John H. Anderson of North Carolina is a member of UGA Alumni’s Greatest Generation. He was Assistant Director of the Red Coat Band and a music instructor for 17 years after his experience as a Prisoner of War during World War II. His unusal and interesting story follows:
The notice of my induction into the Army came after my 20th birthday on December 16, 1942. I had taken the physical exam and was classified One-A. It was near the end of the first semester of my senior year at the Conservatory of Music of Kansas City, so I went to the draft board and asked for an extension of time so I could complete my senior year. They asked what was my field of study, and when I replied that it was music they said it was not necessary for national defense. I had anticipated such a thing happening because the draft age was lowered from 21 to 19 so I knew they would get me. The board deliberated for a few minutes and came out and told me that I could have two more weeks so I could finish my first semester. I had attended two colleges in order to get enough credits to graduate. I thanked them and finished my classes, took my exams, gave my recital, put on a fraternity dance, and had a special graduation ceremony for me. I received the Bachelor of Music degree in Public School Music.
- Induction into Army at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas: January 30, 1943.
- Basic training for the Army Air Corps in St. Petersburg, Florida: February-March, became a PFC.
- Radio School in Sioux Falls, South Dakota: March–September.
- Gunnery School in Las Vegas, Nevada: October-December, became a Sergeant.
- 15-day furlough at home, returned day after Christmas to Salt Lake City, and Kearns, Utah for pistol range and radio refresher courses. Assigned to a crew and shipped to Ardmore, Oklahoma on January 17, 1944.
- Finished crew training and transferred to Kearney, Nebraska on Easter, April 9.
- Left staging area on train because of bad weather and sent to Camp Kilmer in New Jersey on April 18.
- Boarded British boat Arowa on April 24 and arrived in Liverpool, England on May 6. Sent to replacement center near Stone and on May 11 to Hemel Hempstead for more schooling in radio. Transferred to 388th Bomb Group at Knettishall on May 25th and placed in 561st Bomb Squadron. More schooling.
Missions
- #1 to Cape Gris Nez on French coast: June 4, 1944.
- #3 to Caen, France—D-Day, June 6. Raised to Staff Sergeant and later to Tech.
- #9 to Ruhland, Germany, June 21, shuttle mission landing in Poltava, Russia. Germans bombed air field after midnight and destroyed many planes. After five days the remaining planes flew to drop bombs on Drohobycz, Poland and landed in Foggia, Italy (mission #10). While in Italy I heard a concert by Jascha Heifetz and got to swim in the Adriatic Sea. On mission #11 we dropped bombs on Beziers, France after flying near Rome, across Corsica and near Marseilles, eventually landing back at our base in England.
- #13 We dropped supplies to the Maquis, freedom-fighters in southern France, on July 14th.
- #18 & 19 we flew and dropped bombs in support of the front line troops at St. Lo, France.
- #20 & 21 to Merseburg, Germany.
- #23 to Hamburg, Germany, pilot received flak in foot. Crew to get 7-day furlough with plans to go to Scotland.
- #24 to Berlin, if call had come in after midnight we would have been on furlough. Squadron gave us a substitute pilot. Plane received a direct hit in the oxygen system and crew had to bail out. Copilot and navigator were burned and sent to hospital. Other crew members safe except for engineer who was beaten by civilians. August 6.
I landed near the suburb of Grossbeeren and was captured almost immediately.
Took seven trains and a bus to arrive at a jail. Four of my crew and two other Americans rode to Frankfurt by train the next evening. Was interrogated at Oberursal and sent to Dulag Luft at Wetzlar. I was issued a British uniform and was in first contingent to go to Stalag Luft VI at St. Wendel near Luxembourg. American planes bombed Frankfurt as we sat in a train car on our way to St. Wendel. Luft VI was not completed and we lived in a garage-like building for 20 days. The Allies rushed across Germany and we could see tanks and trucks returning to Germany so the war must almost be over. Left St. Wendel on September 5th by boxcar and arrived at Luft IV on September 9th. I was placed in a tent in A Lager until September 26th when I went to the opening of C Lager and built my bunk in Barracks I. Three of my crew members were with me until we evacuated camp on February 6, 1945.
For me camp life presented a great opportunity to develop teaching skills as I tried to teach music theory to individuals who wanted to learn about music. My engineer went through the course of study without hearing what he wrote. When a pump organ came into the compound on November 22 it was a big advantage to my music program. I was also able to arrange music for the church choir which rehearsed MWF at 1:00. Upon hearing some good voices in the Catholic choir I started a Men’s Glee Club which met TTS at 1:00. The choir sang every Sunday at the church service; the glee club sang programs of school fight songs, Christmas service in the middle of the compound on Christmas eve attended by the visiting YMCA representative, and three performances of a minstrel show in January. I gained a lot of good experiences.
