Guardian Angel Academy (16 page)

Chapter 29

Budd enjoyed conversing with the other prisoners, after the feeling of isolation had nearly overwhelmed him.  But as 3:00 a.m. rolled around, Budd's eyelids began to droop and his breathing to slow.  It was dark in the cold building, and even though Budd could hear some of the guys still awake and whispering, he rested his head upon his arm for a pillow and pulled his coat around him tightly.  He was soon asleep.

Budd awoke to the frigid cold air, a door banging open and men shouting orders.  Although he couldn't understand German, Budd could discern that the officers wanted him to come with them.  He quickly slipped on his frozen boots and followed the other prisoners out the door.  He jumped in the truck with the others and off they went to the train station. They were then herded, like sheep, onto a freight car.  When they reached their destination, they got off the train.  Budd found himself at a temporary camp located in the heart of the Rohr Valley.  Here the men received new uniforms and clothing that had been brought in from the Red Cross.  Unlike the previous treatment Budd received, here he was fed well and treated well.  Here Budd spent Christmas of 1944. 

Even though the treatment Budd received at this camp was an improvement, everything was not peachy here.  The camp was located in the heart of an industrial area and was subject to much bombing.  Bombers came both day and night.  Daytime bombing was not as frightening as night time bombing.  The camp had large red cross signs on the roof of each building indicating to the allies that prisoners were housed there and therefore not a bombing target.  But at night, it was a different story.  The night bombers were wilder and the red cross signs on the building tops were not as visible.

The British didn't have the newest innovations in bombing.  The bomb sites they used were not as precise as the American Nordan bomb sites, therefore the men feared they could be bombed on accident by their own allies. Each night the roar of engines and the explosive sounds, brought fear and trepidation to the men.  Every night the bombing brought back memories of that fateful day on Dec. 3, 1944 when Budd jumped out of the B-17.

In early January, Budd and ninety other prisoners were packed like sardines in a can into a small railroad freight car.  The journey was to take them from Berlin to the Baltic Sea.  The prisoners were squished into half of the freight car, while the two guards occupied the other half.  Straw was strewn around the floor.  After standing for hours, Budd's legs started to cramp.  He had to wait his turn to sit, as there wasn't enough room for all to sit at once.  Although warmth exuded from the bilgy bodies, it was still freezing.  The blackish-gray dimness filled the freight car both day and night.  There was no way to look out.  On several occasions, air raid sirens blasted the air giving warning of approaching fighter planes.  When this happened, the train stopped, the guards got out and locked the door behind them.  Fear-coated silence paralyzed the living vessels huddled In the dark. Roars of fighter engines permeated the air.  Were they German fighters or were they the mighty American P-47 planes intent on destroying the train?   As the planes drew closer, Budd, relieved, could hear the pinging of the engines.  The distinct pinging meant that they were indeed German fighters.  Germany's gasoline was of such a poor quality it caused the pinging noise.

When the train stopped at a scheduled stop, Budd and the other prisoners were let out to relieve themselves.  The train trip was a long and excruciating six days.- 

Budd stumbled out of the train with the other sleep-deprived prisoners.  Legs as stiff as boards refused to bend.  Barth, Germany was located on the Baltic Sea, directly across from Copenhagen, Denmark.  The prison camp, Stalag Luft One was located outside of the quaint little town of Barth.  It was comprised of five compounds.  Budd was taken to North 3.  This camp housed ten thousand prisoners.  At Barth, cold and dampness were Budd's enemies.  The barracks were insufferable.  Each of the ten rooms housed forty men.  The prisoners were allowed one piece of coke per day per room.  Coke was a heating substance made from coal used in stoves to heat homes and buildings.  The men in Budd's room huddled together, saving their one piece of coke until the end of the week.  On the last day of the week they would use their week's ration of coke and they could be warm.   

The cold was ever present, like living inside of a refrigerator.  Also, the lack of food was unbearable.  Hunger pangs shot through his insides like an archer's arrow, leaving a brash emptiness there.  Flimsy rations did nothing to fill the gaping whole of a hollow stomach.  Red Cross parcels were few and far between.  The Germans, who were also hungry,  stole them to survive.  German rations consisted of frozen potatoes, rutabagas and bread laced with sawdust.  Each man was supposed to receive one Red Cross food box per week.  This was not so in Budd's case.  The war had been going for so long, depleting the Germans of their substinance.  Budd's parcels seldom made it to camp.  A few parcels had to be divided between all of the men.  If this kept up, they would all die of malnutrition.

