Metz--the new assignment --xxvii

The pictures that were taken of the bulletin board, Sunday service, and my office are completed. . .are beauti­ful -- full size 8 1/2" by 10 1/2". I sent them to my wife. Later some of them were placed in The Banner.

Chaplain Hiterius, a Swedish Lutheran, is taking my place. He is 52 years old. 

A soldier said today, "I liked your sermonette on marriage so much, that I took it off our bulletin board and sent it to my wife." 

March 18: 

My orders read, "Spe­cial Order Co 70 Paragraph 30 (c) March 11, 1945, Relieved from Hdq Command, Hg ETOUSA and as­signed to 746 Ry Operating Bn. APO 350." ~-

AI translations: "This reassignment likely placed the individual in a logistics role supporting the final Allied push into Germany. Railway battalions were essential for sustaining momentum as the front lines advanced rapidly in early 1945."

I was informed that· the HQ of the 746th ROB is at Metz, Germany. This city has never been conquered in the past. It is sur­rounded by mountains. This will be a difficult assignment. Railroad men are strung along over 100 miles and work night and day to re­pair yards, catenaries, loco­motives, bridges, cars, etc. The work is urgent, for huge amounts of military equipment and supplies must be brought to the front. It will be difficult to get the men together for a worship service. 

In Paris in 1944 and 1945, no one would have ever been far from fighting, but it's fair to say that these new orders bring Chaplain Van much closer to the front. The men who will fill the chairs of whatever church is designated for his use will be from battalions that are rebuilding infrastructure previously destroyed by Allied bombing. 

March 18, Sunday: 

Forty soldiers attended services at the Province De France building, 50 soldiers were at the Spanish building, and 30 at the Argentine building. They sang "Blest be the tie that binds; our hearts ... " as the closing number. At the Argentine building they sang "God be with you till we meet again." The tie that binds our hearts to Christians is very tender indeed. 

Maj. Sommer told me that I would receive a Commendation Medal from General Kimball for the work I did under his command. He said, furthermore; "Your new job will be tough, the previous chaplain couldn't handle it." 

Two sentences in a two-sentence paragraph suggests the man's ironclad sense of service. His ambitious work in Paris is being rewarded by the Army--he'll be given a Commendation Medal which makes it clear. He doesn't let the news stand however. The subsequent sentence registers a reason for some fear--Metz will carry with it some difficulties--"the previous chaplain couldn't handle it."

The Battle of Metz took place from September 27 to December 13, 1944. It was part of the Lorraine Campaign during World War II and marked one of the most intense urban and fortress battles fought by the U.S. Army in Europe.

Chaplain Van is arriving three months after the final German fortifications were overrun. 

March 21:

To get to Metz, I had to take a train to Nancy, Germany. We arrived at 3:00p.m. Nancy is a railway center. It was heavily hit by our bombers. As the Germans say, "Allies rail equipment, locomotives, passenger trains, and rolling stock was bombed to pieces. Some locomotives were buried by our bombs, with only the  smoke stack sticking above the ground. Twisted steel rains were sticking up into the air.

Many Americans soldiers are stationed at Nancy. . . .I was informed that there was no train traffic to Metz--only a small "doodlebug," as they called it, which could carry only a few passengers.

March 22:

When Chaplain Van gets to Metz, he registers and then is told that he's in the wrong place, that his CO intended for him to be Rouen, France at the 746th main HQ. Snafu--he doesn't say that, but it might have been difficult news for him to take, given the fact that Rouen more than one hundred miles away. Meanwhile, his baggage got lost somewhere.

He stayed in Metz several days, waiting for his baggage. When he looks around, it's plainly what he's seen before of war's desolation. Just more. 

Hundreds of slit trenches, indicating that our soldiers were pinned down by enemy fire from the mountains. [Metz is a kind of natural fortress, surrounded by mountains and therefore difficult to defeat.] German officers were persuaded that Metz was so strongly  fortified that the Americans would never capture the city. They moved their families into the city. but when our big guns were trained on the open dugouts on the top of the mountains, their guns were silenced. German officers fled into the city and into civilian basements. When the American soldiers entered it was house to house fighting. They ordered the occupants to come out with their hands up. When they refused the soldiers threw hand grenades into the basement and all the occupants were killed. A military doctor told me that the first two weeks after the city surrendered they were busy hauling dead people out of the basements. 

Chaplain Van doesn't say it and perhaps didn't know it, but all around Hitler's Nazi Germany was suffering its death throes. In two months, it would be over, finally over.