Some time before it was dropped machine guns were placed in the barracks grounds where my Grandfather was being worked as a slave in a mine on the home islands. He was told it was to kill them all when the first soldiers landed on the main islands.
84 pounds on liberation day...
When the war ended, Daddy said that he thought if he lived
to be 70, he’d be lucky. He was down to 170 pounds from
well over 200 pounds. They marched as hard as they could
go straight up aiming for Hitler’s throat, through Italy
into Germany. He said that when they first got rumblings
down through the ranks what the Germans were doing to the
Jews & others in camps, they fought even harder trying to
get to Germany. He also stated that he saw dead bodies
piled at one of the camps for at least an eighth of mile
several feet high. Couldn’t talk much about the war;
just bits & pieces. He would say, “War is Hell!” - It
is; but I cannot forget the shell shock & flashbacks he lived in really until he passed away at 81. -