It Wasn’t The Holiday Inn, But I Survived It!

 

I was captured 15 September, 1944 at Atton while attempting to take four litter wounded and four or five walking wounded back to the bridgehead at Dieulouard and get medical supplies for our Battalion Aid Station on Mousson Hill, as well as re-start ambulance evacuation of wounded which had ceased by late afternoon of 14 September.  The Germans cut us off and directed our 2 jeeps to their Battalion Aid Station.  The story of Mousson Hill (p.15, 21, 22 of Blue Ridge) tells how the entire 3rd Battalion, 318th Infantry was isolated for several days thereafter.

 

... I was sent back through the German Medical Evac system as far as a hospital in St. Avold, where our wounded were treated along with German wounded.  They asked me to be present as a morale thing for GI's in their operating room.  However, on 16 September, in the evening, the hospital got orders to evacuate “because Patton was coming” and I was turned over to “Brown Shirt” military types and placed in a cell in a barracks style brick compound down a hill from the hospital.  There I met a 2nd lieutenant from the 4th Armored and a captain from the 35th lnfantry Division.  There were enlisted POW's being held there in separate quarters from the officers.  A couple of days later, the entire POW group was marched from St. Avold to Forback and entrained (box cars) for the trip to Limburg.  Rations were distributed unevenly (a can of corned willy for 'x' men and a loaf of course bread for 'y' men) which we had to do the dividing.  At Limburg, we were “processed” and sent to separate barracks for officers and enlisted men. 

 

It was there that I found 318th Executive Officer, Lt. Col. Herte, S-1 Capt.  Pickering, Chaplain (Capt.) Glennon and L Co. 2nd Lt. Fryeall captured the night of 12 Sept. (approx.) when the Germans attacked our new bridgehead from Dieulouard.  At Limburg for a week or so (during which B-17's bombed the rail yards) we were entrained (box cars) for the trip to Oflag 64 at Szubin, Poland. ("Oflag" being offizer lager) This took several days as POW transport was not a high priority on the German railways.  Rations were about as previously mentioned.  One night we were stopped at a station (where?) and the German sergeant in-charge asked a local man if the Rotten Croix (Red Cross) could provide anything for us to eat and drink.  The reply was “Nein-hier das Rotten Croix istein shisigkleine dingus.” (My pidgeon German) Meaning “a shitty little thing.”

 

At Oflag 64, we were again processed and I was issued dog tag KGF88856. (Kreigsgeffangener =POW) and assigned to a barracks with other lieutenants-including a couple of paratroopers; one from the 101st Airborne and one from the 82nd Airborne.  I had no further contact with the other 318th officers at Oflag 64.  Rations were sparse, but were issued in bulk and prepared by American enlisted POW's whom the Germans assigned to that duty at Oflag 64.  We ate at “family-style” tables with our 6 “cubicle” mates from each barracks.  We took turns dividing the portions with the POW doing the dividing getting last turn at taking his plate.  Very Evenly Divided.  The “weekly” supplemental food parcels which the Germans had agreed to pass on to us from the American Red Cross did not reach us until about 1 to 7 weeks.  The German answer was that “your comrades of the air have bombed the railways again.”  But somehow a boxcar of YMCA materials for stage-sets and costumes arrived for us to produce “morale building theatricals”-the bombs missed that one! 

 

On 15 Jan. 45 (approx) we were evacuated from Oflag 64 because of the Russian advance from Warsaw and we made about 350 miles on foot to Parchim, northwest of Berlin.  Starting with some 900+ POW's sleeping in haylofts along the way through snow across Pomerania and westward, about 425 of us were entrained (box cars again) to Hammelburg where we met up with several [hundred] POW's captured in the Battle of the Bulge.  Gen.  Patton's son-in-law, Lt.  Col.  John Waters, was one of us and whether or not that had anything to do with events, a rescue attempt was launched from Acheffenburg by the 4th Armored.  They got us out, but Lt. Col.  Waters was wounded and had to be left in the Hammelburg Medical facility.  However, the whole rescue failed the next morning and we POW's and the “rescuers” were all captured and transported by rail to Nuremburg. 

 

A week or so later, we were transported from there to Stalag VIIA at Moosburg, which was terribly overcrowded with POW's from camps all over German territory.  However, we were able to obtain a “dispensary” of sorts for POW's which had meager medical supplies and I was able to staff with the help of an ex-medical school fellow POW until we were liberated on 29 April, 1945 by Patton's forces.  In a day or two thereafter, I managed to get a ride out of there and caught up with 80th Division HQ and then with my old 3rd Battalion 318th Medical Section en route to Austria.  About a week after that, 80th HQ sent word to me to return to Moosburg and be evacuated.  I had to hitch-hike back to Moosburg Stalag VIIA and caught a flight to Rheims, France, (via C-47) and then to Camp Lucky Strike, ship to USA, Fort Dix and 60 days R & R before being assigned to 27 HQ, 2nd Army at Fort Bragg, NC. (Later released from active duty and discharged 1 Apr., 45 from USAR).

 

This turned out to be a lengthy recital of events, beyond what I had intended to answer your request for “a brief outline of the camp where I was interned and how I was treated.”  My usual answer to people who ask me is “It was not the Holiday Inn, but I survived it.”  Take your pick.

With best regards,

Harry B. Long

BSM(V), OLC, POW MED

ETO (3), Am C, V med.

 

 

 

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