Mr. Paul Kreft
[Born 07/12/1926]
Interviewed by Tyler Braly
Interviewed on 10/15/2005 by Tyler Braly
Transcribed on 11/27/2005 by Tyler Braly
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Tyler Braly: Today is October 15th, 2005. I am Tyler Braly and I am interviewing Paul Kreft at 2531 Lot Ave. Mr Kreft is a World War Two veteran. Mr. Kreft is 79 years old and was born on July 12th, 1926. Mr. Kreft served in World War Two and served in the Third Armored Calvary Unit and was a sergeant.
Tyler Braly: Were you drafted or did you enlist?
Paul Kreft: Well, I was supposed to be drafted, so I enlisted you might say, I didn’t enlist, just said ‘Hey take me’. Back in those days you didn’t enlist you know, you just went down to the draft board and said ‘I’m ready to go’ and so they took you; that’s the way you went.
TB: Where were you living at the time?
PK: I was living in Hazel Park, Michigan.
TB: Did you pick the service branch in which you joined?
PK: Yes, we had our choice of any branch or service and I chose the army.
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TB: What were your first days like in service?
PK: Oh, it was kind of fun, you know, doing traveling, being a young man, I never got out of Michigan a whole lot, it was kind of fun. You know, I’m meeting new friends and getting into the swing of it, because you see in WWII everybody wanted to be in the service nobody wanted to be out, so once you were in it was like joining a great big club and everyone wanted to be there.
TB: What was your boot camp training experience like?
PK: Oh, it was at Camp Blanding, Florida, and it was an infantry program, infantry division, and it was pretty, well, they built us up, you know, because the training was very rigorous, and by the time we got done we were in pretty good physical shape, and we didn’t go the full term because they had what they called the Battle of the Bulge over in Europe came along, and they cut all our training short, to send us overseas, so we didn’t get the full 20-week, I think we got something like fifteen weeks or something like that.
TB: When you served in the war, where exactly did you serve?
PK: Well, I served in France, and Germany, Austria, and got into Italy a little bit.
TB: What was it like arriving there?
PK: Well, first we went to England. We went on a boat and landed in England and we stayed there about three days, and then we went down across England down across the English Channel into France. Well, tell you the truth, the first thing we landed in Le Havre, they call Le Havre France, which is a big port city, and the whole town was just about leveled, you know. It had just been bombed and bombed and bombed and there wasn’t a whole lot there, but there were the port facilities. They had rebuilt them so that we could come in on a boat, but it was - you go one town - one town would be untouched, and you go to another town and there would be hardly a brick on a brick, it was devastation in some places and not in others.
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TB: What was your job assignment?
PK: I drove a jeep, and I had a fellow with me. We were two men in a jeep, and we did what we called reconnaissance, we would go out ahead of the infantry until we made contact with the enemy and we would try to hold the enemy off until they called up help in the form of the infantry regiments and that to back us up. That way the infantry regiments didn’t have to walk a lot when there was nothing out there. Kind of like a bird dog you might say.
TB: How much combat did you see?
PK: About four months is all I saw before the war ended. Febuary, March, April, May, and the war ended in June [1945]. A little over four months almost five months, but not very much.
TB: Did you see very many casualties near you?
PK: Yea our unit all told about 85% casualties.
TB: How did those casualties occur?
PK: We would just get into these little firefights between these other people and they would shoot at us and we would shoot at them. And we lost a lot of men and our tanks and there was just a - on a daily basis you never knew what you would run into sometimes. It looked peaceful out there and turned out not to be not so peaceful. Our job, of course, was to keep on going until we ran into people that would start shooting at us, and as long as no one was shooting at us we would keep going and going and sometimes we would drive for hours and nothing would happen and sometimes you would go for 200 feet and something would happen, you know. So- but our job was to find the enemy, search them out, and engage them until the big units could come up and back us up.
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B: What were some of your more memorable experiences?
