The Liberator
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75 Then he ordered all: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
76 Soon, they had all: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview. Sparks would keep the gun and later give it to his son.
77 To the end of: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
78 “Tell the major he’s”: Karl Mann, interview with author.
79 Lamberth rode on the: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 88.
80 He had executed honorable: Felix Sparks, “The Aschaffenburg Battle,”
81th Infantry Association newsletter, July 22, 1982.
82 When the last Germans: Ibid.
83 The German looked humiliated: Franklin, Medic, p. 138.
84 “Had I known it”: Ibid.
85 It was a heavy: Rüdiger Overmans, Deutsche militärische Verluste (Munich, 1999), pp. 238–39.
86 The regiment had lost: After Action Report, National Archives.
87 Such behavior meant he: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 193.
88 Thankfully, the counterattack: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, p. 272.
89 “Sixty minutes to build”: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, p. 206.
90 “I left the old”: Rex Raney, interview with author. “I can with luck smell something for a few seconds each month,” said Raney in 2011. “I can be around some pretty ripe odors and I don’t know it.” Source: Rex Raney, interview with author.
91 So Sparks and others: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE—DOWNFALL
1 “Yeah,” replied one veteran: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 158.
2 “Roosevelt died!”: Hicks, The Last Fighting General, p. 185.
3 An editorial in the: “Person of the Century Runner-Up: Franklin Delano Roosevelt,” Time, March 1, 2000.
4 “It is a miracle”: Toland, The Last 100 Days, p. 377.
5 “Here, read it!” exclaimed: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 463.
6 The Germans tried to: After Action Report, National Archives.
7 Sparks could stand in: Ibid.
8 The raid had in: www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/diary/jan45.html.
9 The airborne destruction, which: Johnson, Churchill, pp. 137–38.
10 Hidden in the skeletons: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 159.
11 Himmler, although desperately trying: Bundesarchiv Berlin, NS19/3118, fo.3. Himmler’s order was on January 21, 1945. Hitler’s had been on November 25, 1944 (fo.2), a couple of weeks before the start of the Ardennes campaign.
12 They were told to: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 The Seventh Army, to: After Action Report, National Archives.
14 Sparks was able: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 159.
15 Sparks consulted his map: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
16 That morning, Sparks’s Third: After Action Report, National Archives.
17 Sparks had deployed two: Karl Mann, interview with author.
18 Yet again, he wanted: Cranston R. Rogers, affidavit, April 25, 2006, Felix Sparks DSC Recommendation file.
19 “Uh, oh. I think”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
20 Turk pulled up: Karl Mann, interview with author.
21 Sparks realized that he: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
22 The burst had gone: Ibid.
23 “Goddamn it”: Ibid.
24 Now his only mementos: Mary Sparks, interview with author.
25 “The ruined city was”: Buechner, Sparks, p. 135.
26 The regiment had lost: After Action Report, National Archives.
27 Many men treated themselves: Cranston Rogers, Colorado National Guard interview.
28 It had not been: Speer, Inside the Third Reich, p. 473.
29 Speer himself had been: Ibid., p. 472.
30 “Probably he sensed that”: Ibid., p. 474.
31 The Slavic hordes Hitler: Duffy, Red Storm, p. 297.
32 A Soviet force of: Bessel, Germany 1945, p. 104.
33 Selected men from the: Whiting, America’s Forgotten Army, pp. 196–97.
34 For newsreel cameras: Die Letzen Tage von Nurnberg (Nuremberg: 8 Uhr Blatt, 1952).
35 Fittingly, the men given: Allen Bennett, interview with author.
36 Sparks thought the whole: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
37 The sniper died not: Buechner, Sparks, p. 135.
38 “Clouds of lilac perfume”: Anonymous, A Woman in Berlin, pp. 1–5.
39 Among the most morally: Bessel, Germany 1945, pp. 108–9.
40 “I’m staying here,” said: Ryan, The Last Battle, pp. 434–36.
41 As the war progressed: Hugh Foster, e-mail to author, November 23, 2011.
42 He was to seize: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
43 The race was on: Ibid.
44 “Move as rapidly”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
45 Finally, he was on the last straight: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 162.
46 No one wanted to: Cranston Rogers, Colorado National Guard interview.
47 Occasionally, what remained of: After Action Report, National Archives.
48 “Men or parts of men”: Cundiff, 45th Infantry CP, pp. 242–43.
49 Sparks was within striking: Hallowell et al., Eager for Duty, p. 162.
50 But his task force: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
51 After refueling, Sparks ordered: After Action Report, National Archives.
52 The following day, April 27: Buechner, Sparks, p. 136.
53 There followed a short: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
54 In disgust, Sparks moved: Buechner, Sparks, p. 136.
55 If he managed to: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
PART SIX—THE HEART OF DARKNESS
1 “Above all I charge”: Bullock, Hitler, p. 795.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR—THE DAY OF THE AMERICANS
1 “S-3 to all battalions”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
2 If either group ran: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
3 Sparks set out: Antelme, The Human Race, p. 286.
4 Did they know something: Ibid.
5 Everything is ripe: Ibid.
6 Determined to get the first report: Denver Post, August 26, 2001.
7 Since its opening as Nazi Germany’s: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment newsletter, June 15, 1989.
