A Polish servicewoman wearing a German uniform with Polish insignia is checking the identity card of Canadian soldier William Massey near Haren, Germany, in 1945.
Displaced Persons (DP) were defined as people outside the border of their home country when WWII ended. The majority of these people were slave laborers in Germany, had been held in prisoner of war or concentration camps, or had fled their country in fear of prosecution or retribution as post war borders and governments changed after the war. There were an estimated 11 million to 20 million displaced persons when the war ended.
DP camps were intended to be temporary facilities to house, care for, and eventually resettle or repatriate the inhabitants. This was a monumental challenge as many of the DPs were ill, exhausted, and psychologically traumatized by their wartime experiences.
By the end of 1945 DP camps numbered in the hundreds and were located primarily in Germany, Italy, and Austria. Due to the great need for DP camps, one was even established in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Among the different nationalities classified as DPs were over 3,000,000 Polish citizens. In May of 1945 the German town of Haren in Lower Saxony was chosen by the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force as an enclave for some 4,000 Poles. It was located in the British Sector under the administration of the Polish 1st Armoured Division of the Polish I Corps. German residents of the town were moved to surrounding communities.
The Poles renamed the town Lwow after a city in Poland that was an important cultural center in that country. The Soviets objected to the name. Lwow was in Soviet-occupied Poland at the end of the war. Under pressure, the Poles then named the city Maczkow after Polish General Stanislaw Maczkow.
Maczkow became a working Polish community with a Polish mayor, school, daily newspapers, a theater and cultural center, fire brigade, and a rectory. Streets were given Polish names. Four hundred and seventy-six Polish babies were born there and have birth certificates registering Maczkow as their place of birth.
In 1946 the Poles of Maczkow began to emigrate to other countries or return to Poland. Those Poles returning to Poland, especially those who had participated in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 or had been in the Polish Home Army or Polish Resistance, feared possible repression, prosecution, or arrest by the new Polish Soviet-influenced government. Those fears were realized by some of the Poles returning to their home country.
The town of Maczkow was returned to the Germans in 1948 and renamed Haren.
The last DP camp was closed in the early 1960s.
Thank you to military historian Dr. George H. Kelling for his assistance in the writing of this story.
The WWII German American Memorial in Schweinfurt, Germany. Inscription: “Dedicated by some who witnessed the tragedy of war, now united in friendship and the hope for lasting peace among all people.”
Wars are not forgotten. But with time, the people involved may look at a former enemy in a different way. This is one of those stories.
June 14, 1943 – April 19, 1944
Operation Pointblank
Operation Pointblank was a Combined Bomber Offensive (CBO) strategic bombing plan of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) with the objective to destroy or cripple the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) fighter strength and aircraft production prior to the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944. CBO targets included German aircraft factories, fuel depots, ball bearing plants, and other related industry.
1943
Tuesday, August 17
First Mission to Schweinfurt
The two targets of Mission 84 deep into Germany were the Messerschmitt Bf109 fighter plane factory in Regensburg and the Schweinfurt ball bearing plants.
USAAF “Flying Fortress” B-17s from the 4th Bombardment Wing (BW) in England flying to Regensburg took off around 8 AM that day. The 1st BW B-17s were scheduled to take off next. Due to heavy fog at their bases in England, the 1st BW began take off more than three hours later with their target being Schweinfurt. The delay seriously affected the mission plan. One objective of the mission was to overwhelm German air defenses as a large number of B-17s attacked at two different targets in rapid succession. Because of the delay, German fighter planes had time between the waves of B-17s to land, refuel, and rearm before again attacking B-17 formations.
Losses that day numbered 60 B-17s of the 376 B-17s assigned to the mission, and another 95 aircraft were seriously damaged. Three USAAF P-47 “Thunderbolt” fighter planes and two RAF Spitfire fighter planes were also lost. Air crew Killed in Action (KIA), Missing in Action (MIA), Wounded in Action (WIA), and Prisoner of War (POW) numbered over 550.
1943
Thursday, October 14
Second Mission to Schweinfurt
B-17s assigned to Mission 115 numbered 291. Aggressive Luftwaffe fighter planes and a heavily defended city led to more losses for the Allies. It is estimated that 1,100 German fighters were involved in the defense of Schweinfurt as well as numerous anti-aircraft Luftwaffe Fliegerabuchrkanone (Flak) batteries in and around the city.
