8 December 2003
3289 Glen Eagle Lane
Kenner, LA 70065

 

Oprah Winfrey
PO Box 909715
Chicago, Ill
60690

 

Dear Ms. Winfrey,

Let me tell you a story -- a wonderful story!

I am writing to call to your attention a subject that may be of interest to you for an upcoming episode on your TV show.

As a hobby, my interests for the last couple of years or so have been devoted to the collection of World War II veteran oral histories.

During that time frame, I began a web site devoted to what I hoped would be a medium for honoring the veterans, who are as you know are passing on to their final reward at an alarming rate.

As I write this, I understand that we are losing these "national treasures" at a rate exceeding 1,500 a DAY!

These brave young men, as our history books will tell us, were the men who served in combat units, support units, in the air and on the oceans of the world and were called upon to make in many cases heroic sacrifices.

Today, many of these aging warriors are sadly leaving us and as they depart, they take with them a small piece of our American history...their personal story.

My quest has been to record some of that history in order for my children, their children and succeeding generations of children to read and attempt to understand the sacrifices that these brave young men undertook.

If you were to ask a veteran if he was a hero in the war, he of course will tell you that he was not. But, the seeds of the "America's Greatest Generation" know all to well that these fine aging men were indeed all heroes.

My search over the last couple of years has been most bountiful in that I managed to get acquainted via the internet with a wonderful gentleman in Minneapolis. At first, he reluctantly allowed me to use his story on my web site which is entitled, "World War II Stories -- In Their Own Words".

This fine gentleman is Edward L. Souder.

Mr. Souder briefly contacted me in the hopes that I might be able to assist him in locating residents of an area around the Holland/German border that might be able to help him with information regarding an event that had happened back in November 1944.

Mr. Souder served with the Co. F., 405th Regiment, [2nd Battalion], 102nd Infantry Division. This division was one of the many division that spearheaded the thrust into Germany and eventually ended their fighting war at the banks of the Elbe in 1945.

Ed Souder was a "wire man" -- a soldier in charge of making sure that the lines of communication were kept intact during the days that his unit was in combat. The job was dirty, dangerous and extremely important.

He was severely wounded on November 28, 1944 near the town of Geronsweiller, Germany and eventually returned home with a piece of a German 88 shell still lodged in his back next to his spinal cord.

His wonderful story is but one of about 30 stories that this gentle former citizen soldier passed on to me over a period of about a year.

These stories, along with about a hundred and fifty stories -- including stories from men who served in the various armed forces during the war are a part of my collection of stories that continue to grow daily.

Mr. Souder, who is known for growing orchids at his Minneapolis home, became the historian of his unit, Co. F., 405th Regiment back about 1980. The 102nd Division Association decided to gather stories from the men who had served in this historical division. Ed was the historian for some ten years. During that time, he along with other unit historians, began writing the former members of the 102nd Division in the hopes that many of them would return their story for the division to preserve.

The project was affectionally called "the Kitchen Histories Project".

As part of this ongoing project, Mr. Souder managed to collect and edit some 30 or so stories from his former company, Co. F. members -- or as they were affectionally called "Those Damn Doggies in F" by their comrades in other units in the regiment.

These stories, which Mr. Souder has passed on to me over a period of months, can be read on my web site. They include stories from some of the surviving members of the former Co. F.

Mr. Souder has dutifully remained in contact with a number of members of his former old unit and the list of those former members of Co. F., 405th Regiment, include:

 

Brophy, James J. "Jim", PFC.
Campbell, Robert L. "Bob" , PFC.
Fisher, Robert L. "Bob" , S/Sgt., Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart
Galloway, Weldon Creton, S/Sgt.
Greenburg, Eugene M. "Gene" , PFC.
Hansen, James L. "Jim" , 2nd Lt., Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart, BMC
Herrick, Robert E. "Bob" , 1st Lt., Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart
Hottin, Albert A. "Al" , S/Sgt.
Large, Thurman, T-5, Silver Star Medal
Lira, Robert M. "Bob" , 1st Sgt., Bronze Star Medal
Skene, John M. "Dick" , PFC., Silver Star Medal
Souder, Edward L. , PFC., Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart

