Post by connie on Sept 25, 2021 10:23:25 GMT -5
OVERVIEW of CAMPS that Held Members of the 106th 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/752/thread
MAP of GERMAN POW CAMPS: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4961/thread
FINDING a POW's WORK CAMP: jrwentz attached two helpful posts near the bottom of the following thread: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4942/thread
Overview Notes on XIII Camps from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_XIII-A
Oflag XIII-B, Hammelburg
Wikipedia quotes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_XIII-B
11 January 1945 - American officers captured during the Battle of the Bulge arrived and were placed in a separated section.
27 March 1945 - Task Force Baum breached fence of camp, but was later surrounded by German troops and surrendered.
29 March - many of the POWs were force marched to Langwasser (Nuremberg) from the partially damaged camp and some were killed when Allied planes strafed the marching columns.
6 April 1945 - camp is liberated by Combat Command B of the U.S. 14th Armored Division
War Department Notes on Oflag XIII B oflag64.us/ewExternalFiles/american_pows_in_germany-mis_docs.pdf
US PERSONNEL:
Upon opening the camp, Col Charles C Cavender became the SAO,and he appointed Maj. Albert L. Bemdt as the SMO. There were no other officers appointed to hold definite offices. However when the evacuated officers of Oflag 6y arrived at the compound, Col. Paul R Good became the SAO and organized the camp on the same basis as the compound at Schubin, Poland. He used the Oflag 64 staff but retained Maj. Berndt as the SMO.
STRENGTH
Approximately 300 American officers opened the camp on 11 January 1944, and by the time the Protecting Power visited the camp on 23 January 1945, the strength had increased to 453 officers, 12 noncommissioned officers and 18 privates. All of these men were captured on the Western Front between the 15th and 22nd of December 1944. By 24 March1945, the strength had increased to 1291 officers and 127 enlisted men which included the 423 officers and 67 enlisted men who arrived from Oflag 64 at Schubin, Poland
This document holds many more meaningful notes. It is worth reading. Knowing how links to such documents sometimes disappear, I have transcribed (copy and paste was impossible) and placed this back-up copy on this discussion board: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5040/thread
Pro Deo Et Patria For God and Country: The Personal Narrative of an American Catholic Chaplain as a Prisoner of War by Paul W. Cavenaugh: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5208/thread
Botched Liberation Attempt March 27, 1945 with would-be liberation team known as Task Force Baum ( named for the man who led that team
Residents here included the son-in-law of Lieutenant-General George S Patton Jr commander of the Third US Army; this was the site of a much- publicized, botched liberation attempt.
Notes from Chaplain Paul Cavanaugh:
An agonizing few days for the prisoners began in late March, 1945. General Patton had sent a task force to liberate the camp, more than 50 miles beyond the American front. Historians debate whether Patton meant to mislead the enemy, to save prisoners from possible slaughter by retreating Germans, or to rescue one particular prisoner at this camp, Lt. Col. John Waters, Patton's son-in-law. On Tuesday morning, the 27th [of March, 1945] we distinctly heard the sound of firearms. Men stood along the barbed wire fence at the edge of the camp looking out over the meadows dotted with grazing flocks of sheep. Across the hills they saw columns of German troops maneuvering, and vehicles and ambulances moving down the roads. By noon rumors were spreading that the American forces were approaching Hammelburg. The rumble of guns grew louder...
Notes from Lt.Martin Jones:
Camp routine changed dramatically on the afternoon of March 27, 1945. As Jones recalled, ‘About 4:15 p.m., we heard small-arms fire and saw red tracer bullets streaming past our barracks windows. (Task Force Baum) attacked Oflag XIII-B and drove off our German guards. When the Sherman tanks came crashing through the barbed-wire fences, we POWs shouted and jumped with joy because we were liberated! We did not know that our freedom would last only a few hours...” Jones was among those recaptured.
106th Connections
List of 423 Infantry Regiment POW's: www.indianamilitary.org/106ID/Rosters/REFERENCES/64%20-%20423rd%20roster/64.htm
Sidebar List of POW Camps & some names of POW's there www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/SoThinkMenu/GermanPW-START.htm
Sidebar List of Diaries, Obits, & Articles, etc. alphabetically on the Indiana Military Site: www.indianamilitary.org/106ID/SoThinkMenu/106thSTART.htm
Cavanaugh, Paul, -422 HQ, Chaplain POW IXB & Oflag XIII-B www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%20XIII-B/FrPaulCavanaugh/FrPaulCavanaugh.htm
more Info on this discussion board: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5205/thread
Cavender,Charles C, Col, Commander 423rd Infantry Regiment, POW XIII-B 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5038/thread
see War Department Notes on XIII-B PERSONNEL (above) for presence of Col. Cavender at this camp.
