lotismathieu562

I too have heard this same thing from my grandfather who was in the 342nd M Co. He didn't talk much about his experience there other than to say it was 'unbelievable'. However, I've done some research and found that his company was within a few miles of Dachau the day it was liberated. A day or two later, Eisenhower put a blanket directive across to all troops who were near a concentration camp along the front lines (crossing northeast to southwest from Berlin to Munich by now) that they must make an attempt to visit a camp in their area so they could see what they were fighting for and who the Germans really were. If this is true, Dachau was the closest camp to the 86th and these soldiers would have been some of the first to go there post-liberation. They saw a lot of death and destruction - not only the slaves but how the American army responded when they saw the chaos. 'A moat around the area that ran red' was about all the info I could manage to get out of my grandfather. That said a lot to me about why he couldn't talk about it any further. If anyone can confirm this, I would greatly appreciate it! ...more