Bamberg, Germany
S/Sgt Ed L. Bowly
HQ Company,
U.S. Constabulary
Bamberg, Germany 1945-46.
I was born in Pennsylvania.I
had a deferment with Westinghouse Elec. Co in south Philadelphia ..we were
building propulsion units for A/C, Battleships, DEscorts...I lost my deferment
when the Battle of the Bulge went BAD.. I went to Camp Gordon (its name
in 1945, now Ft. Gordon) after being sworn in at Indiantown Gap, PA
replacement center....Trained in Ft.Gordon as a basic rifleman (infantry)
for six months..before going to Germany. I was transferred to HQ
Company, US Constabulary Bamberg, Germany 1945-46. It was an IRTC at
the time converted from a
tank training camp to an Infantry training camp.
ED Bowley at Ft. Gordon, GA. Oct. 1945
Photos Below
The Bowley Brothers
Bob and Ed
These two buildings are the backside of the Headquarters buildings.
The buildings used to house a Panzer unit..we were told..when we
first came there..
A note from Ed
Here are some photos
from my scrap book which is falling apart...from
age...the paper is brittle
and turning yellow also....back then in '46 the
German people were just
getting their lives back together and good products
were rare...good paper
included...one thing they did make well
was..............beer.
We used to go to the
local brewery on Friday with a jeep and pick up a
hogshead of beer for
the barracks....Ice was hard to come by and we drank it
warm....but it was good
beer...
Wiesbaden was the center
of the USO ccupa;tion Government I think...most of
the big gears were there...I
went through once or twice, but don't remember much
about it....Frankfurt
and Nuremberg stick out in my
memory....devastation...death...the
smell of the city of Nuremberg I will
never forget...bodies
buried under the rubble....I have many pics of the
city...The first thing
the GIs did was to get the streets repaired and the
trolleys running...and
I can remember German civilians young and old chipping
mortar from the rubble
and salvaging "good" bricks for reconstruction...women
as well as men...that
made a lasting impression on me and I remember it to
this day..this was in
'45...before the Constabulary.
Ed
T/4 George Roth, native
of Indianapolis, IN...now living in Palm Harbor, Florida which is a little
south of St.Pete..
George was also in the XV Army Corps with
me and was transferred to the
Constabulary when they took over and the
Corps was deactivated...We worked
together in the office and became friends..went
to Nice, Marsailles, Lyon,
Paris, etc together on a leave..had a
great time...He was discharged with me
I think....hard to remember details..
T/Sgt. Gene Hazlett, Tech/Sgt
was a five striper..staff non-comissioned officer as I was but one
rank lower....Gene was the Section Chief
of all the personnel in the G-2
section....Our commissioned officer was
Lt. Bobby Nocks...who reported to
Major Hay...the boss of G-2...
Gene and I went on furlough to Zugspitz,
GarmenPartenkirchen, the Eagles'
Nest, etc on furllough in the dead of
winter 1945 in a jeep from the motor
pool...
Gene went home before I did and I was
the section chief for a short time
before I went home...also....Major Hay
offered me six stripes if I would stay
six more months, but I declined and came
home on points or "at the descretion
of the Army" as they used to say...
ED
Constabulary Auto in Bamberg
A Staff car we got from the Germans and
was used by the HQ personnel....
T/4 Bill Vega on the left and Tech Sgt. Paul Filippi, both in the
G2 section
of our office...