed that they were short of fuel. We went out to our airplanes and started our routine of checking everything. My top turret gunner advised me that everything had checked O.K. and added that he just put several hundred rounds of ammunition in his guns, he said we might need the extra today! My radio operator informed me that he had lost his dog tags. I told him that we would have to wait until after we were back from the mission and I would go with him to get a new set.

 Shortly we were in our airplane and taxiing out for takeoff and soon we were joining our group and heading out over the English Channel and climbing to our altitude of 28,000 feet, over 5 miles. It was a long flight all the way into E. Germany and most all the flight was over enemy territory. Everyone had to stay alert for enemy aircraft. We finally arrived in the vicinity of our target and we started the bomb run. (MR to EM): What was the bomb run about?

They gave you an initial point and from there on everything was straight and level right in. You take no evasive action and its about five miles. You go straight in to the target, drop your bombs and after that, the group can take evasive action. From the initial point in, you just sit there and fly straight and level no matter who’s out there or what.

MR(back to account): There was a lot of heavy and accurate flak and we had several flak hits, but there was no severe damage to our aircraft. We dropped our bombs on target and started home. My navigator advised me that our group was not following the proper course and were fast becoming quite a distance from the whole formation. (MR to EM): So the formation, how many planes about were on that?

About a thousand, and our group of thirty-six, were off on another course.

(Back to the account): I ordered my radio operator to call the lead ship and advise them. We got a message back to maintain radio silence. About this time my top turret gunner, sighted a dog fight at six o’clock high. That means our fighters were engaging theirs behind and above us. I ordered everyone to be alert as this meant we were about to be attacked by enemy fighters. As we suspected, their fighters drew our escort into a fight and another German group hit us. They would come in behind us, drop their flaps, slow up and began pumping 20mm cannon shells into us at close range. Up front where I was, we never saw a fighter as they would roll and dive down behind us. We however could hear and feel cannon shells hitting our plane. I was advised that my vertical stabilizer…..

The end rudder was shot off just above the tail gunner’s head. They were coming in at about fifteen at a time. The second wave hit us in our left wing and knocked ten to twelve feet off the wing.

I just saw a crease go up the wing, an explosion, and then the whole thing fell off.

The third wing seemed to miss us. I was still flying in formation, but I was thinking, “If we make it out of this one, will I be able to fly this Fortress back and land it with so much damage?” My thoughts were interrupted with two cannon shells exploding in the cockpit, between my co-pilot, and his side of the airplane.

It set us on fire.

We were on fire and the cockpit filled up with smoke so bad. The only way I could see was with my face up against the window. My top turret gunner left his guns and was fighting the fire. We thought we had it out, when it all flared up again. We had no choice but to get out before the ship blew up. I gave the “bail out” signal and pulled my co-pilot out of his seat. I got him started down the front where the escape path was.

     We all had to go out a small trap door below the cockpit, so I had to get my co-pilot out of his seat. He was wounded real badly. I just yanked him out of his seat and we all went down under the instrument panel into the front. You just sit there with your feet hanging out and you fall out. I left my seat to follow him and then I felt the airplane climbing. I knew that if it had climbed too steep, it would haul out into a spin and no one would go out. I went back into the controls and forced the plane into a shallow fly. Then I went down and forward to get out. 

    My co-pilot was sitting in the escape path, so I put my foot in his back and shoved him out. I immediately followed. Just as I cleared the plane, she blew. All I saw was a huge flash and felt some of the concussion. I was in the clouds and got scared and knew that if I opened my chute, it would be damaged by air currents. I decided to delay opening until I broke out into the clear, which I estimated to be about ten thousand feet. I played around and found that I could keep myself face down if I kept the wind in my face. Suddenly I broke out and saw Germans all over the area. I said a few choice words of profanity and ripped my chute cord, which opened perfectly. 

    I was on the ground and almost able to stay on my feet. I was dragged over backwards but managed to get on my feet to see three women bearing down on me with pitchforks. (MR to EM): We know that three of your crewmembers didn’t make it out of the plane.

The tail gunner got out. He had an escape hatch way on the other side, on the tail section. The others were supposed to go out a door on the other side just back of the waist gun window. The tail gunner saw that the escape door was gone so apparently someone had got out the back. But he said the waist gunner, Joe Calerno, was standing there, so he motioned for him to go over and Calerno went like this, (blank stare), and the only thing we can figure is that Calerno went straight off with Kerner in the ball turret. Now I think they had a pact between them that if he’s not out of that ball turret, that’s the hardest place to get out of, you don’t go to climb out. I think Joe was waiting for Kerner to get out. I feel that we lost the man mainly because he wanted to make sure his buddy was out.

