April 1945 Henry Hitchens Galantly, Boldly, and Blindly was the 1st Signal Corp Scout for General Patton who discovered a horrific scene of corpses littered inside a cargo train, as they discovered this, 3 Swiss German SS Guards begged for forgiveness as they explained what they were about to discover down the road in Dachau, they stated that the regular guards had fled in anticipation of the American forces closing in on the camp. unfortunately for those 3 guards, Henry who was 6'5" 250lbs and an avid boxer and was in charge of his regimen who scouted directly in front of General Patton's Tank battalion. The fates of 2 of those three was never discussed to me, but it didn't go well for them,
One Swiss National SS trooper accompanied Henry to the Gates Of DACHAU.
Here is my recollection of his story, a hidden radio was used to inform prisoners of the American advance, the Germans underestimated the speed Henry was able to cover and arrived 3 days before the German intelligence information,
The Swiss SS soldier lead Henry and his men to the gates, the stench and filth was sickening, Henry thought he had been poisoned as his body trembled and brought him to his knees, immediately he recovered, and the Swiss SS soldier was not mentioned again, by this time prisoners were taking over the remaining SS inside the camp as they knew the Americans had arrived, the gates were opened by other remaining SS officers and there was an incredible rush, a stampede out of the gates, as there was only 1 way in or out.
SS soldiers had put on the prisoners uniforms and smothered themselves in excrement to hide amongst the prisoners, Well that didn't work, here is where the story is my interpretation of what Henry and his men did, Not to many of those fake SS guards posing as prisoners made it very far.
Henry never admitted to any war crime by his hand nor did any of his comrades, however none of these SS made to the impending War Crime Trials, most of them ended up meeting their maker.
Henry Lived a long life and died at 92 in Baltimore MD with full honors,
He NEVER forgave himself and dwelled on his own personal guilt and remorse by not getting there sooner, even saving 20,000 remaining prisoners, 1000s died a month later as they were just to weak to survive.
Henry's Dachau story ended there with me and he would switch to stories of him saving Gen Patton from attack, during a scouting tour he discovered a German encampment on the edge of a cliff in a ravine, the Germans were laughing and drunk, 100s of soldiers, immediately he and his men swiftly ran back to report the find, his radio man wasn't able to communicate for whatever reason, so they are running alongside a route and I'll never forget this part..and I quote Henry happily saying " I'm running back and I see a tank battalion rumbling torwards them, leading the way with a soldier with stars on his Helmet with shiny reflecting the bright sun , it was General Patton himself leading the way towards the German location, I ran up and stopped by standing in front of his tank, Patton stood up and said " Get The Fuck Out Of The Way Soldier", Henry replied " No you gotta turn around as The Fucking Germans are Right around Corner down an embankment, so you cannot go any further " Patton then kicked his tank commander in his head and sais" You Heard This Man, Turn this Shit Around"...
Henry Hitchens my Grandfather will always be honored , he was a REAL HERO, and yet he suffered internally for 70 years regretting he didn't do more sooner...
Thank you for your reading my honor story and I promised myself I would light a candle in his honor
Garrett Henderson
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