Adolph Edward Romanek
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
Adolph Edward Romanek served in World War II in the European Theater. He served in the U.S. Army from July 18, 1944, until July 6, 1946. He had training at Fort McClellan, Alabama, for 17 weeks. He was assigned to Fort Meade, Maryland, and later to Camp Miles Standish, Massachusetts.
On January 3, 1945, he boarded the USS Thomas H. Barry bound for Le Havre, France. They took a truck convoy to Germany. There he was assigned to the 99th Division, 395th Regiment, 1st Army. They served on the Siegfried Line and then marched toward Cologne, Germany.
On March 4, 1945, Mr. Romanek was hit with shrapnel in his shoulder. He was flown to England and was in a cast for 6 weeks. The war ended as he made his way back to the United States aboard the USAHS Ernestine Koranda. After the war, he was involved in prisoner and troop transport.
He held the rank of Private 1st Class and he was also a Bazooka Assistant with the 99th Division, 395th Regiment, 1st Army.
He was decorated with the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one battle star.
Mr. Romanek was born in Floodwood, Minnesota, in 1925, the son of Joseph and Mary Romanek.
Source: Veterans’ Memorial Hall veteran history form; veteran’s family’s account (see below)
"Dad signed on to the Army, July 18, 1944. He went to basic training at Fort McClellan, Alabama, for 17 weeks. It was a really hot summer for a Minnesota boy. In December he reported to Fort Meade, Maryland (he did KP on Christmas day), then on to Camp Miles Standish, Massachusetts, where he boarded a ship (the USS Thomas H. Barry) on January 3 headed to Le Havre, France.
He was at sea for 12 days. When he arrived at Le Havre, France, they traveled by train in boxcars and traveled all night (freezing in the boxcars without heat). Then they took a truck convoy into Germany. They couldn’t put the canvas over the back of the trucks in case German planes fired at them and they needed to jump out the sides of the truck. Dad said it was very cold, and the truck drivers would stop every couple of hours to throw some gasoline down on the ground to make a fire so the soldiers could warm their feet. Then their feet would get so hot they would stomp them in the snow to cool them off.
They joined the 99th Division on the Siegfried Line, Germany. Dad was an infantry bazooka assistant in the 99th Division, 395th Regiment, 1st Army under General Hodges in Germany. They marched for several days, then had to dig fox holes, but never got to use them as they were ordered to leave at 3:00a.m. and continued marching from town to town and through muddy farm fields with not much resistance. Their outfit was headed for Cologne, Germany. He was told they would have to cross the Rhine River. Dad was very concerned and knew there was a good chance he would not make it across the river because he could not swim.
On March 4th, the town [unknown] they were in was being shelled, and he was hit with shrapnel in the shoulder. The ambulance ride was horrible, as there was a wounded German soldier who smelled so bad that the ambulance driver had to stop to vomit! He arrived at the hospital in Gedinne, Belgium, and was cast from the waist up with his arm sticking out. They flew him to England, but he couldn’t fit in the bunk and had to lie on the floor of the plane. He was in the hospital for 6 weeks before the cast was removed.
On April 26, 1945, he left England by ship headed back to the U.S. The war ended while he was crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The name of the hospital ship was the USAHS Ernestine Koranda, which was named after the first female nurse killed in the Pacific Theater. They docked in Charleston, South Carolina, then took a hospital train to Vancouver, Washington. He was in the hospital there for recovery, then on to Hot Springs, Arkansas, for a week of vacation and on to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska, to guard German POWs . . . they picked potatoes and beets.
In December, he went to Camp Carson, Wyoming, and took a trainload of German POW’s to Seattle, Washington, boarded the USS Lucius Fairchild (a Liberty Ship) with POW’s down the West Coast through the Panama Canal to Liverpool, England, then to France to bring back troops, nurses, the Red Cross. (Prisoners on the ship: 1,600 . . . on the way back: 2,200 people, and they had less room on board than the prisoners had.) It was a 43-day round-trip landing in New York, flew to Seattle, Washington, to Fort Lawton in Washington State and was an MP there. Then to Fort Sheridan, Illinois, for discharge on July 6, 1946.
Later, talking to a couple of GI’s . . . they figured he was only 1 ½ to 3 miles from reaching the [Rhine] river and Cologne.
Many years ago, Dad had said he would like to have gone back to see Cologne, Germany, and cross the Rhine River because he never made it there. After hearing this, his grandson, Logan, happened to travel to Germany in January, 2010, for college. He made a special trip by train to Cologne and walked across the Rhine River . . . in a way, completing the journey for his grandfather!
On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. Sixty-six years later on this day, Dad is receiving his Bronze Star. 1 year, 11 months, 16 days in the service."