 I got on my feet to see three women bearing down on me with pitchforks. I was wearing a 45 automatic in my shoulder holster. I unstrapped the holster and had my hand on the grip but did not take it out of the holster. It stopped the women and I ran down a bank across the road and started across the field. They were coming in from all directions so I just sat down and let them come and get me. I spotted a man in uniform at a distance and tried to tell these people that I wanted to go to him, the man in uniform, but to no avail. So I started walking toward the man in uniform and was knocked down two or three times ‘till they finally escorted me to the soldier.

    We were instructed to get under military control as soon as possible. There were kids throwing stones and women spitting like pigs. The big surprise, all the little kids can talk perfect English. I knew know just how much the Germans had planned on winning the war. The soldier took me into a little town and put me with some other crewmembers. I found four of my crew, which meant my co-pilot, radio operator, waist-gunner, and ball turret gunner were all missing. There were 33 of us rounded up and we figured that we had lost 9 aircraft. That would be 81 men and there were only 33 of us. 

    We were put into what looked like a one-room schoolhouse. We had no intentions of going anywhere. Many of the 33 men were badly injured from broken bones and severe burns. It had been a very long day. Now we were really starting to think about the situation that we were in. I was concerned that our families would not know about our whereabouts or our condition. I was sure that I didn’t want to get sick, as I would have no access to a doctor or medicine. A couple of days later, my co-pilot was brought in to where we were. He was very badly wounded but only lost a small amount of blood as he opened his chute immediately after jumping from the aircraft. His bleeding froze and coagulated in the lower altitude. (It was 60 degrees below zero when we bailed out.) 

    We were moved out a few days later and sent by train to Frankfort where we spent about five days being interrogated. We were separated and the officers were sent to one of the prisoners of war camps south of south east of Berlin and the non-commissioned officers were sent to another camp. Life was not easy, we were always cold, bored, hungry and very anxious about our future. Hitler even gave the order that all air crewmembers were to be killed, but someone failed to carry out the order, which we were very grateful for. We were moved twice to different camps and General Patton and his troops finally liberated us. (MR to EM): So that was in November of 1944. Do you remember the day you were liberated?

The first of May.

The first of May, 1945. The German High Command formally surrendered one week later. Can you tell us where you were when that came through?

We were down in the Bavaria, a little town in Brunswick, near Munich. We were pretty close to Switzerland. As a matter of fact, a Red Cross truck was getting to us then out of Switzerland. My co-pilot, we picked him up in Nuremberg and then when they started marching us out of there they never took that flak out of him, a piece of it moved and paralyzed him. They put him in a Red Cross truck and drove him over to Switzerland then they flew him out to England. So he survived.

You were telling me this summer when I came to your house about the march that you were forced on.

That was in January of 1945. They started about ten thousand of us in this camp. They put us on a march because the Russians were getting close and we started out at one o’clock in the morning. As we went out the gate they threw a Red Cross package at us and they started us. We would run ten minutes, walk ten minutes…, and they kept this up. At the end of the hour they have a five-minute break and then right back into it until about five in the afternoon.

It was about thirty below zero, the worst blizzard they had in Germany. At about five in the afternoon they gave us about a half-hour break and I tried to change my socks. I had GI shoes on that were the high tops. I got my shoes off, I got my new socks on and my shoes were frozen and I couldn’t get them back on, that’s how cold it was outside.

We lost a lot of boys by that march, just falling out. They said if you fell out the Germans would run you through with a bayonet. We were guarded by German soldiers with machine guns and dogs. We finally, after about 38 hours, by the time they put us in churches in town we were cold. There was a burgermaster (who was the same as a town mayor) who had a son, I guess, who was a POW over here who opened up a pottery factory. They let us sit down in the drying factories where it was warm. He kept us there and overruled the military for about three days and kept us there.

They put us on freight cars where it was so crowded you couldn’t even sit down. We stayed on those for about three days, we were still fighting the war though. When they slowed down in the town or stopped in a town, that’s when we’d open the doors and go to the bathroom anything to desecrate their property. Even as a POW, we were still doing everything we could to upset the Germans.

