Veteran's Day 2006 Kassel, Germany 1944
Sarah Schaen Naugher
Today, Americans celebrate Veteran's Day, originally Armistice Day, "the anniversary of the official end of World War I, November 11, 1918. It commemorates the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning — the 'eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.'"
Source : Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
It is fitting that we pay tribute to the important events of our nation's past and to remember those who died defending freedom, not only that of ourselves but for all whose freedom is suppressed.
Ridge Rider News has among its readers, Sarah Carter Shaen Naugher, whose first husband, Jim Shaen, died defending freedom in World War II. Sarah's present husband, David Naugher, a veteran of WWII, is representative of the many who survived the battlefields of Europe and returned to help lead The United States of America to attain her present status as the most powerful nation on Earth.
The following article was written by Sarah Naugher and recalls an unusual happening in her life more than sixty-two years ago. Sarah explains she only recently spoke publicly of this event.
We said goodbye on a graveled knoll outside the airfield in Topeka, Kansas on June 6, 1944. My husband of six months, Jim Schaen, who was pilot on a B-24, was leaving with his crew to fly to wherever his instructions indicated. I was headed back to Mississippi and the home of my parents in Pontotoc to await his return from combat.
Jim had convinced my schoolteacher parents to allow me to drop out of the last semester of my senior year at MSCW to be with him out west while he trained with his crew. He promised them that I would complete the requirements for graduation as soon as I could arrange the necessary courses; this was to help to occupy my time while he flew his missions.
The time we spent together while he trained turned out to be our only time together as he was reported missing on his 15th mission over Europe. His 445th bomb group was almost totally destroyed on the infamous Kassel Mission of September 27, 1944.
Shortly after my return to Mississippi, I discovered that I was pregnant and "according to his instructions" I enrolled at Mississippi State University for the summer session. Jim was thrilled that he was to be a father and said that he wanted a girl. I completed 12 hours at MSU and still lacked 3 hours to complete my degree work. I received almost daily letters from Jim, who was stationed at Tibenham, near Norwich near the East Coast of England.
On the night of September 26, 1966, about three days before I was to complete my final three hours at Belhaven College in Jackson, MS, I went to bed as usual. My roommate from Brookhaven, MS was sleeping in her single bed nearby. At sometime shortly after midnight, I was awakened by my bed turning and spinning so that I had to hold on to the mattress to keep from falling off. I called to my roommate to turn on the light to see if that would stop the spinning. It did, but when she turned off the light the same spinning and turning of the room and bed started again. She turned on the lights again and it all immediately stopped. After several similar attempts, she said that she would go down the hall and sleep in another room so that I could keep the lights on.
I kept the lights on for the remainder of the night and sat up in a chair. Although I was pregnant, I had had no dizziness or nausea during the whole pregnancy. The next morning I went down to see the school nurse and she refused to let me attend my class that day and giving me a permit, sent me back to my room for the day.
Late in the afternoon of the 27th of September, my roommate came back to the room and suggested that we go downtown to the orange juice stand on Capitol Street to get some of their wonderfully cold orange juice, which helped anyone to feel better. We caught the bus and did so. While downtown, I bought a newspaper, which was dated the 28th of September, or the next morning's edition. The headlines in huge letters were 40 B-24's SHOT DOWN ON MISSION TO KASSEL. My heart leapt within me as I read about the B-24's being attacked by at least 100 German fighter planes, which shot down all but four of the bombers. I vowed that if I heard from Jim after this attack that I would not let myself feel this fear again. I didn't. His last letter was written and postmarked September 26, 1944.
Following buying this paper, we walked around the block to visit a friend from Pontotoc who was a hostess on the Rebel (train). I showed the paper to Carolyn and she remembers it until today. I've kept the paper all these years, and it is still in my scrapbook.
About two weeks later, when I was back in Pontotoc with my parents, I received the dreaded telegram telling me that Jim was MISSING IN ACTION. Four months later in January 1945, I received, yet another, dreaded telegram telling me that the German Red Cross had reported to the American Red Cross that Jim had been KILLED IN ACTION on September 27, 1944.
Our baby daughter, Jima, was born a month later and through her Jim now has three wonderful adult grandchildren, whom he would never see, and today has five great grands whom he will never see. Following, was his interment with six other deceased airmen from the Kassel Mission in the city cemetery in the village of Gerstungen near where his plane crashed in East Germany. Since, I have had his remains re-interred in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, where all of his descendants can visit his grave.
Was he telling me GOODBYE, as his plane was going down on that fateful flight? What do you think? I had never had such a feeling before, nor have I had a similar experience since.
Sarah Schaen Naugher July 5, 2006.
Note: The Kassel Mission battle of 27 September 1944 was remembered in a special memorial rededication ceremony in Germany on August 1st, 2006. [T]ravelers toured Kassel Mission crash sites where twenty-five B-24's came down within a fifteen-mile radius…More than 400 attended [the rededication ceremony]. Sarah Naugher and Juanita Jones laid a wreath at the three monument stones¾ one with names of the dead Americans, one for the Germans who died that day, and a center monument telling the Kassel Mission story.
Source: 8th Air Force News Magazine
