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[[War Diaries (nonfiction)|War Diary]] quotations for [[May 5]].
[[War Diaries (nonfiction)|War Diary]] entries for [[May 5]].


== Quotations ==
<small>Previous: [[War Diaries (May 4) (nonfiction)|May 4]] - Next: [[War Diaries (May 6) (nonfiction)|May 6]]</small>


=== May 1945 ===
== Diaries ==


[The quotation below is an excerpt from diary notes by Sisi Wilczek (now Countess Geza Andrassy) from early May 1945. These notes appear in ''Berlin Diaries 1940-1945'' by [[Marie Vassiltchikov (nonfiction)|Marie Marie Vassiltchikov]], known to her friends as Missie.
=== Garwood Dains: May 5, 1918 ===


General Patton's U.S. Third Army reached [[Gmunden (nonfiction)|Gmunden]] on 4 May 1945; the following day saw the surrender of all German forces in Bavaria. Four days later, on 8 May, the war in Europe came formally to an end.]
<blockquote>
One must see these trenches to realize what they are like. In our sector the mud and water was up to our knees & if you raised your head over the top a Boche sniper would take a shot at it ...
</blockquote>
 
—Corporal [[Garwood Dains (nonfiction)|Garwood Dains]], Somewhere in France
 
* http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/wwibibliography.htm
 
=== Duane Nelson: April 1, 1944 ===


<blockquote>
<blockquote>
One day an American jeep with two officers drove up to the Königinvilla. Since neither the estate manager, Herr Stracke, nor Fräulein Schneider spoke any English, Missie, who was working in the Cumberland Hospital across the park, was summoned to interpret. The two American officers visibly took an instant interest in Missie and, allegedly because the Russians were advancing and they wished to protect her from them, tried to persuade her to drive away with them. She refused, saying that she wouldn't leave me in the lurch; it was agreed that they would return in a couple of days. Meanwhile they forbade us to leave the house. Two days later they re-appeared and again urged this time both of us to go away with them. We refused.  Whereupon they again forbade us to leave the house, saying that otherwise we would be shot. We now realised that the story about the allegedly approaching Russians was a sham and that they had something quite different in mind. Luckily we never saw them again.
Well things really started happening about 0400 this morning and we are near the sea. ... The Nips made a landing about 2,000 yards from our position and all hell broke loose with machine guns, the destroyer and amphibians. We got our gear ready again and pulled out at about 4:30 to a place about 1,000 yards from the beach. We are still having heavy fire and it was rugged going. Getting close up you could see the tracers going every which way. At approximately 0600 we got shelled by Jap artillery. So many of their shells were duds and boy our fellows were sure thankful of that.
</blockquote>
 
—[[Duane Nelson (nonfiction)|Duane Nelson|Duane "Swede" Nelson]] served in the Marines from 1943 to February 1946, and he participated in some of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the Pacific theater. He kept three small diaries documenting his experiences.
 
* [https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/jul/29/excerpts-from-nelsons-wwii-diaries/ Excerpts from Duane Nelson’s WWII diaries] @ spokesman.com
 
== In the News ==
 
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Shortly thereafter we both came down with scarlet fever and, loaded onto a horse-drawn uncovered ambulance, were driven down to [[Gmunden (nonfiction)|Gmunden]], where we were installed, the two of us in one bed, in the isolation ward of the hospital in which I had until then been working, almost completely oblivious of what was going on around us. At some point there was the noise of many vehicles grinding to a stop outside, of shouting, of orders being barked — in American. Then some soldiers in unfamiliar khaki-colored uniforms and helmets and bristling with weapons burst into our room; and were pushed out again by some of our doctors and nurses.  A few days later we were told that the war was over.
== Fiction cross-reference ==


I remember very little of the time we spent there.  I recall dimly, for instance, that one day we found a cookery book with reproductions of bread, rolls, meat, etc., and tried to picture ourselves partaking of all that. Another time I crept down into the hospital garden and stole a glassful of red currants.  One of the nuns caught me red-handed and scolded me, calling me a thief, while I, still clutching my precious glass, scurried back to our room, where we instantly gobbled down the berries before anybody could retrieve them.  After about six weeks were were released — in a state of total starvation.
* [[Gnomon algorithm]]
* [[Gnomon Chronicles]]


