Q. Let's talk about Signal Corp.

A. Well, in January they drafted me and I didn't get to go back to school. So I went into the service January '45, '44. They just sent a letter saying report to Leavenworth on certain day and they came to Platte City and picked us up and took us there. From there, I was sent to Camp Crowder in Joplin. Then is when you get assigned to a, signal corps in Joplin, Missouri.That's what they called it during the service was the signal corps but it was the communications between different camps at that time, and they taught them how to string wire when you're in battle ground.

Q. Describes action in Strasbourg

A. Well I don't know how you describe when you're going down the road as a platoon and you start to get fired upon and that's a patrol coming from the other side. You run for the ditch, if you can make the ditch, or a tree or something. But it was not, it was not something you like to do. No stopping for holidays, no stopping for Sundays and when you take a town you take over the whole town. Our sergeants always got us rooms in private citizens homes and they brought the meals, cold meals. Never had a hot meal, never had a chance to take a bath. Same stockings but it was not a good picture to tell the people.

Q. Describe being captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge?

A. Ended up going to a town called Sessenheim. That's where we got surrounded in early part of January. We had rifles and pistols and they had tanks. Couldn't very well fight a tank with a pistol. So they gave us the opportunity to give up and we decided to do that.

Q. So once you were captured what happened?

A. They took us back behind their lines, lined us up in a field with a machine gun watching us and we were certainly scared that we weren't going to be around long. We'd heard about some other massacres then, but I guess one on their colonels decided differently. We saw them talking, and they took us and put us in a barn with guards around us and we stayed in that barn all night. After they crossed the Rhine, some of the soldiers didn't have good shoes. We had good combat boots, watches, rings, and they took them. Yes. Yes, all personal items. Had a good watch, but didn't get to keep it. So that's what happens in war. Nothing fair in war.

Q. This is after you were marched?

A. Yes, up through the Black Forest. The Black Forest is in a little town called Baden-Baden. And then they put us on a cattle car train and took us into Strasbourg, which was a rail center. We were sitting, locked into that 40 and 8 box car and there was no red cross on the box car and we got strafed by our own planes. Some people were killed. I was lucky.

Q. It's got to be a frustrating feeling?

A. Yes, you can't blame the airmen because they thought it was a train full of Germans. How would they know.? They didn't. They (Germans) were suppose to put a red cross on top of it but they didn't.

Q. Tell the story about panzer?

A. Well, they were trying to scare us. I was right next to the panzer. To have a gun go off, right beside your head, especially an 88mm. cannon...I still have some hearing problems from that.

Q. Tell us more.

A. Well we were all lined up there and they were trying to get information on our outfit and some of the soldiers were beating us with gun butts, I have a gash in the back of my head where one hit me with it and that's when we were really the most scared ,because we thought that they didn't care after that. But as I said, they put us in a barn overnight--no food, no water. We had to huddle together to keep warm, because we had no blankets--only the coats we had on our back. They took our good shoes and gave us some old German shoes. I think they were felt. We had frozen feet from it.

Q. And how many of them, how many of you were there?

A. There was at least 100 lined up in that field. It wasn't all from the same division I was in. They brought other ones. They weren't all from the 42nd division, and I don't know where the rest of them was from.

Q. How old you were at this point?

A. I was 17 on November the 1st in 1944, so I was still 17 when I went into the service in January '45. But by time I got overseas, this was after November 1st of course, then I turned 18. Then I went into battle, and it's frightening for an 18 year old when you're not used to that.

Q. The train took you where?

A. From Strasbourg, six days going north, to a town called Falling Bausel, and it went directly to Stalag 11B at Falling Bausel.

Q. What is a 40-and-8 car?

A. You'd have to see what a 40 and 8 boxcar looks like. You had no room, you were sitting on each other. Had a bucket for a toilet. And they gave us water once a day with a piece of bread--black bread too, made with sawdust.. And so, by time we got to Falling Bausel, we was pretty well down and out. And they did not treat our wounds. The one I had they did not treat. I guess they didn't have any medical people for themselves, because they didn't give us any.

Q. And you were taken to the camp?

A. Yes. I believe it was around noon when we arrived there. The train station was about a mile from the camp, and we had to walk to the camp. Some of them they had to carry but when you got to camp there was rows and rows of buildings and they assign you to a building. There were bunk beds made out of wood with straw on them. They give you one blanket, no heat, no water. That how we lived.

Q. What was morale like?

A. Very low. We didn't know what to expect from day to day. You had no food, or they didn't feed us any food. Our first meal was rutabaga soup. Tasted like dishwater. I just can't stand to look at rutabagas today.

Q. During the days what would you do?

A. After we were there about 2 weeks and got ourselves in better shape, they took us out on the farms around the camp. We had to dig out rocks, stumps and make new fields for the Germans. They wouldnít let us take any of the vegetables back to the camp with us. Ifanyone got caught they were penalized. Put in solitary. They did finally, probably the second or third week, give us one potato a week. And we got one Red Cross package every two weeks..In there was a little package of cigarettes, four cigarettes to a package, candies and cheeses; things that wouldn't spoil. Spam. I don't like Spam. You could trade. I didn't smoke, so I traded my cigarettes for potatoes. The Germans would give you equivalent to 20 dollars for one cigarette. Not a package, one cigarette. German guards. They liked American cigarettes.

Q. What was the treatment like by the soldiers or the Germans?

A. They were older guards they was as nice as they could be without getting themselves in trouble. I can't fault the German guards, but if you got out of line they did beat you or put you in solitary. So you weren't free, you had to live their way or not at all.

Q. When were you liberated?

A. Four months later. It was April the 26th. The British raid our camp. The guards left, and we run around the countryside for about 2 weeks there.

Q. Where did the guards go?

A. They disappeared. When they heard the British tanks coming down the road they just got in their cars or walked. They disappeared. I do not know what happened to them. And the tanks knocked the gates down and let us out. But they told us to stay there because they did not have transportation for us and they left a couple of medical people and some officers to get our names and ranks and serial numbers to get ready to ship us out and the rest of the army went on east.

Q. Then you flew to London?

A. There was a small airport there and they put us on a DC3 and flew us into London, where they put us in 51st General. They put the sickest ones (I was) in the 51st General hospital in London. My eating habits and my head wound had not healed up very well.

Q. How long were you there?

A. About a month. I didn't have to be there that long,but we had to wait forenough troop ships to take us home. And we enjoyed London. We weren't tied down. In fact, we were there on VE day in the hospital. They wouldn't let us out, but we found a way to get out. We went down in the middle of Piccadilly Square and somebody rolled a piano out in the street, singing and dancing, we were in these red robes enjoying ourselves. They finally caught us and took us back. Finally, they took us to Liverpool and put us on a ship for home.

Q. What are you thoughts on being a POW survivor?

A. We're survivors, and that's the way we react - we're survivors. And yes, it was an accomplishment to be a survivor. Some of them were a lot worse off than I was. There's a lot worse off than I was.I've been thankful everyday I wake up. Who says you gonna wake up tomorrow? We're survivors and each day I'm a survivor.