WWII Section August 2015

Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the end of WWII. Monday, August 24, 2015

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

“Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

President Franklin Roosevelt, address to Congress after the attack on Pearl Harbor

A Day that lives in infamy When World War I ended in 1918, the United States resumed the attitude of isolation it had maintained before being drawn into that war.

The U.S. maintained the attitude in spite of the fact that Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, had ignored the treaty it agreed to after World War I that said Germany could not raise an army of more than 100,000 people,

and they could not have an army or a navy. By 1939, Germany’s military power rivaled that of the Soviet Union. That same year, Italy joined forces with them.

Soon, Germany annexed Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland. England and France declared war on Germany, but France eventually fell, leaving England on its own.

And in June of 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.

On Dec. 7 of that year, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, ending the United States’ isolationistic attitude. During the next four years, more than 400,000 American men and women died fighting what would become the second world war fought in 35 years.

Stories by Sheryl Schmeckpeper

THE USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii is a reminder of the attack that caused the United States to join the war effort.

“T he G reatest G eneration.”

T hanks.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

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Within months of Pearl Harbor being bombed, thousands of men and women joined the military, including hundreds of Northeast Nebraskans who served in the states and overseas.

The following pages include some of their stories.

From beaches at Normandy to Bastogne — one man’s journey undreds of men — and women — from Northeast Nebraska served during World War II, but not many of them were in two of the war’s most noted battles.

The late Leonard Lehman was 25 years old when, in 1942, the U.S. Army invited him to join. Just months earlier, Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor, causing the United States to enter the war that had been raging in Europe for a couple of years.

The Stanton man left behind a wife and two children to train at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Camp Reynolds in Pennsylvania and Camp Hanks in New York. He soon left for England as part of the Corps of Engineers.

In England, he joined thousands of other men preparing for “the greatest invasion ever attempted in the history of warfare,” said Brett Smith, in a story he wrote about Lehman when Lehman was in his early 80s.

“At about noon (on June 6), it was Leonard’s turn to board the LST transport bound for Omaha Beach. Forty-eight other men boarded the transport with him. By nightfall, only 19 of

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the original 49 men made it through the day,” Smith said.

Yet Lehman was undaunted.

“We knew what we were going there to do, and we went without question,” Lehman said.

“We went in knowing some would die, but we also knew we had a job that had to be done.”

When Lehman and his fellow soldiers arrived, the beach was in “utter chaos.”

When they ran up the beach, they had to be careful to not step on the wounded and dead, Lehman said.

“By then, the water was red with the stain of bloods. As we hit the beach, we had only one thing on our minds. We knew that if we made it to the bank at the base of the cliffs, we would be safe — at least for the moment.”

Once inland, Lehman and other engineers were given the task of building an airstrip where gliders could land and deliver troops and supplies.

Supplies didn’t include shelters of any kind, so Lehman and the others spent the first month in France living in the elements, sleep-

ing in the mud and wearing the same clothing they had worn during the invasion.

Eventually, Lehman and his unit chased the German Army through Paris and were working their way north when they had to stop and rebuild a bridge over the Rhine River that had been destroyed.

From France, they moved to Bastogne, Belgium where they became entangled in what would be called the Battle of the Bulge. There they endured freezing weather and heavy snowfall — all without the aid of winter clothing.

During the battle, Lehman was wounded in the leg and the hip. Despite the injuries, he stayed with his unit.

“You didn’t want to get separated from your unit, and I knew that would happen if I went back to get treated,” he told Smith. “Those were the guys you knew — your buddies. You knew you could trust them and didn’t want to leave them.”

Lehman carried shrapnel in his body for the rest of his life.

What does the ‘D’ in D-Day stand for?

The “D” does not stand for deliverance, doom, debarkation or similar words. In fact, it does not stand for anything.

The “D” is derived from the word day.

“D-Day” means the day on which a military operation begins.

The term “D-Day” has been used for many different operations, but it is now generally only used to refer to the Allied landings in Normandy on 6 June 1944.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

Soldier served while fiancée waited ELIGH — Vince Thiele sacrificed more than several years of his life to the war effort.

He sacrificed his beloved 1912 Model

N T.

The Holt County man was just a teenager when he hitched a team of horses to the car that had been abandoned in the trees on the farm where he lived with his family.

He wanted to get it running before the United States was drawn into the war. And so he did.

Thiele By 1940, it was buzzing around Holt County with Thiele behind the wheel.

“I liked that little thing,” he said. “It didn’t have any lights or license plates, but it was such a handy little car.”

Thiele left the little car behind when he joined the military on Sept. 4, 1941 — three months before Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

He was 21 years old and working on

the family farm at the time.

He took the train to Fort Crook near Omaha and from there to Missouri where he took his basic training. Thiele was home on leave when war was declared.

While at home, he spent time with Marie Pistulka. a school teacher from Fairfax, S.D. The couple had been dating for a while, and “she wanted to get married,” Thiele said.

Instead, Thiele said he would send her every paycheck he earned so she could put the money in the bank. That way, they would have some money to work with when the war was over.

After his leave was over, Thiele eventually landed in California, and from there he went to Iran where he helped supply troops in Europe with purified water and other supplies.

He wasn’t impressed with the conditions there, especially the temperatures that climbed to 130 degrees at times, and the sand, which made riding a motorcycle a challenge.

Still, leaving wasn’t an option. And at least he wasn’t in the line of fire. So Thiele persevered for more than two years. He arrived back in the United States in October 1945, just a month after the war officially ended.

