Page 28 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine Fall 2019- Online Magazine

Travelling deeper Berlin at the time. By May 6 , the 4 crossed into
into Germany,
Ellis and the 10
th
Armored Infantry
saw the horrors
of the Holocaust
up close. The 4
th
Armored Division
liberated the first
Nazi concentration stayed there about a month. I volunteered to go
camp, Ohrdruf,
which was a
subcamp of
Buchenwald.
Garland
remembered the scene. “We entered the camp
and came around a building. We saw about 35
prisoners that the Germans had shot in the head
lying dead on the ground. Four or five prisoners
had been hiding in the woods and came out to tell
us what all the Germans had done to the prisoners.
They said all they had to eat for months was turnip
soup. They showed us a ditch about 15 feet deep
and 60 feet long where they dumped the bodies
and bulldozed over it. It was all so horrible that we
took the local citizens into the camp to see what
was being done to their citizens. They claimed
they knew nothing about it.” The discovery of
the camp led Generals Eisenhower, Patton and
Bradley to visit the camp. They were appalled
by what they saw and had photographers record
the carnage left by the Nazis. In a letter to General
George Marshall, Eisenhower wrote, “The things I
saw beggar description.” Later, in another widely
published letter to General Marshall, he wrote,
“We continue to uncover German concentration
camps for political prisoners in which conditions
of indescribable horror prevail.”
Always on the move, the 4 captured German
th
cities such as Lauterbach, Kreuzberg and Gotha.
By April 12 , 1945, the Division crossed the Saale
th
River and continued pursuing the enemy. The
4 Armored was racing toward Berlin when
th
they were told to “let the Russians have Berlin.”
The order came down from General Dwight
Eisenhower on April 15 to halt the advance.
th
The Americans were only 120 miles away from
28 Lubbock Senior Link
th
th
Czechoslovakia and established a bridgehead
across the Otara River. Garland recalled, “We met
up with some Russians there. They had vodka in
their canteens, and we drank with them. It was
very strong; we had to drink some water with it
to wash it down. I was in Czechoslovakia when
we heard the war was over. They gave us some
warm beer, and everyone was celebrating. We
on to the Pacific. I was sent to Bremerhaven where
I boarded a Liberty ship headed for New York.
There was a storm on the North Sea, and everyone
got sick. We finally made it into New York Harbor.
I was sent to California, waiting to go to the
Pacific, but the war ended there in August, 1945.
I was assigned as a mess sergeant on troop trains
in the states.” After additional duties at Camp
Chaffey in Arkansas, Ellis was discharged July 22,
1946 at Ft. Sam Houston near San Antonio.
Ellis took a bus back to Ralls. He said, “I got in
with a construction crew building houses for
a while. I then went to work for the post office
in Ralls and retired in 1986.” He and Dorothy
had two sons, Rodney and Val. Dorothy passed
away in July 2009. He later married Betty Smith,
whose husband had also passed away. Garland
and Dorothy used to dance at a senior citizen
center. Betty smiled and said, “We were lucky to
find each other.” She had three girls, who think a
lot of Garland and treat him like their own dad.
Garland also has 4 grandchildren and 2 great-
grandchildren. When asked what he would like
to be remembered for, Garland thought for a long
while and said he would like to “go down as a
good man, husband and father.” After meeting
with Garland, it was plain to see that he was all
that and much more. He also could have included
“a brave soldier who did his duty all those
years ago during the closing months of WWII in
Europe.”
*For more information on “Task Force Baum”, please
see the story on Lon Colvin at www.lubbockseniorlink.
com Spring 2019, page 20.