Grenadier Kaserne security?

   Until they started building the wall in August 1961 no one seemed too concerned about security at Grenadier.  Before I had a car and when I wanted to go to Robinson Barracks I either hitched a ride or went through the hole in the fence between building 5 and 6. It would save me about a 1/2 mile on the walk to Stuttgart Post.

   You could walk on to the Kaserne through the main gate during the day and no one would stop you.  We had so many civilians working there that security was a farce.  On the floor above us was the civilian hiring department for the US Army. Most of the people there were German. Once the wall was being built we had guards at night.  The front gate is shown below.  This is a picture that was taken after Grenadier Kaserne was closed.  You will notice a cyclone type gate. This gate was added after the Kaserne was closed for demolition.

   We had a PFC who was a Native American and couldn’t hold his booze.  I’m not sure what his job was and he wasn’t with us more than a month or so so I guess it doesn’t make any difference what his job was.  EVERY Saturday night he would get drunk and try to get through the main gate.  The guards would stop him and call our CQ to come get him. We explained numerous time that all he had to do was walk around the Kaserne to the left and walk through the hole in the fence.

   He never remembered and they never repaired the fence!

   Have a Happy New Year and a great 2013. Leave a comment if you like.

de Gaulle to Ludwigsburg

   I usually tried to read a little German each day.  Harry usually brought the morning edition of the Stuttgarter Zeitung each day. Since I liked sports I usually read the sports section figuring that it would be easier to read if I knew what they were talking about.

   One morning in 1961 I read in the paper that De Gaulle was coming to Ludwigsburg.  He would be arriving at Echterdingen airport (Stuttgart) and then be taking a limo to Ludwig’s Castle in Ludwigsburg. I checked with Harry to make sure I was reading the article correctly. What a grand reason to have a beer bash. We could have our own tailgate party and flip de Gaulle the bird as he went by. 

   The road between Zuffenhausen and Ludwigsburg in 1961 was a two lane road. (Today it is multiple lanes each way)  We decided that we would set up our tailgate party on a slight knoll so we could see the “Big Snot Locker” go by in his limo.  We had a few weeks to plan this outing and it kept getting bigger and bigger.  It was taking on a life of it’s own. The final count was about 30 people including girl friends. 

   I’m not sure what time of day it was but the weather was reasonably good and we had large amounts of Dinky Pop Tops (Local beer), Brotchen und schinken mit senf and other picnic supplies.  We were well “oiled” by the time the Polizei showed up. The MP’s showed up shortly after when the Polizei called them.  Fortunately we had parked our cars on another road and walked to the knoll over looking the road. No drunk driving charges. No eye balling of the French guy either.  We just took our empties and went home.

   Bottom line, only one GI arrested and he wasn’t in our outfit. Like I said this whole escapade took on a life of it’s own.  The GI was a SP-4 from the signal outfit next door. Sloppy drunk…

  The picture above was from an archive of the actual speech at Ludwig’s castle.  Of course we didn’t see it, we were tucking tail and retreating to Grenadier Kaserne less one GI from next door.

   Given what I know now I would have been a little suspect of a rowdy group of people on a knoll over looking the driving route of a foreign President.

   If you were here in 1961 feel free to leave a comment.

Paris in the spring time…

   One of my trips to Paris was in the late Spring.  I had been to the French coast and was stopping in Paris on the way back to Germany. I had always heard about Montmartre, and “Pig Alley.” What 19 year old wouldn’t want to be there?  I always wanted Toulouse-Lautrec’s job and his reserved seat at the Moulin Rouge. I didn’t want all his physical problems caused by an inbred family, but to have a reserved seat for the shows at the Moulin Rouge was a 19 year olds dream. Needless to say the show had lots of bare breasts but it was also a great show.

   When I arrived from Normandy I got a hotel room and decided to go where the “action” was.  Montmartre and that area was highly touted. There were more than a few prostitutes.  They looked great from a distance.  But as you got closer the smell would knock you over. Too bad they didn’t bathe a little more often.

  I found this little no-name bar in Place Pigalle near the Moulin Rouge and once they got the message that I was there for the beer and not the girls it was a pretty nice place to hang out.  On my second day in Paris I dropped in at the bar and got my table by the window.  A few minutes later I became absolutely slack jawed when a Scottish Highland soldier walked in and sat at the bar. His uniform looked like the ones below.

   He ordered a beer at the bar and was mobbed by an entire room full of whores.  He got rid of them except for one rather pretty girl who made the mistake of grabbing his dagger that was in the long sock on the right leg.  He grabbed her so hard she screamed and dropped the dagger.  He picked it up and I thought he was going to stick her with it.  She took off like a cut cat.  After a moment in deep thought he stuck the knife lightly into his arm and drew some blood.  He then replaced the knife back into his sock.

   I couldn’t stand it I had to introduce myself.  I walked over to the bar and invited him to sit with me at my table near the window.  He accepted and we enjoyed a few pints together.  When asked, he said that his regiment has a requirement that when the sgian dubh is drawn, other than for cleaning, it must draw blood. He thought it best to take a “wee bit” of his own rather than the “dirty girl’s” blood.

  Turns out he was a guard at the British Embassy and had attended an afternoon tea for some dignitaries.  He needed a little attitude adjustment so he “popped” over to Piggy Alley.  We had a nice chat but never saw the guy again.

   You meet some nice folks when you go some place new. Who would have thought that I would have seen a 5 star show, meet a very sincere Scottish soldier and share a place in history with a 5 foot midget?

If you were in the 594th, been to Grenadier Kaserne or even Place Pigalle feel free to leave a  comment.

Are you Daugherty?

  Early one morning two civilians walked into the office and asked if I was Daugherty.  I told them I was and asked what they needed.  They told me they were looking for Corporal Dotson. I asked who they were and they both showed me badges and identified themselves as “Misters” so and so and they were here to take Dotson into custody.

