Saving Private Aceves

The last few weeks has taken me on a incredible journey from the streets of El Paso Texas, to the mountains of France, to a tiny village in southern Germany named Moosburg.  My mission was to locate a missing 26 year old resident of El Paso who was serving as a Private in the 141 Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division.  His name is Noel Montestruc Aceves and he is my Grandfather.  

         In December 1944, my Grandmother was living in a small apartment on Virginia Street in El Paso where she, like most women of that time, was adjusting to the realities running a home, caring for her 3 year old son, Arturo, and her 1 and a half year old daughter, Velia, while her husband was fighting the Germans in France.  One chilly December day, there came an unexpected knock on the door.  She found a man standing before her with a telegram from the War Department......and in 1944.....a telegram from the War Department was a sure harbinger of sorrow.  I've never asked her what went through her mind at that moment, but I can only imagine that her heart sank...her blood ran cold...and certainly her mind struggled to deal with the flood of emotions that this telegram would certainly bring.

          The message was phrased in the standard format of the time and stated in effect:

"The Secretary of War desires me to express his deep regret that your husband, Private Noel M. Aceves has been reported as Missing In Action since 28 November in France.  If further details or other information are received you will be promptly notified.  Signed Provost Marshal General."

 The man read the telegram, handed it to her, informed her that she could expect to receive an update in about three months, and then departed to continue on his sad duties.  That was it, nothing more.  There was no Internet, no 24-hour news cycle, and no support groups...nothing.  All there was to do was wait, just like every one else.  

         Two months later, in February, my Grandmother was washing and folding diapers around 8 PM, when there was another unexpected knock on the door.  Once again there was a sudden rush of emotions as a man from the War Department stood in the doorway.  The moments must have seemed like hours as he confirmed that he had the correct address and recipient.  He then read aloud:

         "A report has been received through the International Red Cross that your husband, Private Noel M. Aceves, is a prisoner of the Germans.  A letter of further information from the Provost Marshal General to follow."  

Grandpa was alive...a prisoner of the Germans, but alive.  It was a telegram with a far better outcome than what most households of that time received.

         My Grandpa died at the young age of 52, two years before I was born. Unfortunately only 3 of his grandchildren had to chance to know and remember him to any extent.  He rarely spoke about his experience in the war or his time as a POW.  What little I know has been passed on from the few things he told my Grandmother, my Mother, and my Uncles.  All I knew was that he had been in France, was captured, and spent some time at a prison in Germany.  I later learned that he was a part of the famed "arrowhead" 36th Infantry Division, and this is was where my search began.  A few days ago I found a period film that narrated an account of the 36th invasion of southern France and their push towards Germany.  This spurred my interest and I began an online research to find all that I could about their operations, and hopefully find more about what happened to PVT Aceves.    My big break came when I found his POW registration in the National Archives and from there it was if PVT Aceves began to leave telltale clues of what happened him.  This is his story.

          In 1944, work in the rail yards in El Paso began to slacken and steady employment was hard to find. The United States was well into its third year in the global war against the Axis and able-bodied men were in demand.  With the knowledge that the military offered a steady paycheck that could support his family, Noel Aceves decided to volunteer and enlisted in the Army on April 25, 1944 at Fort Bliss Texas.  He completed his basic training there and emerged as Private Noel M. Aceves, Serial Number 38580671, assigned to the 141st Infantry Regiment of the 36th Infantry Division.  It was a venerable unit that traced its origins back to a detachment of the original Army of Texas that perished at the Alamo, thus giving the unit its motto: Remember the Alamo.  

         After a very brief time with his family, he departed on a train bound for the east coast of the US and from there he crossed the Atlantic (possibly on the Queen Mary) and arrived in Naples Italy.  From there he traveled south to Salerno, where he joined his unit.  He was part of a massive wave of replacements for the 141st, which had been bloodied during the Italian campaign and was now preparing to invade the southern coast of France to act in concert with the US forces that had stormed the beaches of Normandy a month before.  Once those forces broke out of the Normandy beachhead and moved towards eastern France and Belgium, the 36th Division would invade from the south and shove the Wehrmacht forces north and east back into Germany.

         The end of July 1944 was spent practicing amphibious operations and loading equipment and men onto troop transports.  By the first of August, PVT Aceves began his second overseas excursion, bound for the European Continent.  On the morning of 15 August 1944, the US 7th Army initiated Operation "Dragoon", the invasion of southern France.  Around 0515, PVT Aceves downed the traditional "last breakfast" of steak and eggs and then went up on deck to be loaded into an assault boat.  At 0650, the USS TEXAS and USS ARKANSAS along with a host of cruisers and destroyers opened up in a pre-invasion barrage of the beaches around St Raphael.  By 0800, he was on his way towards a high, rocky beachhead to the east of St Raphael.  His unit landed near the village of Antheor with few casualties.  Resistance was sporadic and they quickly moved inland.  Throughout the month of August and September he followed his unit through the Rhone Valley, chasing the 19th German Army northward.  Their advance was rapid and assisted along the way by elements of the French resistance.  However, he had his first real taste of combat when the Germans made a determined stand near Montelimar.

