I believe our dads must have gone to Stalag VII A about the same time. My dad was a member of the 3rd Army, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division, Company L. He landed on Red Beach on August 14, 1944 and over the next four months advanced across France. He was captured near Kaysersberg, France (now Germany) about daybreak on December 20, 1944. He was passed back through the lines to Stalag VII A, near Moosburg. He remained there until the camp was liberated by the 14th Armored Division on April 29, 1945.
The city of Moosburg has a wonderful website about Stalag VII A for the men held there and their families. The link is
http://www.moosburg.org/info/stalag/indeng.htmlMy dad did not talk about his time in the war either. My mother said he talked to her non-stop for six months and told her everything that had happened. Then he rarely spoke about it. If he did talk about the war, he had nightmares. The little we know about his experience is what our mother told us.
Please register your dad om the Moosburg site and write anything you know about his experience. My dad was Owen K. Collins. Take a look at his page. He traded cigarettes for a Brownie camera with one the liberating soldiers. The pictures posted on his page are from the camp and the holding camp the men went to after they were liberated.
The are are a couple of photos of the camp stove he and his friends built. Many of the men had similar stoves. My dad built his from items he had at the prison camp or items he picked up while on work detail. They used the stoves to cook potatoes that they found in bombed out cellars while on work details and smuggled into camp in long johns he had sewn into the inside of his coat. There was little food by this stage of the war. Daddy said the only trouble was getting in line at the right place to not be searched. Once inside, the guards were easily bribed with cigarettes.
Lynn Sewell