On that march, we went to Nuremberg. When the American’s were getting closer they took us down into  Bavaria. It was fairly warm weather. The co-pilot was with us, he showed up in Nuremberg. He started walking and a piece of that stuff settled on him, and the Red Cross trucks were getting to us. We were getting a little bit of food from them. They took him out and a lot of us were in bad shape. I was able to buy from a German woman a chassis of a baby buggy so I had piled a couple of other guy’s stuff on that and I was pushing a baby buggy across Germany. The first day out, we were attacked by American airplanes, we peeled off our clothes and made a big POW sign in the field and from then on, we had fighter escort. No one was hurt but they fired a few shots to let us know they were there. As far as they knew we were POWs and we had fighter escorts all the rest of the way on the march.

We got down to Mersburg and it was real nice there because we were in tent and we had clean straw on the ground and at Nuremberg it was infested with rats and mice and I was covered from head to foot with bug bites. We had a doctor in there and he figured out that the food we were getting then, if we lay at bedrest we still weren’t getting enough to survive.

So living at Nuremberg, we were in really bad shape. We had a radio in there, the Germans knew it, but they could never find it. Every time they put us on the march, they asked if we were bringing the radio. We got a message in from England on the radio that General Patton would attack the town of Mersburg on Sunday at 10am. Sure enough, Sunday morning at 10am, the first tank rolled over the top of the hill and it started pouring heavy stuff into the town and it wasn’t but 30 minutes later that the American flag went up over town, a tank came down and just didn’t open the gate. It just came on through, and General Patton was right behind him standing in a pickup truck with his pearl handle pistols. I wasn’t moving around too fast , but I looked around the corner of a building and I threw him a salute and he returned it, so I got a salute out of General Patton.

He made a little speech to us, he said,” You are the best morale bunch that I have liberated up to this point.” That is because they actually parachuted a whole crew in to get a colonel in there to take over a camp. Every Saturday you stood inspection, cleanly shaved, with your pants pressed. All you had to shave was a razor blade and a glass of cold water, no soap. But if you were cleanly shaved, as a result of that Patton said we were the best morale, the best looking group that he liberated.

The Allies purposely dropped him in?

Yes, because there was general in there, and he wouldn’t fight the Germans at all, he just gave up. So they sent this colonel in, and I saw him walk up and stand in front of the Germans and tell the German general that he could go to hell. He told him one time, the Germans were ready to start shooting, and he said, “If you want to start shooting, you can start on me right now!” He stood up, he was an older gentleman, but he really made life worthwhile. You have a tendency to let yourself go, unless you have somebody making sure, discipline doesn’t hurt anybody.

Does anyone have a question? Did you see the movie “Saving Private Ryan”?

No, I haven’t yet. I heard it was the only movie made that makes the Americans come out a hero, for once.

Did you see the “remake” of the “Memphis Belle” that was supposed to be patterned off the [William Wyler] war documentary? You didn’t think highly of that film, did you?

No. It seemed like everyone on the crew had a sight problem. They were screaming and hollering on the mission…

I had a crew that, we never had that. I can remember the first time we saw a fighter, one came in close behind and the tail gunner got his thumb on the intercom -He says, ‘Come on in you..’in the movie it would be just cut off right there. But on our intercom, the real thing was, ‘Come on in, you S.O.B.’ Then you heard the 20mm go off and you heard him say, ‘I got the bastard. I sawed him right in half.’

Note. Matthew Rozell also did an extended interview at a reunion with Earl, his bombardier, and the lead navigator on the 11-2-1944 mission in July, 2001. It can be read here; sadly, the other two gentlemen have since passed on.

{67 years ago, on Friday the 13th of April, the 743rd Tank Battalion overran the train near Magdeburg, Germany. Shortly  thereafter, other attached units of the 30th Infantry Division, notably the 105th Medical Detachment and the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, also arrived at the liberation site and immediately set to work trying to handle this unexpected encounter. What will follow over the course of the next few days is the account of T4 Wilson  Rice as he reports on the disposition of the survivors and the soldiers in this combat zone. The days of the week are falling on the dates of the month for this, the 67th anniversary. This account was uncovered and transcribed by Frank Towers, Historian of the 30th Infantry Veterans of World War II and a participant in this incident, as noted many times on this website.}

 

Wednesday, 18 April 1945.