Marie Pistulka had been true to her word and saved every penny Thiele sent her while he was away. The couple

COURTESY PHOTO

VINCE THIELE pulled this Model T out of the trees near his parents’ home and got it running before joining the military just prior to the start of World War II. married in November 1945 during a ceremony witnessed by Thiele’s parents and 11 siblings. They moved to a farm in Wheeler County where they had five children.

Now 96, he lives in an assisted living facility in Neligh. His wife is deceased as are three of his children.

Thiele misses them, he said. And he misses the little Model T that he worked so hard to restore.

Evidently, his family thought it would serve him better melted down and rebuilt into some war machine because they donated it to the scrap drive while he was away — much to his chagrin.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

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Wayne airman killed in freak accident

AYNE — Harold Thompson made his way across the compound that had been home for a few months.

He had just finished eating his evening meal and was headed back to his quarters.

It was Christmas Eve. But there would be no colored lights glowing from the trees.

There would be no carols sung, no gifts unwrapped, no ...

This was not Thompson’s first Christmas away from home. The Wayne native had joined the Army Air Corps more than two years earlier — just months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, catapulting the United States into war.

Allied forces had landed in the country six months earlier and were steadily making their way to Germany. In fact, near the border between France and Belgium, Americans and Germans were engaged in a fierce battle that would claim thousands of lives.

Thompson was in France flying as the top turret gunner in a B-26. He had completed 16 missions already and knew there were more in his future. He knew that each one could be his last.

He also knew that the German Luftwaffe probably didn’t care that it was Christmas Eve and would happily have attacked the base if given the opportunity, which is why a blackout had been ordered. No light shone from lamps or spilled out of windows. Vehicles, too, traveled without their headlights shining.

It’s impossible to know what Thompson was thinking about as he crossed the darkened compound that night. Perhaps he was contemplating the meal he had just eaten or wondering what his wife was doing to celebrate the day. Or perhaps he was thinking about his unborn child or saying a silent prayer that the war would soon be over.

It’s also impossible to know if he heard the truck rumbling in the distance or even considered what direction it was moving. *** Harold Thompson and Eveline Hesemann met at a dance in the early 1940s.

He was a farm boy, and she was a farm girl.

Ten months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Thompson enlisted in the Army Air Corps. In the spring of 1944, Eve-

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JAKE WRAGGE/DAILY NEWS

EVELINE THOMPSON of Wayne holds a copy of an article about her husband’s death during World War II. line traveled to Louisiana to see him, and on May 8, 1944, they were married.

A few months later, Thompson was shipped overseas, and Eveline came back to Wayne to wait out the war, to plan for the baby she was carrying, and to continue caring for her younger siblings who had been in her charge since their parents died.

She worked at a variety store downtown, wrote letters to her husband and anxiously awaited correspondence from him, which arrived regularly.

Then, “all of a sudden, the letters stopped, and I knew something was wrong,” Eveline said.

One day in mid-January her husband’s uncle knocked on the door. In his hand was a telegram. He had been at the train station when the message arrived and volunteered to deliver the news to his nephew’s wife.

Telegrams sent during wars rarely bring good news. And this one was no different.

It said that Harold Thompson had been hit by a truck while walking across the base compound on Christmas Eve. He had died from his injuries and was buried in France on Dec. 27, 1944, which was his 25th birthday. ►Please see AIRMAN, page 7-A

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

First Special Forces top soldiers

By SHERYL SCHMECKPEPER living @norfolkdailynews.com

uan Pohlman’s father, Sigvold Skarr, served in the military from January to November 1941, after which he was given a hardship release and joined the Army Reserves.

The Nebraska man and his family moved to Baltimore, Md., where Skarr worked in the Glen L. Martin plant, which manufactured airplanes. After the war, they returned to Nebraska.

Pohlman now lives in Stanton.

One of Skarr’s friends became part of the first Special Forces unit, which included American and Canadian soldiers.

Activated July 20, 1942, at Fort Henry Harrison, Mont., members of the Special Forces were hand-picked from their respective units. They received training in demolitions, jumping, mountain and winter warfare, hand-to-hand combat, night-patrolling tactics, amphibious training, and scout and raider tactics.

The unit fought in the Aleutian Islands, France and Italy. Its initial mission was eliminating a Panzer division entrenched along the slopes of Monte La Difensa and Monte La Rementanea in Italy.

During the war, Skarr and his friend, Art Neuner, communicated often.

Neuner’s letters, which Pohlman has preserved, provide insights into life in

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“Things seem to be coming to a head over here at last.

‘Jerry’ is on the run in Italy, and the long-awaited invasion of France has begun.”

ART NEUNER SPECIAL FORCES

the Special Forces. Following are excerpts from some of the letters.

Aug. 25, 1942, Helena, Mont.

“This force is being trained to fight commando style, and we have been promised action in three or four months.

“In two weeks, I became a qualified parachutist. After eight days, made first jump.

Earned an extra $50 per month after qualifying. This parachute jumping is really quite a thrill. You can imagine how I felt standing in the door of a plane flying at about 1,200 feet waiting for the signal to step out. Then you seem to float in the air for about three seconds before you feel a slight jerk. Then you look up and see the most beautiful piece of silk you ever saw.”

Oct. 1, 1942 “Day after yesterday, we made a 40-mile march with full pack. It was a new experience for me ... and a tiring one.”

In that same letter, he related the story about nearly being killed during training to throw grenades. One of the fellows, “who was just a little drunk,” pulled a pin out of the grenade while he was standing in the middle of a group of men. Lucky the guy didn’t release the spring or some of us would be having a military funeral right now.”

While in Montana, the troops learned how to

ski and trained to climb mountains, which, he said, is difficult in the cold and snow since your hands get cold and the rocks can be slippery.

