A far flung life by M L Stedman 448pg 2026

 By the author of Light Between the Oceans which was written 14 years ago.  12/4/26

 About the Mc Bride Family in remote Western Australia in 1948 In 1958 Phil and his oldest son are killed and Matt the younger son barely survives. Back on the sheep station Phil’s wife Lorna and his daughter Rose are now alone to run this vast ranch.  "Greek tragedy set in the Outback of Western Australia

 The MacBrides  came to Western Australia a few decades after the Swan River Colony was declared in 1829. Lorna was the daughter of an Adelaide stockbroker and met Phil at a Ball in 1933. Children you feed the same love the same food but each one is different. There were so many kangaroos that the station used a roo killer who could make a descent living killing them for their skins and sometimes pet meat. Pete Peachey each year had to go to a meeting at the Vermin board and renew his gun license at the police station.

1953 Matt came to Scotch College the year after Warren had finished school, very overwhelming to be with so many boys, that came from such remote homes. His best friend was Humpty who had his life all  planned out, but in playing cricket a dive for a catch crushed Humpty spine so his road to 94years and 3 months ended up in ashes. When Matt visited him he said he must come with a gun for him to shoot himself. By 1955Warren had been helping his father for 3 years after leaving school and the wool prices were still booming . At school a kid that has relationship with a boy who got expelled from the school as a result. Shame is like a disease it blights the whole flock. .Rose was sent to the city  Commercial Collage in Perth to do a business career. Miles arrived from England to learn about farming in Australia as his family had properties there, he was sent here to get a grounding in wool . Rose explained

 Sheep This is a station and not a farm as the were pastoralists, in the US it is called a ranch. You keep your different sheep in paddocks rams, wethers, ewes and weaners. A hogget is the meat of a lamb between weaning and shearing. Nobody owns their station outright it is on leased from the Crown. They have 58 paddocks over 40,000 acres (60square miles ) bigger than Central London. Paddocks are named here after racehorses. Near the house is the killer paddocks those that are going to be slaughtered. Sheep are kept for 5 or 6 years as after that the quality of their wool deteriorated.   They keep 4 rams with every  100 ewes. So the flock is 9000 ewes, 5000 weaners 6000 wethers  (emasculated rams)and 400 rams. Sheep don't have top front teeth but a hard dental pad there and molars behind. Mustering takes 8 weeks and shearing takes about 5 weeks. 5 months after the rams have been joined with ewers the lambs are born. You dock the lambs tails and earmark them. In a drought years you don't put rams with the ewes as they won't be able to feed the lambs. You the sell of the wethers but you always save the ewes. Mustering starts in April to be ready for shearing in May. "Touch has a memory" by Keats, Lines to Fanny.

Their Silverdale merinos produce 7 pounds of wool and are good for dry country. They used to have Belders but the are bad mothers. They all know how to ride horses but nowadays the use motorbikes  to round up the sheep. Mulesing is the surgical removal of strips of skin by the sheep's buttocks to prevent flystrike where maggots cause an infection.

In the outback you see abandoned houses, rusting windmills and splintered fence posts. There are exhausted mines the port usurped by an airport and rail left behind by roads. Whole communities and the ties that bound them are blown away with the dust. We are looking for a place to ride out the storm of life. A week after the accident Matt opens his eyes .He has no spinal damage but traumatic encephalopathy.   He slowly had to learn dexterity like putting a key into a lock etc. The nurse said that Loss of inhibition was typical of  head injuries. The Queen mother visited Perth in 1958.            

 In the 50s when the wool price went through the roof, sheepmen everywhere bought up big new machinery , new plant and build new homesteads with indoor plumbing. 

Rose -her father was talking about a good match for her meant how many acres and how many sheep.

Miles sees the hole of the mine and quotes "Look on  my works ye Mighty and despair" Shelley.

Rose and Matt take shelter in the shearing room. They watch the heavy rain and find lanterns and stuff in the cupboards including whiskey. Matt went out to pee and returned wet so he took off his clothes and was wrapped in a blanket. What happened after that is that Matt dreamed he was sleeping with his girlfriend that he was going to meet when the accident happened. When the rain ended they returned and Matt because of the alcohol was back under treatment and Rose was considered to have been negligent.

Rose goes to Perth to do the secretarial course. Lorna get a receipt from the collage that Rose  is not doing the course but was given the rebate. She had written a letter and signed her dead fathers name.

Rose goes north where she gets a  secretarial job at an abattoir, the job comes with a shack/house. In the evening she read the books in the house Dickens , Stevenson Bronte and Mark Twain. She is paid cash. In the old days it could take 3 months to drive the cattle there. Today the  cattle are  arrive on road trains in less than a week. Poll short horns, (polled cattle are ones bread to be hornless)

Ernestine lost her husband but gained a metalworks and sees Rose as a younger version of herself. Rose faints and Ernestine takes her to the local doctor but gives her a wedding band to put onto her finger. Rose is 5 months pregnant. Ernestine tells her she must live her life and not worry about who the father is.. Rose doesn't want the old doctor to deal with her pregnancy so they ask the flying doctor to and it the young doctor who says Afternoon Mrs. Smith- --Rosie Mc Bride. Matt collected Rose, baby and Dr Finbar Rafferty from the aerodrome.

Nunc Dimittis (now let depart) Miles tells them that he is the black sheep of the family , a remittance man and proud of it. Miles had stayed on longer as requested till Matt recovered. The croquet set is left behind for Matt.

Matt realizes that Rose had been more loving to orphaned lambs than she is to her baby. Matt is aware of the way she watches him. The baby is going to be adopted out to a professional childless couple, this way the scandal  is hushed up.        An ewe who's

 birth has gone wrong, a ram savaged by a dingo or a horse crippled in a dog trap, you immediately put them out of their pain with a bullet.

Peachey saw Rose driving to the mineshaft he went after her and found she had fallen and the swaddled  baby was there. The flying doctor confirmed that Roses fatal injuries were from falling a suicide would  cause an inquest. Matt asked Pattie if he had abused her (sexually) Her reply was no you just broke my heart. Lorna went to Perth to register the death of Rose and the birth of her grandson. Name of father is left blank.

Matt now found Roses lighter with the note she made to burn that Matt was the father, he burns the note. Later Peachey also figured this out as he had taken shelter in the shearing shed and saw the 2 of them asleep with Matt naked. Matt now will not stay in the same room as baby Andrew. Peachy explains to Matt that as a POW under the Japanese, you think you won't survive and the trick is to keep living. Some things the more you run the harder they hunt you down.

The 1950 Australia was riding on the back of a sheep the wool was needed for clothes of the Korean War, but now nylon and synthetics were not dependent on drought, disease and death.

1890s was a gold rush but it did not last., but today the miners had the power and the earth was at the mercy of what was under it.  This was when Bonnie Edquiet arrived with a team of geologist and they start to collect samples and map the land.

Andy had an childhood different from Matt and Warren , he never had to fight for his toys. At aged 7 he knew he could ask Nanna Lorno but not Matt about the crash.

