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THE CITY OF VOLARY Czech Republic May
1945, Memorial for Death March Victims |
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The Famed Red Devils of the Fifth Infantry
Division, US Army
Ending of World War II “Death March”
Liberation of Western Bohemia,
April 1945, during the last few remaining days of World
War II ,
that would ended up with the liberation of
The Fifth Infantry Division had arrived starting their forward
push East into Southern Czechoslovakia and Northern Austria to mop up the
remaining German resistance in the area to which they were link to the right
flank of Trp. B and C of the 42nd Reconnaissance. Squadron (MECZ), 2nd
CAV Group.
The Second Calvary (MECZ) who spearhead a secret operation known
as “Operation Cowboy”, the rescue of saving the famous Lipizzaner horses from
Hostau (Rosendorf, Czechoslovakia) that occurred on 28 April “ Wild West Cowboy
Western Style”.
30
April, the Fifth Infantry Division having been ordered to move forward being
replaced by the Second Calvary to which on this very day two troopers would
make the ultimate sacrifice and die in Bila nad Radbuzou, Pfc. Raymond E. Manz
and Tec5. Owen W. Sutton.
The
men of the 5th Infantry Division made fast progress and met up with
very little resistance. Soldiers of the 5th Infantry Division knew
the war would be over in a few days as units of the division moved into
position.
5
May, five
One
hundred and eighteen to one hundred and thirty three starving Jewish girls were
discovered in a barracks and the last official casualty in the ETO took place
nearby.
6 May, the 2nd Regiment, 5th
Infantry Division, 3rd US Army entered Volary, commanded by Colonel Graham. One platoon of the division upon their
arrival would come upon a barracks
where there they found 118-133
prisoners covered in lice lying on the floor and liberated the women from the
factory building.
7 May, would bring about another
historical incident that occurred in Volary - the last official casualty in
From the 5th Infantry Division Headquarters in
Volary, Colonel Graham would presented the article of
surrender to the German Nazis in Volary.
Pfc. Charles Havlat, 803rd Tank Destroyers , 5th
Infantry Division , would become the last of many Red Devils who made the
ultimate sacrifice by giving of their lives by fighting the fascist terror and occupation created by the German Nazis during World
War II, in Europe.
Female Jewish survivors of a
death march lies in an American military field hospital in
They had no potable water and
only a wooden box in the corner as a toilet. These young
ladies, with an average weight of 82 pounds, survived the 700 - kilometer Death
March that began in
Upon seeing the
poor condition of the women, American soldiers set up a hospital for them in
Volary, where they were able to recuperate for the next few months. Maj. Frank
Ankner with the 5th Infantry Division, Medical Battalion, takes the
pulse of a Jewish survivor of a death march at the American field hospital that
had been set up in Volary by the Fifth Infantry Division.
On May 11, soldiers
found the mass graves of Jewish women who were on the final “Death March” to their deaths, 22 Jewish girls who died from malnutrition while
the rest were shot by the German Nazis, near Volary were
discovered. A medic and another soldier with the 5th Infantry Division, 3rd
Germans were
forced to exhume them in order to give the victims proper burial. Of the 83-89
bodies exhumed, many of them showed evidence of having been murdered. Under the
supervision of the Fifth Infantry Division Jewish chaplain Herman Dicker, a
German civilian exhumes a mass grave containing the corpses of Jewish women who
died at the end of a death march from Helmbrechts, a sub-camp of Flossenbuerg.
Bodies of Jewish women are
exhumed from the mass grave in Volary.
A Fifth Infantry Division medic
with German civilians looks at the bodies of Jewish women who had been exhumed.
German civilians from Volary attend
burial services that are given by the Fifth Infantry Division Jewish chaplain
Herman Dicker for the Jewish women exhumed from a mass grave in the town of
It is to the soldiers, medics
and Jewish chaplain Herman Dicker of the Fifth Infantry Division that the
victims buried in Volary are the only victims in any Holocaust cemetery that
headstones bears the victims name.
The inter feelings of sadness
and stressful effects that is not forgotten,
facial expressions in various stages of death that soldiers, medics and
Graves Registration personal faced in the exhumations of human remains that
die. The smell and way that the victims looked depended on the trauma they had
received were never two of the same. The pain taking handling that must be done
while searching and recovering any personal effects that might leads to their
identification is a problem in all wars.
Gaylord J. Toole,
5th Infantry Division,
Vietnam & 8th US Army, Korea.
Life Members
Society of the
Fifth Division, US Army, Europe
Gaylord J. Toole
L-782 and Miroslav Kraus L-829
The Famed Red Devils of the Fifth
Division, US Army
WW
I, WW II,
The
Society of the Fifth Division is the oldest divisional organization, in
continuous service
This
same Red Diamond Society still continues with their Red Diamond blood in their
hearts
“We
Will”
Pictures of the
Fifth Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Regiment
Locale: Volary, [Bohemia] Czechoslovakia; Czech Republic
Credit: USHMM, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.
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