As choir director I was a member of the church committee which provided a substitute preacher every Sunday in case the English padre did not show up. Hymnals from the YMCA were used and were the source of material for my music program. Morning devotion was held each morning following roll call. In December my barracks began to have vesper services at 6:00. The barracks were closed up at sundown but lights were not out until 9:00. In January I started a program in my barracks at 7:00 that offered round table discussions, debates, music appreciation, spelling bees, lectures and whatever else could be done. A library in the Red Cross building in the lager was always full and I did more reading than before. A Red Cross parcel containing food was to be given to each prisoner every week, but except for Thanksgiving and Christmas week we were on half rations all the time I was in camp. Food was always a topic of conversation. The bread ration disappeared just before we left camp. A football contest between the ten barracks was started in October. Barracks 1 never won a game but we had some good cheers which I helped write. Some instruments came into the compound and the Germans built a stage for our use about the time of the Battle of the Bulge. It all came to an end when the Germans told us on February 5 that we would leave camp by foot in 12 hours. My great experiences were to come to an end.
My room, Room 3 in Barracks 1, won the honor of being the first in the formation to leave camp. We were told we were to walk three days, rest one, walk two more and arrive at the new camp. Those instructions were wrong. We were on the road for 53 days. As we went through the Vorlager in front of the camp piles of canned food were lying on the ground. We were told to take what we wanted but to be considerate of others. I took a chocolate bar. Each of us was given a full Red Cross parcel which weighed about 11 pounds. All my belongings including three hymnals, a library book, my small stash of food, my arrangements of music for the choir, everything was wrapped in my two blankets with the ends tied together by a string and slung over my shoulder. I started out on the right in the second row. The formation was all of C Lager which by that time was about 2600 soldiers. It was probably about a mile long and we started marching but it soon turned into just walking. We went at least 14 kilometers with just three stops. Sometime in the afternoon I began to get a cramp in my right foot. I decided to fall to the back of the formation and find Steve, the British medic, who lived in my barracks and was a good friend. I thought he could tape it up and give it support. When I found Steve he was talking to an older soldier who just wanted to stop and sit down which was not possible. Steve was keeping him going. Steve told me he had no tape. He said the tempo of walking was too fast. If I was going back to the front I could tell them to slow down. I made my way back to the front but could not slow them down. We arrived at a farm where the barn surrounded a big compound. We were placed in the barn and locked up. Women at the farm were the first we had seen in months.
On the third day I left two hymnals and the library book in the barn before we left. Despite that I had trouble carrying my pack and constantly walking. The men in my room took turns carrying it for a ways which gave me relief. I finally took it back just as we reached the bottom of a hill and turned left to go up another hill. On the right side of the road a group of refugees were fleeing with everything they had. Some were walking and some had horse-drawn wagons. I knew I could not climb that hill. I crossed the road and found a wagon with the back open, threw my pack on the back and sat on the edge. A guard saw me and made me get off, but I did get to ride up the hill which I consider somewhat a miracle.
On the 13th we walked in the snow. On the 14th we traveled 40 kilometers (about 25 miles). By this time I had adjusted to the exercise and felt much better. The entire formation had to sleep outside in a field near Swindemunde and it started to rain. It was a miserable night with little sleep. The next day we took a ferry across Stettin Bay. I caught up with my crew members again. On the 16th I had another unforgettable experience. After walking 30 kilos we saw our destination barn ahead with the road making a ninety degree turn to the right to reach it. We decided to save some steps and take the hypotenuse to reach it. After we got started we discovered we were in deep mud. It was laborious to pick up each foot and then sink in the mud. If we ran we could stay on top of the ground and if we stopped we would sink in. We arrived at the barn exhausted. It was a terrible barn, wet and no hay. We were all thirsty and Nelson, the ball turret gunner, decided to try and go to the well with a guard and get some water. He came back with a full Klim can of water for us and said he thought he could get more but to save a fourth of it for him. We each drank a fourth and left Nelson’s share for him. After about an hour he did not return and we figured he was probably stocking up on the water so we split the water three ways. Nelson returned with no water, knowing he had some waiting for him, but we had drunk it. It was a heart-rending experience. The next day we went through Anklem, a fairly large town. I remember having to go to the bathroom because of my diarrhea. A woman driving a wagon went by and did not look at me. On the 20th we had another day of rest. I talked with a Russian woman named Rosie who was from Poltava. Because I had been to Poltava she gave me part of a head of cabbage which I cooked and ate the next day. Usually we got two boiled potatoes and a cup of hot water each day. One time I went 24 hours without eating to see if that would help my diarrhea but it did not help much. Some Red Cross food arrived which helped morale. On March 2nd it snowed and the wind blew so hard you could almost lean into it and it would hold you up. I just did make the 28 kilometers that day.
