XIV.   RECUPERATION

After long deliberation, the doctors decided to not try to get the shrapnel out by means of an operation. They thought the operation would do considerable damage to the muscle and nerves in my leg. So they brought in a long slender magnet in an effort to get hold of the shrapnel with the magnet and pull it out. They ran the magnet down the hole that the shrapnel made several times to no avail. They opened the hole up by pushing the magnet around. That's when I about came off the table. They said they couldn't get the shrapnel out of my leg and that they were going to clean it out and seal the wound with hot tape. They said it should form a gristle around the shrapnel and it shouldn't cause any trouble. Hayden was put on a table next to me. When they turned him over, I was able to see the extent of his injury. It was bad and I felt like I was lucky. His right elbow was severed and there was a massive wound to his side.

They finally got me to a bed in a tent. I was naked when I got there so the nurse started looking for pajamas for me, but the only thing she could find was the jacket top of pajamas. It was way too small but I put it on anyway.

I woke up the next morning with patients on each side of me. I started talking to the one on my left side and he didn't answer me. I thought "the hell with you." The guy on my right said he doesn't understand you, he's German. There were wounded German prisoners in the same tent with the Americans.

One of the German patients started talking to us. He was 28 years old and was a radio man. He made some statements that didn't go over very well with us G.I.s He said we were fighting the wrong people - the Russians were the enemy. That we should join the Germans and whip the Russians. It sounded ridiculous then, but he wasn't too far from the truth. He made another statement that a big old rough American Sgt. didn't understand. The German said that Hitler would be famous and would go down in history. The Sgt. said, "I'm going to kick your ass!" The only thing, he couldn't kick his ass because he had been hit in the ass himself.

After I ate breakfast, I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. I had never used a bed pan and I didn't want one. I told the nurse if she would get me some bottom pajamas, I would like to take a walk. She asked, "Do you think you can walk?" I told her I would like to try. In a little while, she came with bottoms. They were a mile too big, but that was alright. She got me on my feet and helped me about three steps. I told her I could make it. She asked, "Are you sure?" She watched me to the end of the tent. My leg was stiff for a while, but it got better as I walked.

I would have crawled to keep from using the bed pan!

The nurse was real nice and most of them were. She especially was nice because she was from Gary, In.

After I went to the outside toilet, I decided I would try to find Hayden. I found him in the second tent I went to. He looked awful pale. I asked him how he felt, he said not too good. I noticed his chart on the end of his cot. I took it out and read it. It said, "his elbow had been severed and was insufficient for recovery and they had taken five pieces of shrapnel from his side." Hayden said "it's pretty bad, isn't it?" I told him "you are lucky, you're going back to the states."

They started giving me penicillin every 3 hours. I guess It was necessary, but it was a nuisance. They would wake me up in the night to give me a shot. I would just get back to sleep and here they would come again. That went on for about 3 days and nights and I got tired of it. They tied a piece of cloth on the foot of the cot to tell them who got shots. One night, I took the cloth off my bed and I got a good night's sleep. The nurse caught me the next day and asked me if I took the cloth off the cot. I told her I did because I couldn't get any sleep. She said she would check with the Doctor. She came back and told me it was alright that I had probably had enough penicillin.

After a couple of days, they moved me to another tent hospital that had an air strip. This was where they sent the wounded to different destinations.

I walked into the recreation tent on the morning of April l2 (I think). One G.I. said to me that President Roosevelt had died. I said good, the war would be over within 3 months. I didn't miss it very much, thanks to President Truman.

I stayed at the airport tent hospital a few days and was flown to Nancy, France in the C-47. They flew Hayden to the states before I left. They lodged me in a nice hospital in Nancy for recuperation.

There was a guy in my room that was a minor league baseball pitcher. It looked like his pitching days were over because his pitching arm had been torn up pretty good. He was down pretty low. After I had been there a while, I thought I smelled a peculiar odor coming from my leg. The doctor didn't pay much attention to me because there were several guys in worse shape than I. The next day, when the doctor made his rounds, when he came to my bed I told him I smelled something and I thought it was my wound. He said wounds put out an odor. I said I didn't believe it was normal. He said OK and jerked the bandage off my wound. The wound fell open and puss rolled out of it. He berated the nurse and told her to clean it out good because for it to heal properly and the shrapnel to stay in place, the wound had to heal from the bottom up.

