Hellcat News, (Godfrey, Ill.), Vol. 38, No. 3, Ed. 1, November 1984 Page: 18 of 24
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Page 18 HELLCAT NEWS November 1984
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He added that he and Marie
enjoyed Denver and are looking
forward to '85 and Florida.
Rex DeHaan wrote that he and
Dorothy had planned to see us at
Denver, but, unfortunately, they
had company and their schedule
and plans prevented their coming
to the reunion. Rex and their
daughter returned in mid-Septem-
ber from a 3-week trip to Europe,
principally to attend a 5-day
technical conference in Yugosla-
via. They landed at Frankfurt,
rented a car and drove leisurely to
their destination. They detoured
to revisit several small towns
south of Schweinfurt where Able
Battery received some heavy artil-
lery fire. One of the towns was
Schwanfeld where Charlie Battery
was also badly mauled. They also
visited Heidenheim where Rex
had spent about 2 months but he
was unable to locate the house in
which he had been billeted. We,
too, had the same problem in
Heidenheim. We could neither
locate the house in which I had lived
nor that in which Nelly had spent 2
years. The DeHaans did manage to
locate the castle on the hilltop that
is visble for miles, and he said that
he and his daughter had their
picture taken in the same castle
gate where Bill Newby of Div.
Arty, and Rex were photographed
in *45. Dorothy did not accompany
them because she was recovering
from an operation for the removal
of a hematoma. We are glad to
report that Dorothy is doing well.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO
ALL. Don't forget you Hellcat
buddies when you send Holiday
Greetings.
Y®OT
At Your Service
Mike Gorman
Division Service Officer
9190 S.R. 762
Orient, OH. 43146
Phone 614-877-9263
FILLING THE GAP IN THE
12th A.D. HISTORY
George A. Falconer, a medic in
the 314th Inf., 79th Div., has
written an account of his capture
and experience as a prisoner of
war. It is being serialized in the
EX-POW Bulletin, of the "Ameri-
can Ex-prisoners of War."
The first installment published
in the May 1984 issue is titled
"Capture in the Battle of the
'Little Bulge'."
In "Operations of the 12th A.D."
it states on page 37, that CCB and
other elements of the 12th were
assigned to the 79th Div. "in
preparation for the forthcoming
attack on Herrlisheim." This book
also, on page 48 refers to the
Herrlisheim operation as the "Lit-
tle Bulge."
This is an extremely well writ-
ten story and I recommend it to all
12th A.D. Assn. members, as
much of it will seem familiar to all
of you, not just X-POWs.
In the first installment George
refers to the "Hammelburg Raid,
Patton's brainstorm to rescue his
Son-in-law and other POWs at
Oflag XIII-B." Warren Maue men-
tions this episode in his May '84
column in the Hellcat news.
However, Marvin Drum, Pla-
toon leader, 1st Platoon of A/17th
AIB was in OFLAG XIII-B when
that group arrived. He and Carl
Hilton joined the group "To try to
fight our way back to the Ameri-
can lines, but we were re-captured
on March 29th." He can tell us
about it firsthand.
In the part II of George Fal-
coner's story in the July '84
EX-POW Bulletin, he tells of an
encounter with "A 12th Armored
man" who bartered a heavy khaki
handknitted sweater to him for
rations. He felt his heavy tankers'
jacket was sufficient and wanted
to trade for rations. If this "12th
Armored man" is a member of the
association or anyone knows him, I
sure would like to hear from him.
George says he has been thankful
many times for the warmth of that
sweater and hopes you were never
sorry that you traded it to him.
Now for the second part of this
column and a REQUEST to all you
men that were captured at Herr-
lisheim. As you can see in the
above, when many people contri-
bute to the same story, it makes
for a great story.
The following is a very good
chronology upon which we can
build the story of the 12th A.D.
POWs taken during the battle of
the "Little Bulge". I will print it
with "Foot notes" of examples of
some personal experiences of ot-
hers as they relate to what was
happening at the time.
