Below is a story dad left behind about one of his experiences during World War II near the Ohrdruf concenration camp which was the first one liberated by the allies. While the story he relates is somewhat humorous, dad notes that he visited the camp the following day. I know from a few attempts at trying to get him to open up on the subject that the visit affected him profoundly. Like many of his generation he never said too much about it or other war atrocities he witnessed.

"On the 20th of April 1945 I was a member of the 129th Ordnance MM Company, which was attached to the 80th Infantry Division in 3rd Army. We were bivouacked at an airfield just outside of the town of Gotha. Airfields made great hard stand on which to conduct our repair mission. Next morning we were hustled off the main runway and an infantry unit set up a perimeter defense.  We were told that some high-ranking officers were coming for an inspection of the area.  Soon small L-19’s began arriving from different directions.  We learned that General Eisenhower and his senior commanders were coming to visit a concentration camp at the town of Ohrdruff just south of us.  They all arrived and took off in jeeps with a security escort.

Shortly after, a flight of P-51s that was late in flying cover for the L-19s appeared overhead.  They were supposed to wait for the Generals to return and escort them back.  The flight leader apparently decided that the best way to do this was to land on the main runway and wait.  It was a short downhill runway but the first plane landed and was able to stop just at the end.  The plane following him landed but could not stop in time and chewed up the tail section of the first plane.   Next three planes made it down without incident and pulled off the runway to provide room.  The sixth plane came down and piled into the first two.  The Generals returned and took off in their L-19s without much comment on the wrecks.  I am sure any Germans watching were wondering how they could be losing the war.

The three pilots each with nearly forty missions, had crashed their planes. They commandeered the three good P-51s, and took off to provide cover for the Generals.  That left us with the three pilots who had successfully landed their planes on their first mission but were left with non-operational planes. We had a SOP on how to evacuate German prisoners but nothing on how to evacuate American pilots who didn’t have an airplane.  They spent the next day collecting German helmets and we sent them back with the ration truck. I understand they finally got back to England. We stripped the P-51s of their high quality 50 cal ammunition for our guns and left the planes for the Air Corps to recover. I was able to visit the concentration camp the next day but enough has been said about that without me adding any more."  Bill Nelson