11 April 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

11 April, 1945      2130

Germany

My dearest Sweetheart –

If ever a girl was neglected this past week – I guess it was you, dear. It seems as if I’ve written you less this week than any since we really started writing each other – and by the way, that’s a long, long time ago. I can’t remember the content of that first letter (I wonder if you have it) but I can remember most everything else about it. I knew I wanted to write you – figuring that I would lose no time then – in the interim between weekends; and besides, I’d be hearing from you, and that’s what I wanted. We were down on the Cape on firing practice of one sort or another – and although you’ve never said so yourself, sweetheart, I feel we began to know each other well – from that time on.

All that is a little beside the point although I like to dwell on it. What I started to say was that my trip to Paris was over. I’ve just now got through washing up and putting things back where they belong etc. I’m a tired guy tonite, darling, and it is not from dissipation. It’s from traveling. Figure it out for yourself – a 3 day pass – and I was away from battalion a total of 7 days. If it weren’t for the fact that after all – it was Paris – it wouldn’t be worth it, for the ride up and back was murder.

I can’t seem to remember what I told you about what I did and saw; probably very little – because the 3 of us were tearing around every minute of the 3 days – and there’s lots to see. In the first place – it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen – the buildings, sqares, places – etc are colorful and attractive – as are the women and the clothes they wear. Actually I don’t think I saw a half dozen beautiful women – but practically every woman is dressed stylishly, is made up well, has an individualistic hair-do – and if she wears a hat – well, enough said about that. There are clubs and cabarets – indoors and out, all over the place – and for Paris, the war is not only over, but forgotten. Sweaters are 2800 francs or $56.00, stockings 800 francs, handkerchiefs 300 francs – etc. It’s worse than London – by far. In the clubs – they pin the word ‘Sucker’ on you and they let you in; Usual charge is 100 francs admission and then drinks; in 90% of the places there is no choice – you must buy champagne at 790 francs. Oh – there’s a floor show, of course, and rank, too. We saw one good show – a place called the Taborin; we also went to the Folies Bergere – as all Americans do. As a matter of fact – everywhere we went – the audience, the crowd – was 75% American soldiers – and the performance is put on to suit the soldiers. The Folies – by the way, dear, is not as risqué as everyone makes it out to be.

We also took a tour around the city with a guide. I tried to get tickets to the opera – Damnation of Faust – but they were sold out.

The following are photos Greg collected in Paris in April of 1945

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]


Paris - Arc de Triomphe - April 1945


Paris - City Hall - April 1945


Paris - Notre Dame - April 1945


Paris - Place Vendome - April 1945


Paris - Palace of the Louvre - April 1945


Paris - The Seine - April 1945


Paris - The Senate - April 1945
Former home of the dowager queens


Paris - Winged Victory - April 1945




Paris - Les Invalides - April 1945
(The Hospital)


Paris - Pantheon - April 1945

I ran into one fellow I knew – perhaps you do – Sunny Rodman – a 1st lieutenant. He’s the tennis player from Dorchester and has a brother Bob Rodman – a lawyer and now in the Navy. Sunny is with SHAEF in Paris doing Press Censorship – a rather soft job I guess. He seemed a bit sheepish about it, too, as do most of the men we meet in the rear areas. They have to be dressed up always – blouse, etc – while we come to Paris in our O.D. shirts, trousers and Field jackets – what we wear everyday. In that regard, by the way, I can’t say too much about ARC in Paris. We were treated royally at our club – the Washington. Everything arranged for – is to suit Combat officers desires and they really do a fine job. Eating hours are late and convenient – and we had the run of the place.

Well – I’d better stop dribbling about Paris and tell you that you never left my mind or heart once, darling, in all the novelty and excitement. Honestly, dear, we could have had such a swell time here together. Someday – maybe – I can bring you back.

It seems as if I’ve been out of contact with you for ages. And when I got back – it was too late to get my mail – so I have to sweat it out until morning, dammit. But on the move – or not, dear – know always that I love you constantly and faithfully and that I always will. You’re the girl for me and I never forget that for one moment.

And now I’d better close – because tomorrow is another day – and when I got back – they said it was to be one of those days, dear – so I’ll try my best to write you Meanwhile, so long and love to the folks.

All my deepest love –

Greg.

