CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF 104th CONGRESS ,FIRST SESSION
VOL.141 WASHINGTON, MONDAY MAY 8,
1995 NO.75
SENATE
COMMEMORATING THE 50th ANNIVERSARY
OF THE FORCED MARCH OF AMERICAN
PRISONERS OF WAR FROM STALAG LUFT IV.
MR.
WARNER. MR. PRESIDENT, TODAY WE COMMEMORATE THE 50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE END
OF WORLD WAR II IN EUROPE.VICTORY IN EUROPE
DAY IS ONE OF THE MILESTONE DATES OF THIS CENTURY. I RISE TODAY TO HONOR A
GROUP OF AMERICANS WHO MADE A LARGE CONTRIBUTION TO THE ALLIED VICTORY IN EUROPE WHILE ALSO ENDURING MORE THAN THEIR FAIR SHARE
OF PERSONAL SUFFERING AND SACRIFICE: THE BRAVE MEN WHO WERE PRISONERS OF
WAR.
I BELIEVE
IT IS APPROPRIATE TO COMMEMORATE OUR WORLD WAR II POW’s BY DESCRIBING ONE
INCIDENT FROM THE WAR THAT IS EMBLEMATIC OF THE UNIQUE SERVICE RENDER BY
THOSE SPECIAL PEOPLE. THIS IS THE STORY OF A 86-DAY, 488-MILE FORCED MARCH
THAT COMMENCED AT A POW CAMP KNOWN AS STALAG LUFT IV ,NEAR GROSSTYCHEW,POLAND,
ON FEBRUARY 6,1945, AND ENDED IN HALLE,
GERMANY ON
APRIL 26, 1945. THE ORDEAL OF 9,500 MEN, MOST OF WHOM WERE U.S. ARMY AIR
FORCE BOMBER COMMAND NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS, WHO SUFFERED THROUGH
INCREDIBLE HARDSHIPS ON THE MARCH YET SURVIVED, STANDS AS AN EVERLASTING
TESTIMONIAL TO THE TRIUMPH OF THE AMERICAN SPIRIT OVER IMMEASURABLE ADVERSITY
AND OF THE INDOMITABLE ABILITY OF CAMARADERIE, TEAMWORK, AND FORTITUDE TO
OVERCOME BRUTALITY, HORRIBLE CONDITIONS, AND HUMAN SUFFERING.
BOMBER
CREWS SHOT DOWN OVER AXIS COUNTRIES OFTEN WENT THROUGH TERRIFYING
EXPERIENCES EVEN BEFORE BEING CONFINED IN CONCENTRATION CAMPS. FLYING
THROUGH WITHERING FLAK, WHILE ALSO HAVING TO FIGHT OFF ENEMY FIGHTERS, THE
BOMBER CREWS ROUTINELY SAW OTHER AIRCRAFT IN FORMATIONS BLOWN TO BITS OR
TURNED INTO FIERY COFFINS. THOSE WHO WERE TAKEN POW HAD TO ENDURE THEIR OWN
PLANES BEING SHOT DOWN OR OTHERWISE DAMAGED SUFFICIENTLY TO CAUSE THE CREWS
TO BAIL OUT. OFTEN CREWMATES - CLOSE FRIENDS - DID NOT MAKE IT OUT OF THE
BURNING AIRCRAFT. THOSE LUCKY ENOUGH TO SEE THEIR PARACHUTES OPEN, HAD TO THEN GO THROUGH A PERILOUS DESCENT AMID
FLAK AND GUNFIRE FROM THE GROUND. MANY CREWS WERE THEN CAPTURED BY INCENSED
CIVILIANS WHO HAD SEEN THEIR PROPERTY DESTROYED OR HAD LOVED ONES KILLED OR
MAINED BY ALLIED BOMBS. THOSE CIVILIANS AT TIME WOULD BEAT, SPIT UPON, OR
EVEN TRY TO LYNCH THE CAPTURED CREWS. AND IN THE CASE OF STALAG LUFT IV,
ONCE THE POW’s HAD ARRIVED AT THE RAILROAD STATION NEAR THE CAMP, THOUGH
EXHAUSTED, UNFED, AND OFTEN WOUNDED, MANY WERE FORCED TO RUN THE 2 MILES TO
THE CAMP AT THE POINT OF BAYONETS. THOSE WHO DROPPED BEHIND WERE EITHER
BAYONETTED OR BITTEN ON THE LEGS BY POLICE DOGS. AND ALL THAT WAS JUST THE
PRELUDE TO THEIR INCARCERATION WHERE THEY WERE UNDERFED, OVERCROWDED, AND
OFTEN MALTREATED.
