Dad next to statue of Tullio Micaloni. (Author’s collection)
Prior to this trip, Paul Wannemacher, President of the 712th Tank Battalion Association asked our assistance in a project that the 712th Association was undertaking, locating the grave sites of all of the 712th members killed in action.
Obtaining the grave sites of the soldiers buried in the various American Cemeteries in Europe was a relatively easy task. While in Europe, I obtained a printout from the three cemeteries from Leland Atkinson, the Superintendent of the Luxembourg Cemetery. We were very surprised to learn that he was born and raised in Gulfport, Mississippi, practically a stone’s throw from our family’s summer cabin in Waveland, Mississippi. Atkinson worked for several years at the Normandy Cemetery as the Assistant Director and knew Henri and Janet Levaufre very well. He was stationed in Normandy during the time that Steven Spielberg was filming the cemetery scene in Saving Private Ryan. We spent more than an hour visiting with Atkinson discussing the exploits of the 90th Infantry Division and the 712th Tank Battalion.
Dad and Leland Atkinson. (Author’s collection)
Atkinson advised us that in 1948 and 1949 the United States Government offered each family the option of having their loved one’s body exhumed and returned to the United States for re-interment in cemeteries of the family’s choice. Many families took advantage of this offer. Finding the final resting places of the members of the 712th that were returned home proved to be a daunting task which took over three years to accomplish. I considered it an honor to be able to assist Paul Wannemacher with this task.
Through the years I came to know several of the 712th members in the later years of their lives. In talking with Dad and other members of the 712th and in researching obituaries from a half a century ago, I came to know these soldiers vicariously as young men in 1943 and 1944. Those young men who had their whole future taken from them. As I learned the details of each death I became saddened by their deaths. The obituaries and facts surrounding each death had such profound sadness and revealed that the families back home in the United States were also casualties of war. They had no physical wounds, only emotional wounds. The casualties of World War II, like all wars, were neither limited to the battlefield nor to the period of hostilities.
One of the last grave locations I discovered was that of Tec 5 Fred Becker of B Company, who died on July 8, 1944. The only means of obtaining his grave location was through a request under the Freedom of Information Act for his IDPF (Individual Deceased Personnel File). Approximately one year after making the request, a copy of Becker’s file finally arrived in the mail. The information not only provided the cemetery in which he is now buried but also correspondence between his mother and the War Department.
In the file was a handwritten letter written by Becker’s mother:
Dear Officer:
I know how very busy you all are so I am grateful for your time. My son, T/5 Frederick W. Becker 11102404 was killed in action on July 8, 1944 and I would so much like to know where he is buried so I am asking that favor, Please.
I have tried before to find out and now have been referred to this address. Please let me know whatever you can, Thank you so much.
s Mrs Grace Becker
A similar letter appears in the IDPF of Dee Johnson – Johnson was with Dad at Sainte-Suzanne and was wounded. Like Dad, he returned to action but was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945. On December 5, 1947, nearly three years later, Johnson’s mother wrote inquiring about when the body of her son would be returned home.
To the Quartermaster
Please give me all the information you can about when the remains of the soldiers buried at Foy Bastogne Belgium, it’s been so long since we had any word regard to when it will be so please let me know if you can.
A broken hearted mother
s Mrs Ben S. Johnson
For many Americans back home there was little joy in V-E day and V-J Day, the horrible consequences of war lived within their hearts for many years and for some the rest of their lives. The letters of Mrs Becker and Mrs Johnson exemplify the unending pain these families had to endure.
The Request for Disposition of the Remains for Dad’s friend, David Dickson, contains the following request by Dickson’s father:
It is requested that the remains of my son, David H. Dickson be returned for burial in the grave of his brother George H. Dickson […] who was a veteran of World War I and is now buried in the Philadelphia National Cemetery…
Now that I have sons of military age, I can only imagine the unbearable grief and sorrow that these parents endured when they received word of their sons’ demise. The movies of my youth did not portray this aspect of war. The brief yet poignant scene in Saving Private Ryan when the Army Officer and the minister arrive at the Ryan home can only partially convey what the parents of KIAs went through.
Two other 712th KIA, whose final resting place I researched, were Lt Marshall Warfield and Major Ira Hawk of Headquarters Company. Warfield, who was the nephew of Edwin Warfield, Governor of the State of Maryland from 1904 to 1908, was killed in action on September 17, 1944. With the assistance of a genealogists in Maryland, I discovered that Warfield was buried in a private cemetery in Howard County Maryland. The cemetery was identified as the Governor Warfield Cemetery. Major Ira Hawk of Headquarters Company was killed in action on July 23, 1944 and was re-interred in the Baltimore National Cemetery.
I had occasion to visit Maryland on several occasions since my son, David, was enrolled as a student at the University of Maryland in College Park. On one such visit in May of 2003, I took the occasion to spend a few extra days to locate the two 712th grave sites in Maryland. Visiting Ira Hawk’s burial site was relatively easy. Finding Warfield’s final resting place was a little more formidable. The Governor Warfield Cemetery is located off of Jennings Church Road, a not well traveled country road, in Howard County Maryland. The cemetery and its gate is well camouflaged from the roadway by a small wooded area and I drove past it three times before seeing the gate. After a short walk through the wooded area I came upon the small cemetery surrounded by a stone fence in the middle of a farm field.
