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.