IN
FEBRUARY 1945, THE SOVIET OFFENSIVE WAS RAPIDLY PUSHING TOWARD STALAG LUFT
IV. THE GERMAN HIGH COMMAND DETERMINED THAT IT WAS NECESSARY THAT THE POW's
BE EVACUATED AND MOVED INTO GERMANY.
BUT BY THAT STAGE OF THE WAR, GERMAN MATERIEL WAS AT A PREMIUM, AND NEITHER
SUFFICIENT RAILCARS NOR TRUCKS WERE AVAILABLE TO MOVE PRISONERS. THEREFORE
THE DECISION WAS MADE TO MOVE THE ALLIED PRISONERS BY FOOT IN FORCED ROAD
MARCH.
THE
86-DAY MARCH WAS BY ALL ACCOUNTS SAVAGE. MEN WHO FOR MONTHS, AND IN SOME
CASES YEARS, HAD BEEN DENIED PROPER NUTRITION, PERSONAL HYGIENE, MEDIACL
CARE, WERE FORCED TO DO SOMETHING THAT WOULD BE DIFFICULT FOR
WELL-NOURISHED, HEALTHY, AND APPROPRIATELY TRAINED INFANTRY SOLDIERS TO
ACCOMPLISH. THE LATE DOCTOR (MAJOR) LESLIE CAPLAN, AN AMERICAN FLIGHT
SURGEON WHO WAS THE CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER FOR THE 2,500 MAN SECTION C FROM
STALAG LUFT IV, SUMMED UP THE MARCH, IT WAS A
MARCH OF GREAT HARDSHIP. WE MARCHED LONG DISTANCES IN BITTER WEATHER AND ON
STARVATION RATIONS. WE LIVED IN FILTH AND SLEPT IN OPEN FIELDS OR BARNS.
CLOTHING, MEDICAL FACILITIES AND SANITARY FACILITIES WERE UTTERLY
INADEQUATE. HUNDREDS OF MEN SUFFERED FROM MALNUTRITION, DYSENTERY,
TUBERCULOSIS, AND OTHER DISEASES.
A NUMBER
OF AMERICAN POW’s ON THE MARCH DID NOT SURVIVE. OTHERS SUFFERED AMPUTATIONS
OF LIMBS OR APPENDAGES WHILE MANY MORE ENDURED MALADIES THAT REMAINED OR
WILL REMAIN WITH THEM FOR THE REMAINDER OF THEIR LIVES. FOR NEARLY 500
MILES AND OVER 86 DAYS, ENDURING UNBELIEVABLY INHUMANE CONDITIONS, THE MEN
FROM STALAG LUFT IV WALKED, LIMPED, AND IN SOME CASES CRAWLED ONWARD UNTIL
THEY REACHED THE END OF THEIR MARCH, WITH THEIR LIBERATION BY THE AMERICAN
104th INFANTRY DIVISION ON APRIL 26, 1945.
