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In the Summer
In the Summer of 1945, two US soldiers reached for their cameras to
take a few snapshots; there were those long summer days, why not
something to show the folks back home, “ this is what it was like
after the war ended and just before we finally left … “
We never know their names, can barely determine their units, there
are a few brief captions and some clues in the pictures but all that
we are really sure of is that one trooper was in the Army Air Corps
stationed at the airfield just outside of Bad Kissingen and the
other soldier was assigned to an engineer battalion on occupation
duty just to the northeast. Here are their photos that recalled
that summer.
Taking Flight 1945
With the HQ of the XII Tactical Air Command, the subordinate HQ 64th
Tactical Fighter Wing plus the Military Government operations
dominating Bad Kissingen in the Summer of 1945, one would think that
the sky would be filled with aircraft. But this was hardly the
case, all of those fighters and bombers were rapidly dispatched to
new and less than heroic fates. Bad Kissingen, however, was not
free of Army Air Corp flight operations. Someone had to ferry all
those officers and staff sections around and this mission fell to a
light aircraft section stationed at the Turnierplatz airfield, just
west of Manteuffel Kaserne.
The photographer as well as the specific unit is unknown although
the evidence indicates he may have been assigned to the 64th TAC.
The only photo captioned as “ me “ features an indistinct image but
this is the best we have. About ½ of his small collection of snap
shots and post cards were captioned. Here is a quick trip to the
airfield in the Summer of 1945.
Donuts 1945
This collection of photos was taken by an unknown trooper assigned
to the 304th Combat Engineer Battalion, part of the 79th Infantry
Division. For a few months in the Summer and Fall of 1945, the
division performed occupation duty initially in Germany and then in
Czechoslovakia although the captions indicate that at least some of
the engineers were in Bavaria as late as October. At any rate, it
seems as though the soldier - photographer was having a pretty good
time marking the days until his unit rotated stateside
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