The following are Postcards that Greg sent home from Paris in 1945

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]

Paris Postcard - Le Carrousel et le Louvre - 1945


Paris Postcard - La Tour Eiffel - 1945


Paris Postcard - La Grand Palais - 1945


Paris Postcard - Place de la Bastille - 1945


Paris Postcard - Porte Saint-Martin - 1945


Paris Postcard - Rue de Rivoli - 1945


Paris Postcard - The Pantheon - 1945

* TIDBIT *

about The American Red Cross Map of Paris


American Red Cross Map of Paris
Printed in February, 1945

Following are portions of an American Red Cross Map of Paris. The full map is 5 panels wide and 4 panels high, where folds indicate panels. The folded-up size (shown above) is 5-1/4 inches x 2-7/8 inches. Due to a shortage of paper in the European Theater of Operations, the maps were printed by the French on the backs of captured and recycled German maps.

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]


Main map. Red Crosses are Clubs.
The table below the map gives:
Club Number, Name, Address and Phone

Bottom Half of Map includes
Metro Map, Buildings, Places to See and "How to Ask Your Way"


German map upon which this Map of Paris was printed

10 April 1945

No letter today. Just this:

These two pictures of Greg, with his ever-present pipe,
were taken somewhere, some time in April of 1945.

Route of the Question Mark


[CLICK TO ENLARGE]

(A) Obermarsberg to (B) Eberschutz, Germany (30 miles)
2 April to 10 April 1945

April 10... Ebershutz. A pleasant little village, lots of attractive girls, lots of cattle and ducks, lots of ex-slave laborers, and the Officers lived in an attractive house set on an island in the middle of a stream.

* TIDBIT *

about The Fateful 49th

The following was taken from the "Speakers" section of Golden Gate Wing's web site.

On the 10th of April, 1945 the 20th Fighter Group was escorting about 1,300 B-17s and B-24s to targets in the Magdeburg and Berlin/Oranienburg area. The escorts were a mixed group of 800-plus P-51s and P-47s. Joe Peterburs, USAF (Retired), Combat Fighter Pilot in WWII, Korea and Vietnam tells his story of that day and a day years later.

Peterburs, flying his 49th mission, says he and his flight leader, Captain Dick Tracy, were flying high cover as a pair, the number three and four fighters having aborted the mission. Just after the bombers dropped their payloads, a swarm of Me-262 jets appeared. Peterburs today tells this story from the unique position of having first-hand information from Luftwaffe pilots who were in that day’s air battle:

Joe Peterburs, P-51 Pilot

There were about 50 Me-262s that took off to meet us. At Parchem Airfield, four of them were destroyed; two on the ground and two, just after they took off, were shot down. They were from 10/JG 7, and the other group that I am aware of was 3/JG7, led by an German ace Oberleutnant Walter Schuck. Schuck had spent most the war with JG5Eismeer, flying Bf 109s from Finland against Russians on the Allied supply route to Murmansk. He had 198 victories in that theater before he was sent to fly the Me-262. His transition to the 262 had consisted of being told to watch the jets take-off and land from a vantage point at the end of the runway, followed by a cockpit checkout. Before long, he was commanding 3/JG7.

On April 10th, 1945, the Luftwaffe had known the USAAF was headed over to bomb, and the alert to take off came as no surprise.

They wove up through the formation and Shuck kept his seven 262s together in close formation until they got through the first group of bombers and he destroyed two B-17s. Then he went sliding over to the second formation, the one that I was escorting.

Peterburs says he was flying about 5,000 feet over the bombers when he saw two Me-262s coming into the formation. He rolled over and started down.

Artist's Rendering of "Josephine",
P-51 flown by Joe Peterburs

Shuck is behind one of the B-17s. A little short burst of 30mm and - - bang, the 17 is gone. I’m still not on his tail and he pulls onto the second one... His tactic was porpoising through the formation. After hitting a B-17, he’d pull up to lose speed, then he’d come down and go on to the next one. By now, he’d blown up his fourth B-17, the second one that I’d seen personally blow up, and just at that time I’m pulling into his six o’clock position and I start firing. I get hits in his left engine and see some smoke and a little flame. Then he immediately goes into a slow right turn, diving down into the Berlin area.

Peterburs says even with the Me 262’s damaged engine he lost his speed advantage from the original dive, and he chased the jet down to about 3,000 feet, where Shuck turned and disappeared into a cloud layer, and then turned sharply to the left. The Luftwaffe ace figured the P-51 chasing him might try to pursue on the far side of the overcast. Shortly after the turn, Shuck's damaged engine began to disintegrate and Shuck was forced to bail out.

Walter Schuck, Me-262 Pilot

Peterburs decided against following the jet into the clouds, and with Capt. Dick Tracy still with him, he headed further down to an airfield near Berlin that he found out later was Finsterwalde.

It’s just loaded with aircraft, just every type you could think of. Dick takes over the lead and we get down on the deck, throttles wide open and we’re just cutting grass. We come up to the airfield, pop up and strafe. It was really nice. We caught ‘em by surprise. Dick got two on his first pass and I got one.

