Danny Visco was a Technician fifth grade, this was a United States Army technician rank during World War II. Those who held this rank were addressed as corporal, though were often called a tech corporal. Technicians possessed specialized skills that were rewarded with a higher pay grade.
He was at the POW camp named Stalag 5 at Malschbach Ludwigsburg, Wurtemberg in Germany.
The prison camp had been constructed on the site of a former German military camp, that had once billeted German cavalry troops and their horses. The red brick stables were converted to barracks to house prisoners when the site was converted to a POW camp in October 1939. Additional wooden barrack huts were also constructed on the grounds, to accommodate the camp's growing prisoner population.
The roofs of the buildings within the camp were marked "KG" for Kriegsgefangenen, the German word meaning "prisoner of war". Large red crosses were also painted on the roofs, to further ensure that Allied planes would not mistakenly target the camp.
The sprawling prison complex was divided into compounds. The perimeter of the each compound was secured by a double barbed-wire fence, fifteen feet in height, on top of which ran a high-voltage wire. The space between the two fences was a tangled mass of barbed-wire. On the prisoners' side of the fence, a wire ran parallel with the fence, staked to the ground approximately ten feet from the fence, six to eight inches above the ground. Any man who stepped between the wire and the fence was shot on sight. Every so many yards along the fence was a guard tower, fully armed and manned.
The first prisoners detained at the camp had been Poles, taken captive during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. As the war progressed, prisoners of other nationalities arrived at Stalag V-A.
By the time of the camp's evacuation in April 1945, Allied prisoners of every nation at war with Germany were present within the camp. The largest population present within the camp was Soviet, followed by the French, Belgian, Dutch, British and Commonwealth, Italian, and American prisoners were also present in large numbers.
Following the Allied landings at Normandy and the subsequent fighting in France, American prisoners begin to arrive at the camp. American prisoners were held in the same compound as the French, Belgian, and Italian prisoners.
The camp was evacuated on the evening of Easter, 1st of April 1945. Prisoners detained at the camp, at the time of evacuation, took part in a forced march across southern Germany.
There were several attempts to escape, primarily from work details.
My Dad served in Normandy Northern France, Rhineland, Central Europe.
He received the Purple Heart, Distinguished Unit Badge, 2 Overseas service bars, European-African-Middle Eastern Service medal with 4 bronze stars and the American Campaign Medal.
He was wounded on 20th of January 1945 and served outside the continental U.S. from 7th of April 1944.