Kangaroos would drink sheep's water and eat their feed but a wild dog could kill a hundred sheep in a night and not even eat one.

The Radio to the flying doctor was used for School on the Air, that Andy soaked up to get an education.  In the house that Miles lived in Matt found a picture of a Grenadier guard. All my love Sandy so he knew that Miles had been attractive to men. Miles had called himself a "black sheep remittance man" luckily people here never found this out. 

Funerals are one social occasion the a person can attend uninvited.

Andrew had a pen pal Harry who tell him that his father works in a crocidolite or Blue asbestos mine. Later Harry's father is ill with damaged lungs and can't get compensation because he didn't wear the protective gear he was given by the company.

Station people tend to marry station people. They always said that Mac Brides could be bastards. 

Bonnie is leading a geological team surveying the minerals on the station. This is bad news as mining to get out what is underground get greater priority to the folks on living on the surface. This is Crown land leased to the agriculturalists. The minerals they are looking for are galena, copper, manganese, columbite, molybdenum , rhodium, palladium, iridium zinc lead asbestos. With the geologist there is good business for the pub keepers, petrol station. Later Bonnie wants to be close to Matt and should have stopped the survey earlier as the minerals are not very promising.

The area has a new Police Chief  Rundle and he found that 13% of the population did not have driving license's. If they could afford a car and petrol the have enough to get a license. He also found draft dodgers who were escaping the Vietnam war. , but he let the towns brothels tic along. One of the cases he dealt with was "Botulism" Betsy who had a bad marriage and poisoned her husband. The vicar who stole from the collection plate. Sadie who was only 14 and married a man 9 years older. Rundle the chief of police will not use his power to get their son into the hockey team. He says that if he bends the rule for his family, they will be entitled to bend the rules for theirs. Eventually Rundle would investigate Roses death. When Rundle ask Peachy about Rosie that he wants to sort of the truth. Peachy tell him you will need reinforcement if you want to start policing the past as well as the present.

Later when Rundle decided that Peach was the father Peachy said "Then I won't say you are wrong.

Wombats dig under the fence and let other animal in.  Andy has a collection of techtites or Australites. These are meteorites that hit Australia 785000 years ago and have a "flanged button" shape as they go into the ground.

Matt is at Monty's boat and says it has dried out and will have to be recaulked. He was on the 170 nautical mile race from Fremantle to  Bunbury. Bonnie says if ever it get to the water she will volunteer to go on it. Matt read the book on Gypsy Moth the man who had sailed around the world.-- was Sir Francis Chichester.

Matt has not spoken to Humpty Dumpton for nearly 15 years since he refused to bring him a gun in hospital. Humpty and Carol come to visit the Mac Brides. He married Carol when she was working at the rehab centre, they have been given the right to adopt children.  Every adopted baby comes from a cradle of sadness.

At school Andy is involved in the Pastoralists Heritage Project tracing the family trees of settler to West Australia back to 1870 Andy has a problem as his father side is Anonymous and his sir name should be that of his father.

The butcher bird ahs lots of sings - its territorial song , mating call , distress call and warning cry. Just because you have heard one song you don't know the whole bird.

There are cricket matches between the Jackaroos and shearers and drovers and station people. 

Matt arrived at the annual singles dance and surprised Bonnie by coming to dance with her. Later on Bonnie was told that she should be the one to encourage Matt into a relationship with her. Matt was very different from Warren who always had a girlfriend. Bonnie kept visiting Andy with a gift to be with Matt.  Andy wanted to be a geologist. Andy asks Bonnie to research who his father was as neither his grandmother or Matt would answer. "I don't think Rose ever told anyone" Bonnie was jilted  by a man who had another girlfriend all along. But today people are living together without getting married. Her uncle Cyril left the barmaid pregnant, when the barmaid was dying years later her cousin Bernice arrived at her uncle Cyril who accepted her. Times had changed. At the time if Cyril had known of the pregnancy he would have made her get rid of it, so the mother never told him.  Later Bonnie tracked down Miles in Sydney and realized he was gay and not the father. When Bonnie took Matt to meet her parents he refused and said I can't marry you. Matt considered himself as damaged good and that he had to live with that.

There a place that they have never run sheep as it is difficult to get  them  in and out and that is where the Jemima trees have survived.

We now discover that Myrtle Eedie the post office mistress, gave birth at 17 and the kid was adopted out. The man she had a relationship with she discovered too late had a wife and children who later joined him from Melbourne.

Pete Peachy had been sending money orders over the years. A parcel arrived for him of a dress but he had no wife and Andy was handed it as it had missed the postal van that week.

Pete had won the Kings Medal during the war after which he arrived at the station. He had been a Japanese POW for a few years. He had been  in the play the Importance of Being Ernest. as a  lady, the play was a triumph and he was the only one who made it home.

A bad storm is expected and before it starts hurling trees and windmills get ready. Lorna filled the bath and buckets  with water. Got the lamps and candles ready and matches ready. It was a dry electric storm and every surface was covered with dust and the cyclone had sandblasted the paint off the windward sides of cars stripping away paint.5 inches of topsoil  had vanished. First thing was to get the areal up.  The flattened fences had to be repaired and the sheep brought back into their paddocks.

When Bonnie arrived Matt hugged and squeezed her. She was now being recalled to Perth.

Andy was waling around at night by the light of the lamp saw Peachy without a shirt, his body was covered with great slashes. One never saw Peachy without a shirt. Peachy then put on a dress and was dancing. He decided that Peachy was nice on the outside and weird inside. Later Andy let slip about this and Johnno's  gang came and attacked Peachy the the pufta the hurt his dog protecting him. Matt and Andy arrived and drive them off. Peachy immediately had to soot his dog.  The next day Peachy looked like he had become an old man, and said good bye it time for him to take off. 

1975 Andy studied at Muresk Agricultural College, Western Australia, where he met Jane  and married in 1983,they have 3 children. Andy flew to Perth in the Station's Cessna . He had shares in the mining company and Bonnie had become the director. Andy would keep the homestead but the place would be destocked. When Andy spoke to Bonnie about who his father was he said he was happy in "forgetment".  It did not matter.   

Matt could now free  leave and  at the Australian Embassy in Athens, Greece he signed  to Andy the Power of Attorney.  Matt had become an apprentice boat builder in Queensland and traveled the world.

They all met at Lorna Funeral .Bonnie had married Bob and but she did not want to sit home looking after kids and knitting so they separated. She said she love Matt because he was mysteriousness. She was now retiring.

Lessons from Harry Truman :Decisive leadership courage and integrity ability and the courage to stand alone 2025 120pg

A book by Timeless Lessons Press     “The buck stops here.” 28/3/26

1945 April till 1953 Jan. When he left office as the 33rd President his approval rating were amongst the lowest in the world. Today historians consider that he was amongst the most consequential leaders. 8years less 82 days. He was a man of  moral clarity and with honesty, accountability and decisiveness. He had a sense of personal responsibility and learned how to navigate corruption without succumbing. He always believed that the right action however unpopular is the highest form of leadership.

