As the first of several trains carrying kriegies from Hammelburg rattled east on the night of March 28, Jack Hemingway was one of thirty-six men in the same boxcar as SAO Colonel Goode. These boxcars were designed to take eight horses or forty men, so this one wasn’t as crowded as some. But the last occupants had been four-legged, and the stink of horse manure stayed with them throughout the three-day journey.
Like most of the men in the rocking, rolling boxcar, Colonel Goode nodded off to sleep. After a time, a young lieutenant began to complain that there was no leadership or organization being displayed in the car. He didn’t direct his complaints at the colonel, but it was obvious they were meant for him, and other officers in the group tried to get the lieutenant back in line. The raised voices woke Pop Goode, who spoke for himself.
“Lieutenant, you are absolutely right,” said the colonel, fixing the lieutenant with his weary gaze. “I have been so depressed and exhausted I have failed in my duty. I am appointing you the quartering officer for this boxcar, and I will give you five minutes to come up with rules and plans to make this a military organization.”1
All eyes turned to the lieutenant, who paled and went silent. Five minutes later, when the colonel asked him for his rules and plans, the lieutenant came up with several reasonable suggestions, which everybody agreed should be adopted. With the mood in the car elevated, several men asked Jack Hemingway to share stories about his famous father. Jack would have much preferred to talk about fly fishing, but in the end the men in the boxcar were entertained all the way to Nuremberg with a string of personal anecdotes about Ernest Hemingway by his son.2
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ON APRIL 5, as the American advance pushed closer to Hammelburg, Oberst Richard Hoppe transferred his command from Lager Hammelburg to Camp Grafenwöhr. Camp commander General von Goeckel remained at Oflag XIII-B, still in command of a small guard watching over the Americans in the camp hospital.
That night, Abe Baum and the other Americans in the hospital heard the rumble of heavy guns firing in the distance. When the sun rose, the sound of gunfire was much closer. By the gate, German guards lowered the swastika flag, raising a white one in its place, and stacked their weapons. GIs who could get to hospital windows whooped with joy at the sight. Before long, American tanks crunched over the wire and into the camp. Hanging out hospital windows, Americans cheered. By midday, all resistance in Hammelburg had ended, and the POW camp was surrounded by US Army tanks. In the middle of the camp, General von Goeckel stood with his staff, waiting for a senior American officer to arrive so they could formally surrender.
At 1:00 p.m., an American armored car drove into the camp. Kriegies in the hospital saw a major emerge from it and speak briefly with Goeckel, who pointed to the hospital. The clean-shaven, smartly dressed major hurriedly set off in that direction. A heavily bandaged Abe Baum, meeting the major at the entrance to his ward, asked who had liberated the camp and was told it was the 14th Armored, 7th Army. The major identified himself as Charles Odom, chief surgeon, Third Army. He was General Patton’s personal physician. And he was on a mission.
“Where’s Colonel Waters?” the major asked.
Baum directed him to Johnny Waters’ bed down the ward, and Major Odom hurried to Waters’ side.
“Funny meeting you here, Charles,” Waters said with a wry smile.3
After Odom gave Waters a thorough examination, he commended the doctors who had operated on him for doing a fine job. But, he said, he wanted to get Waters to a fully equipped and staffed facility without delay. Hurrying away, he spoke on the armored car’s radio. Thirty minutes later, a pair of USAAF Piper Cub light reconnaissance aircraft appeared from the west and touched down on the Lager Hammelburg grass. Two of Odom’s men gently placed Waters on a stretcher and carried him out to one of the two waiting Pipers. Odom informed Baum that Waters was being taken to the 34th US Army Evacuation Hospital at Gotha. The aircraft then took off, the first carrying Waters, the second with Odom aboard.
In the ward, where Waters had been until just minutes before, lay Private Robert Zawada, who was minus a leg. A Task Force Baum platoon radio operator, he was the GI whom Schubin kriegie Bob Thompson had seen lose his limb in the short, sharp battle on the Reussenberg the previous week. Looking at Baum, Zawada asked what the brass had against men with one leg. Why leave him behind and take Johnny Waters? Baum had no answer. He had also been left behind. He was bitter, and so were other Americans in the hospital.4
Most would be left there in the now liberated POW camp for another three days before being evacuated. But Baum was not planning to hang around. Despite his wounds, he was determined to get to General Patton and find out whether his mission had truly been all about liberating Johnny Waters. Within days, Baum hitchhiked to Gotha and the 34th Evac Hospital.