Dick Hedges World War II Memorabilia Collection

Dick Hedges was drafted into the United States Army in December of 1942. He was sent first to Dodd Field (Fort Sam Houston) in San Antonio and from there joined the 654th Engineer Topographic Battalion at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. He was put in Company B (Art, Drafting and Printing).

In December, 1943 the 654th was sent to Camp Shanks on the outskirts of New York City for a short while, and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean on the HMS Aquitania to Gourock, the port for Glasgow, Scotland. After a week in Glasgow, Dick Hedges was sent to Tetbury, England in the Cotswolds.

With the First U. S. Army headquarters in Bristol, England requested that its G-2 (air) form a new unit to be known as APID (Army or Aerial Photo Interpretation Detachment), Dick Hedges was assigned to it. He was put on P.I. team #15 and put in charge of APID's small drafting section. He was given a Top Secret BIGOT card and was sent to London to do special detailed work on beach maps for the invasion of Normandy. APID was living in tents in the woods at Middle Wallop near the Stonehenge in Southern England when the invasion of Normandy occurred on June 6, 1944.

Landing on Omaha beach at D+24, APID was at Airstrip #9 at Le Molay when Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Montgomery visited in July at the time of the St. Lo breakthru.

APID moved from Normandy to Gif-sur-Yvette, a village south of Versailles, where the soldiers again lived in tents, but did their work in a huge chateau nearby.

In September APID then moved from France north to Gosselies, a suburb of the city of Charleroi, in southern Belgium.

For recreation, the 67th's three squadrons plus the attached groups such as APID, formed a basketball league and Dick Hedges coached and played on APID's team.

In March, 1945 APID left Belgium and moved east into Germany. The first stop was Ordensberg Vogelsang (Orderly Mountain Bird Chant) a former school for Hitler Jugend (Youth). From there they crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, and proceeded to Limburg, Germany.

When the war in Europe ended in May of 1945, APID was at Eschwege, Germany. After APID was disbanded, Dick Hedges was sent to Weisbaden, Germany where 12th Army Group Headquarters was located. Its code name was "Eagle." Dick Hedges applied for a job and was assigned to G-2. He was billeted with MFIU- 4 (Mobile Field Interrogation Unit #4) which operated the Wiesbaden jail housing several high ranking Nazis.

In July 1945 Dick was sent to (Military Intelligence Service Center) at Oberursel, 12 miles from Frankfurt. He was promoted to Master Sergeant and put in charge of the library. While serving with MISC, Dick Hedges and Major Bill Silliman escorted five high ranking Nazis to Nurnberg to stand trial as war criminals. They were Field Marshall Albert Kesselring, commander of the Wermacht in North Africa, Italy and the Western Front; General of the Artillery Walter Warlimont; Reich Finance Minister Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht; Dr. William (Wilhelm) Stuckart, Secretary of the Minister of the Interior; and Frans Xavier Schwarz, the Treasurer of the NAZI party.

Several other excursions were taken out of "Dulag Luft" at Oberursel by groups of GIs who were stationed there. One was to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar, Germany. Another was to Bavaria and Salzburg, Austria. While visiting in Austria, the group visited Hitler's former mountain top headquarters, "Adlerhorst" (Eagle's nest).

Dick Hedges spent three years in the United States Army earning the ranks of Private, T-5 (Corporal) for one year, T-4 (Sergeant), and T-3 (Staff Sergeant) for one year, Technical Sergeant and finally, Master Sergeant.

Among the many awards that he won were the Legion of Merit-Legionaire, Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal and Victory Medal, American Theater of Operations medal, and the European Theater of Operations medal with five battle stars.

He received an Honorable Discharge from the United States Army at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin in March of 1946. After a shortvisit with his family in Iowa, he returned to Houston and his job in the Land Drafting Division of the Land Department of Shell Oil Company.