Born in 1884. He was very bookish, loyal to his family and beside scripture at a young age had read the histories of Rome and Greece and biographies of Andrew Jackson and Napoleon. He wanted to attend West Point but failed the vision test. In 1905 joined the National Guard. 1914 his father died and he took over running the farm. WW1 he enlisted in the Field Artillery, He did not cheat, drink or take bribes. He became president while America was still at war in both Europe and the Pacific, and had only met Roosevelt twice. he believed in work well done promises kept and you owned decisions.  Complaining never harvested a field he learned on the farm. Roosevelt had humor, Churchill poetry but Truman endurance. When scandals later erupted in his administration, he faced them head on. His speeches were plain direct and unpolished.

WW1 he emerged as a leader  capable of commanding men, making decisions under fire, and standing firm in chaos. In 1918 he was a captain in command of Battery D who had, had a reputation before he arrived as being  unruly and impossible to control, In the mud of France he learned that trust was the currency of leadership. His soldiers would remain fierce loyal and even when he was president he received their letters addressed to Captain Harry. He understood that poor decisions and waste and corruption cost lives.

Failure more than success reveals who you are. He and his friend Eddie opened the Truman &Jacobson haberdashery when the soldiers were returning from the war and Kansas was booming. The shop became a veteran meeting place,  but came the crash of 1921 people stopped buying clothes. Truman resolved not to declare bankruptcy but to pay the people back and it took him 15 years. A man who never has been knocked down has no idea how to get up again. "If I am no true to my word on small things, how can I ever be trusted on the great things"

Going into politics was a moral minefield. Kansas City Democrats was run by Tom Prendergast the most corrupt machine in the  country but they saw his potential. Votes were bought , jobs were traded for loyalty. With Prendergast help Truman ran for Eastern District judge at Jackson County, this was a administrative overseeing budgets. Curiously Truman could not be bought.  However when this position was lost to Republican in 1924 he returned to the family farm, but later he got this job back again. Later Prendergast needed a candidate for the Senate, here he never made speeches of promises he couldn't keep. Prendergast  was later put in prison for Tax evasion.

Washington in the 1930s was a city of patronage. But Truman said if something is wrong can't vote for it. Remembering the inefficiencies of WW1 He proposed a committee to investigate waste and mismanagement in defense production and this was later called the Truman Committee. Companies were charging the government 3 time the price for substandard goods. Workers complained about the unsafe conditions, wasted  materials and fraud. Waste costs lives and faulty equipment killed soldiers. . Refusal to look away when the truth is inconvenient. After Pearl Harbour the US mobilization was unmatched in history, Wherever money flowed freely corruption followed.

He was warned that  to investigate waste during the war was political suicide as it would be resented by powerful industrialists and officials. "Then that is exactly what we need to do.  I'm not after headlines, I want results" The Truman Committee had over 400 hearings and 51 reports.  When an executive accused the committee of harming morale Truman replied " What harms moral is when a soldier dies because of a faulty gun."  The press called him the Treasury Watchdog. It is estimated that he saved the taxpayer $15 billion. 

Henry Wallace was meant to be voted for vice president but he was too polarizing for Roosevelt. "Truth always strengthened democracy"  Truman was vice President for only 82 days. "Leadership without humility becomes tyranny in disguise."  A leader has to make decisions and live with them. Ending the war quickly would limit Soviet influence, Wars end when the ideas that refuel war are resolved, and he believed that cooperation with the defeated Germans was important.   

In Europe Stalin refused to honor agreement he had made and would keep Soviet troops in all land occupied, he would not hold free elections. There is no difference between a totalitarian state and gangster , you can't appease either one. Britain informed America  that without help Turkey and Greece would fall to communism and global responsibility was being handed over to the US. This led to the Truman Doctrine 1947 March, that the US would stand against expansion of tyranny, and Congress would support his request for aid to Greece and Turkey. However he stated that American strength must rest on arms but also democratic ideals.

1947 June Secretary of State George Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University. Truman understood that victory without reconstruction  would lead to what followed WW1 and they must not allow conditions that would breed dictators. The Marshall Plan or the European Recovery Program was to rebuild infrastructures, stabilize currencies and restore production. This was the end of US return to isolationism. The cost of peace if far less than the cost of war. Europeans countries began to coordinate their economies and this led to the European Union resulting in not only recovery but unity. Truman's insistence of including Germany and Italy was controversial but visionary. Truman never claimed credit but praised Marshal as the greatest man of the age.

1948 June till May 1949 The US Britain and France unified the territories  that they occupied and made into an economically stable West Germany and the Deutsche Mark was introduced to revive trade. When the Soviets closed the roads to West Berlin. The airlift was introduced. Truman would not back down. He showed that the arsenal of democracy mightiest weapon was endurance, but it also showed unity and NATO resulted.

After winning the elections in 1948 Truman raised the minimum wage from 40 to 75 cents a hour. Extended social security to 10 million more Americans, initiated a housing program but was not able to advance in national  health. He called for anti lynching laws. end to poll taxes and desegregated the armed forces by executive order in  1948 July. " The test of government is how much it can do for the poor man to help himself."" Democracy is not self sustaining it must be nourished by fairness , defended by courage and guided be conscience"

Truman was the president who took a moral stand, he supported a cause not because it was popular but because it was right." He was apposed by the "Dixiecrats" Democrats who stood for states rights .If you wish to inspire freedom abroad you must practice it at home. With segregation he said " We cannot any longer afford the luxury of separate but equal." The military would become the laboratory of integration.  Appointed more black judges than any previous president. Met Civil Rights leaders including NAACP.  In 1947 July he spoke at their gathering at the Lincoln Memorial.  I swore on oath to uphold the Constitution and " it does not say for whites only."  He showed that moral courage is not measured by applause but by doing what is right.

The Korean War showed the limits of power. Truman believed in containment to preserve peace. This war broke out in 1950 and General Douglas MacArthur  with UN forces launched an amphibious landing at Inchon behind enemy lines and caught the North Koreans off guard and liberated Seoul and drove them north. MacArthur wanted to move them beyond the 28 parallels but Mao warned that they would not tolerate foreign troops so close to its territories. Thousands of Chinese troops crossed the Yula River. Truman fired MacArthur because he did not respect the authority of the President. The people can elect a new president  but can't elect a new General. In a democracy power must remain accountable especially  during a war. The hardest thing in being a leader is knowing when not to fight. Generals advise but presidents decide.

After he left office corporate boards offered him positions, he answered "You don't want to pay for my knowledge you want to pay for my name and that is not for sale."  Dignity does not depend on riches. When asked what he missed most about being president answer " The music of the marine band"  " When you are in charge you  can't blame anyone else"  If you want a friend in Washington get yourself a dog. Friendship and power rarely exist. Leadership does not require grandeur but gravity.

He entered the presidency without popularity and left it with less. His approval rating sank as low as 22%. He said "I cant make people like me I can only do my job."  He told the public what it didn't believe that communism could not be defeated overnight. I'll leave my defense to history it has a longer memory that newspapers. The Presidency is a trust not a trophy. He declined a official visit to Queen Elizabeth II. as he said a man shouldn't go sightseeing at the expense of the taxpayers.

