Inside The Gates: The Nazi Concentration Camp at Ebensee, Austria by Dr. Richard Macdonald

Author:Dr. Richard Macdonald [Macdonald, Dr. Richard]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781462801060
Publisher: Xlibris
Published: 2010-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter IV

LANDING IN EUROPE

From the ship, Le Havre looked like a lovely city located on the crest of a hill overlooking the harbor. As one embarked from the ship and traveled closer, the city’s bombed-out buildings came into sight. This was the first realization for many that war was real and their future would forever be changed while in Europe.

Due to lack of transportation, the 139th had to stay aboard the Barry for seventy-two hours. It was impossible to do any training or other activities because of the crowded conditions on the ship.

Departing the ship became almost an obstacle course. The ramp leading off the ship was at a forty-five degree angle. Everyone was loaded down with all their gear except for footlockers and ended up almost running and sliding down the ramp with the fear of falling into the water.

The nurses had the roughest time due to their heavy backpacks. As they slid, ran, and struggled down the ship’s ramp, a group of enlisted men noticed their plight and stood at the end of the ramp to catch them. Lieutenant Thoen stated that everyone somehow made it and the only loss was a bottle of perfume which flew out of Lieutenant Nuit’s musette bag.

Leaving the ship, the 139th still had to do the “hurry up and wait” routine familiar to anyone who has served in the military. While waiting to move from the port of Le Havre’s docking area, children came up asking for shokelade and cigarettes. At the same time the children were begging for food, hundreds of German POWs goose stepped to the ship everyone had just left. The Germans were to board the Barry’s return trip to the United States to spend the rest of the war at stateside POW camps.

On April 6, 1945, the 139th left Le Havre. The men were transported to Camp Lucky Strike near Janville, France. A detail was left behind at Le Havre to guard the supplies and equipment as it was unloaded from the vessel on which they had crossed the Atlantic. This same detail arranged for rail service to transport all the 139th equipment and supplies to its primary assembly area.

Camp Lucky Strike was one of several staging areas which were used for army units ranging from tank companies to evacuation hospitals. All of the staging camps around the Le Havre harbor area were named after cigarettes, such as Pall Mall, Old Gold, and Chesterfield. These U.S. Army Camps were all called the cigarette camps.

The nurses left in “cattle trucks” for a chateau near Mesnières-en-Bray located about forty miles from Camp Lucky Strike. The ride was so dusty that the nurses asked the drivers of the trucks to take off the canvas top so they could breathe.

The chateau was located on top of a hill and surrounded by a dry moat. Forty nurses were housed in this AD 1010 chateau. It was in this environment of a medieval chateau that the nurses learned how to purify their water with halogen tablets.

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