American Brutus

It was 150 years ago on this date, April 26, that one of the largest man-hunts in the nation's history concluded. Much to the dismay of Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, the man would be killed in a shoot out at Garrett's farm near Port Royal, Maryland.  Stanton wanted him alive.  The man, of course has become one of the most famous of Americans, but not for the ply of his trade, but for the assassination of the 16th man to hold the office of the US Presidency.  Booth was an actor who favored Shakespeare.  Shakespeare was also, interestingly, a favorite of President Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln would be the first American President to be assassinated, and was shot by John Wilkes Booth at 10:20 pm while attending the play "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. on the night of Good Friday, April 14. Lincoln died the next morning in what was then a boarding house across the street from the theater.  Booth thought Lincoln a tyrant, and he in his action would see himself as a then present day Brutus. For proof of this view of Lincoln one need look no further than the words he proclaimed after he jumped on stage from Lincoln's box at the theater:  "Sic semper tyrannis," or "Thus always to tyrants."

Ford's Theater, April 2007
Author photo

We have all seen information on the world wide web, purporting to show so many coincidences between the Lincoln and Kennedy assassination, that fate, the will of nature, or of God was involved. Such occurrences forget all of the incidents that were not coincidental.  What do we know of John Wilkes Booth?  Most know he took up the family business of being an actor, and that he was a southern sympathizer.  Yet, there is more to the story, and providing some of that information is the intent of this post.  It is often thought that Booth kept a diary, but Lincoln historian, James Swanson, says that is not the case, although there are many works based on the Booth diary.  Booth's thoughts,  while on the run, were written on some blank pages of a 1864 calendar.  For twelve days, Booth eluded capture, for twelve days the nation was on edge, and for twelve days the US government was embarrassed.  Edwin Stanton, the larger than life Secretary of War would, on April 20, put a $100,000 reward for Booth.  It would be paid out.  That may seem little today, but the typical worker in 1865 earned about $1 per day, so it was a substantial sum.

Reward Poster
Source: Google images

Rather than finding praise, as he expected, Booth found derision as a result of his act.  Little did he realize that in assassinating Lincoln, he would turn Lincoln into a national icon, to the point that Lincoln was compared by many not just to Moses, but also to Jesus. Having sent the bullet into the back of Lincoln's head on Good Friday, was not lost on many who consider father Abraham to now be larger in death than he was in life.

Lincoln's box at Ford's Theater, where is life was cut short
April 2007, Author photo

"Now I believe in country right or wrong, but gentlemen the whole union is our country and no particular state."  If one were to have read you that quotation and asked which Civil War era person would have made those comments, who would you have said?  Most likely, Abraham Lincoln.  But no, those words were in a draft of a speech that Booth had given in Philadelphia in late December 1860, less than two months after Lincoln's election as President.  After that comment, Booth gets to the crux of the speech, when he says:  "No gentlemen the whole union is our country and the cry for justice should be heard and heeded from whatever extremity it may come.  The south wants justice, has waited for it long, she will wait no longer"  He goes on to say that the laws which protect the south have no longer been enforced.  What is interesting is that Lincoln, as we know was a Union man as well, and the war came at first not over slavery, but in Lincoln's thoughts to preserve the Union.  It was not until later that ending slavery would become a focus. The Gettysburg Address of November 1863 would be the summation of the goals of the war with the rebellious states.  Booth believed that abolitionist principles had to be fully exterminated from the nation in order for the south to have peace.  For the union to not do so, in his mind, was justification for rebellion and the formation of the Confederate States.  Everything had to be on the terms set forth by the South.  It was the constant effort at appeasement for the South, which occurred over decades that perhaps had given the South confidence that they would be welcomed into a union willing to set aside abolition and now fully accept the peculiar institution.

Garrett's Farm where Booth was killed
Source: Google images

It was the power of the office of the President that J.W. Booth did not like. He saw Lincoln like Caesar.  But this view was based on his dislike of a President who would not yield to the south.  It was not based on Lincoln's having suspended the writ of habeus corpus, or having instituted martial law in some border states.  It was more simply that Lincoln would not appease the desires of a ruling southern aristocracy.  Like Brutus, he saw himself as a man to take down who he believed was the American Caesar.  But, Booth was not simply attacking Lincoln, he was attacking the ideas and spirit for which Lincoln stood.  Booth would say that "It was the spirit and ambition of Caesar that Brutus struck at. Caesar must bleed for it."  He had first planned a kidnapping, and would later plan, and undertake murder.  In his "diary" notation for 21 April he writes:  "Our country owed all her troubles to him, and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment.  In that same document he would later add: "After being hunted like a dog through swamps, woods and last night being chased by gun boats till I was corded to return wet cold and starving, with every mans hand against me, I am here in despair.  And why; For doing what Brutus was honored for....and yet I for striking down a greater tyrant than they ever knew am looked upon as a common cutthroat."  Booth thought he could bring about the end to the nation's troubles and as Swanson says, when reading Booth's comments made on the pages of that 1864 calendar "is to encounter the mind of an assassin in all its passion, vanity and delusion."  "Our country owed all her troubles to him," Booth would write, "and God simply made me the instrument of his punishment."

John Wilkes Booth
Source:  Google images

Booth was believed to something of a miser.  He lived rather simply, he was a dutiful son, writing every week to his mother, and he often would deny himself common pleasures.  It was almost like he was holier than any one else, living a self-imposed difficult life, his own type of exile.  This weird type of self-aggrandizement would come through later in that same 21 April entry when he writes "I hoped for no gain.  I knew no private wrong.  I struck for my country and that alone.  A country groaned beneath this tyranny and prayed for an end.  Yet now behold the cold hand they extend to me."  In his mind, the assassination was not for his glory, but for that of the nation.  Yet, as shown in the passages quoted earlier, Booth had expected to be highly thought of due to his act.  It was not a mind thinking clearly.  In the end, Booth had  become derided, and not only in the north, but also from some in that part of the country he thought so grand--the south.  There were of course places, both north and south that did not mind Lincoln having been murdered.  One only need to look at some southern papers.  For example, the Demoplis (Alabama) Herald would have a headline reading: "Glorious News.  Lincoln and Seward Assassinated!"  There were also comments from some Copperheads in the north were also pleased with the news.