  I told them that may be rather difficult since we hadn’t seen Dotson for a couple of days.  He was listed on our morning report as AWOL.  They informed me that they wanted to go through his belongings.  I took them to LTC Alexander who authorized me to take them to Dotson’s locker.  Since I was unfortunate enough to be his roommate I had to witness their going through every piece of his clothing and belongings.

  I had to sit there for almost 3 hours and watch these guys go through every piece of clothing and EVERY HEM of every piece.  In talking with these guys I found that Dotson had once been an MSGT E-8 and part of the Berlin Honor Guard.  He had gone AWOL and was busted.  Had been arrested for using drugs among other infractions with the UCMJ. 

  They took EVERYTHING with them when they left.  Never saw them again and never saw Dotson again.  I guess he was an In’Waiting soldier but I’m surprised that they were letting him wait based on what I heard from the CID people.

Jonesy was unique!!!!

  To this day I don’t know where corporal Jones came from. All I know is that he couldn’t read or write and he had been in the Army during WWII and Korea.  He worked at Stuttgart Post (Robinson Barracks) and I think he worked for Special Services.  I do know that he was always moving sports equipment around on the weekends for the little league teams.

  During the early 60’s the Army had a rather good sized PX at Robinson Barracks (years later it was much larger) and they also had a Class VI store. The Class VI store was the location where you went to buy cigarettes and booze.  Each month we were issued a Class VI card which allowed you to buy so many cartons of cigarettes and so many bottles of liquor.  As I recall a carton of cigarettes cost about $1.50 (5 carton limit per month) and a bottle of Jack Daniels was $3.00 to $4.00 (I think a 4 bottle limit). You were not supposed to share your card with anyone!!!!! And you couldn’t purchase more than one carton or bottle at a time.

  I arrived at the Class VI store one afternoon and Jonesy was the only customer in the store. He was at the counter with about 15 bottles of booze.  He had a bunch of Class VI cards in his hand (Illegal). I asked him what the occasion was and he just smiled and said, “It’s Tuesday and I’m ready to F--k, Flight or run a Foot race.” That was Jonesy.  I will tell you more about Jonesy when I cover the NCO club.

  If you were in Stuttgart at Robinson Barracks or Grenadier Kaserne feel free to leave a comment.

Dodging “Potholes…”

  After all the preparation and planning, I could still get lost occasionally.  We had to be at a railroad siding near Hohenfels at 0500.  Since we had been north to Baumholder the day before we were running late, rather than stopping in Stuttgart we continued driving to Hohenfels.  We were in a very small town looking for the turn to Hohenfels.  I had only been this way once before and it was during day light hours.

  We kept driving back and forth through the little town and couldn’t find the turn. We finally stopped about 0300 and checked the map. I told SSGT Melendez that we would go back through town one more time then head out to the other way that I knew would take us to Hohenfels. On the way back through town we came upon a farmer pushing a wheel barrow out to his field. I figured what the hell, I’ll try a little German on him and see if he will help us. I began by saying “Wo ist die Strasse” and he butted in and said in darned good English “The road to Hohenfels is 200 meters down the road then turn right.”  He didn’t miss a beat and didn’t even slow down.  To this day I have wondered how many GI’s he had given directions to.

  Our odyssey wasn’t over yet.  Once we found the road, Melendez tells me he has a short cut that he had used before and we could still arrive on time. Not wanting to be late I followed his directions and we were soon dodging huge pot holes in the road. A lot of the road didn’t seem to even exist!  After all the bouncing around and dodging huge “potholes” we saw an MP jeep about 100 yards ahead.  As we got closer the MP got out and stopped us.  He was almost screaming at us, “Where the hell have you been?”  About 10 seconds later there was a large explosion about a quarter of a mile behind us.

  We had just navigated the back side of Hohenfels and the artillery impact area! Melendez almost turned white, and got out of the jeep and vomited. We got to the main part of the base and then the railroad siding.  The sound of artillery shells landing in the impact area went on for almost another hour!

Damned BIG Traffic Circle

  I had been warned about driving in France.  I was told they plant all their fruit trees along the side of the roads.  If you hit one and break it off you end up in court and paying for the fruit it would have given off had it lasted another 8-10 years. Same with farm animals. Female pigs – how many piglets would it have had during the rest of its life? 

  Needless to say I was a little apprehensive about driving there the first time; however, I had to make an appearance at NATO headquarters in 1962.  I had been escorting NATO Hawk transfer shipments for a few months and they wanted to see who I was.  To that point they were working with me based on the word of LTC  Alexander.

  So in the late spring I headed for Kaiserslautern then on to Verdun Reims then to Paris.  Being my first time in France I wanted to make sure that I was able to get fuel at our military bases along the way.  I picked up a fellow soldier at our office in Verdun. He needed a ride to Orleans so I planned on dropping him in Paris and he would take the train to the 594th Transportation Group headquarters.  I don’t remember his name but we were about the same age and got along fine.  He also eased my mind some about driving in France.

  The picture of the Arc de Triomphe above is what you see in the travel brochures.  Keep in mind I had to negotiate a city of millions that I had never been to and do it in a US Army jeep.  We were doing good until we got the The Arch. I saw a break in the traffic and shot to the center and the inner most circle thinking that we could keep going around until we saw the road we needed.  The picture below will probably show you what we were up against.

  I think there were about 8 or nine lanes and frankly we hadn’t really thought this whole thing through.  You will notice the cement like circle at the base of the Arch and check all of the darned roads leaving the circle. As we kept going around the Arch, at about 25 miles per hour, I couldn’t help noticing this very tall, de Gaulle looking French police officer.  I think he was laughing at us – at least smirking.