 

Besides earning the awards mentioned above, each member of this group earned the coveted Combat Infantryman's Badge and is also entitled to wear the prestigious Presidential Unit Citation with "V" attachment. The criteria for this unit award is mentioned in the requirements for this honor: "The degree of heroism required is the same as that which would warrant award of a Distinguished Service Cross to an individual." (From the Presidential Unit Citation criteria.)

I have taken the liberty and attached small segments of stories gathered from most of the men listed above. Most, but not all of the men on this list submitted stories.

Some of the stories below talk about an incident that has been pretty much lost in the confusion of major combat stories of the day. This incident was the known as the "Roer River Crossing". It took place on the morning of the 23rd of February, 1945.

The major combat story that was grabbing all of the headlines at the time was the battle for Iwo Jima.

Here are a few excerpts from the stories of the men who participated in this and other engagements. Each story can be read in its entirety on my web pages should anyone in your organization care to do so.

 

Brophy, James J. "Jim", PFC.

"...Then as I remember, we hit this log after I passed the paddle up and I was digging up the other one. The next minute I was in the water. I remember bobbing, coming to the surface and thinking that I really didn't need that steel helmet anymore. I knocked that off and I don't think that I had gone under very far. I remember that I couldn't gone down too far. I don't think the helmet would have stayed on. I thought what a crazy place to die here in this black river in the midst of Germany. Next instant, I thought I had got to get rid of my equipment I had on -- a pack, a combat pack which was raincoat and rations and mess kit and stuff, the entrenching tool and I had an ammo bag. Had a sweater in it, rifle grenades, rifle grenade launcher and I had several bandoleers of ammunition, some BAR ammunition in BAR magazines as I remember it. So I had a lot of equipment. I got my pocket knife and started to cut on my webbing equipment. I couldn't cut the pack webbing, absolutely not. It just wouldn't cut. It was webbed and my hands were getting cold already. I knew that was going to come on fast. So I managed to cut, I think to cut the bandoleers off. Then I started swimming. I seemed to be floating OK, so I put the knife away. I was afraid of cutting the life preserver tubes. So I swam and I got to the kraut shore. The bank was almost chest high. I was standing in the water -- crawled up on the bank. I could see nothing. It was night time still. The bottom of the valley had fogged in by white phosphorus shells..."

From: "The Jim Brophy Tapes"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_jimbrophy.html

 

Campbell, Robert L. "Bob" , PFC.

"...One person I will never forget is George Orlowski. During the Roer River crossing our boat overturned and we lost Hurst, our BAR man. The shell fire was so bad we had to go back and wait and he deflated his life belt. At any rate, George and I and 2 engineers ended up in the 4 corners of the boat. The Engineers heard us coming -- yelling for help. They threw us a line and pulled us to shore. I was on the end of the line, and when we let the boat go I went under water. George was up on the front end and when he saw me go under, he let go and let the current take him to where he pulled me up above the water. We got ashore, he got in one jeep and I into another..."

From: "Bob Campbell Letter"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_bcampbell.html

 

Fisher, Robert L. "Bob" , S/Sgt.

"...Mud Ball Grenades

None of us who were near enough to Lt. Hansen with grenades when he was trying to flush out 2 germans in a fox hole to get them to him. He had thrown his last grenades and the Germans just threw them back out before they exploded. He then picked up some mud, made them into grenades and threw them into the german positions. The germans saw them fall in the holes, but couldn't find them to throw back out, so they climbed out and surrendered..."

From: "I Remember"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_bfisher.html

 

Galloway, Weldon Creton, S/Sgt.