Peterson Boarding House where Lincoln died
April 2007, Author photo

In their search for Booth, detectives and the War Department would hunt down his family members and acquaintances.  One of his sisters, Asia, was struggling through a difficult pregnancy and placed under house arrest, while her husband was sent from Philadelphia to Washington D.C.  Her husband, John Sleeper Clark, was a fervent Unionist.  "Strange men," she would later write, "called at late hours, some whose voices I knew, but who would not answer to their names."  Junius Booth, also an actor, and a brother, was also arrested.  Along with the arrests, many of J.W. Booth's writings would be confiscated and destroyed.  Asia would later write a biography of her infamous brother. In the end, this is the only manuscript to provide any "insightful detail" as noted in Smithsonian Magazine on her brother.  His, she says, was a tenacious rather than a intuitive intelligence, although he had amazing power of concentration.  As noted in an article in Smithsonian, she would write in the biography of her brother of his action being predestined:

His mother, when he was a babe of six months old, had a vision, in answer to a fervent prayer, in which she imagined that the foreshadowing of his fate had been revealed to her....  This is one of the numerous coincidences which tend to lead one to believe that human lives are swayed by the supernatural.

Adding to that, the article also recounts her narrative of Booth, while attending a Quaker boarding school in Maryland, came across a fortuneteller who would say to him "Ah, you've had a bad hand....It's full enough of of sorrow.  Full of trouble."  In addition, the article, in its recollection of her biography goes on to say that "He had been 'born under an unlucky star' and had a 'thundering crowd of enemies'; he would 'make a bad end" and 'die young.'"  Perhaps, such statements can help a grieving family member, by thinking that the act was predestined, and in so being there was nothing that could be done to stop it.  It was his fate.  Such belief may assuage Asia's guilt over the actions of her brother.  When she had heard of her brother's actions, she quickly opened up some documents he asked her to save for him, in case anything happened to him.  With bonds, and an oil transfer she found a letter to their mother which explained the reasoning for what he intents.  There was also a document in which he had written about his desire to kidnap Lincoln.

Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
April 2007, Author photo

While the press did not publish the letter to his mother right away, the manifesto of the kidnapping was quickly published.  Interestingly, Booth wrote a lengthy letter on April 14, 1865 which he gave to a friend to have delivered to a newspaper, so as to publish his account of why he took action.  The person never delivered the letter, and when questioned by authorities could not recall its contents.  However, eleven years later, he supposedly recalled the 1500 words of the letter in almost perfect detail and it was published. Yet, but for the first and concluding paragraphs, the other paragraphs replicate the account in Booth's manifesto authorities acquired from his sister.  Even though older brother Edwin, a famous actor in his own right, would write to  Asia and say "He is dead to us now" she could not forget.  The handwritten biography she wrote had not title, and was only 132 pages.  She had placed on its cover sheet simply the initials J.W.B.  It would be published in 1946.

Lincoln's Tomb, Springfield, IL
March 2003, Author photo

The South viewed an end to a way of life with the election of the rail-splitter from Illinois.  Change came difficult to the south, and to the nation, as it would struggle with reconstruction.  While a Republican, Lincoln did not originally fit in the radical Republican camp of whole-hearted abolitionists.  To some in the south, Booth has become the American Brutus.  But, he now lives in derision and not in celebration.  Lincoln has become larger in death, and historians often push aside some of the actions that Lincoln put in play that are still used to justify presidential power to this day. In his mind, and the time of the day perhaps such actions are understandable.   After his death the Republicans would push for additional reforms and voting rights, only to be undone by an electorate not ready for such advanced change.  The world of the mid-to-late 19th century was changing fast.  The Civil War, was emblematic of the coming changes to the nation.  The nation would move from slave to free, it would settle the wide open spaces of the plains (and in so doing create and break treaties with Native Americans), it would start to move from rural to urban.  Advances in medicine and public health would start to eradicate diseases once commonplace in the 19th century, and extend life spans.  Reconstruction would prove difficult for the nation, and Booth had taken the life of the one man who had proposed "malice toward none."  It is only appropriate that Lincoln take his place as among our nation's most important leaders.

Sources:  Smithsonian Magazine, March 2015
                2001, Rhodenhamel, John and Louise Taper, ed.,  "Right or Wrong God Judge Me: The Writings of John Wilkes Booth"  University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago

Writer's Widow

Several of my blog posts over the past few months have dealt with issues related to World War II.  Four of the seven related more specifically to the 83rd Infantry Division, to which my father, a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps, was attached.  These posts, particularly those related to WWII, required a significant amount of research.  While I have read several books on WWII over the years, including Rick Atkinson's liberation trilogy, it was my Dad's war letters that provided inspiration to me to delve deeper into the actions of the 83rd, in hopes of possibly understanding the context in which he worked.  I would not wish to total the hours spent on those posts, but let me just say my wife apparently began to think of herself as a widow.  I had taken over the dining room.  Along the westerly wall was a table with plants I had started and brought up from the basement to better take advantage of the day light, rather than fluorescent lights.  But, the big issue was the dining room table.  It was cluttered with papers, books, and legal notepads.

Photo of first page of  Roy Hovel's Feb. 23, 1945 letter
to his parents

Knowing that WWII ended 70 years ago this coming May, and that the Battle of the Bulge, which started in late December concluded in January, I chose to take time to read some of the letters my father wrote home.  I started this in early February.  He could not write about tactics, what his work involved, or even give a location more than stating a country of his location.  But, yet I wanted to know if they would give any information as to what was occurring at that time.  It was of course in a March letter home that started me on a journey to discover what was occurring in the war at that point that had kept him, and the 83rd Infantry busy.  That early March letter contained a simple notation that they probably read about the division in the news.  This of course, was the 83rd having been the first of the Allies to reach the Rhine, which you can read here.  My three month journey to overtake the dining room had begun in an unassuming fashion.  It first started with his letters from about February 1945 to May 1945.  It then blossomed into printouts of division history, parts of division newspapers, and then of course the pages of action reports for three regiments.  Not to mention books, some of which I owned, others which I obtained from the library.  Even my vacation in mid-March was primarily devoted to reading, research and writing regarding events of WWII.

Dining room table during my WWII blog post writing

Thomas Edison once famously said that invention is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.  In writing, the inspiration may be 1%, and the perspiration 99%.  That is not to say that inspiration comes easy, in many cases it does not, but this is overwrought by the documents read, the notations taken, and the more difficult compilation and synthesis of thought.  Little of what I read became part of those posts, but it was not time wasted.  For example, who could not help but like reading about Soviet soldiers entering a German home with indoor plumbing and destroying it because they did not know its purpose.  Or, the details of German Colonel-General Jodl, having obtained a copy of Operation Eclipse and in so doing knew more of the Allied movements to come, than did all but the highest Allied generals at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force.

It turned out I was like those American field generals.  I did not know my wife felt like a widow, and it took more than two months for me to realize that she was not very happy with me having dominated the dining room.  (Apparently my obtuse nature can come in handy.)  I had invaded the dining room, and to her it started to look like a permanent occupation.  She could only hope it would not last as long as the Allied occupation of Germany, not to mention the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe.  It was not until this past Saturday, that while in a discussion with my twin brother, his wife, and my spouse about my April 13 post that my wife made a comment which had the intended effect of her having become a war writer's widow.  Yet, it was a good conversation of the war, the circumstances that arose, the what "could have been" and its implications to activities in our world today.

