Al Kath Jr. speaks of his experiences as a World War II POW during a POW/MIA Rememberance Day Ceremony at the Janesville Youth Sports Complex on Friday.
JANESVILLE — The soccer players shrieked and cheered in the Janesville Youth Sports Complex.
They sounded just like little kids should on a warm Friday evening: carefree, happy and safe.
Nearby, a stooped man told a story of unthinkable atrocities and the sacrifices he and others made for the safety and freedom of those little soccer players.
World War II veteran and former prisoner of war Al Kath Jr. of Janesville spoke Friday night at a POW remembrance ceremony.
In a calm, occasionally jovial voice, Kath told a small crowd about the five months he spent in two German POW camps after being captured on the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944.
The “untested” 106th Infantry had only been at the front lines for five days, but already food and ammunition were low, Kath said. When the ammunition ran out, he rode in a Jeep to headquarters.
But the Jeep hit land mines, and Kath was sprayed in the side with shrapnel.
After the surrender, Kath and others marched 30 miles through 3 feet of snow and temperatures well below zero.
They got no medical treatment, other than their army-issued first-aid kits.
“That doesn’t do a hell of a lot when you got a little shrapnel in your skin,” Kath said.
German soldiers took their gloves and overshoes. The Americans threw away watches and other valuables, Kath said.
The first march ended at a row of 40-and-8 boxcars where Kath and other prisoners rode for six days with no food or water.
When the train arrived at the camp in Limburg, Germany, British planes bombed the rail yard, blowing the doors off the cars and blowing many men out.
Some were shot as they tried to run. Kath was smashed in the back with a German rifle.
Two weeks later, Kath and other prisoners marched 120 miles north to Luchenwalde. At one point along the stretch, the prisoners were close to getting bombed by fighter planes.
“The boys lay down and formed (the letters) “POW” with their bodies. The plane waved its wings and flew on,” Kath said.
When they got to Luchenwalde, weak and stumbling on frozen feet, there were no barracks, Kath said. The Germans pitched circus tents, and the prisoners slept in assigned 2- by-6-foot spaces.
“There were 17,000 men of all nations,” Kath said. “Words could never recall the smell … of latrines, rotten cabbage and dirty men.”
The prisoners ate watery soup—the occasional worm added protein—and ate sawdusty bread, Kath said.
Russian guards finally relieved the Germans on May 8, 1945, and Kath was liberated. It was the day before his birthday, and Kath has never forgotten the gift.
“Freedom is very, very dear to me, because it’s hard to come by.”