Captain Leslie Caplan, an American doctor, had come to camp in November and was on the march with us. He had requested that the Germans allow a wagon to carry the soldiers who could not march. It also carried the guards’ baggage. On March 3rd he said that I could ride on the wagon which traveled slower at the back of the formation. While marching or trudging through the snow your blood circulated better than it did sitting in the wagon. I practically froze on the wagon and became unable to walk with frozen feet. The doctor would get too many to transport so he would leave a group of them in a barn with a medic and hope for the best. I almost got left twice but continued to ride the wagon. On March 12th I was able to walk without my pack except for the last 3 kilos. On March 20th a truck took my group for 16 kilometers to a nice barn where we had lots of hot water and potatoes. On the next day Dr. Caplan assigned me to a group under my friend Steve, the British medic who lived in my barracks and was a good friend. We rode in an open railcar and did not arrive until after dark. The next day 20 of us were put in a passenger car with 2 guards. We did not go far but were on the train all night. We each got a full Red Cross parcel plus another one to split between two soldiers. We transferred to another train at Uelzen but seven of us and one guard missed the new train. We stayed on the platform on a baggage cart from 5:30 until 11:00. The air raid sirens started to sound and we were asked if we wanted to go to the shelter. We discussed it and decided that if the bombers were headed for this town it would be better to sweat it out on top rather than to be among a bunch of civilians. Luckily, the planes flew over without an incident.
After catching up with the group that had left us we had about four days of rest without having to travel. On the 28th we were taken by wagon to a railway station at Ebsdorf. I did not know the name of that town until I started to transcribe the Journal of Dr. Caplan in 2002. We were placed in a box car with no food or drink or toilet facilities for 40 hours. It was one of the most traumatic experiences in my life. The train moved about 60 kilometers and arrived at Fallingbostel which held Stalag XI B holding thousands of prisoners of all nationalities. I was placed in a white tent filled with soldiers who were in bad shape. Easter Sunday was April 1st. About ten funerals were held each day. On April 5th I moved to a convalescent tent next door. On April 9th German orders woke us up. The men in the Air Corps were to continue marching. I knew I could not go any further. I was barely able to walk. In order to avoid the formation I went to the French section. The prisoners there had been prisoners for years and were receiving personal parcels from home. I remember one fellow baking bread. The aroma was mouth-watering. When I returned to my tent the Germans didn’t like it that some of the Americans had stayed. They threatened to cut off the food supply. We were to fall out for inspection the next day at noon. The choices were to march or go to the hospital. The next day we had an air raid that lasted all afternoon. We were told to report tomorrow.
The next morning most of the Germans were gone. The few Germans still carried the guns, but a British soldier was allowed to walk with each guard. Food became more of a problem. I sold my GI shirt which I had won in a lottery back in camp to a French soldier for 17 crackers. I had wanted 20 but settled for 17. He opened his drawer which was full of crackers and counted out 17 for me. At 8:37 the morning of April 16th a tank and a command car drove up to the gate of the camp. The British 2nd army had arrived. The second day everyone got a loaf of white bread. I ate mine immediately. On the 19th I evacuated the camp singing “Off we go into the wild, blue yonder”. The line about “down in flames” had a special meaning to all of us. At the British transient camp we were given a good stew, but it was difficult to eat very much. We spent our last night in Germany and went to the airport at Dieholtz on the 20th. We saw Eisenhower’s plane there so he was there for a meeting. Our plane was to take us to England but due to a late start decided to stop in Brussels for the night. The next morning I was wondering about the camp and found a shower. How long had it been since my last shower? I missed the group going to England, but the officer told me to go to the quartermaster and I received a complete British uniform. He gave me 2,000 Belgium francs and told me to go to town and have a good time. I bought some ice cream, some lace handkerchieves for my mother and sister, and visited a news theater. It was so much fun that I decided to do it again. The officer said it was the last he could give me. I attended a symphony concert.
Before I left Brussels I visited the Conservatoire de Musique and G.I. Joe’s, (PX). I was refused entrance because of my British uniform, but after showing my one dog tag the officer in charge instructed the clerks to sell me anything I wanted. I had a coke, candy, and peanuts. A train took me to Namur and I was back in American hands.
Back in an American uniform the food was excellent but the weather was rain and snow. Planes were grounded so after a week we took a train to Camp Lucky Strike at Le Harve arriving April 30th. The hospital was a tent so I decided to keep my problems to myself until I got on a boat. This happened on May 6th and the ship was S.S. Marine Fox. On the 7th we stopped at Southampton and the next morning I heard Churchill on the radio say that the war in Europe was officially over. We saw the Statue of Liberty on the 19th and disembarked on the 20th. The first meal upon returning was outstanding. I arrived back in Kansas City on the 23rd but had to go on to Ft. Leavenworth. Mother came to the station to see me, but a day later I returned by bus and started a 60-day furlough. On June 21st another of my dreams came true. I went downtown and marched in a parade to the Union Station in a parade with General Eisenhower at the head. As a child I had seen Civil War veterans in a parade along with other veterans. Now I am as old as they were then.
My discharge from the Army came on October 11th at Lincoln, Nebraska. Ten days later I was on the train to the University of Michigan where I received the Master of Music in Music Literature in June of 1947 and got my first job that fall at the University of Georgia as Assistant Band Director and Instructor of Music. I stayed until 1964, had 5 years at Bethel College in McKenzie, Tennessee as Head of the Music Department, and then I became Chairman of Fine Arts at Columbus College until I retired in 1982.
It has been a great life and after living 26 years in Florida I now live in North Carolina where I am near my daughter, hospitals and great places to eat.
