Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMarvin Posey, Brazos Valley HeroNil It� in Poscli'de;: < (PART 1 OF 2) Uoyd Marvin Posey, now of Hearne, is a veteran of World War II and his story is very similar to many from his generation except for one thing. He was captured by the Germans and ended the war as a prisoner of war. Posey was born and raised in Cleburne, graduating from high school in 1943. He entered the Anny that year and was sent to various schools, ending up as a com- bat engineer. In 1944 he was married before leaving for Europe and the war. He landed in Marseilles, France, as part of the 36th Division and was sent to Strasbourg as part of a mine platoon In an anti -tank company. They were eventually moved to Alsace Lorraine, France, and to the town of Hatten, France. It's here that his story of capture starts. The following is his account of what happened to him and his fellow soldiers, in his own words, taken as excerpts from a letter he wrote to a fellow veteran in 1997. The Capture "This letter has been very difficult to write. The situa- tion at Hatten was very stressful, to say the least, and my way of dealing with it was to try to forget k. However, we never really forget; we suppress memories and for fifty - two years this has been a constant problem. It is Ilke.trying to hold a beach ball under water - - it keeps popping back up when you think it is under control. "I do not remember all the dates and details that led up to our capture by the Germans. We left Nieder Bechorf for Hatton early in the morning riding in a truck with Lt. Yeates (Jasper, Tx.). On the way, we ran into heavy artillery fire. Fortunately, it was all going over our heads and none of it was close. "After arriving in Hatten, my squad was assigned the job of laying a mine field, blocking the main street. The ground was frozen and we could not bury the mines, so we put them on top of the ground and tried to cover them with snow. While we were laying the mine field, there was a dead soldier lying on top of the ground as he had fallen. I went over and looked at him. He was young and I did not recognize him. Seeing him stiffed up such rage - - like I have never felt since. It just did not seem fair for him to die in a cold, God- forsaken place like Hatten. "When we started receiving some small arms fire and mortar, Mac and I decided that we could guard the mine field just as well from the building across the street. Bob MacNally had taken the rest of the squad there. The build- ing turned out to be a bar, no wines or liquor. The build- ing was occupied by our squad and five or six guys from some other company. "Behind the bar was a courtyard, outhouse, and a barn. This area was surrounded by a fence of brick or stucco or rock. I would stand on tip -toe and see over the wall to a cultivated field on the other side. For some reason, we were all in this courtyard, looking at everything. Mortar shells started dropping around the area and we panicked and scattered like a covey of quail. I ran behind the out- house and discovered it was a dead -end with farm imple- ments stored there. As I turned around to run out, my gas - meek strap at my back hung on the handle of a plowshare. I couldn't get loose, and all I could think of was how ter- rible A would be to be killed in Hatten, France, hung up on a plowshare behind an outhouse. I finally calmed down enough to get the gas mask off of me. I left h hanging In place and double -timed back to the bar. "In the bar everyone picked out a window to watch and fire from. I was in the corner of the bedroom, overlook- ing the alley and across from the mine field. As I looked out the window, I could not believe my eyes. A German peeked around the comer of the building where Mac and I had been standing guard. I shot and he fell partly in the open, but others pulled him back out of sight. After I fired the shot, a German fired a burp gun through my window. He started at the top of the window and moved down. I immediately dropped to the floor. Chambers hollered at me, "Are you hit ?" I replied, "No - - he missed ", but then I touched the top of my helmet and one shot had grazed the top. "After dark, the town of Hatten came under an extreme- ly heavy barrage of artillery and mortar fire. Our building seemed to receive a concentration of fire. We moved down Into the basement to escape this barrage. I do not know how long this continued, but ft seemed like forever. Our building received several direct hits; whether k was mortar or artillery, I don't know. Only thing I do know is we were preying for it to stop. Our prayers were answered, and then it got worse. "A breech was made in the mine field. The basement had small grated openings at ground level, about six feet Above the floor level. We could look out and see what was happening. After the mine field was cleared, a tiger tank rolled down the middle of the street with a guy