  After a dozen or so loops he had stepped out into the inner lane and motioned for us to drive onto the cement area.  He wasn’t President Charles de Gaulle but he sure looked like him even down the the honking nose. I almost lost it when he began to speak and sounded exactly like Maurice Chevalier.  He was a nice fellow and asked us where we were going.  We told him NATO headquarters and he said “Ah, Porto Dauphine.” He gave us the directions and then stood on the running board of the jeep and stopped traffic all the way across 8 or 9 lanes to the street we needed to be on.  We may still have been there except for him.

  The picture above shows NATO headquarters shortly after being built.  I survived the meeting with the NATO folks.  Stayed over night in a small hotel they took me to and headed for home the next morning  I don’t remember dropping the guy from Verdun at a train station so the NATO folks may have done that for me.

  In the mid 1980’s I was managing in Europe and had a couple of sales people working for me in Paris.  One of the universities we called on was Universite Dauphine.  We walked into the building from the back side and I had this overwhelming feeling of déjà vu.  It was the building I had been in in 1962.  When de Gaulle tossed NATO and the US Forces they made it into a University.

  Want to leave a comment.  Stationed in the Paris area in the early 60’s.  In the 594th.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Monthly fingerprints

  During the early part of 1962 we were informed that anyone with a Top Secret Clearance would be finger printed every month.  I was told that a artillery Captain had his twin brother take his place! The finger printing was based on the documents you had access to you.  I am assuming that I was finger printed because I knew where the artillery unit was supposed to move to when war broke out.  I was also privy to the dependent evacuation plan.

They told us that the real Captain got tired of being in the Army so he had his identical twin brother fly to Germany and take his place. His brother lived with him for about two months, meeting all the people he worked with and what he had to do to fit in.  After a two month period they switched places.  The switch went on for 3 or 4 months until the imposter-brother got tired of the Army.  At that point the real Captain didn’t want to come back.  Imposter brother turned his brother in and they both were off to Leavenworth.

  The monthly finger printing only lasted a few months until they figured out that the chances of that happening again were pretty slim.

  If you have any funny situations involving transportation, the 594th Transportation Group or Grenadier Kaserne feel free to leave a comment.

Douglass Reenlistment

  Shortly after I arrived in 1961, SP5 Donald A. Douglass reenlisted for another 6 years.  BIG hoopla about this.  It’s like he was the first person to ever reenlist in the 594th.

  Left to right: SSG Jose Melendez, Unknown MSG, SP5 Donald Douglass, 1ST LT James May, 1ST LT Harlen Gray, SP4 Raymond Verdugo, SP5 Manfred Schweitzer and myself SP4 Tim Daugherty.

  About 4 weeks later Douglass and his wife Mary Lou were living in Grafenwohr.  Not sure that was a reenlistment perk!

Lindy’s Gasthaus, Zuffenhausen

  This was one of my favorite haunts. This is the place they guys took me to initiate me into the 594th.  Lots of beer that first night and I made the grade. While some of the clientele were American GI’s there was a good mix of Germans, Italians and Greeks.  The Italians and Greeks worked at the Porsche and Mercedes auto plants in and around Zuffenhausen.  I guess the Italians and the Greeks were what was known as low cost laborers.

  I have been on line trying to find the gasthaus and can’t find it.  I assume it has gone by the wayside.  The owners were very nice folks. The husband was Italian and his wife was German.  They always had pretty waitresses and a variety of nationalities to match their customers.

  Somewhere during my Army service I learned a very simple match game.  I always had it out on my table at Lindy’s.  All the Italians, Greeks, Germans and some of the GI’s could challenge me at anytime.  It cost one mark or one shot of Kirschwasser, with a cherry, to play me. Kirschwasser is simply a clear fruit brandy.  I think it could take the paint off a car. I would occasionally allow someone to win and that kept them coming.  The owners loved it because they got the drink business and I liked it because it kept my trips to Lindy’s almost free!  Funny thing about the game is that if both players know the game the player that goes first wins.

                                  

                          

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The zero’s above represent coins or matches.  The rules are simple. Make the other person pick up the last match or coin.  You can take as many or as few of the coins that you want but out of only one row at a time and in turn.  The people watching thought they had the game figured out until they sat down and paid their mark to play.  It was different when you were playing.  Maybe those watching got the bigger picture.

My Friend Heidi’s SS Father

  My first girl friend in Germany was named Heidi.  She was an older woman. All of 24 years old!  We had gone out for a few months. Generally we would meet at a gasthaus or I would pick her up in front of her house in Kornwestheim, north of Stuttgart.  We had been on vacation to the Eibsee Hotel in Garmisch and a variety of other places throughout southern Germany.

  Heidi had told me that her father had been a Nazi and that he was in the SS.  She also mentioned that her brothers didn’t particularly like Americans.  Her mother had passed away and she said as time passed her father kept getting a little meaner.  Heidi was about 5’10” rail thin and apparently got her height from her mother. . Her father and two brothers were all around 5’7'” to 5’9'” tall. Apparently her mother had been the stabilizing force in the family.

  I arrived early one evening and was waiting outside in the car.  She came out and got me because she was running late.  She introduced me to her father which was a little “frosty” but at least he didn’t shoot me.  We sat in the living room while Heidi got ready.  This was pretty early in my tour and I didn’t have much German language ability at the time.  I tried my little bit of German but he ignored me. After a couple more tries he got up walked across the room and opened the closet. It was good sized closet.  It had only a couple for coats so the SS Uniform stood out like a sore thumb.

  The uniform shown above looks to be like the one hanging in the closet sans the cap.  All I really remember was the very dark uniform with the red arm band. I also remember the silver colored SS or whatever was embroidered on the collar.  He left the closet door open and left the room.  When Heidi was ready she saw the open closet and chewed out her father.  I’m sure it didn’t do any good but I never went back to the house and never saw him again.