The two P-51s pulled up and came around for a second pass, when Peterburs saw a flak position he attacked. Capt. Tracy hit two more parked planes and was pulling up when his aircraft was hit, and he had to do a quick bailout at about 300 feet. He landed in a river near the airfield and was later captured.

I came around again, and I think I’m 20 years old, don’t have anything else to do, and here’s all these aircraft and I’m not going to leave them when I have them allto myself. So I crank myself down under the armor plating as far as I can get and continue to make passes. I end up making three more passes and get hit on the last two. The next to the last I got hit on the wing, but it didn’t cause any problems to Josephine. On the last pass I got an Fw-200 Condor. I was told recently that it happened to be one of Hitler’s fleet of Condors. That thing just blew. I got it, raked it right through the whole fuselage and it blew by the time I was pulling off. But then I felt a thud. I could see smoke and flame in my engine and I just pulled back as hard as I could to get as much altitude as I could.

Joe had destroyed at least 5 aircraft - - an Fw-190, Ju-88, two Me-109's and the Fw-200, damaged several others and exacted heavy damage on several hangars. Now, at about 10,000 feet, he made a decision to turn west. He was about 15 miles from Magdeburg, and losing altitude when he came under attack by an Fw-190.

By this time I’m down to 1,000 feet. At three o’clock, I see the Fw-190 coming at me. And he’s firing his guns, and he has some rockets and he fires those and they all miss. And I’m cussing like heck. I look at my altimeter and I’m at 500 feet, too low to bail out. So I grab the stick and start looking for a place to belly it in. And then it comes to my stupid head that I’m all un-strapped. Because I was going to bail out and if I’d bellied the thing in, I’m just not going to make it.

Peterburs says these thoughts raced through his mind in probably a millisecond. While the altimeter wound down to 350 feet, he climbed out on the left wing of the P-51 (the right side was burning) and let go.

I hit the tail with my right knee, pulled the ripcord, the chute opened, I swung once and hit the ground. Hard, very hard.

Peterburs found himself in the middle of a field, with a group of 15-20 farmers running toward him. He took his .45 pistol out, removed the clip and threw it one direction, threw the extra clip in another direction, and threw the .45 in a third direction. He says the farmers were upon him and were ready to do him in when a Luftwaffe sergeant rode up on a motorcycle, fired a couple of warning shots from a Luger and told the farmers to let the downed airman go. Next, another group of citizens came and talked the sergeant into bringing Joe to what he thought was the town hall.

Peterburs says the local police chief, a man with a black leather glove over what had been his left hand, pulled out his Luger, placing the barrel at Joe’s temple and threatening to shoot. But the Luftwaffe sergeant trained his pistol at the police chief and said he would be leaving with Peterburs. A twenty-minute motorcycle ride later, Joe was at a nearby airfield, where he was placed in solitary confinement and interrogated by the Gestapo for three days. While there, he spent the nights in a bomb shelter with the Germans during nightly bombings by the British.

Peterburs was next moved by rail boxcar to Stalag 11, which became a short stay because the Germans were evacuating the camp before advancing Allied forces. The Germans put him with a group of about 100 British soldiers for a ten-day march towards the east, a march under constant attack by Allied fighter planes.

We get to Stalag 3 at Luckenwalde which was a Russian and Scandinavian prisoner camp. And guess who I bump into? Capt. Tracy has been sitting there for ten days, along with Sgt. Lewis who was in one of the B-17s shot down, as well as Sgt. Krup, who could speak fluent Russian.

The four men, acting on a plan hatched before Peterburs arrived, took advantage of lax security and went under the fence. About 4-5 miles from the camp, the freed POWs heard the rumble of Soviets tanks, and sent Sgt. Krup (who could speak Russian) to speak with the Russians. Handed weapons, the four airmen were inducted into a Red Army tank corps and fought with them from Juterberg to the Elbe.

As we were going, German civilians, as soon as they found out Americans were with the Russians, sought us out. They wanted us to sleep with their daughters, sleep in their houses, so they’d be protected from the rape and pillage that was going on with the Russians. I accepted sleeping in their house, but not sleeping with their daughters.

We eventually got to Wittenberg, preceded by the Stormaviks flying close air support. About that time I noticed they were keeping tighter control of me. I didn’t know why, but this was the time of the Potsdam Conference and tensions were starting to become high between the Allies and the Russians.

When the Soviets reached the Elbe he joined a US Army infantry unit that met with the Russians and did mop up operations around Halle, a major Luftwaffe base.

I was able to pick up some beautiful souvenirs: flying suits, dress uniforms and the like. I stuffed them in my duffel bag. Then we finally ended up playing poker and the Army guys getting me so drunk I lost all my souvenirs. I got mad and just took off by myself and walked about five miles down the road.