To keep warm, Budd took walks around the compound.  Carefully he walked, making sure not to step over the warning wire.  During the day these walks were allowed, but not at night.  The men were confined to barracks at night.  When the darkness came, German police dogs were turned loose making sure that the prisoners stayed in their barracks.  One could take a chance with a guard, but never with a dog.  The dogs were too well trained.  Guard towers were posted around the perimeter of the camp.  The towers were formidable structures.  It was a very unpleasant sight to see the guards standing there with machine guns ready to shoot any prisoners who tried to escape. 

Budd formed a camaraderie with the other prisoners.  They were all in this together, floating in limbo waiting for the war to end.  They depended on each other for warmth.  They spent hours conversing.  They talked about how important they were as civilians.  Budd carried with him in his pocket at all times, a picture of Faelela.  He could show it to prove that his girlfriend was the best looking of them all.  The men played poker and other games to bide the time.

Also, to bide the time, Budd took a YMCA notebook and made a journal out of it.  The cover was made out of a towel.  He took his favorite pictures from his wallet and sewed them in the journal with a little poem for each picture.  There would not be a day go by that Budd would not open up his journal and see his Faelela waving at him.  He imagined she was saying, “Hurry home.”  Budd even had a lock of her hair.  He could still envision her face as she walked up to him, her curly hair bouncing along her shoulders, her red lips smiling up at him.  Her hands were tucked in the pockets of her overcoat the same length as her pretty dress.  Then she pulled out the dainty locks of hair she had cut off just for him.  They were tied in a small bow and she slipped it into his hand and gave him a peck on his cheek.  He took her in his arms and gave her a huge hug and kiss. 

Now he caressed the soft locks of hair.  He examined the picture of Mother Adams waving to him and he felt the love exude from the page.  He looked at the photo of his sister standing with his favorite nephew Jimmy.  Every day Budd opened up that journal and it gave him the strength to survive the day.  With cold fingers grasping the crayons, he colored the cover.  Red, white and blue, the colors of his nation's flag.  

Budd could feel himself starving to death.  His one-hundred-fifty pound before-prisoner weight was now down to 90 pounds.  He was skin and bones.  He could only hope that the war would end before he died of malnutrition.  I continued to watch over Budd.  Even though he was very sickly, I felt that his suffering would be over soon. 

Chapter 30

Fortunately, good news came his way, when on April 29, 1945 word was received that the war had ended in Europe.  Budd and the men were so excited, but for the time-being they were still prisoners of war. 

The last week of April, the prisoners heard the sound of cannons going off in the distance.  The Russian Cossacks were moving in on them.  The scene was like that of World War I.  The Russians were riding horses and pulling cannons along with some tank corps members.  The war may have been over, but not for the Russians.  They had a score to settle with the Germans.

Budd and the other prisoners feared that they would be caught in the middle of a mighty battle between the Germans and the Russians.  So the prisoners spent the entire day using tin cans to dig trenches outside their windows.  At the first sign of a battle, they planned to jump out of the window into their trenches.  With that disquieting thought, they tried to sleep.

Luckily, a fight did not materialize.  It was a relief to awaken on the morning of May 1st to see Americans in the guard towers and patrolling fences.  All of the Germans had fled, and before leaving they destroyed all military instillations in the path of the oncoming Russians.  It was chaotic.  The prisoners' withheld Red Cross parcels were made available to a German mob, consisting of soldiers and civilians.  Then Budd heard the sound of a bomb exploding in a storage room.  The men feared they may need the trenches after all.  There were 9,000 prisoners liberated from Budd's camp alone.  The Russian Commander was difficult.  The prisoners remained in the compounds as though still prisoners, until they were ordered to leave.  The men had no form of transportation, but in order to appease the Russians they pulled down the fences and towers and off to town they went.

Budd and two of his buddies began walking toward town.  They were walking along the marshes when they spotted a grizzly sight.  Four dead bodies were lying there.  They appeared to be a grandmother, a mother, a daughter and a small child.  The mother still held the pistol.  She had killed the other three, then turned the gun on herself.  It didn't take Budd long to see why she did this.  In the town square, the German women were being forced to dance with the Russian soldiers.  During the dance some of the soldiers pulled their partners into an alley, raping them, and afterwards going back for more.  Seeing the chaos, the town's mayor had killed himself.  The Russian soldiers were perversive  This had been going on for the past twenty-four hours.   How could people treat other people this way?