  We had a run in with her brothers at Lindy’s gasthaus a few weeks later but the owner of Lindy’s and some of the regulars who knew me ran them off.  Finally one of the brothers, I think his name was Karl, cornered me and Heidi at a beer tent during Oktoberfest in Stuttgart.  The evening was early and Karl had started drinking long before we arrived and he ended up losing the fight! Needless to say Heidi and I eventually went our separate ways.

Some of our departed friends…

  When I arrived in Germany I was all of 18 years old. Many of the others were considerably older.  The younger ones that were there when I arrived left over the next year or so and were probably 2-3 years older.  Some of them have passed.  The obvious ones were some of the officers and NCO’s.

  LTC Lawrence H. Alexander was born in 1910 and passed away in Monterey, CA in 1999.  When he retired he moved to his home at Pebble Beach. He had purchased the home, while stationed at Fort Ord, in the 50’s. On retirement he worked for a while for Mobile Oil in the paint division.

  Major Dexter W. Adams was born 1921 and died 1992 at Indianapolis.  After he left the 594th he was the Transportation Officer at Stuttgart Post/Robinson Barracks.  Later he was on the faculty at the U.S. Military Academy.

  MSGT Eugene Duch was in charge of the personnel department at 5th RTMO when I arrived. He was born in 1916 and died 1997 in Detroit.  He always wanted to help the new soldiers.  He had had stomach cancer in the 1950’s but survived for many years after.

  1ST LT Harlen E. Gray was there when I arrived.  Hard to get to know but was honest and treated you fairly.  He finished his career as a LTC and retired in San Antonio, TX. Born in 1934 and died in 2005.  Originally trained in Armored.

  SSGT George W. Pellet was one of the “in waiting” soldiers.  Had almost 18 years in when I arrived in 1961.  George was one of those fellows who drank early and hard and looked like he was 65+ years old. He was amazing in that he could drink enough to fill his right leg and still function rather well. Born 1926 and died at the ripe old age of 48 in 1974.

  Haven’t been able to keep track of everyone for obvious reasons.  Checking Ancestry.Com and the Social Security Death Index has given me some dates. A couple of the younger soldiers that have passed on are Steve Fuchick from Pennsylvania (1941-1972) and Tony Filigno from Seattle (1941-2009).  As I recall they both worked in the commo truck.

  If you knew any of these guys or were at Grenadier Kaserne, please leave a comment.

Schotzie

   I’ll bet you thought I was talking about a girl friend.  Well Schotzie was everyone’s girl friend.  She was an extremely obese little dachshund. She was at Grenadier when I got there in 1961 and was gone a few months later. I assume she wandered off or died from extreme obesity.

  I was told that Schotzie belonged to no one.  The guess was that she was the mascot of one of the German civilian groups on the kaserne.  She had free reign of Grenadier and could been seen ambling her way between the mess hall and the canteen in building six.  The canteen had a plate of wurst and a bowl of beer waiting when ever she showed up.

  If you were walking around the kaserne and she was at the curb she would bark at you and let you know you were supposed to pick her up and place her on the side walk.  Poor thing was so fat she couldn’t negotiate the curbs.  To this day I have no idea where she slept.  We figured she had a bed in or around the motor pool or the small maintenance buildings behind building six.

The Irish Mafia

  We had a small group of us that quite often went out on Saturday mornings to have a beer or two in some out of the way gasthaus.  Trying to get a little local color rather than going to the NCO club or the usual haunts in and around Grenadier Kaserne or Robinson Barracks.

  The group changed from time to time but the four original members were myself, MSGT Thomas McKiernan, SP4 Michael Callahan and SSGT Sean Webber. For a time McKiernan was either the manager or assistant manager of the NCO club at Robinson Barracks.  McKiernan was a big barrel chested sort of fellow. Prior to arriving in Stuttgart he was assigned to a MAAG unit in Vietnam. He was NCOIC of a motor pool in Saigon.  He had close to 30 years in the service.

  Weber was assigned to the motor pool in Ludwigsburg.  He had at least 20 years service and was always threatening to retire.  SP4 Callahan had around 18 years in the service and worked in the dependent housing office at Robinson Barracks. I think Michael was about 40 years old. He was another “in waiting” soldier.  If McKiernan was on the large size, Callahan was small, all of about 5’6” tall and weighed in at about 110 (Our little Elf).  His wife, who was a delight, was about 22 years old, weighed in at about 180 Lbs. A regular Ma and Pa Kettle.  I’m not sure what Michael’s highest rank was during his 18 years but by the time I left Germany I out ranked him.

  Originally we were picking small towns like Calw, Marbach, Tubingen and such because not many GI’s went there and we could get to see a little  local color.  We also stopped at small hole-in-the-wall gasthaus’ in and around Stuttgart.

  The beginning of the end of the Mafia came one Saturday morning early in 1962. We all hopped into McKiernan’s VW (1950’s Era) and headed out. Webber and I were in the back seat, McKiernan was driving (steering wheel between his knees)and Callahan is in the front passenger seat.  We arrive at a gasthaus and Callahan jumps out and runs into the gasthaus. By the time we enter Callahan is in a fight with two younger men and they are winning. We waded in and the fight gets bigger! Finally we get things under control and the owner is yelling at us to leave.

  Michael always said he didn’t do anything to provoke the folks and he promised faithfully to always mind his manners.  This issue happened one more time but we were out so quick the Germans had no idea what had happened.

  The next time Michael hopped out of the car Webber was right on his fanny as he entered the gasthaus.  No sooner did he get through the gasthaus door when he clicked his heels and yelled, at the top of his lungs, “HEIL HITLER.”  Needless to say Callahan road in the backseat from then on. Over time it didn’t get much better, he still wanted to pick a fight.  He even tried to pick a fight with a Special Forces SFC when we were in Bad Toelz.  After a while we no longer included him on our Saturday outings.  Callahan was still there when I left Germany in 1963.