There, Joe saw a C-47 parked in a field, with some political prisoners being loaded on board for a flight to Paris. Peterburs asked for a ride and soon found himself in the French capital, stamped, deloused and sent to a POW collection point called "Camp Lucky Strike" to soon be returned to the United States. The war was over for him, he was anxious to be married and settle into a ‘regular’ life.

Flash Forward

Fifty-four years later (1998), Peterburs was contacted by Werner Dietrich, an amateur historian in from Burg, Germany. In a letter, Dietrich stated that on April 10, 1945 he was a 13-year old boy hiding in a ditch watching an air battle above him. He saw a Fw-190 fire rockets at a P-51 and miss, and saw Peterburs bail out. Dietrich also said he knew where the Mustang crashed. In 1996, after East and West Germany were reunified, Dietrich used the serial number from aircraft parts he found to begin an exhaustive 19-month search for the pilot. In May of 1998, when a documentary producer invited Peterburs to Germany for a reunion with Dietrich, Joe had to refuse. He was caring for his wife after her stroke and was unwilling to leave her. The producer made arrangements for Dietrich and a video crew to visit him in Colorado Springs for a follow-up documentary.

Meanwhile, Dietrich kept working on the story, talking to people from Finsterwalde and finding the pilot of the Me-262 that Peterburs had hit. About three months later, Dietrich announced by letter he’d found the jet pilot, 206 aerial victory Luftwaffe ace Walter Schuck. Peterburs says he gave it about a 50% chance of being the true story.

That was the way I left it until about 2003. I get an email from a Christer Bergstrom, a prolific writer on German air operations in World War Two. He’s writing Walter’s biography. And I’d been in contact with Mario Schultz from Oranianberg, who had also been researching that particular mission.

Schultz requested Peterburs’ account of that April 10, 1945 mission. In less than a week he told Joe that it must be conclusive that Joe had shot down Walter Schuck. Shultz’s conclusion was based on confirmation that Shuck was the only Me-262 pilot who shot down two B-17s on that day, and that Peterburs’ description of Shuck’s last two B-17 shootdowns that day was, detail-by-detail, virtually identical. On 18 May 2005 Joe Peterburs met Walter Shuck in person.

It was a tremendous experience, and we took to each other immediately. We are the best of friends.

Walter (on the wing), Joe and a P-51 named "Josephine".

09 April 1945

V-MAIL

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

9 April, 1945

Hello darling!

Well – in about two hours I get on a train and head back. Frankly, I’m pooped. But it has been worth it. We really covered Paris, dear, and if we ever get a chance to come here some day – this is another place I’ll be able to show you.

You certainly get out of touch with the war here – but in a couple of days – we’ll be back in full swing. I hope you excuse the consecutive V-mails, sweetheart, but I’ve been on the go for 3 days steady. But I’ll get on my horse when I get back, dear – and tell you all about everything. I can tell you now that I love you more than ever and would love to have had you here these past 3 days.

All my love –

Greg

"From Holland into Germany"
Returning from Paris Leave - 09 April 1945

* TIDBIT *

about Cautious Optimism

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Map from Normandy to Victory:
The War Diary of General Courtney H. Hodges,
copyright 2008 by the Association of the United States Army, p360.

From TIME magazine, 9 April 1945, Vol. XLV, No. 15, comes this article titled "World Battlefronts, WESTERN FRONT: On History's Edge".

Nine Allied armies, knifing into central Germany, trapped one Nazi army group and were on the verge of cutting off a second. In this week, on the edge of history, the outnumbered, outmaneuvered, broken Wehrmacht faced the chilling prospect of losing two-thirds of its strength in the west.

Completely encircled in the industrial Ruhr—Germany's last important source of coal, power and war machines—were some 100,000 troops of Field Marshal Walter Model's Army Group B. Rapidly pulling out of The Netherlands in a race against the British was Field Marshal Johannes Blaskowitz' Army Group H. The British were well on the road to Bremen, Hamburg and Wilhelmshaven. If they won the race, then Blaskowitz's fight was virtually over.

Field Marshal Johannes Blaskowitz

But the Allies were not merely waiting for that trap to spring. American and British tank columns cut eastward along Adolf Hitler's wide superhighways with overwhelming power. The farthest advanced Americans were only 198 miles from the nearest Russians. What was left to the Germans for the defense of Berlin, of Leipzig and Munich was a beaten, confused, retreating mass that could turn to fight only in knots of resistance. The last hope of the Nazi command seemed to be only this: abandon the north-south defense of Germany as speedily as possible and pivot to hold the southern bastion of the Bavarian Alps for a final, suicidal defense.