"...In front of us 75s, tanks, antitank guns, all types of mortars, cannons, and machine guns were firing. The noise was terrific and we could see the explosions of phosphorous shells on the other side of the river and tracer bullets from machine guns flying in an arc toward the other side of the stream. In Welz we were given more bandoleers and grenades we were soon near Roerdorf. Tanks and bulldozers moved up on the roads. Just outside of Roerdorf we halted and heard the Engineers had tried putting up a foot bridge but suffered too many casualties. There was some confusion as to what units were going first but that was straightened out and we moved thru the town to the river. We approached the river and were on a small hill overlooking it. A winding road for about 100 yards led down to the boats. We stopped on the top of this road when all hell broke loose. The Jerrys had the place zeroed in and big artillery shells started dropping around us. A big one fell about 50 yards in front of me and I could hear screaming and moaning of the wounded. Another fell much closer and it seemed everyone was hit. All around us medics, engineers, and infantrymen lay dead or wounded. Galloway was beside me when he was hit in the hip and the foot. I brought him back to the medics and returned. Lt. Fletcher had been hit in the head but not badly. Overman had been hit in the arm and was evacuated..."

From: "Gene's World War II Diary"
Note: Mr. Galloway did not submit a story...
this excerpt is from Mr. Greenburg's Diary.
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_ggreenburg.html

 

Greenburg, Eugene M. "Gene" , PFC.

"...What was left of us moved down to the boats and our platoon was to cross in three boats. Our squad jumped in a boat when there were three engineers and took off. The current was swift, the engineers excited, too few people paddling and perhaps too many men in the boat, but we were out of control and the boat was bing swept down the river without being able to do anything about it. The boat hit all kinds of objects and we approached a dam with a large hole in it -- out boat passed thru the dam and kept going. Suddenly the boat hit a submerged log and split the boat in two. We jumped out into the cold water. This was about 5 A.M. It was dark but my preserver helped little and I felt a branch in my hand and held on. I moved up on the branch till I came to a strong part and just held on exhausted. I was in water up to my neck and held on for dear life. I could hear other fellows calling for help and could see empty battered boats passing. Artillery shells were falling in the river and machine gun bullets passed overhead. I was forced or get under the water at times because of this. Everything seemed so unreal. I started taking off my equipment. My rifle and helmet was gone and I removed by overshoes, pack. belt, rations, ammo bag with grenades, 3 bandoleers, raincoat and kept the life preserver. My legs were numb and I worked myself up to where he water was up to my chest. As dawn came I was conscious of someone else holding on the tree at the opposite end. I called out and found out it was Bilyk..."

From: "Gene's World War II Diary"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_ggreenburg.html

 

Hansen, James L. "Jim" , 2nd Lt.

"...Now there appeared a german officer, who stood up tall. He walked over to me and my men kept him covered. He had come out of a bunker. He spoke perfect English AND WANTED TO KNOW HOW MANY MEN I HAD WITH ME? TOLD HIM IT WAS NONE OF HIS DAMMED BUSINESS AND THEN HE SAID HE WANTED TO SURRENDER HIS MEN. He wanted 5 minutes to contact the other men he had in the other bunkers. So he left the man with the white flag standing there. Then he disappeared into the bunker. He did this about 4 times as he went from bunker to bunker. Soon, out of the ground there were germans all over the place. They threw their weapons in a pile and we lined then up in columns of four. I believe we captured 76 of them. My Lord, they could have captured us without any weapons..."

From: "Jim Hansen's Remembers"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_jimhansen.html

 

Herrick, Robert E. "Bob" , 1st Lt.

"...At that time the Engineers had been decimated and were few and far between. I told Sgt Jim Hansen to stay with the Platoon, while I tried to find some boats and an engineer. I went to the rivers edge and could not find an engineer or any boats. There were a bunch of us looking for boats or direction but all we found was confusion. I started searching a bit further for boats when the shelling started again and I had shells land within ten and twelve feet on either side of me. All of which does little for your hearing. At any rate I remember figuring the next one would be in my back pocket. I raised up and charged across the narrow road and dove into a ditch landing on top of someone only to have someone else land on me..."

