A POW's Story

Our time in England was spent training for combat, making practice combat jumps, door to door combat in Bristol, England and forced marches. We were put under guard twice in marshalling areas and alerted for combat jumps but both missions were canceled. The Battle of the Bulge started mid-December 1944 and soon after it started the 17th Division was alerted and flown to Reims, France, on the 24th of December. We had "K" rations for Christmas dinner on the 25th.

From Reims, France, the 1st Battalion was taken to the Verdun, France, area where we were in a defensive position in case the Germans attacked that area. We stayed in the Verdun area until the 3rd of January, 1945, at which time we were trucked to the Ardennes Forest in Belgium where the Battle of the Bulge was being fought. After getting off the trucks we walked about five miles to the front. Arriving at the front after dark we moved into a heavily wooded area and were ordered to dig slit trenches to sleep in. The ground was frozen solid and the temperature was about zero degrees. The 87th Infantry Division would be on our right flank and on the left flank the 11th Armored Division. We would have 52 battalions of artillery supporting a three infantry division attack on a 15 mile front. We would also have the Air Corps supporting the attack---weather permitting. Very little resistance was met from the Germans, mostly Volkstrum, which is the old men of the home guard. About midnight the Germans started shelling our position with screaming meemies, which is an artillery shell designed to make the most terrorizing and horrifying noise you can imagine. This shelling lasted a couple of hours and we had about 20 casualties in Company A. During the whole two hours there was someone calling for the medics.

At dawn, we were on the line of departure and waited for the 30 minute barrage of artillery that we were promised was supposed to soften up the Germans. Not one round of artillery was fired at the Germans. The battalion moved out in diamond attack formation with my squad on the left flank at which point we realized there was no support on the left flank. We were immediately pinned down by German machine gun fire coming from a wooded area to our front. After firing our rifles into likely targets (visibility was about 105 feet) the machine gun fire ceased and we reached the woods where seven German soldiers came out of the woods with their hands on their heads and surrendered. One of the soldiers was a young boy of about 14 and the Company B radio sergeant made him carry the company radio on his back. The rest of the Germans were sent to the rear under guard. We were stopped from advancing any further because the 2nd Platoon in front of us could not advance because of a German tank attack.

We moved to our right about 50 yards and took cover where a road had been cut through a hill. German tanks were attacking on the right flank and we realized that we had no support on the right flank. We were taking heavy casualties. By this time all of our machine gun crews were destroyed and our aid station was full of wounded troops. Company C did not have a single officer or sergeant left. They were all dead or wounded. Five American medium tanks came from the area where we had attacked about 11:00 a.m. The tanks were lost and said they would give us a hand against the German tanks. The tanks then parked on an open, snow-covered hill in full view of the German tanks. The German tanks fired five armor piercing rounds and made direct hits on the American tanks which killed all of the tank crews except one man who was in the turret of the tank closest to me. We pulled him out of the turret and he had both legs shot off just below the hips. He was pleading for someone to take his pistol and shoot. He had lost so much blood that he died in about five minutes. About 12 Noon, I was looking at two lieutenants and two sergeants, when a shell came down in the middle of them and killed all four instantly.

By 1:00 p.m. the battalion had used all its ammunition except 30 caliber Ml rounds and the German tanks were working their way around the right flank to encircle what was left of the 1st Battalion. Captain Ganaway, B Company Commander, called battalion headquarters and asked permission to withdraw and was told to stay where we were at all costs. By 2:00 p.m., the German tanks captured our aid station and made all of the wounded who could stand come to where we were in the road cut. A German officer walked in front of the tank with a white flag and when he got to Captain Ganaway, he told him that if he did not surrender the German troops were going to kill our wounded and then run over the rest of us because he knew we were out of ammo. With Captain Ganaway from 1st Battalion Headquarters was a Major Rosen who had come up to observe the action. Major Rosen took the responsibility to surrender what was left of the 1st Battalion which consisted of about 150 men. We had started that morning with about 500 men. (Later, I found why we had no artillery or support on either flank. It was because the attack was scheduled to take place on the 7th of January and someone had screwed up the dates and we attacked on the 4th.)

After the terror and horror of combat came the terror and horror of being German Prisoners of War. We were captured by SS troops, the diehard Nazis that lined up 250 American troops with machine guns and killed them about two weeks earlier. This happened about ten miles from where we were. After Major Rosen, who was the S2 (intelligence officer) from battalion, surrendered us the young German soldier that had been carrying the company radio talked to the German captain about ten minutes and I bet he told the captain he had not witnessed any mistreatment of German prisoners by us, which probably saved our lives.