March 18, 1943

By March, Neuner recognized that he still wasn’t a good skier. He talked about the hundreds of spills he had taken and the “jolt” it causes when carrying a full pack and rifle.

“The war seems to be progressing very favorably now — that is if news reports can be believed. Hope it continues,” he said.

April 21, 1943 Troops had been transferred to Camp Bradford, Va., where they received amphibious training. He soon moved to Fort Ethan Allen, Vt., where he talked about his desire to finally see action. “... a big Allied drive on Europe should begin shortly. Hope it will be as successful as the African campaign. I sure would like to get over there soon. With Germany defeated, I don’t think Japan could stand up against the combined strength of U.S. and Britain very long. I imagine Hitler is counting his days.”

Jan 7, 1944 In that letter, Neuner talks about leaving the Aleutian Islands quickly and regretted not being able to talk to a man who had trained with him and Skaar.

“Our first weeks up there were pretty tough ones. Food wasn’t too abundant and candy bars were worth their weight in gold. One evening, Stix (the friend) paid Peanuts and I a visit and brought along a sack of candy and food that he said he had laying around in his hut.”

Two of the Aleutian Islands, located west of Alaska, had been taken by the Japanese in June of 1942.

June 10, 1944 Italy “We are always on the go and lately it has been worse than ever. A glance at the headlines will verify this. History is in the making, but it’s a lot of work. Last week, I was hit by a piece of shrapnel and put out of action temporarily. I hope to be back ... in about a week.

“Things seem to becoming to a head over here at last. ‘Jerry’ is on the run in Italy, and the long-awaited invasion of France has begun, and apparently with great success. Then, too, I think that we can be sure that Russia will continue her fine work. Considering all of this really gives me a morale boost. It makes me feel rather confident that ‘Jerry’ will be forced to throw in the towel before many more moons have gone. It will be a happy day when this bloody business is over ... .”

(In a later letter, he writes that his unit included the first Americans to fight their way into Paris.)

September 26, 1944 France “As I am right on the front, you are really indebted for these few lines to Jerry who, for the moment, appears content to lay low. But he is like a fox, and we must be alert at all times or his habit of coming out of his hole and acting up at a most inopportune time will catch us off guard. However, if he feels lucky, let him come.

His reception is ready.

“The way things are going now, I sort of look for hostilities to cease over here in Europe by Christmas. Maybe I am a little too optimistic, but I think not. The Allied armies are pressing Hitler’s boys pretty hard now, and they are putting up their last fight — I hope.”

Germany April 9, 1945 “A quarter of the new year has passed us by already, and it is hard to realize that a hundred and some odd days have gotten away so easily.

True, there has been a lot of history made over here in Europe in the past three months, and many people have died ... . In another two or three months, the Germans should be beaten to a finish, and then very likely I can look forward to a trip to the Pacific.”

Oct. 22, 1945 “Hope all of you are as well and happy as I am. I’ve been a civilian for the past two weeks, so you see I have good reason for being happy.

All I have to do now is quit celebrating and go to work, and I’ll be back in the old groove again.

It’s a great feeling, believe me.

“Since last June, I have been stationed in Norway. I am afraid Norway is hurt pretty badly.

Food seems to be more scarce there than in any of the other countries we’ve been through.

“The boys are returning by the thousands now, and I hope they are home to stay. Whatever happens from here out, whether good or bad, is up to our politicians. The soldiers have finished their end of the job.”

Jan. 4, 1946 St. Louis, Mo. “As you know, this was the first Christmas I could spend with the folks for a few years, and I suppose I let my celebrating get a little out of hand once in a while.

“For two months, I have been working, but I still can’t make up my mind whether I like the idea or not. If at all possible ... I intend to take a good trip and go as far as circumstances, financial and otherwise, will permit. No doubt, this is all very foolish for someone as old as I, but my foolishness couldn’t possibly hurt anyone but myself, so there really is no reason why I shouldn’t get the bug out of my system. Then I’ll come back broke and happy in the good old G.I. way.”

The numbers Around 16 million Americans served in World War II. On average, they spent 16 months overseas.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

Local soldiers saw plenty of intense action

Editor’s Note: Following are brief accounts of activities of a few men who have ties to Norfolk who served during World War II. *** oward Snyder was born and raised in Norfolk and moved to California just before entering high school. They lived at 511 Philip Ave. Snyder was piloting a B-17 bomber (named for his daughter, Susan Ruth), that was shot down by two German FockeWulf 190 fighters over the French- Belgian border on Feb. 8, 1944. Two of the 10 crewmen died, but most lived, including Snyder who was hidden by the people of Belgium through an underground network of safehouses. Snyder eventually made it to France where he joined the French resistance. He was with them until France was liberated, at which time he re-joined the Americans. *** Ted Ring Jr. of Norfolk was a glider pilot with the 82nd Airborne who took part in all major airborne landings in Europe from D-Day on June 6, 1944, to the crossing of the Rhine River.

During that landing, Ring’s glider was set on fire by enemy flax, causing Ring to have to “plunge” through the windshield to escape, then beat out the flames on his clothing by rolling on the ground. Four of the eight-men crew died.

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Ring’s first combat came on D-Day when he flew a glider with 31 members of a mortar and rifle team. He landed the glider, which had been hit by flax in water that was waist deep. Everyone survived.

In a Daily News article, Ring said his roughest experience came in September of 1944 when he lay in a foxhole near Groesbeck, Holland, under heavy enemy mortar fire for 11½ hours. *** Loren Zimmer of Pierce was a waist gunner on a “Flying Fortress” when the bomber developed engine trouble, and the crew had to escape.