Jones, L. Martin, 2nd Lt. 423 G POW 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/3747/thread
After more than a week on the train, Jones arrived at Stalag lX-B at Bad Orb, a filthy, overcrowded transient POW camp.
Less than two weeks later, however, he was part of a group of officer prisoners sent to Hammelburg - again via locked boxcar. They arrived on January 11, 1945, and while slightly better than Stalag IX-B, the conditions at Hammelburg (Offizierslager Oflag XIII-B) were still very severe. Daily rations, according to Jones, “usually consisted of a slice of bread, (made with 20 percent sawdust), about the size of two normal slices, and a small bowl of "green hornet" soup that was thin, wormy, and a dark green color, (which raced through our digestive system). The men also received a mug of “ersatz" coffee, which tasted so foul that most prisoners used it for shaving water. After several weeks of this starvation diet, Jones dropped from his normal weight of 150 pounds down to 120.
Camp routine changed dramatically on the afternoon of March 27, 1945. As Jones recalled, ‘About 4:15 p.m., we heard small-arms fire and saw red tracer bullets streaming past our barracks windows. (Task Force Baum) attacked Oflag XIII-B and drove off our German guards. When the Sherman tanks came crashing through the barbed-wire fences, we POWs shouted and jumped with joy because we were liberated! We did not know that our freedom would last only a few hours...” Jones was among those recaptured.
"Although Jones remained a POW for another month, he never again set foot inside Hammelburg or any other German camp. Instead the guards marched the prisoners for 200 exhausting miles. Walking all day and sleeping in fields or barns at night, they traveled near - but never through - the cities of Wurzburg, Nuremberg and Munich. Bypassing the cities helped avoid the SS and the Allied bombing raids. However, on April 5, they passed a little too close to Nuremberg’s suburbs, consequently, they found out that being bombed was perhaps their worst immediate threat...."
Jones’ POW nightmare ended on the banks of the Inn River about 30 miles southeast of Munich. Retreating Germans had blown the only bridge for miles, thus stranding the prisoners in the town of Gars-am-Inn. When, the rumbling of American artillery moved close to Gars, the German guards disappeared, leaving the POWs on their own, Jones recounted, At dusk on May 2, we heard the wonderful sound of American tanks coming down the hill into Gars. Tanks of the 14th Armored Division moved in without firing a shot. We celebrated our second and final liberation!” Over a month after the Hammelburg Raid, Lieutenant L. Marlin Jones was finally free.
Phillips, John 1st Lt. - 424 E POW field hospital near Koblenz, Oflag XIII B 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/1235/thread
He was a January replacement to the division who ended up at Hammelburg with 1500 other officers after capture and a route that led him to a field hospital, a 15 mile hike to Koblenz where he spent 5 days, and a boxcar ride to Hammelburg. The link above takes you to a thread with some more of his history, a link to a Veteran's History Project interview, a link to an Iowa interview, and more...
Prell, Donald B. Lt. 422 (2nd Platoon Anti-tank Co.) POW Stalag IX-B, Oflag XIII-B, briefly freed, Stalag XIII D/ Oflag 73, Camp hospital 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5027/thread
Prell experienced the bombing in the rr yard at Limburg. Then he was packed off in another box car for a 2-day trip to Stalag IX-B. Here he was interrogated and issued a POW #. Then he was matched 60 km. to Oflag XIII-B. Here on March 27 he experienced the botched attempt to liberate this camp where Patton's son-in-law was being held. Prell and others escaped on foot at this time but were recaptured after several days on the run. He was put on a train that took him to XIID/ Oflag 73. While there he became ill and was transferred to the camp's hospital. He remained at the hospital while most of those at the camp were forced to march east. A week later (mid April) the guards disappeared...He and another POW walked out the front gate to freedom.
Schenck, Charles Newton "Newt" III, Lt. 590 B, POW Oflag XIII-B: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5169/thread
grandson writes: "He was a second lieutenant, forward observer of the 590th Field Artillery, Battery C. He was captured on December 19th and eventually ended up in Oflag 13B, where he was recovering from pneumonia when Task Force Baum arrived and the Himmelburg disaster occurred. He escaped, riding on top of a tank, but was too weak and eventually hid in a ditch. He and other men spent the night on a German farm but were returned to the camp the next day...."
