I just found an interesting 8th Armored Division story my late father (2nd Lt Harold Gordon 36-D / Platoon 1 leader) never told me. This story concerns Thale, Germany. I had an antique dealer try to sell me a Thale Germany manufactured WW2 German helmet in Dade City, Fl last Saturday. I did some research remembering that one of my father's letters mentioned Thale in the Harz Mts. I was amazed to learn this town of less than 10k inhabitants had the largest German helmet plant in WW1 and WW2. The plant was huge with many large buildings, see the attached photos including a train photo (the plant had connecting tracks.) In the first attached photo you can see the entire town of Thale and how much property the helmet plant took up.
There is no more iconic symbol of the Germans in WW2 than their helmet. In a section of my father's May 1945 letter he states he was the "mayor" of Thale for 2 weeks which I assume meant he was the Army Liaison officer to the local Thale government ("Phase 1 Occupational Government".) He had a degree in accounting --and was a CPA after the war-- so I assume he was assigned this job because of his administrative skills. The 8AD was ordered to Northeim at the end of April 1945, a week before the war was over and the Russians took over the area and Thale became part of East Germany. So, my father would have seen and toured this very large helmet plant and would have dealt with the many hundreds or more of unemployed workers now looking to the US Army for food and supplies. This is another very interesting (and non-combat) WW2 story my father never mentioned.
Thule Helmet Factory, Eisenhuttenwerke, Thale
Factory Interior
Factory train
Aerials of Thule
"The Mayor of Thule"