And even that hope was in danger. If the western Allies and the Russians, beating up from the Austrian frontier, could meet quickly, the bastion would be useless. Allied tank columns tore southeast toward Nürnberg at week's end.

Arms Around the Ruhr. The Ruhr encirclement—major prize in a week of blue ribbon advances—was a product of two armies. Lieutenant General William H. Simpson's U.S. Ninth (under the tactical direction of Field Marshal Sir Bernard L. Montgomery) threw one arm around the top. Lieutenant General Courtney H. Hodges' First Army (under General Omar N. Bradley's Twelfth Army Group) turned north, tore through the last German defenses to wrap the other arm. The Ninth and the First shook hands at a street corner in the little town of Lippstadt on Easter Sunday. A First Army commander found Colonel Sidney R. Hinds giving orders to his combat team of the Ninth. Said a nearby corporal: "That makes it formal."

On to Bremen. In the north the growing British threat to seal off The Netherlands was suddenly revealed. After five days of news blackout, cautious Field Marshal Montgomery lifted the curtain a little. His British Second Army was making spectacular strides into the Westphalian plain along the hedge-lined roads. His drive swung up into the cathedral town of Münster, and was reported this week hightailing northward less than 75 miles from Bremen.

In the U.S. Third Army sector, Lieutenant General George S. Patton's armor had driven into the outskirts of Kassel. South of Patton, Lieutenant General Alexander M. Patch's U.S. Seventh Army—a late starter across the Rhine—was one of the farthest east. South of Patch this week the French First Army jumped across the Rhine to join the fight in the Karlsruhe area. Somewhere between Patton and Hodges to the north, the U.S. Fifteenth Army came into battle.

Another article in the same issue of TIME,"World Battlefronts, THE WAR: The Armor and the Ax", hinted that the end of the war was near:

In western Europe U.S. spearheads sealed off the great Ruhr industrial area, British and Canadian troops curved a trap around The Netherlands. The entire German military situation was collapsing. General Eisenhower called upon the beaten enemy to yield.

In the western Pacific U.S. forces stormed into the key Ryukyu Islands,less than 400 miles from Japan's heartland, against opposition which was, at least in the beginning, fantastically light. Ice-calm Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz relaxed his studied reserve enough to admit: "Our final decisive victory is assured."

In the sixth year of war the Allied peoples had learned patience and caution, learned that victory could be long in coming. But last week even the most cautious could agree that victory had been brought a long step nearer. It was a week in which the Axis armor cracked wide open,and the Allied ax bit deep into muscle and bone.

08 April 1945

V-MAIL

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

8 April, 1945

Paris Sunday Morning

Wilma, darling –

It’s a fine day here today and we’re going to take a regular tour around the city after lunch. Up to now we’ve just been going here and there and seeing what we’ve wanted. Yesterday we went around to do a bit of shopping – but believe me – c’est formidable! In the evening we went to the night club area – in the Montmartre Section – the area is Pigalle and obviously is known to all Americans as pig alley. We got into a club known as the Tabarin – known for its floor show – which was good. But everything in Paris is on the racket basis – and beats London – six different ways.

But the 3 of us are having a swell time and the Army really knows what it’s doing when it makes these trips available. We’re tired and yet relaxed. The change is good. Going to eat now, sweetheart. Will write tomorrow. Love to the folks – and for now –

All my everlasting love –

Greg

Except for the straight-edged pictures,
the following photos were taken by Greg
on 7-8 April 1945 during his Paris leave.

[CLICK TO ENLARGE]


Paris - Air View of the Isle of the City - April 1945


Paris - Tower Eiffel - April 1945


Paris - Eiffel Tower - April 1945


Marks on Columns - Result of Brief Fight on Day of Liberation


Paris - Fountain - Place de la Concorde - April 1945


Paris - Cathedral - Notre Dame - April 1945


Paris - Royal Residence - April 1945


Paris - Looking from Louvre Station
Down to Place D'Opera - April 1945


Paris - Folies Bergere - April 1945
"Like everyone else, I had to go see it, too"


Paris - Major Glenn Miller Band at the Olympia - April 1945
"GIs wondering if they'll go in.
Miller missing - but band retains name."


Paris - "Fashion Show (I didn't go in)." - April 1945


Paris - Montmartre - Ticket for Club Tabarin - April 1945

* TIDBIT *

about The Merkers Mine Treasure

The following has been extracted from the National Archives "Prologue Magazine" web site:

Just before noon on April 4, the village of Merkers fell to the 3rd Battalion of the 358th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division, Third Army. During April 4 and 5, displaced persons in the vicinity interrogated by the Counter Intelligence Corps personnel mentioned rumors of a recent movement of German Reichsbank gold from Berlin to the Wintershal AG's Kaiseroda potassium mine at Merkers.

