Zazilia Kiefer

War bride (Austria)

In Linz, Austria, everything was in chaos, ruins all around us from bombings. Americans occupied left side of the Danube with River Russions on the right side. I was taking private English lessons and got to work as an interpreter for the Army.

The end of the war meant "hope" for a future. No more running to the bomb shelter during all hours at night. No more food stamps, which were very limited to exist on. No more staying in line for bread, etc. Our soldiers were coming home and families would be together again. Refugees were able to return home or went to Canada and America. All in all it was a time that I would not want to relive again. Seven years of our lives were on stnad still waiting for the war to end. I would NOT want to relive this again.

Submitted by:
Linda A. Laurie
Poway, CA - United States

Relationship to Storyteller:
Adult volunteer

Marcus [Mickey] Kipp

My name is Marcus Kipp, I am 88-years old. I now reside in the Veterans Home of California, Chula Vista, California - a State-run Veterans Home in the State of California.

MEMORIES OF AUGUST 14, 1945

Having just completed the war in Europe, in The Battle of the Bulge, as a first gunner on an 81-mm mortar with Company “D”, 303rd Infantry Regiment, 97th Infantry Division, and having also just completed a 30 day furlough, ordered by the War Department for combat veterans, the Officers and men of the 97th division reassembled at Fort Bragg, North Carolina during the first days of August 1945.

Here we were preparing baggage and equipment for travel to Fort Lawton, Washington, to receive orientation and some more amphibious training for duty in he Pacific.

On August 6th The Army Air Corps plane the “Enola Gay” dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and three days later they dropped another bomb on Nagasaki.

There was great rejoicing by the men of the Division - beer flowed like water.

We were joyous for two reasons: [1] the war was over and [2] we would not have to go to the Pacific Theater of Operation as an amphibious trained division. It would be better to go an an occupation force.

On the 15th of August units of the division started leaving for the west coast. In early September units of the division started leaving Fort Lawton and boarded ships in Seattle and sailed four Japan, not as a combat division, but as an occupation force.

August 14, 1945 had a great special meaning for me, I would be going home, for a short time, and also that my five brothers that were in the war with me had all come home safely, some of them wounded but they were alive. The family, which consisted of six boys and five girls also rejoiced,

OTHER THOUGHTS ON AUGUST 14, 1945

Ability to see my family for more than 15-days at a time; getting to swap war stories with my five brothers [one in 29th division, he landed on Normandy; one in the 26th division; one with the cavalry in Korea, one in the 144th Ordnance and one a Military police; go to extended family reunions again; no more getting up at 0530 every day; no more shivering at reveille in the morning; no more 30-mile hikes every Thursday; no more short naps where and when you could take them; no more whirring of shells overhead and deafening bursts afterwards; no more long hours on observation posts at night, hearing the screams and moans of dying comrades; sleeping in a bed, not in the mud; no sharing showers and bathrooms with 100 other men; ability to sit at a regular table and eat meals with the family