A: There [were] a lot of them. The Alps mountains were beautiful. But the most dramatic thing was right at the end of the war. The last week of the war we were up in the Alps mountains and there was a terrible smell, a very bad odor and we kept driving until we drove into this small town and there had been a concentration camp there and they had been cremating these bodies. There was this smoke was going out though the area creating this scent and blimey, it smelled! And we liberated that concentration camp, called Ebensee. And that was the most memorable thing I ever did in my life.
TB: Were you awarded any medals?
PK: No, not for bravery, no. I have some medals pending that I never got, but Purple Heart for one.
TB: So where were exactly were you shot at in the war?
PK: My body or the location?
TB: Location.
PK: A town called Regensburg, it’s right on the Danube River, and we were trying to cross the bridge across the river there into Regensburg and that’s where I got shot. But not seriously.
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TB: How did you stay in touch with your family while you were in Europe?
A: We had what they called V-mail; it's like a picture, you know. You had to write on this little form and then you had to take the mail to what they called a censor (one of the officers in the outfit); he checked to see that you were not putting anything in there that in case this mail got in the hands of the enemy and tell them any information, you know. Then, they took these letters they put them on microfilm they called it and then they sent them on microfilm over to home by way of the telegram place and that’s how they got that same letter to who[m] ever it was supposed to go. It wasn’t like a regular letter that you put a stamp on it called V-mail - ‘V’ for everyone ‘V’ for victory. It was kind of neat really when it come it got there real fast with thousands of letters in a tiny tiny roll of film, you see, rather than have all these bulky letters in a mail bag. So that’s how we corresponded back and forth.
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TB: What was your food like?
PK: Oh, we had really good food because we had a really good cook. And our outfit, excuse me I call it the outfit, you know, the regiment, was kind of like an elite outfit. We got good stuff; we got cakes a lot and lots of rations, but most of time on account we had so many casualties, we didn’t have to divide the rations up between among whole lot of people. One time there was supposed to be twenty guys, but there were only three of us, so we got whatever there was and the good stuff - like I didn’t smoke cigarettes so I didn’t need to be bothered, but I just took them and I stashed them away and sold them later on little things. You get a can of bacon that was really great because you could trade that off for stuff, you know, just all that kind of stuff. No -very well- no complaints about the food. Wait till the cook caught up with us it sometimes. The cook was right there with us, but it would take a day or two to catch up. No, but in general the food was very very good.
TB: What kind of pressure did you feel when you were part of the Armored Regiment?
PK: Well, you get used to it, you know. Somebody is out there and they want to shoot at you occasionally. But after a while you get used to it, you know, you take advantage First of all when you are 18 years old you think you are invincible and it will happen to the other guy not you anyway, but unfortunately that is not always the case, but still it was sort of like an adventure, you know what I mean - like the guy today that maybe wants to out skiing on the steepest hill out in Colorado or climb the steepest rock wall out in Yosemite or something of that sort, but you take some cases. I don’t want to call it fun but it wasn’t a drag either, you know what I mean. It was enjoyable a lot of times. The guys were all in the same boat and we met a lot of nice people, even though they were our enemy, a lot of times civilian, all in all, very nice; I won’t say nice, I would say, it wasn’t a real unhappy experience. I wouldn’t put it that way. It was an adventure. And lots of time it was a very thrilling adventure, although sometimes a very sad adventure. But certainly when you’re 18 years old and doing all these things, it sort of rolls off your back, you don’t dwell on anything, you go on, you don’t think about things, you know what I’m saying. So, all in all I think it was a very worthwhile experience.
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TB: What did you do while on leave?
PK: On leave? Oh, well, I had a girlfriend, of course, and we had dates and went here and there. If it was a leave where I couldn’t go home I’d visit the nearest big town and find the U.S.O where soldiers or any service men could go, and they could get a meal, and they usually had dances late at night, and they had other things you could do, and they had a special little room where you could write home or call home if you wanted to. It was all in all - people went all out for the service men back then. It was nice, you know- nice to be liked as the saying goes. But that’s what we did on leave. And of course if I came home on leave that was another thing. I’d go around visiting relatives; they all wanted to see me, and see how you changed, or didn’t change, or whatever. There was a lot of partying, too, you know. So, it was quite an experience, too.
