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LETTER FROM CLAUDE DEMPSEY

 

NOTE: In 1986-87 I began a search for our old company buddies. I used a forty-one year old mailing list. I was lucky to account for 140 of the 212 members. Forty of them are dead. Our average age was 67. I have an active mailing list of 100 of my buddies. We were successful in getting twenty-six of them along with their wives to have a reunion of our Company, in conjunction with the 3rd Armored Division 40th Annual Reunion in Wichita, Kansas, September, 1987. As we corresponded over that year it was learned that two of the fellows thought to be killed, were not. They were taken prisoner: Vernon Jensen, the radio operator I replaced, and Claude Dempsey, another crew member.

Claude Dempsey writes:

March 11, 1987

Dear Bill,

I'm writing for Claude. A stroke in 1975 makes it difficult for him to write. Left some damage to the right hand and the left hand doesn't function well because of wounds when the half track was shelled. So I will write as best I can as he tells me the story and as if he were writing it.

Taking events from where Vernon Jensen wrote of them. We had pulled off and were to meet two engineer trucks who were then to follow us back to the supply dump. Our half track (Seldon Swift) and three light tanks were then to guide the supply trucks up. When the engineer trucks pulled in, a Sgt. told us they had driven in on the road the night before. Capt. McGee looked at the map and it looked as if it would lead back to the dump. (We should have gone back the way we came in). Anyway, we took that road. Champ was driving and as we came around an S curve (South of Leige) and turned west a Tiger tank under camouflage started firing. I saw brush and leaves fly and a huge ball of fire. A shell exploded in the half-track. It went down an embankment but didn't turn over. Four of us got out, Jensen, Michaels, Capt. McGee and me. I didn't see the Capt. again. I heard he was killed in an open field not far away. There were German soldiers all over. Jensen and Michaels could not see. Ammunition was exploding in the half-track. Michaels was trying to crawl away from it.

They shot him. I was hit in the left arm and thigh. I had lost a lot of blood and could no longer stand when they come to me. I handed over my gun. The soldier was playing around with it and I thought for a while he would shoot me with my own gun. Jensen and I were taken prisoner. Sent to Bonn, Germany. While there an artery burst in my left arm. I was then taken to a hospital in Seigburg where they repaired the artery. The best they could do was to cut out the damaged part and sew it together. This caused the small, ring, and index fingers to double over in the hand. If I had been in American hands it could have been repaired. By the time I was released it was too late. From the hospital I went to Hanover. (Had to find a pair of shoes. They forgot to send mine with me). From Hanover, I went to Newbrandenburg which was the location of Stalag II A. Our mode of transportation for the grand tour of half of Germany was charcoal burning flat bed trucks and box car. We arrived at Stalag II A in time for Christmas. The red cross packages kept us alive. My weight was below a 100 lbs. when the Russians came through, liberated us and flattened Newbrandenburg. This was April 28th, 1945. It was May 29th before I was back in American hands. I was flown to Brussels, Belgium from there to Camp Lucky Strike near Le Harve, France. I was there a month, came back by ship to Camp Patrick Henry, Virginia. From there to the Army Navy Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I was discharged December 12, 1945. Have been living in K.C., Kansas since my marriage in July, 1945.

I worked in car upholstering in maintenance for Gustin-Bacon (now Certain-Teed), a truck driver and the last seven years of employment for a ceramic tile company. I was disabled as far as holding a job in 1975.

We have a 28-year-old daughter and 2 granddaughters. One is 4 years and one is 5. ItÕs nice to be a grandpa.

Hope to meet you at the reunion.

Claude  

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