Former POW had real memories of WWII era

Former POW had real memories of WWII era

By Ed Shannon | Albert Lea Tribune
Published Saturday, August 23, 2008




This photo was taken by a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps who was a prisoner of war at a camp near Krems, Austria, during World War II. Somehow, he acquired a camera and took photos based on life inside the double row of barbed wire fencing around Stalag 17B. Between the two fences was considered to be off limits and a prisoner could be shot by one of the German guards.

This rare photo shows Guard Tower Nine at Stalag 17B near Krems, Austria. This was where the late August Johnson of Albert Lea was held as a German prisoner of war for a year during World War II. It’s obvious that this was a temporary operation and nothing remains of the former POW camp today.

August “Augie” Johnson of Albert Lea was always somewhat reluctant to talk about his military service during World War II. However, in 1985, on the 40th anniversary of the ending of this war, he agreed to an interview with the Tribune about his unforgettable year as a German prisoner of war concluded with a 30-day forced march in Austria as his captors tried to avoid the advancing Soviet (Russian) forces. And from that one year of his life came some incredible memories, several priceless photos and personal mementos, and a friendship with a fellow Minnesota POW that became even stronger through the years.
Johnson died Wednesday, Aug. 20, at St. Marys Hospital in Rochester. What follows is based on the 1985 interview with some added updating.
He was born and raised in Lake Crystal, located 12 miles southwest of Mankato. When World War II came, Johnson joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942.
In 1943, he married Alice Jenkins, also of Lake Crystal. They had just a few months together. That ended when his unit was sent to Great Britain to participate in the bombing missions over Nazi-conquered Europe in early 1944.
Tech. Sgt. Johnson was an engineer-gunner on a B17 bomber. In April 1944, his plane was on its second combat mission over Germany. More than a thousand planes, both bombers and fighter-escorts, were involved in the massive raid on Berlin. The German resistance was all too effective. Johnson said more than a hundred American planes were lost that day. One of them was his B17.
The plane was at 25,000 feet altitude when it was struck by anti-aircraft fire from the ground. The 10-man crew bailed out. Johnson and the pilot were the only ones to survive. Several very close friends were lost on that final mission.
Sgt. Johnson had been wounded by shrapnel. He said he blacked out after leaving the stricken plane. Luckily, he revived in time to pull the rip cord on his parachute.
One of the mementos from that experience is a membership card in the Caterpillar Club, an organization confined to those who have saved their lives by using a parachute.
He was promptly taken prisoner. His German captors bandaged his wounds, but offered no other treatment. Johnson was taken to Frankfurt for interrogation. During the trip he saw just how much damage had been done to the German cities by the bombing raids.
The wounded air crewman was given a POW number (104775) and told to pose for two identification pictures. He kept both photos as a reminder of what became a very eventful year.
From Frankfurt, Johnson traveled by crowded boxcar for three days and four nights to Stalag 17B at Krems, Austria, located about 40 miles west of Vienna on the Danube River.
Stalag 17B held some 2,500 Americans, mostly crewmen from the Air Corps. Another part of the prison camp housed even more Russian, French and Italian POWs.
Johnson said life in this camp was harsh, but the Americans seemed to be treated slightly better than the other national groups. There was one meal a day, consisting mostly of vegetables and very little meat. Sgt. Johnson entered Stalag 17B weighing 160 pounds and was down to 115 pounds when he was liberated.
There was no heat in the barracks, but somehow body heat from the prisoners kept the places fairly warm, he explained, even in the Austrian winter. The mattresses used by the POWs were filled with straw or wood shavings.
Although there wasn’t much food for the always hungry men, Red Cross parcels and packages from relatives were delivered on an irregular basis to the POWs. Johnson said, “My wife sent me a package of vitamin pills which really helped.”
For Alice Johnson back in Lake Crystal, 1944 was also an unforgettable year. A telegram from the War Department in the late spring said her husband was missing in action. It was to be a full three months before she knew he was a German POW. After that, their only means of communication was by letters sent through the Red Cross.
