Army Lt. Bill Hamilton’s V-E Day memory centers around a castle and a river.
Hamilton, 86, of West Ashley was in Salzburg, Austria, that week in 1945 and faced a last firefight against Nazi SS troops. German army soldiers helped the Americans because they disliked the SS so much, he said.
Hamilton, who was part of The Citadel’s Class of 1944, and his soldiers had to spend the night in a castle until it was safe to head back to the American lines, he remembered.
On May 8, ranking officers told Hamilton to be on the alert for the announcement that unconditional surrender was coming. When word came that peace had arrived, his men ran to a nearby river and tossed in all their hand-grenades after first pulling the trigger pins.
“All the fish came up,” he said.
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Local Paper Front Page–V-E Day memories
Army Lt. Bill Hamilton’s V-E Day memory centers around a castle and a river.
Hamilton, 86, of West Ashley was in Salzburg, Austria, that week in 1945 and faced a last firefight against Nazi SS troops. German army soldiers helped the Americans because they disliked the SS so much, he said.
Hamilton, who was part of The Citadel’s Class of 1944, and his soldiers had to spend the night in a castle until it was safe to head back to the American lines, he remembered.
On May 8, ranking officers told Hamilton to be on the alert for the announcement that unconditional surrender was coming. When word came that peace had arrived, his men ran to a nearby river and tossed in all their hand-grenades after first pulling the trigger pins.
“All the fish came up,” he said.
Read it all.