Connections to World War Ii

Eugene G. Schulz

Description

In October 2012, I published my memoir, with photos, about my life in the US Army during World War II. The name of that book is The Ghost in General Patton’s Third Army.
Several readers of the book were astonished to find a photo of their family member, or to read about an event that I experienced. These readers suddenly had a “connection” to me and they personally visited me to get more information about their grandfather or other relative. They told me more fascinating stories about that person so I felt compelled to write this sequel with new stories.
The summit of my life story is told in the final chapter, in which the French government celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of Chartres. At a special ceremony in September 2019, I was awarded the Medal of Chevalier in the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award for merit.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Biography
• Eugene
• Religion

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 30 janvier 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669855552
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

CONNECTIONS TO WORLD WAR II
Chartres Cathedral, and the 75th Anniversary of the Liberation of Chartres
EUGENE G. SCHULZ

Copyright © 2022 by Eugene G. Schulz. 833221
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
 
 
ISBN:
Softcover
978-1-6698-5556-9

Hardcover
978-1-6698-5557-6

EBook
978-1-6698-5555-2
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022921291
 
 
 
Rev. date: 05/13/2023
 
 
 
 
Cover photos:
 
Eugene G. Schulz - US Army, Schulz Photo Archives
Legion of Honor Award from Prefect in Chartres, Schulz Photo Archives
Medal of the French Legion of Honor, Schulz Photo Archives
Chartres Cathedral, Schulz Photo Archives
Col. Welborn B. Griffith - US Army, courtesy of the Griffith family
Plaque at site where Col.Griffith was killed in Lèves, Schulz Photo Archives
Grave of Col. Griffith, American Cemetery in Brittany, Schulz Photo Archives
CONTENTS

PrefacePurpose of This Book
 
Chapter 1 Joe Kearney, a Soldier from New Jersey
Chapter 2 Yanks in the Kennet Valley, Marlborough, England
Chapter 3 Surrender of German Luftwaffe Pilots St. Martin, Austria
Chapter 4 Ritchie Boys, OSS Spy, and a Nazi Concentration Camp
Chapter 5 Charles Martin Coughlin, 89 th Infantry Division, US Army
Chapter 6 More Connections
Chapter 7 Joe Messner, a Soldier from Pittsburgh
Chapter 8 The Colonel Griffith Family
Chapter 9 Paul Creamer, French Professor
Chapter 10 Michael Klug, Connoisseur of Sacred Art The Stained Glass Windows of Chartres Cathedral
Chapter 11 Chartres Cathedral from Darkness to Light Restoration by Chartres sanctuaire du Monde and American Friends of Chartres
Chapter 12 The Seventy-Fifth Anniversary Celebration of the Liberation of Chartres and Lèves and the Ceremony of the Legion of Honor
 
Appendix AThe Story of the Ordre National de la Légion D’Honneur
Appendix BThe Story of Jean Moulin, Hero of the French Resistance
Acknowledgments
Bibliography


Eugene G. Schulz
Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor
Chartres, France
September 13, 2019

To everyone who has a story to share.
May we all connect with each other through our stories and our legacies.
-E.H.
EDITOR’S NOTE

I t was my privilege and honor to copyedit this book for Grandpa and to be one of the first people to see these stories all written down together in this book. I wish very much that Grandpa had lived to see these stories in print. God took him home to heaven this past summer (July 2022), just a few days after his ninety-ninth birthday, while his completed manuscript was at the publisher. I’d promised him that I would see the process through if anything happened, because Grandpa felt strongly that these stories needed to be out there for the world to see (and honestly I thought so too).
Grandpa was SO amazed and excited to hear all the stories that were shared with him since his memoir was published a decade ago (which you’ll see by his exclamations throughout this book!). He thoroughly enjoyed meeting the families of his war buddies and everyone else who had a story to tell about their own experiences (or those of their relatives) of the battles and other situations Grandpa had a role in and the places he visited.
I don’t think Grandpa ever expected to reach as many people as he did—all he’d set out to do in the beginning, with his memoir, was to share his legacy with his grandchildren so that we would know our history. And now you have here in your hands the result: more legacies, more history, more people who have become connected to each other through Grandpa and his writing. I believe this is Grandpa’s true legacy: his love for God and for his wife and family, his passion for his friends and acquaintances and the stories they have, and his ability to connect with so many.
Our stories shape who we are and how we live our lives, and they also connect us to other people. I hope that Grandpa’s books have inspired you to tell your own stories, make new connections, and create your own legacies.
Love and hugs and stuff,
Emily Hein (née Schulz)
PREFACE

