Recollections of Berlin trip 60 years ago

Russian troops in Berlin on May 3, 1945, sure were surprised to see nine American soldiers from the 9th Army take a sight-seeing tour through the war-torn city.

Hyman "Hy" Gendloff, now a Las Vegas resident, and his buddies definitely were out of place joyriding about on a weapons carrier. The 9th Army had been stopped at the Elbe River because President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Russian leader Joseph Stalin had agreed on territorial advances.

Despite such delicate geopolitical bargaining, Gendloff and his comrades couldn't wait to see the town. So, against orders, they took a 60-mile trip to see the devastation.

"I still get a chuckle when I think about what we did, and I still remember how our colonel was very upset at us, especially with Lt. Charles Cohen, whose idea it was to do it," Gendloff, 81, said.

"Still, we were the first Americans to step foot in Berlin after it fell," he said, recalling the incident for the 60th anniversaries of the fall of Berlin (May 3) and Victory in Europe Day (May 8.)

Gendloff's account would be just an old soldier's yarn that could be shrugged off as mere barroom boasting if it weren't for his proof -- photos he took with his German-made Leica 35mm camera.

Gendloff, a corporal and a medic, snapped photos not only of the widespread destruction, but also of Cohen and other U.S. soldiers laughing with Russian troops, having won their favor with cartons of American cigarettes, which they had brought along to bribe sentries and others who might challenge them.

"About 10 miles outside the city we did get stopped by Russian troops," Gendloff said, noting that a few minutes later -- and a couple of cartons of cigarettes lighter -- they were on their way into downtown Berlin.

Joseph A. Fry, a UNLV history professor who teaches U.S. foreign relations, said of Gendloff's story: "It seems entirely possible that could happen," especially the part about using cigarettes for bribes.

"While there clearly were tensions between the Americans and the Russians, the key thing that held the grand alliance together was a common enemy," Fry said of why occupying Russian troops would have accepted American soldiers in the unauthorized Eastern Zone.

Gendloff said Russians soldiers, though certainly surprised to see Americans, cordially greeted them.

"They told us they were grateful for the materials we (the United States) had given them that made it possible for them to take Berlin,"said Gendloff, a former San Diego businessman who 12 years ago retired to Las Vegas.

That policy was called "lend-lease," Fry said.

"Huge amounts of aide -- everything from munitions to cloth -- was sent from the United States to the Russians and they appreciated it," Fry said.

"Ideally the materials were supposed to be returned after the war. An analogy at the time, however, was that it was like loaning someone a piece of chewing gum. You weren't expecting to get it back."

Gendloff said that while motoring through Berlin he was awed by the utter bleakness. The dust and dirt kicked up by the saturated bombing was so thick it blocked out the sun, he said. His photos reflect the haziness that enveloped the city.

In the streets lay hundreds of dead Germans, either piled up or strewn where they had fallen -- many so hacked up by munitions fire they were unrecognizable, Gendloff said. "The place was in absolute ruins."

After driving around and chatting with Russian soldiers, the wayward Americans knew better than to press their luck, and quickly left town, Gendloff said.

On their way back to camp -- hoping they could sneak in without being noticed or having been missed -- the AWOL soldiers ran into a large band of German troops who approached them under a white flag of truce.

"They knew the brutality they could expect as prisoners of the Russians, so they asked us to take them back with us," Gendloff said.

So much for sneaking back into camp unnoticed.

Three days after Cohen, Gendloff and the others made their Berlin trip, the Nazis surrendered unconditionally.

Cohen and the others faced the potential of disciplinary action, Gendloff said, noting that commanders considered busting Cohen down to private from his rank of lieutenant. But, in the end, Gendloff said, they decided not to take any action because Cohen had an excellent service record that included a Silver Star for valor.

Gendloff said he believes that if the brass had taken action against any of them it would have, in effect, been an acknowledgement that the rogue soldiers indeed had been the first American troops to step foot in Berlin, which could have resulted in an international incident.

After the war, Cohen returned to his native Wilmington, N.C., where he was an international wholesale rug importer. He died in 1993, six days after the 48th anniversary of his unapproved excursion into Berlin. He was 79.

Gendloff looks back on unauthorized trek into Berlin as one of the rare moments of frivolity during the seemingly nonstop carnage of that war.

"In movies, you see guys who love war, but nobody I knew ever liked it," he said. "My brother Glen fought in Korea and my late brother Ben also was in the service. War disrupts lives and families. When you touch war you hate it."

As for his feelings on the 60th anniversary of the war's end, Gendloff says, more than anything, he is "disillusioned" because despite the massive bloodletting of World War II, the world did not change as he thought it would.

"After the war, many of us expected an idealistic world," he said. "We had been through so much with the Depression and the war, yet that idealism never materialized. Instead we had the Korean War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and now Iraq. It was more loss of life and more loss of potential.

"It's sad. Ten years from now another war probably will come along."

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