MAP of GERMAN POW CAMPS: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4961/thread
FINDING a POW's WORK CAMP: jrwentz attached two helpful posts near the bottom of the following thread: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/4942/thread
Overview Notes on XIII Camps from Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_XIII-A
Oflag XIII-B, Hammelburg
Wikipedia quotes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_XIII-B
11 January 1945 - American officers captured during the Battle of the Bulge arrived and were placed in a separated section.
27 March 1945 - Task Force Baum breached fence of camp, but was later surrounded by German troops and surrendered.
29 March - many of the POWs were force marched to Langwasser (Nuremberg) from the partially damaged camp and some were killed when Allied planes strafed the marching columns.
6 April 1945 - camp is liberated by Combat Command B of the U.S. 14th Armored Division
War Department Notes on Oflag XIII B oflag64.us/ewExternalFiles/american_pows_in_germany-mis_docs.pdf
US PERSONNEL:
Upon opening the camp, Col Charles C Cavender became the SAO,and he appointed Maj. Albert L. Bemdt as the SMO. There were no other officers appointed to hold definite offices. However when the evacuated officers of Oflag 6y arrived at the compound, Col. Paul R Good became the SAO and organized the camp on the same basis as the compound at Schubin, Poland. He used the Oflag 64 staff but retained Maj. Berndt as the SMO.
STRENGTH
Approximately 300 American officers opened the camp on 11 January 1944, and by the time the Protecting Power visited the camp on 23 January 1945, the strength had increased to 453 officers, 12 noncommissioned officers and 18 privates. All of these men were captured on the Western Front between the 15th and 22nd of December 1944. By 24 March1945, the strength had increased to 1291 officers and 127 enlisted men which included the 423 officers and 67 enlisted men who arrived from Oflag 64 at Schubin, Poland
This document holds many more meaningful notes. It is worth reading. Knowing how links to such documents sometimes disappear, I have transcribed (copy and paste was impossible) and placed this back-up copy on this discussion board: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5040/thread
Pro Deo Et Patria For God and Country: The Personal Narrative of an American Catholic Chaplain as a Prisoner of War by Paul W. Cavenaugh: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5208/thread
Botched Liberation Attempt March 27, 1945 with would-be liberation team known as Task Force Baum ( named for the man who led that team
Residents here included the son-in-law of Lieutenant-General George S Patton Jr commander of the Third US Army; this was the site of a much- publicized, botched liberation attempt.
Notes from Chaplain Paul Cavanaugh:
An agonizing few days for the prisoners began in late March, 1945. General Patton had sent a task force to liberate the camp, more than 50 miles beyond the American front. Historians debate whether Patton meant to mislead the enemy, to save prisoners from possible slaughter by retreating Germans, or to rescue one particular prisoner at this camp, Lt. Col. John Waters, Patton's son-in-law. On Tuesday morning, the 27th [of March, 1945] we distinctly heard the sound of firearms. Men stood along the barbed wire fence at the edge of the camp looking out over the meadows dotted with grazing flocks of sheep. Across the hills they saw columns of German troops maneuvering, and vehicles and ambulances moving down the roads. By noon rumors were spreading that the American forces were approaching Hammelburg. The rumble of guns grew louder...
Notes from Lt.Martin Jones:
Camp routine changed dramatically on the afternoon of March 27, 1945. As Jones recalled, ‘About 4:15 p.m., we heard small-arms fire and saw red tracer bullets streaming past our barracks windows. (Task Force Baum) attacked Oflag XIII-B and drove off our German guards. When the Sherman tanks came crashing through the barbed-wire fences, we POWs shouted and jumped with joy because we were liberated! We did not know that our freedom would last only a few hours...” Jones was among those recaptured.
106th Connections
List of 423 Infantry Regiment POW's: www.indianamilitary.org/106ID/Rosters/REFERENCES/64%20-%20423rd%20roster/64.htm
Sidebar List of POW Camps & some names of POW's there www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/SoThinkMenu/GermanPW-START.htm
Sidebar List of Diaries, Obits, & Articles, etc. alphabetically on the Indiana Military Site: www.indianamilitary.org/106ID/SoThinkMenu/106thSTART.htm
Cavanaugh, Paul, -422 HQ, Chaplain POW IXB & Oflag XIII-B www.indianamilitary.org/German%20PW%20Camps/Prisoner%20of%20War/PW%20Camps/Oflag%20XIII-B/FrPaulCavanaugh/FrPaulCavanaugh.htm
more Info on this discussion board: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5205/thread
Cavender,Charles C, Col, Commander 423rd Infantry Regiment, POW XIII-B 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5038/thread
see War Department Notes on XIII-B PERSONNEL (above) for presence of Col. Cavender at this camp.