After a few minutes I located Warfield’s headstone, the inscription reads:
In Memory of
Lt Marshall T. Warfield
April 17 1917
September 17, 1944
Killed in Action
East of Metz France
Brought Home December 8, 1948
His Wife
Olga Gannon Warfield
I noticed that there was no date of death for his wife nor was there any other gravestone bearing her name anywhere near his grave. I assumed that she had remarried after the war and was buried elsewhere. My visit to this out of the way cemetery only aroused my curiosity to learn more about this family.
When I returned home, I began searching the internet for information on Gov. Warfield. My search led me to a bulletin board where an inquiry was posted by Stephanie Rockford for information on Lt Marshall Warfield who was killed in World War II. Assuming that she was a relative of Warfield, I immediately contacted her. Mrs Warfield, was a good friend of Stephanie’s grandmother and consequently she and Mrs Warfield also developed a close relationship; then I was astonished to learn that Mrs Warfield was still alive and, now in her 90s, resided in Virginia. Through correspondence and a delightful telephone conversation with Mrs Warfield, the story of Lt Marshall Warfield unfolded.
Warfield grave. (Author’s collection)
The Warfield family was a very prominent political family in Howard County. Several members were elected to a variety of offices, including Edwin Warfield as Governor. The cemetery, is situated on land that the Warfield family received by land grant from the King of England during the colonial period. Mrs Warfield also corrected me on the name of the cemetery. Although it is called the Governor Warfield Cemetery because of the Governor, its correct name is the Cherry Grove Cemetery
When the
war first started, Marshall and several friends enlisted. He was a sergeant when he met and fell in love with Olga. She rebuffed his original proposal of marriage because of his rank. He, not to take no for an answer, enrolled in Officer Candidate School and after completion of training was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant. After seeing the ends he would go to, Olga said yes the next time he asked. She told me that she enjoyed the life of an officer’s wife. There were dances virtually every weekend at the officer’s club and they both enjoyed to dance.
She was devastated at the news of his death and spent many years not knowing how he died. After many inquiries to officers she had met in 1943, she finally learned the circumstances of that fateful day, September 17, 1944. Warfield along with Sgt Tom Reilly were in the HQ Reconnaissance Platoon. They were patrolling an area near Thionville, just north of Metz, when they were ambushed by fire from a German machine gun nest.
Olga never remarried. Stephanie told me that she still has a picture of her beloved Marshall hanging prominently in her living room.
Unlike Olga Warfield, life took a different path for Richard Williams’ widow, Opal. Aunt Opal kept in touch with Mom for many years after the war. But her life continued to be marred with tragedy. Following Richard’s death in 1945, she remarried after the war to another military man. He was killed in the Korean War.
I believe she remarried and was divorced once or twice after that. Her last visit to us that I recall was in 1968 for my wedding. Then for some inexplicable reason she ended her relationship with my mother. During a 712th reunion in Kentucky in 1976, Mom and Dad visited Opal’s parents, at which time they brought Mom and Dad to meet Richard’s parents.
After Richard was killed, the only information his family received was the telegram from the War Department notifying them of his death. It had been over thirty years since his death and during that visit from Mom and Dad, they learned for the first time the details of the battle for Doncols that occurred on January 10, 1945, and how Richard had died.
Dad said that he and Mom spent several days visiting both of these Kentucky families. When Aunt Opal heard of Mom and Dad’s visit to Richard’s family, she became angered and wrote Mom a long letter. She returned all photographs and wanted no more contact with Mom. Needless to say, Mom was dumbfounded. She has never heard from her since, yet Mom still has fond memories of the good times the four of them had in 1943. We can only imagine what painful memories were resurrected in Aunt Opal to prompt such a response.
The stories of casualties sustained by the military during war often overshadow the fact that civilians living in the war zone are exposed to many of the same dangers and are also casualties of war.
The story of the liberation of Périers offers another example of how the French civilians suffered during the war. Following four years of harsh domination by the Nazis, in June of 1944, the people of Périers found themselves in the middle of the advancing path of the United States Army. Several days prior to its liberation, the United States Army shelled and bombed the town. The photographs of the town taken in July of 1944 show that this softening of enemy resistance practically leveled the town. The German troops evacuated the town prior to the bombing, but 128 townspeople were killed by the shelling and bombing. The hardship and suffering, amidst the destruction and debris of their town, plagued the civilians long after the troops had moved the war eastward.