“The Germans really jumped on us then, and I saw three other American bombers shot down,” he told the Daily News.

Zimmer was hit by enemy fire, but he and most of the crew survived and were rescued by French citizens who hid them until the country was liberated. *** Otto Winter of Norfolk was awarded the Bronze Star in 1945 for heroism in action.

He refused to back down when trying to take a hill in Italy held by the enemy, even though he had “a limited number of men.”

Winter was in the Fifth Army, 337th “Wolverine” Infantry Regiment, 85th “Custer” division.

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Costly conflict 38.8 percent (6,332,000) of U.S. servicemen and all servicewomen were volunteers 61.2 percent (11,535,000) were draftees Average duration of service: 33 months Overseas service: 73 percent served overseas, with an average of 16 months abroad Combat survivability (out of 1,000): 8.6 were killed in action, 3 died from other causes and 17.7 received non-fatal combat wounds

Airman

Continued from Page 5-A — *** Today, Eveline Thompson leans on her walker when moving around her house that she shares with her son, Harold, who was born the April after her husband died.

Now 96, she’s long been retired from Wayne State College where she began working in 1964. That was after she had earned her GED and graduated from Manpower Training School in Lincoln where, in six months, she earned a degree in business administration.

Harold Jr. was in high school when his mother moved to Lincoln to attend school.

So he stayed with friends in Wayne and finished school. After graduation, he took a job with Carhart Lumber. He retired three

Non-combat jobs: 38.8 percent of enlisted personnel had rear echelon assignments — administrative, support or manual labor.

Average base pay: enlisted men was 71.33 per month; officers were $203.50 per month.

In the five months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 750,000 women volunteered to work at armament plants. By 1944, around 3.5 million women worked with 6 million men on assembly lines, building entire cargo ships in 17 days.

years ago after 46 years with the company.

Eveline only has to look at her son to be reminded of her husband. But Harold Jr.’s memories of his father are confined to photographs, a uniform, the Purple Heart the elder Harold earned for his service to his country.

Those things and visits to the grave near Wayne where the elder Harold’s remains were reburied in 1948.

The U.S.. military returned the cemetery where Thompson had been buried to the country of France, Eveline said. Soldiers buried there were either returned to the United States or re-buried in another cemetery in France.

Eveline chose to have her husband sent home. She never remarried.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

Diploma received long after vet left high school

ack Koehler graduated from high school in 1999 — at the age of 74.

The world was at war, so school would have to wait. The Norfolk man left high school to heed Uncle Sam’s call in 1943 when he was just 18.

School would have to wait.

Koehler chose the U.S. Navy because his friend’s father was in that branch of the service and he “thought it would be a good deal,” Koehler said.

After training, he boarded a ship that took him to the Admiralty Islands, a group of islands 200 miles from New Guinea JAKE WRAGE in the South Pacific Ocean. JACK KOEHLER holds After taking the the dog tag he wore islands from the during the war.

Japanese, Allies established a base that provided support for the war in the Pacific.

Ships often docked on the island to receive supplies that had been transported there. Koehler said he remembers seeing six aircraft carriers at one time near the island waiting for supplies..

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Koehler’s duty was to maintain the equipment and the infrastructure that had been built on the islands, he said.

The island is just 2 degrees off the equator, causing it to be hot and muggy. The average daytime temperature is between 85 and 90, and the islands receive around 130 inches of rain a year.

The damp conditions caused a variety of issues for people living there. Koehler developed a fungus on his hands, ears and feet, causing his skin to “look like raw hamburger,” he said.

Although he was treated for the condition, Koehler said he thinks it still lingers in his body because of ongoing skin problems.

When he first arrived on the island, Koehler and the others lived in tents, he said. They later moved to Quonset huts.

To make life a little easier, he and a few of his buddies put their ingenuity to work and built an automatic washing machine out of scrapped parts and a barrel.

“We worked and washed clothes,” he said.

There were some exciting moments, such as the time an ammunition ship exploded.

“The island just shook,” Koehler said.

“An officer on the ship had just come off the ship. He just turned white.”

Koehler was home on leave when the war ended. He served on the USS Enter-

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JAKE WRAGGE/DAILY NEWS

JACK KOEHLER holds the high school diploma he received in 1999 — 56 years after leaving high school to join the military during World War II. prise after the war and was discharged in 1946, after which he returned to Norfolk.

“I didn’t have anyplace else to go,” he said.

Koehler “kicked around” for a while before taking a job at an optical company

where he worked for 33 years.

He finally received his high school diploma.

At that time, an effort was made to award degrees to men who left high school to join the military.

JACK KOEHLER (left) is shown on the Admiralty Islands in 1944.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

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Northeast Nebraska man encountered victims of Holocaust

MERSON — They weren’t pilots or paratroopers. They didn’t land on the beach on D-Day morning or survive the horrid conditions experienced during the Battle of the Bulge.

But thousands of men — and women — served in situations that were just as dangerous and vital to the war.

Among them was the late Harold Lueders, an Emerson man who served with the 636 Tank Destroyer Battalion.

“He didn’t talk about it much,” said Lueders’ son, Larry.

But Tom Sherman, a fellow member of the battalion, wrote a book about the unit’s activities that, because it is out of print, now costs around $250 to purchase.

It chronicles the life of the men, many of whom hailed from Northeast Nebraska and surrounding states, Lueders said.

The unit was activated on Dec. 15, 1941, at Camp Bowie, Texas, just a week after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

In April 1943, they arrived in Algeria and were soon in Italy where they performed artillery missions, did guard duty and trained British troops in October and November.

They spent the next year supporting assaults in Italy, finally entering Rome in June of 1944. By August, they were in France .

