Engineer Memoirs
had a map showing where the division was supposed to be headed. The two of us drove
over a hundred miles across the north German plain. For more than of those miles
we never saw an American vehicle or individual, yet so complete was the
disorganization of the Germans that we were never in any way challenged. As we went
through small towns, we saw white flags waving out of the windows. Our only real
scare came when we started up an incline across a major canal. I got a little concerned
because I could see no evidence of a bridge structure above the levees. I told the driver
to slow down and stop. When he stopped at the top of the levee, there was no bridge.
We had been driving pretty fast, since it was beginning to get dusk, and we'd come a
long way without any sign of Americans.
We found an alternative way around the destroyed bridge. We picked up the signs that
showed where the 30th Division had been, so we knew we were on the right track.
Before dark, we ran into the rear elements of American units and knew we were back
near the front lines. I thought it was significant that within a week after we crossed the
Rhine, two Americans could drive for over 100 miles without any anti-American
expression from the German people we saw.
Q.
Do you recall the German slaughter of political war prisoners that occurred at
Gardlegen on April?
I am aware of a report that people were herded into a barn that was then machine-
A
gunned and set afire.
I also
an occasion when we were moving toward Magdeburg on the Elbe.
A small element of the forward section of division headquarters, in trying to gain a little
time and catch up with the advance troop elements, decided to take a shortcut. It went
through an area the forward elements had bypassed as they turned south. I was the
senior officer of the command group. As we started to cut across the triangle, we came
into a small village. It was very quiet, and you could feel the tension in the air. We
discovered that there were about 100 Allied prisoners of war under control of a
relatively few German guards. They were English and Americans, most of whom had
been captured in North Africa several years before. With caution and no firing, we
released the prisoners. They, of course, were obviously happy to see Americans.
I remember well the filth that they were trying to eat, but yet, in spite of this, how well
they had taken care of themselves and the military discipline that existed. The senior
Allied officer of the group was a British sergeant major. I admired the spirit, the
discipline, and the resolve of those soldiers of both countries.
We observed one man eating the worst gruel I ever saw, and he offered me some. It
was almost impossible to look at it, much less eat it. We had with us a few K-rations
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