My Most Valued Christinas Gift; A World War II Reminiscence

Paul H. Saunders after returning home, 1945.

My Most Valued Christimas Gift; A World War II Reminiscence

BY PAUL H. SAUNDERS

PAUL H. SAUNDERS, SALT LAKE CITY, WAS DRAFTED INTO THE ARMY in March 1943. Upon volunteering for overseas duty he was assigned to the 612th Tank Destroyer Unit He reached Scotland on April 16,1944, and crossed the English Channel and landed on Omaha Beach on June 14. Six months later his unit was in Belgium where he was captured by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge. In the account that follows he describes the importance of a package of Christmas caramels he received from his sister, his capture on December 17, 1944, and his work as a prisoner of war burying dead German civilians in the city of Chemnitz. This is part of a larger typewritten account in the World War II collection of the Utah State Historical Society Library.

Since Christmas was nearing, I received a very welcome Christmas package from home. In the package was homemade cookies and a package of caramels from my sister, Gladys. Being unable to resist the temptation, I ate most of the cookies and then stored the rest in my duffle bag. The caramels were put in a bag in my overcoat to be reserved for Christmas. Little did I realize how important those caramels would be to me later.

A few days later, on December 16th, we were sent close to the German lines where the Belgium Bulge was beginning to form. This was near the deserted town of Honsfeld, Belgium. We took up positions of readiness for an oncoming battle with the Germans. The night of the 16th was very damp, cold, and dark due to a heavily overcast sky. We found another deserted farm house in which to spend the night. This house had an attached barn with the horses still there. During the night we could feel and hear tanks and heavy equipment moving near us, but we couldn't tell whether it was ours or that of the enemy.

December 17th, at daybreak, all hell broke loose and the farm house we were in was set on fire by the enemy shelling. Some of us tried to free the horses from the attached barn but they panicked, turned and returned to the barn, and were destroyed by the fire. We then found ourselves surrounded by the German Army coming at us in hordes from the nearby road. Their tanks, equipment, and soldiers completely covered both lanes of the road and continued in a solid unbroken line. There were approximately 113 of us, 110 enlisted men and three officers and as the Germans began to overwhelm us we were able to destroy two enemy halftrack personnel carriers and two tanks by shooting point blank at them with our tank destroyer gun from our position at the front of the farm house.

After this limited success we were overwhelmed by the Germans. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, we tried in vain to return to the American lines. Since this was an impossibility, we dove into a ditch for cover from the infantry gunfire and other shelling and started crawling through the partially frozen water The many layers of G I. clothing I was wearing became soaking wet but the precious caramels that had been stored safely in my overcoat pocket were still there. The men were wet from the icy water and decided to come out of the shallow ditch. However, several of them, including some close companions, had been hit and killed in the gunfire and lay in the ditch. I climbed out of the ditch and over the wire fence. Two German soldiers then ran toward me immediately and put their bayonets to my stomach. At this point I thought I had met my end. When they discovered I no longer had a gun they searched me along with the remaining men who had survived the gunfire (approximately 12). They took our watches, rings, and any other valuables they could find, then marched us back to the road where their equipment was. At this time I saw that five more of my companions had been shot and killed. They had been shot while holding their arms in the air.

We were now prisoners of the Germans and possessed nothing but the wet clothes that we were wearing. I realized my duffle bag was left at the desened farm house where we had spent the night I began to realize that it would be quite some time before we would receive any food and the fact that I still had the caramels in my coat pocket wjis a consolation to me.

Now we began a long walk toward Germany that would last four days. The first night was spent somewhere in a hovel of sorts. By the second night we had walked to the Siegfried Line. We spent the night inside the Siegfried Line in a bunker which was a sleeping quarter for the German Army. The bunks were stacked at least five high. There was an existing hand-driven pump on the floor which when manually pumped would bring in fresh air from the high ceiling. The approximate 100 prisoners, including myself, were to take turns pumping the fresh air into the tight enclosure. It was decided each of us was to take a turn of about 10 minutes, but no one took their full turn. Consequently, there was a constant commotion of each man waking another and no one got any sleep.

The next day we continued our long four-day walk toward Germany. We had no food during this time and the only water was obtained from ditches or a handful of snow. But I had my precious caramels and I was secretly rationing them to myself during these days. When no one was looking I would sneak a couple They were stuck together from being water soaked, slept on, etc, but I ate them, paper and all, as there was no way to peel the wrapping off by now. That was my only nourishment during those four days. After the fourth day, we received a small amount of bread, cheese, ;ind sugar from our captors.

By now, many other U.S. soldiers had been captured in the Battle of the Bulge and the Germans were proudly parading us past the German Army to display their "superiority" and to boost their morale. After being marched in their "display" we were walked to a railroad line to board boxcars.

Early morning, December 24th, we were let out of the boxcars, lined up, and walked to an area of construction storage of some sort We were exhausted. A few men mentioned the fact that it was Christmas Eve.

Christmas "dinner" was given to us by the Germans. It consisted of one-eighth of a loaf of black bread with a spoonful of marmalade. That was our total food for the day. And on that day I finished my precious Christmas caramels from home.

The next day we were walked to Stalag IVB and interrogated. We were the latest POWs to arrive for the day, and the Germans counted out 100 of us and assigned us to a forced labor detail. We were walked to the city of Chemnitz. By now, the bombing by the Allies was intense, day and night The Germans had ignored the leaflets dropped by the Allies to evacuate the city, and thousands of people died. Our labor detail was now to remove the bodies from the rubble and bury them.

As we were digging and removing the bodies, the Russian prisoners of war were being forced to dig large trenches 6-feet wide, approximately 70 feet long, and 6 feet deep for the burial of the German civilians. The other Allied POWs, including myself, were forced to carry these bodies to the trenches, lay them side by side as close as possible, and place them in the trenches. If family identity was known, members were put together. A German guard in charge of the project would try to write the names of those being buried. Of course, many people had lost limbs and other body parts, making identity difficult.

Just prior to VE Day and realizing the Allies were winning the war, our German guards began to disappear. They began to put civilian clothes on so that when the Russians took over, they would not be recognized as men and officers of the German Army.

The Allied leaders had met and decided which pan of Germany each would control It was decided that the Russians would control the area we were in. Because of the language barrier we could not and did not communicate with the Russians. After VE Day we managed to learn where the American lines were and how far away. We also learned that we would have no transportation by the Russians back to the American lines. We started to walk about 6 am. the distance of approximately 25 miles, all in one day. We had had no food for this long walk When we arrived at the American lines, they had us get into their trucks. We were so hungry and assumed that once we reached the Americans they would have food for us but they loaded us into the trucks and drove for about four hours. We were very angry because they had not brought some kind of food for us. After the four-hour drive we stopped and received some food and then boarded the trucks again and were taken to an airfield and flown to camp Lucky Strike in France. After a period of recuperation there, I was sent home to Fort Douglas.

NOTES

Mr. Saunders is a retired carpenter and contractor living in Salt Lake City.