Photo Radar in 1961

  I get the biggest kick out of people complaining about their loss of privacy because of photo radar.  In Snotsdale (Scottsdale, AZ) the folks absolutely come un hinged about photo radar.  What does photo radar have to do with privacy?

  I can see the attorney when a young Boomer comes in ranting about a Photo Rader Ticket.  Regardless of what the attorney says, all he sees is a young idiot and $$$$ signs.

  My friend Harry wasn’t exactly a lead foot, he was THE LEAD FOOT.  He scared the hell out of me more than once.

  The Polizei cars in town looked a lot like the car below on the left. The one on the right looks like the Autobahn Polizei Porsches.

  One morning he came into the office complaining that he had received a speeding ticket in the mail.  He explained that the Polizei no longer chased speeders because it was too dangerous.  I asked how that worked and he showed me a picture that was attached to his ticket.  It had a very clear photo showing the rear of Harry’s car in the upper portion of the photo and the lower portion showed a picture of the Polizei’s speedometer with date and time.

  He had 7 days to pay the fine or they came and impounded his car!

A Major Good Deed

  During the winter of 1962-63 parts or all of the Rhine River froze over!  Not unheard of but the first time in modern history.  The major problem for the Germans was that coal and fuel oil were shipped on barges down the Rhine river.  Big problem for the US bases also. Coal fired electric plants would not be able to supply electricity for heating.  There was a big panic.

  The US Forces jumped in and started hauling coal by truck and train. While we were busy with large military exercises we also scheduled hundreds of military trucks and other resources to get the coal to the right places. Hundreds of trucks were temporarily reassigned from France to Germany to help with the loads.

  As I recall LTC Moran at 594th Trans Group headquarters in Orleans spearheaded to operation.  I was amazed how well the operation went considering we had Wintershield II maneuvers running at pretty much the same time.

NATO Hawk Transfers

  Early in 1962 LTC Alexander told me to head up to Trier. Trier is the oldest city in Germany and is a major border crossing point.  I was to meet a truck shipment that was to be escorted to Ulm.  The truck was pulling a regular stake and platform trailer with two rather large, custom wooden crates. Once we got the shipment to Ulm I had the Telefunken plant manager sign for the boxes.

  On the shipments we escorted all the boxes had a large US shield with two hands shaking superimposed over the shield.  The shield was similar to the one below.

Over a years period of time I escorted maybe 5 shipments to Telefunken GMBH in Ulm.  Not always from Trier. Other shipments I met had originated in Bremerhaven and Hanover.  On the third or fourth shipment it was me killing to know what was in the boxes.  It couldn’t be too sensitive since we had no guards.  Once I got to know the plant manager I asked him what was in the boxes.  He was surprised that I didn’t know. He told me the crates contained radar units and others had parts for the radar units.

I know that Germany had some rudimentary radar as far back as the 1930’s so I guess we were helping them with newer technology.  I also know that Frankfurt was one of the first international airports to land planes in zero visibility.

  I asked the plant manager what they did with the radar units. He said. “Vee take dem apart and put dem back together besser.”

Would You Believe… POW’s in 1961

  Harry Wickart never took a day off.  I don’t recall his ever being sick so when he asked the CO for a day off we were all surprised.  When he came back the next day I asked if he had had a good day off. He said no and that he had spent the day interviewing a returning POW from Russia.

  I had no idea that there were still German POW’s in Russia.  Harry said that originally there were around 100,000 Germans being held by the Russians. He thought, based on interviews, that there were still between 5,000 and 10,000 Germans being held in Russia as late as 1960.

  He said that the returning prisoners were usually released from the concentration camp and told to go home.  Most were in very poor physical condition and many never made it back to Germany. Needless to say the Russian people weren’t friendly and didn’t help in their travels.  Imagine being 500 to 1,000 miles from home, no money, rotten clothing, poor health and absolutely no help!

  If they arrived home the ex POW’s were interviewed by people like Harry. Harry said that many still had their memories and had memorized all the names of the prisoners in their respective camps.  Many had also memorized all those who had died in the camps.

  Harry said that one person they had interviewed the previous year had memorized over 1,000 names.  That would be 1960, 15 years after the end of WWII… 

One of the first to arrive

   The 175th Military Police Battalion was one of the first units to arrive at Grenadier Kaserne.  By the time I arrived at Grenadier in 1961 there were no MP’s based there.  As I recall the closest MP’s were located at Wilkins Barracks only a few miles away in Kornwestheim.  I think there were more MP’s located on the south side of Stuttgart in the town of Nellingen.

  The picture above is of the main entry to Grenadier Kaserne. These were soldiers of the 175th MP Battalion.  The 175th was part of the Missouri National Guard and they were called up in 1951. Below is a picture of the entry to their service club. They arrived at Grenadier Kaserne in August 1951. After early Fall maneuvers they moved their headquarters to Fliegerhorst Kaserne in Boblingen.

  There was no service club at Grenadier Kaserne when I was there. I am assuming that it left with the MP’s or when Robinson Barracks opened its doors.  We did open up a small “bottle club” in one of the building across the street.  Any enlisted man, E-4 or higher could join.  It was a great room and everyone had their own bottle of whatever they drank.  We ended up closing the room in late 1962 because we had a number of ‘in waiting’ NCO’s that started their drinking too early.  One took up sleeping there.  We are talking about the WWII Cannon Fodder folks.

You Gotta Love Munich

  No matter where I went there was always plenty to do besides work. Munich made a great base to work from.  You could be in Garmisch Partenkirchen in an hour or so depending on weather. Garmisch was a great place.  Skiing in the winter boating and swimming in the summer.  The US government took over the Eibsee hotel after the war and it was used as a recreation area for US troops.

 

  Before and during the war it was used as an R&R location for German troops.  The ski area was great and you could rent a complete skiing outfit for a $1.50 a day. I tried but I never got the hang of skiing.