In late March 1945, they struck the Siegfried Line, and in April, they crossed

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Millions killed It is estimated that 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, including more than 1 million children. That number includes around six million Jews. Other groups targeted were Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, the disabled and Roma. the Rhine River with the 14th Armored Division.

They ended the war in southern Bavaria near Tegernsee.

All told, they had 21 months of steady combat, Lueders said, much of which was brutal and unrelenting.

As if that wasn’t enough, they witnessed other ravages of war when they encountered concentration camps.

By then, we were “tough combat veterans” with more than 500 days of combat behind them, Sherman wrote.

“The first concentration camp, I didn’t know what it was. I saw piles of rags in the yard along the fence.

At first, I thought this must be the town dump . . .then I realized there were human bodies, little more than skeletons, inside the rags. Some were still moving and making noises like wounded animals. Then as we passed the gates, we saw others who could still move around.

“Of course, we wanted to stop and help them, but we were told to keep moving as there were doctors and others following us who could take care of them.

“We were told not to give them any of our ra-

tions as the rations were much too rich for them in their starved condition and would probably make them violently sick or kill them.

“At one point, we passed a dead horse with about a dozen of these starving people tearing it like animals and eating the meat raw. The thing that sickened me the most was the young boys and girls who had been starved and worked until they had the faces and bodies of old people.

“I and I’m sure all of the rest of our soldiers knew why the war had to be fought and won after we had seen what the Nazis had done to these people.”

Later, some of the men with the unit witnessed the surrender of Hermann Goering, the head of Hitler’s Luftwaffe, or Air Force.

This is how Sherman described it: “On May 1, men with the 636th were given permission to secure a castle in Austria and wait for further orders. The next day, Hermann Goering arrived with an entourage, including his mistress. One of his cars was a bullet-proof Mercedes 300, 4-door limousine, with windows that were around 1!-R-inches thick. The following day,

Goering was loaded into an airplane. (He was so fat that he had to be lifted into the back seat).”

The limo later was commandeered by members of the 636th and used by the Red Cross field service.

Like many American soldiers, Harold Lueders brought home a number of souvenirs from the war, including a belt he said belonged to Goering.

After the war, Lueders returned to Northeast Nebraska and spent most of his life farming.

Now and then, his son said, he would visit someone from the area who had also served in the unit, and they would talk about their shared experiences.

He also attended some of the unit’s reunions. But Larry suspects his dad always fought the war in ways he didn’t talk about.

For instance, the elder Lueders sometimes jumped or reacted to thunder or noises. Harold Lueders died in 2011.

JAKE WRAGGE/DAILY NEWS

LARRY LUEDERS holds the belt that, according to his father, was taken from Hermann Goering when Goering surrendered. Goering was the head of the German Luftwaffe.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

The war impacted almost every American in one way or another. Small children collected scrap metal.

Women managed without their beloved nylon and silk stockings. Everyone rationed sugar, gasoline and other commodities. Following are stories about life on the homefront during those four tumultuous years.

Metal, kitchen grease saved to help war effort etermined to aid the war effort, Ethel Cole of Emmet was named the chairwoman of the states’ Women’s Salvage Activities.

The mother of five — two in college, two in high school and one just starting school — helped her husband in his hay business and spent her free time sewing until the war and its salvage work intervened.

“I believe it is the most important work the woman at home can do to bring an early victory and our boys home again. Every woman in the state of Nebraska can have a part in victory if she will follow the simple steps prescribed by the Women’s Unit of the Salvage Division for the salvaging of household items.

“Men can’t save the grease, we must do it. They can’t save the tin cans, that is our job. No man can know when the last dying gasp has gone from our precious silk and nylon hose and they can be turned in for salvage. Only a woman can do these things,” Cole said.

Cole’s duties included coordinating county efforts and promoting the cause of salvaging everything from cooking grease to scrap metal.

During her tenure, she communicated via letter with people around the state. Luckily, she saved many of those letters and documents, which now belong to her daughter, Lois Cole Schaffer of O’Neill.

Following are information and excerpts from the text that show the commitment most people had to supporting the war effort.

“One tablespoonful of kitchen grease fires five bullets.

One pound of kitchen fats makes enough dynamite to blow up a bridge,” were the words often heard.

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Lots of scrap Nebraskans gathered 67,000 tons of scrap metal in only three weeks during the national scrap drive in 1942.

Slogans like that prompted the notion of saving kitchen grease. In June of 1942, a national program was begun for collection of the product. The government set a quota of 16,667,000 pounds per month for the entire country and 156,723 pounds for Nebraska.

Beginning in December of 1943, housewives received two red ration points and 4 cents for each pound of grease turned in.

“When we get every housewife in Nebraska to save one tablespoon a day, we will fill our quota and supply our share of munitions and medicines,” Cole wrote to the county leaders.. “The teaspoon left in the pan from the breakfast eggs; always some fat can be skimmed from the soup or the stew. All of these will save the fat, fill our quota and help our boys at the front,” she wrote. Cole also encouraged county leaders to promote the cause in newspapers and by doing programs at community gatherings.

They saved fats trimmed from meat (boiled down), pan juices, skimmings from stews and gravies, even water from boiling sausage (chilled and skimmed). The grease had to be free of water and juice, strained through a finemesh sieve to remove impurities, and stored in a cool and dry place, preferably refrigerated. When a pound had been collected in a tin can, the housewife took it in to her

grocer or butcher, who would return her tin can since tin was scarce too!

Often, meat packers and renderers picked up the salvaged fat and transported it to processing centers.