Sixty B-17s were lost. Air crew KIA, MIA, WIA, and POW numbered over 625. This mission became known as “Black Thursday.”
Due to the large attrition of men and aircraft and the continuing bad weather, long range and unescorted missions in daylight deep into Germany were temporarily suspended after these first two missions. Missions resumed again in February 1944.
1973
The Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association (SSMA) was founded by USAAF Lieutenant Colonel Budd Peaslee who had been the Mission 115 “Black Thursday” Commander.
1993
Two WWII German Flak boys from Schweinfurt, Germany, attended the SSMA Reunion in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Helmut Katzenberger and Volmar Wilckens were two of an estimated 2,500 German students who had been ordered to man Flak batteries as German military losses affected its fighting strength. German civilians, young and old, men and women, were recruited to support Flak units. They were called Luftwaffenhelfers (Flak helpers).
1996
Georg Schafer was another of the Schweinfurt Flak boys. He wrote a letter to then SSMA President Wilbur “Bud” Klint.
June 20, 1996
Dear Mr. Klint:
From a good friend of mine, Dr. Helmut Katzenberger of Bad Kissingen, I received a copy of the Briefing Letter 95-4, December 1995 of the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association, Inc. I was quite excited when I read it.
May I introduce myself to you:
For over 40 years I have been active in the Management and on the Board of Directors of the FAG Kugelfischer Georg Schafer in Schweinfurt, a Company, with which you might have been somewhat familiar some 50 years ago! I am now retired from office, 68 years of age and have lived in Schweinfurt most of my life, also during your “visits” in 1943/44. From January 1944 through January 1945 I have served, together with my classmates, at some of the 8.8 cm Flakbatteries around my hometown, at the age of 16 years!
During 1954 to 1956 I had lived in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, where our Company was establishing a manufacturing plant for ball-bearings. During those years I have met several former US and Canadian Airforce men, who were over Schweinfurt during the war. We exchanged views about our feelings during those “visits” and quickly agreed, that it was a good thing that we missed each other at that time! It also strikingly made us realize how stupid wars are and that everything should be done to avoid for our children and grand-children the experiences our generation had to go through. My wife and I have four sons and four grand-children.
Also: During our last visit to Washington DC, in April of this year my wife and I re-visited Arlington-Cemetary [sic] and noticed how much the tree, your Association planted some 10 to 15 years ago, has grown. A couple of pictures may serve as “proof”. (encl.)
Further on that trip we stopped for a day at Savannah, GA, and tried to visit the Mighty Eighth Airforce Heritage Museum before our departure, name and location of which we found in a visitors’ guide booklet. Unfortunately the place was still under construction, and so was access-road. Only through Helmut Katzenberger’s notification I found out about your Association’s involvement in this exhibition. Maybe better luck some other time.
My wife and I are travelling to the US quite frequently once or twice a year, so on our next trip I shall give you a call, or maybe we can meet, if it is convenient to you. In the meantime perhaps you could send me some information about your Association, and also, if you or another member of your group should come to Germany, please give me a call and, if it is convenient, come and visit Schweinfurt – by Car this time! We’d love to meet with you and show you around our city.
Best personal regards,
Sincerely
Georg Schafer
Georg Schafer attended the SSMA Reunion in 1996 in Las Vegas, Nevada, and brought WWII artifacts with him that are now on exhibit at the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Pooler, Georgia.
It was at this reunion that the idea of a German American Memorial in Schweinfurt was first discussed.
1998
Memorial dedication. Left to right: G. Hubert Neidhard (Memorial designer, Flak boy), Walter Hillgartner (Government of Lower Frankonia), Georg Schafer (Flak boy), Lord Mayor Mrs. Gudrun Grieser, Colonel John Parker (United States Army Chaplain), Wilber “Bud” Klint (SSMA), and George Glass (American Consul General, Munich).
On June 16, 1998, the German American Memorial was dedicated in Schweinfurt, Germany. Every year since then on October 14, “Black Thursday,” SSMA places flowers at the Memorial.
Georg Schafer’s family owned ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt during WWII. Interestingly, after the war ended, he and his company helped establish ball bearing plants in the United States and Canada.
Thank you to Sue Moyer, SSMA Education Director, for her invaluable assistance in the writing of this story. Those interested in further information about SSMA can view the Second Schweinfurt Memorial Association Facebook page or contact SSMA at ssma43@gmail.com.
Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean is comprised of Sand, Eastern, and Spit Islands. It is approximately 1,300 miles northwest of the island of Oahu, Hawaii. In the 1930s Pan American World Airways used Midway as a refueling base and passenger rest stop for their Flying Clipper seaplanes that flew from San Francisco, California, to Manila in the Philippines. The United States (US) Navy established a base there in 1941.
After learning the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Midway prepared for a possible attack. About 9:30 in the evening on December 7 two Japanese ships, Sazanami and Ushio, began shelling the islands. During the barrage First Lieutenant George H. Cannon was seriously wounded in the Power Plant/Command Post when a shell came in through a window. He refused to leave the Command Post until communications were reestablished. Communications were restored, and he died soon after being evacuated from the building. First Lieutenant Cannon was the first Marine in WWII to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Photograph taken on Midway in 2005
The Battle of Midway, June 4 – June 6, 1942, was the first major naval victory against the Japanese in WWII and is considered a turning point of the war in the Pacific. US Navy cryptanalysts at Station Hypo in Hawaii had broken Japanese communication codes and knew the Imperial Japanese Navy was planning to attack Midway on June 4 or 5, 1942.
During the Battle of Midway, TBD Devastator torpedo bombers and SBD Dauntless dive bombers flew off the carriers USS (United States Ship) Yorktown, the USS Enterprise, and the USS Hornet. Four Japanese carriers, the Akagi, Soryu, Hiryu, and Kaga, were sunk. Those carriers were four of the six that took part in the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The US lost the USS Yorktown, the destroyer USS Hammann, and over 100 aircraft.
Midway 2005
Today Midway is a National Wildlife Refuge. In 2000, the US Secretary of the Interior also designated Midway as the Battle of Midway National Memorial.
On a 2005 WWII in the Pacific cruise our first stop after leaving Pearl Harbor was Midway Island.
WWII Power Plant/Command Post in 2005
Battle of Midway Memorial on Sand Island in 2005
Albatross on Midway Sand Island 2005
At a Doolittle Raiders Reunion luncheon in 2007 I met a WWII veteran who fought at Midway. He was wondering what Midway looks like today. This post is for him.
In 1949 the Chicago (Illinois) Municipal Airport was renamed the Chicago Midway International Airport in remembrance of the Battle of Midway.
US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital personnel near Notre Dame Cathedral in September 1944. Left to right: Major Paul Kundahl, Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore, Captain Walker Reaves, Captain Philip Morrison, Lieutenant Pearl Domma, Captain John Vieta, and Lieutenant Frances Harrell. Photograph courtesy of Josephine Pescatore Reaves.
After more than four years of German occupation the French 2nd Armored Division and the United States (US) Army 4th Infantry Division, working with the French Resistance (later in WWII called the French Forces of the Interior), liberated the city of Paris, France. The German garrison in the city surrendered to French General Philippe LeClerc on August 25, 1944.
Shortly after the Liberation of Paris, medical personnel of the US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital had an opportunity to visit the city for an afternoon. A US Army truck drove them into Paris and let them off near Notre Dame Cathedral. Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore handed out chocolate and chewing gum to the children. The Americans and Parisians, in spite of the language difference, tried to share their thoughts about the war. After that celebratory afternoon, one of the Parisians they met, Henriette Bellavoine, wrote a letter to LieutenantPescatore.
Paris, 10th of September 1944
Dear little American friend,
I should like very much to have you for my friend. I know that we live very far one from the other, but actually you are in France and I do hope that you will not leave old Europa without coming back to Paris for a longer stay than the first one. And then, I should be really happy to live a little bit with you! You are so sympathetic, so kind! All the American people are very sympathetic, but you are specially charming and lovely. I shall always remember you, young American girl, on the Paris Notre Dame, distributing cigarettes___chocolate and chewing-gum to children all around you___ smiles and kisses to everyone. And I want you to know that your kindness and your loveliness touched every one, as well as your sweets, for everybody all around you said: “How lovely she is!” I was sorry that you did not understand them, and I try to translate the general opinion for you.
Henriette Bellavoine (with glasses) and other Parisians near Notre Dame Cathedral. Photograph courtesy of Josephine Pescatore Reaves.
You certainly appeared to children like a young fairy bringing good things for them (quite a modern fairy, with a helmet on her curly hair!!).