  McGraw Kaserne was where our office was located.  I didn’t have a lot of reason to spend a lot of time in Munch.  The people we had there were good and had been doing their job longer than I had been in the Army.  They always welcomed me to Munich, then we went and played.  The Englischer Garden was always a stop for lunch during the summer.  The Garden was a clothing optional location and there were  probably more American GI’s watching than there were topless and bottomless bathers.

  The top listened to radio programs on all of AFN were “Luncheon in Munchin” and “Bouncing in Bavaria.”  I don’t remember the guys names but they were good and funny and you could hear him all over Germany.  Kinda like Robin Williams and Good Morning Viet Nam. The picture below is the Englischer Garden. When I was managing in Europe in the 80’s one of my salesmen took me here for lunch. He was disappointed when he found out I had been there many times. With all the miles I had driven I also showed him some short cuts to the different bases.

  The other obvious stop if you are in Munich is the Hofbrauhaus. Check the grip this gal has.

  There was always a rather large crowd and if you were inclined to pick a fight you could always find a drunk German kid or two that were ready to fight.  Speaking of fighting, one corner of the building on the outside still had bullet holes where a machine gun had strafed the side of the building.

  Besides our office at McGraw, AFFES Headquarters was located there also the 66th MI (The guys you never saw) as well and a number of other medium sized units.

  One other place that was close to Munich was the Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden.

It was Hitler’s retreat.  The views were spectacular and you could see for miles. Not sure what they have done with it.  Most of the areas in and around Munich have been given back to the German government.  The Eibsee Hotel where I stayed a number of times for only $3.00 per night, cost almost $80.00 a night when I was back there in the mid 1980’s.  The “club house” where they rented out ski equipment is now an old storage building.

IT YOU WERE HERE OR IN STUTTGART IN THE ARMY I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU.

Grenadier Castle

Yes there really was a Grenadier Castle.  Apparently it was built right after the war by the first US Army soldiers stationed at Grenadier Kaserne.

  It was all of about 5 or 6 feet high with a moat filled with water.  It was lighted for a while but when the wiring failed we never got it fixed.  The picture above features Harry Wickart and myself making some minor repairs.  We were featured in Stars and Stripes and then again in my hometown newspaper in Fort Bragg, CA. When I visited the Kaserne in the mid 80’s it was gone so I am sure some gung ho officer saw it as an eyesore.

IF YOU WERE STATIONED AT GRENADIER KASERNE OR IN ONE OF THE UNITS IN THE AREA LEAVE A COMMENT.

I liked the small towns

  I traveled a lot in the two years I was in Germany.  Most of the travel involved work; however, most of the time I stayed in local hotels or gasthaus accommodations. Occasionally I would use military housing but during maneuvers there were never enough rooms available.  I figure I drove a little over 100,000 miles in the two years I was there. Drove all over Germany, west into France, south into Italy and southwest into Spain.  Also got into Belgium and Luxemburg and Switzerland.

  I’m still amazed at the number of service personnel (even today) that rarely leave their assigned base.  They go to the movie, bowl, play sports, eat at Burger King or McDonalds and take part in all the Special Services things available to them – BUT they only leave base when their unit goes somewhere. What a waste. Shown below is the Robinson Barracks PX and Theater.  There was also an NCO club and other facilities for the soldiers and their families.

  I loved what I did but I also couldn’t wait for the evenings and weekends. A couple of my favorite towns near Zuffenhausen were Calw, Marbach am Neckar and Tubingen.  Calw because it was beautiful, Marbach because it was old and close by and Tubingen because it was a University town and had girls from all over the world. Picture below is the main street in Calw.

  Calw was just south of Stuttgart and was at the very northern end of the Schwarzwald (Black Forest).  I rarely saw any GI’s roaming around Calw. I did see an occasional American family.  My other favorite small town was Marbach am  

Neckar.  It wasn’t far from Zuffenhausen and there was a very small gasthaus just off the main plaza downtown.  It took a few trips to be accepted and then later I was invited to sit at the owners table near the back by the kitchen.

  My other favorite town was Tubingen which was due south and had a University with lots of girls from all over Europe.

  The pictures above show the town hall and a view from across the Neckar river.  I never scored with any gals from Tubingen but I kept  going back because of the college atmosphere and people (girl) watching.

  IF YOU WERE IN STUTTGART OR THE 594TH PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.  WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM OTHERS WHO SERVED. TSD

The WALL

  I guess you had to be there. I had been in Germany for all of about 6 weeks when the shit hit the fan!  They started building the WALL.  I wasn’t scared or worried that we were going to have WWIII, but life wasn’t the same for about 3-4 months.

  The U.S. starting moving men and equipment to Europe.  It got to the point that Bremerhaven and our two major ports in France couldn’t handle the massive amounts of equipment and personnel being sent to Europe.  The U.S. opened offices in Rotterdam and began receiving large shipments through Holland.

  We had so many troops showing up that it was becoming a problem finding a place to put them.  At one point we had close to 5,000 troops scattered all over the training centers at Grafenwohr and Hohenfels.  We had already filled up the existing housing and billets at all the military facilities in Germany. As we reached mid-winter the snow was falling and so was the temperature.  I was in Hohenfels in January or February of 1962 meeting a train with some 200 military personnel. It was all of 4 degrees at 1500 hours. The camp commander, I think he was a Lt. Col.,  asked me where he was going to put these new men.  I don’t think he expected an answer. I explained that my job was get them here not house them!  I don’t know how many troops were in tents but it was a lot.  You have to remember these posts were training centers.  When people trained here they came with their own housing = called tents.

  After a few months it was somewhat apparent that we weren’t going to war.  Once that realization dawned on everyone it started getting back to normal.  From mid August 1961through about September 15th I slept on my desk or on a cot in my office.  Military movements became a 24/7 operation.  Besides the troops coming from the U.S. we had armored outfits heading to the border.  Passau was getting crowded!