After the surrender we were made to discard all of our equipment, and with but a few exceptions, we were allowed to keep all of our clothing. This was important because the temperature was about 10 or 12 degrees. The Germans did take some of the gloves from a few of the men. We were marched to a Belgium village where an officer interrogated us. He wanted to know where the 193rd and 194th Glider Regiments of the 17th Airborne were and I gave him my name, rank and serial number. He threatened me with torture if I did not tell him. I told him that I was only a private and would not know where the other units of the 17th Division were located. After interrogation we were given a can of soft cheese (about 16 oz) and a loaf of black bread and told that this would be our food for seven days. We" started walking, mostly at night in zero degree weather toward Germany to the east. When we stopped we were put up in barns with the livestock. After a couple of weeks of walking with boots wet or freezing, we began to have men whose feet were frozen. If their feet turned black and were necrotic the Germans would take them to a hospital and amputate their feet. I had a good friend named Mayo that had both of his feet amputated. We all wondered if we would be next.

After several weeks of walking, we stopped in a German town named Geraldstein on the Rhine River where they were using American troops to dig graves in the frozen ground for German civilians who had been killed in bombing raids. The day before arriving, an American POW had refused to work a second shift of eight hours in the freezing weather with hardly any food. A German sergeant named Eisenhower told the American he would shoot him if he did not get up and go to work. The American did not get up and the sergeant shot him in the head and killed him. I understand the sergeant was apprehended after the war and hung. I was praying that we would not be kept in Geraldstein and my prayer was answered the next day when we left. We walked another three weeks during which time one of our comrades was shot and killed when he tried to escape. We also lost more men along the way because of frozen feet.

After three weeks, we reached Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt where we stayed about ten days, I had diarrhea so bad that I truly thought I would die. From the time I was captured, my weight had gone from 175 to about 120 pounds. I think I lost about 25 pounds there. I was so weak I could not get up to relieve myself and burning up with fever. But somehow I survived and we were put in railroad box cars for Muhlberg, Germany. With 80 men in a boxcar designed to hold 40, we didn't have room to all sit down at the same time. So, we had to take turns. We spent four days and nights in freezing weather without food or water and were not allowed off the boxcars. One night one of the men had relieved himself in a metal can and threw the urine out an opening in the corner of the boxcar and the urine hit a German guard. The guard opened the door of the boxcar and pointed his rifle at us. I figured some of us were going to die, but the guard, after cursing quite a bit, closed the door without shooting. During the trip there were air attacks on the railroad yard where we were and fortunately our boxcar was not hit. When I arrived at Muhlberg and jumped off the boxcar, I had no feeling in my feet and felt like I was walking on two stumps. Upon closer inspection my feet were not black and necrotic but they would be swollen and painful for months.

After arriving at Stalag 4B approximately the middle of February, we were given a shower which was the only time in five months of captivity I had a complete bath. We were photographed and given dog tags with our POW number and the number of the stalag. Stalag 4B was a break from walking 15 or 20 miles each day, but we were on a starvation diet. Each day we received about seven or eight hundred calories which consisted of two or three small, Irish potatoes, a slice of black bread about three-quarters of an inch thick and a cup of watery soup. The bread was made with saw dust flour. This was not one of three meals, but all the food we received for the entire day. We were not receiving any vitamins and very little protein. My weight upon arrival at 4B was about 120 pounds and when I left April 12th, I weighed between 95 and 100 pounds. While there were some activities to take part in for the most part life was constant hunger filled with boredom and tedium. The most excitement we had at 4B while I was there was a P47 American fighter plane which was shot down. Fortunately the rounds that were fired hit an empty building and no one was hurt. The machine guns that were always pointed at us from the guard towers were a constant reminder that being alive was at the whim of the guards. A POW was killed in the camp one day for taking potato peelings from a garbage wagon.

One of the men from my company became infected with a disease, developed a high fever one afternoon and was dead the next morning. You can imagine the fear we all had wondering if we had been exposed to the disease. Only six men were allowed to attend the funeral service of our comrade. I believe that this soldier had a close friend who would contact his family and tell the circumstances of his death. This was important because the Germans did not notify anyone of his death.

