This is a story about myself as a U.S. soldier who volunteered after graduating Gilbert High School, Winsted, CT, in 1944, to enter The University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, for the Army Specialized Pilot’s Training Program for one year. After completing the program I was inducted into the Army at Fort Devens, MA, then sent by a troop train to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, TX for boot camp training. I failed at pilot’s training, and after the ending of World War Two, spent three months each working in the laundry and kitchen duty while the aiirmen were returning from Germany to be discharged.
I was given the option of remaining in the service for an indefinite period, or taking an immediate discharge and re-enlisting, to be sent to Germany for one year as an air plane mechanic.
I was sent to Whiteman Air Base, near St Louis, MO, for a short stay, then continued home to New Hartford, CT for a thirty day furlough. From there I was sent to Greensboro, NC for a couple of months to await debarkation on a Victory Ship destined for Le Havre, France, where the people were starving.
Since Le Havre is near Normandy, I recalled the U.S. being bombed by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and entering the war to aid Britain and Canada for the storming of the Normandy beaches by the Allied armada. I also recalled the Allies capturing Mussolini in Italy, and the Battle of the Bulge in bringing Hitler’s Germany to its knees with its final unconditional surrender. I also mentioned Germany’s invasion of Russia, and the devastation in Stalingrad pushing the Germans back.
With the surrender of Germany came its division of Germany in the East by the Soviets building the wall through Berlin separating the West Berlin controlled by the Allied Forces. Then there was the Marshall Plan to aid the starving Germans, and the blockade by the Russians.
From Le Havre I went by train to Berlin, Germany. Along the way on the train I had C-rations which I loved to eat. In Berlin we had a couple of hours leave, to drink nine point beer instead of the three point beer sold in the PXs. I then switched trains that took me to the Kitzingen Air Force Base, Germany. While there i worked as an air plane mechanic on AT-6 trainer airplanes, for blind or instrument flying by the pilots.
After a couple of months, I was re-assigned as an athletic instructor working with a small group, with permanent passes off base, to make friends with the German school children by taking them on picnics, and other activities. We also had a former German Youth officer, Hans Furtsattle, who was twenty one years of age, to act as our interpreter. The group was also expected to keep an eye open for black-market activities by the soldiers or by the Germans, by bartering cigarettes, candy, soap, and other items purchased at the PX on base. There was a high incidence of black-market going on, and the group was to report back to our group leader, Lieutenant Waldmark.
There was also a high incidence of Veneral Disease by fraternizing with promiscuous German girls, nearing the epidemic stage. Also near the side of the base was a former Hitler’s Children Camp where German women were expected to cohabit with the Officers on base and have children by them, and to live in the camp until they were eligible to join the Hitler Youth or the League of German Girl’s programs.
At this time, they were also available to do the laundry, or give haircuts to the U.S. soldiers on base, for a pack of cigarettes, a bar of candy, or a bar of soap that they could use or barter for nourishment for the children, if any.
I had met a girl, named Ursula Sur who had TB, but whose family were former Nazi sympathizers, and whose father made and supplied some of the concentration camp “shower” gas.
Two of the Hitler’s camp women suddenly died, whose fathers, it was rumored, were camp guards, and Ursula’s father was also found strangled to death. Since I was a close friend of all the victims, I was a person of interest and subsequently charged for the murders.
I was imprisoned and interrogated by my lawyer for a considerable length of time, while the investigators looked at the crime scenes. Since the victims were German citizens the German prosecutors wouldn’t give any information discovered while the Americans were pursuing the death penalty.
I proved my innocence by having foolproof alibis for the times of the deaths, since I was visiting the Marienberg Castle in Wurtzburg, and also the Walled City of Rothenberg, at the time. I soon was exonerated of all charges and set free, regaining my honorable standing and the open pass. Still, who set me up for the murders, and why?
Lieutenant Waldmark took our group to visit a concentration camp, and also to visit the Nuremberg Trials, where twenty three former Nazi war criminals were on trial for war crimes against humanity during the Jewish Holocaust.
In 1994, on a trip to Europe with friends, we met a group at the airport who were going to Europe to commemorate D-Day, and as we talked together, I met a U.S .guard who was guarding Goring, perhaps on the day I was visiting the Nuremberg trials.
A short time later I received orders to leave for home, but I was flown to a base in Northern Germany for a few weeks first. There were a lot of Black-Americans there that were segregated, but with whom I mixed in. I went to their theater and visited with them at their barracks. On some evenings I went with friends to the commissary to have a snack of sardines on black bread, served by White Russian girls with oriental eyes; the girls were absolutely beautiful.
After our short visit, I flew home to Fort Dix, New Jersey to be honorably discharged, then took a bus home to New Hartford, CT
I enrolled in Hillyer Junior College for an AS degree, then took a correspondence course in Tool Engineering Technology, then worked for the DeryTool & Die Company as office manager and draftsman.
I met Eleanor Maigret to take her to a New Year’s party that was disastrous, but found that we liked each other and would continue to meet and court. Then I worked for the Torrington Needle Company, and after it was sold in 1981, I went into my own accounting business.