Some subjects are heavy in our general knowledge base, such as the Civil War, and World War II, although the nation is  more seemingly concerned with Bruce Jenner and the Kardashian sisters than with events of our historic past.  We all know, however, something about those two wars.  We know that John Wilkes Booth shot Abraham Lincoln, we know about Pearl Harbor, and that the US, as part of the Allies, defeated Germany.  The idea of my posts is to not simply regurgitate what is part of our general knowledge base, but to add to that knowledge, and to give some little known or understood piece of information.  For example, few of us knew that the first major battle of the Civil War occurred on Wilmer McLean's farm, causing him to move further south and to have that home become the site of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to U. S. Grant. Few of us knew that the 83rd Infantry had crossed the Elbe River only to pull back on orders from the Supreme Commander.

Dining room table today

While events that make our history are intractable, small personal stories within the larger context help us to better understand and perhaps make some sense out of the unduly nature of the events.  History is not just about events it is about people.  People and their connection to place.  People and their connection to time, People and their connection to knowledge.  People and their knowledge of history to help them deal with and explain the intractability of what has occurred, and what is occurring.  Time-Place-People all come together to form our history.  An event can be seemingly meaningless, like Roy Hovel being on the move so much that he only had candy to eat.  But then we have to ask why he had to rely on candy his mother and father sent him, rather than the food the army provided?  During the Great War (WWI) a German Corporal had to be hospitalized due to effects of chemical warfare, he was only one of thousands so affected, but yet it left a dark place in his psyche and, in combination with other events, it would lead to consequences for much of the civilized world.  On the other hand there is the birth over 2,000 years ago of a baby to a young unmarried women, who just over three decades after his birth would destroy and rebuild the temple--all in three days.

History comes to us in many different ways, and mediums.  Some provide opinion on what occurred, others try to present just the facts, and still others play with the facts to weave a story to their liking. There is also historical fiction.  Ken Follett is a master story teller and to his readers he ties historical events to fictional families.  Of course, not all may be true, and that too should lead us to further discovery and reading of history to wean the good from the bad, and to help us form our own opinion of the events of the recent or distant past.  If the message prods us to seek out more information and detail are we not the better for it? In early February when I started to look at my Dad's letters, little did I know that it would take me on the tour it did, much less that it would involve dining room domination.  That gets me to the war writer's widow, my wife.  She is currently reading a Ken Follett book entitled Winter of the World, much of which is about the events leading up to and involving World War II.  Perhaps my posts will add some relevance and personal interest to the events she encounters in that book.   My wife is a well-organized person and while she may have felt widowed by all the time I spent on those war posts, part of me now knows she did not appreciate the clutter I left in the dining room.  The dining room table has now become decidedly less cluttered, although the table is still occupied by my computer, and a few months of my Dad's letters.  Perhaps I will again pick up the letters and find additional inspiration for another post or two, only to once again dominate the dining room.

Over the Elbe

It was on this date, seventy years ago that the 83rd Infantry Division, which was part of the US Ninth Army, crossed the Elbe River. In making the river crossing, the men, including their commanders, were prepared, wanted and thought they would be going to Berlin. But, Berlin was not to be. Instead, the 83rd would find themselves having to move back from an advance east of the Elbe and embroiled in a political controversy.

Wisconsin State Journal Headline, April 15, 1945

 
An earlier post, Rag-Tag Circus, recounted part of the trip to the Elbe and how the men of the newly named Thunderbolt Division, had anointed upon them a less than admirable moniker of Rag-Tag Circus. They assisted in the consolidation of the Ruhr River area industrial pocket for a few days after having crossed the Rhine, and then orders came down to the division to be prepared to move. Its 329th regiment at 0910 hours was told to be prepared to move immediately. The 329th would spearhead the 83rd’s movement east. The division would, less than politely, conjure up vehicles to make the move on to what they thought was the main prize of the war, Berlin and Adolph Hitler. During this fast movement, division headquarters would move up to five times per day, and most all the time regimental headquarters would never find a place to call home. Ryan, in his book The Last Battle, would refer to the 83rd as “illustrious.” During this movement, the 83rd would set new infantry speed records, and at times be ahead of the mechanized Second Armored Division. The division would travel over 280 miles in thirteen days to reach the Elbe. As in their move to the Rhine, they would leave their flanks exposed—up to eighty miles in some instances, but they would not falter, as their enemy would be unable to take advantage of the exposed flanks. Another regiment of the 83rd would be left to do the dirty work of cleaning up pockets of resistance in the Teutoburger Forest, the Hills of Hasse and Harz Mountains. 

Map of part of 83rd Infantry Journey to Elbe River
Source: 331st  Regimental After Action Report

 
We know that Roy Hovel, a member of the Counter Intelligence Corps, and attached to the 83rd infantry division, was in the mountains, on April 9, as in a letter home he would describe the air as being “crisp and fresh. Like the Rockies almost.” As the movement to the Elbe began, little down-time was present. Roy Hovel would note as much in the same April 9 letter by saying that he “did not have much time off now, even for writing” and it is late that night as he pens a short letter home. He knew he needed to write, as his mother Ida was probably getting worried. Recently received cookies had been used by he and his interpreter as sustenance in the exhausting days of the move to the Elbe. He notes in his letter that the cookies hit the spot and that “with all this moving around and work in places where we are not able to get a hot meal at noon or supper.” He was on the move more than the troops of the division, as his work would take him beyond a linear route. The 83rd history notes how even though the army was moving fast, the troops still got three hot meals a day. Roy Hovel was not so fortunate. “Rarely have we spent two nights in one place,” he notes, “and so you can see we move on a lot.” He would not be able to attend mass again that Sunday, as it was “just another work day.” As he moves, however, he is able to see “a lot of country and I enjoy it a lot.” He goes on to say that “Germany actually was a lovely place and it’s too bad that they couldn't behave and had to spoil it.”

Roy Hovel
Source:  Family photo

 
Germany would be spoiled by the travesties of war, but as Roy Hovel would say in his letters, the further inland to Germany they got, the better were conditions in the villages. In fact, he notes, that some homes had hot water, functioning plumbing, and working electricity. As the army made a fast movement east, his work became more difficult. He notes that it’s getting that “so many devils can escape.” 

