Family recalls POW's life in WWII times

National Guard Company M left Red Oak in March 1941 for training that eventually put them within the grasp of Rommel’s World War II German forces. By March 10, 1943, The Express headlines proclaimed: 37 IN COMPANY M ‘MISSING’ IN AFRICA. Many still remember when telegrams began informing families that loved ones were missing in action. Several POWs would spend over two years inside prison camps.

Andy Johnson was one of those POWs, although his sister, Rosie Nelson, said she only learned of his experiences years after the war.

Nelson, then a young teacher, said, “I remember so well that (Superintendent) Vestal came into my class room and said that he would relieve me so that I could go home because my parents had received a sad message that my brother Andy was missing in action. A neighbor (took) me to my parents home.”

Nelson described the remainder of the day as a funeral, not only for her family, but for others receiving similar telegrams. Friends and neighbors called and came to comfort each other.

Years later, Johnson told his son, Steve, about the battle that basically dissolved Company M and of his imprisonments and escapes.

Steve said he pressed his father for more details.

Johnson told his son that the hope that kept prisoners going was thoughts of getting back home. He also said U.S. prisoners were to agitate the enemy so more guards would be needed. Johnson felt he obeyed orders, according to testimony from his children. He escaped four times.

Johnson was one of the few survivors at Kasserine and Fa’id passes –– two World War II battles that occurred on the Tunisian front.

After days of battle, Johnson and a few others were to antagonize the enemy while others left on an unsuccessful nighttime march toward other forces. Johnson soon became part of Company M, headed for the Anzio beach landing and earned a battlefield commission of which he was proud.

North of Anzio, Johnson was captured and was subsequently humiliatingly marched through Rome to be loaded into a boxcar.

He and others jumped from the train. Tragically, the soldier who jumped with him broke his leg, so Johnson’s next days were focused on protecting him while hiding from enemy.

He encountered the Gestapo and witnessed the horrific death of his fellow soldier before being recaptured.

He went over a barbed wire fence during an escape attempt on a stormy night with other POWs. Johnson ran until exhausted, knowing a pursuer was right behind him. The pursuer was another POW. Together they evaded capture until their muddy tracks gave them away. He was sent to Czubin, Poland.

There, he and fellow prisoners dug escape tunnels. Germans learned the Russians were coming and ordered prisoners to march. Johnson managed to escape during that march and was eventually taken in by a sympathetic Polish couple.

The couple’s son was fluent in Polish, German, Russian and English, and helped convince others he and Johnson were peasants heading to fieldwork as the two walked toward Odessa. Eventually Johnson boarded a ship and came back to the United States.

“My dad was a great father. He raised three boys and never laid a hand on us,” said Johnson, a little surprised because of the treatment his father witnessed during the war. “He wasn’t perfect, but I thought the world of him.”

Rosie Nelson, Johnson’s sister, remembered the jubilation when the war was finally over. She said soldiers “came stringing back –– not in twos or threes –– but often on the train alone.”

POW John Nelson, who became Rosie’s husband, told her he was the only one getting off in Red Oak when he unexpectedly came home.

Rosie said her husband and brother became close friends and swapped WWII stories. She agreed soldiers have a special bond with one another, regardless of when or where they serve.

Nelson died at the age of 54, most likely due in part to the treatment he received during his POW experiences.

Steve and Andy farmed together for many years before Andy died in 2000 at the age of 83.