He died aged 88 in 1972 and buried with only the naval band playing and no pageantry. His legacy was that he had a modest background and no wealth and no university degree.. He understood power as a loan and not a possession. He called himself "the Common Man President"  The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know. Courage need not come with grandeur, and greatness does not require perfection. He never hid from his mistakes, he faced them and learned from them. About the Atomic bomb he said " Sometime you do terrible things to prevent worse ones. 36,000 Americans died in the Korean War. and it was labeled the Truman War. You have to keep sowing the seed even if you wont be there to harvest. To work hard even when no-one notices. He represented America of small towns and big hearts. A man's honor is his best protection.  Truman's legacy is not the wars he fought but the peace he achieved, not the speeches he gave but the example he set. Do your duty without expectation of reward.

Haven: the dramatic story of how 1000 WW2 refugees and how they came to America by Ruth Gruber 2010 320pg

  20/3/26  To be edited.

1000 refugees were brought to the States as guests of the President Roosevelt in 1944 transported on army ship from Anzio and Cassino, to a camp in Oswego ,NY. This camp was under the War Relocation Authority(WRA) part of the Dept. of Interior. Organized by Harold L. Ickes , secretary for the Interior. Brought on the USNS Henry Gibbins an army tranport.  This ship is also documented by the book The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir, the story of Bernard Sandler.

1924 a quota system was implemented in bringing immigrants to the US, it was designed in such a way that mostly Western European could enter the States so as to make it more difficult for Easter European to enter i.e. Jews and Orientals. About 675,000 a year could enter the USA. This 1000 was outside the quota. Britain had closed the doors of Palestine.  The 100,000 Japanese Americans interned and relocated to camps were also under the WRA. just after Pearl Harbour. theoretically this thousand were being given refuge while the war was on but could not get visas and so were supposed to be sent back to Europe at the end.

Harald Ickes  sent Ruth to represent his dept. as she had got her degree in Germany and spoke Yiddish as well. She had to get vaccines for smallpox, typhus tetanus and plague. In flying an army plane they were taught that if a plane (C54) was shot down and had to ditch. They had to know how to inflate the Mae West vests and open the collapsible life boat. The landed in Newfoundland and then the Azores but must not meet the natives as their was plague and use mosquito repellent, and never eat uncooked vegetables. Venereal disease was also rampant in the tropics. The Casablanca which had a smell of goats. In Algeria the army was building a refugee camp to take in 40,000 refugees.

Information about the holocaust had come to American but the government decided to suppress this.

Yugoslavian refugees and others found their way into Italy. Refugees here would be treated as prisoners of war for whom no quotas were required.

1944 April the first shipment of Hungarian Jews were shipped to Auschwitz. The US war effort was hampered in Italy by refugees clogging the roads, needing shelter food and medical car. While the British were there trying to stop refugees from getting to Palestine.

The Germans under Albert Kesselring  were fighting the allied invasion. This was the same time as the  van Stoffenburg plot against Hitler. In Naples she was aware of British , French Italian Senegalese and Gurkhas soldiers .

The Henry Gibbins had the1000 refugees on the forward adn wounded solders in the stern. They were part of a convey a flotilla of 29 vessels 13 warships escorting 16 troop and cargo ships including POW ships that were a protective cover. 100,000 German POWs were keeping farms and factories going. The refugees were 982 people. 874 Jewish, 73 Catholic, 28 Greek Orthodox and 7 Protestant. 525 male and 457were female,.from 18 different countries. They were a cross section of population to make they a self sustaining group. A microcosm of a small town. Teenagers hadn't been to school for 5 years and younger children who had not been to school at all. German was the lingua franca but many spoke no German. Ruth organized English lessons on the deck. They also started classes in American history and English literature. Many had fled the Drancy concentration camp Near Paris others at Gurs like Lion Feuchwanger the novelist.. Some Gaulist groups had helped people escape to Spain. Brigade Blanch was a Belgium partisan brigade that some Jews survived in. Some had climbed La Madonna della Finetra Pass to escape the Germans. Others had refuge in a convent and only god chestnuts to eat. Many had trekked through the fighting lines to escape. Ruth got many of the stories of survival of refugees. The story of the Pentcho of 500 refugees on a boat that broke down and they landed on an island and were transferred  to Rhodes by the Italians.

The Mediterranean was dangerous as it had Nazi bombers and U-boats. At one time feeling in danger a smokescreen was put up and all suffered the smell..

A women over the age of 40 gave birth to a baby. The professional singers offered to entertain the troops and the put on concerts for them, this improved the atmosphere as wounded soldiers had blamed Jews for the war.

Arriving in New York you can see the Statue of Liberty and on its plinth is a poem by Emma Lazarus a Sephardi Jewess, The New Colossus 1883 welcoming immigrants. 

The most widely listened to radio commentator  was that of Father Coughlin a Detroit priest and vituperative anti-Semite.

They were taken to the Oswego camp and allocated rooms or houses according to family size. Not by intellectual class as they had wanted, or by ethnicity. They were told if there is a knock on the door it is a friendly one. It was the first time many had had bedsheets for years. The town Oswego had a population of 22,000. Most were ther from the 19 Century  early 20 C , Quebec from Germany , Ireland , Poland Italy , majority Roman Catholics. The town was surrounded by the Oswego river. This had been an army camp but was recently closed. The town had lost income when the camp closed and begged the movement to fill the camp again. It was now a refugee camp. Next to this was Fort Ontario 1955 to protect the British from the French. Rabbi Stephen Wise came to visit the camp adn Ruth showed him around.

Life Magazine showed photos of the camp in 1944 taken by Alfred Eisenstadt. Many remembered photos of this period are his work.

 Hungary under Admiral Horty,  while Germany was a co- belligerent he would not allow the Nazi's to touch Hungarian Jews. However now Adolf Eichmann was sent to round up the Jews in  March 1944. 

Food and shelter were provided by the government. A 10 man committee was organized to keep up the moral and maintain the spirit so to education. The towns reaction to the refugees had been favorable. Previously negro soldiers had been in the camp and the public worried they  would rape their daughter but the turned out to be respectable youngster. Later illiterate soldiers had been sent for  remedial training and they also turned out to be better than expected. They requested that the local schools be opened to their children  and this was very successful. German was the common lingua franca however the Yugoslavc and Italian and other wanted to move away from this now hated language.

Open house day where the whole town of Oswega was invited. The refugee children who had lost years of education became grinds and this set an example that the local followed.

Eleanor an her friend Elinor  the wife of Henry Morgenthau arrived to visit. She wrote in her syndicated column "My Day" on the camp.

Many refugees had been running climbing mountains etc to escape and never had, had proper foot ware and needed arch supports or orthopedic shoes as well as false teeth.

1+945 8th May VE day the War in Europe ended with German unconditional surrender.. General Eisenhower instructed that poles liberated from German camps must not be forced to return to Poland. 