When he arrived in Stalag 17B, Johnson asked if anyone else in the camp was from southern Minnesota. That’s how he met Harry Rudberg of Mankato, who had already been in the POW compound for six months. They didn’t know each other before the war, but knew several people in common.
After the war, the two men from neighboring towns kept up their friendship. Then they became brothers-in-law when Rudberg married Johnson’s sister. The Rudbergs later lived in Mankato.
All the personal items Johnson had when he was captured were taken away, including his pocket copy of the New Testament, which contained four small pictures of his new bride. Then, a week later, the book and the pictures were returned to him marked with two official Stalag 17B stamps. He kept this as one his most prized mementos of the unscheduled visit to Austria.
Johnson also acquired negatives and prints of photos taken in the POW area by an American who somehow acquired the use of a camera. Several scenes show the POWs taking cover in slit trenches as American bombers raided the railyards in Krems. Several other scenes show the funeral service for an American soldier who was killed by the guards while trying to climb one of the barbed wire fences around the compound.
In reply to a question about his feelings regarding the German and Austrian captors, Johnson said, “We can’t hold a grudge forever. Those people were forced into it. Most of the guards tried to be good, however, the SS troops were very strict.”
The Americans felt their food rations were woefully short, but began to realize the local civilians weren’t eating much better. Also, the guard force was being replaced with older men. The younger Nazi soldiers were being sent east to try and stop the advancing Russian forces.
In April 1945, the prisoners of Stalag 17B were told they would be marching to Germany. The POWs didn’t want to go. They were content to wait for liberation by the Soviet (Russian) Army. The Germans changed their minds with the use of dogs and bayonets.
Johnson and the men of Stalag 17B ended their part of the war with a 30-day forced march across Austria toward Germany. The already weakened men were plagued with typhus and dysentery. Yet, they were forced to march by day and sleep on the ground or in barns at night. Stragglers and those too weak to march were taken away by the guards who rode in horse-drawn wagons. And it’s at this point that Johnson was very reluctant to provide any further details. The miseries of that march make for some bad memories. The fate of those who couldn’t make the forced march is still unknown.
Johnson said American planes would fly over the long column of marching men. They couldn’t take cover in the ditches or in the nearby woods. This would just provoke the guards to shoot.
The U.S. aircraft would come down low as if to make a strafing run at the inviting target and then merely wiggle the wings several times and fly away. Johnson later felt the Army was monitoring the daily progress of the POWs across Austria.
On some nights the heavy guns of the Soviet (Russian) Army could be heard. This prompted the guards to try and move the POWs at an even faster pace.
The march ended near the border of Austria and Germany close to the city of Braunau (which has a footnote in history as the birthplace of Adolph Hitler). The POWs were left in a large clearing in the woods, and their guards finally deserted a lost cause. The POWs were found by an American unit a day or so later.
The liberated men were taken to France for recuperation, then put on a troop transport for a 15-day trip back to the United States. The Johnsons were soon reunited.
Sgt. Johnson was sent to California for rest and relaxation, and for retraining to take part in the war against Japan. Two atomic bombs ended World War II, and he was discharged from military service in October 1945.
The Johnsons lived in Lake Crystal until 1956 when they moved to Albert Lea where he became a USDA meat inspector at the Wilson plant. He retired in 1978.
Johnson is a member of the EX-POW organization and Disabled American Veterans. He maintained contacts with other former prisoners of war, and the closest contact was with the only good thing to come out of the year spent in Stalag 17B — a brother-in-law named Harry Rudberg of Mankato.
Johnson was once asked his opinion of a television program named “Hogan’s Heroes,” allegedly based on World War II life in a German POW camp. His reaction to the program was extremely low and he thought it was far from being truthful.

Albert Lea Tribune | Former POW had real memories of WWII era

 

Amazing... ANd being a Minnesotan it kinda makes it even more interesting but im kinda biased LOL....

 

Not too much info availalbe on Kremms compared to Sagan and Barth, so these pictures are a good addtion.