Heroes: the Army
A Special Tribute to the Men of:
Co. F., 405th Regiment, 102nd Division (2nd Battalion)
European Theater of Operations
Gardelegan War Crimes:
Recently, we received the following e-mail message from (Mr.) Francis van Gorp of the Netherlands. He has been researching the Gardelegan War Crimes for an upcoming TV Documentary and has asked for assistance.
Some stories of the men of the 102nd Division relate some details of this massacre.
If anyone is interested and has additional information relating to the Gardelegan War Crimes and would like to be of assistance to Mr. van Gorp, you can contact him at the address/e-mail address listed below.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Much of the ongoing research is available on the web page listed at the end of the following message received from Mr. van Gorp.
Message from Mr. van Gorp:
Hi Joe,
Sorry, no story but some questions.
I'm researching the massacre of Gardelegen, Germany, April 13th 1945. The goal of the research is to write a scenario to apply for a budget for a tv-documentary about the massacre. Unfortunately, nowadays freelancers (like me) have to present an almost completely researched scenario before the decision to grant a budget will be made.
This also means that all the efforts might be in vain. To prevent that, I promised Mrs. Hope Emerich, editor and historian of the 102nd Infantry Division Association to send her copies of everything I found so the material can be used for future reference. I'm also in touch with the author of the site of the 102nd Infantry Division on which is the story about Gardelegen. This site prompted my research.
While surfing the internet I found your site and on it stories of veterans about the Gardelegen massacre. Although I found some of the stories of the 405th Regt. (Hansen, Skene and Larson), I wonder if there are more that refer to Gardelegen. If so, could you please tell me where I can find them on your web pages?
To give you an idea about the extent of my research, you can go to my (always changing) homepage which is there to inform others about my progress:
I would very much appreciate your help!
Sincerely,
(Mr.) Francis van Gorp
e-mail:
"Francis van Gorp" <fjmvangorp@home.nl>address:
Ezelvenstraat 25
5051 EL Goirle
the Netherlands
Exerpts of some of the stories of the men of the 405th Regiment, 102nd Division, [2nd Battalion] relating to the Gardelegen War Crimes:
From:
by Lt. Jim Hansen, Co. F., 405th Regiment
"...Pocket resistance had ceased so we were moving right along. We spotted a large column of black smoke to our front. We thought they had fired a gasoline and oil storage area. Our line of advance was right in line with the smoke. As we drew closer we saw a long building and the smoke was coming out of it. Now our conclusion was that the building had been set on fire by artillery fire. We were going to by-pass the building and proceed to an airport supposedly in the vicinity. Then the awful odor hit us.
I passed on one side of the building and saw a large trench. Upon investigation, I saw bodies lying at the bottom. I heard shouts from the other side of the building and went there. The horrid scene unfolded in front of us. We saw heads and hands sticking out from under the doors. It looked like they had dug that far out with their bare hands.
The discovery was reported to company headquarters and on up the chain of commands. S-2 and G-2 Officers gathered at the scene Some more survivors that had escaped showed up and were being questioned by the officers. Two German officials, a man and a woman, were brought to the scene and were being questioned. One of the prisoners seized one of the officer's pistol and shot the German man. His prison mates grabbed the German and dragged him to the corner of the building where some gasoline cans sat, poured gasoline on him and set him afire. This happened so fast I guess everyone froze.
The town officials were rounded up, taken to the scene, and all doors were opened. Three on each side. The officials were made to clear a path from one door across to the other door. This was probably my most sickening experience. After the three lanes were cleared we went back into town and brought everyone that could walk to the scene. They were made to walk thru the lanes to view the atrocity. Those that fainted were carried thru by those that didn't.
Higher officials now took over the scene and we continued on with the war.
Thru the years, I have often wondered how so many people could be brain-washed by so few degenerates..."