President Truman sent Earl . G. Harrison to investigate the DP camps in Europe. Hitler had murdered a million children and there were few old people alive. Antisemitism had not died with Hitler's suicide. Truman now asked the New British PM Clement Attlee to allow 100,000Jewish refugees into Palestine. The refugee problem had become a world problem.

All over Europe UNRRA set up camps for millions of displaced people. Here in Oswego you had displaced people with refugees who had absorbed the spirit of democracy. Eventually a government subcommittee agreed for them to stay, despite the quota. Roosevelt had done something sly by inviting  the 1000.  These people all had the qualifications to be accepted into the US  and so were taken to the Canadian border where they were processed by the border guard. The Oswego resident spread all over the country so to family they had others had wanted to be in small towns.

After 1946 the Oswego camp became the temporary housing project for war veterans and their families. In 1951 The New York state turned it into a historical museum and park about the French and Indian Wars and WW2. There is a plaque, From 1944 to 46 fort Ontario served as a haven for survivors of the European holocaust.

The book now covers reunions of the refugees and most of them succeeded in life, became Americans and had families.

George Marshall: Defender of the Republic by David L Roll 586 pg 2019

 

   18/3/26  

1880 to 1959 Marshall went to a Military High School but his parents did not intend him to go into the army but he enrolled to become an officer.

He was a very modest man and said he wanted to be buried as an ordinary military officer. He fought 3 active wars and the cold war. He discouraged Pershing from going into politics and Eisenhower went into politics despite his advice, and never took any political stand.

1914 he was leading an exercise in the Luzon Peninsula incase Japan invaded after seeing Japan beat Russia in 1904-1905. There Henry Hap Arnold recognized that he would one day be a Chief of Staff.

1902 He married Lily Carter Coles who could not have children she died in 1927

1946 Together: Annals of an Army Wife, by Katherine Tupper Marshall.

George Marshall served under 10 US presidents, he was the one who led the containment against the Soviet Union. He fought in 4 wars 3 hot and one cold.

In 1904 Japan won the Russo Japanese War and 5 years later occupied Korea after a Korean had assassinated  a Japanese statesman to stop Japanese encroachment on Korea. Marshall in 1914 was in the Philippines doing a military exercise in case Japan decided to now invade.

1916 Wilson expanded the regular  army with the National Defense Act to 175,000 and 450,000 to the National Guard. Americans who fought the Germans in WW1 were called the "dough boys" and 9 and a half million men registered for the draft on June 5th 1917.

John Pershing was 57 when he was appointed by Wilson the lead the American Expeditionary forces in Europe, this was the only time he met Wilson. Pershing left with the vanguard for Europe which included George Patton. The French had lost 2 million men since the beginning of the battles. The Germans were suffering from being cut off from food and fuel by the British blockade. Pershing resisted the calls to include  the doughboys in the French or British units and wanted  them to preserve their identity as an American Force.

Marshall was the only one who stood up to Pershing when he thought a decision was wrong and others though it would end Marshalls career but Pershing realized Marshall ability and turned to him for advice.

1918 March, Ludendorff's long awaited Spring Offensive was meant to split the English and French forces,  failed.  The British and French now agreed to a unified command with Marshall Ferdinand Foch as supreme commander. Pershing agreed to allow Foch to select a sector that would fight as part of the America Army. General Phillipe Pertain was the one  who selected the positions. The Big Red One was the first American division bloodied in the war 

It became Marshall custom to go at midnight to reconnoiter the battle field close to the German lines to prepare to capture the heights of Cantigny. He also sent out soldiers to capture German prisoners and to identify positions  of enemy guns, sniper posts and strongpoints. Cantigny village was in the American hands after the first hour with few  casualties. After a few counter battle the Germans finally left altogether. This showed the French that the Americans were serious fighters.

Approximately 116,516 American soldiers died during World War I, with 53,402 dying in battle and another 63,114 due to disease and non-combat incidents.

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1945 April 12th -Harry Truman

James Baynes was appointed Truman's secretary of State.

  1939 to November  1945 George Marshall  Chief of Staff,  2 weeks after VJ day handed in his resignation  On his  holiday Truman phoned him and asked him to go to China.. The civil war between Communist China and Nationalist China. The Soviet in Manchuria were providing the Communists help. Patrick Hurley the US ambassador claimed that Truman's government were siding with the communists. He was one of the first to plant the seed of Mc McCarthyism and Red baiting. The US would not intervene militarily to influence the China internal strife. China was supposed to be under a coalition government and the US was withdrawing troops from China. Marshall  sent a message to Truman that he could not achieve this coalition and was wasting his time in China.  This was one of Marshals few failures.

In 1937 Nanking had been China's prominent  city and in 1937 the rape of Nanking the Japanese had bayoneted as many as 300,000 civilians. It was Chiang's capital and  It was also the place of the mausoleum of Sun Yatsan, the first leader (1912-1925) of the Chinese Republic. 

Marshal could not trust the Generalissimo. He met Chou en Lai the most important person from the CCP who represented Mao in Chunking.. After the Japanese  surrender most towns in Manchuria were occupied by The Red army. No agreement  made were kept by both sides. This was an area that dry loess caused dust everywhere.

1946 March This was when Churchills Fulton speech was made about the Iron Curtain across Europe. Churchill was also anxious about Manchuria.  In Washington Secretary of State James Byrnes was resigning due to ill health and Truman wanted Marshal for the job. The Republicans supported a campaign that claimed the Democrats were appeasing the Communists. Truman had announced that the US would not take sides in the Chinese problems. The Communist victories were attributed to superior morale and leadership, not military equipment.

1947 the US law was changed so that the line of succession on the death of the President is vice President then Speaker of the house. Marshal became the fiftieth Secretary of State. 

1949 Mao on capturing Nanking proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China and the Generalissimo fled to Formosa (Taiwan) China was lost by Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt demoralized and unpopular government, despite massive economic aid provided by the USA. In the last 4 months the Communists had captured 75% of Chaings US financed weapons.

1949 August The Soviets detonated their first nuclear bomb. Senator McCarthy now burst on the US scene, till he was censured by the Senate in 1954 He accused State Dept. workers of being communists and queers. who sold out China. In 1945 Roosevelt had spurned a secret offer of Mao to come to Washington and establish a working relationship.

 When Marshal entered the department of state he found there was no planning dept. and  appointed George Kennan to set this us. G.K was the leading expert on Soviet Issues. He was the one who came out with the policy of containment to halt Soviet expansionism. The was formalized by the Truman Doctrine.

The British ambassador Archibald Kerr asked the US for money to help Greece which was being taken over by communist insurgents. Also in Turkey the Soviets were demanding a revision of the Dardanelles treaty. In fact the entire Middle East was in danger of Russia intentions.

Winter 1946-7 was the coldest since 1880 with coal shortages and people dying from exposure and hunger from bad harvest and lack of transport. Marshall was at the Paris Conference and Molotov was demanding reparation from Germany. for the Soviets. Marshall realized that the Soviets wanted to forestall the recovery of Europe, see it fall into economic ruin and social chaos to make the countries ripe for their domination.

