Early training
Willard and Wilbur Diefenthaler trained at Camp Phillips, Kan., and both were assigned to the 106th Infantry. Willard recalls how mistaken identity almost denied him his first meal at the mess hall. He describes his chemical warfare training and recalls witnessing British ingenuity in Oxford, England.
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The Bulge
Willard Diefenthaler chronicles the early hours of the Battle of the Bulge. Surviving those first hours was the first of many "lucky" moments.
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Surviving Bad Orb
Diefenthaler describes his capture during the Battle of the Bulge. Prisoners marched and dragged each other through the rain and sleet to a railhead, where they were packed into boxcars for prison camps. While waiting outside Lindberg Prison Camp, Diefenthaler narrowly escaped strafing from an Allied plane. He recalls a moment of kindness from a German civilian and describes the grim living conditions at Stalag 9B in Bad Orb, Germany.
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Wilbur
The Germans moved Diefenthaler to Stalag 9A on Jan. 25, 1945. He describes his last memories of his brother, Wilbur, who was too ill to move. Decades later, Diefenthaler received his brother's final letter and met the American medic who took care of Wilbur during his final days.
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Liberation
The Allies liberated Stalag 9A on Good Friday, 1945. Diefenthaler describes how several prisoners exacted revenge against "The Man of Confidence," the sergeant formerly in charge of the camp. The next staging ground was Camp Lucky Strike in LaHavre, France, where some former POWs died from overeating.
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Reunions
Diefenthaler reflects on the importance of attending veterans' reunions. He notes that POWs suffered during and after the war, and he commends supportive POW wives.
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Reunions
Diefenthaler reflects on the importance of attending veterans' reunions. He notes that POWs suffered during and after the war, and he commends supportive POW wives.
audio clip (2:06)

Mark Van Ells: Now, these reunions, you referred back to them several times. … And you get to see people—

Willard Diefenthaler: Everybody gets old but us, you know. And you look at them — where did you get all this gray hair? How come you don't have any hair?

Van Ells: Isn't that funny how that works?

Diefenthaler: And you look at yourself, and here it's just as bad. But it's something that 50 years seems like yesterday and things like I met this guy says, "I remember you." Finally it comes back. It's been a long time and it's been quite an experience — you wouldn't buy and you wouldn't give a cent for it either, and you couldn't buy it. It's something.

People haven't realized that a prisoner of war has had a rough time of it. If not only from the short time we were there, it's the after-effect. Like one of our fellows there from, I don't know if he was from the North East Wisconsin Chapter — Les Wozik from over here in Meadow. He was in the Marines and he was in the Pacific. He was captured for three or three-and-a-half years. And then we talked to another guy, he's 80 years old already, and he was in three years in the Pacific. It was hard for us and it was doubly hard for those guys. I have a lot of respect for them. And, of course, you can't go without mentioning your wife that put up with us all of these years 'cause that's a special type again.

Jean Diefenthaler: I shouldn't butt in, but one of the interesting experiences was in Waco, Texas. We were attending this reunion there. So this fellow picks up his newspaper and reads about it and calls up to see if he could come to the reunion and it was the tank commander that —

Diefenthaler: Liberated Bad Orb.

Jean Diefenthaler: — broke down the gates of Bad Orb and so he gave his view of what that was like, and that was really something. And it seems like every reunion we go to, these prison camps, something like that happens, some unexpected thing. It just really makes it—

Van Ells: Special. I guess that's a bland term but it seems to fit.