         The 19th Army broke away from Montelimar on 30 August and continued its dash northward.  The 141 continued its pursuit, often engaging in brief but sharp clashes with German units fighting a delaying action.  He participated in the taking of the villages and towns of Flancy, Maileroncourt, Faverney, Fougerolles, Luxeuil Les Bains, and Corbenay before reaching the Moselle River on 21 September.  From that point on, the 141st was engaged in a series of fierce battles in the approaches to the Vosges Mountain range.  Their objective was to push into and through the range and then break into the Alsace Plain where they were to secure a crossing over the Rhine River into Germany.  

         Throughout October and most of November, the 141st slowly pushed its way into the Vosges, encountering determined resistance from the 19th German Army including several SS Panzer units.  By this time, PVT Aceves had seen more violence than any man should have ever experienced in two life times.  There included moments of sheer horror, such as when he discovered the decapitated body of a soldier inside and abandon home......a scene forever seared into his memory.  He pressed on.  Late November found his unit on the western bank of the Meurthe River.  Unbeknownst to PVT Aceves, the veteran 198th German Infantry Division, which had been holding the mountain passes ahead of him, had been pulled out in preparation for the planned winter offensive into the Ardennes, the famed Battle of the Bulge.  In its place was the inexperienced 16th Volksgrenadier.  Although untested and poorly equipped, they occupied a strong defensive positions left behind by the 198th.


         On 20th November, the 141 began taking artillery fire from the eastern bank of the river.  They moved north and found a weak spot near Anould and forced a crossing of the river.  The 16th Volksgrenadier put up a sporadic, but determined resistance as they fell back into the heights of the Vosges.  Following route D415, they pushed the Germans out of the village of Clefcy on the 24th, and Fraize on the 26th.  They paused briefly to enjoy a small Thanksgiving Day meal before pushing on down the road towards the village of Bonhemme and the ridgeline of the Vosges.  On the 27th they began moving down road D415 towards the critical juncture at Col De Bonhomme and the village just beyond.  

         The morning of 28 November found PVT Aceves on patrol with a new 2nd LT.  Their objective was to probe forward to a point along a ravine of that ran off of the Meurthe River and down the Fraize Valley.   His company's overall objective was to move to the southeast of road D415 road and attempt to flank a German roadblock that had been set up there.  They reached the ravine without incident, and the lack of enemy contact gave the LT enough confidence to push on to a second objective.  If they could move uphill towards the roadblock and use the forest as cover, then they might be able to take the Germans by surprise and clear the way for the rest of the 141 to take Col De Bonhomme.

         Suddenly, the patrol began to take fire from a nearby house. They returned fire and within a few minutes, suppressed the German assault.  PVT Aceves and the rest of the patrol carefully approached the house, believing they had either killed the Germans inside or forced them to retreat.  They entered and found themselves face to face with a group of German Grenadiers.  A scuffle ensued....to close for either side to use their weapons.  After a brief struggle, PVT Aceves, along with the rest of the patrol, broke free of their adversaries and burst out into the open only to find themselves surrounded.  The Germans were in sad shape, but it was clear that they had the upper hand.  They had only two options available to them....resist and die or surrender and pray for the best.  PVT Aceves looked at his comrades for a long moment...and then he, along with every one else, slowly placed their weapons on the ground and raised their hands.

         PVT Aceves was now a POW.  He was gripped with fear at the thought that he might be killed, or worse tortured and then killed.  He had seen several examples of this already and the very thought of it was almost too much to bear. Those feeling slowly began to subside as he was shuffled further and further behind enemy lines, though the thought never truly left him.  In fact, he was quite lucky, as Hitler himself would sign an order two weeks later that required the German Army to kill all prisoners taken in during the Ardennes offensive.  

         He was shocked to see that the Germans were in far worse shape than he had been led to believe.  They had little in the way of food or comforts, but they treated him fairly well as he was moved farther from the Voges.  He was eventually taken to a railway head where he was put onboard a crowded boxcar and shipped east.  His journey would take him deep into the German interior to a small village named Moosburg in the southeastern part of the country.  There he was ushered behind the barbed wire gates of Stalag 7A.  His first stop would have been at the registration office, which still stands to this day.  It must have been some consolation to him to know that at least now his whereabouts would now be reported and hopefully would reach his family.  

         He owned only what he was wearing the day that he was captured, and new clothes were scarce.  Luckily, he had been dressed for winter and thus was in better shape than other men there.  The camp was fairly large and had been in service since the beginning of the war.  The guards were older, as most able-bodied men were being shipped to one of the two fronts.  There had been some instances of mistreatment prior to his arrival, but since mid 1944, the prison was becoming over-crowded and such acts began to trail off.  However, this also meant that food and other such comforts were in short supply.