 Kennan's dept. was given 2 weeks to come up with a plan now sad down and Kennan drew up what was to be called the Marshal Plan which was the integration of European Economies. The US would provide  Billions of $ of goods because the US was in need of markets. This assistance was offered to all Europe including the Soviets and satellites. Kennan knowing that Stalin would not accept this plan as he would not allow the Soviet economy to open to Western inspection. " Let the Soviets take  responsibility for dividing Europe". Meanwhile there was a Soviet coup in Hungary.

Marshal gave his Harvard Speech and the world realize that American had changed its policy of retreat into isolationism and was offering help for it friends and enemies alike to European Integration for trade and production. Truman realized that to get it to pass Congress it could not be called the Truman plan and so it was called the Marshal plan. The actual getting the bill through Congress was done by Republic Senator Arthur Vandenberg. 8

Reparation would not be paid to Russia from the American zone. Russia considered that their achievement of WW2 was bringing these countries under their control.  22 countries  including Turkey but excluding  Russia and Spain were invited to a gathering in Paris. All the Easter block countries refused to participate, Czechoslovakia wanted to join but  because of Stalin's control had to cancel their decision. 16 nations now became the Western Bloc.

The French feared the German resurgence to get the aid they had to agree to the liberalization of  trade barriers throughout Western Europe. Interim aid was sent so that the could survive the winter.

1948 in the spring the main recovery plan started. The plan costing between $12 and $17 billion would not endanger Americas security nor was it likely to cause inflation and bringing increase taxes. A news bureau was set up to advertise and explain the plan. "The future of the free world and Europe hangs in balance"  

 The European Recovery Plan was the key to the struggle against "government tyranny" Marshal could not have realized at the time that the Common Market and later the European Union was to follow. Marshall had explicitly blamed the Soviets and Communist Party for exploiting the economic chaos in Europe and that if Congress failed to pass the bill the Soviets would gain. The Soviet backed communist coup of Czechoslovakia galvanized Washington into a sense of urgency.. Remember a decade earlier Hitters invasion of  Czechoslovakia had triggered WW2. 11 days after the Soviet invasion Jan Masaryk the  Czechoslovakia foreign minister was found dead  assassinated. Former President Herbert Hoover's support was a major tipping point for the wavering Republics. 1948 April , 11 days after Truman signed, the bill 150 ships were on their way carrying cargoes to Bordeaux Liverpool , Rotterdam , Genoa. This was an International New Deal. The last of these $ were spent in 1952.  

1948 April 6th Finland agreed to a Mutual Defense Pact with Russia though she retained her independence. Thus Finland was forced to be a neutral country between Russia and the West. This was replaced by a  new treaty in 1992  on the fall of the USSR. Finland finally joined NATO in 2023.

1948 June The Vandenberg Resolution. This paved the way to the formation of NATO

Berlin Crises

1948 June General Lucius Clay began circulating the "west mark" and this caused the split with the Soviets. They circulated the "ostmark" into East Germany and all East Berlin. This challenged the sovereignty of West Berlin and Stalin cut off all road transport to West Berlin, all roads canals, rail and electricity. They could not cut off the air as it was written into the agreement. Marshal predicted that the Soviets would back down if West Berlin was supplied by air. For 11 months till May 49 Berlin was supplied by air. About 1500 flights a day. Stalin gave up on this as it failed to achieve its goals and became an embarrassing, ineffective, and costly diplomatic disaster for the Soviet Union, it made a  laughing stock of the Red Army.

Truman's support for Israel was despite Marshal advise. Truman insisted that the US supported partition and was the first country to recognize Israel as a State. Marshal had supported trusteeship and not partition. 1)He was worried that US troops might have to get involved 2)The Arabs would be driven into the arms of the Soviets 3) The US might be denied access to Middle East Oil. However one thing that Marshall was correct was that there would be no end to the conflict. Truman undestood that a partitioned Palestine and Jewish state could solve the Jewish refugee problem in Europe and recognised  Israel 11 minuted after it announced independance to keep it in the Western camp.

Truman won the 1948 election because he ran a strong whistle stop campaign. For Labor challenged the Taft-Hartley Act that significantly restricted labor union powers. As a farmer he supported the Federal price support.. His civil rights initiatives gained the support of African Americans, and in 1948 by executive order desegregated the army. The pollsters got their figures wrong because they stopped polling before the late momentum of his campaign and predicted a Thomas E. Dewey victory for the Republicans.

Korea

1949-50 Louis Johnson was secretary of defense but was using that position to try and advance his political position. Marshal was appointed in his place and was not you in the position when the Korean War broke out. Korea was a Japanese colony and when the war ended the norther half on the 38th capitulated to the Red Army with the south to the US. The Soviets boycotted election here and installed Kim Il sung they then pulled out and left a well trained and equipped army of 135,000 men the North Korean Peoples army. Kim though he could easily capture the south and got the go ahead from Stalin, while Ho Chi Minh attacked the French in Vietnam. .The Chinese gave back up support. The US was supported by the UN to defend South Korea. Truman declared war without Congresses support as he thought it would be short. McArthur led the American troops, and Marshall was immediately called by Truman.

Marshal said they must avoid action that back Chiang in a renewed war against the Chinese Communists. McArthur made an  surprise amphibious landing near Inchon that was successful. They were able to divide the communists and recapture Seoul and the North Koreans started withdrawing so as to not be caught in a trap. MacArthur wanted to cross into the north in hot pursuit and depose Kim. However the Chinese troops started crossing he Yula River into North Korea. 

Truman relieved McArthur over the radio before he could resign. America must not go into communist territory and fall into a Soviet trap as power to contain the Soviets in Europe would be  weakened.. General Matthew  Ridgeway took succeeded MacArthur. He later took Eisenhower NATO position when he retired from the army and shattered the better part of 14 Chinese Communist Divisions. McArthur was a potential candidate for presidency in 1952 but never got far on the primaries. MacArthur's strategy was said to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time, at the wrong enemy.

 McArthur "Old soldiers never die the just fade away" i.e. quiet passing in dignity to the next generation.

The Soviet Government informed Kennan that they wanted a solution to the Korean question.1.8million Americans had fought  in the Korean war 33,652 killed 7747 missing in action and 92,134 wounded. The Communist Chinese suffered between 360,000 to 1,500,000 deaths.

1951 Dean Acheson  Secretary of State concluded the Japanese Peace treaty or San Francisco Peace Treaty that came into effect in 1952.

Anne Rosenberg a expert in labor relation became assistant secretary for manpower. They failed to bring about universal military training.

63%Epilogue

1953 Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the European Recovery Program or. He thanked the late Senator Vandenberg who died in 1951, Churchill received the Prize for literature on the same day. The  Marshal Plan was at a time when the US  was short of money but this contained the Soviet Union and repay in future trade with American companies. The command of Overlord went to Eisenhower when it was Marshal's for the taking but he was magnanimous.