 

Today a Capt. From the 501^st Collecting Company, 82^nd Med. Bn. which is an organization of the Ninth Army, was in here.  His Unit is following up behind us and taking over the German Military Hospitals that were under our command as we have advanced.  It is a great relief to Col. Treherne that this is being done.  These hospitals have been a big responsibility.  The Americans and our Allies have been evacuated from these hospitals, and the walking Germans have been sent to PW cages.

 

As the Col. And the Capt. Were talking, Col. Treherne brought up the subject of rations.  The captain’s organization is in charge of hauling rations to the hospitals.  The Col. asked what type of rations that these hospitals were getting, and the Capt. Said “A” Rations.  This is the best ration that the Army has!  The Capt. said that he took one issue of butter for one day, and the hospital said that it was equivalent to two months of issue of their ration.  They also get the hospital supplement.  Ration “A” includes fresh meats, vegetables, butter, etc., and the supplement included fruit juices etc,

 

This burned Col. Treherne up, as our men on the front lines, patients in our Clearing Station, our own personnel and officers and men up here doing the actual stuff, were getting “K” Rations, and have been getting them for several days.  It made Col. Treherne so mad, that these Jerry prisoners were getting our best, and our men the worst, that he immediately called Col. Franklin and let him get his dander up.  The Capt. said that it made him hot under the collar and also his men.  It was hard to get his men to haul the rations.  He also said that these hospitals didn’t get all of these rations, as he would cut them down to about 25%.  As they would haul the rations, they would drop a crate of eggs at some Recon. Bn., a side of beef to some Ack-Ack outfit.  He’s doing all right.

 

Casualties to date

Division                      24,865

Civilian                                984

Enemy                           2,122

Other Units                   3,635

31,597

Tune in, Wed. April 18th, 2012
Israeli Broadcast Authority Channel One
30 minute broadcast nationwide in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day
Time 21:30
“A Train between Life and Death”

“Train to Freedom”
It was a strange and special meeting. Train made its way to Bergen-Belsen at the end of World War II and her hundreds of Jews in the systematic destruction, was arrested by American soldiers. Americans were first exposed the horrors of the Holocaust. They got the passengers and ordered the residents of the environment to deal with them and feed them.
More than 60 years after the event was a meeting between U.S. rescuers and survivors and cameras were there.

Click on the link below for the film in Hebrew with English subtitles.

http://bit.ly/18wXOS2

And below you can see what happens in this nation of 7 million on this day when the remembrance sirens sound. That evening, everything closes, and perhaps a few million viewed the film above on national television.

{67 years ago, on Friday the 13th of April, the 743rd Tank Battalion overran the train near Magdeburg, Germany. Shortly  thereafter, other attached units of the 30th Infantry Division, notably the 105th Medical Detachment and the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, also arrived at the liberation site and immediately set to work trying to handle this unexpected encounter. What will follow over the course of the next few days is the account of T4 Wilson  Rice as he reports on the disposition of the survivors and the soldiers in this combat zone. The days of the week are falling on the dates of the month for this, the 67th anniversary. This account was uncovered and transcribed by Frank Towers, Historian of the 30th Infantry Veterans of World War II and a participant in this incident, as noted many times on this website.}

The following is an extract of more detailed information that is from the 30^th Inf. Div. G-2 Report, 17 April 1945, about the concentration camp train:

CONCENTRATION CAMP TRAIN

On 8 April* (It is believed that this should have been 13-14 April, as on 8 April, as the 30th Infantry Division was still in the vicinity of Brunswick, Germany), troops of the 823^rd T-D Bn., moving into billets in the town of Farsleben, discovered that the normal population of 500 in the town, had been augmented by approximately 2,500 persons crammed onto a prison train of 45 cars, most of them freight wagons, which had been standing in the station for two days.  Conditions on the train were frightful.  It was critically overcrowded, and filthy almost beyond description, particularly in view of the lack of sanitary facilities. Nineteen persons had already been stricken with typhus and six more were already dead of the disease.  No food had been received for three days, and those who still had the strength, were almost dangerously ravenous, some swarming into the local bakery to lick up the raw flour.

The commanding officer of the 823^rd T.D. Bn immediately ordered the Burgomeister to provide food for the train’s passengers by the slaughtering of cattle and sheep, and the all night operation of the town’s two bakeries, and to provide housing by the community.  These arrangements were confirmed by the Military Government, which later moved the group to barracks in Neuhaldensleben.