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TB: Do you recall any funny or particularly unusual events around camp?
PK: Well, there was the time when we were over in Germany and I had never been on a motorcycle in my life, and we were out on this farm, and we got a hold of this German motorcycle, and everybody was riding it, you know. It was kind of fun. We were kind of laying back a little and everybody was having a good time and asked me if I wanted a ride, and I said I don’t know how to ride one, and they showed me how to get on and how to do this and that, and I was buzzing around on this thing out in this big farmyard, and they didn’t tell me how to stop it though. And here I am going like the devil around this yard as fast as I could and having a good time, and they yell, ‘it’s my turn. I want to get on. I want to take a ride!’ So I said, ‘I can’t stop this thing.’ So they start telling me how to stop this thing, but I can’t figure this out. So, I saw this great big haystack. I just drove it right into the haystack. That ended the ride right there.
And the morning before, we sleeping in this great big farmhouse and the farmhouses over there were very nice. Over there the people lived up on the top floor, and down below were the barn and the animals and the chickens and everything else. But I woke up and I was in this bed and there was this great big feather bed on top of me, because it was quite cold. I woke up there and right in front of me was this great big chicken staring me right in the face. So I woke up, looked at that. I jumped and the chicken took off, and right there where the chicken had been was a fresh egg. I went down to the kitchen and cooked it for breakfast. And there were some other humorous things that I could go on and on all day. So we did have a good time.
TB: Do you have any photographs of when you were in the army?
PK: Oh yeah, lots of them.
TB: Who were some of the people in the photographs?
PK: Well, there was my sergeant, a fellow named Richard Wenger, he was from Ohio, and there was a sergeant named Burns, he was from New York, and he was an older fellow, and there ahead was my gunner, his name William Murphy, he was from New Hampshire, and all the guys that were in my platoon, and you were kind of close with them [be]cause you lived with them -depends upon where we were whether we were over seas and it was a while before we got back. We could take a lot of pictures; unfortunately some of them didn’t turn out. Cause we were able - because we would go into a town. When we captured a town . . . we would tell the people that they would have to turn in all of their guns and all of their cameras, and put them in a big pile, right in the town’s square. And some times they turned in a lot of nice cameras and we would take a camera like that, other than that they would just get smashed, their guns would be smashed. So I took a couple of cameras, so then I was able to take pictures.
TB: Did you keep a personal diary of your events?
PK: No, I wish I had really, many times I wished I had, but no, that was one thing I didn’t do.
TB: When do you recall when your service ended?
PK: It ended, August 6, 1945, no, 46.
TB: Where were you then?
PK: I was in Fort Mead, Maryland.
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TB: Did you celebrate after the war was over?
PK: Oh, we knew it was coming you know. We just sort of went down to what they called a separation center where they made civilians out of you. They took you out of the army and made you civilians. Then, we walked out of there and you had - they gave you so much what they called separation pay, $300. And you had that and your clothing, and you just took off. You were on your own. You had to get your own train ride or they gave you money for travel and stuff like that. You go wherever you wanted. I just left Fort Mead and I went down and got on a bus and went into Baltimore, got on a train for Detroit and away we went. Didn’t have - no one hardly ever went by airplane. There were some that did, but everybody used the train back then. So I came home on a train. It was all over then, so then we just -we either went to work or went to school, or whatever you wanted to do, you know.
TB: So did you go back to school?
PK: Oh yes.
TB: Was that on the G.I. bill?
PK: Oh yes, it was. I went to school and graduated and I became a school teacher.
TB: Did you keep any of your friends that you made in the Army?