From:
by PFC. John "Dick" Skene, Co. F., 405th Regiment
"...We moved up into the outskirts of Garlegen and the next day discovered the atrocity of Garlegen. In a cement barn with wooden doors on both sides, we discovered the charred bodies of prisoners of war and political prisoners who had been burned alive by the S.S. It was a mishmash of prisoners, apparently, Germans, French, Russians, Poles, whatever. There was a fairly large prisoner of war camp in the general area. Some of the H company people got so upset when they view this atrocity that they went back into the town of Garlegen, rounded up the men, women, and children that they could, and opened up both sides of this barn, and ran them through the barn, so they could see what their German troops had done. Of course the civilian population were very much in fear that somehow they would be punished for this atrocity, and they were quite upset by the whole deal. We had information that three of the prisoners in the barn had managed to escape. They had been taken there by the S.S., who locked them up in the barn with gasoline-soaked straw, and had lit the straw with a thermite grenade. They had mounted machine guns some distance from the barn by the door, so that those who managed to work their way under the doors and got out would be shot, and there were several that were shot. In fact, there were huge holes around the perimeter of the barn, a little bit away from the barn, where there were already bodies stacked in these holes. Of the two or three prisoners who had managed to escape, one, I was told, had managed to crawl out with another fellow. His friend had been shot, and an S.S. man approached and asked the man if he were hurt, and when he answered, he shot him [140-23] dead. The man who was able to escape had faked being dead (and managed to crawl off with some geese that were off on one edge of the area, and climb into a wrecked aircraft on the edge of the airfield, where this barn was located. I recall as a part of this incident, while we were viewing the tragedy, that a Frenchman across the way came up with a Walter pistol. A German medical officer and a nurse in the barn had also been run out to view this atrocity by the H company people, and the Frenchman raised his pistol and shot the German officer. These were not S.S. people, and there was no way of knowing how responsible the person who was shot was for the tragedy. At any rate, someone got a can of gasoline off one of the trucks and burned the German officer up with the rest of the prisoners. It was really a case of murder, but no one knew who this prisoner of war was, he spoke only French. After the incident, he just disappeared. The S.S. who were responsible for the atrocity in he barn had been in charge of the town, but they had turned over control to the regular German forces and moved on out..."
From:
by 1st Lt. Donald E. "Swede" Larson,
Co. H., 405th Regiment
"...We were quartered that night in Gardelagen. Early next morning some of us were nosing around the town when we noticed a black plume of smoke coming from a nearby hill outside of town. Upon investigating, we came upon the most horrible sight we had ever seen in this war. Inside the barn were burning bodies piled half way up the walls. It was obvious they had been machine gunned down, some fuel poured over them, and set on fire. A body count revealed 1016 bodies of POWs in black and white stripped clothes, most of which were German and Polish prisoners. They had been ruthlessly set on fire, locked in the barn, and left to die. If some had managed to dig out with their teeth and bare hands, they were machine-gunned from outside. Many arms, heads, etc. were visible under the walls where they had tried to get out.
The GIs were so outraged at finding the burned bodies that they dragged, pushed and pulled every civilian in the town out to the barn. We made them walk by in single file to see the deeds their brave soldiers had committed. Some would put their hands over their eyes so as not to see the bodies, but when that was noticed, the hands were promptly pulled down and they were made to see. And, of course, not one civilian had any knowledge of what had happened.
"H" Company was detailed to stay in Gardelagen to await higher authorities and clean up the town. As you might expect, the civilians were treated quite firmly. Searching groups hit each and every house and building while looking for guns, ammunition, etc. We found a hidden arsenal of automatic weapons at the outskirts of town, and a manufacturing company's warehouse for the Walther .32 pistol. Gardelagen was a hot-bed of Naziism. We found a warehouse full of Walther pistols, and hauled away enough guns for a pistol for every man in the battalion. We collected a truck full of pistols, swords, knives, daggers, rifles, and every other type of weapon possible. All from these "peace loving" Germans who knew nothing about the bodies in the burning barn..."
From:
by James J. "Jim" Brophy, Sgt.,
Co. F., 405th Regiment
"...It was a day or two later when we were in Gardelegen. This where the Germans had killed over a thousand concentration camp people that they had brought from the north of Germany.
Years later I had read where this was a column of some of those guys who were held up near the Baltic. One of the groups was marched south and a lot of them were killed along the way. They had a lot of nationalities there -- French and Polish and I don't know what all and Germans as well. They armed some of the Germans, according to that story and used them to guard the column and when they got near their destination, they disarmed these German prisoners and killed them along with the rest. The story that I heard at the time was that they herded them into the barn and there was a lot of straw on the bottom of the barn. They soaked it with kerosene and they fired a flare pistol into it and when anyone tried to escape they machine gunned them. I don't know if that was all that or as Greenburgs' account of they killed them and then burned the bodies. I am not real sure of that.