Early the next morning, two military policemen guarding the road entering Keiselbach from Merkers saw two women approaching and promptly stopped them. While they were being driven back into Merkers, their driver saw the Kaiseroda mine and asked the women what sort of a mine it was. They said it was the mine in which the German gold reserve and valuable artworks had been deposited several weeks before. On 6 April Lieutenant Colonel William A. Russell, the 90th Infantry Division's Civilian Affairs officer, proceeded to the mine and was told that the works of art stored in the mine were cared for by Dr. Paul Ortwin Rave, curator of the German State Museum and assistant director of the National Galleries, both in Berlin. Russell questioned Rave as well as Werner Veick, the head cashier of the Reichsbank's Foreign Notes Department who was also at the mine.  Veick indicated that the gold in the mine constituted the entire reserve of the Reichsbank in Berlin.

With this evidence, Russell requested that the 712th Tank Battalion be ordered to proceed to Merkers to guard the entrances to the mine. Elements of the 90th Division Military Police were also deployed about the entrances, and arrangements were made for generation of power and electricity at the mine so that the shafts could be entered for examination the next morning. When it was learned that there were at least five possible entrances to the mine, the 90th Infantry Division's commanding general called the 357th Infantry Regiment and ordered that its First Battalion proceed to Merkers to relieve the 90th Division Military Police and reinforce the 712th Tank Battalion. Word was passed on to the Corps Commander, Major General Manton S. Eddy, who immediately called Patton and informed him of the capture of the German gold reserves at Merkers. Patton, who had been burned on so many rumors, told him not to mention the capture of the gold until they definitely confirmed it.

Throughout most of the war, the bulk of the German gold reserves had been held at the Reichsbank in Berlin. In 1943, late 1944 and early 1945, as American bombing of Berlin increased and the Allies pushed toward the city, some of the gold reserve and a large quantity of Reichmarks were dispersed from Berlin to branch banks in central and southern Germany. On 3 February 1945, 937 B-17 bombers of the Eighth Air Force dropped nearly twenty-three hundred tons of bombs on Berlin, causing the near demolition of the Reichsbank, including its presses for printing currency. On 11 February most of the gold reserves, including gold brought back from the branch banks to Berlin for shipment to Merkers, currency reserves totaling a billion Reichsmarks bundled in one thousand bags, and a considerable quantity of foreign currency, were transported by rail to Merkers. Once the train reached Merkers, the treasure was unloaded and placed in a special vault area in the mine designated Room No. 8.

The Schutzstaffeln's (SS) Office for Economy and Administration, which operated the concentration camps, also wanted their loot held by the Reichsbank to be sent to Merkers for safekeeping. From 26 August 1942, until 27 January 1945, the SS made seventy-six deliveries to the Reichsbank of property seized from concentration camp victims. Gold jewelry was sold abroad; gold of some fineness was sold either to the Prussian Mint or to Degussa, a large German industrial firm that engaged in the refinement of precious metals. Much of the miscellaneous jewelry was sold through the Berlin Municipal Pawn Shop. By early 1945, much of the loot had been processed, but a significant amount still remained with the Reichsbank. The confiscated property on hand in March 1945 consisted of all kinds of gold and silver items ranging from dental work to cigarette cases, diamonds, gold and silver coins, foreign currencies, and gold and silver bars. The gold and silver bars were placed in 18 bags, and the remainder of the loot was placed in 189 suitcases, trunks, and boxes and, along with other items, were sent by rail to Merkers on 18 March. Additionally, between 20 March and 31 March the Germans transported one-fourth of the major holdings of fourteen of the principal Prussian state museums to Merkers.

At 10 a.m. on 7 April, Russell, the assistant division commander, and two other 90th Infantry Division officers, Signal Corps photographers, Rave, and German mining officials entered the mine. The elevator took them to the bottom of the main shaft twenty-one hundred feet beneath the surface. In the main haulage way, stacked against the walls, they found 550 bags of Reichsmarks. Moving down the tunnel, the Americans found the main vault to be blocked by a brick wall three feet thick, enclosing a portion of the mine at least one hundred feet wide with a large bank-type steel safe door, complete with combination lock and timing mechanism with a heavy steel door set in the middle of it. Attempts to open the steel vault door were unsuccessful and arrangements were made for blasting an entrance in the vault the following morning.