The Thunderbolt division would reached the Elbe on April 12. But, while they lost the friendly competition with the 2nd Armored Division to be the first to the Elbe, the 83rd would be the first to establish a bridgehead, and cross the Elbe River. While the Armored Division was tied up with a difficult struggle in Magdeburg, the 83rd would move south of that city to the smaller city of Barby, which they reached on April 12. Resistance from the enemy required artillery and combat action throughout the night. The following morning, according the 329th Regimental Action report, at 0915 “a conference has been held with the Burgemeister of Barby and he reports that there are no enemy troops in the town. The Burgemeister will raise the white flag and our troops will go in peaceably, but ready for action.” The retreating Germans would destroy the railroad bridge, the one non-watercraft crossing at Barby. The 83rd had trained for river crossings, and that training would again be put to good use.

Description of battle at Barby
Source: 83rd Infantry Rhine-Ruhr-Elbe History, part II

After action reports note that the 1st Battalion of the 329th crossed the river in assault boats at 1330. No resistance was encountered. This regiment was under the command of Colonel Edwin “Buckshot” Crabhill, who would move up and down the river bank extolling his men to move ahead: “Don’t waste this opportunity. You are on your way to Berlin,” he would yell. He would also tell the men to not get organized, just get across the river. Crabhill had ordered the river crossing without receiving orders to do so. At the same time, DUKW’s were being used to move additional personnel and pontoon boats would soon start hauling artillery. Showing that the army can do more than one thing at a time, while all of this was going on, the Engineers of the division began work on a bridge to allow more efficient crossing of the river. The training in Holland over two weeks earlier was now paying off.

Truman Bridge, 14 April 1945
Source:  331st After Action Report

In a deceptive move, the 83rd engineers did not, as the Germans (and most others) would expect, construct the bridge at the location of the river ferry, but rather they did so further downstream. Their work at the Ferry crossing was a diversion. The lone Luftwaffe plane would report activity at the ferry crossing and it is to that location that the German troops on the east side of the Elbe would concentrate their artillery. This masterful move allowed US troops to move across the bridge unimpeded and not under fire. This bridge would be named “Truman Bridge” in honor of the Harry Truman who would be President by the time of the completion of the bridge in the early morning hours of April 14. The bridge would be noted with a sign reading: “Truman Bridge. Gateway to Berlin. Courtesy of the 83rd Infantry Division.”

Description of deception on River Crossing,
Source:  83rd Rhine-Ruhr-Elbe History, part II

A bridge was built, the access on the west secured, securing access on the east shore in progress. General Macon, leader of the 83rd, would issue an order at 1730 on April 13, that infantry was to not advance east beyond the limits of artillery support, which was in the vicinity of Walternienberg. With the 2nd Armored Division still meeting resistance to the north, one of their units would be attached to the 83rd to support the right flank as the division moved further east. In a friendly sort of irony, the group that beat the 83rd to the Elbe, would have to use the 83rd’s installed bridge to cross the Elbe. Meanwhile, intelligence reports noted that the enemy were fortifying positions in the area of Zerbst, and that was where the 83rd was now going to advance. The 83rd would advance to Zerbst and would engage in a difficult battle starting on 16 April, following the conclusion of an air mission.

83rd Infantry Division Troops Crossing the Elbe on April 13, 1945
Source:  331st After Action Report

While the troops thought they were still headed to Berlin, Atkinson reports that General Eisenhower had already made the decision to not cross the Elbe River back in March. However, Eisenhower had not told anyone. In fact, upon hearing that the 83rd had crossed the Elbe, he would, as noted by Ryan in his book, put a question to General Omar Bradley commander of the 12th Army Group, of which the US Ninth army was a part. “Brad,” he said, “what do you think it might cost us to break through to from the Elbe and take Berlin?” Bradley would estimate that it would take 100,000 men (wounded, missing and killed). Getting to Berlin was not, he thought, the hard part, it was getting and taking the city itself. General Simpson, head of the Ninth Army would receive a call from Bradley on Sunday morning, April 15. Ryan, in his work, would report that Bradley would say in that phone call that he wanted Simpson to fly immediately to 12th Army Group headquarters in Wiesbaden as he had “something very important to tell you, and I don’t want to do it over the phone.”

83rd Infantry Division
Source:  Google Images

It would be a short conversation at the airfield. Bradley would simply say to Simpson, after greeting and shaking hands right after Simpson disembarked the aircraft that “You must stop at the Elbe. You are not to advance any further in the direction of Berlin.” Simpson would ask who this had come from, and Bradley would respond, “From Ike.” Stunned and rejected would not begin to describe Simpson’s feelings. His main thought was how he was going to tell his troops. After arriving back to his headquarters, according to Ryan, Simpson would tell his corps commanders, and then head for the Elbe.

A German Soldier who was in the way of the 83rd Infantry
Source:  331st Regiment After Action Report

The 83rd would be at Zerbst, about 40 miles from Berlin. They would not receive the prize, they were in fact to pull back to the Elbe and await connection with the Russians. Eisenhower always knew he did not wish to advance beyond the Elbe. The Elbe, in this area of Germany had been allocated to Russians at the Yalta conference, which in itself is an interesting story of American incompetence. Official histories would note that the division had simply crossed the Elbe to hold the bridgehead and obeyed orders to halt. But, regiment after action reports, which were at one time “Secret” indicate they moved and battled at Zerbst. The official histories did not wish to acknowledge that the 83rd had moved in to territory that was to be under Russian occupation.

Zerbst in Spring 1945
Source:  Google Images

It was on April 20 at 1520 hours that the 329th After Action report notes the following: “Lt Gen Simpson, Major Gen McLean, and Major Gen Macon arrived at the CP.” At 1535 Lt. General Simpson would congratulate Col. Crabhill on the “swift aggressive action of the regiment in the recently concluded drive to the Elbe River and the establishment of the bridgehead across the river.” Then came the blow to the stomach: “He also informed Col. Crabhill that we will continue to hold our present positions and wait for the Russians to advance to our bridgehead and effect a link-up with us.”

329th Regiment After Action Report noting order to wait for Russians to
advance to the Bridgehead, 1535 hours
Source:  329th Regiment After Action Report

As with many parts of history, there is a certain twist in this story. Colonel General Alfred Jodl of the German army knew back in early February that the Elbe would be the stopping point for the US—British advance. During the Bulge, the Germans had captured, from the British, a highly top secret document which would become known as “Operation Eclipse.” This was a January 1945 document, laying out the occupation of Germany. Jodl reasoned that the Allies advancing from the west would not wish to advance into territory to be controlled by the Russians, it would be better to let the Russians take the losses to secure their own territory. In the part of Germany in which the 83rd was located, the dividing line between US and Russian interests was the Elbe. Jodl, in a rare move, would inform his soon to be wife so she would move to be west of the Elbe. After their marriage, his wife would indirectly inform her own relatives, who did not take the hint. Can you imagine what Hitler would have done to a member of his high command telling their relatives to move west so as to be in a zone of occupation for the US, Britain or France?