UNFORTUNATELY,
THE STORY OF THE MEN OF STALAG LUFT IV, REPLETE WITH TALES OF THE SELFLESS
AND OFTEN HEROIC DEEDS OF PRISONERS LOOKING AFTER OTHER PRISONERS AND
HELPING EACH OTHERS TO SURVIVE UNDER DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS, IS NOT WELL
KNOWN. I THEREFORE RISE TODAY TO BRING THEIR SAGA OF VICTORY OVER
INCREDIBLE ADVERSITY TO THE ATTENTION OF MY COLLEAGUES. I TRUST THAT THESE
COMMENTS WILL SERVE AS A SPRINGBOARD FOR A WIDER AWARENESS AMONG THE
AMERICAN PEOPLE OF WHAT THE PRISONERS FROM STALAG LUFT IV - AND ALL
PRISONERS OF WAR CAMPS - ENDURED IN THE PURSUIT OF FREEDOM.
I
ESPECIALLY WANT TO HONOR THREE STALAG LUFT IV VETERANS WHO ENDURED AND
SURVIVED THE MARCH. CPL. BOB McVICKER, A FELLOW
VIRGINIAN FROM ALEXANDRIA, S/SGT. RALPH
PIPPENS OF ALEXANDRIA, LA. AND SGT. ARTHUR DUCHESNEAU OF
DAYTONA BCH. FL. WHO BROUGHT THIS IMPORTANT PIECE OF HISTORY TO MY
ATTENTION AND PROVIDED ME WITH IN-DEPTH INFORNATION, TO INCLUDE TESTIMONY
BY DR. CAPLAN, ARTICLES, PERSONAL DIARIES AND PHOTOGRAPHS. MR McVICKER, MR. PIPPENS, AND MR. DUCGESNEAU, AT DIFFERENT
POINTS ALONG THE MARCH, WERE EACH TOO IMPAIRED TO WALK UNDER THEIR OWN
POWER. MR. McVICKER SUFFERED FROSTBITE TO THE
EXTENT THAT DR. CAPLAN TOLD HIM, ALONG THE WAY, THAT HE WOULD LIKELY LOSE
HIS HANDS AND FEET - MIRACULOUSLY, HE DID NOT. MR. PIPPENS WAS TOO WEAK
FROM MALNUTRITION TO WALK ON HIS OWN DURING THE INITIAL STAGES OF THE
MARCH, AND MR. DUCHESNEAU ALMOST BECAME COMPLETELY INCAPACITATED FROM
DYSENTERY. BY THE END OF THE MARCH, ALL THREE MEN HAD LOST SO MUCH WEIGHT
THAT THEIR BODIES WERE MERE SHELLS OF WHAT THEY HAD BEEN PRIOR TO THEIR
CAPTURE - MR McVICKER, FOR EXAMPLE, AT 5 FOOT, 8
INCHES, WEIGHED BUT 80 POUNDS. YET THEY EACH SURVIVED, MOSTLY BECAUSE OF
THE EFFORTS OF THE OTHER TWO-AMERICAN CREWMATES COMPASSIONATELY AND
SELFLESSLY HELPING BUDDIES IN NEED.
MR.
PRESIDENT, I AM SURE THAT MY COLLEAGUES JOIN ME IN SALUTING MR. McVICKER, MR. PIPPEN AND MR. DUCHESNEAU, THE LATE DR. CAPLAN,
THE OTHER SURVIVORS OF STALAG LUFT IV MARCH, AND ALL THE BRAVE AMERICANS
WHO WERE PRISONERS OF WAR IN WORLD WAR II. THEIR SERVICE WAS TWOFOLD: FIRST
AS FIGHTING MEN PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE, EACH DAY, IN THE CAUSE OF
FREEDOM AND THEN AS PRISONERS OF WAR, STOICALLY ENDURING INCREDIBLE
HARDSHIPS AND SHOWING THEIR CAPTORS THAT THE AMERICAN SPIRIT CANNOT BE
BROKEN, NO MATTER HOW TERRIBLE THE CONDITIONS ARE. WE OWE THEM A GREAT DEBT
OF GRATITUDE AND THE MEMORY OF THEIR SERVICE OUR UNDYING RESPECT.
JOHN WARNER U. S. S.
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