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Pages of History
ryon The Cedar County News of July 5, 1945, published a letter from Capt. Elmer Munter of Belden. Munter and his wife Harriet would later move to Laurel where she taught school for many years and he managed the Kent Feed Co.
But in July 1945, Munter was a company commander with the Army Corps of Engineers stationed at Hochst, Germany. Munter said some of the enlisted men were billeted in an old German army barracks while officers lived in apartments and private homes. Munter said when officers wished to take over a private home, they would tack up an eviction notice ordering the residents to move out immediately. The reason for the short notice, he said, was to prevent the occupants from removing their furniture and other useful property. “We have a swell house for five of my company officers. It was owned by a German chemist. One of my lieutenants buys champagne for $.60 a bottle. We keep a good supply in the ice box.“ Munter said he visited Frankfurt which was about six miles from Hochst. “I had no idea a city could be so badly damaged. Every roof is blown in, walls are knocked down, and the streets are filled with bricks and bomb craters. The city is 100 per cent destroyed. I never realized it could be so bad. A lieutenant in my company said every city in Germany looks the same.“ Until the bombers arrived, Frankfurt had more medieval buildings than any other city in Germany. The old part of the city was almost entirely destroyed by U.S. and British bombers and thousands of civilians were killed or injured.
Strangely, one modern building in Frankfurt was intentionally spared. The huge I.G. Farben office complex was not bombed because Gen. Eisenhower wanted it for his headquarters. Until Ike and his staff moved in, the Farben building was inhabited by people whose homes had been destroyed. According to the Holocaust gospel, Farben produced the Zyklon B used in the Auschwitz gas chamber so it seems odd that both the office and the factory were spared.
In other news of July 1945: Sugar was in short supply along with other food stuffs. The nationwide food shortage caused a day of hunger in Laurel. It was nothing like in Germany, but on Sunday, July 22, all Laurel restaurants were forced to close because they ran out of food. A crew of men working on resurfacing Highway 15 south of town had to drive to Wayne to find something to eat. The food shortage was due in part to the government shipping large quantities of meat and other food overseas on Lend-Lease.
In some cases, Canadian butcher shops were selling Lend-Lease beef back to Americans at considerable profit.
Lightning destroyed a large barn on the Charles Ebmeier farm five miles northeast of Laurel on Highway 20. The barn was only five or six years old. The farm was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Albert Miller.
Fire destroyed another barn on the Levi Eby farm 12 miles north of Laurel.
The fire was believed to have been caused by the spontaneous combustion of alfalfa hay. Fireman from Laurel, Coleridge, and Hartington were unable to save the barn, but they managed to keep the fire from spreading to surrounding buildings. The farm was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Glen Eby.
Dwight Juhlin was discharged from the army after nearly four years of service that included more than 300 days of actual combat. When asked what he was doing to keep busy at home, Juhlin replied “plowing corn and boy how I love it.“ Pfc. Robert Anderson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Reuben Anderson, was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism in action. On Dec. 26, 1944 Anderson volunteered to get food for his platoon from a supply depot under enemy fire. Anderson’s brother Harold was one of the first Laurel boys killed in action in World War II.
Sgt. Vernon Jensen received a Purple Heart for wounds suffered on Okinawa. He also was awarded the Infantryman Combat Badge.
Neal Felber was promoted from First Lieutenant to Captain in the Medical Administrative Corps.
Felber was the assistant executive officer of the Bushnell Military General Hospital in Brigham City, Utah. Bushnell was one of six hospitals in the United States specializing in treating amputees.
