Ridin' Hitler's Horse and Farewell to Dad

Chicago Tribune ^ | June 16, 2002 | Donald J. Hall.

[SJackson]

My father died last year, may he forever rest in peace. His suffering is now done. He was 76. He left a secret legacy though, unknown to all the family except my mother, who just thought nothing of the matter until a World War II photograph in my dad's war photo album caught my eye one day. I looked at my dad's war album many times, and this special picture eluded me over and over again. The album was always whisked away by dad. He never bragged about the war.

[William Terrell]

He took pictures all the way, country to country, battle after battle, horror after horror. His war album was awesome. Airplanes, jets, bombers, tanks, buildings, piled-up dead bodies of soldiers, dead SS guards and Hitler's beer garden.

Wow, how did he manage to hold on to a camera during all that shooting and bombing? They didn't have Kodak Instamatics back then, did they? Must not have been a regular soldier.

[Mackey]

Just in case you were trying to be funny, it didn't work for me.

[CT]

Most armies have huge support units to supply logistical and other needs. It isn't necessary to be at the immediate front to see war in all its horror.

God bless your dad. We lose a thousand or more like him every day now.

[Miss Marple]

My father took lots of pictures as well. He was a sergeant in a quartermaster's company. He had an old Kodak and took pictures of Italy and North Africa (he was with the 5th Army). I have pictures of all sorts of things, although my dad didn't take too many of bodies...mostly tanks, artillery, friends, and lots of shots of Milan and Rome, including the catacombs.

[AppyPappy]

Some of my dad's stuff

[allthingsnew]

That's what General Patton said, too:

All real heroes are not story book combat fighters either. Every man in the army plays a vital part. Every little job is essential. Don't ever let down, thinking your role is unimportant. Every man has a job to do. Every man is a link in the great chain. What if every truck driver decided that he didn't like the whine of the shells overhead, turned yellow and jumped headlong into the ditch? He could say to himself, "They won't miss me -- just one in thousands." What if every man said that? Where in hell would we be now? No, thank God, Americans don't say that! Every man does his job; every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important to the vast scheme of things. The Ordnance men are needed to supply the guns, the Quartermaster to bring up the food and clothes to us -- for where we're going there isn't a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man in the mess hall, even the one who heats the water to keep us from getting the GI shits, has a job to do. Even the chaplain is important, for if we get killed and if he is not there to bury us we'd all go to hell.

http://knox-www.army.mil/museum/pattonsp.htm

[Azrael]

Ever consider publishing your dad's photo album? Might be nice to use for educational purposes, so young people could better understand what was sacrificed for them.

[SJackson]

Ever consider publishing your dad's photo album? Might be nice to use for educational purposes, so young people could better understand what was sacrificed for them.

AP, your link doesn't work

I posted the article, it wasn't my dad. But I do have an album (Mom's), and have thought of doing something with it.

[dennisw]

btttttttttttttt

[TheDon]

BTTT

[CT]

Semper Fi

First Marine Brigade.

[LaBelleDameSansMerci]

I wonder why Mr. Hall decided to fertilize his dead father's grave with a pile of horse manure? Perhaps he hails from a culture where horse manure is considered sacred.

Dachau was a camp for political prisoners--many of them from France. Most of the deaths there were the result of disease. The bodies were quickly disposed of--not "piled high, twenty deep". It is open for tourism these days. Many people visit. There are many photos on display taken during the life of the camp--from it's construction to its liberation.

I have never once read anything to indicate that Hitler had an affection for horses or kept a stable of them. Perhaps Mr. Hall's father was riding a horse owned by Putzi Hitler--a well-known black marketeer and tout who controlled most of the book-making operations in Weimar Munich.

[Rainmist]

My father never liked to talk about what he saw either. My mother was the one who told us of the gruesome stuff ( after we were adults ). He had one job where he had to have his men go into a liberated concentration camp and start the clean up. My dad said that the thing that bothered him the most was seeing the piles of shoes ..... children's among them. I am so thankful that my father survived that war, he definately had the hand of God upon him.

[wheezer]

I enjoyed your father's drawings very much.