Early on 8 April 1945 Earnest, Russell, a public affairs officer, photographers, reporters, and elements of the 282d Engineer Combat Battalion entered the mine. The engineers, using a half-stick of dynamite, blasted an entrance though the masonry wall. The Americans entered the vault, so-called Room No. 8, which was approximately 75 feet wide by 150 feet long with a 12-foot-high ceiling, well lighted but not ventilated. Tram railway tracks ran down the center of the cavern. On either side of the tracks, stretching to the back of the cavern, were more than seven thousand bags, stacked knee-high, laid out in twenty rows with approximately two and a half feet between rows. All of the bags and containers were marked, and the gold bags were sealed. Baled currency was found stacked along one side of the vault along with gold balances and other Reichsbank equipment. At the back of the cavern, occupying an area twenty by thirty feet, were 18 bags and 189 suitcases, trunks, and boxes. Each container bore a packing slip showing the contents. It was all SS loot.

Merkers Mine - Bags of Gold - April 1945

In order to examine the contents, some of the seals on the bags were broken, and a partial inventory was made. The inventory indicated that there were 8,198 bars of gold bullion; 55 boxes of crated gold bullion; hundreds of bags of gold items; over 1,300 bags of gold Reichsmarks, British gold pounds, and French gold francs; 711 bags of American twenty-dollar gold pieces; hundreds of bags of gold and silver coins; hundreds of bags of foreign currency; 9 bags of valuable coins; 2,380 bags and 1,300 boxes of Reichsmarks (2.76 billion Reichsmarks); 20 silver bars; 40 bags containing silver bars; 63 boxes and 55 bags of silver plate; 1 bag containing six platinum bars; and 110 bags from various countries.

While the treasure was being reviewed on 8 April, in other tunnels Americans found an enormous cache of artworks. Late that day, Captain Robert Posey, a Museum, Fine Arts and Archives (MFAA) officer, and Major Perera, G-5, Third Army, arrived to inspect the artworks and the gold and currency. On 8 April Patton learned that in addition to the paper money found the day before, his soldiers had found a significant quantity of gold, and he also learned that the press had found out about the Merkers mine and had published stories about the capture of the gold. Patton called General Omar N. Bradley, commander of the U.S. Twelfth Army Group, and told him that owing to the amount of the seizure and the fact that it had been made public, he believed it was now a political question and requested that Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower, be asked to send somebody to take it over.

Merkers Mine - Manet's Wintergarden - April 1945

The person who would take over the Merkers operation was Colonel Bernard D. Bernstein, deputy chief, Financial Branch, G-5 Division of SHAEF. Late on the morning of April 8, Bernstein, at SHAEF headquarters at Versailles, read a front-page story in the Paris edition of the New York Herald Tribune about the discovery of the gold and other treasures at Merkers. On the evening of 10 April, Bernstein drove to Patton's headquarters. Patton told Bernstein that he was very glad Eisenhower was taking responsibility for the gold. Bernstein told him that he wanted to move the Merkers treasure to Frankfurt as quickly as possible and that under the Big Three arrangements at Yalta, the Merkers part of Germany would be taken over by the Russians after the war and that they certainly needed to get the treasure out of the area before the Russians got there. Astounded at what Bernstein told him, not knowing about the postwar arrangements, Patton said he would do everything possible to facilitate Bernstein's mission.

Bernard Bernstein
(30 November 1908 - 6 February 1990)

On the morning, 12 April, Bernstein was at the mine very early to ensure everything was prepared for a visit by Eddy, Patton, Bradley and Eisenhower and members of their staffs. Bernstein met them at the mine entrance, took the generals and several German officials into the mine, and they descended by elevator. As the jittery elevator descended with ever-accelerating speed down the pitch-black shaft, with a German operating the elevator, Bernstein was concerned about their safety. So was Patton. Looking at the single cable, Patton said if the cable snapped "promotions in the United States Army would be considerably stimulated." General Eisenhower said "OK George, that's enough. No more cracks until we are above ground again."

The generals entered Room No. 8 and looked around in awe at the captured gold. They then inspected the SS loot. Eisenhower was moved by the experience. "Crammed into suitcases and trunks and other containers was a great amount of gold and silver plate and ornament obviously looted from private dwellings throughout Europe" he wrote. "All the articles," he noted, "had been flattened by hammer blows, obviously to save storage space, and then merely thrown into the receptacle, apparently pending an opportunity to melt them down into gold or silver bars." Later Patton would write that he saw "a number of suitcases filled with jewelry, such as silver and gold cigarette cases, wrist-watch cases, spoons, forks, vases, gold-filled teeth, false teeth, etc." acquired by "bandit methods." Eisenhower was very interested in learning what was in the mine. Bernstein informed the generals that some of the treasure had come from victims in the concentration camps; how the treasure had come to be shipped there; and estimates as to its value. He also told them he was planning to take an inventory of everything and to move the treasures to Frankfurt. Eisenhower and the other generals concurred with Bernstein's plans.

