The following is a word for word
translation from the diary of Dennis Medenwaldt, retired Chief Master
Sergeant, of his accounts of the end of his POW experience. After being held
as a Prisoner of War for nine months, the allies began to close in on his
captors.
MARCH
FROM SAGAN (The Russians were within 30 miles). The 27th of Jan
they came in at 8:30 p.m. and told us we were leaving in 1 hr. We hastily
threw our makeshift packs together and fell out. We didn’t leave until
midnight the 28th of Jan. It was extremely cold and snowing. We
received one parcel on the way out the gate.
The
first night we marched 29 KM to Freiwaldau. We arrived here at 11:00 a.m. We
slept 1 hr. and were then routed out to march again. We left at 6:00 p.m. We
began a 51 KM march through sleet and snow in 10 below 0 weather. Packs were
discarded. Hundreds of men dropped from cold, exhaustion, etc. We marched
for 15 hours without stopping.
We
arrived at Maskau at 9:000 a.m. in very bad shape. We stayed in a pottery
factory which was extremely filthy. Here I got warm and dry for the first
time since starting. All men were in brutal condition. There were
approximately 100 hospital cases. Frost bite. Delirium. Pneumonia, etc.
We
left Mauskau on Wed. Feb 1. We left at one p.m. and walked 18 KM to
Schonheite. We arrived at 9:30 p.m. It was raining and everyone was
drenched. My feet were wet and frozen. Every one made it ok. We slept in a
barn and left that the next day at 3:30 p.m. Still raining and snowing. We
arrived at Bremburg at 7:00 p.m. Feet were cold, wet and I was very tired {I
add here that in the course of this march a number of German guards as well
as prisoners died from cold. Numerous P.O.W.’s escaped from marching group
but very few got out of Germany. It was too cold. Conditions wouldn’t
permit it. My roommate went crazy and myself and two other fellows had a
hard fight keeping him in hand. He finally ran away and came to in the
middle of a river. He had to return or die of starvation and cold.} From
Bremburg we marched 2 KM to a train and were shoved into a box car. 51 men
to a car. Small cars incidentally.
We
went via the Chemnitz route with our destination Nurnberg. This was a
distance of 350 KM. We arrived at Nurnberg on Feb. 4th. We had
been on a train for 50 hours without water or toilet facilities and men were
damn near all sick by this time. Many wretched in cars and it was a very
uncomfortable situation for us all. We all received another drenching in
rain upon leaving train and going to camp if the joint could be called a
camp.
They
shoved 250 men in barracks built for 150 and they were filthy with lice and
other insects. A more thoroughly beaten bunch of men I had never seen or
ever hope to see. We lived on starvation rations until Red Cross parcels
arrived wks later. Everyone lost 10 lbs and up on this forced march.
ANOTHER MOVE.
The American troops were rapidly approaching our camp at Nurnberg. We
all had hopes of being liberated. The fourth of Feb those of us until for
marching boarded a train. The rest remained behind of march on foot. We
received one British Red Cross parcel and all the French we could carry. We
stayed in Nurnberg station overnight sweating out the R.A.F. bombers but
were lucky enough not to have them come.
The
second day on the train we just pulled ouf of Ingelstadt and we stopped on
the outskirts to watch American heavies bomb it.
P-51
Mustang fighter planes strafed out train. They realized their mistake after
having wounded a couple of the boys and crippling the engine.
Arrived
at Mooseburg April 4. Wow! What a camp. It seems like every camp I move to
is worse than the last. I don’t think I’ll be here long because the
allies are coming fast.
LIBERATION
DAY. (April 29, 1945). At approximately 11:00 a.m. tanks moved up on
Moosburg. They put up a fight for the city. It took the tanks about two
hours to clear the city of German S.S. troops.
I
sweat the fighting out in a hole which thank God was convenient. We
P.O.W.’s were very fortunate in as much as we were not hit by any stray
shots.
The
old U.S. tanks really looked good to me. This is without a doubt the
happiest day of my life. They say we’ll be on our way home in a couple of
days. Artillery is firing all around us now. “(Be seeing you folks.)”
Dennis Medenwaldt spent a career in
the Air Force, retiring in 1971 after having served in Vietnam as well. He
lives in Wahpeton, North Dakota with his wife, Leone, and over the years has
frequently been asked to share his wartime experiences with various groups.
The following is
also from Dennis Mededenwaldt: in a letter to Fred Riley:
" In regards to our last mission on 4/21/44 the following is what occurred to the best of my recollection. As you indicated in your correspondence to my daughter, Holli, we were unable to drop our bombs on either the primary or secondary targets due to adverse weather conditions.