Bridge completion by 83rd on 14 April
Source:  329th Regiment After Action Report

After having traveled from the Rhine to the Ruhr with remarkable speed, Roy Hovel in a letter home dated April 15 noted that not only did they “have a little rest for a change and are able to get a chance to catch up on a few things”, but he also added: “Now that we are spending more than one night in the same place it almost seems boring.” The 83rd was just outside of Barby on April 12, and this area of Germany was likely the command post for division headquarters. He does comment that “Its been very interesting so far, but very tiring.” It was also the first Sunday in three weeks he was able to attend Sunday mass. Later in the letter he would thank them for candy they had sent, and that he does not much care for candy when he gets “three good meals a day, but on long moves when meals are interrupted there isn’t anything better than the goodies to keep you going.” He would be kept busy, as noted in letters of April 18, and 22 to his sister, Anita.

On the Road to Berlin
Source: 331st After Action Report

While the troops, other than for patrolling activity had been ordered to stand down on 20 April, Roy Hovel was still busy. He begins a letter to his parents dated 25 April 45, saying “The days go by very fast while there is so much to keep us busy through the day and night.” It is in this letter that he comments that “Germany’s own men are a sad looking lot, either old men or boys 14 or below.” German youth were put to battle to help the Reich. He also comments that “German people as a whole haven’t suffered nearly as much as those of France, Luxembourg or Belgium as far as living went. They had their food, clothes, and other little things needed to keep going.” He also notes that the farms got along well with the “forced Russian and Polish workers.”

While the 329th regiment of the 83rd moved to the Elbe, another part of the division encountered Langenstein, a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Established in April 1944 to provide labor to the failing German war effort, the camp began with 214 prisoners, and by March 1945 had about 5400. The prisoners worked in an underground installation for 16 hours a day. When the 83rd arrived on April 11, 1945 they found 1,100 inmates. The SS, it was reported, murdered those inmates too weak to work. The Division would report that deaths in the camp had reached 500 per month. Medical staff with the 83rd estimated that most prisoners weighed in at about 80 pounds. Due to malnutrition, they estimated that 25-30 prisoners a day perished. The 83rd Infantry Division would be recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army’s Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Museum.

Langenstein Concentration Camp Survivors
Source:  Google images

The 83rd Infantry, or Thunderbolt Division, or Rag-Tag Circus would meet the enemy in the hedgerows of France, the forests and lowlands of Belgium, and fight in the dense woods, and snow covered mountains of Germany. They would be the first Allied division to the Rhine, the first to cross the Elbe. They thought they were on their way to Berlin, but after having reached as far east as Zerbst, their easterly movement would end. A decision by the Supreme Commander, based on a map drawn by a Brit, and approved at Yalta would bring to an end to their going into the heart of the Beast. It would also engage them in political controversy for having moved that far east. After all, the Russians were envious of the territory they would gain as a result of the end of the war. Within weeks of Yalta, the Soviets would break the terms of the agreement. Countries brought under their control would be subjugated, and the free elections required by Yalta would not occur. These countries would become part of the Iron Curtain. No free elections, as called for by Yalta for those who fell under Soviet control.

Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at Yalta, February 1945
Source:  Google Images

East Germany, like Eastern Europe, would fall under the control of the leviathan of the east. Berlin would see first-hand the result of the western Allied decision to set a no-advance line, roughly being the Elbe River. Nuns running a maternity home, and the women to whom they tended would be raped, as would many other German women. Even a female German communist who had welcomed the Russian army to Berlin would be raped. The Russians soldiers destroyed indoor plumbing as they did not understand its purpose. They would take light bulbs thinking they magically produced light. The decision of the Rankin Plan, which came to be known as Operation Eclipse would set forth an east—west divide that continued through the cold war, and for a good part of that region to this day. One only need to look at what the current Russian president is seemingly trying to recreate.

Purportedly Russian Special Forces fighting in Ukraine, 2014-2015
Source:  Google Images

With the 70th anniversary of the end of the war approaching in less than one month, the geo-politics of Eastern Europe continue to be formed by Operation Eclipse.  Former Czech President Vaclav Havel has noted that the former countries of Eastern Europe were not totally free until the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1995.  Continued aggression by Russia, with its movements in Ukraine have dampened the festivities for the end of the World War II.  The Kremlin continues to use the term "Fascist" to describe an action or body they do not like.  As one commentator has noted, the issue is the "dual nature of a liberation that turned into conquest as Stalin steamrolled across and then subjugated Eastern Europe."  Putin, ever the opportunist, looks to remake the grandeur of the Soviet Union by preying on weaker opponents.  The Soviets ignored the Yalta Conference agreements 70 years ago, and are again ignoring the calls of the west to get out of Ukraine.  Putin's spread of mis-information about their former eastern allies would make many an American politician proud.

Front of Post Card Roy Hovel Sent to his sister Anita
(See below for wording on the back side)
Source:  Family archives

It was this coming historical divide that the 83rd Infantry, that illustrious division, would find itself embroiled. William Simpson, the commanding general of the US Ninth Army would recommend the 83rd for a Presidential Unit Citation. But that recommendation would not be approved at the higher levels. As part of the comments forwarded for consideration were those by Corps Commander, US General McLain who noted that the 83rd was given the mission of keeping up with the 2nd Armored Division as the 8th Armored was unavailable due to their need in collapsing the Ruhr pocket. He would say “The performance of the Division in keeping up with the 2nd Armored Division on its left was magnificent and played an important role not only in broadening the Corps spearhead, but also in protecting an exceedingly long exposed Corps right flank.” McLain would further note that the establishment of the bridgehead at the Elbe was of greatest importance because the “enemy resisted the crossing fiercely as shown by the fact that farther north …the enemy was able to throw back the crossing attempt (of the 2nd Armored).”

Back side of post card front that is above.
The political decision to divide Germany would prevent Roy Hovel from
catching up with Adolph Hitler.  Note the date of September 1944
Source:  Family archives

In their hearts and minds, the men of the Thunderbolt Division believed they were due Berlin, they would believe they were due the Presidential Unit Citation, but in the end political consequences would result in this division getting neither. Roy Hovel would continue his work with the CIC in Europe until the fall of 1945. The war would end a few weeks later, and much of the world would find itself in a long cold war. We are left to wonder how the world may be different if the US Military had not been ignorant of diplomacy, if the President had appointed a person more strong-willed to face against the Soviets (and the British) during negotiations, and if Franklin Roosevelt had heeded the advice of his Soviet Ambassador, W. Averell Harriman, who repeatedly warned Roosevelt of Stalin’s territorial ambitions.  History is about a number of "if's, " but the reason it is studied is so that the same mistakes are not once again repeated.  Unfortunately, geo-politics gets in the way of that too.  