In addition to saving kitchen fat, everyone saved tin, metal, nylon, rubber and more, Cole said. In fact, from Oct. 1 to Oct. 23, Nebraskans set out to gather 92,000 tons of scrap iron and steel In one edition of Cole’s “Salvage News” newsletters, she explained that silk ribbons, dresses and petticoats and knitted underwear were not being collected, while silk and nylon stockings were. The process of reclaiming silk and nylon from hosiery had not been adjusted to other items, she said.

In addition to needing silk for parachutes, it was also needed for powder bags for “big guns” because it doesn’t leave any ash. Paper, cardboard and magazines were also collected. Scrap metal was needed for making steel.

To promote the cause, Cole and others wrote articles for newspapers, made presentations at community events and created posters that were displayed around town.

Their message was simple: “Visualize, if you can, a boy, perhaps your boy, who is out there in a fighter or a bomber flying and fighting over vast, unknown spaces. Or another boy sweating at the controls of the guns of a tank, Or yet another boy sailing the seven seas, every subject to the onslaught of bombs from above or the torpedoes from below. We can go on and on picturing these boys scattered across the battlefields of the earth meeting manfully every conceivable situation of modern death-dealing war and making no complaint,” Cole wrote.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

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Children helped war effort in their own way Editor’s Note: Adults fought the war by donning uniforms and working in factories that produced war materials. Children grappled with the challenges of war in their own way. Following are memories of some of those World War II children. *** s a youth growing up in Gering during World War II, I remember that time very well.

During the Saturday afternoon movies — which cost 7 cents — there was a short film with graphic detail about the war. We boys would go home and relive those scenes with our toy guns.

There was a German POW camp near there, also. The men would do field work in the summer. My buddies and I would get hired to top beets and shake potatoes from vines nearby. There were armed guards around the fields.

They were loaded into trucks and taken back to their fenced barracks where they were treated well as I could hear them talking and laughing.

All were sent back to Germany after the war, but some came back later with their families to live in the United States.

Nivan Hornik, Norfolk *** “Any time we bought canned goods to use, we would take off the label, wash the cans, remove the bottom, put the top and bottom inside the cans, then step on them to flatten them. This was being done in every home across the state.

“Every couple of months, my mother had to go to Lincoln to an office that took care of the shipping of the scrap and tracked it. The office was in the Capitol building, a long elevator to a tiny room.”

“I was still in high school when it was announced the war was over. Of course, we had an assembly of students and staff. We sang ‘God Bless America’ and every song

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for the Marines, Army, Navy, and the National Anthem.

Lois Schaffer, O’Neill *** “We were pretty self-sufficient (during the war). Dad worked at the Kester Planing Mill, and he loved to garden.

Mom was the canner, cook and baker,” said Marie Krohn, who still lives in Neligh.

She remembers using honey and syrup to sweeten baked goods because sugar was rationed. She and her sister, like thousands of other children, pulled their red wagon around town when collecting scrap metal to contribute to the scrap drive.

When the war ended, she and her family attended the celebration at the theater downtown.

Marie Krohn, Neligh *** Twelve-year-old Ruby (Lehman) Schulz was playing outside with her friends and relatives when her mother hollered and told them that Pearl Harbor had been bombed.

Eventually, two of her brothers would serve. Leonard landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day and was wounded twice in the Battle of the Bulge. Raymond was in the Philippines preparing to invade Japan when the war ended.

Like other children, Schulz and her siblings gathered scrap metal, which they hauled to the collection point at the high school. Bed springs, washing machines -- anything metal was added to the pile until it grew to be 15feet high.

They even saved foil candy and gum wrappers that was wrapped in a big ball, Schulz said.

“We knew we were doing our part,” she added.

The family grew a victory garden with tomatoes, potatoes, beans and much more. What could be preserved was preserved, Schulz said. So were apples, berries and any other available fruit.

Her brothers hunted squirrels, rabbits and pigeons and other game to help feed the family that included 10 children. The men also fished, which added to the family’s supply of food, she said.

The war gave rise to some creative substitutions, including oleo, a substance made of vegetable oil that replaced butter that was rationed.

“It was like hard lard,” Schulz said. And it came with a capsule of yellow liquid that was mixed into the oleo to give it the yellow color and make it more appetizing.

During the war, Schulz worked for a dairy where she washed and filled milk bottles. The 50 cents per week she earned went a long way considering it cost just 10 cents to go to a movie.

She and her siblings saved their quarters until they had enough to buy a war bond, which the government sold to help fund the effort.

With two brothers serving overseas, Schulz and the rest of her family waited patiently for letters and news from them. In fact, she said they went to the post office everyday in anticipation of correspondance.

“I wrote to one brother so often I can still recite his number,” she said.

A couple of days stand out in Schulz’s mind, including June 6, 1944, or D-Day, which was the day the Allies landed in France. Everyone talked about it, she said, including clerks and customers in the stores.

When Pres. Franklin Roosevelt died, everyone cried, she added.

It was hard to believe the man who had led the country through some of the worst years of its existence was dead.

“He had such a dynamic voice,” Schulz said of Roosevelt. When the war ended, “we prayed and thanked God,” she said.

Ruby Schulz, Norfolk

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

Families proud of Blue Star WING — World War II impacted the lives of most Americans in one way or another.

For some, supporting the effort involved going without sugar, nylons or a new pair of shoes.

For others, it meant coming face to face with the enemy and hoping to live through it.

For Norma Fry, it meant leaving her home in Neligh and moving to Addison, Ill. Fry, the daughter of Alvin and Margaret Gibson, was just 9 years old when she and her family heard that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. They were driving back to Neligh from Norfolk when the announcer on the radio broke in with the news, Fry said.