1943 and 1947 .Time proclaimed Marshall "Man of the Year" on it cover 

Time Line 

1929-1933 President  Herbert Hoover

1933President  Franklin D Roosevelt 

1943 and 1947Time proclaimed Marshall "Man of the Year" on its cover 

1945 -President Harry Truman 

1947 -1949 George Marshall  Secretary of State

1949 August The Soviets exploded an atomic bomb.

1949  October Mao declared the Peoples Republic of China

1953 President Dwight D Eisenhower

Where the Birds Never Sing and the Liberation of Dachau By Jack Sacco 2003 336 pg

 

       The True Story of the 92nd Signal Battalion and the Liberation of Dachau – A First-Hand Military Biography from Normandy to Dachau's Liberation 20/2/26

60 years after the war they were recognized as the Greatest Generation. War is the worst of man's creations. Senator Bob Dole wrote the  Forward.

They fought their was across Europe and reach Dachau where the made the Nazi's stop killing people in April 29th 1945. Good must always find a way to overcome evil. The liberators were boys barely out of their teens in the 92nd Signal battalion. Joe Sacco was the only child of immigrant parents. When Jack was a kid his father Joe had shown him the album of pictures and ones he had taken in Dachau.

Life is not a given, it is a gift. On a farms near Birmingham . Alabama there was a large Sicilian community in this area and in a smooth part of the valley was an airport. He was always surrounded by uncles singing Italian songs. His father was a decorated soldier in WW2 from the Italian army. Italians were not very welcome there even though there was no mafia by the KKK and Rednecks. There were only certain places where Blacks , Jews , Italians Catholics could live and hard work saw them through the Great Depression which brought them closer together. He received a letter as did hundred of others and started the journey that would lead him to the greatest conflict in recorded history.

First taken to Fort McClellan Alabama. where his health was rated AI and sworn into the US Army. Then Fort McPherson , Georgia. where he took an aptitude exam. Sent to Camp Crowder Missouri to be in the 92nd Signal Corps. and received basic training. They were fed extremely well with plenty of meat vegetables, fruit and milk. Napoleon is quoted as saying an army marches on its stomach. Patton " If you are properly trained you will survive to tell your grandchildren about the war." Proper meals and mail call were the best activities of the day and they had 3 proper meals a day, unless activities caused them to eat horrible C-rations. The army had censors and they had to watch what they wrote. Saturday was  a half day and Sunday was free time and he went to Mass. March 19th is St Josephs day the Patron saint of Sicily. 

Fort Polk, Louisiana was where they were in authentic battles. Ten men in a tent was their squad.3 or 4 squads make a platoon. In training lights are out at 9pm and Reveille is at 4am. They learned the technical aspect of the signal corp. military logistics and maneuvers, setting up communication for the infantry, stringing up cables in the trees. The heat  of this area was bad with flies, gnats and mosquitoes. Some were taught driving and truck the were to use. 

They enjoyed making fun of Silverman because he was a Jew but the tough guy Chandler an ex con from Joliet Prison, Illinois was illiterate and it was Silverman he went to for help in reading and writing his letter and who taught him some reading. So Chandler became his protector. 

He had a 2 week furlong and back home the whole extended family came to see him. He had missed his grandfathers funeral and now understood the saying that "funerals are for the living"

Camp Maxey, Texas. They were now issued with steel helmets but nobody knew if they were going to Europe or the Pacific. They preferred Europe as it was considered safer and more familiar. They were taken by train to Camp Shanks, NY. across the Hudson north of NY City, the staging point for embarkation. They were given a chance to spend Christmas and explore the city. This was the first time many of them saw the sea or a ship. They did not need to know where they were going as "loose lips sink ships" His father had described the Statue of Liberty when he arrived in 1921.

George S Patton "You can't run an army without profanity"

They joined a convey of 35 ships. Each was given 2 cartons of Raleigh cigarettes but if they wanted a better brand could buy. A full moon meant great submarine weather and so is dangerous. After 10 days they arrived at Liverpool where the goods and troops were unloaded but they were taken to Belfast  Northern Ireland. They were taken to a camp at  Lurgan  He knew that most of their priests were from Ireland. At 15.30 it was pitch dark, they did not realize that at the high latitude the day is so short with sunrise only at 10am. Plus blackout made it darker. It is always cold and damp. They were served powdered eggs which tasted awful these became prominent in the 1930. They always seemed to get beef and potatoes. There always seemed to be more girls, here than GIs. Patton came to inspect the troops in Lurgan.

From Lurgan they were taken to the port of Lame and a ferry to Stanrear in Scotland and  from here to a camp in Carlisle where they saw hundreds of rabbits in the fields eating grass. By train to Oxford, this was considered an Open City so was Cambridge . There were a lot of hospital here  and around Oxford.   This concept was unofficial.  Bamberg, Heidelberg, Marburg, and Konstanz, in Germany  survived largely intact due to limited strategic military value,

Here they set up a campsite and General Patton with , General Simpson, Haislip and Cook visited. Patton gave a pep talk. -That they have been well trained to fight, all real men love a fight, Americans despise cowards and play to win. The real hero fights even though he is scared and the enemy is just as frightened. 

They were aware that D day and Operation Overlord was on as ambulances starting arriving at the hospital in Oxford. They were moved by train to Southampton. Very little news came from the front but they heard that they would be sent to set up communication a week later. V 1 rockets were being launched by Germans in France. but most were falling in fields north of the town. From the ships they had to climb down netting with their heavy loads into Higgins boats.

Omaha beaches was next to Calvados. The first landing the were stopped at a sand bar and the sailor told them to get back in and moved to a place they could land. On land they moved towards Cherbourg via Isigny-sur-Mer  and Ste-Mer-Eglisa a destroyed village, then  in forest they got to Montabaur. Then the battle of Cherbourg which the Germans had sabotaged before they left. 

They now moved south to Barnesville, where they saw V1s flying that were a plane without a propeller, later understood they were missiles. They came across a US army unit baking fresh  for the troops and got hot loaves a luxury. Some of the 92nd hit landmines with that killed and injured them. In the sky they saw 3,000 bomber moving to attack Germany. Then Saint Lo , Periers.are still in Normandy and the bocage with hedgerows 6ft. high and 4ft. thick, that  even armillary could not open.

Fogeres Brittany from here the infantry opened a corridor to Laval where the Germans were retreating but regrouping for counter attacks. Once it rained the muddy roads were impassable as they sunk in. They moved to Argentan and the Falaise Gap which was blocked by  German Panther units, this was a headache for the Generals.  A German soldier said he wanted to give up and also 5 Russian soldiers wondered into their camp wanting to defect.

They did not know about the wider story of the war situation. Longny, Normandy, the infantry was moving fast and they could barely keep up string up the telephone and moving in the direction of Paris. Headquarters were now set up at Dreux on the Blaise River, They supplies arrived with the Red Ball Express , this was a division of black soldiers who drove  trucks non stop from the ports to the front lines and back.