sitting in the turret, directing fire. The tank was followed by what seemed like a thousand German soldiers. When he was opposite our building, the eighty -eight swivelled to point at our building and we all hit the flocr. It brought down the rest of the building. "I will interrupt at this point to pay homage to a brave American solider We could not we him or them, but they were in a building across the street - - and one building to the left. For some reason, I feel like ft was just one man. He was on the second story with what sounded like a light machine gun. The tank fired an incendiary round into the bottom story and the building was burning fiercely. After this round by the tank, he opened up with the machine gun. He played a tune on that tank and made Gennan soldiers scatter like chickens. He fired this machine gun until the second floor collapsed. He was a brave man and should have received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Instead, his family only knows that he was killed in action In Hatten. France. "The next morning about sunrise, we heard someone talking in very low voices in the alley by the jeep. They were talking so low that it was Impossible to tell whether they were speaking in German or English. Beasley told everyone to keep quiet until we were certain. This went on for a while, than one of the guys in the squad said, 'They are Americans - -'and Immediately ran up the stairs. He was met by machine gun fire and fell back down the stairs. Obviously, they were Germans. Some of the guys cracked open the cellar floor mat led into the courtyard. The Germans had a heavy machine gun set up in the floor of the barn, plus a force of about fifteen or twenty German soldiers. They called for us to come out. MarWn Posey's story about his tone as a prisoner of war wlli be continued In The Eagle next Sunday. Marvin's name can be found on the Brazos Valley Veter- an's Memorial. For more information, to make a contribu- tion, or if you know a World War II Veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BWM at www.veterwsme- morial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260 -7030. The Ea Here when you need us. lkt­ of trihila to 111clilix'rs O1 1I11e Grt'atcs! vN cd our countrN N orld w(u II ( In( it) a 'wrier of tril mm", i(1 mci III wfr, ( )t *I he ( r(�.u( (wilctariol) wlv) ",( ()kit ( olu(IrN (Itlrin;; WOO \V',If II (PART 2 OF 2) This is a continuation of the story of the capture of Marvin Posey and his time as a German POW. The story returns to his letter, written in 1997 to a friend. This story takes up immediately after he and his squad are told by the Germans to come out and surrender. The Imprisonment "We took our rifles apart, and scattered the parts and came out with out hands up. The German non -com lined us up in the courtyard and held a machine gun on us. At about that time the Gentian officer stepped out of the alley onto the street and someone shot him with what sound- ed like a B.A.R. He stumbled back into the alley and fell down. All of us expected to be shot right than. Instead, the Gentian non -com kept his cool and ordered Beasley and me to place the officer on a short ladder so he could be carried to the rear. We carried the wounded German officer about one -haN mile to a first -aid station." Posey and his fellow soldiers were interrogated and marched to the rear of the German lines. Without any opportunities to escape, they finally reached Mannheim, Germany. "We arrived at Mannheim late at night. It was plenty cold and we were all starving. I do not remember being fed for the first three or four days after we were captured. During the night another group of prisoners arrived. Early the next morning we were lined up to be counted and across from us was another line of prisoners. I looked over and saw Chuck Atkinson. I went over to talk to him and while we were talking, a count was completed. Of course, they were one man short in one line and one man long in the other. They grabbed another guy and moved him back to my line. Chuck and I stayed together the rest of the days of our capture. Chuck's and my friendship went back to Camp Gruber. Mary and I were witnesses for Chuck's and Bev's wedding in Muskogee, Oklahoma. During our days as pris- oners, we were like brothers and shared everything. "Our destination turned out to be Stalag IV B - which I think was abut 70 or 80 miles south of Berlin. I'm not sure. Upon aMval at Stalag IV B (late in the day), we were as- signed to barracks. Everything was crowded beyond belief. It was cold, dirty and very little food was available. Chuck and I made the decision that we had to get out of them or we would die. So we volunteered for a work detail. "Since we had volunteered for a work detail, very early one morning, Chuck and I were sent with others by train to Leipzig. It tcok all day to get there. From there, Chuck and I were assigned to a work detail at