“We couldn’t believe it,” she said.

The country mobilized quickly, Fry said. So, instead of making cars to satisfy the needs of the public, factories were pounding out tanks, jeeps, airplanes and other war-related equipment.

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THAT CAUSED a slowdown in Fry’s father’s business, which was autobody repair.

Fry’s father learned about work in a Buick factory near the Chicago suburb of Addison, Ill., that, because of the war, had transitioned to making airplane motors. So the family of five closed their house and headed east.

There they shared a house with a Ger-

SHERYL SCHMECKPEPER/DAILY NEWS

NORMA FRY of Ewing holds a book listing men and women from Antelope County who served during WWII, including her brother. man couple who were first-generation immigrants.

Despite the fact that America was at war with their home country, there was no animosity between the family and the German couple, Fry said.

“WE LIKED the couple; they told us stories,” she said. “They had family in the German Army . . . but their loyalties were to the United States.”

The couple were not the only Germans in town. In fact, much of the town of Ad-

PROUD TO HONOR OUR VETERANS The sacrifices made by our veterans both then and now and their willingness to fight in defense of our nation merit our deep respect and praise.

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FRY’S YOUNGER brother wore a Navy uniform and played with his collection of soldier, sailor and Marine toys.

“It was always ‘our boys,’ ” when referring to soldiers,” she said. “And they could do anything. Even children felt we were caught up in a huge effort together. We haven’t felt that way since then.”

Fry understood the sentiment more than some because her older half-brother, Alvin, had joined the military before the war started and eventually became a navigator on a B-17 bomber that flew missions over the Pacific.

“We worried about my brother a lot. We prayed for him ... and wrote a lot of letters.

We were proud of our Blue Star,” she said.

(A blue star in the window indicated that someone in the family was in the military.)

Even though she was fairly young during the war, Fry had responsibilities at home because her mother worked in a flower shop.

She often prepared the evening meal for her parents and didn’t mind doing it, she said.

In the evenings, Fry often helped her mother make floral hairpieces called gar-

denia collars that were sold in the flower shop.

War news was the topic of most conversations. They kept track of what the Russian Army was doing on the eastern front; they were angered when they learned how Allied prisoners were being mistreated in Japanese prisoner of war camps.

“We wanted our boys to be stationed in Europe. We didn’t think they would be treated as bad (if captured),” she said.

But the news about the Jews being murdered in concentration camps didn’t reach them until the war was almost over, she said.

Despite being a young teenager at the time, Fry vividly remembers April 12, 1945, which is the day President Franklin D. Roosevelt died.

“We thought he was immortal,” she said.

Indeed, Roosevelt hid his physical problems well, so his death came as a surprise to many.

Four months later, the news that the war was over brought a sense of euphoria to the town of Addison, just as it did around the world.

“Everyone was happy because our loved ones would be coming home,” she said.

Citizens of Addison gathered for singing and patriotic programs, Fry said.

IN TIME, the family returned to Neligh, even though Fry’s mother would have liked to have stayed in Illinois, Fry said.

“Dad had a business; we had a house.

Dad wanted to come home,” she said. So they did.

So did Fry’s older brother who stayed in the military and retired in 1972. He died in 1992.

The family lived in Neligh until 1949 when they purchased the drug store in Ewing and moved there.

Fry eventually married Wayne Fry, and the couple operated a 500-head dairy farm near Ewing. Wayne Fry is deceased, but the family still operates the farm.

Today, Fry’s most vivid memory from the war is seeing her brother in his neatly pressed uniform, and “busting my buttons as a little sister, and being so proud of him and all of the young men and women,” she said.

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dison was made up of new German immigrants, many of whom who sent their children to the same Lutheran school Fry and her siblings attended, she said.

While they missed their friends and relatives back home, Fry and her siblings adjusted quickly, she said.

They also did what most children were doing at the time. They collected scrap metal, chewing gum wrappers and other aluminum and metal items, as well as newspaper, string and other products that were recycled into war supplies.

At home, Fry’s mother and cooks around the country saved kitchen grease, which was needed to make glycerine, an ingredient in explosives.

Patriotism was high, Fry said.

School days started with the Pledge of Allegiance while holidays — such as the Fourth of July — were celebrated with patriotic programs. In fact, Fry recited the Gettysburg Address during a Fourth of July celebration. Another Fourth of July included a play about Betsy Ross.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

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A CLOUD of smoke billows above the city of Hiroshima, Japan, after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city on Aug. 6, 1945.

Japan surrenders he war in Europe ended in May of 1945, and by early summer, it was clear that Japan’s days were numbered. The blockade and bombing of Japanese cities had devastated the country. Allied troops were poised to invade when, on Aug. 6, President Truman ordered the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. When the Japanese persisted, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 8.

Japan officially surrendered on Sept. 2, 1945.

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NORFOLK DAILY NEWS, MONDAY, AUGUST 24, 2015

Wayne man, mother dedicate lives to Legion W

AYNE — Harold Thompson Jr. honored his father the only way he knew how.

He dedicated his life to an organization for sons and grandsons of men and women who are eligible to be members of the American Legion.

Thompson’s father — also Harold — joined the Army Air Corps in the fall of 1942, and was assigned to the 320 Bomb Group. There he trained to be a top turret gunner and armorer on a B-26 Marauder.

Two years later, he was in Africa, then in Sicily and Italy where he received the Air Medal for the aerial attack on a railroad line near Dolce. He later was part of the bombardment of the Siegfried line near Otterback, Germany, for which he received Oak Leaf Clusters.

He then relocated to LaHarve, Frances.