When we got back to Königinvilla, we found that the main house had bee requisitioned by the American C.I.C. [[[Counterintelligence Corps (nonfiction)|Counter-Intelligence Corps]]], headed by a Major [[Major Christel (nonfiction)|Christel]].  Of the period that followed, what I can remember most vividly is, again, the constant sensation of acute hunger.  From the Cumberland Hospital (to which, though on no convalescent leave, Missie was formally still attached), we would get our rations of horse meat and the like, which we were allowed to heat up in the Americans' kitchen.  I still recall how our mouths would water at the sight of all the delicacies being consumed by our 'house-guests'.  Finally, out of sheer desperation, Missie and I resorted to a trick.  Just about the time when the Americans sat down toe at, we would creep up to the windows of the dining-room and start fussing around with the flowerpots, pruning the roses, etc.  And, sure enough, we would almost invariably be invited to share their meal (for in those early post-war days any form of 'fraternisation' with Germans was still officially banned!). And after downing mouthfuls of peanut butter and bowls of real coffee, we would stay bolt upright all night, quite unable to sleep!
== Nonfiction cross-reference ==


Major Christel turned out to be very nice, courteous and considerate man. He went out of his way to see to it that the constantly changing personnel under his command behaved towards us correctly.  This was all the more necessary — and appreciated by us — inasmuch as the house was soon turned into a weekend 'recreation centre', with all that this implies.  We only realised what was going on at night in the ground-floor apartments as we were about the leave — to be demobilised.
* [[Garwood Dains (nonfiction)]]
* [[Duane Nelson (nonfiction)]]
* [[War (nonfiction)]]
* [[War Diaries (nonfiction)]]


In this latter connection Major Christel worried especially about Missie.  She had told him about her Berlin experiences, particularly the 20th July period, and he feared that this might cause her to be detained for further interrogation. Fortunately, his fears turned out to be unfounded.
== External links ==


One day we were loaded on a convoy of open trucks and horse-drive cars and, together with a group of quite young boys in S.S. uniforms, taken under heavy guard to [[Mauerkirchen (nonfiction)|Mauerkirchen]], where the screening took place. The S.S. kids were released almost immediately — it was clear that they had been called up in the very last weeks of the war and stuck into S.S. uniform without even a by-your-leave. The rest of us had to pass through the hands of a veritable chain of interrogators installed in three railroad cars, who asked u hundreds of questions and kept comparing our names with voluminous lists to make sure that we had not been prominent Nazis.  Missie, needless to say, was a mystery to them, starting with her flawless English and the fact that she claimed to be Russian.  If so, they kept asking, why wasn't she in Russia? They had, apparently, never heard of a [[White émigré (nonfiction)|White Russian refugee]]!  Finally we were allowed out of the last railway car, given a daub of white paint on each leg — to show that we had been 'whitewashed' — and, after a further long wait, told that we were free to go wherever we wished. For both of us, at long last, the war was truly over.
* http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/mssc/wwibibliography.htm
</blockquote>
* [https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/jul/29/excerpts-from-nelsons-wwii-diaries/ Excerpts from Duane Nelson’s WWII diaries] @ spokesman.com
 
[[Category:Nonfiction (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:War Diaries (nonfiction)]]

Latest revision as of 07:12, 18 May 2020

War Diary entries for May 5.

Previous: May 4 - Next: May 6

Diaries

Garwood Dains: May 5, 1918

One must see these trenches to realize what they are like. In our sector the mud and water was up to our knees & if you raised your head over the top a Boche sniper would take a shot at it ...

—Corporal Garwood Dains, Somewhere in France

Duane Nelson: April 1, 1944

Well things really started happening about 0400 this morning and we are near the sea. ... The Nips made a landing about 2,000 yards from our position and all hell broke loose with machine guns, the destroyer and amphibians. We got our gear ready again and pulled out at about 4:30 to a place about 1,000 yards from the beach. We are still having heavy fire and it was rugged going. Getting close up you could see the tracers going every which way. At approximately 0600 we got shelled by Jap artillery. So many of their shells were duds and boy our fellows were sure thankful of that.

—Duane Nelson|Duane "Swede" Nelson served in the Marines from 1943 to February 1946, and he participated in some of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the Pacific theater. He kept three small diaries documenting his experiences.

In the News

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

External links

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