From: " From the Roer to the Rhine
with the 1st Platoon Co. F., 405th Infantry,
February 22 to March 4, 1945"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_bobherrick.html

 

Hottin, Albert A. "Al" , S/Sgt.

"...The boys are young, but there good. About 0130 Hansen woke the boys up. Check everything once more and be ready to move in 15 minutes. They were carrying a lot of extra stuff, extra ammo, bangalore torpedoes, MG ammo. Stuff that wouldn't be easy to get over to the other side right away after the crossing. We moved out into the dark icy ankle deep mud and down the road to join the other platoons ahead of us toward the crossing point. As we stumbled along we could see the artillery crews preparing their big 155's, 240's, 155 howitzers, and 150 self propelled guns every type of artillery immanginable. They were preparing for the opening barrage that was supposed to prepare the way for the infantry, blasting every foot of the way on the other side of the river. The artillery boys would stop now and then and watch us go by. Some would wave an arm or shout words of encouragement. After a slow 2 hour drag the artillery barrage opened with a never to be forgotten roar. We were now in the town of Roersdorf, which was to be our jumping off point..."

From: "Roer River Crossing" by Maynard Sallet, 'Up Front', Army newspaper
Contributed by Albert A. Hottin
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_alhottin.html

 

Large, Thurman, T-5

"...That was a HOT spot. We stayed there until the C.O. got back there the next day. The Germans had that spot zerod in. There were several trucks and a tank knocked out there over the next 2 -- 3 days. It done a lot of raining then too. The road got really muddy. There was a dead German soldier on the road and the truck traffic was very heavy and they couldn't stop to remove the body -- so they just ran over him until he disintegrated..."

From: "Thurman Large Letter"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_thurlarge.html

 

Lira, Robert M. "Bob" , 1st Sgt.

"...As we crossed the river I saw parts of GI bodies float by. Pontoon boats, equipment, everything floated by. Many boats capsized in the swift waters. When we got half way across we saw that the whole river was a mass of swirling water when it had been a calm narrow river. The current was very swift due to the opening of the dams higher up the river by the germans. Some of the man paniced and were afraid that they would capsize. I told them if it did to throw away all their equipment and swim for their lives if they had to. Just as we reached the german shore our right rear was rammed by a run a way boat, damaging the motor and causing it to stop. We started to drift downstream. I promptly got rid of everything except my rifle which I slung across my body over my neck. We were drifting fast out in the river so we jumped out of the boat before it got caught in the really swift water. We held onto tree trunks and roots and branches along the bank. Some men managed to climb safely up the steep bank thru the slippery mud. The water was very cold and some of us had to remain in the water, clinging to the branches for 30 minutes or more. I hoped and prayed that I would not be swept away..."

From: "A War Story!"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_boblira.html

 

Skene, John M. "Dick" , PFC.

"...We managed to get into the boat, get it into the river, and start across with the paddles. Most of the people in the boat had laid their Mae West life preservers in the bottom of the boat. We got across the river; and hit the bank on the other side, but the bank was above the head of the man in the front of the boat, and the boat hit it, dropped back a little bit, spun, and suddenly capsized. The river was moving very rapidly, and was icy cold. I remember thinking to myself, here I've been swimming all of my life, considered myself to be a better than average swimmer, and in all likelihood I was going to drown. All of us were carrying extra bandoliers of ammunition, and satchels for the bazooka ammunition, and whatever extra supplies we could. These were to be dropped on the opposite bank for the troops following us to pick up, or to be used as reserve supplies. It was totally confusing, the first moment in the water. My helmet was gone quickly, and I was struggling to get the bandoliers of bazooka and rifle ammunition off of my shoulders. The water was over my head and I kept going down and bouncing off the bottom and coming up to get a breath, all the time working to get this stuff off my back. On coming up one time, I saw one of the Mae West life preservers floating by and grabbed it with one arm, which I had free. I was then able to get the rest of the stuff off my back my packsack with my new hunting knife and all was swept off and down the river. By this time, one of the members of my platoon started floating by. He was in bad shape. It was a fellow named Thompson. I grabbed him and pulled him onto the preserver with me. I had no idea how far down the river we'd been swept. I wondered at the time whether the Germans occupied the bank on their side, and whether we had any forces on the bank on our side, because if we were able to get to shore, we would prefer to come out on the American side of the river. Its a good thing this assault was done in the dark, because the Germans could have picked off many people that were floating down that river..."

