COLD FINGERS
This weekend, November 17, 2002, I was reading an article about former German War Prisoners who were brought to the United States after being captured. I am talking about WWII of course. The article described how the prisoners were put to work at various jobs, on the farms, in the forests, and other places away from dense populations. It tells of the many men that returned after the war and became citizens and made homes here.
The account caused me to remember the prisoners that were housed at TriCity Airport in Saginaw County. The airport is now called MBS -- that’s it -- MBS, for Midland, Bay County and Saginaw. The field is near Freeland and about 6 miles from the farm where I lived. I was told that those interned at TriCity were captured in the North African campaign. That was Rommell’s theater of war.
The year was 1942, I believe. It could have been 1943. On the farm we grew sugar beets as a major crop. Because of the war labor was scarce. It was a struggle to get the beets out and topped and ready to be hauled to the sugar factory. The harvest begins in late September and in some years continues into November. In those days we didn’t have the hi-speed-harvesters that dig the beets, top them and load them on a truck. What was used was a plow like implement that was pulled down the row, often with horses pulling the lifter. It lifted the beets nearly out of the ground. From there it was manual labor that pulled the beets and tossed them into piles. Manual labor was required to take each beet, one at a time, and cut the top off. The beets were then tossed onto a wagon and hauled up to the barnyard where they would be loaded onto a truck and taken to the sugar factory to be processed into sugar. That year the ground was too muddy to bring the truck into the field. The German officer in charge of the prisoners drove the tractor. He enjoyed it, and driving tractor was the job he kept for himself. Harvesting sugar beets is what war prisoners did in Saginaw County. I can vividly see those long sharp knives with a hook on the end with which to pick up a beet. You aren’t allowed to carry a crochet hook on an airplane today. Then prisoners of war were each given a big, sharp knife with which to top sugar beets. My, how things have changed. I heard that the prisoners were paid something like a dollar a day for their labor.
Twelve men were brought to the field just after daylight, about 8, and they would take out the beets and top them. Most of the men were not much older than twenty years. An older man, a junior officer, was in charge of the group. Several of the men spoke English. Guarding the group was a young American soldier about twenty or so with a 30-caliber carbine for a weapon. The weapon wasn’t loaded, the guard kept the cartridges in his coat pocket and when he got cold he let one of the prisoners hold the rifle so he could warm himself by taking out beets or by sticking his hands in his pockets. It was early November when this was happening. It was cold and there was a bit of snow on the ground.
Mother and Grandma would fix a noon meal for the men. Roast beef, roast pork, roast chicken or sandwiches. Dad made a fire in the stove in the garage. The food was served on a wagon rack also in the garage. The men seemed pleased to be treated so well. I heard several of the men say so. Although they worked no one was whipping them to work harder or faster. They had warm housing, good food, comfortable beds, hot and cold running water, and Sunday off. They ate the same kind food that the American soldiers ate. And no one was shooting at them. Their work day ended about 4:30 when back to the barracks they went. We had fifteen acres of beets that year and if I remember correctly the prisoners worked four days at the Bueker farm.
I heard from talking to neighbors, and this is amusing, that some farmers near the airport had a contract to haul the garbage and trash away from the camp. This is what else I heard: Because there was a scarcity of many civilian goods there was rationing. Meat, sugar, coffee, shoes, clothing, gasoline – you name it -- it was rationed. Tobacco was not rationed as I recall. Cigarettes were plentiful. The prisoners that smoked used the dollar a day earned to buy tobacco. It was said that the farmers picking up the garbage would bring cigarettes in the empty garbage cans. (No charge) When the trash was taken from the compound they would often find in the cans, sugar or bacon or lard or other staples that were scarce and on the list of rationed goods. The prisoners did not want for much of anything.
Never the less there were some idealists that did try to escape. I do not recall that any attempted escapes occurred at Tri City.
This same year, after our beets were harvested, I volunteered with many other highschoolers to help take out sugar beets. As I think back to those days I can’t imagine asking to be excused from class to be allowed to go out in the cold to harvest sugar beets. We would be picked up early in the morning, before first hour class, by farmers and taken to the field to take out beets. It was the same procedure as described for the prisoners. The most apt description is: "It was WORK!" In the evening, about two hours after the last hour class, we would be trucked back to the school very tired. This went on for several weeks. It was the patriotic thing to do, I guess. One thing I remember well about that period in history, WWII that is, is that the Farmers of the United States of America not only produced enough food for the Americans but for much of Europe, including defeated Italy and Germany, as well as Asia and Africa.
Tom Brokaw’s book, "The Greatest Generation" is worth reading.
One thing I can attest to from experience is that it is much more pleasant, weather wise, harvesting hay and grain than harvesting sugar beets. And there is something else, never once did I get cold fingers while milking cows, never.
Deer Hunting