At Mantes la Jolie they came to the Sein River. There were a few US planes captured by the German using them to surprise their enemy. The  Americans wanted de Gaul's French troops to have a major role in the liberation of Paris. In Paris at the same time as the people were celebrating the arrival of the allies they were shaving the heads and painted swastikas on women who collaborated.

Fontainebleau  55km south of  Paris, then north to Roznay en Brie then to Sens and Troyes and Neutchateau in Champagne. Then Alsase- Lorraine where many could speak German as it was on the German border. At Charms they were entertained by Bob Hope ,Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore. One of their squad knew Dinah from school in Nashville and they all got to meet her personally.

Lanesville Lorraine on the Moselle River. Here snipers shot at them from the church tower and they got the artillery's to bomb it. This had been hastily evacuated by the Nazis who left behind field glasses and a few dozen bottles of cognac. Eisenhower , Patton and Bradley and Hislop had a 4 hour meeting here, they knew about this before as one of them was operating the phone switchboard. From  grilling German a POW  they found out location of enemy guns adn destroyed them.

 Sarrebourg and Severna in  Alsace- Lorraine  here they found hidden in the woods 2 crying German 16 year old soldiers there were another 3 kids who were wounded and they got them to the medics.

1944 December the coldest winter Europe had in decades. They were issued with Parkers, underwear and woolen socks, Insulated boots wool helmet linings and gloves and they always searched out abandoned farms or stables to shelter in. If it wasn't snowing it was  raining.

The Battle of the Bulge they were informed that they were American Germans who had come to fight for Hitler had infiltrated them and they must be wary and use code words. They Germans were not as well outfitted as many had lost equipment. The German blitzkrieg had cut and surrounded the American in Bastogne. Then the sun came out and Allied  planes took over and the destroyed the Germans.

1944 Christmas day, they spent the day connecting and repairing switchboards, circuit boards amplifiers, cables and phones. They were offered a cow barn that they could set up  residence in by a family. In Alsace Larraine the people could speak German and one of their group had learn German from his grandmother.  Joe fell in love with the daughter Monique and could speak to her in Italian as her mother was Italian.

Fenetrange, Alsace. He was wounded and in hospital and Monique visited him. After he recovered he and 2 others had been assigned to go to an officers school in England but they did not want to, however Jack was promoted to corporal. On March 17 they were getting ready to push into Germany and entered at Zwelbrucken in Rhineland-Palatinate, then on to Kaiserslautern and Ludwigshafen. Near Worms they found a cellar of bottles of Campaign and sent 16 trucks to load it up. By the time the had past threw Worms it was ashes.

The Germans had bombed the bridges but the Engineering corp was construction new ones.

The Air Corps had bombed Mannheim and Blenheim in anticipation of their arrival and at Darmstadt the saw hundreds of Germans marching towards them with white flags trying to surrender.

1945 March 27th Aschaffenburg Germany General Haislip sent US armored vehicles through the town tell the public to evacuate if they wanted to live, and then heavy artillery bombardment began, later planes flew over also dropping bombs. German adults were not keen on seeing US troops but children liked the Hershey bars that soldiers carried in their packs to give them quick energy. Many of the children were orphans.

Lohr and deeper in Bavaria to Bad Bruckenau where the found a dead soldier only 12 years old  All dying young soldiers call for their mamas. However a retreating army could be a dangerous one.

Bamburg, Bavaria They could not get a smile out of the local population. A snipers bullet came from the church steeple and mortars' shot the top of the steeple off and a woman fell out. Erlangen, Bavaria. Nazi SS troops decided to fight to the death and airplanes bombed the SS troops and hospitals to rubble. Nuremburg Bavaria, the Donauworth, Swabia  on the Danube River in southern Germany.

Dachau was in their zone and they were told that when they capture the notorious concentration camp nothing is to be disturbed. An international commission will come and investigate. The first thing when they got there was to ask" What is the smell?" an infantryman there said Welcome to Hell. They walked into the camp and saw dead women children , old men and babies beaten starved stabbed shot butchered and left to rot. There were open railway cattle trucks with dozens of lifeless bodies that looked like they had been starved to death emaciated mouths agape and eyes staring vacantly. One of the squad started snapping photos and said these will be historical one day get it on film and had spare film to give Joe. The inmates realized that the American's had taken over the camp and started coming out. "These are the ones well save. "the looked like walking dead.

Most of the regular German soldiers had fled before they came  but they captured Nazi SS troops who remained vowing to fight to the death. They were lined up against the wall sneering and we executed them. One ran away and they chased him and caught him and pushed him in to the gate with the inmates and they all crowded around and beat him to death.

A special group of soldiers doctors, nurses  were assigned to give the prisoners food drink and emergency medical treatment. Some died trying to eat other so weak the died within hours of liberation. The ones who had arrived recently were healthier .  There were some prisoners speaking to a few US soldiers in Italian and he went to investigate. They told him about them about an infirmary where they found prisoners tied to steel tables, where medical experiments had been done on them. 

Some German doctors refused to assist the dying Jewish prisoners and they were arrested and led away by the US military. There were cages with 80 vicious dogs mostly Dobermans and German Shepherds paced around they had been trained to kill inmates. Infantrymen came and shot them through the fence. They saw huge mounds of shoes as well as striped clothes. The next morning the whole town of Dachau was marched through the concentration camp, by the US military the people were emotionally shocked at the carnage. After a years combat we finally understood why destiny had called us to travel so far to a place abandoned by God.

Satzburg, Austria on the way there thousand of surrendering German troops carrying white flags, the entire army except for a few rogue SS. The Americans now had permission to turn on headlights. In Salzburg they were welcomed by the population. They took over a house that belonged to a Nazi officer and found the officer , wife son and daughter dead in the parlor. So they then moved to another Nazi officer house. Here they had to man the telephone companies in the different town suitable for the armies needs.

1945 May 5th President Harry Truman announced in an important speech that President FD Roosevelt had died. In Salzburg the SS capitulated on its own. In the Austrian Alps the decided to visit the Eagles nest Hitler hideaway nearby to Berchtesgaden, even though it had been repeated bombed was still intact. There in Hitler's study a red flag with a black Swastika and a boatsful painting of the Fuhrer. The Russians entering Austria did not get as good a reception as the Americans.

Joe now returned to Fenetrange with his new sergeant stripes on his arm hoping to marry Monique and take her to Alabama. Her parents showed him her grave. 3 German soldiers had come out of the forest raped and murdered her. American caught the Germans and killed them.

Fresh replacements were being sent out from the States to replace them, married soldiers were being sent home first. When he landed in Boston the people there were cheering and waving flags to welcome them home. On arriving at Fort McPherson , Georgia, the major said to him you  were all over Europe did you ever run into Patton. Yea I used to see him every day. He then found out that "the army gave exceptions for only children and farmhands. You didn't know that ?" Children asked him if he killed any Germans. With his parents they pointed out that he was only 21.

50 years after the war these American were called the Greatest Generation  that gave so much and asked so little from Tom Brokaw's book The Greatest Generation in 1998.