I am not sure but I think our target of last resort may have been Belgrade. As the radio operator I was manning the hand held 50 caliber machine gun from the right waist window of the aircraft (B-24).
We experienced a direct anti aircraft (Flak) hit on our tail and it and the tail gunner just disappeared. We immediately went into a spin. Luckily I was able to pull my self out of the right waist window.
We had ten (10) crew members aboard and only four (4) bailed out. They were, bombardier, 2nd Lt. Wallace O. Tilt, radio operator, T/Sgt. Dennis W. Meldenwaldt, upper turret gunner, S/Sgt. Hugh D. Borden, and ball turret gunner, S/Sgt. Frederick H.
Battis.
We were being fired upon by civilians from the ground as we descended in our chutes. Battis was hit in the neck and was dead when he hit the ground. That left only three (3) survivors of the ten crew members. The civilians who captured us were extremely angry at Allied airmen because of all of the bombing they had experienced and I am sure they would have killed us if a truck load of German soldiers had not arrived and took us from hem. As it was they beat us up pretty well.
Let me tell you briefly what I recall of our crew that day:
Pilot Wallace was a replacement for our crews regular pilot, 1st Lt. Phillips who for some reason was not flying that day.
Flight engineer, Buehler was a replacement for our regular engineer, T/Sgt Moran who was not flying that day.
All of the crew members except for the three who survived after bailing out perished.
I will now continue to outline what happened after our capture. We went through the normal couple of days of POW interrogation by the Germans somewhere in Belgrade. We were then placed on a train, along with two guards.
We had little to eat but the guards shared some very stale bread and cheese with us. Our destination turned out to be Stalag Luft III located in lower Silesia, one hundred miles South East of Berlin.
We were placed in he West compound of Luft III which was just opened. This compound eventually contained 2500 American POW's. The entire Stalag Luft III housed over 10,000 from various countries. The three of us, myself, Borden and Tilt, remained together in Stalag Luft III.
We remained there until January 28th, 1945 at which time 10,000 POW's were evacuated. The Russians were approaching and we could hear their Artillery fire. I'm sure that all 10,000 men will forever remember the tortuous trek that followed in the ever increasing fury of the blizzard and near zero temperatures, ill fitting packs, blisters, frozen feet, hands and sickness all contributed to the misery of the marchers.
There were seemingly endless hours of marching with occasional rest periods. Six days after leaving Luft III we boarded a train at Spremberg (40 x 8) box cars with our destination being Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg for a miserable two month period.
These two months were memorable for the large scale Allied Air Raids, lice, bed bugs, fleas and food shortage. The aptly named "Green Death" soup caused wide spread diarrhea and dysentery. Bites from bed bugs and lice covered every exposed part of the body to include the nose and eyelids.
The American Seventh and Third Armies push into Western Germany precipitated the Second evacuation by foot from Nuremberg on April 4, 1945. The weather was spring like so it was a better march. After a 10 day march we arrived at Moosburg, Germany Stalag Luft VIII-A.
Upon arriving we were informed that President Roosevelt had died suddenly the day before. That was a shock to all. We remained at Moosburg for sixteen days. During that time we remained very cold, filthy and many were ill.
But at least we were rid of the lice, fleas and bed bugs. We knew that he end of our captivity was near unless they moved us again.
We could hear the artillery fire and in fact shells were whistling over our heads. We remained low to avoid injury. A couple of days before our liberation American artillery spotting aircraft flew over Stalag VIII-A.
On Sunday April 29th as Sunday mass was being conducted bullets began to whistle through camp amid the chatter of machine guns an rifle fire. Early in the afternoon Mooseburg fell.
General Patton came into camp and was welcomed by thousands of POW's. The POW's were represented by nearly every Allied country as they had been moved to Mooseburg from camps throughout Germany as Allied forces advanced.
We finally got some decent food and a bath. The white G.I. bread as I recall tasted angel food cake to us.
Most all American prisoners were taken to "Camp Lucky Strike" in France to be processed. And eighteen days after Liberation we were placed on ships at LeHavre, France to be returned to the good old U.S.A.
I have never seen Tilt after liberation. Borden and I still correspond, usually at Xmas time. Both Borden and myself eventually made a career in the USAF. I retired as a CMSGT (E9) and Borden as a SMSGT (E8).
Bordens address is, 35 Adair Dr. NW, Marietta GA 30066.
As I informed you on previous correspondence all crew members on A/C 42-99772 except Tilt, Borden and Medenwaldt were killed when the plane crashed.
Dennis W. Medenwaldt, Wahpeton, ND