Interrogation of 20 of the passengers revealed that they were Jews and some other political prisoners who had been confined in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp located near Celle, Province of Hannover.  This section of Bergen-Belsen was believed to be the only camp set up exclusively for Jews, and was termed as a stopover to Camp xxx. The prisoners were supposed to be used in exchange for German citizens through neutral countries.

The first group to come to the Camp after its formation in July 1943, was one of 2,700 men, women ands children from Poland, reportedly the only Polish Jews still alive in Axis-controlled territory, except for those hidden by friends.  Soon thereafter, other groups began arriving from German-occupied countries, including Americans, Latin Americans, Russians and citizens of other neutral countries whose foreign citizenship had previously been respected.  3,000 Jews from Westerberg, in northern Holland arrived later, and in the fall of 1944, 1,600 Hungarian Jews arrived at the Camp and were sent to Switzerland in accordance with a Hungarian-Swiss exchange agreement.  In February, 1945, a large number of prisoners from widely scattered concentration camps arrived at Bergen-Belsen, including many non-Jews. Earlier in the history of the camp, small groups of foreign prisoners were sent to regular internment camps for foreigners, and several large shipments were made from the Camp to unknown destinations.

On 7 April 1945, the entire exchange group of Jews was suddenly alerted and bundled into the train which wound up on the Farsleben siding.  The train left 8 April and was said to be bound for Theresienstadt, in the Sudetenland.  The train was halted at Farsleben because of the advances of our troops; before the guards and crew abandoned it, the prisoners were told to cross the Elbe River on foot.

The stop-over camp at Bergen-Belsen was considered privileged over the 29 other small camps sharing the same name and vicinity, because no outside work was required and because living conditions were somewhat better.  They still were bad; the barracks had three-tiered bunks, about one and one-half feet apart, and the prisoners were fed once a day, the meal consisting of a quart of soup without fat, and (originally) 350 grams (12 ½ ounces) of bread, later reduced to 200 grams.  Once a week some margarine, marmalade and sausage were distributed.  Isolation from the outside world was complete and daily roll call was held.

The other camps at Bergen-Belsen were frankly work camps, and whoever weakened or fell sick, so as to fail to repay the meager investment, was refused food – literally starved to death.  The informants stated that approximately 25,000 had been so killed between February and April of this year (1945).  The bodies were cremated in a furnace at the camp, which they stated, worked day and night.  This procedure was discontinued during the last eight days of the prisoner’s stay at the camp, because of fear the heavy smoke would attract attention from the air.

This testimony is generally supported by that of Hauptmann Schlegel, the train commander, who was denounced and apprehended in a nearby town after having abandoned the train and donned civilian clothing.  Capt. Schlegel, a 58 year old Landeschutten Officer, was reassigned in July 1944 to prepare for concentration camp duty.  He arrived at Bergen-Belsen on 20 February 1945 as an extra officer and remained until 7 April, when the train left.  On 6 April a message from Berlin directed the movement of all of the 40,000 persons then in Bergen-Belsen, with priority to the 7,000 inmates of the stop-over camp.  As an extra Officer, he was designated train commander of the first group to leave, consisting, he said of 24,000 persons.  When the train reached this vicinity, (Farsleben), he found that administration had broken down badly; he was unable to get clearance to move the train across the Elbe River towards its destination near Prague and conflicting orders from local commanders kept arriving.  Finally, convinced that U.S. troops were coming, he jettisoned his command and went into hiding.

He estimated that 15,000 persons had died at the camp during his stay there, out of a constantly changing population of about 40,000, attributing the deaths to typhus and typhoid, both of which were frequent, rather than to deliberate starvation.  He said he knew of two as doctors and a “number” of civilian doctors at the camp.  On the train, he stated, there were three civilian doctors.  Five persons died while enroute.  He believed that the 33,000 prisoners outside the stop-over camp at Bergen-Belsen, were about equally political and criminal cases.

A PW stated that the camp was run by two Officers of the Totenkopf  Verbande, SS/Hauptsturmfuhrer (Capt.) Framer and SS/Untersturmfuhrer (Lt.) Klipp.  His own attitude was one of hand-washing apathy.  He was not responsible for what went on, was just a pawn – – and if he was bothered by some of the things that went on, no one knows about it.