Henri Levaufre later told me about one of his personal encounters with danger. Henri’s father had about twenty-five cows on his farm before the invasion. Shortly after Périers was liberated, Henri was helping his father gather the eight remaining cows that survived. His father was walking along a path pulling the lead cow tethered on a rope. Henri was following the last cow, when it suddenly stopped to nibble on grass. Henri gave him a slight tap on the rump with a stick to get the cow moving again. When the cow moved, it stepped on a land mine. When the explosion shattered the pastoral silence, Henri’s father turned around and looked in horror to see his son covered in blood, fortunately, all of the blood belonged to the cow. Henri did not have a scratch, the cow had absorbed all of the blast. Henri said that the countryside around his home was littered with live German mines well into 1949 and that several French citizens were killed by them long after the war had ended.
The monument dedication of the four US soldiers, in June of 2000, marked the beginning of a several year project to convert the old abandoned train station, which Dad had captured, into a museum and a memorial park honoring the 128 citizens of Périers killed during the war.
There is only one small hotel in the town, consequently, housing for all of the American guests during the dedication ceremonies was a logistic problem easily solved by the townspeople. Each French family opened their homes and housed an American family during the several days of the event. The display of appreciation to America and Americans even after fifty-six years was overwhelming. The heartfelt appreciation of the citizens of Périers to America for liberating their town from Nazi rule was a truly moving experience considering the destruction of their town in 1944 and the deaths of their fellow citizens was caused by American bombs and shelling.
That spirit of gratitude is not unique to Périers. Several days after the dedication ceremony, we traveled to the city of Tours to visit Christian and Evelyn Levaufre, Henri and Janet’s son and daughter-in-law. While staying in their home, Dad became seriously ill and required medical attention. A physician made a house call to the Levaufre home to attend to Dad. After Dad had passed the danger and the doctor was beginning to leave, I offered to pay the doctor for his visit. He politely told Christian in French that he would not accept any payment; for personal reasons he said that he would not charge an American veteran in need of medical treatment.
The suffering and hardship that the French suffered at the hands of the Nazis produced a deep and lasting gratitude these people have for their American liberators. Even the sharp political differences between the United States and French governments in 2003 over the American invasion of Iraq does not seem to have shaken the gratitude for the American soldiers sacrifices in 1944. On the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase on December 20, 2003, Jean David Levitte, the French Ambassador to the United States, speaking on the historical significance of that 1803 transaction stated, “France wanted to help your nascent republic to emerge as a powerful and friendly ally on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. In return, America saved France twice last century. We will never forget. Dear friends, we will never forget. And next year, on the 6th of June, we will commemorate, in the most solemn and moving way, the 60th anniversary of D-Day.”
Continuing Battles
V-E Day may have marked the end of hostilities in Europe, but, for many soldiers, it did not mean the end of their private battles.
The stress on the human mind caused by the emotional wear and tear of witnessing horrible carnage, violence and death did not end on the battlefield. Some soldiers returning to civilian life experienced a delayed onset of the disorder by experiencing a host of problems which are now considered symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).1 Both the immediate onset of this syndrome on the battlefield as well as the delayed onset has been known by many names; it was known as soldier’s heart in the Civil War, shell shock in World War I and battle fatigue during World War II. Regardless of the name attached to this condition, they all essentially describe the same phenomenon.
Most returning soldiers tried shutting out memories of the war, but some, nevertheless, had disturbing memories or experienced recurring nightmares, others became compulsive gamblers, still others exhibited a simmering rage or anger, losing their temper for no reason at all, many experienced depression, anxiety, and alcohol abuse. A few experienced difficulty with functioning in social or family life, they suffered loss of jobs, marital problems and other family discord, which often led to divorce. And death still hovered over the 712th tankers. The first veteran to succumb to this post-war fate was Richard Gr
able, Dad’s barracks mate at Fort Benning. On April 9, 1946, six short months after returning home from war, Grable was killed in an automobile accident.
Dad admitted that beginning in 1945, upon his return home, and for many years thereafter he had nightmares about the war. While others also suffered from nightmares, Dad said that some combat veterans endured far more than nightmares.2 He explained that the war affected everyone differently.
Now something happened to people – (one of the sergeants who received a battlefield commission) stayed in France after the war and then went to college. He came back home and became a drunkard. He worked in the iron mills in Cleveland, Ohio. And when we passed through there after the war, when we had our reunions, they called him up, Kellner called him up, to ask him to come have supper with us at the hotel. His wife said “He can’t talk to you, he doesn’t want to talk to you.” He was drunk. That’s how it affected him.
After our return in June of 2000, I attended the 712th reunion with Mom and Dad in Wichita, Kansas. We brought the photographs of our European trip and Dad recounted all of the details of the monument dedication for the other attendees. John and Rose Ockenga had planned to attend the reunion but were unable because John was ill. At the conclusion of the reunion, we drove to Wakeman, Ohio to visit the Ockenga family.
John Ockenga was a Technical Sergeant in B Company whose duties were to make the front line repair the tanks. Although the 712th Tank Battalion had a Service Company, which performed major repairs to broken or disabled tanks well to the rear of the front lines, each combat company had several service personnel to assist tank crews on the front line with minor repairs and sometimes to retrieve disabled tanks and bring them to the rear.
A Tank Gunner's Story: Gunner Gruntz of the 712th Tank Battalion Page 24