14. Austria

Austria
  November, 1945 - February, 1946

Around the middle of November the 330th Infantry was transferred from Germany to Linz, Austria. We were billeted in an apartment complex and had the best quarters we had had for a long time. One of the few pictures of me that I brought home was taken outside the apartment building.

One of our duties in Linz was guarding one end of a bridge over the Danube River. The Russians were still in Austria then and were on the other side of the river. Some of the Austrians lived on the Russian side and rode streetcars over the bridge to our side to work. The Russians were always giving them a hard time by searching them each day, shooting their rifles in the air and generally making a nuisance of themselves. They even shot a few Austrians from time to time.

We also had an occasional turn at guarding German prisoners of war as they went about cleaning the rubble out of the streets of Linz. The times I was on guard duty two of us were assigned to guard about 125 Germans. There wasn't too much chance that they would escape because there wasn't anyplace to go that was any better than where they were and they also got a C or K ration for lunch. Considering what else they had to eat, that was a lot to lose if they escaped.

The period from the end of the war until I came home was pretty grim for the Germans, especially the prisoners of war. After seeing what the Germans had done to the concentration camp prisoners and slave laborers, Eisenhower decreed that the Germans would get no more than the Geneva Convention allowed them. This amounted to only 2,000 calories a day and he didn't want them to get 2,001. Since there wasn't much food in all of Germany, the prisoners were glad to stay and work for rations.

I hadn't been in Linz very long until I got another fabulous three-day pass that lasted for over ten days. The army had taken over the 700-year-old castle (The Oberhaus) on the cliffs above Passau overlooking the Danube River. They had turned it into a Rest and Recreation facility and I got a pass to go. We were driven up from Passau on trucks and were told that there would be a train running when we were ready to come back.

We drove up a long inclined road to get to the castle and entered under a large gate like you see in the movies. I can't remember whether there was a drawbridge or not but I think there was. It must have been 200 feet or so above the Danube River and the view of Passau and the Danube from the castle was absolutely fantastic. It was fall and all the trees were turning or had turned and the scenery was also gorgeous. We stayed in rooms in the castle and got to explore most of the castle during the day.

There was a German lady who was living there and she may have been the owner since the Germans there waited on her as well as us. In any event she was very gracious under the circumstances and treated us as house guests rather than invaders. I spent a lot of time talking with her about the castle history none of which I recall now however. She had a record player and a large collection of classical records. She introduced me to classical music while I was there and I have loved it ever since. I had had no exposure to it at all while I was growing up.

When our three days were up we were ready to leave but there was no train. This went on until we had been there for ten days and the company got tired of waiting for us to show up and sent the trucks back to get us. We did have a hell of a nice leave while we waited though. Another army screwup that worked out to our advantage.

After I had been back from Passau for a short time I got the chance to get a furlough. I had had a few passes after arriving in Europe but I hadn't had a furlough since I went home just before shipping out. I was offered a ten-day furlough to go to Switzerland and then on to Rome. It sounded like a terrific furlough but there was a catch. It was another one of those tips where you go when you get transportation and come back when your trip is done.

There were many rumors about going home and what the next point count would be to go home. The men with 55-65 points had already gone but we didn't know when it would drop again. My three-day pass to Paris had taken almost two weeks and John's 7-day furlough to London had taken over a month. I figured that if I went to Switzerland and Rome it would take over a month so I turned it down. I had 53 points and figured that we would be going home soon. The guy who took the trip had the same number of points that I had. When we got orders to ship out to start for home, he was still gone so I don't know how much longer he stayed in Europe.

Looking back, I think I should have accepted the promotion to sergeant. I could have gone to Switzerland and Rome without it costing me much. I could have seen quite a bit of the country while I was there and not have had to do too much work. Seeing what it costs today to do the same thing I know I should have stayed a little longer. I don't think that I would have been more than three months later in getting home if I had stayed.

I think it was late December, 1945 when the point count to go home dropped to my range. When that happened they sent all of us with 50-55 points to Salsburg for eventual shipment home. It was good to get out of Linz and know that you had started the first leg of the journey home.

Salzburg was another European City that didn't seem to have too much damage during the war. Of course we were there in the winter months so we didn't get out as much as we could have. We were in Salzburg about six weeks waiting for shipments of high point men to arrive from other army units before we were shipped out.

The Hohenzollern Castle that overlooked the town was off limits I think or it could have just been closed because of the weather. In any event, I didn't get to go through it. I had my first experience with a hot steam baths there. We would go every few days and have one. The steam would open every pore in your body and then you would come out and jump into a big pool of cold water. It was quite a shock when you hit the cold water and I didn't do it every time.