This is one of the many stories of the Nazi’s organized cruelty of the German model of total warfare.  Two other suspects of the case which certainly will affect the task of Military Government, which will face many of the units now devoted to fighting, were developed at Farsleben.  The first in the report by many of the prisoners, that the inhabitants of the town were very friendly when the train first stopped there – – because they expected the hourly arrival of the U.S. Troops.  Later, when our failure to arrive aroused some doubts, the populace reverted to hostility and contempt.  Our troops, when they did arrive, however, found the citizenry of Farsleben most eager to be of help to the prisoners.  The second observation was made by Military Government Officers, after the prisoners had been fed and deloused and after beds and clean bed-clothes had been set up for them in barns and other buildings. The set up looked beautiful, but only for a short time.  The personal standards of cleanliness of many members of the group were bad, and some even went so far as to defecate on the floor of their living quarters.  This rehabilitation for many of the victims of Hitler’s Europe, must mean far more than mere relocation and provision of adequate food and quarters, which itself is no great problem.  True rehabilitation must provide for even so fundamental a thing as a sense of physical decency, for a large number of those who have been treated and have lived for years as animals.

Casualties to date:                              Division                      24,778

Civilian                                        974

Enemy                           2,100

Other Units                   3,628

31,480

{67 years ago, on Friday the 13th of April, the 743rd Tank Battalion overran the train near Magdeburg, Germany. Shortly  thereafter, other attached units of the 30th Infantry Division, notably the 105th Medical Detachment and the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, also arrived at the liberation site and immediately set to work trying to handle this unexpected encounter. What will follow over the course of the next few days is the account of T4 Wilson  Rice as he reports on the disposition of the survivors and the soldiers in this combat zone. The days of the week are falling on the dates of the month for this, the 67th anniversary. This account was uncovered and transcribed by Frank Towers, Historian of the 30th Infantry Veterans of World War II and a participant in this incident, as noted many times on this website.}

Monday

16 April 1945

Dr. Julius S-, the doctor that Col Treherne put in charge of the Concentration train, was in the office this morning.  He came in for some vital medical supplies, and rode in on the back of a motorcycle.  He showed us two pictures of himself before he was taken prisoner by the Nazis six years ago.  He was a very fleshy man. This morning he stripped down to the waist.  He was nothing but skin and bones.  He would pull his skin and it would stretch out some three to four inches.  He has his wife and two children with him.  We gave him some white medical gowns, a stethoscope, medical supplies, and for himself, we gave him some soap, candy and chocolate for the children, sugar, coffee, soap, razor and blades, and other toilet articles.  We also gave him some cigarettes and pipe tobacco.  Concerning the medical supplies, when the Col. would ask him if he had enough, and he told him he could take it all, he would say, “It is too much.  All that I want is just enough”.  He was very considerate. The thing that he seemed to get the most enjoyment from was the American Medical Journal that Major Lowell gave him.  He subscribed to the Journal for fifteen years and hadn’t seen an issue for the past six years.  Dr. S- was very interested that we write to a doctor friend of his in Detroit, as the friend believed him to be dead.

{67 years ago, on Friday the 13th of April, the 743rd Tank Battalion overran the train near Magdeburg, Germany. Shortly  thereafter, other attached units of the 30th Infantry Division, notably the 105th Medical Detachment and the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, also arrived at the liberation site and immediately set to work trying to handle this unexpected encounter. What will follow over the course of the next few days is the account of T4 Wilson  Rice as he reports on the disposition of the survivors and the soldiers in this combat zone. The days of the week are falling on the dates of the month for this, the 67th anniversary. This account was uncovered and transcribed by Frank Towers, Historian of the 30th Infantry Veterans of World War II and a participant in this incident, as noted many times on this website.}

Sunday

15 April 1945

This morning we were awakened, not by the man on duty, but by Jerries strafing and our ack-ack letting go at them.  I wish they wouldn’t begin their warfare so early in the morning.  It is so annoying!

The 2^nd Armored Division and our 119^th Inf. Reg’t. has been pushed back on this side of the river.  Major Young was in the office today.  It has been a long time since we have seen him, as the 119^th has been with the 2^nd Armored since crossing the Rhine.  He said that the 3^rd Bn of the 119^th really had it rough on the other side of the Elbe River.  For example, out of one Company, there were only five men left!

