208391 Pfc. Norbert Frank Reischmann US Army Medical Detachment 9th Armored Division (Phantom Division) from:Wichita, KS My father's unit of the 9th Armored was guarding one of the South Road to
Bastogne, Belgium when the German attack of the Bulge (Ardennes) hit. He was a medic and was taken prisoner while caring for several wounded American soldiers in a Belgium farm house. He was sent to Stalag 4B and was there until liberated by Russian Cossacks.
Near the end of the war, conditions were deplorable. Food was thin soup and a piece of moldy bread. He saw other prisoners shot for attempting to steal potatoes on work details. When I was about 12 years old we met a barber in Crabtree, Oregon, where my grandparents live, who was also at Stalag 4B, and he confirmed the stories that my father had told.
After my father was liberated and received medical treatment, he was assigned to the USS General John Pope as a "moral NCO" for troops returning from the Japanese theater.
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