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Pte. William Troy Paine
United States Army 326th Medical Corps
from:Memphis, TN
My father, William Troy Paine (Bill), served in the US Army from 1943 to 1945. He was a medic with the 326th Medical Corps, 101st Airborne Division. He participated in "Market Garden" and landed in Zon. He worked for months at the regimental hospital near the Wilhelmina Canal and was later captured at the "Battle of the Bulge" in Bastogne, Belgium on December 19, 1944. He, along with other prisoners, marched in the snow for days and was packed into railroad cars where they could only stand. He was taken to Stalag IV-B. His POW dogtag No. 316777. He remained there until he was liberated by the Russians.
He did not speak of his experience in the camp often, but he did recall the body lice, hepatitis, and the weight loss. Throughout his life, whenever it snowed my father broke out in a neurogenic rash.
There was one person who he spoke of in the whole camp. This was an Asian American in his barracks. The reason he remembered this man is because he would walk up and down the barracks and say "There are three great men in this world.... Roosevelt... Churchill... and Me (the prisoner stated his name)!"
The closest he came to getting killed in WWII was while he was on a work detail to gather wood. The American planes accidentally strafed the prisoners, killing many. The next day the American planes dropped a wreath over the camp.
Upon liberation by the Russians, he and two other prisoners escaped the Russians. They had to steal cheese from the basement of a German home to survive the trek from the camp to the American lines across the Elbe River.
My father died in July 2010. I know little about his time in Stalag IV-B If anyone has any more information on that or his trek to the Elbe please contact me.
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