Dachau,
On May 29th, My 3rd Division, 7th Inf Reg't was fighting the Krauts in Munich. I don't remember the dates, but that's what the Division History says.
I can't find any reference to Dachau in either the 7th Inf History, nor the 3rd Div History. For some reason, it appears to be deliberately missing.
But I vividly remember being at Dachau! It was probably shortly after the fighting was over but no one can forget what they saw there, in my case after 60 years. I saw the freight cars filled with skin and bones corpses, apparently gassed at other locations and brought to Dachau to be burned in the crematorium. But Dachau was overrun by the 42nd and 45th Divisions before the evidence could be burned.
I can't remember why I was there. We were probably close by and were taken to see the carnage that Hitler had wrought. My most vivid memory is that of a live prisoner, wandering around just outside the barbed wire in what appeared to be a daze. He was wearing a striped suit, but what I will never forget is his face! It was badly scarred and misshapen. His left eye was gone and my guess was that he had been hit in the face by a guard with a rifle butt at some time in the past. It appeared that the broken bones had never been set, and now the misshapen face was covered by taught scarred skin. Apparently he was not treated and he was left alive as an example to other prisoners of the result of not following orders!
I remember offering him a can of C rations but he was in a daze and didn't know what it was.
Memories best not dwelled upon!
Russ Cloer - 3_7_I_Recon