After two months of inhumane treatment at Stalag 4B, a group of us were put on boxcars the 12th of April and shipped to Leipzig, Germany. It was an overnight trip and we arrived early on the 13th. About noon on the 13th the German guards told us that President Roosevelt had died the day before. This news cast a spell of depression and gloom on all of us. One of the POW's borrowed a pocket knife from another POW and walked over to a fence and knelt down and cut his throat. I don't think the man died but I am not sure. The Germans then told us because Leipzig was a hospital center for the western and eastern fronts and the city would be declared an open city and surrendered to the Americans. After the surrender (expected to take several days), we would be liberated. We went from depression to elation, but were soon to find our elation was false hope because about 4:00 a.m. the next morning we marched out of Leipzig toward the Russian front which was about 100 miles to the east. Later, we learned the SS had killed the German army staff officers and taken command fought for the city.

We spent two weeks walking around the zone between the Russian and American front. Early one morning when we were near the Russian front we were awakened by a barrage of Russian artillery that was landing very close and getting closer. The German guards marched us back toward the American lines. We had stayed in a large barn for several days when I talked my buddy A. C. Wilson into walking into a small town that was nearby. Wilson at first was reluctant because he said that he didn't want to get shot this late in the war. I convinced him we should go and that if anyone said halt that we would halt and return to the barn and we walked into the town. In this small town was a German anti-aircraft unit that had all of their guns covered and were probably trying to decide whether to fight the Russians or surrender to the Americans. One of the German soldiers in this unit was eating some rice and meat. He was old and looked like he was sick. I asked him if he would give us the rice and meat for some Polish cigarettes that I had which he agreed to. While Wilson and I were eating the food, I asked him where and how far the Americans were and he replied eight kilometers to the west. Eight kilometers is about five miles which is about a two hour walk. On the way back to the barn I told Wilson that we should get our blanket and canteen cup and head for the Americans. Again, he was reluctant. I told him I would wait until 2:00 p.m. and if he wouldn't go, I was going to shake his hand, wish him luck, and say goodbye. At 2:00 p.m., Wilson and I walked off from the barn and didn't look back. We had not walked much more than a hour when we saw an American Army colonel and a first lieutenant who were about two miles in from the American lines. They were directing allied POW's to Halle, Germany, where an infantry division was set up to take care of men who had been POW's. This was April 24th, 1945, and there has never been a happier day in my life.

The first thing I did in Halle was to send a cablegram and a V-Mail letter to my parents in Savannah, Georgia. They had not known for almost six months whether I was dead or alive. The only report they had about me was a telegram reporting that I was missing in action. While in Halle I ran into Leonard Hall, who was a POW at Stalag 4B and one of the best friends that I have ever had. Leonard had been the Sergeant Major of the First Canadian Parachute Regiment and was captured shortly after D-Day. The night I was leaving Stalag 4B for Leipzig, Leonard gave me a package of cigarettes which was the most valuable present that anyone has ever given to me. With cigarettes you could buy food. Without them you could starve to death, Leonard was at 4B when the Russians liberated the camp and he became friendly with a Russian officer who invited him to go to Mulhberg for some fun. Leonard asked the Russian what he had in mind for fun and the officer told him that they had captured an SS officer and they were going to make the local butcher cut his heart out while he was alive, Leonard declined the invitation.

While in Halle we were fed a very bland diet and small portions because our stomachs would not tolerate any kind of spicy food and was shrunken to about one-fifth of normal size. I think I weighed about 90 pounds when I arrived in Halle. We could eat several times a day or often as we wanted and we were gaining weight every day. After a week or so in Halle we were flown to Verdun, France, and put on a train to LeHavre,, France. After a month at Camp Lucky Strike, we left France on the S.S. General Black, an army troop transport ship. On the S.S. General Black, in a raging storm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, we had an abandon ship drill which we found out the next day was close to the real thing because one of the boilers had fallen off its foundation and had almost blown up. A few days after the near miss we arrived at Camp Miles Standish in Massachusetts. We were shipped to an army installation near our homes and given long furloughs. I spent the summer of '45 in Savannah resting and trying to forget the horror and terror that I had been through. What happened to me is not an isolated case. My story is just one of many, many thousands—many of which were much worse than mine. While I believe my experience made me a stronger person, it showed me the dark side of humans that I hope most people never have to see.

George L. McGraw
17th Airborne Division
513th Parachute Infantry Regiment
Company C

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