Purpose of This Book
I n October 2012, I published a memoir in which I wrote about my life as a soldier in the United States Army during World War II. The name of that book is The Ghost in General Patton’s Third Army.
I grew up as a farm boy living and working on a dairy farm in Clintonville, Wisconsin, about forty miles from Green Bay. I was drafted into the Army at age nineteen and was discharged in December 1945 at age twenty-two. The first year in the Army was spent in training camps in the US, and the second and third years were in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). After landing on Utah Beach in Normandy, France, on D+46 (forty-six days after the invasion on June 6, 1944), the XX Corps entered combat as one of the three Corps of the US Third Army under the command of General George S. Patton Jr.
In the US Army hierarchy, Army Headquarters are at the top. Each Army has two to three Corps Headquarters and each Corps Headquarters has fighting divisions and support units under its command. A Corps Headquarters contains the “brains” of the organization (i.e., the experts in specific fields of warfare, with many of the officers being West Point graduates).
As a member of the XX Corps Headquarters staff, I worked for Colonel Welborn B. Griffith Jr. as one of his typists, clerks, and secretaries. There were several other GIs doing these jobs, too, because we were on duty twenty-four hours daily during combat. Colonel Griffith was the G-3 officer, a full colonel, and the expert of tactical planning and preparation of battle plans. One of my duties was to type these battle orders so they could be sent with liaison officers to field commanders at the front.
The Ghost in General Patton’s Third Army tells stories and describes events that our XX Corps encountered as we fought the German army in France and Germany. I also wrote about soldiers who were my buddies, and the officers and men in the XX Corps as well as individuals in other places. One of the most significant stories is about my boss, Colonel Griffith, who personally saved Chartres Cathedral in France from destruction by American artillery. This story has blossomed into unbelievable importance since my book was published.
I am an eyewitness to the discovery of the first Nazi concentration camp that was liberated by American troops. I wrote about this event with words that describe my emotions and horror of the carnage that I witnessed in this death camp. This event also has expanded into new territory as I learned more about the Holocaust, and met survivors and heard their stories.
My book contains one hundred photos of people and places, which I took with my own camera. I became a photography buff while in high school, and therefore, I have many war pictures. I received telephone calls, emails, and letters from people who read the book and, to their astonishment, found a photo of their grandfather or other family member. They went through many channels of research to find me and tell me their connection with the individual or story I wrote about. So people came “out of the woodwork,” so to speak, to get in contact with me in order to learn more about their family member. Their determination and eagerness to search for me and then to make contact was heartwarming, and I have made new friends. I also learned personal things about the people in my book that I had not known before.
The story of Chartres Cathedral also has a side story that involved the cleaning of the 176 stained glass windows in this gothic edifice. The French government’s Cultural Department authorized a twenty-five-year cleaning project, and a fundraising organization called Sanctuaire du Monde based in Chartres spearheaded this drive. There is a sister organization in the United States called American Friends of Chartres, which solicits funds in America for cleaning specific windows. I have become involved with American Friends of Chartres, and its president is a good friend who has been a major influence in my recent life, and this has broadened my horizon and led to unbelievable new adventures, which I have written about in this new book.
The Stars and Stripes Honor Flight organization of southeastern Wisconsin flies veterans to Washington DC to see their war memorials. I had the awesome experience of going on an Honor Flight in November 2010. My guardian on that day was Renee Riddle, a former TV news anchor and reporter. After that trip, Renee found many speaking engagements for me to talk about my service in World War II. Renee was succeeded by Karyn Roelke, who continued to be my “guardian” and got me involved in giving many talks to students, especially high school and middle school classes.
In the ten years since my Honor Flight in 2010, I have given sixteen presentations at middle schools, twenty-one presentations at high schools, and nine presentations at colleges. The combined audiences totaled 2,000 middle school students, 2,900 high school students, and 560 college students. In addition to the schools, I also spoke at more than