- My wife, Marj, and I visited the area
in 1976, somewhat tracing the route of Company
- D, 410th, in a rented VW. We met with the Gammeningens. The
then 81 year old Frau
- was still living in the house we stayed at in 1945. Susanne
was married and had
- grandchildren--(6yr. old) Eugene was also married and had 6
children--we had a Sunday
- dinner with him, his wife and all but one child who was away a
school. The hill near
- Itterswiller had been logged off and replanted with hardwood
trees--hardly recognizable.
- We stopped in Ville at a small candy shop and the clerk called for
her grandfather who
- was in back of the shop. We had a long discussion--that's how
I found out that Grubbe,
- the nearest town had been changed to Fouchy. I got the
impression, in no uncertain
- terms, that France treated Alsace as "poor relations."
Food rations during combat were reasonable. I
guess the problem was that the
- Company kitchen had difficulty always finding all the units, as we
were always attached to
- rifle companies and sometimes were cut off or unable to be
reached--hence the use of
- K rations. Also, whenever we could find food on the local
economy, we preferred it
- to rations--it tasted better. Most of the civilian population
offered food. Probably
- Alsace was in better shape than either Germany or France--it was
sort of a breadbasket
- area. I, personally, never understood or was aware of the
overall picture. All I could
- describe was what happened to me or those around me and rumors that
invariably pop up.
I felt that the GIs treated the
Alsatians almost like the enemy--they stole whatever they
- liked from houses which were unoccupied; later within Germany
proper, there was plenty
- of fraternization, contrary to official orders; there were too many
instances of German
- POWs being taken back, a few at a time, and not making it to the
detention centers.
- Another thing which bothered me and still does--I felt that the
weapons we had to use
- were inferior to the Wehrmacht's comparable weapons, particularly as
they applied to our
- Heavy Weapons Company. Take my 30 cal water cooled machine gun
as an example. It
- was pure World War I vintage. Slow rate of fire, took 3 people
to carry necessary
- equipment to set it up, was not at all suited to the offensive type
of combat that was
- encountered, wouldn't fire when the web belts became wet and
tightened up, etc. But,
- I felt very fortunate that we did not often meet up with the cream
of the German Army, and
- that I was supporting a Rifle Company and was not a rifleman.
As to armored units in
- support, most of our early support was tentative. That is, our
tanks were no match for the
- enemy's, and that's why they stayed well behind protective cover
whenever available.
On another note--as we were leaving Germany
to return to the States, we rode in
- 40 x 8s. While traveling through Strasbourg, our train stopped
in the marshaling yards
- for a few minutes, probably to await necessary switching. As
we sat there, many small
- Alsatian children ran out to greet the GIs leaning out of the
freight car doorways to get
- gum, cigarettes, candy, etc. Many were shaking hands with the
GIs. Just as the train
- started up, a small boy, about 8 or 9 years old, reached to shake
the hand of a GI in
the rail car right ahead of ours. The GI apparently hung on to
his hand too long and the boy
- was pulled under the wheel and his left leg was cut off just above
the knee. An indelible
- memory which I'll never forget. The boy was left standing,
hopping on one leg as we
- pulled out. All we could do was point back down the tracks as
we passed under an
- overpass roadway trying to alert the civilians standing there.
For the most part the GIs
- were brave and dependable under the worst conditions--but as in all
cases, there were
- always a few bad apples.
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