On April 4 we began marching to the southeast away from the
advancing Americans. It would have been nice to wait there for
liberation, but the Germans had different ideas. At least now we knew
it would not be long before we would be free. The Germans did not
guard us much this time and we were nearly on our own as we marched.
Our ranking officers made the decisions to march mostly at night to
avoid mistaken attack by American fighters. We also had ten minute
rest breaks every hour and the Germans gave us enough bread and soup
to keep us alive. We went through the railroad yards at Nuremburg and
saw the bomb damage. We were glad to get out of there before another
raid came. Our line was soon spread over seven miles and we made the
decision to stay with the group instead of trying to escape into the
woods and head for the American front. Probably some of the crazier
ones did try it.
We spent the first night in barns and any building we could find. The
weather was much warmer and we enjoyed the nice spring days. I pinned
a sock to my pant leg, found a pop bottle in a trash pile. and
carried it full of drinking water. When we went by houses the Germans
stood along the road watching us and very often they would fill my
bottle with fresh water. The Germans in the areas that had not been
bombed were friendly, but those in the cities were more hostile. The
American fighter planes were flying over us every day and we could
see the smoke from the bombed cities all around us.
The second day I was on a blacktop road and just coming out of a
wooded stretch where I could see the line up the straight open road
ahead. Some P-51s came over and started shooting at the line of men
about a quarter mile ahead of me. The men dove to the side of the
road and spread out a POW sign we had made from strips of white cloth
to be used on just such an occasion. The planes stopped shooting, but
not before two were killed and several wounded. I was lucky to have
been still in the woods where we could dive for cover in the trees.
After that we marched at night when we could but that too presented
problems. It was so dark at night that we suffered from vertigo and
had trouble walking. We finally pinned small pieces of white cloth on
the back of the one in front of us in order to have something to
follow. Sometimes we walked with a hand on the shoulder of the one in
front too for orientation.
When we came to the village of Neumarket, the first thing we saw was
a long section of railroad track balanced on the roof peak of a two
story house as the result of a bombing. The next two days of rainy
weather left everything in mud and we were miserable. We were caught
along the open road with no buildings so we spent the night in the
open in the cold rain. 1 just stepped off the road and lay down under
a pine tree, covered up with my overcoat and tried to sleep. In the
morning my overcoat and blankets were soaked and weighed a ton, but I
had to wear them because I would need them again. I never even got a
cold and was thankful for all the shots we got in the service,
thinking they must have helped.
One sunny day after a night's march we stopped at a farm house to
spend the day and rest. Bruce and I were in an apple orchard just
behind the barns. Within minutes there were little fires going
everywhere and we could smell strange odors of food. Eggs and
chicken, and whatever else could be found around the barns, were
cooking. Bruce got some eggs and potatoes while I got a little fire
started. We cooked in rusty old tin cans we found in junk piles as we
had no other utensils. We must have cleaned out some of these farms
but it was either that or starve. Sometimes along the march the Red
Cross trucks would catch up with us with some parcels that we divided
among us. We also discovered that the mounds of dirt in fields near
the road covered stacks of potatoes or rutabagas to keep them from
freezing. We would dig out the rutabagas and eat them raw.
When we stopped in the small villages we took over all the empty
churches and buildings for sleeping and guys would immediately start
out to trade cigarettes and anything else we had for food. I was
never any good at this so Bruce used to scrounge for us. In friendly
places we did quite well at this as the people were desperate for
American cigarettes. This type of marching and spreading out in farms
and villages kept us mixed up with different guys all the time. We
were all in the same situation so it didn't matter, but Bruce and I
were still together. I don't know where Ullo was by this time.
One day we crossed the Danube River and there was a large unexploded
bomb sticking up out of the pavement in the center of the bridge. We
walked a little faster until we were by it. Towards the end of this
march I remember being in a large open area near some buildings when
a heavy rainstorm started and we all ran for cover inside them. One
lone figure was laying out there under his coat in the rain and
nobody helped him inside. He must have been separated from the
friends who had been helping him. I found out later that he was John
Bradey from Victor, N.Y. and when I got back to Camp Kilmer in New
Jersey he was there and still sick. We became acquainted and he
borrowed a clean shirt from me to wear home. He promised to return
the shirt and about four weeks after getting home his wife sent it to
me. There was enclosed a letter telling me that he was it the Buffalo
VA hospital very ill from having a ruptured appendix. It had happened
when we left the first prison camp, so he had suffered with that
through two marches, two camps and all the way home. The will to
survive was so great that it had kept him going all that way.
All the pilots in England must have been briefed on our location
because during the remainder of the last march and at the last camp
we were never again bombed or strafed while cities all around us
were bombed. Our fighter Planes were flying over in increasing
numbers as the time went on. We were fortunate to have been shot at
only the one time when marching in open country. After ten days and
marching 91 miles we arrived at the last camp in fairly good
condition due to the frequent rest stops and warmer weather.