Eddy, Patton, Bradley and Eisenhower
Inspect a Suitcase of SS Loot
Merkers Mine - April 1945

Bernstein also showed the generals the art treasures, plates the Reichsbank used for the printing of the Reichsmark currency, and the currency itself. While they were looking at the latter, a German official said that they were the last reserves in Germany and were badly needed to pay the German army. "I doubt," Bradley interjected, "the German Army will be meeting payrolls much longer." Near the end of the inspection, Bradley said to Patton, "If these were the old free-booting days when a soldier kept his loot you'd be the richest man in the world." Patton just grinned. With that said, the one-hour inspection concluded, and the party, which had included newspapermen and Signal Corps photographers taking numerous photos of the inspection, returned to the surface.

Bradley, Patton and Eisenhower Inspect Artworks
Merkers Mine - April 1945

Between 14 and 17 April, the findings in the Merkers mine were moved to Frankfurt. On April 18 Bernstein sent a detailed report of the activities that had taken place during the preceding two weeks. He concluded by observing that "the Germans hid their assets in mines and other secret places in Germany, presumably with the intent of maintaining a source of financing of pro-Nazi activity." "Many of these caches," he continued, "have not yet been uncovered and should be ferreted out as soon as operations permit." He observed that it was "necessary that some procedure be established for analyzing and utilizing the property and records found in the Merkers area and those uncovered in the future." "Intelligence reports," he wrote, "indicate that just as the Germans secreted assets and valuable property within Germany, they also made elaborate arrangements for secreting assets in neutral and other nations of the world." "Every step should be taken," he urged, "in Germany to obtain information of the assets secreted both inside and outside Germany so that these assets cannot be used to perpetuate Nazism or contribute to the rebuilding of Nazi influence."

Despite a lack of great interest, Bernstein, with a small reconnaissance party in Jeeps, left Frankfurt on April 19 in search of more loot. During the next two weeks his teams covered nineteen hundred miles, checking Reichsbanks all over American occupied Germany and following up every lead regarding the whereabouts of gold. Of all the places visited by the reconnaissance parties, only three actually yielded recoveries of the so-called Reichsbank gold in the amount of $3 million. During May and June American soldiers found Reichsbank gold valued at about $11 million. Altogether the Americans had recovered 98.6 percent of the $255.96 million worth of gold shown on the closing balances of the Precious Metals Department of the Berlin Reichsbank.

In mid-August experts from the United States Treasury Department and the Bank of England completed the job of weighing and appraising the gold, gold coin, and silver bars that had been captured. The total value of the gold found in Germany was placed at $262,213,000. Also weighed and appraised was $270,469 worth of silver, as well as a ton of platinum. Eight bags of rare gold coins had not been appraised, nor had the SS loot.

During the summer of 1945, Allied currencies found at Merkers and elsewhere by the Americans were returned to various countries, and the process of restituting the artworks found at Merkers and elsewhere in the former German Reich began. The gold found at Merkers was eventually turned over to the Tripartite Commission for the Restitution of Monetary Gold (TGC) for distribution to countries whose central-bank gold had been stolen by the Nazis. The TGC began the process of getting the gold returned to most countries as quickly as possible. However, cold war factors resulted in some of the gold not being restituted until 1996.

The accomplishments of recovering, moving, and managing the Merkers treasure by Colonel Bernstein and his colleagues may or may not have shortened the war. But they did block the Nazi leaders from further use of their looted gold and property of victims of their persecution. Their actions also ensured that the central banks of Europe would recover at least some of the gold the Nazis had seized and that some funds would be available for restitution to individuals. At an international Nazi Gold conference held in 1997, several countries agreed to relinquish their claims to their share of the remaining 5.5 metric tons (worth about sixty million dollars) still held by the TGC and donate it to a Nazi Persecution Relief Fund to help survivors of the Holocaust. Almost all of the claimant nations similarly agreed to such a policy during the course of 1998. Early in September 1998, in a ceremony held in Paris, the TGC announced its task was completed and went out of business. Thus, the Merkers story ends on a noble, selfless, just, and moral note, as upwards of fifteen countries were willing to forego receiving gold stolen from their nations by the Nazis and allow it to be used as compensation for victims of Nazi persecution.

Two videos about the Merker Mine follow. The first is a British PBS Channel 4 Documentaries exploring the Merkers Mine. The second, silent original U.S. Army footage donated to the Harry S. Truman Library by Col Bernard Bernstein, shows the mine being "liberated" in April of 1945.