He did the restoration work on many Mississippi and Louisiana historical buildings The pointed finger church in port Gibson (1807)for example and the old State Capital and Beauvoir ....and so on He fell and broke his back there from the ceiling of that church He was paroled and stayed in the USA sponsored by my grandpa and married a woman from Houston and settled there and had two boys Quite a story...I knew him well....
Didn’t the POWs build the working model of the Mississippi River for the Army Corps of Engineers?
My Scoutmaster had been captured in Japan after bailing out of a bomber. Another dad in our troop had been a survivor of the sinking of the Indianapolis. The importance of survival skills, discipline and loyalty to your buddies were very prominent.
That is a very cool story. Thanks for sharing that.
The only one I have is the story of one of my Uncles calling my grandfather to let him know his troop train was going to pass through Shreveport and to call the tamale lady and buy everyone she had. They gave him a grocery sack full of them and he passed them out to all his buddies.
After the war they asked him about how his pals liked the tamales. “They didn’t like them. Those yankees don’t know the difference between good food and dirt”.
My grandparent’s west Texas farm employed German POWs.
And my Army Captain father could well have processed those same POWs in North Africa. That was his first task upon arriving in the European Theater.
They had a tough Jewish officer whose job was to separate the SS out of the German ranks- SS had easily identifiable arm tattoos- I don’t think the average German soldier had any affection for them.
One of the German soldiers being processed spoke good English. He said “I feel sorry for you. Our war is over and we go to the U.S. You continue to fight.”
The rule at the time apparently was that you were to be put in a camp at the same latitude as where you were captured. North Africa is on a line with the American South.