The war in Europe ended on May 8, 1945. Now came the occupation and reconstruction of the continent. Allied soldiers took their place keeping the peace, and overseeing efforts to make sure Germany would rejoin Europe, sans all Nazi influence. Allied leadership was aware of a plan for German citizens to continue fighting as partisans against the occupation. Fortunately, none of that came to fruition, as the vast majority of German folks were done with the conflict.
My Father landed in picturesque Starnberg, Germany. This was a small town in Bavaria, 30 minutes Southwest of Munich, and next to Lake Starnberg. The American Army had liberated the city on April 30, 1945, just days before the official end of the war.
The war was over, but as my Father writes, for Allied soldiers, they faced an uncertain future. First, they had to contend with a defeated enemy, prisoners of war, displaced persons, fear of being sent to Japan, and a host of other challenges, some that would require a little creativity. And they had to deal with their emotions too, years of anger and lack of love for their former enemy, and prepare to go home. (Matthew 5:44) — Harrison Woodard
Starnberg, Germany
(1 June 1945)
Dear Folks,
I thought I would try to type out another letter to you tonight. I am still making it OK here in Krautland. The weather is better today, pretty hot outside. The sun was out all day, but tonight its a little chilly. Well, I have been reading up on the old news down in Wood county. I have received four issues of the Echo in the last two days. Lucius still puts out a good paper. I like the pictures of the other soldier boys. Several of those kids I know. I think I just about got this cold of mine whipped. I have felt pretty bad for the past week or so, but I believe that I just about have it under control now.
Is H. L. home yet? I know you will be glad when he gets there. I don’t want you to start looking for me, but I believe that all the boys with as much as two years overseas are going to get a chance to come home this year. Let me know how H. L. came home. What I mean is will he have to report back over here after his furlough is over? I am sure glad the boy got the chance to go home. I think of all of you every day and hope it won’t be long until I can be home with you. I know there will be lots of changes and things back in the states are different now. Well, I will be expecting that. The boys that have been overseas will be different to.
I heard an interesting exchange in the chow line this morning. We’ve had some USO girls with us for over a week now and one was complaining about the mud around the kitchen. One of the boys told her that we had slept in mud worse than what she was experiencing. She answered right back,
“I know it, you poor boys.”
Well, that expression didn’t go so well. All the boys hate any form of pity from the states. As one guy put it,
“It was rough, but we made it.
For someone to pity us doesn’t sit well at all.”
While I’m rambling, I might mention another little incident in my tour of duty overseas. Right after we entered Germany, we started screening all civilians trying to find any deserters from the German army. We were watching some infantry picking up all males from 16 to 60. There was a couple who came along and the soldiers took the husband away. The wife, accustomed to the Nazi way of doing things, assumed he was gone for good. She threw a fit, screaming and carrying on something terrible. The battle-hardened soldiers simply pushed her away, and continued their work. I watched them for quite some time. Some of the things I witnessed would have hurt me before I was sent overseas. For some reason, they didn’t bother me that day. One little kid was screaming at the top of his lungs because they had loaded his father on a truck. One of my buddies leaned over and said,
“You know, something like this would have
made me cry three years ago.”
Well, we knew how these birds treated the French, Czechs, Poles, and Russians* and a few other things. So you can easily see that a person gets pretty hard and can see lots of things that don’t bother him at all. This paragraph may sound just a little silly, but it is the truth. I hate these Krauts and just can’t keep from it. I sure get sore when I see someone trying to be friendly to these birds. They hate our guts and will give us trouble again if we give them half a chance.
Virgil Woodard — U. S. Army
I have been expecting a letter from Virgil this week, but haven’t got one yet. I wish we were closer together. We are about 80 miles apart, and that is just a little too far unless you have a ride back.
I want to go down to see him when we catch up with our work. We have another payroll to get out around the fourth. Then I am going to try to get three days off and go down and spend the night with him. I never got to spend the night with him while we were in France. Virgil sure laughed at my bedroll the night he spent with me. I had about seven blankets and the infantry have just a sleeping bag. I am cold-natured and when we ran into some new German blankets, I picked up three. I still have them and hope to bring them home with me.
Well, I am having trouble again tonight trying to think of something to write about. I feel fine and will probably be out in the hall kidding with the boys when I finish. I have a bunch of friends in the Battery. I don’t think I have an enemy in the whole Battalion. I try to treat all the boys good. In fact, I am always willing to try to help any of them that I can. I have to discuss their affairs at home and I always try to help them figure out any problems that they might have where I can help them. I sure have fun talking to them about their points. I know just about how many points each man has in the Battalion.
I am hoping that I can get home this Summer. I may be way off, but I believe its possible. It would be nice if Virgil and I could get home together, maybe something like that will happen. I had better close for this time. Best of luck to all and loads of love.
Your Son and Brother,
Hollis
Note: I found it interesting that my Father did not mention Jews in his list of groups who suffered tremendously under the Nazis. The first concentration camp liberated by US troops was Ohrdruf, on April 30, 1945. There were no camps in Italy, France, or Southern Germany, and news was slow to spread. The magnitude and barbarity of the pogrom was beyond anyone’s imagination. Even after pictures and video began to spread, the average soldier probably still assumed it was some form of propaganda. I can only imagine how horrific it would have been to see the camps in person in 1945. U.S. Army & The Holocaust
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