The town (Farsleben), that is located with the Extermination Train was evacuated of the German civilians and turned over to the members of the train.  Capt. Fleming, of our 105^th  Engineers, found a warehouse filled with drugs, chocolate milk powder, baby food, bandages, and other medical equipment.   Another warehouse was found.   Major Huff went down to look into this one, and it contained about the same things.  Trucks were sent to these warehouses, loaded and taken to the doctors in charge of these people. It was just like manna from heaven for them.  Fifteen cases of Typhus had developed, and three other doctors were discovered among the group of prisoners- making a total number of five or six.  Dr.  S-, was put in charge, medically, by Col. Treherne.  He was born in Poland, but a citizen of Chile.  He received his degree in Poland (probably University of Warsaw).  He studied in Paris, Berlin and Vienna.   He specialized in Surgery, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Pediatrics.  Col. Treherne said that he was a very smart man and very cultured.  The doctor said that we were saviors from heaven.

Casualties to date:

Division                      24,718

Civilian                               962

Enemy                           2,099

Other Units                   3,606

31,385

{67 years ago, on Friday the 13th of April, the 743rd Tank Battalion overran the train near Magdeburg, Germany. Shortly  thereafter, other attached units of the 30th Infantry Division, notably the 105th Medical Detachment and the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, also arrived at the liberation site and immediately set to work trying to handle this unexpected encounter. What will follow over the course of the next few days is the account of T4 Wilson  Rice as he reports on the disposition of the survivors and the soldiers in this combat zone. The days of the week are falling on the dates of the month for this, the 67th anniversary. This account was uncovered and transcribed by Frank Towers, Historian of the 30th Infantry Veterans of World War II and a participant in this incident, as noted many times on this website.} On this day (Sat. 14th) 1st Lt. Towers and others were busy transporting the survivors to the abandoned Luftwaffe base at Hilersleben.

Saturday

14 April 1945

Major Rock received a letter from Major Yontef, who is now with the 195^th General Hospital.  He stated in his letter that the Americans that have been freed from the Germans, were beginning to come through his unit.  Among these men were three aid men that were captured at Mor

tain with the 2^nd Bn. Aid Station, 120^th Inf. Reg’t.  They were Harry Donnelly, Dewey Miller, and Joseph Hutten.  MajorYontef said that were suffering from malnutrition.  Major Knaus, the Regimental Surgeon of the 120^th was in the office at the time Major Rock brought in the letter.  Major Knaus said that Capt. Nash and Capt. Monahan, the Bn and Ass’t Bn. Surgeons of the 2^nd Bn., 120^th inf., who were captured with the personnel of the Aid Station at Mortain, were also recaptured.

Around noon today the Jerries shelled us from the other side of the Elbe River.  Two of  Co. “D” ’s men were hit.  One in the knee and the other in the shoulder.  A German Colonel was captured yesterday, that pul

led up the artillery of the general headquarters to the Elbe, and I guess that is what was firing on us.  Our artillery soon found them and laid the ammunition to them.

Today they brought in a wounded Jerry who was nicked in the arm.  One of the recaptured British soldiers looked up and recognized him as being one of the guards on their long march.  The Britisher said that he would make the men stand naked in the snow, and that he marched at the rear of the column, and as the men would drop out he would probe and hit them with the butt of his rifle.  The German confessed that it was true, but said that he was carrying out orders.  The Tommie said that he saw this Jerry kill two American soldiers on the march.  He was well enough to be taken to the PW cage, and the Britishers wanted to take him.  They were going to let them, but the officers changed the idea and wouldn’t let them do it.  They kept him around here, and during the day, they gave him a good working over.  “Slim” the negro driver, was in charge.  He had him out covering up a latrine with his hands.

Casualties to date:

Division                      24,686

Civilian                                957

Enemy                           2,091

Other Units                   3,588

                                                                                                31,322

{67 years ago today, on Friday the 13th of April, the 743rd Tank Battalion overran the train near Magdeburg, Germany. Shortly  thereafter, other attached units of the 30th Infantry Division, notably the 105th Medical Detachment and the 823rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, also arrived at the liberation site and immediately set to work trying to handle this unexpected encounter. What will follow over the course of the next few days is the account of T4 (Technician Fourth Grade) Wilson  Rice as he reports on the disposition of the survivors and the soldiers in this combat zone. The days of the week are falling on the dates of the month for this, the 67th anniversary. This account was uncovered and transcribed by Frank Towers, Historian of the 30th Infantry Veterans of World War II and a participant in this incident, as noted many times on this website.}