         The camp was packed with a variety of men from all over the world.  There were Americans and British of course, but there was also a very large population of Russians, whom the Germans seemed to reserve all of their spite for.  There were smaller groups of French, Italians, Pols, and even Indians and native Africans captured during Erwin Rommel's North African campaign.  Americans were housed in a set of open bay 400 men barracks.  They were very sparse, lit by windows, and warmed by two to three cast iron stoves.  Behind the barracks was a set of latrines, which frequently over-flowed and without any lime or chloride present, caused a constant stench to hang over the camp.  

         Medical supplies were in very short supply and a man was lucky to take a very short shower once every 15 days or so.  The day would start around 0600 when men were roused and marched to a kitchen area where they would get a few biscuits and maybe some coffee.  They would muster at 0800 for a head count and then around 1130 they would eat lunch, which consisted of a few boiled potatoes.  Dinner was a similar affair, occasionally supplemented by a some sort of barley soup, and sometimes a little bit of spinach or bread.  Their limited diet was also supplemented by pooling food sent in Red Cross packages received from Argentina.

         After the each meal, the men either returned to the barracks or were selected for work details.  Details could take a man on a 3.5-hour railroad trip west to Munich, where they would clear debris left by Allied air raids.  More often than not though, men would be sent to work on neighboring farms to tend to gardens and livestock that helped feed both the staff and prisoners of the camp.  PVT Aceves was no stranger to hard work or hardship.  Growing up in the harsh conditions of the Great Depression, he was very used to going with out and doing whatever needed to be done to get by.  He was a tough man and this would serve him well in this environment.  

         He frequently volunteered for work details, often taking the place of men who were too sick or weak to leave the barracks.  The work was hard, but it afforded him an opportunity to get outside the camp and enjoy the beauty of the surrounding forests, which must have been a stark contrast to the desert mountains of El Paso.  In later years, he would occasionally remark that Germany was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen.  Work details also gave him the chance to trade some of the Red Cross rations for bread, which was far more filling than the usual food available.  The German guards were also suffering from a lack of food as well, and bread could be traded with them in exchange for certain favors or privileges.  It is possible that he traded some of these rations for a pair of small plastic toys that he intended to give to his son upon his return.

         December turned to January, January to February, February into March and March to April.  The days were long, the nights cold.  A man would find inventive ways to relieve the boredom and to pass the hours keeping their mind going, lest depression or worse set in.  Occasionally, they would hear the roar of Allied bombers overhead and feel the distant thumps of bombs exploding.  PVT Aceves got used to this and would automatically roll off of his cot and then roll under it.  It would be an action that would often plague him in later life when he would hear a plane pass overhead.  

         Then in late April, rumors began to spread that US forces were nearby.  The rumors were true.  US Combat Team Alpha of the 14th Armored Division began to discover some of the outlying work farms and POWs who led them towards Moosburg.  On the morning of 27 April 1945, an officer of the regional SS command, along with a Swiss, British, and American representative drove to the US lines and were met by two tanks.  The US Colonel in charge brought the group to the units Commanding General and talks ensued.  However after a few hours, the US General made it clear that no deal would be struck.  German forces would surrender unconditionally and all of the POWs of the camp would be released.  The SS officer refused and returned to the camp.  

         At 10:00 AM, the tanks of the Alpha combat team rolled forward and engaged the German units scattered around the base.  The battle raged for two and a half hours, during which one shell landed inside the camp, wounding some guards and killing one.  By 1230, it was over and Sherman tanks rolled to the gates of Stalag 7A and demanded the surrender of all the guards.   They complied, and a spontaneous burst of joy swept the POW's out of their barracks and into the arms of their countryman.

         A film taken that day shows smiling former prisoners enjoying the first good meal that they had had in months or years.  Water was available to wash clothes, and more importantly, stores of winter clothing were distributed.  PVT Aceves most certainly partook in the joys that swept the camp that day.  He could expect better treatment, warmer clothes, and far better food, even if was still just rations. But more importantly, he could expect to leave Moosburg soon, and that his family would be informed that he was alive and had been liberated.  For him, the war was over, though the deep scares that it made would remain with him for the rest of his life.  

         Despite those scares, he had a full life to look forward to that was full of promise.  Far more promise than the defeated men he saw around him.  He never harbored any animosity towards his German captors.  In his mind, they had suffered as a result of their nations leaders, and they had more suffering and want ahead of them as they tried to rebuild what Hitler had destroyed.  He walked out of the gates of Stalag 7A shortly afterwards and on 14 June 1945 was recorded as having been officially repatriated to US control.  All that remained now would be his third and final ocean voyage and home.  Private Noel M. Aceves had seen the horror of the war, had endured the hardship and fear of being captured and imprisoned, but that was all over now....Private Aceves had been saved.