But we got there. Someone was looking for boz. We found the bodies and I remember and we built...well, anyway I will get back to that. The bodies were found and when I got there, some G.I.'s had gone to town a few minutes earlier. They captured a German army medic. He was wearing an arm band. Somebody searched and they found a stick of Spearmint in his pocket. When I saw him, he was standing with his hands above his head. One of the displaced persons, a DP, standing holding a small pistol against the guy's chest, threatening him with it. Apparently the DP's brother had been killed by the German's or something. So I walked around the end of the barn and came in the other side. There were doors on both sides. It was kind of a like a machine sh---, brick building. As I was walking around, I heard a shot and as I got in the other door, the German was down on the ground dying. He had been shot in the chest by the DP. The other German that had been brought out was a woman -- a nurse. Some of the guys wanted to kill her, too. But cooler heads prevailed. As much as I saw, someone had her knees and was forced to kiss some of the dead people in the barn. Some of them had tried to dig their way out under the doors. I could see where the body could be half buried and trying to dig out before he died.
German people were brought out in batches the next day to see the sight and they all claimed American bombers had done the damage. German boys would never do anything like that. I have often wondered if anyone ever caught the perpetrators. They made the Germans rebury the people and make a cemetery out of the place.
I remember that night guarding the bodies, we had a fire and we would sit there. The bodies were cooling and there was a constant sound of rustling sound as the bodies changed position as they cooled. Pretty eerie.
There is a lot of story involved in that. On of them I heard was that this column that was sent south. The story that I had read was that the Frenchman who was a civil engineer -- the first one who really figured out the German V-1 launching site in France pointed at London. He worked it out on his maps. He got the sites mapped -- a lot of them and sent them to England -- the maps. The British were able to investigate to some degree using the French underground and decided to attack those sites. The story I got was where they had hoped to launch ten of those missiles in a given period of time. They were only able to launch two. In other words they lost 80% of the missiles, because the sites were destroyed. I don't know what the total number of missiles they launched was or how many they destroyed at the sites. This Frenchman was then taken prisoner and he was part of that group that was brought up in that Baltic area. Half of them were put into boats -- old freighter hulks and the Germans were going to take them out to sea and sink them. The other half were marched south. I don't know why they split the column. The Swedish Red Cross intervened and forced the Germans not -- just by saying they were going to take names, ranks and serial numbers and then after war the Allies would catch the perpetrators. So they didn't sink any of the hulks. But one was sunk by the RAF by mistake. They thought it was a German boat. These guys drowned in it. In any case I was told that a book indicated that this group ended up at the town of Gardelegen and that would have been the same group.
That was one of the really terrible things. That is something that you are absolutely prepared for. You know, I thought this stuff was going on. It was beginning -- when I was home, a kid playing cowboys and indians and this was a lot -- a lot grimmer than any of us had ever seen..."
(Webmaster note: Mr. James "Jim" Brophy passed away on 2 May 2004.)
From:
by Robert "Bob" Fisher,
Co. F., 405th Regiment
Gardelegen.
"...We captured a village late one afternoon. It was not long after we disovered a large barn into which the SS had herded hundreds of POW's and burned them alive, shooting those that tried to escape out the doors. We found and talked to the one survivor. We were so sickened by this that we rounded up the towns people and marched them thru the barn to see what the SS had done. I'm sure that most of them thought that we were going to kill them too. As I remember, the townspeople were required to make a special cemetary and place all the remains from this building and from the burnings previously and thrown in a common grave, in individual graves and were charged with the eternal upkeep of the cemetary for ever..."
From:
by Eugene "Gene" Greenburg, Sgt.,
Co. F., 405th Regiment
Tuesday, April 13.
"...It was while taking a walk with Racine and DiGiovanni that I [195-52] came across the most horrible sight I had ever seen. We stopped to talk to a Polish woman for a minute and she pointed out a very large shed and told us to look in it. We went toward this building and on going into it we saw a sight that we would never forget. Inside the building were hundreds of bodies that were smoking. Later we learned the whole story. It seemed the night before we entered Gaidelegen SS troops took 1200 prisoners and put them inside this shed. The shed was filled with straw and all entrances were guarded with machine guns and bazookas. The Germans then proceeded to machine gun the men in cold blood. In the confusion that followed two prisoners escaped and that's how the story finally came out. When the Germans thought they killed everyone they poured gasoline on the bodies and lit it. While looking on this scene we heard a moan and found one man still alive. We called the medics and he was taken to the hospital but died the next morning. Within the next week all the Germans in the town were forced to pick up the bodies and dig graves for them. It wasn't pleasant work but Jerry was still getting off too easy. Gardelegen proved to any skeptic in the division that German atrocities were true..."