PK: As a matter of fact, two weeks ago, I had lunch in Claire, Michigan with three fellows that were in my basic training company in Florida. We got together for the first time in almost 61 years. I hadn’t seen these guys in 61 years. Because after training we got kind of separated, one went here, one went there, you know. So, they somehow got my name, and they called me up and said, “hey,” you know. I didn’t even know those guys were still alive. And so we made arrangements to meet at this restaurant in Claire, Michigan. It was just wonderful to see these guys again. Of course they are all married and old. They don’t - a lot of them don’t have any hair you know, they don’t look the way they did back in 1944. But, you know, it was really good to see these guys, because we had been through a lot together back then. You wonder how did they make out, are they still alive or aren’t they? How did they do and so forth? So, it was very, very nice to get together and we made arrangements to do it again soon. That was very nice.
TB: Did you join a veterans association?
PK: Yes, I joined the VFW, but I’m not active in it, and I joined the Disabled American Veterans, the DAV they call it, and I am a lifetime member in that, and uh, so those are the two that I have.
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TB: What impact did your military experience influence your thinking about war, and warfare?
PK: Well, here’s what I think about it. I think everybody, male, female, anybody when they get out of high should spend at least one year in military service. It gives you direction. It gives you an appreciation for life in general. Rather than, you know, a lot of people just bumble around don’t do anything get in trouble sometimes. It really is a -a real positive direction to take. It doesn’t hurt you to be in the military for one year. Of course, now I realize now with the war going on, that can be a drastic step, over there in Iraq and all, but in general, the military for one year’s service, they have this over in Israel, you know. You- everybody goes in for one year of service for one year, male, female it makes no difference, as long as they are physically fit. It hasn’t done them any harm. It straightens a lot of people out. It makes them a lot better person, all the way around and I’m all for it. I will never regret having gone it into the service. In fact, I am happy I did to tell you the truth, because it has been a real positive in my life.
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TB: Could you talk more about what it was like to liberate the concentration camp?
PK: Yes, we got into, we came into this town and we saw this camp and all these people walking around. You’ve seen pictures of a concentration camp and all the people were in. That’s exactly what it was like. They had these uniforms, like pajamas outfits, and it was really bad, I mean it was just terrible. People were - a lot of them were in a hospital. They couldn’t even raise up their head. They were just starved and worked to death. It was very cold. A lot of them didn’t have clothes enough. They didn’t have shoes. They had this crematorium and they had these bodies stacked up just like cord wood for about 100 feet just waiting to be cremated and they hadn’t quite gotten around to them yet, you know. Then we came on the scene. The people were so glad to see us, they started mobbing us. The people were so happy to see us. There weren’t many of us. There were only thirty or forty of us. There were 3,000 of these inmates and they were hungry, so we back off and called up our commanding officer and he got a hold of somebody from someplace and they brought in a bunch of Catholic nuns that were, I don’t know where they were from, I didn’t ever hear. They got in touch with the Red Cross and they set up these great big huge pots. I mean huge they were big. They started feeding these people some kind of really thin soup because that’s all they could handle. They hadn’t eaten in so long. If you gave them, say, a ham sandwich that would have killed them. So they fed them this real thin soup to begin with, and that kind of helped. It was a very, very traumatic thing to see all that. Just, wonder how people could do that to other people. And my biggest fear of my generation is that future generations could forget about that happening, or even I have heard of people who say that didn’t happen. Believe me it did happen. A few years ago I returned to Ebensee. The camp area is now a fashionable subdivision of beautiful homes. Except for the cemetery.
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TB: What was it like to be under fire as part of your reconnaissance?
PK: Well, it’s not very nice. When you are getting fired at and you wonder which way you should duck. Should you go this way or that way? You want to take cover. Sometimes if you are in a fox hole you just start digging a little deeper maybe. You just have to keep your wits about you and try to figure out where it came from and then return their fire. One way or George Patton, said, you know, he was out of the Third Army, you know - he was my commanding general. Anyway, he always said, “remember you shouldn’t have to die for your country, make the other guy died for his country.”
