A little background first:

In 1941 I arrived at Fort Smith, Arkansas to begin my military training.
We were trained by the academy from Fort Knox by General Pritchard
and then by General Smith when General Pritchard was replaced.
I was then transferred to Camp Campbell, Kentucky.
I departed from Camp Shanks in New York
and landed in Marseilles France.
We met up with the Moroccans (very big men) and then on to the Front Line, and then into Germany and the Ziegfield Line.
We moved alot through Germany.
Liberated Dachau (Patton's son was rumored to be a POW in Dachau).
I spent 30 months overseas, and received 4 medals.
1. Gunners Medal 75 mm
2. European Theater Operation
3. Bronze Star
4. Good Conduct

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A Pfc.'s view of the liberation of Dachau.

When I entered the concentration camp; Dachau,
the first thing I remember seeing were the boxcars filled with people;
dead and those barely alive.
My battalion was divided into different companies
and sent into the different POW huts.
We disarmed the prison guards,
which was no real problem as they were ready to give up,
and threw their guns into a pile.
We then made the prison guards the prisoners.
 

           The now ex-prisoners where helped into the main compound.
     Those prisoners who could help would then help their fellow prisoners,
               who could not walk by themselves, into the compound.
        We gave what "K-Rations" we had to the newly liberated prisoners.
The sight of so many human beings looking like walking skeletons
was very upsetting. How anyone could do what was done to these
people is incomprehensible.
What clothes that were on them hung as if on a hanger.
No shape at all. The haunting look of the people as they sat
and watched what was going on around them is etched in my mind.
I could count their ribs and see the bones in their backs.
Men and women about the same age as I was (26)
looked as if they were in their 60's.
The crying and wringing of hands were everywhere in the camp.

Our following orders were to have the  S.S. troopers
remove the bodies of the victims that were mass buried in a huge ditch.
This "ditch" was approximately 1/2 mile long,
and the dead were just dumped in and covered up with dirt.
The Troopers were then ordered to bury each victim in an individual grave.

The townspeople were marched past the open ditches to see
exactly what was done in the camp in their town.
Some of the people would pretend to cry; having an onion placed in a handkerchief, so it would look as if they were truly sorry.
Maybe the onion helped them to not smell the stench of decaying flesh.
I don't really know.
When it was discovered that someone had an onion,
it was taken away from them.

The S.S. troopers were also forced to clear out the crematoriums
and bury the ashes and bones of those prisoners murdered there.
The Allied Governments then ordered the guards loaded into a truck
and took them away to face charges.

I spent 4 or 5 days at Dachau.
The mistreatment and TORTURE of civilians was
the most sickening scene that I had seen during my entire tour of duty.
I do not know how the prisoners survived such treatment.
Adults who weighed maybe 60 pounds, but walking!
Some of the prisoners were taken out of their huts on pallets
and were unable to walk.
Some cheered, some cried, some were incapable of emotion.
Innocent people, raped body and soul.

Medals

  Bronze Star              Good Conduct
     

We are still looking for images of the
European Theater and Gunners 75mm medals.