Small Town America in World War II: War Stories from Wrightsville, Pennsylvania

PART VI: ARMY OF OCCUPATION: GERMANY

PART VI ARMY OF OCCUPATION: GERMANY On V-E Day, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Commander of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force [SHAEF], had sixty-one American divisions with 1.6 million men in Germany. When the shooting ended, these divisions in the field became occupation troops, charged with maintaining law and order and establishing an Allied military presence in this conquered country. The first objective was to control the German population and discourage resistance from Nazi diehards by stationing troops in every part of the country. Divisions were spread out across the countryside as well as occupying German cities. Frequently, units as small as squads and platoons deployed at distances far removed from their company headquarters. The occupation troops manned border stations, operated checkpoints at road junctions, guarded bridges, and sent out patrols to apprehend curfew violators. They also placed guards at US Army installations, DP [Displaced Persons] camps, jails, telephone exchanges, factories, and banks. The purpose of this policy was to demonstrate to the German people that they were defeated and their country fully occupied. In addition, the Army of Occupa- 388 SMALL TOWN AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II tion combated disease, hunger, and crime; preserved cultural artifacts, reestablished industry and utilities, and resolved potentially serious problems involving currency, housing, education, newspapers, and elections . For the occupying GIs, the Army’s policy of non-fraternization with German civilians, issued in May 1945, proved most onerous and was widely violated. Exactly how widespread fraternization was no one in authority seemed to know or wanted to know. Without combat to motivate and occupy the troops’ minds, gender issues came to the fore because there were twice as many German women as men in the 25-30 age brackets. With food being so scarce for German civilians, many women traded sex for Army rations and cigarettes. Finally, due to pressure from individual congressmen and the State Department, this policy was lifted in stages, and by September 1945 the entire policy was completely dropped. As one historian noted, “There was [now] a new Watch on the Rhine—by handholding American GIs and German girls taking advantage of the relaxed restrictions on fraternization.” Marriages between white US soldiers and German women were not permitted, however, until 1946. In the two interviews that follow, one is essentially the story of how one couple, an American GI and a young German woman, dealt with Army policies toward fraternization. The other describes in detail the activities a member of the Army of Occupation at the local level. 1 ARMY OF OCCUPATION: GERMANY 389 Notes 1. Note: See Earl F. Ziemke, The US Army in the Occupation of Germany, 1944-1946 (Washington: US Dept. of Defense, Dept of the Army, Center of Military History, 1975), 1, 320-325; quote on p. 325. See also John Willoughby, Remaking the Conquering Heroes: The Postwar American Occupation of Germany (New York: Palgrave-St. Martin’s Press, 2001); and Petra Goedde, GIs and Germans: Culture, Gender, and Foreign Relations, 1945-1949 (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2003). 390 SMALL TOWN AMERICA IN WORLD WAR II Figure 21. TSgt. Gerald “Jerry” Johns ARMY OF OCCUPATION: GERMANY 391 Figure 22. Irmgard “Jackie” Stieger ...