No, it’s not a nice thing to be fired out, especially when you don’t know where it’s coming from. If you know where it’s coming from that’s one thing. You know, you might say sort of get out of the way and sort of return the fire. It’s not a real nice experience.
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TB: What were the people’s responses when you were in enemy territory?
PK: You mean civilians?
TB: Yes
PK: I got to say this. I didn’t like the French. The French were belligerent. They didn’t like us for some reason, I didn’t know what it was. They treated us like we were an intrusion on them or something. On the other hand, I got to say this, people may not believe this, but the German people were just really nice, you know, really nice. Maybe they were smart enough to know they were beaten and they were not going to make any more waves, you know. But they were polite; they did anything we asked them to do and did it without grumbling- especially the older people and the children. We loved the children, they’d come up, you know- of course we had a lot of candy- candy and chocolate and we passed that out. And boy, you know, that was great. They didn’t know what that was; they hadn’t had - they never had candy. The German people were much more congenial, except for the French. I have no use for the French people. They treated us like we shouldn’t been breathing, you know. At least that’s our experience. I could name a couple of instances, but I won’t do that. They just were not nice people- at least to us, anyway.
TB: Is there anything else you would like to add?
PK: Well, No, I think one thing. I think people of my generation were a little different, of course, you know they fought a little different, but we came back and we were so busy making our lives, going to school, getting married, and having kids and building a career and so forth, that we didn’t have much time to get into trouble, you know. And -but it -they were, I don’t know, let’s just say they were just a little more stable I might say than some of the generations like through the 60’s and 70’s and you know. But not to- everyone grows up sooner or later and gets a grip on things and, you know, going the right course. But, in general it’s a fun thing when people of my age of my generation get together and talk, we do this, you know. Because we have something in common, so, it’s just fun. The only problem is the World War II veterans are gone. They are dying at the rate of 1,500 a day. So pretty soon there won’t be many of us left. We got to enjoy it when we can.
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TB: One more question; what was it like to be in America when Germany, Italy and Japan were all attacking Europe and America?
PK: Oh, we were pretty cocky, you know. We felt, “well, hey, they want a fight, we’ll give you a fight.” We did, you know. There was never any doubt in any one’s mind, no way that we were not going to win that war. Sooner or later we were going take ‘em right down, and we did. That’s confidence. There was never any question about it; it was just a matter of time. We felt that well first off. We were superior because we were free thinking people. By that I mean, we could go out on our own and survive. And a lot of the Japanese and Germans couldn’t because if they didn’t have someone up there telling them what to do, they didn’t know what to do. They were like a car without a steering wheel, you know. So we were able - if we were in a firefight, say and like one of the officers got killed or wounded or taken out of commission, let���s put it that way, somebody would step right up and take over, you know. In the German army they couldn’t do that, they wouldn’t do that. They didn’t know what to do. They were sort of bewildered, or what do we do now, you know. We found that in several cases. It wasn’t true in all cases, but a lot of it. And so we had an advantage there, and we had better equipment and a lot of things.
We didn’t have better armor or guns; the Germans had better guns and armor than we did. We had number[s], you know. Like say for example you had one tank and it’s superior to anything we’ve got, we could put twenty tanks in there. Twenty against one no matter against how good the other guy is, you know. It’s got to go our way. So this is what we had, we had that advantage, and of course as the war kept going on we were building better and better equipment all the while. We had an unlimited amount of manpower you might say. There were some 20 million people were in service by the end of the war, that’s a lot of people. So, they couldn’t when they lost some people, they couldn’t replace them. By the end of the war they had old grandfathers like my age and young kids like 10, 11 years old we had to come up against. It wasn’t that was one bad thing. That’s about it. Anyway, that’s it.
TB: All right, thank you very much Mr. Kreft, I think that will wrap up the interview.