Meaning of Appomattox

It was on this date, 150 years ago that General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate States of America surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant of the United States. The surrender took place at a little recognized crossroads, known as Appomattox  Courthouse, in a red brick home with white trim and a large wooden front porch.  It was owned by Wilmer McLean.  While the event did not truly end the fighting, after all, Lee only submitted to surrender his army of Northern Virginia to Grant. Yet, history has taught us that this is the end of the War between the States.  While a few more battles would rage, while it would take time for warring factions beyond this part of Virginia to know what occurred, and while there would be talk of guerrilla warfare to continue the struggle for southern independence, this is the seminal moment we recognize as the end of that great conflict.  The nation has fought additional wars since that time 150 years ago, but it would take until Vietnam for the total number of causalities in all other American wars combined to exceed those suffered in the Civil War.

1865 McLean House at Appomattox Court House

Yes, the nation fought each other, but the war was also the beginning of a new type of warfare. Tools of modern warfare were beginning to assert themselves at that time, although the tactics, particularly of rows of armed soldiers would make one think of the phalanxes of Greece or rows of Roman soldiers.  Tactics had not yet been adapted to the changing technology of warfare. The nation is fortunate that the south chose to avoid guerrilla warfare, as even today the nation's wars with Al Qaeda, and the self proclaimed Islamic State show the difficulties modern training, tactics, and weaponry have on that type of warfare.  It is not pleasant.  The destruction is great, the gains little, and the battles have been long.

Grant's draft of terms of surrender

General Lee had found his forces, down to 30,000 starving souls, penned in by the superior numbers of General Grant.  Grant had, at that time, 65,000 men in the Army of the Potomac surrounding Lee's forces.  During this conflict, the Union alone would see 110,000 to 140,000 combat deaths, the south 95,000 combat deaths.  In total the Civil War would produce, by some accounts, somewhere between 640,000 and 750,000 casualties--dead, wounded, and missing in action.  By comparison US Casualties in World War II would amount to about 405,000.  The Union possessed what Abraham Lincoln would term the terrible arithmetic.  The Union possessed more man power, more industrial might, and more money than did the south.  It is indeed terrible to put a price on one man, but the north simply had more men it could go through than did the south, and that was indeed a terrible arithmetic.  Even with the numerical advantage, Lincoln understood that the south would  need to rejoin the national fabric.  After all, the war did not begin to simply end slavery, the war began with Lincoln's desire to preserve the Union.  Recall that the Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom only to those slaves held by states in rebellion.

Lee and Grant at Appomattox Court House 

Lincoln would set forth his goals for the end of the war to nation in his second inaugural address, a little more than a month earlier than the surrender at Appomattox.  It was a short speech, just over 700 words, although not near as short as his less than 300 word Gettysburg Address.  This speech would close with a set of words as memorable as those in November 1863:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Terms of Surrender

At Wilmer McLean's house that Palm Sunday, Ulysses S. Grant, would provide terms of surrender in contrast with his moniker of Unconditional Surrender Grant, and more consistent with the words Lincoln spoke on that rainy day in early March of 1865.  Lee did not wish to surrender, but saw his situation hopeless.  In fact, he would say:  "There is nothing left me to do but to go and see General Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths." He saw a long prison stay, or possibly death for treason in his future.  The terms as proposed by Grant were rather simple and endearing.  Grant realized they once again or now countrymen.  It was a time to show mercy, not punishment.  For the formal signing of the terms, Grant would appear in muddy clothes, and be taken as private than the highest ranking General who commanded all US armies.  Lee, in contrast, was impeccably dressed in his best uniform, with side sword and all.  The terms would read:

Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.

Wilmer McLean

Lee would accept the terms of surrender, which had actually been worked out before hand in correspondence between he and Grant.  The War of Rebellion would be considered as having ended. Using the term Confederate States of America provides a certain credence to the southern efforts to secede. The soldiers would move on to begin their life anew.  For some it would be difficult.  Lee would go to Richmond, as his home and large acreage in Virginia had been confiscated by the US, and is now home to our nation's most hallowed ground.  Of course, it would be a few more months before the war would end.

Grant's note to Secretary of War Stanton on Surrender

As for Wilmer McLean, he purchased this house in 1863 moving about 120 miles south of his former residence in order to be out of harms way in the war between north and south. After all, the first major battle, the First Bull Run, occurred on his farm in 1861. Wilmer would begin the war at being at the wrong place at the wrong time, end it by being at the right place at the right time.  The parlor in McLean's brick home would enter our national conscience. A conscience where charity and mercy were above malice and retribution. A conscience where our commonalities were recognized more than our differences.  The nation would see some trying times as it struggled with reconstruction. Many of our current struggles go back to this war, but yet, we as a nation joined together. Perhaps we need to take time to not just celebrate but to pause and realize the importance of the nation and this one event in our history and how its meaning can be applied to the differences we face today.  

Rag-Tag Circus

It was seventy years ago in early April 1945 that the US 83rd Infantry Division was given the nick-name “Rag-Tag Circus.” Originally known as the Ohioan from when the division was originally activated in 1917 at which time it consisted of men from primarily from Ohio.  After the division’s effort of being first at the Rhine its commander Major General Robert Macon opened a competition to rename the division as he preferred a name more accurately reflecting the national makeup of the division in this war. A naming contest would see Thunderbolt become its new name by the end of April.  In a move reminiscent of today's companies and their "branding" the division newspaper would take on the same name.  Why would some reporters, we ask, provide a nick-name like the "Rag-Tag Circus" to a now well-recognized division?  This was at the same time that other commentators were, as noted in the division history, running out of adjectives to describe the exploits of this division of American soldiers. Not bad adjectives, but good adjectives. This post will focus on the exploits of the 83rd Division in early April 1945, and a member of the US Counter Intelligence Corps attached to the division. The division is moving to the heart of Beast.

83rd Division"Thunderbolt"
Newspaper April 1945 

This blog’s previous post, “Prepare to March” noted that the 83rd was in Holland for training, having moved there from Neuss, Germany, on the west bank of the Rhine River. The training was mainly in regard to river crossings. However, as the division moved east it would come across all sorts of terrain, from rivers and spring flowered meadows to snow covered forest and mountains. Prior to heading into the heart of the Beast, Berlin, another task had to first be completed. The allied advance into Germany from the west was to be accomplished by three great army groups. The 83rd was part of the north located Twenty-first army group under British Field Marshall Montgomery, the second group was the Twelfth Army group under US General Omar Bradley, and southern portion of the advance was occupied by the US Sixth Army Group under General Devers. Each army group was itself composed of spectacular, and colorful, men, most well-known would have been General Patton, who commanded the US Third Army which was under Bradley’s Twelfth Army Group. The 83rd was part of the US Ninth Army which was under the Command of General Simpson. In deference to the ego of Montgomery, the 83rd was held up from crossing the Rhine after having reached it on March 2. Monty insisted on being the first to cross. Even though Montgomery has been describe as impatient, it was well known if you wanted something timely done, you did not ask the Field Marshall from Britain. The moment of glory in crossing the Rhine was to go to Montgomery, to whom the US Ninth Army was now attached, at least that was the plan. In a move showing disregard for the Field Marshall, Patton would have his Third Army beat Monty to the punch.

