12. Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia
  May - August, 1945

Around the first of June the division got orders to turn the area over to the British and to move to Czechoslovakia. Duderstadt was assigned to the British zone when the Allies partitioned Germany so we had to move. It was about 300 miles to the Czech area we were assigned to. We got to travel on the German autobahn for the first time. Most of the time we had been off on the small side roads and had no experience with the four lane super highways. We were not to see anything like them in the US until the late fifties.

During our trip to Czechoslovakia we passed several German castles. They were usually intact and had not been touched by the destruction that was everywhere in Germany. We didn't get to go in and look around inside but they were in locations on mountaintops, which were hard to miss as we passed. I wasn't able to get into a German castle until several months later in Southeastern Germany.

At the end of our journey from Germany we wound up in a small Czech town called Klatovy. The other units in the division were stationed in towns and hamlets all over the southwestern part of the country. The countryside around where we were stationed was beautiful. Czechoslovakia had not been subjected to the general destruction prevalent in Germany so the towns were pretty much intact.

The company mess facilities were located in the next town about three miles from where we were billeted. We used a Czech schoolhouse for quarters but we had to ride over to the next town to eat. This wasn't too bad but it got worse. In June, we began having shortages of gasoline and food. As the gas ran out, we had to walk to the mess area three times a day because there wasn't enough gas to run the half-tracks to take us.

The gas supply soon got so bad that the only things that got gas were a messenger jeep and the cook stoves. The jeep went to company headquarters daily for orders and other company business. The mess hall used gas to cook food and to heat the water for us to use to wash our mess kits.

We heard that the gasoline supplies were being stolen and sold on the black market. The gasoline was delivered on semi flatbed trucks, which could move several thousand gallons at once. The drivers would sell the gas to the black market except for a few hundred gallons. Then they would wreck the truck and set it on fire. There was no way that the army could prove that the entire supply had not burned up in the fire.

We had lined up our half-tracks in a spot set up as a motor pool. We drained the gas from the tanks to run the jeep and the cook stoves as long as it lasted then we really had a problem. We would occasionally get a small amount of gas, enough to run the cook stoves, but not much more. Once we were forced to eat K or C rations until more gas arrived. We didn't eat as good then as we did while the war was going on.

By July, the army finally got organized and stopped most of the gas looting so things got much better. There wasn't much going on just then in the company. Many people were getting passes and furloughs and the others were playing softball and just loafing around. There were many rumors about going home, shipping out to the Pacific and going on occupation duty. Every day brought a new rumor.

The army came up with a point system for going home or being reassigned in June. You got one point for each month in the army, two points for each month overseas and 5 points for each campaign star or decoration. I wound up with 53 points, which was not quite enough. With 65 points you were to go home and be discharged. With 50 to 65 you got to go home for a 30-day furlough and then would be sent to the Pacific Theater. With less than 50 points, you were supposed to be sent directly to the Pacific.

Around the 8th or 10th of July, I got a 3 day pass to Paris. John Anderson got a seven-day furlough to London about the same time. The bridges across the Rhine were still down and the railroads were not operating yet so we were handed the papers and told that trucks would take us to Luxembourg City and we would get a train to Paris there. John's furlough started when he got to London.

The army is very good at screwing things up of course. We were supposed to get to Luxembourg City in the late afternoon and catch a night train to Paris. After we crossed the Rhine on pontoon bridges and arrived in Luxembourg, they opened rail traffic across the Rhine to Frankfurt and canceled the train to Luxembourg. We either had to drive back to Frankfurt to get the train to Paris or get the trucks to go on. We stayed overnight and the following day they decided that it was better to go on to Paris in the trucks. The drivers thought that this was a great idea because they were supposed to go back after dropping us off in Luxembourg.

When we got to Paris, they told us to see the Provost Marshall and he would extend the time on our passes so we could get three days. He told us to just take a couple of days past the date on our passes and if we were picked up by the MP's to refer them to him. We liked that arrangement fine and stayed in Paris for an extra day past the extension date. I stayed in a small hotel run buy the army just a block or so from Rue Pigalle (Pig Alley). I went to see the Follies Bergere, the Eiffel tower, Monmarte, the Notre Dame cathedral and many other places of interest. In all, I was gone from the company for about 10 days on a three-day pass. I thought that was great at the time.

John Anderson had a better time than we did. He stopped in Paris for several days both going to London and coming. He said he stayed in Paris until the MP's caught him and put him on a train for Czechoslovakia. He was gone for over a month on a ten-day furlough to London.

When I got back, I found that while I was gone, the army had shipped out all privates and corporals with 50 to 65 points. They were going to the States for a 30 day furlough and then on to the Pacific. Needless to say, those of us who were left behind were very happy because there was not even a rumor about anyone else leaving in the foreseeable future. We thought that we had finally beaten the army.

As luck would have it, the war in the Pacific ended about six weeks later. All the men from my unit who shipped out were getting on the ship for home when it happened so the army figured it was faster to take them on home that unload the ship and tie it up until it could be reloaded with high point men. They all were discharged out of the army by October 1945. The rest of us didn't get home until the following March or April.

In August 1945, I was sent to Oberammagau, Germany for a two week Information and Education (I & E) training course. They were primarily used to keep soldiers busy until time for them to go home but if you picked the right one, you could learn quite a lot. One fellow from my outfit from Milwaukee took a course in a Czech brewery and learned how to turn out some great beer while we were there.

I took a truck from Klatovy, Czech. to Oberammagau and we passed through Munich on the way. Munich was bombed as much as Frankfort had been and was mostly in ruins. We got to see quite a bit of the German countyside on the way. This far into Germany most of the small towns had not been damaged much from the war. Most hadn't been bombed but some were damaged if they resisted the Americans when they went through.

Oberammagau was a beautiful town located in the foothills of the Alps. It is the site of the Passion play, which is performed every ten years. Performances were started about 1360 in gratitude for being spared from the ravages of the Black Death, which was rampant in Europe in 1347-1350. Oberammagau didn't have a single case so they were very grateful.

There was a jet engine plant located just on the outskirts of town which had been completely missed by all allied reconnaissance flights and was not listed in any intelligence reports. The Germans had slung camouflage nets between two mountains to cover the factory and it worked. They produced jet engines until the end of the war. Since they were not found out, I imagine that the people had some thing else to be grateful for.

I spent my two weeks there in classes and sightseeing. All the buildings in town were painted with religious scenes so there was a lot to see. Many other towns in Germany had buildings painted with murals but nothing approaching those in Oberammagau.

Shortly after returning from I & E classes, the division was reorganized again. It was scheduled to go home for deactivation and so the low point men were transferred out to other divisions and the high point men stayed. I was transferred to Co. C, 330 Infantry Regiment of the 83rd Infantry Division. After the 8th Armored received high point men from other divisions it was sent home and deactivated at Fort Patrick Henry, Va. on Nov. 13, 1945.