But, I am a bit annoyed and afraid that all of you think that we are a people of beggars. Our sufferings and want during four years are our excuse, specially for children, but well bred people are not very proud.
Yes, we suffered a lot during four years. Morally, because we had never had such a defeat in our past (I hope that it will be a lesson)___ and phisically [sic] because Germans took most of our productions and we starved.
Germans have robbed everything in France and you now find a very poor country__you were kind enough to tell me that Paris is a nice city. Of course it has its past, its mind and its building, but you have seen a very sad and poor Paris! Our shops are empty (they were so beautiful!); there is nothing good to eat, only a little good to drink; there are not any distractions; there is no LIGHT!!
You have not seen the real Paris and I wish you to see it. I am fond of my city (I was born there and I know Paris rather well) and I want you to love it. This will be easy, I think, because you seem to be full of enthusiasm (you have an Italian ascendancy!).
If you like pictures, I shall take you to our best museums. If you like music I shall take you to the Opera. If you like old things I shall take you into the narrow streets of the old Paris.
Come and see me, dear little American friend. I should like to know your country. I should like to know better the American people and you quite specially because you look very charming and sweet and gay. I love your country for its youth, its pep, its strength; I love mine for its past and its mind. You should not leave Europa without spending a few days in Paris; it is worth while. And we could have a good time together and become good friends.
Will you write to me about your actual life. We do not know exactly, in France, what American women do in the U.S. Army and how they live. I should like to know that and to have it known around me.
And now, I want to tell you, once more, how thankful we are to you for your help. What would have become of France if you had not liberated us! When your first soldiers arrived in Paris, we shouted “Bravo” and “Thanks” with all our heart. We do love you because you are very good friends, because we have the same conception of life, the same ideal of freedom. And you are so gay! a so young people! I am sorry that I have no words to tell you how much we admire your strength and your pep. What General Eisenhower does is wonderful, thundering. You may be proud.
I am sorry not to be able to tell you exactly my thoughts about this; I speak English like a poor little child. My school time is far away!! I am much older than you (nearly fourty [sic] years old), but in spite of that difference of age, I think that we could be good friends. Don’t you think so? France and the United States are good friends and one is so much older than the other!!
I left you in a hurry, when I saw you in Paris. This is because I had escaped from my office (I belong to the Administration of the Ville de Paris). I had escaped from my office for a few minutes, to see American soldiers and live in the midst of them for a few minutes. I was so happy to chat with you that I forgot time and had to go back preciputately [sic]. Excuse me.
I hope to hear from you soon. I speak English very badly, but I read it almost fluently and I can read very long letters. You are quite sympathetic to me. I wish with all my heart to see you again, to receive you like a friend of mine, to have a good time with you and I send you my best kisses with my best wishes. Good luck to you.
Henriette Bellavoine 220 boulevard Voltaire Paris XI cme
Story as told to me by Lieutenant Josephine Pescatore Reaves. The photographs and letter are used with her permission.
Lieutenant Pescatore and the US Army 24th Evacuation Hospital did not have the opportunity to return to Paris. The unit moved on and in September 1944 became part of Operation Market Garden in Holland.
US Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois, during WWII. USS Wolverine (on left) alongside the USS Sable.
With possible threats posed by German and Japanese submarines along the United States (US) Atlantic and Pacific coastlines, US Navy Commander Richard L. Whitehead had the idea to train Navy pilots in takeoffs and landings on aircraft carriers in the North American Great Lakes. Ingenuity was necessary to make this happen since there were no US Navy aircraft carriers in the Great Lakes.
Two paddlewheel passenger steamers already operating on the Great Lakes were converted to “sweetwater” aircraft carriers. “Sweetwater” was a Navy slang word of the time used to describe freshwater versus saltwater ships.
One of the two ships converted to an aircraft carrier was the Steam Ship (SS) Seeandbee which was commissioned the United States Ship (USS) Wolverine on August 12, 1942. The other ship, originally the SS Greater Buffalo, was renamed and commissioned the USS Sable on May 8, 1943. Basically, their superstructures were removed, and a flight deck was added.
SS Greater Buffalo before conversion to USS Sable
SS Greater Buffalo during conversion
USS Sable in Lake Michigan with Grumman Wildcat taking off
The homeport for these two “makeshift” aircraft carriers was the Chicago, Illinois, US Navy Pier located on Lake Michigan. Pilots attempting to qualify for aircraft carrier duty flew from US Naval Air Station Glenview, Illinois, to train on these ships.