Another thing we got to do a lot was going to see a lot of first run American movies. They were shown there at least as soon as they were released in the US. One of them that I particularly remember was 'State Fair' with all the good Rogers and Hammerstein music. I went to see it several times. You had to go through a long tunnel carved through the rock in a mountain to the south of Salzburg to get to the theater and I didn't know the tunnel's history for several years when I found it had been carved to open trade routes centuries earlier.

While we were waiting for orders to ship out I got to go on a bus trip into Germany to visit Berctesgarden and some of 'Mad' King Leopold's castles. MP's guarded the big castle with all the golden fixtures in it and we couldn't go to it but there were others in the area. I can't remember whether the trip lasted more than one day or not but it was quite an experience.

When we got to Berctesgarden the bus went up the mountain to Hitler's resort located up on top. It was a very hazardous trip to say the least. It was in late January and there was snow and ice over everything. The bus skidded and slipped all over the road but we got there. I got to see the SS barracks, which had been bombed by the Air Corps and saw the big conference room where Hitler held his meetings.

The meeting room had a fantastic view of the Alps. I can see why they build the place there. There was nothing inside of the building when I was there. I do not if everything had been looted or blown up but nothing but the bare walls were standing when I was there. I did get my picture taken stand in the big picture window overlooking the Alps but I don't know what ever happened to it.

When it came time to go back down the mountain, I found a German boy with a sled who offered to let me ride down with him. I was very happy to miss the bus ride down, I thought. The kid was from the town below and knew a back way down so we took that way. It was pretty steep so we went pretty fast even with me dragging my feet all the way. He wanted me to stop and let the sled run but we were going so fast we still passed vehicles on the road. We beat the bus down by an hour or so I looked around Berctesgarden for a while.

Around the middle of February 1946 we started home. We traveled on a train and it took several days to get to Camp Phillip Morris where we stayed until time to board the ship. We sat around while were there and talked or played pinochle. The ship we came home on was called the Coldale. I think it was a Liberty ship but I forget the difference between the Liberty ships and the Victory ships. This one had a 5" gun mount on pedestals on the bow.

Even the trip home was exciting. A few days out of LeHarve we ran into a hell of a storm. It was either a late hurricane or a full gale. It was so rough that about every third or fourth wave was breaking over the gun mount on the bow of the ship. I almost had a bad fall during the storm. I was coming back from getting a load of chow when the ship rolled badly. I was at the top of a ladder and would had to drop my chow to grab hold of something since I had both hands full. Some soldier behind me grabbed me just as I was about to go headfirst down the ladder. I never believed in turning loose of chow regardless of the consequences.

John Anderson and I finally separated in New York when we landed. John got on a train for Jacksonville and I was sent to Ft. Mead, Maryland for separation. The processing was the fastest that I had ever seen the army do anything. I got out in no more than two days I think. They almost made me stay longer because I wanted it in my records about my loss of circulation in my feet from the frostbite I had during the Battle of the Bulge and they told me it would hold up my discharge. I think they were just trying to get me out without entering anything in my records because when I told them that I would stay, they put the entry in and let me go.

While waiting to be discharged, I let myself get talked into joining the reserves. It didn't take too much talking because I figured the US would probably get into another war before I was too old to get drafted and the seniority from the reserves would at least increase my pay enough to buy an extra bottle of liquor or something. Joining the reserves almost turned into a disaster of course.

After I was discharged, I went to Washington and caught a train home. All trains into Charleston during those days went through about 3:30 AM for some reason regardless of which way you were going. I didn't want anyone to have to come and get me at that time of the morning so I went over to the bus station and caught a bus home the next morning. I surprised everyone when I got home of course. I went right in and changed into civilian clothes as soon as I could. I wish now that I had at least had a picture taken before I got out of uniform but I didn't.

I had been in the army two years, ten months and five days and had had enough of it. After I got home I heard about the GI Bill of Rights law, which paid for a college education for those of us who wanted it. That alone made the whole thing much more agreeable. The GI Bill paid your tuition, books and gave you $75 per month to live on. For those days, that was a very good deal to get a college education. You could get a year in college for every year in the service and you could graduate with that kind of assistance.

Many of my high school friends were back by the time that I was mustered out and we partied and fooled around too long to go back to school in 1946. I went to work for DuPont as a chemistry lab assistant for a year and saved some money to use when I went back to school in 1947. West Virginia University seemed like the best choice since William and Mary did not offer the courses that I wanted

World War II was finally over, except for historians and the tall tales we would tell each other for years afterward.

We still do not talk much about the real war except to others who were there - and who understand.