USAREUR - Cities

I was assigned to the 3rd Replacement Depot in Marburg, Germany in the Fall of 1946. My assignment to the Depot came about by a stroke of luck and being in the right place at the right time.

I disembarked the ship at Bremerhaven and boarded a troop train to the Replacement Depot at Marburg. Upon climbing down from the train, I came face to face with a S/Sgt. that was a couple of years ahead of me in High School in Winnsboro, Texas, where we had played football together on the Winnsboro High Team. He was part of the Cadre at the Replacement Depot, and he informed me that he was going back to the States in a few days. He asked me if I would like to be assigned as permanent party in the Depot. I said sure, and he arranged for an interview for me. I was accepted and remained assigned to the Depot untill I was sent back to the States in Feburary, 1949 for discharge.

I worked my way up through the ranks to become the Sgt. in charge of the Troop Movement Section of the Depot. It was our job to provide the transportation to their barracks for the troops that arrived in Marburg by troop train, and then to transport them back to the trains when they were assigned to units all over Germany, France, and Austria. Sometimes we ran convoys of trucks to transport large assignments of troops to the same place.

The Depot also processed and assigned Officers up through the rank of Lt. Colonel. My rank was S/Sgt, but when I was in charge of a convoy of Officers to transport them to their new assignments, the passenger seat of the first truck at the head of the convoy was mine. Most every time when I would complete calling the roster and loading the convoy of Officers, I would find an Officer in my seat when I was ready to move out. About the only trouble I every had when I told them that was my seat and they would have to sit in back, was with mostly Lts. I've had to tell them that my CO was a Full Colonel and that he expected me to command the convoy from the front seat.

I also was there in Marburg for almost all of the Berlin Airlift. We ran convoys of troops to the airport at Frankfurt to ship to Berlin. I remember we had to give each soldier a copy of their orders written in Russian in case their plane went down in Russian territory. Our planes had, to the best of my knowledge, a 20 mile wide corridor to fly in going in to Berlin, and if they strayed too close to the boundary line, Russian fighter planes would threaten them.

The activity going on around the airport at Frankfurt was something to behold. A solid stream of planes landing and taking off, loaded with men and material to keep the civilian population of Berlin alive. My brother and I have had some good talks about the Airlift, because he was an aircraft mechanic at the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station and it was their job to do the maintance and overhauls of the aircraft taking part of the airlift. It has always been a source of regret on my part because I never made a trip to Berlin on one of the planes, even though I could have I'm sure if I had asked for permission to do so.

While working at the Depot, I had the opportunity to meet several Celebrities. Lt. Patton, son of Gen. George Patton, was one of them, as was the Hangman of Nuremburg, M/Sgt. Woods. Lt. Patton went on to become the Commanding Gen. at Ft Hood Texas.

While stationed at Marburg, I met a nice German girl named Elizabeth Blad or Bladd, I'm not sure. I think she lived on Begen Strasse. Would anyone know how I could locate her? My name is Bill Miller, and I could go on forever, but I'll quit here. Thanks.