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Ossian Arthur Seipel's Memoirs
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Chapter 6
Moosburg
They let us out of the freight cars
about eight the next morning and got us in
formation to march into the camp. Stalag
VII-A. It was a very large camp and very
over crowded. As the camps up north and to
the east were threatened by the Russians,
the inmates were moved south to the Munich
area. The camp could also be considered the
melting pot of prisoners, from Indians in
their turbans to Scots in their kilts, it
was a mixture of humanity like I had never
seen before. We were marched down the main
or central road, past several inner
compounds each containing dirty brick or
stucco buildings with few windows until we
stopped at what could be considered the
worst, and it was ours.
On one side of our compound was a
compound filled with Indian and Australian
enlisted men. To the back was a compound
with prisoners wearing what looked like
striped pajamas. They may have been Polish
or Jewish civilians. The camp up to this
time had been used for enlisted men, but
since our compound was filled with over 2000
officers the Germans figured we could lead
the others in a revolt or something so they
doubled the security around our compound.
They even built two additional guard towers
with the guns facing towards us.
Inside, the barracks were dirty, dark
and dank. It had been occupied by British
enlisted men until we arrived then they
moved them to work gangs. There were triple
decked bunks built side by side so that the
sideboard for one also served as a sideboard
for the other. Twelve bunks took up a space
of six feet by twelve feet in area. The
straw mattress pads were worn, matted down
and infested with lice. They did bring a
number of cans of DDT type insecticide to be
used in the bunks.
The barracks consisted of two large
rooms for sleeping, separated by a kitchen
with a cook stove, and on each side a wash
room with one cold water faucet. Trying to
get organized as we had been at Sagan was a
disaster. Fights broke out over who could
use the stove and when it could be used.
Since we were each issued a Red Cross parcel
when we moved in we decided that each man
would be responsible for himself and his own
meals.
We had learned to make smokeless heaters
while at Sagan and they became the only way
you could have anything hot. They were made
by using a Klim can for the fire box. You
had to cut a door in it to bend open or
closed to regulate the draft. Above the
Klim can and inserted through a hole in the
top of the can you placed a smaller diameter
can with small holes spaced around the
unopened top of the can. The bottom was
left open. A can a little larger in
diameter than the second can was then placed
around the second can with both top and
bottom removed and formed into spacers to
keep the two cans separated. When a fire
was going in the fire box the hot gases went
up the second can and out through the small
holes near the top and the fire coming up
around the second can ignited the gases and
you had a pretty hot fire to heat anything
about two to four inches in diameter.
Anything like twigs or wood or cardboard or
even paper twisted into tight rolls about
1/2” to 2” long could be used for fuel.
They were supposed to be smokeless
heaters, but some of ours were heatless
smokers. We found it best to use then
outside, but you also had to have
cooperation from a couple of other guys.
One to shield the heater from the wind
another to keep the fuel going in to the
fire box and the cook to hold the cooking
can and do any stirring that was necessary.
On a windless day if you only wanted hot
water, one man could handle the whole
operation by himself.
Towards the end of February the Red
Cross parcels ran out. The air force had
disrupted the German rail system so that the
parcels couldn’t get through. Arrangements
were made to have POWs drive large white Red
Cross trucks from the Swiss border to
Moosburg. I don’t recall seeing anybody
volunteer for the job. In the mean time the
German high command ordered their armies to
live off what was available in the immediate
area. This was a cheese producing area so
we had cheese in all stages of production.
Some was crusty on the outside but liquid on
the inside. It did change the taste of the
black bread, but I don’t know if it was
better with or without. It was gaseous any
way you ate it.
The aborts in this camp were regular
flush type. Wooden seats had long since
been sacrificed by the Brits, for fuel for
the stoves. There were about a dozen stools
lined up along one wall and a dozen urinals
along the opposite wall. The food or lack
of it was the cause of an epidemic of
dysentery, and as a result, the plumbing
backed up and the raw sewage covered the
floor and ran out the doors and covered a
large part of the compound.
The German commandant showed up for the
morning appel and got his boots muddied and
soiled walking past the abort, so he called
off the appels. They did rouse us out
periodically for a count when they
discovered someone missing. On two
occasions the missing persons were found
dead in their bunks.
The commandant’s soiled boots were a
blessing for us because it hastened the
plumbing repair and the flooding stopped.
The first week in April the kriegies who
had been in the south and north compounds at
Sagan arrived from Nuremberg where they had
been since leaving Sagan. They told stories
about how the people along the march from
Nuremberg helped them and gave them food and
water and then gave them their names so that
they might get better treatment from the
advancing American troops.
