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Pvt. Ernest Arvelle Breakfield
United States Army 137th Infantry Regiment
from:Ishmael, Missouri
My father, Ernest Breakfield, served in the Army in World War II. His date of Induction was 20th of November 1942 at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis, Missouri. He served in Company B, 137th Infantry in North France, Rhineland, Ardenes and Central Europe. He was injured in friendly fire, captured by the German Army and interred in a Prisoner of War Stalag 12A.
When he was liberated by the British General Montgomery, he weighed about 80 pounds. He said they awakened one morning and all the camp guards were gone. It was strangely quiet and then they heard the approaching army trucks. They were so happy to see the British forces roll in. My father said that though the British arrived first, they pulled back to let the American forces liberate the camp. Even after all those hardships suffered in the camp, he still saw the common German soldier as a fellow human being who was compelled to fight by his own government. Someone who has not endured the capture and privation of a prisoner of war camp can never understand the emotional and physical toll it takes on an individual. He said it was cold, wet and miserable in the camp. They were on starvation rations. He said he still felt luckier than the Russian prisoners. The American and other Allied forces were dead before burned in the crematorium ovens. The Russians were thrown in alive as soon as they were too weak to stand. The Russians were defeating the Germans on the Eastern Front and they had a lot of hatred for the Russians.