After Action Report from a Regiment of the 83rd
 Infantry Division for April 1--4, 1945

The first objective of this advance, however, was not Berlin. Rather it involved encircling of the Ruhr industrial valley, home of many of the industries critical to the German war machine. Over 4.6 million allied soldiers were moving from the west into Germany. As noted by Cornelius Ryan in his book The Last Battle (1966), the divisions formed a “violent, gaudy parade.” Montgomery would begin his move across the Rhine on 24 March, as part of Operation Varsity Plunder, with the US Ninth Army to meet with the US First Army, which was under Bradley's army group. The First Army would move from the west and head north with the intent of meeting the US Ninth near Paderborn Germany. Originally anticipated to take months to encircle, the collapsing condition of German troops gave the allies an ability to move much faster than anticipated, and these two armies would meet just east of Lipstadt (west of Paderborn) in a matter of a few days--on April 1. An unwelcome April Fool’s day present for the Third Reich. The US 83rd Division would depart Holland, cross the Rhine and move into Germany on March 29. CIC Special Agent Roy Hovel would find time to write a three page letter home on March 31. Headlined “Germany,” the letter would begin by saying: “Well, Holy Saturday night and another wild day ended. I’m fairly certain of being able to go to mass in the local civilian church tomorrow morning and am fortunate in being able to do that even though it’s Easter.” He then notes that it has been some time since he last wrote and hopes that they are not worried.

Rag-Tag Circus Article
"Stars and Stripes"

Roy Hovel then gives some special news. His is set to marry his girlfriend from Luxembourg (April Fools!!) Actually there was special news. “While in Holland,” he states, “I received the Bronze Star upon recommendation of Capt. Vietor. I thought it was very nice of him. Col. Desbotels (spelling?), G-2 of the division pinned it on me. I was the only one and first in the detachment to get it but I suppose you are not very clear in what it means and frankly I’m not either.” He never goes on to say why he received it, although he does appreciate the fact that the medal gives him five more points toward a discharge. The CIC was often noted as being the “Corps of Indignant Corporals” since an act of congress extremely limited their officer. Sayler notes in his book on the CIC, that men in the CIC would have been officer material in any other branch of the service. The reason why Roy Hovel received the medal may be lost to history, as his personnel file was among many others to have been lost in a fire at a facility in St. Louis. Was it related to his close call in December, or the one on March 10, or his interrogation of a prisoner or spy? We may never know.

Bronze Star earned by Roy Hovel in March 1945
Photo by author

For three days after crossing the Rhine, and while following behind the US 2nd Armored division, the 83rd would slug it out with German forces. While the First and Ninth US Armies would meet on April 1, it take longer for the enclosure to fully take hold. Over 400,000 German troops were trapped; 320,000 would be taken prisoner. On Easter Monday (April 2), Roy Hovel would find time to once again pen a letter home. He was in receipt of their March 10 letter and a box of cookies, which were “pretty beaten up.” Later in the letter he notes that Easter Sunday “was just another day of work for me, and a long hard day at that. I didn't have a chance to even get to church as I had planned.” As part of his explanation he simply said that he was able to “see a lot of Germany that day however and am enjoying it a lot.” The work of the CIC was in full gear.  Interrogation of informants and some prisoners, cull out spy networks, and prevent sabotage, among their other duties. Perhaps the most dangerous time in war is when the enemy has nothing to lose, and this would not be lost on some fanatical Hitler soldiers.

Roy Hovel Sergeant Patch
Photo by Author 

The US Army was making its presence known. Villages and cities were surrendering as the army moved eastward. It was not uncommon for Allied troops to be entering one side of a city, and having German troops depart at the other side. Roy Hovel’s April 2 letter goes on to say that “the people now seem rather glad to see the troops and have the war over. Of course they are by far the more fortunate ones in the war.” He says later that “they (German troops) are very confused…and I doubt if they will recover enough to stage a good defense, though one can never tell what may happen yet.” He does note that the house in which he is currently staying is in good shape with not even a broken window, has electricity and running water, and steam heat; he notes an ability to have a bath the prior night. This is related to the point where he says “we now find the cities fairly well intact.” Although, perhaps most poignant is when he comments that “Tulips, flowering shrubs, flowers (are now blooming and flowering) etc. and it helps freshen and brighten up the world.” Small signs of spring can help brighten one’s day even in the midst of the horrors of war. He has seen the horrors of war. He was among the hedgerows of Normandy, which formed a natural growing abatis. He was part of the liberation of Luxembourg. He worked through the woods of the Hurtgen forest. He survived the snows and cold of the Ardennes. And, he was part of the first division to move from the Roer and reach the Rhine. He is now among the final push to end the war in Europe.

Newspaper map on movement to Ruhr

Upon the US First and Ninth armies meeting west of Paderborn on April 1, the Ninth Army, which included the 83rd division, became part of Bradley’s Twelfth Army group. No longer were they under Monty the Field Marshall, but under the overall command of the most recent US four star general. This was perhaps best. While the British war planners were meticulous, they had forgotten to build in two, one-half hour tea times each day for their units, causing traffic jams and delays for units behind. US Army Air General Matthew Ridgeway would demand release from Montgomery and be allowed to assist the Ninth US Army as it moved east. Coordination of air and ground forces is important, and tea time just did not cut it in a time of war. Monty’s delays were too much for him. If Montgomery was said to be impatient, it was probably for tea time. An impatient man would not stand for tea time, and I should know as I have been living with myself for 57 years.  Perhaps this is one reason why the US had to bail the Brits out of two world wars.