Jones, L. Martin, 2nd Lt. 423 G POW 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/3747/thread
After more than a week on the train, Jones arrived at Stalag lX-B at Bad Orb, a filthy, overcrowded transient POW camp.
Less than two weeks later, however, he was part of a group of officer prisoners sent to Hammelburg - again via locked boxcar. They arrived on January 11, 1945, and while slightly better than Stalag IX-B, the conditions at Hammelburg (Offizierslager Oflag XIII-B) were still very severe. Daily rations, according to Jones, “usually consisted of a slice of bread, (made with 20 percent sawdust), about the size of two normal slices, and a small bowl of "green hornet" soup that was thin, wormy, and a dark green color, (which raced through our digestive system). The men also received a mug of “ersatz" coffee, which tasted so foul that most prisoners used it for shaving water. After several weeks of this starvation diet, Jones dropped from his normal weight of 150 pounds down to 120.
Camp routine changed dramatically on the afternoon of March 27, 1945. As Jones recalled, ‘About 4:15 p.m., we heard small-arms fire and saw red tracer bullets streaming past our barracks windows. (Task Force Baum) attacked Oflag XIII-B and drove off our German guards. When the Sherman tanks came crashing through the barbed-wire fences, we POWs shouted and jumped with joy because we were liberated! We did not know that our freedom would last only a few hours...” Jones was among those recaptured.
"Although Jones remained a POW for another month, he never again set foot inside Hammelburg or any other German camp. Instead the guards marched the prisoners for 200 exhausting miles. Walking all day and sleeping in fields or barns at night, they traveled near - but never through - the cities of Wurzburg, Nuremberg and Munich. Bypassing the cities helped avoid the SS and the Allied bombing raids. However, on April 5, they passed a little too close to Nuremberg’s suburbs, consequently, they found out that being bombed was perhaps their worst immediate threat...."
Jones’ POW nightmare ended on the banks of the Inn River about 30 miles southeast of Munich. Retreating Germans had blown the only bridge for miles, thus stranding the prisoners in the town of Gars-am-Inn. When, the rumbling of American artillery moved close to Gars, the German guards disappeared, leaving the POWs on their own, Jones recounted, At dusk on May 2, we heard the wonderful sound of American tanks coming down the hill into Gars. Tanks of the 14th Armored Division moved in without firing a shot. We celebrated our second and final liberation!” Over a month after the Hammelburg Raid, Lieutenant L. Marlin Jones was finally free.
Phillips, John 1st Lt. - 424 E POW field hospital near Koblenz, Oflag XIII B 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/1235/thread
He was a January replacement to the division who ended up at Hammelburg with 1500 other officers after capture and a route that led him to a field hospital, a 15 mile hike to Koblenz where he spent 5 days, and a boxcar ride to Hammelburg. The link above takes you to a thread with some more of his history, a link to a Veteran's History Project interview, a link to an Iowa interview, and more...
Prell, Donald B. Lt. 422 (2nd Platoon Anti-tank Co.) POW Stalag IX-B, Oflag XIII-B, briefly freed, Stalag XIII D/ Oflag 73, Camp hospital 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5027/thread
Prell experienced the bombing in the rr yard at Limburg. Then he was packed off in another box car for a 2-day trip to Stalag IX-B. Here he was interrogated and issued a POW #. Then he was matched 60 km. to Oflag XIII-B. Here on March 27 he experienced the botched attempt to liberate this camp where Patton's son-in-law was being held. Prell and others escaped on foot at this time but were recaptured after several days on the run. He was put on a train that took him to XIID/ Oflag 73. While there he became ill and was transferred to the camp's hospital. He remained at the hospital while most of those at the camp were forced to march east. A week later (mid April) the guards disappeared...He and another POW walked out the front gate to freedom.
Schenck, Charles Newton "Newt" III, Lt. 590 B, POW Oflag XIII-B: 106thdivision.proboards.com/post/5169/thread
grandson writes: "He was a second lieutenant, forward observer of the 590th Field Artillery, Battery C. He was captured on December 19th and eventually ended up in Oflag 13B, where he was recovering from pneumonia when Task Force Baum arrived and the Himmelburg disaster occurred. He escaped, riding on top of a tank, but was too weak and eventually hid in a ditch. He and other men spent the night on a German farm but were returned to the camp the next day...."