The following was written by
Felix J. Sokolowski, Former Sgt.,
A-Co., 2nd Platoon, 43rd Tank
Battalion:
"I was known as Sokey' and
'Phil'. Here is a rundown on my
being captured Jan. 16, 1945 at
Herrlisheim. It was a rough time
that day, but to this day I'm proud
of all those who were there,
especially Col. Nick Novosel. 1. He
was great in that battle. Speaking
of Col. 'Nick', the last time I saw
him was when he was guest of
Honor at my wedding reception.
That was July 21,1945, a long time
ago. Nick attended the Denver
Reunion - Editor.
Getting back to my POW Sta-
tus. The evening of Jan. 16th we
were ferried across the Rhine
River. 2. To the town of Baden
Baden, Germany. We stayed in the
cellar of a school house. Then, next
morning we were taken to Lud-
wigsburg near Stuttgard to a
hospital and camp. There we were
given POW dog tags, taken care of
medically and interrogated. A few
days later we were marched in the
cold and the snow to a rail yard
and put in '40 and 8' box cars." We
traveled by train that day, packed
in like cattle. We then left the box
cars, and again on foot we marched
through some mountains and
woods to a camp iij a valley, we
stayed here a week, then back on
the road to the train again, We
were on the train 3. a couple of
days, I think, until we reached
Stammlager 13-c at Hammelburg,
Germany. Here we stayed until
late in March, when we were
almost 'Liberated' by Patton's
Task Force. 4. But, it didn't pan
out right and the Task Force was
shot up and captured.
"The next morning we left by
box cars and shipped to Nurnberg.
We stayed in a huge stadium that
had been converted into a POW
Camp. Here they had about 80,000
POWs from every nation.
We celebrated Easter here, then
a few days later the entire camp
was evacuated. We marched 120
Kilometers to a camp in Moose-
burg. We marched from April 4,
1945 to April 18,1945. 5. They had
us sleeping in barns and out in
fields, if weather permitted.
Here are the towns we passed
through. Nuemarkt, Belgries,
Pauloshofen, Sandersdorf, Mind-
lastettin, and Neustadt. We cros-
sed the Danube here. Then to
Muhlhausen, Sietonberg, Splach,
Schecienbach, Pfeffehausen, and
Houtshausen. While here April 13,
1945 I found out President Roose-
velt had passed away. 6. A very
sad day for us all.
Finally we reached our desti-
nation, Mooseburg, where we
stayed until liberated, May 9,
1945, one happy day for all!"
1. The 12th ADA 25th Anniver-
sary roster on page 29 states, "The
well placed enemy captured large
groups of both battalions, includ-
ing COs, Lt. Col. Nicholas Novosel,
Gary, Ind., 43rd and Maj. James
W. Logan, Centralia, Wash., 17th.
Many men were killed. 'Things are
plenty hot,' was the last report
over Col. Novosel's radio."
2. HOW MANY OF YOU MEN
REMEMBER THIS, AND CAN
GIVE US SOME PERSONAL
DETAILS ABOUT IT?
3. Charles Wallman and Bill
Butler, both A/17 have given a
vivid account of these box car rides
in frigid weather and how they
coped with frozen feet and frost
bite.
4.See previous story.
5. Donald McMullen 119 AEB
tells an exciting story of two
escapes from one of these marches.
The Second of which was success-
ful, but he didn't think so when he
was approached by a Scotish
soldier with a brogue so thick that
Don thought sure he had been
recaptured. It is stories like this
that will give our history color.
6. April 13, 1945 I was walking
toward Nurnburg, guarded by two
SS Sargents. I had escaped and
befen recaptured. Several German
civilians ran out to tell me that our
Great leader Roosevelt had died,
and they acted like this was some
big triumph for them. I'll never
forget how their faces fell when I
told them, "This makes no diffe-
rence at all. We are a country
ruled by laws not by men, and
besides, we have Harry. This will
make no difference whatsoever in
the war effort."
I have kept this as brief as
possible due to space, but to fill the
Upcoming Pages
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Twelfth Armored Division Association (U.S.). Hellcat News, (Godfrey, Ill.), Vol. 38, No. 3, Ed. 1, November 1984, newspaper, November 1984; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth410048/m1/18/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting The 12th Armored Division Memorial Museum.