IN ALL, he flew 16 missions before being hit by a truck while walking across the base compound during a blackout. It was Christmas Eve 1944.

Harold Jr. was born the following April.

He graduated from Wayne High School in 1964, and from Nebraska Vocational Technical College at Milford in 1966. In January of 1967, he began a 46-year career with Carhart Lumber Company in Wayne, working as carpenter foreman, bookkeeper, purchasing coordinator and computer data management. A few years later, he OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

“It’s the only program of the American Legion that promotes and raises money for other (Legion) programs.”

HAROLD THOMPSON SONS OF THE AMERICAN LEGION

joined the Norfolk squadron of the “Sons,” which had been organized in 1974. It was the first squadron chartered in Nebraska.

“It’s the only program of the American Legion that promotes and raises money for other (Legion) programs,” Thompson said.

For instance, the Sons group supports the Legion’s national emergency fund, its Child Welfare Foundation, Cornhusker Boys’ State and college scholarship fund.

OVER TIME, Thompson served as a number of offices with the Sons at the local, state and national levels, including the national vice commander for the Midwest area, national historian and assistant sergeant at arms, national executive committeeman, detachment commander and squadron commander.

In 2014, he was appointed the national assistant adjutant emeritus for his 25 years of service in that position and for belonging to the national organization for 35 years.

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HAROLD THOMPSON Jr. holds his father’s World War II uniforms. The elder Thompson was killed in France before his son was born.

While Harold Jr. served with the “Sons” group, his mother, Eveline, poured her energy into the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars auxiliaries. She served as district president of the Legion and VFW auxiliaries, and held a number of offices at the local level with both organizations.

The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization.

Its purpose was — and is — to serve the men and women who had served in the military. Membership swiftly grew to over 1 million, and local posts sprang up across the country.

cal contests for students to social services for the poor, flag advocacy and many more.

The VFW dates to 1899 when veterans of the Spanish-American War (1898) and the Philippine Insurrection (1899-1902) created organizations to serve veterans and secure their rights.

By 1915, membership grew to 5,000; by 1936, membership was almost 200,000.

When the war was over, World War II veterans flocked to both organizations.

Many small towns boasted both American Legion and VFW posts. But as the number of World War II veterans declined, so did the membership in such organizations.

TODAY, MEMBERSHIP stands at over 2.4 million in 14,000 posts worldwide. The posts are organized into 55 departments: one each for the 50 states, along with the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines.

Legion Clubs support a variety of causes and programs — from baseball to oratori-

IN SOME communities, VFWs and American Legion Clubs have joined forces.

In other communities, such as Norfolk, one or the other has closed its doors.

Still, people like Harold Thompson Jr. continue to participate and serve.

“It’s a way I can honor my dad for what he gave me for my freedom,” he said.

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Need to take care when storing military mementoes N

ORFOLK — When World War II ended, mementos of the conflict were often stuffed in boxes stored in attics and cellars or shoved to the back of the closet.

Often, it wasn’t until a veteran died that family members discovered the diary he or she had kept while serving overseas, the scrapbook of photos showing troops and airplanes, the medals still pinned to the uniform lying folded in a trunk or a weathered cardboard box.

What to do with the memorabilia of war?

Handle it with care, said Jeana Ganskop, director of education at the Elkhorn Valley Museum in Norfolk.

Dad or grandpa’s uniforms should be stored in acidfree tissue, she said. Tissue should be placed inside the sleeves of jackets and the legs of pants, and more tissue should be placed in the folds to give it structure, she said.

The garment should then be wrapped in acid-free tissue and placed in an acid-free box — not a plastic tote — that should be stored in a place that isn’t humid and where the temperature doesn’t fluctuate.

“High humidity can lead to mold growth,” she said.

“But don’t use mothballs.”

Plastic totes may keep the bugs out, but they produce gasses that are harmful to fabrics.

Dark and light clothing should be stored separately so colors don’t bleed into each other, she said.

Jackets and shirts can be stored on hangers, but the hangers should be reinforced with a pad covered with unbleached muslin that is large enough to support the shoulders, Ganskop said.

Acid-free tissue paper can also be put in the sleeves to help them retain their shape, but the tissue should be soft so it doesn’t get caught in the fabric.

The clothing should be covered with a slip cover made of unbleached muslin or another fabric that is 100 percent cotton.

Clothing kept on hangers should be stored in dark closets, she said, because fabric will deteriorate when exposed to light.

Letters, cards and other such objects should be placed in acid-free sleeves, especially if they are going to be handled because of the oils and dirt on fingers, Ganskop said.

Paper clips and staples should be removed also.

Items such as helmets should be stored in an environment that is between 40 and 60 percent humidity. Higher humidity can lead to mold growth — not on the metal but in the patina, she said.

When handling a helmet, don’t pick it up by the straps, which could be fragile, Ganskop said.

Leather items also are susceptible to mold, she said, and should also be stored in a low-humidity environment.

If in doubt about how to store items, check with resources such as the Nebraska State Historical Society, which has some information on its website. It’s located at nebraskahistory.org.

When buying acid-free products, it’s best to shop at a facility that provides products to museums, so you know they are high quality, Ganskop said.

While it’s tempting to put items in storage and forget them, that’s not the best way to preserve them, Ganskop said. Instead, all memorabilia should be examined regularly, and clothing that is folded should be removed from the box and refolded so weak spots don’t form where the fabric is creased.

“It’s good to keep an eye on things,” she said.

JAKE WRAGGE/DAILY NEWS

JEANA GANSKOP, education director at the Elkhorn Valley Museum, folds military uniforms as she explains how to properly care for clothing and other war memorabilia.

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