Some things you forget and some things you can’t forget, even if you try. Going through Aachen and Juelich both of which were nearly leveled from heavy bombing, you could smell the dead under the rubble. Can’t forget that. On the other side of the Rhine, all kinds of anti-personnel mines had been laid but the ground had sunk enough that the trip wires had been exposed an because they were not stainless steel they had rusted a bit and were real easy to see and avoid. When the war with Germany ended we were, I think, near Dusseldorf and we were billeted for a few days in a mansion which was the home of a Emil Kurdorf (?) . The basement had been made up as a training school for radio operators. My understanding was that Kurdorf was a big-time financier of Hitler. The third day we were there a lady came down to the basement, went to the door if the walk in vault, dialed the combination and went in. Came out a minute later and left. I guess she had stroke somewhere to enable her to do that.
A few days later we were having problems with rifle fire from some teenage kids who I suppose were part of the Hitler Youth structure. Our guys took care of that problem.
We were docked in Hollandia, N.G. when news of the atomic bombs reached our ship. We had visions of going home since invasion of Japan did not appear to be part of our plan any longer. No such luck. We went on to Manila and then we were sent to northern Luzon. I remember going up into the mountains to a town called, I think, Bagio. There was a little café there and we went in to see what they had and perhaps eat. To my astonishment they had fresh fried oysters which I had not seen since leaving home. What a feast!!!
I can remember being somewhere in Holland and we saw a great number of launching sites for the German V2 rockets. Good thing we won when we did.
There was one day on the journey to the South Pacific when we were all called up on deck at daybreak with life vests.. After 30 minutes and sunrise we were allowed to return to below decks. We guessed that the concern was possible Japanese subs in the area and we were called to deck as a precaution. I remember two things very vividly upon our return home. At our port of entry to the US was a huge sign that said “Through these portals pass the greatest soldiers in the world”. One of my first meals in the US was served by POWS. I saw fresh milk, my first since leaving home. Drank a whole pitcher all by myself. I remember a discharge seminar where we were reminded that were we no longer allowed to talk at home like we talked in service. We needed to clean up our mouths.
As I told you on the phone, I play poker every Thursday with the same seven guys. We got to talking about the GI bill one time and it turned out that of the eight at the table, six of us had gotten degrees using that bill and none of us could have afforded school with out the help of that bill., Sometimes congress does things right. I can’t think of anything else right now so I am signing off. Regards, Bob