Cooperative Living May 2018 - 18

SS and werewolf resisters.
Before heading back to the U.S., Stafford
persuaded his captain to permit a " beer
patrol " into Czechoslovakia. " We surprised
the braumeister by paying for - instead
of 'liberating' - several kegs of excellent
beer, " Stafford recalls fondly. " After a year
of fighting, it tasted like the
nectar of the gods. "
Life After War
After the war, Stafford was
Wehrmacht soldiers tried to blow up
Plauen's medieval bridge, built in 1244, to
stall the Allies' advance. While under fire,
Tom Stafford cut the demolition wires.
Citizens of Plauen thanked Stafford for
saving " Tom's bridge " in 2010.
asked the general for a token of his
surrender. Without hesitating, he gave
me his personal pistol. "
A motorcycle escort led the colonel,
Stafford and Jones back into Germany.
" When I informed my company
commander where we had been, and
handed him the surrender document, he
said words to the effect that I was one
crazy fool, adding - with a wide grin -
that he didn't know whether to court
martial me or recommend me for another
medal. " Instead, Stafford received a
battlefield commission as second
lieutenant - the Virginian's fifth combat
promotion in a year.
Early on May 7, a parade of German
soldiers, their families and " probably SS and
Gestapo men dressed as civilians " began
surrendering. Temporary prisoner-of-war
(POW) camps soon overflowed. Also on
May 7, the German government signed an
unconditional Act of Military Surrender.
The escalating parade of surrendering
Germans continued in the days ahead until
the POW camps could not handle anymore.
Stafford said, " Thousands more German
troops and civilians were waiting outside our
lines, pleading to come in. " With regret,
Stafford says, " I learned later that of the 3million
German soldiers captured by the
Russians, only 2 million returned to Germany
after years of hard labor in Russian prisons. "
By the end of May, the Americans sent
many of the POWs home - other than the
16 | Cooperative Living | May 2018
selected to serve as a general's
aide-de-camp. Then ironically,
as a company commander, his
division's mission was to secure
the Czechoslovakia/German
border in 1950. After two tours
of duty in Korea, Major Stafford retired
from active military service in 1963. He
worked for the Department of Defense
until retiring in 1987.
During his military service, Stafford
received 24 medals and decorations, including
the Silver and Bronze stars and French
awards for the D-Day liberation.
Stafford and his wife, Gayla,
live in Fairfax, Virginia.
Their son, Thomas Stafford
II, lives in Alexandria.
On reflection, as part of
what writer Tom Brokaw calls
" the greatest generation, "
Stafford, says he appreciated
how united Americans were
during WWII: " Everyone
either had a family member
in the military or knew someone who was
serving. Americans from all regions of the
country volunteered to fight. And on the
homefront, everyone worked on the
war effort. Today there's too much
partisan political fighting across the
country. I wish we were as united
today as we once were. "
To read Major Stafford's full account,
search online for " Mass Surrender of
German Troops. " 
From top: The
2nd Platoon
Company L
347th Infantry
Regiment at war's end; U.S.
soldiers wait for the 11th Panzer
Division's commanding general to emerge from surrender discussions
in the Czech town of Vseruby on May 4, 1945; Tom Stafford, with cane, stands with Germans
in Plauen reenacting in 2010 as American WWII soldiers; Gestapo and SS Nazis in civilian
clothes surrendering; Wehrmacht general in jeep surrenders to 3rd Battalion commander.
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Cooperative Living May 2018

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