  Even Kennedy decided to show. Scheduling one of the General’s command diesels to transportation the President wasn’t any fun.  Especially when we moved him to a siding to let a “Fast Freight” pass by.  The Bundesbahn Fast Freight had priority over all rail traffic and that included our president.  There was a lot of pissing and moaning but by the time a colonel got out to complain he almost missed his ride.

IF YOU WERE AT GRENADIER KASERNE, IN THE 594TH TRANS GROUP OR WOULD JUST LIKE TO COMMENT PLEASE DO SO. THANKS FOR YOUR INPUT. TSD

Wild Boar Hunting

  One of the things I will always be grateful for is colonel Alexander’s insistence that I know my counter parts in the German and French armies. He said the French army wasn’t all that important because, “all they know how to do is wave a white flag, surrender or defect.”  I did meet my French counter part at the Canadian base near Baden Baden but never had to work with him.

  My counter part in the German Army was Feldwebel Heinrich Goetz and he was stationed at one of the largest German Army bases in Southern Germany. He was in Weiden which was only a few miles from Grafenwohr.  Weiden is quite often where I stayed during the large maneuvers at Grafenwohr. Heinrich was a nice guy and we became good friends. Between boar hunting, foosball, German girl friends and great drinking joints in Weiden we had great times.

  When I had first met him on my short intro-tour with my CO he had invited me to go hunting.  He mentioned there were a number of places to go but that the backside of Grafenwohr was a great place to hunt.  I showed up early on a Sunday morning and he had us each outfitted with a 45 pistol and an M1 rifle.  Not sure where he got the  U.S, weapons but it wasn’t a problem with me.

  Headed out to middle of nowhere and eventually heard a number of boar. Didn’t see any for a while then we were confronted with a rather large, ugly beast and as it turned out a mean SOB. There were four of us. Heinrich and I had the rifles and pistols. The other two had pistols only. One of the Germans shot the pig and it charged. I dropped my rifle and we all scattered for the trees.  We all ended up in different trees anywhere between 4 and 6 feet off the ground.  I am proud to say I was higher than anyone else!  The picture below is what a cleanly killed boar looks like. It bears no resemblance to what ours looked like when we were done with it.

  I was made fun of for dropping my rifle. It didn’t make any difference because I hadn’t loaded it yet! The one German who didn’t speak any English was, I am sure, swearing at me. Heinrich was just laughing. He circled below my tree for a while but decided I was too high up so moved on to the next tree. We took turns shooting the thing.  All we seemed to do was make it madder. Finally Heinrich shot it between the eyes and killed it.  I’m not sure how many rounds we used but it was well tenderized.

  I think Heinrich had paid for a hunting license and he wasn’t going to waste the meat.  We loaded the hulk in the back of one of the jeeps and took it to an orphanage near Weiden.

My cars…

  As I mentioned before, the exchange rate was almost always 4 to 1 or better while I stationed there.  The car below was my first car. I think it was a 1948 or 1949 Mercedes 170D. The paint on the car shown here is a lot better than what I had.  I would love to know the genealogy on that car.  God knows how many GI’s had owned this car before me. The only problem was I always had problems with it so I ended up selling it after only a few months.  As I recall I paid $350.00 for it and sold it for about the same.

My next car was a little more practical.  Major Adams was selling his 1953 Dodge. It had everything on it and was in excellent shape. He sold it to me for $350.00 and told me that if anything went wrong in the first 6 months he would pay for the repairs. Nothing went wrong and I had the car for about a year and a half then sold it for $400.00 to another soldier.

It was a 1953 Dodge Coronet and it was fully loaded.  The only difference was that my car had a two-tone green finish.  The same green as shown as well as a lighter green on the sides. Great car.  It was a head turner in Germany in the early 60’s especially in the smaller towns I used to frequent.

After market jeep enhancements

  The CO wandered into my office one morning and said he and I were going on a road trip.  We were headed to Grafenwohr and Hohenfels. Nothing was happening at the time but he said we need to know these training areas better than the people we were sending there.

 

  We headed out and the lessons began – where to park when you were checking a railhead was number one.  If you were checking railheads and an armored unit was unloading off a train you didn’t want to be blocked in while they unloaded tanks. We covered where to stay when on the road. While some installations had in-transit barracks many did not or they were full.  Best to stay on the economy in a gasthaus.  Also how to use the phone.  Sounds funny but there were at least three phone systems available to me.  The normal German telephone system, the U.S. military phone system and then the BASA phone system.

  The BASA phone system was the one I usually used.  The German system wanted money just like AT&T.  The U.S. military phone system was sometimes hard to access from small villages in Bavaria or anywhere else.  The BASA phone system was the German Federal Bundesbahn (railroad) phone system.  There were BASA phones everywhere including my office in Stuttgart.  The nice thing about the BASA phones is that they were at railheads, train stations and even some large sidings.

 

  The picture above is what Hohenfels usually looked like when I was there for maneuvers.When we were approaching Hohenfels training area I noticed a U.S. Army jeep with top off, windshield laying flat to the hood and metal pipe that had been welded to the front bumper. The pipe stuck up 4 to 5 feet above the hood level.  I thought it was some pompous officer’s flag holder.

  After the 3rd or 4th pipe I asked the colonel what the pipes were for.  He said right after the war there were still some Nazi sympathizers in Germany and they would string wire across back roads to decapitate soldiers driving to and from maneuvers!  A number of the generals required that the tops be off jeeps and the windshields laid flat even during winter training.  Not all jeeps had the pipes welded to the front but the lead vehicles all had some sort of wire breaker on the front of their vehicle.  Hard to believe but it had only been 16 years since we won the war and there were still a lot of missing Nazi’s. Never heard of anyone actually losing their head.

