American Valor Quarterly Issue 12 - Spring 2015 | Page 23

she acted this way. When she same in
to camp, a few months before with her
daughter, the matron in charge grabbed
her daughter, with the woman fighting
back, until her daughter was pushed
the floor and beaten to death. She was
11 years old. After that, she became
crazy. I could go on and on about the
horrors we saw, but they are difficult
to describe. We left the next day,
thank God, and got back on the road,
rejoining the convoy headed for the
Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden.

visit Paris. Paris was 95 miles away. I
just happened to have 19 of the most
beautiful German pistols you have
ever seen made in my possession,
including Gen. Kesselring’s pistol. I
went to my assistant platoon leader
and I said, “You are now the platoon
leader because I am going to Paris.”
He said, “You can’t go to Paris, you
don’t have a pass.”
“The hell I don’t,” I said. “I have 14

handmade German pistols. That’s my
pass.”
I got to Paris and checked in at the
finest hotel that I knew in Paris. I got
to the desk and said, “I want a room.”
I went up to my room, cleaned up,
came back downstairs, and asked,
“Where do the nurses hangout in
Paris?”
I went over to the California Hotel,
ordered a martini at the bar, and who

FieldOfFire.com

We were the first ones there and
naturally we did what any God-fearing
soldier would do. We looted the place
of everything we wanted, mostly the
silverware that had Hitler’s name
imprinted on it, but everything else
too. I came away with a little bit of the
silverware, plus a bottle of cognac. On
the bottle it reads, “For the Führer’s
use only: 5-star Hennessy.” A day
later, word got out they would conduct
a full inspection of everything we
possessed. We were told that anyone
who didn’t show themselves with the
loot would be sorry. Col. Sink gathered
the silver and had a silversmith, the
best silversmith in Europe, come
to Berchtesgaden to melt down the
silver into cups for the original 506
officers.
After the inspection, we were able
to keep the loot. I kept a bottle of
cognac and brought it home. I used the
bottle to celebrate my son’s 13th year
bar mitzvah. Of course, after we got
through with the bottle of cognac, I
threw it away. I was told recently, had I
held onto it, it would have been worth
$10,000 dollars. But I can’t find it. I
don’t where it is. It’s gone. After Eagle’s
Nest, we were scattered around various
towns in Bavaria before we ended up in
Bar-Le-Duc France at the regimental
headquarters. The second atomic
bomb was dropped while we were at
Bar-Le-Duc and we knew that the war
was completely over. I had never been
late or failed to report for duty at any
point in my military career, but at that
time I had decided that I wanted to
SPRING 2015

THE WAR ALL-BUT-OVER,
MEN OF E COMPANY RELAX
WITH REFRESHMENTS FROM
HITLER’S WINE CELLAR AT
HIS MOUNTAIN RETREAT
AT BERCHTESGADEN.
PICTURED AMONG THEM IS
THE COMPANY’S FORMER
COMMANDER, MAJOR
RICHARD WINTERS, WHO HAD
SINCE BEEN PROMOTED TO
THE BATTALION LEVEL.

in the heck do I finally see? It’s Col.
Sink himself, having a drink. I went
up to him and said “Col. Sink, how are
you doing, sir?”
He said, “What the hell are you
doing here?”
I said, “I am AWOL, sir.”
“Are you aware you’re supposed to
be on a train to Marseille tomorrow?”
he said. “You’re going home.”
“Are you putting me on colonel?” I
asked.
He told me to get back or I would
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