From: "Experiences with Fox Company" http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_dskene.html

 

Souder, Edward L. , PFC.

"...As we reached the outskirts of Geronsweiller, we speeded up and crouched lower to avoid the rain. I looked up to see something and saw men lying in the fields get up and make a dash for cover. It came to me too late that they were under an artillery barrage. Just then everything went boom, the Jeep jumped to the right and stopped. Sarge and Hairless jumped out as did Ross and Dowd. I saw Ross holding his left arm with blood coming thru his fingers. Then I tried to jump out but couldn't move my left leg, so I rolled to the right, off the Jeep and down into the mud by the right rear wheel. I tried to get up but couldn't. I reached down to feel for my left leg -- it felt as if it wasn't there but I touched it. Then I became aware of a terrible burning that I couldn't fight. God I was scared. Then Hairless ran up and crouched beside me and asked how I was. I told him I couldn't move and was paralyzed -- hit in left side. He said "hang on, and I'll get you help". I tried to move but the effort was so terrible. Just dropped my head in the mud face down and cried. I remember listening to the air escape from the tire as some more shells came in. Then there was shouting and grinding of brakes as a Jeep pulled up..."

From: "Ed's Story"
http://carol_fus.tripod.com/army_hero_edsouder.html

 

A number of other stories on my web pages deal with the "Roer River Crossing" and can be located within my web pages for additional references.

I would recommend looking over the page on my web site that is entitled: "List of Stories" where all of the current stories can be found and listed by unit. That links is at: http://carol_fus.tripod.com/list_of_stories.html

The reason for my writing is not to bring my web site to your attention -- but, instead to acquaint you with the wonderful gentlemen who are mentioned in this letter and are the reason for my web site.

Mr. Souder, as former historian of his unit, is of a strong opinion that the events that these men experienced should be brought to light to the American public. He wishes that it would be possible for some, if not all of the men (and possibly others who were with the same company) could be gathered together just one more time for a final and lasting tribute to these men who fought, bled and in some cases died during those terrible days of World War II.

In essence, a possible gathering of these old warriors on your show would be their final salute to their fallen comrades and what would be hoped to be a new beginning of understanding of men thrown together in mortal combat.

Should you care to consider the possibility of a final gathering of these wonderful men, I am sure that it would be beneficial to all and make for an excellent segment for your audience to hear first hand about what these former warriors experienced.

I must also mention that time is indeed of the essence. The reason is obvious. Most of these gentlemen are in their 80's now and their remaining time among us is quite limited.

Should you consider a show that would include these gentlemen, I would suggest that you contact Mr. Souder directly. I am only acting as an intermediary on his behalf.

 

Mr. Souder can be reached at:

Mr. Edward L. Souder
4200 Cedar Lake Road
Minneapolis, MN
55416

His phone number is:
952 926-4314

He can also be reached via e-mail at:
Gtfcs@aol.com

 

I know that Ed would be thrilled to hear from you.

Best wishes for a long and exciting career in your endeavor to bring to the public excellent information.

I wish to thank you for taking the time to read my appeal to assist these gentle warriors.

My best regards,

 

Joseph L. Richard
web master
World War II Stories -- In Their Own Words
http://carol_fus.tripod.com
e-mail: ideal21tc@cox.net