Mary Durst placed a request in our guestbook this week, and also became a member of our forum. I am placing this information here for all to see, and also attaching a document she supplied. I will be asking Mary to stop by and tell us about herself and her father. I'm hoping we can find information to help her in her quest.

Thanks, Marion

Thank you, Marion. I am searching for any information that may allow me to find the camp where my father was liberated on April 8, 1945. The historians near Siegberg, Germany said it may have been from the Ammunition Factory in Siegburg, or in the bordering town of Troisdorf. I would greatly appreciate any input or leads or information you may be able to provide regarding any American POWs that may have been liberated from either of those locations. I’ve also attached a transcript of my father talking about his capture and the camps where he was held.

 

 

 

Mary Durst

WALTER_B_BRINEGAR_TIMELINE.pdf

Hi all! I am hoping you can tell me about any labor camps you liberated that contained American GI's held as POWs. The attached document describes the camps where my father was held but I am unable to confirm where he was liberated from and by whom.

My father didn't talk much about his captivity. I was born 10 years after my father was liberated, so the only reason I am here is because of my father's will to survive. My Dad, Walter Blair Brinegar, was in A Company of the 27th AIB/9th Armored Division. I have been researching his captivity in the hope of finding out where he was liberated from. I have been in contact with some WWII historians in Germany that suggested he may have been held in Ammunition Factory in Siegburg, or in the bordering town of Troisdorf. I believe your corp liberated that area on or around April 8, 1945 (that is the day my father said he was liberated).

My Dad passed 30 years ago, when I was much younger and didn't realize the significance of his experience. Now, that I am older and wiser, I want to commerate his life and his will to survive by finding the places where he was held and taking my children and grandchildren to those places. I want to make sure they never forget why they are here and to also make sure they tell their children and grandchildren.

If you have any information you believe may be relevant, please contact me. Thank you in advance for any assistance you provide. This is a quest and labor of love andhonor for my Dad.

Dear Mary:

Thanks for the photo too. I am going to start looking through the documents from April 1945, from the 540th Combat Engineer Regiment, to see if there is any mention. It could be any VI Corps unit, which includes MANY. I'll look to see if my dad's unit was anywhere in the area at the time.

Warmly,

Marion

I don't know how much of their actual history you know, but am also including some vital links for you.

http://www.history.army.mil/documents/eto-ob/9ad-eto.htm

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10006146

http://www.battleofthebulge.org/fact/fact_...armored_di.html

http://www.historyshots.com/usarmy/Division.cfm?did=209

http://www.google.com/search?q=9th+armored...ved=0CFgQ5wIwCg

http://www.eucmh.com/2009/04/14/oob-9th-ar...sion-1944-1945/

http://www.awon.org/discus/messages/14/450.html?1277434327

http://www.criba.be/index.php?option=com_c...my&Itemid=6

http://140.194.76.129/publications/eng-pam...0-1-25/c-18.pdf

Found this at NARA

You can contact NARA in Maryland and request specific dates of documents for his unit.

http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/college-park/index.html

These are detailed, official documents which the army kept during the war.

Mary:

From looking at the map, none of the VI Corps Engineer units were in that area. We were located south during March and April of 1945. In early April, the 540th were in and around Heidelberg, Germany.

More later, gotta work in our store in a couple of minutes...

Later...

Here's a map of VI Corps/7th Army movement, the first week of April, 45. Note how far north your father would be. The First and Third Armies were north of us. It would be one of their units who freed your father and his buddies.

http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/Map...ny5-18Apr45.jpg

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=si...ved=0CBMQ8gEwAA

Hi all! I am hoping you can tell me about any labor camps you liberated that contained American GI's held as POWs. The attached document describes the camps where my father was held but I am unable to confirm where he was liberated from and by whom.

 

My father didn't talk much about his captivity. I was born 10 years after my father was liberated, so the only reason I am here is because of my father's will to survive. My Dad, Walter Blair Brinegar, was in A Company of the 27th AIB/9th Armored Division. I have been researching his captivity in the hope of finding out where he was liberated from. I have been in contact with some WWII historians in Germany that suggested he may have been held in Ammunition Factory in Siegburg, or in the bordering town of Troisdorf. I believe your corp liberated that area on or around April 8, 1945 (that is the day my father said he was liberated).

 

My Dad passed 30 years ago, when I was much younger and didn't realize the significance of his experience. Now, that I am older and wiser, I want to commerate his life and his will to survive by finding the places where he was held and taking my children and grandchildren to those places. I want to make sure they never forget why they are here and to also make sure they tell their children and grandchildren.

 

If you have any information you believe may be relevant, please contact me. Thank you in advance for any assistance you provide. This is a quest and labor of love andhonor for my Dad.

Mary,

Your father was liberated by Combat Command A, 13th Armored Division, the "Black Cats." On 8 April 1945 CCA captured Siegberg and nearby Troisdorf after CCB had by-passed that latter. It is fitting that your father, an armored infantryman, was liberated by his comrades of the Armored Force. At the time the 13th AD was attached to XVIII Corps, First Army, and operating on the left flank of the 97th Infantry Division.

Your father was probably on the roles of Stalag VIG as a POW although it appears from your comments he may have been one of those men who was out on a labor detail. Stalag VIG was closed out and moved several times during the war, and as near as I can tell was set up in or near the town of Bergeneustadt some miles to the east. You might want to follow up on the various locations of this POW camp, but it appears that at one time it was quite near Bonn, Germany.

Hope this helps.

I am living 4 km away from Siegburg. The ammonition factories in Siegburg closed already after WWI, the ones in Troisdorf are still working

The next POW camp to Siegburg was in Rösrath: Stalag VI G Arb-Kdo 281. Concededly this camp was freed not on 8 but on 12 April 1945, by taskforce Delnore of the 46th Tank Battalion, but German sources say that the German soldiers left the camp alone a few days before the Americans reached it. It was not only a camp for prisoners of war but also for foreign forced laborers. The next camps were in Bonn, about 20 km away and taken already on 8 March, and in Bergisch Gladbach which was taken on 13 April. Today there is a memorial stone and a cemetery for prisoners of war and forced laborers, and kind of child care center, where at least one of the old barracks is still in new use.

Translation of the memorial stone:

This was the POW camp Hoffnungsthal in the second world war, where people of different nationalities were victims of hunger, disease and violence. Their sufferings and their death urge for peace.

Christoph

Christoph:

First, welcome to our forum. Have been enjoying our email conversations.

Thanks for posting that information here for all our readers. Greatly appreciated.