March 31, 1945 News article

The day after the industrial Ruhr area was encircled Eisenhower issued orders for Bradley to “mop up the…Ruhr…launch a thrust with its main axis: Kassel-Leipzig…seize any opportunity to capture a bridgehead over the River Elbe and be prepared to conduct operations beyond the Elbe.” (Ryan, 283) Was Eisenhower, who Atkinson reported in his 2013 book The Guns at Last Light as having closed the door to Berlin on March 28, now leaving the door open? Of more interest are the follow up instructions of April 4 that Bradley would spell out in “Letter of Instructions, No. 20” directed to the US Ninth Army. The instructions first note a need to drive a line from south of Hanover to Hadelsheim (which is about 70 miles from the Elbe River) to then begin phase 2 of the operation. The “Letter” went on to read: “Phase 2: Advance on order to the east…exploit any opportunity for seizing a bridgehead over the Elbe and be prepared to continue the advance on BERLIN or to the northeast.” (Ryan,  283)   Were the troops finally going to get to their final prize? The US Second Armor Division, known as “Hell on Wheels” was called upon to lead the spearhead of the charge to the Elbe and beyond. General White believed once he got a bridgehead on the Elbe he could be in Berlin in two days. Some reports say the 8th armored was to protect the right flank of the 2nd, but as they were busy in cleaning up the Ruhr pocket, an infantry division was assigned the task.

83rd Division History Snippet on Harz Mountains

The 83rd infantry division would be that division, and it would play a big role in what was to come next.  But, there was a big problem for the 83rd after having received these orders. A long known element of warfare is that an army moves on its stomach. Men need to eat, ammunition needs to be provided, and gasoline needs to be supplied. The transport vehicles for the 83rd had been dispatched for the purpose of resupply and hence were unavailable for movement of troops and material. But ingenuity would come into play. As Ryan notes in his book: “Major General Robert C. Macon’s highly individualistic 83rd Infantry Division, the ‘Rag-Tag Circus’ was going hell-for-leather toward the Elbe….” (285). The name “Rag-Tag Circus” was given to the 83rd by a variety of reporters but the nick-name reached iconic status in an article for “Stars and Stripes” by staff writer Ernest Leiser, which documented the exploits of the 83rd in reaching the Elbe River. A contest was on between the 2nd Armored and the 83rd. Macon was determined to be the first infantry division to reach the Elbe, cross it and move to Berlin. He had his men assemble a menagerie of mostly motley vehicles nicely obtained from a variety of sources. It was composed of, among other vehicles, former German staff cars and trucks, two fire trucks, some wheel barrows, and even a former German airplane (and they even found a division member to fly it). Some had green olive paint slopped on, with a white star painted over. Others would not get such paint job. Roy Hovel was lucky that he had fixed his jeep while in Holland. Ryan notes that “but for a number of US Army trucks interspersed among its columns, it might easily have been mistaken for a German column” (285). Every enemy unit or town the 83rd had taken, had its rolling stock utilized for the 83rd. Men were dangling from any piece of equipment to hitch a ride. Some even carried in the wheel barrows. The manner of acquisition was usually by gun point. Roy Hovel did his part, in an April 9 letter home he notes that “I acquired a nice enclosed trailer for the staff. It’s a bright red, and I have to find some paint as it too conspicuous this way.” Paint was in short supply, so picture a bright red trailer being pulled behind his jeep or a staff truck. His letter is silent on the means used to obtain this bright red trailer. The 83rd did not want to play second fiddle to a bunch of guys in tanks.

Crossing the Rhine
Map from Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light
Source:  Liberationtrilogy.com

General White, who led the 2nd Armored, was concerned enough to say, as quoted by Ryan (288): “No damned infantry division is going to beat my outfit to the Elbe.” The 83rd would use a leapfrogging technique. When one of their lead divisions or companies would encounter resistance that group would fight, but units behind would move and bypass the conflict to continue the movement.  They continued to move eastward.  The men of the US army, whether it be in infantry or armor, wanted to reach Berlin. Eisenhower may have thought it no longer a serious objective, but that was not the thought of the men on the road.

Operation Varsity Plunder.  Montgomery's Army Group moves
across the Rhine River
Map from Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light
Source:  Liberationtrilogy.com

Three amusing stories stand out about the Rag-Tag Circus while on the road to the Elbe. First, the airplane noted earlier was thought by some, in another American division, to be part of the Luftwaffe. It was after all a Luftwaffe plane. As it was flying overhead members of the division took cover only to peer up and see the underside of the wing painted US Army olive green with a white star and the words “83rd Inf. Div.” painted alongside. The 83rd now had its own air force to complement that of the Luftwaffe. The second story involved a car speeding along and dashing in and out of other vehicles and continually honking its horn. After a few minutes it captured attention, when some US troops realized that it was not captured German staff car, but one containing a German general, who had a look of confusion on his face. Third, the “Circus” overtook a German convoy led by a Colonel and his staff. The record is unclear as to whether or not the German Colonel was named Klink, but one thing is sure, parts of the German army were quickly becoming more bungling than Col. Klink and Sgt. Schultz of Stalag 13. As amusing as those stories are they are more than offset when the 83rd came across two German boys, ages 9 and 11, with rifles and wearing Wehrmacht uniforms. Within a week, however, the 83rd would come across something even more gruesome and horrible.

Roy Hovel
Family photo

What they would see would feed a desire to get more quickly to Berlin.  While some of the US divisions may have had it relatively easy, others were seeing a completely different situation.  SS troops, other groups of Nazi soldiers, and the fanatical Hitler Youth were fighting to the end. The 84th Infantry Division of the Ninth Army wanted to get to the Elbe as well, but was given order to capture Hanover, a city of 400,000. This would cost them significant time, but it was a major duty. Eisenhower would visit the the commanding general of the 84th, Alex Bolling, during their time securing Hanover.  Bolling recounts the Supreme Commander as asking: “Alex where are you going next?"  Bolling would respond "General we’re going to push on ahead. We have a clear go to Berlin and nothing can stop us.” Eisenhower would put his hand on Bolling’s arm and retort: “Alex, keep going. I wish you all the luck in the world and don’t let anybody stop you.” (Ryan, 292). An interesting statement given Eisenhower’s orders of March 28.

Encircling the Ruhr Industrial Valley
Map from Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light
Source:  Liberationtrilogy.com

The war did not stop for Easter. A lack of transportation was not going to delay the Thunderbolt Division.  The Thunderbolt would come to be recognized by a nickname. General Simpson, leader of the US Ninth Army would say of the orders given to move, that he wanted to get an armored and infantry division on the autobahn to the Elbe, with plans to commit the rest of the Ninth if they got the bridgehead “and they turn us loose.” He was also noted as saying—“Damn, I want to get to Berlin and all of you people right down to the last private, I think, want it too.” (Ryan 284). The men of the Ninth Army in general, and the 83rd Division in particular had turned into a fighting machine and they wanted Berlin. The 83rd would keep pace with the second Armored Division. At times it would pull ahead. It was full speed ahead. Recently decorated CIC Special Agent, Technical Sargent Roy Hovel would be kept busy. Seven days would pass between his April 2 and 9 letters home, with six more to the letter following April 9. Tune in to a future post to find out who wins the race to the Elbe River, and what political controversy would arise for the “Rag-Tag Circus” also known as the US 83rd Infantry Division.