8 More than thirteen thousand in: Denver Post, August 26, 2001.
9 Soon after, twenty-five-year-old Walsh: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
10 “I don’t know what”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
11 On the outskirts of the town: After Action Report, National Archives.
12 There were fresh beds: Smith, The Harrowing of Hell, p. 79.
13 His interpreter, Karl Mann: Karl Mann, interview with author.
14 Several shots were fired: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author, p. 16.
15 Sparks then caught sight: Karl Mann, interview with author.
16 It resembled some kind: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
17 He did not know: Felix Sparks, 157th Infantry Regiment Association newsletter, June 15, 1989.
18 Sparks could see a: www.scrapbookpages.com, “Who entered Dachau first on April 29 1945.” This is the most authoritative Internet source on all aspects of Dachau.
19 If the SS were: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 “We got all kinds”: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, a documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
21 “Okay,” said Walsh: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
22 Walsh and his men: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
23 “What’s a freight train”: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 133.
24 Degro was in fact:
Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 6, 2005.
25 He had been in: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
26 Human excrement was all: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 259.
27 Corpses riddled with bullets: John Lee, “Action at the Coal Yard Wall,” Second Platoon newsletter, April 2001, issue 20.
28 It was as if: Ibid.
29 The stump was covered: Dachau and the Nazi Terror, 1933–1945 (Comite International de Dachau, Brussels, 2002), p.142
30 The train had left: Dan Dougherty, interview with Jeffrey Hilton, 157th Infantry Regiment reunion, Colorado Springs, 2007.
31 It had first stopped: Pierre C. T. Verheye, The Train Ride into Hell, unpublished manuscript.
32 On April 21, when: IfZ-Archiv, Nurnberger Dokumente, NO 2192, testimony Hans Mehrbach, “The Death Train from Buchenwald.”
33 Six days later: Eye Witness Report of Johann Bergmann, Buchenwald, in Mahnung und Verpflichtung, Dokumente und Berichte (Berlin: Forth, 1983), pp. 503–5.
34 What the hell is: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
35 Sparks was next on: Felix Sparks, interview with the author.
36 His only weapon now was: Blair Lee Sparks, interview with author.
37 The sights and smells: The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary by James Kent Strong, 1990.
38 Then Sparks saw a: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
39 He would never forget: Ibid.
40 “Why?”: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 133. According to Israel, another GI “who came across the little girl would see her face in his mind every night for the next 60 years until he was mercifully able to fall asleep. Even as an old man he was unable to answer her innocent question.”
41 They had been killed: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
42 All he could do: Ibid.
43 How could human beings: Denver Post, April 30, 1995.
44 Disbelief and shock turned: Cleveland Plain Dealer, February 6, 2005.
45 “Let’s kill every one”: I.G. Report.
46 “Don’t take any SS”: Ibid.
47 “Okay, move!” Sparks ordered: Colorado Lawyer 27, no. 10, p. 51.
48 I Company scout Private: John Lee, “Action at the Coal Yard Wall,” Second Platoon newsletter, April 2001, Issue 20.
49 “Let’s get these Nazi dogs”: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
50 Lieutenant Walsh set the: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
51 He and others had been: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
52 It had not prepared: Times Picayune, May 27, 2001.
53 “Every man in the”: IG Report.
54 Sparks snapped commands: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
55 “We’re going in the”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
56 He struggled for a: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture.
57 KZ Dachau had been guarded: For an excellent and exhaustive description of the American actions at Dachau on April 29, 1945, see Klaus-Dietmar Henke’s Die amerikanische Besetzung Deutschlands, München, 1995, pp. 862–931.
58 Before he could be brought: Barbara Distel, Die Befreiung des KZ Dachau [The Liberation of the Concentration Camp Dachau], in Dachauer Hefte 1, 1985, p. 7.
59 Then he changed his: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
60 “I never like to”: Ibid.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE—THE HOUNDS OF HELL
1 “The effect of it”: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
2 He and his men: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 362.
3 Poplar trees in spring: Ibid.
4 “You sons of bitches”: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
5 Walsh began to beat: Felix Sparks, interview with the author.
6 “Bastards. Bastards. Bastards”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
7 So Sparks pulled out: Felix Sparks, Colorado National Guard interview.
8 Stunning him and knocking: Rocky Mountain News, April 29, 2003.
9 Walsh lay there, crying: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
10 “I’m taking over command”: Ibid.
11 “He really lost it”: Sidney Horn, interview with Flint Whitlock, 1996.
12 Walsh had gone “crazy”: Felix Sparks, Regis University interview.
13 “This was the culmination”: William Walsh, interview with James Kent Strong, in The Liberation of KZ Dachau, documentary, 1990.
14 His barrack: Felix Sparks, Regis University lecture, “Stories of Wartime.”
15 “They’re here!” someone cried: Antelme, The Human Race, p. 286.