There wasn’t enough room in the barracks
for the new comers, so the Germans erected
huge tents to house them. I had a chance to
visit one of the tents and would have been
happy to swap with any of the new men, but
that wasn’t allowed. I guess the tents
leaked when it rained, so as long as it was
dry they were better off.
The Germans allowed gates to be cut in
the fences so we could move from one
compound to another. One German hadn’t
heard about the arrangement, so he shot one
of the aussies who was cutting through his
side of the fence. They left the guy
hanging on the wire for an hour before they
finally realized we were about to start a
riot. Then they carried the guy off and
hauled the guard off under guard.
It was getting warmer now and we spent
as much time as possible outside. Even
during an air raid we stayed out and cheered
on the planes. We laid on our backs and
watched as the planes flew over from Italy
to targets farther north. One day while
watching a formation of B-24s going over, we
noticed a fast moving plane make one pass at
the formation and four B-24s went down. The
fast plane didn’t slow down just disappeared
into the distance. Nobody had ever seen a
plane as fast as that one and we thought it
must be some new secret weapon of the
Germans. Fighter planes kept us entertained
every day. They’d always find time to buzz
the camp and do a few slow rolls to let us
know that they knew we were here.
I was still as hungry as I had ever
been, and since I didn’t have food I tried
smoking my pipe. The juices from the saliva
and tobacco made me feel sort of sick when I
swallowed it, but it killed the hunger
pangs.
Now that we could get to the other
compounds our chance for trading improved.
The Indians held cows as sacred so they
didn’t eat any of the canned beef that they
received in the British parcels, and they
had a lot. I traded my A-2 jacket for two
cans of beef, a pound of powdered milk and a
pack of Sweet Caporals, a British cigarette,
that tasted real sweet.
Things looked pretty bad for the
Germans. It was obvious by all the allied
aircraft in the air that we were in control
of the skies. The sound of artillery fire
could be heard closer every day, and would
soon be here. The Germans distributed a lot
of pamphlets suggesting that they would like
us to join them in fighting the Russians.
Indicating that we’d have to fight them some
day anyway. I don’t think they got any
takers.
The night of the 28th of April most of
the Germans left, with only a token
resistance force left in charge. Our senior
officers suggested that we would be safer if
we stayed in camp to await the Americans, so
I think with the exception of a few, we
stayed. Sunday morning the 29th of April
there was some gunfire at the front gate and
the whole camp came alive to see what was
going on. A couple of kriegies got hit by
stray bullets but most every one else was
happy and running around like crazy. One of
the guards in one of the goon boxes tried to
defend the camp all by himself, and after
taking one shot at one of the tanks, he was
eliminated on the spot. Shortly after noon
the American flag was hoisted up on the
church steeple in Moosburg, and the American
tanks rolled into camp.
Before the first tanks could get down to
our compound they were swarmed over by
anybody who could climb aboard. The GIs
tried to keep then off, but most of the ones
climbing on the tanks couldn’t understand
English. The GIs threw candy and K-rations
off by the armful and kept on going to the
back gate which they crushed as they went
through.
When the back gate went down a number of
us took off for the town of Moosburg. I
really don’t know too much about what I
did. I didn’t know what to do. I was free
and in a daze. I do know that before I got
back to camp I had been in a couple of
houses and found Red Cross parcels galore.
I found a Luger pistol and another Mauser
pistol that I immediately shoved into my
pocket. Back at camp, Personnel people were
trying to get a list of who was there, but
that didn’t work. That evening we did have
what every kriegie had been dreaming about.
A field kitchen arrived and with it a load
of real white bread. It tasted like cake.
One of the first things we had to do was
line up for a delousing. It didn’t take
long, just open your shirt and loosen your
pants at the waist and you got two or three
squirts of DDT under your clothes. I think
it worked ‘cause the movement of the vermin
stopped soon after.
We stayed in camp for another day eating
K-rations and white bread and drinking hot
coffee. General Patton showed up one day
and made the rounds of the camp. While he
was in our barracks he didn’t say much, but
finally he asked, “Where are the officers
quarters?” When his aide told him these
were the officers quarters, he shook his
head, grimaced a little, turned around and
yelled in that high pitched voice of his,
“Get these men out of here, NOW!!” By
nightfall GI trucks were lined up to take us
out of camp. I don’t think anyone who was
there at that time will ever forget that
man.
Next
Chapter 1:
Barksdale Field
Chapter 2:
England
Chapter 3:
Captivity
Chapter 4:
Sagan
Chapter 5:
The March
Chapter 6:
Moosburg
Chapter 7:
Liberation
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