home
Contact
Society
Activities
AIA Project 2006
Gallery
Plärrer Fair Parade
Cooperation
Documentation
Location Augsburg
Links
Sponsors
Imprint

3rd Infantry Division’s Veterans Visit 2011

 

Sixty-six years after the end of WW II, again three veterans of the 3rd Infantry Division visited the city of Augsburg during their Germany tour, where they had participated in liberating the country from the NS-dictatorship. John Keller, Bob Dutil and John Miller were heartily welcomed in the Prince’s Room of the Town Hall by Mayor Grab, the Amerika in Augsburg e.V. Society (AiA) and guests. The GIs, young at the time of the historical event, now aged between 85 and 88 years, visited historical locations e.g. the “cathedral bend” as well as the bronze plaque in memory of the liberation, installed on the admin building of the Stadtwerke (city works)(once the location of the air raid shelter / headquarters of the Wehrmacht’s Augsburg area Garrison Commander). Due to their invasion, the weapons were silenced after long years of a devastating war. 

Chairwoman CPT Monika Stoy of the Society of the 3rd Infantry Division (Outpost Europe) organized, supported by her husband Tim, the historical voyage across the Atlantic. After a long trip of up to 33 hours and an eventful day in Augsburg, the veterans, as first-hand witnesses, even talked with three students of the University of Augsburg (Chair of European-Transatlantic History) for quite a while.

 

 

AiA Chairman Georg Feuerer welcomes the American guests; Monika and Tim Stoy (left), Mayor Peter Grab (right).

 

                  After 66 years in Augsburg again: John Keller, John Miller and Bob Dutil (from left).

 

Tête-à-tête: Augsburg’s past and future. More than three generations separate Bob Dutil and an Augsburg pupil he is meeting.

 

Among themselves: A retired U.S. officer who stayed in Augsburg is having a talk with the veterans of the 3rd Infantry Division.

 

      A former local national employee of the U.S. Army is discussing with Bob Dutil and Mayor Grab.

 

AiA Chairman Georg Feuerer explains to the guests in the Town Hall’s Golden Hall its reconstruction after the war

 

April 28, 2011: At the very same location (“cathedral bend”), where the – probably – only photo of the advance of the U.S. troops into the city on April 28, 1945 was taken (below).

 

                                                      (Photo: Leni Lechner via Franz Häußler)

 

During a hail storm, U.S. troops are moving in the Fuggerstraße. On the left, the former Gymnasium at St. Anna.

 

The same location in 2008: Soldiers of the last unit that had been stationed in Augsburg are participating in the Plärrer Fair Parade.

 

At the plaque, mounted in memory of the liberation of Augsburg by the 3rd Infantry Division on April 28, 1945.

 

           Left: A private dinner. Right: The interview with University of Augsburg students in the hotel.

 

Imprint

upward