On Saturday, May 12th, the first Flying Fortresses arrived from England.  First priority were the wounded, then the British followed.  The rest, including Budd, were flown out on May 13 and 14.  The bomb bay doors were covered with plywood. Budd and the others were stacked into the airplanes like firewood.  It was hard to believe that now the war was over.  For some reason, thoughts that he wouldn't make it home still plagued Budd's mind.

The plane landed in Reims, France where a show was put on for the prisoners.  Now the tables were turned.  The German prisoners served dinner to Budd and the others.  While they served dinner, the guards cracked whips and yelled at them to move it.  The guards put on quite a show for their benefit.  Budd and the other prisoners were now treated like royalty.

The next morning Budd and the others were trucked to LaHarve, France located on the coast of the English channel.  They were sent through the de-lousing machine on several occasions to rid themselves of lice.  Each time new clothing was issued.  The loudspeaker came on at various times during the day directing the men to an area where they were given eggnog.  The purpose of the eggnog was to build the men back up.  This did build them up in a hurry.  Each day there was a USO show.  Entertainers sang, “Rum and Coca Cola,” “Don't Fence Me In,” and other popular songs of the day.  There were several camps strewn along the coast.  They lived in tents again.  Budd's camp was named “Camp Lucky Strike.”

Prisoners and other misplaced soldiers were coming in by the droves.  It was not long before the temporary camps were full.  In order to take care of the over-flow flooding in, the men were given $100 in English pounds and an open-end furlough was offered to them.  This meant that there was no specified date to return to Grovesner Square in London.  In the event  that there was no space on a ship to return to the States, Budd would be given more money to continue his leave.

The men were living in groups of ten to fifteen.  Budd out-ranked the other men in his group.  His group was assigned to report to his base back near home.  The men in his group were hard seasoned infantrymen.  Budd was entrusted with all the paperwork to be turned in when reaching their destination.

One afternoon a flying fortress from England landed on the temporary air strip.  Budd and two of his buddies ran out to ask the pilot if they could fly back to England with him.  The pilot said yes but that they would have to be ready to leave in an hour.  Budd rushed back to the remainder of his group to tell them that they had a way to England.  All of the other men in Budd's group refused to fly.  They said that they had come this far alive and they would not risk their lives now.  So, Budd gave each one of them their papers and said that he would see them back at the base near home whenever they got there.  So, Budd and his two buddies took the flight back to England.  They stayed at Eighth Air force base near London.  The next day Budd and his buddies took in the sites of London.  One of the big attractions was a section of London called Piccadilly Circus.  There Budd sent a telegram to his sweetheart to let her know that all was well.  Budd and his buddies were given free train tickets to Scotland.  They were excited to see Edinburgh, Scotland and a new adventure that awaited them there.

Budd and his buddies checked into a Red Cross hotel just across the street from the old Edinburgh castle.  The charge was reasonable, so they could conserve some of their money for site seeing.  The city was beautiful.  Budd met a young lady who showed him all of the sites.  Together they took a drive on a double decker bus through the green hills.

Budd and his buddies went to a portrait studio for tourists.  Here he dressed up in the attire of a Scottish gentlemen complete with kilts.This photo he was excited to bring home and show Faelela.  After a few days, Budd was about out of money and ready to end his furlough.  Budd's main objective now was to get home.  He hoped there would be space on the next ship out.   Budd and his buddies found their way to the dingy office on Grovsnor square in London on June 14, 1945, just one day before Budd's 20th birthday.  They were told that there was one space open on a ship going out the next day.  Budd was reluctant to leave his friends, but the pull toward home caused him to accept the space. 

That night Budd boarded the ship.  The ship was operated by merchant marines.  One of the cooks befriended Budd and gave him a job in the kitchen.  At night they were holed up deep in the ship with hammocks for beds.  Budd was still concerned.  Would he make it home to his sweetheart?  Would he make it across the ocean alive?

Budd helped out in the kitchen and it was a good place for him because he was fed well.  On June 16th, Budd's friend, Joey came out of the kitchen while Budd was working on the tables.  His hands were full of a large sheet cake.  Budd's eyes lit up and his smile widened when he saw the whole kitchen crew gathered together singing“Happy Birthday” to him. 

Finally the ship reached New York.  The servicemen aboard the ship were taken to an army base some distance from the city.  Budd stayed to help the cooks with the cleanup process and then was taken to the army base.  The very next day, Budd was put on a train headed for home.