16 “We’re free!”: Ibid.
17 “We kicked all the”: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 259. Degro would never forget the scenes that greeted him that morning. “Those scenes at Dachau are impressed on my mind,” he would say more than sixty years later. “Sometimes I get up at night and try to erase them, but I can’t forget.” Source: Ibid.
18 One of the men: T. Pauli, Berkenkruis, newsletter for volunteers of Flemish SS, October 1988. The account in the magazine is based on Linberger’s alleged testimony to the German Red Cross.
19 The men rounded up: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 34.
20 They had massacred defenseless: At a later trial for those accused of the Malmédy massacre, all mention of the killing of SS POWs by Americans was ordered stricken from the record.
21 He and the platoon: Shoah Foundation, interview with Felix Sparks.
22 Then he discovered the: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels, 2002), pp. 142–44.
23 Other than Alsatians: Israel, The Day the Thunderbird Cried, p. 116. “On special amusement days, Zill would have a table of food placed in front of starving prisoners who stood at attention. Should a prisoner relax his body, the dogs would react automatically.” Source: Ibid. Zill, according to Israel, would die in 1974 in Dachau, having had a life sentence reduced to fifteen years. He in fact died within “walking distance” of the “horror camp” he had once commanded. Source: Ibid.
24 The SS had made: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 34.
25 When the victims had been: Stars and Stripes, May 3, 1945.
26 The dogs died quickly: In the cages, a single survivor was later found. Source: “A Survivor of Dachau Named Tell,” personal communication from a soldier of the 72nd Signal Company, with Howard Buechner, June 6, 1986. “Lt. Lorin E. Fickle found a wounded dog at Dachau, the only known survivor of the ‘Hounds of Hell.’ The animal was a magnificent, black shepherd. Lt. Fickle nursed the dog back to health and named him ‘Tell.’ Somehow, permission was obtained to ship ‘Tell’ to the United States where he was a splendid pet for many years.” Source: Ibid.
27 A soldier apparently used: Buechner, Dachau, pp. 149–50.
28 Just one of the: According to Gun, The Day of the Americans, p. 64: “A week later a GI pilfering in one of the abandoned SS barracks, heard a growling coming from behind some cases in a dark corner. He approached cautiously and was startled to see a German Shepherd dog—his head was bloody from a bullet wound. The animal had apparently been hiding there without food and water for several days, licking his wound. The GI ran away and no one knows what happened to the wretched animal.”
29 So blue- and green-tinged: Buechner, Sparks, p. 142.
30 Hundreds had died in: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.
31 “One hears yelling and”: Dachau and Nazi Terror, 1933–1945, Studies and Reports II (Comité International de Dachau, Brussels), 2002, p. 152.
32 Inmates began to shout: Buechner, Sparks, p. 142.
33 A spine-chilling roar: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
34 “It was truly ou
r”: Whitaker, I.G. Report, Walenty Lenarczyk testimony, p. 51, National Archives.
35 It was as if: After Action Report, National Archives.
36 The German, it was: New Orleans Times-Picayune, May 27, 2001.
37 In another incident, Russian: 45th Infantry Division News, May 13, 1945.
38 It is assumed that: www.scrapbookpages.com, Dr. Juergen Zarusky, “Dachauer Hefte Nr. 13.”
39 The first to reach: New York Herald Tribune, May 1, 1945.
40 “My God! My God!”: May, Witness to War, p. 90.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX—THE COAL YARD
1 Sparks did not know: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association, March 20, 1984.
2 Lieutenant Bill Walsh was: Felix Sparks, private correspondence, February 2, 1982.
3 To Sparks, the situation: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001
4 “Colonel, you should see”: Felix Sparks, interview with Flint Whitlock, 1996.
5 Once Sparks had departed: IG Report, National Archives. See also Buechner, Dachau, pp. 78–79.
6 Lieutenant Walsh ordered a: Ibid.
7 Others muttered in German: John Lee, “Action at the Coal Yard Wall,” Second Platoon newsletter, April 2001, no. 20.
8 “Keep your goddamn hands”: Ibid.
9 Lieutenant Walsh then lined: Whitaker IG report, National Archives.
10 Curtin fired three bursts: Ibid.
11 Most of the SS did: Karl Mann, interview with author.
12 Thunderbird wouldn’t let go: Whitlock, Rock of Anzio, p. 365.
13 Lieutenant Busheyhead also opened: Whitaker I.G. Report, National Archives.
14 The Thunderbirds fired from left: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001
15 “Stay calm, we die”: Kern, Verbrechen am deutschen Volk, pp. 314–16.
16 It took him perhaps: Karl Mann, interview with author. Also see Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
17 A film cameraman, Henry Gerzen: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
18 The firing got: Karl Mann, unpublished memoir of World War II, provided to the author.
19 “There will be no”: Felix Sparks, interview with author.
20 Curtin began to cry: Boston Globe, July 2, 2001.
21 “Colonel,” he blurted: Felix Sparks, “Dachau and Its Liberation,” 157th Infantry Association newsletter, March 20, 1984.