I spent about six weeks in the Nancy hospital, but I don't remember too much about it. One think I vividly remember was one day the bells all over the city started ringing (May 8, l945).

The little French nurse's aid burst in the door yelling "the war is fini, the war is fini." She ran and jumped up and grabbed me around the neck and locked her legs around me. I don't remember her kissing me.

About 2 weeks after the war was over in Germany, I was dismissed from the hospital land was sent back to C Company/58^th Division, which was camped in Essen, Germany.

When I got back, they had staffed the company, in other words, they had made promotions in all the vacancies. My position was filled with one of my men in the squad. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Also, when I got back from the hospital, I picked up my back pack that Strong had turned in to the Supply Sgt. to keep when I got hit. It was empty. I asked the Sgt. where the stuff was and he said that was all there was. I told him he was a lying S.O.B., but I couldn't get a fight out of him, he was a thief. I thought later I should have beat the hell out of him. My Captain had given me a hint to do just that. But I didn't get the hint until later.

XV. AFTER THE WAR WITH GERMANY

I would have come out as a Staff Sgt. instead of a Corporal. I didn't care, all I wanted after I got kicked out of the Cadets was to get home. I had no military ambitions.

When I got back to Essen, Scott, one of my men, said he knew where he could get some Schnaps. We w went to a German ammunition factory. A German had a room there where we bought the booze. The German factory was in tack just like they left it, 40mm cartridges were lying on the line partially loaded.

We stayed in Essen a few weeks before we moved to Klatovy Czechoslavakia.

The Czecks didn't like us very well, but they warmed up after we were there a while. When we went there, you could get a shave and a haircut for two cigarettes and an ice cream cone for one cigarette. By the time we left there, we were giving a pack of cigarettes for a shave and a haircut, that's the big hearted Yanks. Beaney and I got a baseball team going and played several games in Austria.

Personnel of the 58^th Division put on a big parade in Pilsen before we left Klatovy.

Some personnel of the 8^th Armored Division with lower points were transferred to the 35^th Infantry Division. We went to the Lucky Strike Camp in France which was a transfer point to the USA Via England.

We were to go on a 30 day furlough prior to going to the Pacific war. While there, I was able to heal the fungus between my toes by lying in the sun every day. The purple stuff that the medics had put on them did no good.

While there, some of the guys went into Paris. One didn't come back for about three days. He had been drugged and robbed. I didn't have any desire to see Paris.

One day, Mess Sgt. Douris came down to my tent and asked if he could borrow $l00. Not being paid from the time I was wounded until I rejoined my outfit, I was carrying a lot of money then. I considered the request for the money for a while and let him have it. Douris was a professional gambler from Philadelphia, in fact, he owned his own business and liked to shoot craps.

After about an hour, I mosied up to where they were shooting craps. Douris had the dice. He made l3 straight passes before he crapped out without picking up the pot. I figured there was about $400 dollars in the pot. He handed me a wad of money he had in his hand and told me to count out $l,000 and my $l00 and keep it for him. I asked a Mexican who was riding with him as he made the passes, why he never took the pot. He said Douris thought that was bad luck and that he made his money on the side bets. He said Douris knew the odds so well and he liked to play fast.

He would let the players betting against him to hold the bet and he would collect the bet after each pass. He never counted the money when he collected and I wondered how he knew if he was cheated. After one pass when a better handed him the bet, Douris counted it quickly and stated, "You shorted me a pound, didn't you, Bud?" The guy started apologizing but Douris said that's alright, don't let it happen again. A pound was worlth $4.l2 then, now it's not worth $2.00 or less.

I asked the Mexican if Douris was crooked and he said he had never seen a crooked move out of him as long as he had played with him. He said he knew the odds so well that's what made him good.

After a few days, I told Douris to take his money, but he said for me to keep it and take it across the channel when we went to England. I told him I didn't want to be responsible for it because I might lose it or somebody might steal it. He said that was alright, it was just paper to him.

One night about the middle of August, we saw flashes of bright light to our southeast toward Paris. The word came down the next day that the Japanese had surrendered (Sep2, l945). What a happy bunch. We were to go to the states for a 30day furlough and on to the Pacific. I always thanked President Truman for dropping the atomic bomb.God Bless him"