Bmerfeld. We walked to this small town, Bitterfeld, which was about twenty-five miles outside of Leipzig. The work detail was assigned to a fertilizer factory, Kali -Chem. There were twenty-two Americans at this camp at the factory. The Americans and Russians were kept under lock and key behind barbed wire. All the other prisoners (French, Italians, Poles, Ser- bians, etc.) had signed an agreement that stated that they would not attempt to escape. Therefore, they were unguarded and were allowed to go into town. They had al- most the same freedom as German citizens. I am proud to say no Americans signed the agreement. I do not believe the Russians were offered this deal. "About the first week or two in April we were told about the death of President Roosevelt. It was a sad thing to A person could not see the beginning or end of the line. We marched five or six abreast and filled the road from ditch to ditch. The Gentians marched us east until we could hear the guns firing, and then we marched west until we could hear the guns firing. No food was given us dur- ing this march. Chuck and I scavenged in the potato fields at night and begged from Gentian housewives during the day. We became real experts. I do not remember how long we walked, but I am certain it was at least a week. "The Russians were treated awful by the Gentians. They were abused and starved. However, they were tough and in better physical condition than we were. I saw an Incident which involved the Russians that was hard to believe. German farmers stored potatoes in haystacks in the fields. When the Russians came close to one of these fields, they all broke and ran to the haystack to get Pota- toes. The guards hollered at them and then commenced firing. There must have been several hundred Russlans in the group. They tore up the haystack, loaded up with the Potatoes, and then ran back to the column. Some of the Russians were killed and wounded, but the rest of them had food. "One morning we woke up and everyone was moving out. I believe this was on April 24th. The word spread that we were going into Wurzen. Our guards had all disap- peared. Everyone was in a happy mood because we knew that we were no longer prisoners. We came to a small village and the match was hafted, wading for the Ameri- can troops. While we were waiting, Chuck and I started scavenging for food. We knocked on the back door of this house, and old woman answered the door and Invited us in. Imagine our surprise when we entered the kitchen, there sat five or six German soldiers, armed and ready for combat. It was a nervous time. The woman sat us down at the table and fed us bread and marmalade. Nothing ever tasted better. The Getman soldiers were all tense but not threatening. It soon developed that they wanted to trade for our uniforms. They really did not have to offer to trade or ask; they could have just taken them. They didn't try to force us and we left posthaste. We went back to the column and it had started moving toward Wurzen. Then we saw a jeep with four American officers, with a white flag flying, running along the side of the column. We were escorted into Wurzen under a cease -fire agreement. "We were fed and given cigarettes. I ate so many K ra- tions and C rations that It made me sick. I went to an aid station and they told me to stop eating so much. That was like telling the wind not to blow. When they checked my weight, I weighed 127 pounds. I had lost approximately 48 pounds during my visit with the Germans. I am sure Chuck weighed about the same. We looked like walking skeletons." Posey and his friend Chuck were sent home, parting company at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. Chuck went to Ohio. whom he went back to school, eventually becoming a lawyer. Posey attended Texas Tech, graduating In 1952 and working In the agriculture industry until he retired and moved to Heame. "Chuck and I said our farewells at Camp Kilmer and for forty-plus years our only contact was an occasional phone call and always cards at Christmas. In the mid -to- late eighties, we and our wives finally got together at Lake Conroe. Our relationship had not changed. I never had a brother but a brother couldn't have been any closer to me than Chuck. My friend Chuck died four years ago." hear. Even the other prisoners were sad. Soon after the death of our President, we were told to pack up everything because we were leaving. The guards would not tell us where we were going. We thought they were taking us to another camp. Actually we were consolidated with possi- bly a hundred thousand other prisoners of all nationalities Marvin Posey's name can be found on the Brazos Val- ley Veteran's Memorial. For more information, to make a contribution, or If you know a World War II Veteran whose story needs to be told, contact the BVVM at www.veter- ansmemorial.org or Bill Youngkin at (979) 260 -7030. The= e Eagl Here when you need us