Over 17,000 pilots were trained in takeoffs and landings. One US Navy aviator who trained on the USS Sable was a future President of the United States, George H. W. Bush.
After WWII, some planes that were lost during training were brought up from the bottom of Lake Michigan. Recovered fighter planes have included a F4U-1 Corsair and a FM-2 Wildcat.
In 1917 Maria Dickin founded an animal charity People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) in the United Kingdom. During WWII she introduced the Dickin Medal which honors the bravery and devotion to duty of animals in wartime. The medal is considered to be the animal equivalent of the British Victoria Cross. Recipients of the award have included pigeons, dogs, horses, and a cat. Below are the stories of three of the animal heroes.
Rip
Southill Street Air Raid Warden Mr. E. King found a stray dog in the Poplar area of East London in 1940. It was discovered that Rip had an instinctive ability to find people buried beneath the rubble of buildings bombed by the German Luftwaffe during the London Blitz (1940-1941). He is credited with saving the lives of over 100 people. Rip was London’s first “search and rescue” dog.
Rip’s Dickin Award Citation: “For locating many air-raid victims during the Blitz of 1940.”
William of Orange
Pigeon, William of Orange, served with the British Army Pigeon Service (APS) in WWII. When elements of the British 1st Airborne Division and the 1st Polish Independent Parachute Brigade were surrounded by German forces near the town of Arnhem, Netherlands, during Operation Market Garden (September 17-25, 1944), the pigeon was released with a message to carry back to England. He flew over 250 miles through bad weather in 4 hours and 25 minutes to his home loft there. His flying speed was calculated at nearly 60 miles per hour or 1,740 yards per minute. The information in the message was used to develop a troop withdrawal plan (called Operation Berlin) which resulted in over 2,000 British and Polish soldiers escaping through German lines.
William of Orange Dickin Medal Citation: “For delivering a message from the Arnhem Airborne Operation in record time for any single pigeon, while serving with the APS in September 1944.”
Judy on the deck of HMS Grasshopper
Judy was an English Pointer born in Shanghai, China, in 1936 and became a British Royal Navy ship mascot on His Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Gnat and later on the gunboat HMS Grasshopper.
The HMS Grasshopper was sunk February 14, 1942, during the Malaya-Singapore Campaign (1941-1942). Judy, with surviving HMS Grasshopper crew members, was marooned for a time on an uninhabited island off of Sumatra. She was able to locate fresh water on the island for them to drink. They eventually made their way to Sumatra, and after trekking 200 miles through the jungle, they were captured by the Japanese and became prisoners of war (POW). The crew members smuggled Judy into the POW camp with them.
It was at the Medan, Indonesia, Gloergoer POW camp that Judy met Royal Air Force Leading Aircraftsman Frank Williams in 1942. In the POW camp Judy would snarl and growl at Japanese guards who were beating POWs. Frank Williams knew this kind of behavior would probably result in Judy being killed. He convinced the camp commandant to register the dog as a POW hoping that would save her life. It worked. Judy became POW #81A.
In 1944, Medan camp POWs, including Judy, were put on the Steam Ship (SS) Van Waryck which was to transport them to Singapore. A torpedo from the British submarine HMS Truculent sank the ship on June 26. Judy, Frank Williams, and other POWs survived the sinking. While they were in the water, it is said Judy would swim over to drowning men, let them grab hold of her, and then swim with them to some debris or wreckage that would help them stay afloat. All were again captured by the Japanese and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Sumatra.
In 1945 WWII ended. Being hidden yet another time, Judy was smuggled back to Britain on the SS Atenor with Frank Williams and other released POWs. Frank Williams credited Judy with saving his life. He said she lifted his morale and gave him a reason to live in order to protect her.
Judy’s Dickin Medal Citation: “For magnificent courage and endurance in Japanese prison camps, which helped to maintain morale among her fellow prisoners and also for saving many lives through her intelligence and watchfulness.”
The award of the Dickin Medal continues today.
Sir William Proctor Smith of Cheshire, England, the original owner and breeder of William of Orange, bought the pigeon from the APS after WWII ended. Smith commented, some 10 years later, that William of Orange was “the grandfather of many outstanding racing pigeons.”
Judy was the only dog registered as a POW in WWII. She spent the rest of her life with Frank Williams after the war.
Thank you to W. O’Konski for his assistance in writing this story.
