American Valor Quarterly Issue 12 - Spring 2015 | Page 22

and there were all kinds of noises. We
heard a familiar noise and one of my
men whispered, “Sir, I hear something
… Now I see something.”
“What do you see?” I asked.
A little bit of the fog lifted and he
said, “They look like haystacks to
me.”
Another of my men, “Popeye”
Wynne was his name, he always had
something to joke about, and said,
“They’re the damnest haystacks I’ve
ever seen … the damn things are
moving.”
A little more fog lifted and another
soldier said, “Sir, they’re tanks.”
I counted 12. “Let’s get the hell out
of here now,” I said. So we did, and
about five minutes later we were back
with Col. Sink reporting that there
were tanks ahead.

National Archives

We formed around Bastogne, like
spokes on a wheel. The hub of the
wheel was Bastogne. We were the
spokes. The whole 101st Airborne
Division had units spread out, but we
were late getting in because the last
unit of the 101st was cut off; the entire
hospital unit. We stayed there for 29
miserable cold days. It was 17 degrees
below zero. The temperatures were
worse than the enemy as far as I was
concerned. But there were plenty of
enemies. A few days after Christmas,
the sky broke with red, white, and
blue parachutes dropping food and
ammunition. We retrieved the bundles
and the sergeant approached me and
said, “Sir, you have a package from
home.” I figured it would be a scarf,
or a hat, or a pair of gloves. He gave
me the package and it was about an
inch wide and 12 inches long. It was a
gold fountain pen, which was just what
I needed at 17 degrees below zero. I
threw the pen in the snow and went
back shivering. About two hours later,
Sgt. Strohl came over and said, “Look
at the pen you just threw away.”
I looked at it. It had my name on it. I
said, “I see it. I still don’t want it.”
22

He said, “You better look at the
printing on it.”

probably the headquarters. He believed
Landsberg was a satellite camp of
It was 14k gold. I put it in my pocket this larger camp, which served as the
headquarters. He wanted me to take
and I still have it today. I lived in a
foxhole with my men for 29 days. The one of my German speaking men and
find out what
we could before
reporting back
to him. They
were heading
for Salzburg,
and he showed
me the road
they were going
to travel. I
had no trouble
finding it after
getting the
information.
The name of
the camp we
were sent to was
Dachau. Exactly
where it was, we
A REMINDER OF WHY WORLD WAR II HAD TO BE
didn’t know, but
WON. PRISONERS CELEBRATE THEIR LIBERATION
we were given
FROM DACHAU BY AMERICAN TROOPS.
indications of
where it might
be, and which
only insulation we had were ferns
road we could take to get there. We
from trees and limbs. That was the
found the road the next morning, and
only shelter we had. It was miserable.
about 20 minutes outside the camp,
After 29 days, we were dispatched
we could smell this awful odor in the
back to France.
air. It was the same odor we detected
Another of the more memorable
before we got to the Landsberg
experiences from those days was
concentration camp, but worse. I
coming across our first concentration
would never expect any human being
camp. We didn’t liberate the camp.
to see the sights we saw there. I’ve
The Germans had already moved on.
seen them every night for 70 years.
If the Germans had been there when
When we got into the camp, we
we were there, my platoon would have
found one man who could speak a
dispatched them very quickly. I know
little English. He was a Polish inmate.
that. No human being should have
His family had been murdered by the
to see what we saw at Landsberg. I
Nazis, but for some reason or another
thought that it was the worst thing
that we could have ever imagined until they made him a baker at Dachau. He
Col. Sink ordered me to go to another was trying to give us a few facts about
what we were looking at and what we
site that night. We were in Landsberg,
were seeing. We came across another
ready to go down to the Alps area
inmate, a woman who was basically
where we heard the Germans were
a human ske