  We stopped in Weiden, Germany to meet our counterparts in the German Army. I have no idea who colonel Alexander met with but I met Feldwebel Heinrich Goetz. I was an E-4 at the time and he was, I think, an E-6.  He was also 15 years older than me.  We hit it off and over time became good friends.  He offered to take me wild boar hunting at Grafenwohr and then gave me an off handed challenge to a soccer match with his unit.  We eventually did both and will talk about them later.

  By the time we got back home 3-4 days later we had accomplished a lot. The colonel said, “Daugherty, when I tell you to shag your ass to Hohenfels or Graf to meet a unit you will know where to go – no excuses.” We had marked out routes, places to stay, places to park so as not to get blocked in.  This was importatnt since I quite often ended up checking 3-4 rails heads each day.  The permanent cadre at Grafenwohr was probably 300-400 personnel and on any given weekend or manuever you could have 15,000 to 20,000 American, German and sometimes British troops. It got damned crowded around there and the fact that the tankers thought they owned the road you best know where you are going.

  Today Grafenwohr and Hohenfels are huge by comparison.  If I had my guess the town of Grafenwohr was probably about 1,000 population and Hohenfels was a wide spot in the road.  By comparison Weiden, where the Germany army was based, was about 10,000.  Today Weiden is probably 35,000 to 40,000, Graf is 4-5,000 and Hohenfels in 2-3,000.

It just went Poof!

  Sometimes one just can’t help oneself…

  On any given day you could usually find 5 to 10 tanks on the firing range. One morning during the Spring of 1962 Heinrich Goetz, my counter part in the German Army', and I were meeting with the Grafenwohr post people.  After the meeting Heinrich wanted to go by the tank range and see a friend of his who was a German tank commander, another Feldwebel.  On the range there were 4 or 5 German tanks, 2 or 3 US tanks and 2 British tanks.

  The tanks were there “sighting” their tanks in on the range. While we were visiting with Heinrich’s tank buddy the radio chatter got loud and the tank commander pointed out that there was some idiot down range that had driven on the range and parked his car.  It was an old car and I’m not sure what kind it was.

  The range officer was on the loud speaker yelling at the idiot and telling him that he was on a live firing range.  He announced this in German, English and French. The guy just stood there and looked at the tanks. After the 3rd of 4th announcement, in all languages, the guy gives what looks like an “up yours” hand and arm signal and marches off across the field and up the side of the mountain.

  The time to start firing was getting closer and there was a lot of discussion going on at the  range officer’s stand. More announcements, more yelling, and tank commanders getting antsy and pissed because they are burning diesel and time.

  Then God opened the heavens and rained all over the idiot at the other end of the firing range.  A German tank put one high explosive round right into the car. No more car.  The idiot is running down off the ridge – two German Army jeeps head to the smoke where the car was and Heinrich says, “we have another meeting in Weiden.” Let’s go mach schnell!

  It was a great morning. No one was hurt, the German Army only used one HE round, the tank commander felt good, he was sighted in,  and the two jeeps and the idiot were last seen leaving the training area.

I’ll have a Dinky Bitte…

  Dinkelacker was the beer of choice.  Only because it was the local beer since 1888. All who served in Stuttgart have seen the Dinkelacker Biere coaster above. The only thing missing is the tally along the side indicating how many you had.

  I can’t count the number of times, just before payday, that four of us would pool our money buy a couple of cases of Dinky’s, two or three loaves of Schwarzes Brot and a pound of butter and play double deck pinochle for a penny a point and a nickel a game.  The game would go on from Friday night until mid-day on Sunday.  My friend Cpl. Jones, AKA, “Jonesy” said, “We got us the trifecta brother and it covers all the food groups.” I am sure Cpl. Jones had no clue as to food groups – he couldn’t read or write and was what we considered WWII cannon fodder.  He could carry a rifle and shoot = fodder.  More about Jonesy later.

Grenadier Kaserne

  

  The picture above shows our buildings during the late 50’s.  Our building is in the foreground.  The matching large building in the background is all that is left. Everything else has been torn down and turned into a civilian housing area.

  This Kaserne was under military control as early as 1927 when the Germany Army confiscated local farm land to build a military facility.  They also took all the land that now encompasses Robinson Barracks.  I was very lucky being stationed here.  Grenadier was a small post.  The aerial shot above is hard to see but basically the Kaserne had very few U.S. Military units. As you entered the front gate there as a mess hall to the immediate right.  The mess hall served the any U.S. Army personnel but was probably assigned to the signal unit next door.

  You will notice four rather large buildings to the left and two large buildings that parallel the road.  I’m not sure what was in the first building on the left.  The second building housed the Signal group mentioned.  The third building is where the 594th, 5th RTMO was located.  In our building we had our outfit which was  most of the first floor and most of the basement. The Stars and Stripes had a very small office in the basement at the far north end.  The entire second floor was used by Civilian hiring.  Made for great people watching during the day when German civilians came to apply for work with the U.S. Army.

  The top floor was occupied by the 66th MI (Military Intelligence).  Walked up to to say hi and no one would come to the barred doors at the top of the stairs.  I think these people arrived and departed by osmosis.  Rarely saw anyone coming of going.

  The last building was used by German Civilian Engineers.  They were in charge of all the maintenance and repairs at Grenadier and Robinson Barracks.  There was a small motor pool (Signal Corps) behind the two buildings on the right of the road. There was also a small repair shop and motor pool behind the fourth (last) building. One of the pluses of having the Germans there is that we had a snack shop in the basement of the fourth building.  It was open from about 6am through normal working hours. Great food when you got tired of the mess hall.

  The picture above shows the Nazi insignia on the front wall at the guard gate/main entrance to Grenadier Kaserne.  Guess they forgot that one!

  The aerial photo above is the Robinson Barracks/Grenadier Kaserne area of Stuttgart Zuffenhausen.  Hard to see all the detail but I was limited to what is currently available and a lot has changed since I was stationed there.