30^th Division Medical Detachment Diary & Log

(105^th Medical Battalion)

By

T/4 Wilson Rice

April 13, 1945

            At Letzlingen, Germany, we pulled off of the road to wait.  Here Major Lowell, Major Huff and Tommy met us.  They had gone back to Brunswick to see about getting the soldiers of ours out of the German hospitals, and to see some other hospitals.  Col. Treherne also met us there.  While we were parked here the Forward CP [command post] came along.  I went out to one of the trucks to talk to some of the fellows from Hq. co. [headquarterscompany] They had a German on the truck and he was most unhappy.  He was one of the few who ran before he was captured, and before he was caught, he tore off all of his markings and insignia off of his uniform.  Nasty little Nazi.  They couldn’t find a place to get rid of him, so Paul Huff and I put him on the hood of our jeep and took him into town to the PW [prisoner of war]cage.  On our way back, we passed another walking down the road, but we were in a hurry.  He was smiling and just as happy about the whole thing.  We just merely pointed the direction, and everybody went merrily on their way about their business.

When Major Lowell, Major Huff and Cardwell left this area, I went with them.  Col. Treherne and Meyers were in front of us.  Soon we caught up with the Forward CP convoy as they were stopped along side of the road.  We looked out across the field and we saw deer grazing.  It was a small herd, but through the binoculars, one could see them very clearly.  Farther on down the road, when the convoy was halted again, Major Marsh from the Military Government, drove up to Col. Treherne’s jeep.  He told him about a train of civilians that were prisoners of the Germans.  Our jeep pulled out from the convoy and went to Farsleben, Germany, where the train was located.

Also in this town was the CP of the 823^rd T.D. Bn., and we stopped there to pick up Capt. Baranov, the 823^rd Bn. Surgeon.  He took us down there, and it was something that you’ve read about, but couldn’t believe.  They were people that looked of being very refined and cultured.  It is said that among the people, was the French Consul to Germany.  Some great minds were among these people. There were two doctors that were members of the train, and they were caring for the people the best they could without any equipment.  Capt. Baranov’s men came up with a few drugs bandages, etc. to use until they could get more.  It was about the same as nothing, but it was to go to the women and children first.  About 75% of the members of this train were Jews so the drugs etc., were given to the two doctors and the Rabbi for distribution.  Major Lowell and Major Huff told them to get all of the contagious and seriously sick to be segregated into cars by themselves.  These cars that they were traveling in were box cars.  Sanitation was terrible and the people had been traveling in them for eight days and nights, without food or water.  Most of the sickness was due to malnutrition.  There were only two typhus cases.

As all of the business was being transacted, a beautiful little girl, about eight years of age, came up to my side.  She was very sweet and her complexion was very clear.  I looked at her, smiled and patted her on the head, and she smiled back.  As Tommy and I were standing there, I soon felt a little hand slip through my arm.  As I looked around, a big lump came in my throat.

As we were leaving, a man came up to our jeep.  He was one of the American citizens and was from Detroit, Mich.  He was taken prisoner two years ago in Warsaw, and his family is still now in Detroit.  He was a sick man, but there was nothing we could do for him, as we were not prepared for such things.  Military Government is taking care of things as fast as they can.  This is what I mean when I say that warfare such as this, was not planned for by the Army.  Things are going too fast.  This man told us about the 33 American citizens.  He went on to say that he knew our circumstances, knew we had to take care of the troops first, knew that everything possible will be done for them as fast as possible, and went on to say,  “We know how busy you guys are, what you will do for us, maybe one week maybe two weeks, but even if nothing else is done, there is one thing we truly and dearly thank you for, and that is for our Liberty”  There was a break in this man’s voice, and I knew how he felt.  There was a lump in my throat.

We went on to Wolmirstedt after giving the people what cigarettes and “K” rations that we had, and found the Clearing Station.  It was set up in a Nazi finance office records building.  Where the enlisted men of our office are sleeping, is in the living room of the head of the Nazi organization’s quarters. He was truly Nazi and had beautiful things.

Casualties to date:

Division——24,650

Civilian                  947

Enemy             2,076

Other Units     3,579  

31,252

POSTSCRIPT. In 2007 I received this email from a survivor. May not be the girl mentioned, but a counterpoint to T4 Rice’s account above.