From:
by Robert "Bob" Lira,
Co. F., 405th Regiment
"...Another awesome incident comes to mind as I write. This was about April 12&emdash;13, 1945.
The 2nd Plt. of Co. F, 405th Reg. was almost in its final mopping up stages. I had my scouts out and we were addvancing in the direction of Gardelegen, a small village about 30 miles from the Elbe River. As usual, our tanks were giving us fire power from behind, by blasting tall steeples and buildings in front of us. just to make sure there were no snipers therein. There was a sort of a greyish black smoke coming out of the side of a large building that was part brick and concrete near a wooded area. It looked like a factory or warehouse. Our zone of advance was right smack in the middle of the building so I instructed my scouts to guide on the building as I studied the building thru my binoculars, while still a fair disance away. There were no enemy troops in the immediate area. As we approached the big structure we could see thick black smoke coming out near a sliding door. We figured that our artillery has set the building on fire. When we got closer, we saw that the building itself was not on fire. Actually, what we saw that was burning was a huge pile of human flesh. The occupants were jammed up against a partially opened part of the building next to an exit door, which they had been trying to open. We could't believe what we were seeing. Inside we saw piles of human bodies 5 -- 6 feet tall at the main exits, and they were burning too. I got a whiff of the burning flesh for the first time in my life, an awful nauseating sickining smell that I can never forget. I honestly thought I was having a nightmare.
I immediately called my CO. to come and look at what we had run into. He, and his Exec. came in jeeps and they sent for the higher ranking officers of Bn. They went on all the way to the Division officers. I remember seeing human heads, hands, feet -- sticking up out of hastily dug mass graves that the SS troops had tried to bury the prisoners in before we came. There were hundreds of them, many were just burried alive. In all, there were about 4000 burried there.
We found out later that they were Polish and Jews who had arrived 2 days prior to our arrival. The SS had scattered hay inside the building, poured gasolene over the hay, herded the prisoners into the building, closed the doors and set the straw on fire. Those inside that made it to the exits were machine gunned down as they fought to escape.
It was soon after that people from the Red Cross arrived, a man and a woman. Our officers wanted to make sure that these atraucities were properly recorded. These were used in the war criminal trials that were to take place later after the war was over. I saw a polish POW suddenly take a 45 caliber pistol out of a holster and go up to an SS man and shoot him in the head before anyone could stop him. The POW was avenging the death of one of his friends that the SS had done..."
From:
by Joel Stenson,
Co. F., 405th Regiment
"...In Gardelegen we were posted 25 yards apart and about 25 feet from those barns was a awful smell around to make you sick. I kept telling my buddy I can't wait til morning to get away from this place. We could not leave until relieved. When we were, we went over to the barns and they were full of straw and along the side of the door was a water trough with a tin cup on a chain. Then we went into the barns and I was sick for about 3 days. Charred bodies were laying all over the placeand under the bottom of the door was a mans head with a bullet hole in it. He was trying to escapee when the germans shot him. A couple of the prisoners did escape and came to our officers and told them what had hppened. They were herded into the barn when the german troops heard we were in the area they filled the barn with gasolene and lit a match to it. Those that were near the doors they shot with machine guns. They said it was a 16 year old boy who lit the match to the barn. I thought that Co. F was the first to find this place but it was really G Co. as they over to the left of our company. This was on April 17, 1945. We were there on the 18th. I picked up a camera a few weeks before and took a picture of it. I send it for the scrap book. Ive been watching a lot of TV and I never see this on TV and wonder why. I think people should know about this place. I think it is one of the forgotten things in the war. About 1016 prisoners perished and as the years go by, I can't forget this place. The next day we moved toward Stendal and other outfits buried the people..."
German Atrocities
YANK: the Army Weekly
From an article in YANK magazine, May 18, 1945, Vol 3, No 48
