| V.E. Day (Victory in Europe), May 8, 1945 |
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| Adolph Hitler committed suicide April 30, 1945 and at 2:41 a.m., May 7th, in Gen. Eisenhower’s headquarters at Rheims, France, Gen. Jodl signed an "unconditional surrender" on behalf of the German government. Fighting in Europe ended the next midnight, making May 8th the official "V.E. Day". |
| Sadly, we continued to be busy with new types of casualties: methyl alcohol poisoning from drinking "torpedo juice", accidental gunshot wounds, usually from captured weapons, and jeep accidents. |
| One of our young nurses died when a command car in which she was riding one night went off a bridge and pinned her underwater. This was the only overseas casualty suffered by the 51st. |
| The summer at Welzheim was far from being uncomfortable. |  |
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| Volleyball helped to keep us in shape, and a beautiful stream nearby offered excellent trout fishing. | |
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| Before evening mess we gathered outside our little officers’ club for a splash of captured cognac. |  |
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| As the days got warmer, the night crew moved out of their tents to the cool shade of an apple orchard on the edge of the hospital area to sleep. | |
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| Although "fraternization" was forbidden, we did enjoy the quaint beauty of our neighboring village, Welzheim. |  |
| Artillery spotter pilots from the 92nd Division could land on our hospital site... |  |
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... and provided interesting flights over 7th Army controlled territory, all the way down to Lake Constance. |
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| At the hospital site the clover became ready for harvesting and the German farm families carried on this work as usual. | |
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| Our nurses found the dirndl dresses of the German women attractive, and located some for themselves in local shops. |  |
| Col. Weller and Head Nurse, Capt. Mabel Uhlmann, gave permission for the wedding of our nurse, Lt. Winona Webb to Ambulance Company Capt., Alan Ford. | |
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| It was a gala event ... | |
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| ... with Chaplain Godfrey officiating. | |
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| Three day leaves allowed us to travel to Munich and Innsbruck. | |
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| Along the Autobahn we found this Me 262 jet assembly plant. The center section of the adjacent highway was painted green to cleverly disguise the jet landing strip. Fortunately, for our B-17 squadrons, these jets had not seen action for lack of fuel. | |
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| Visiting Hitler’s burned-out home at Berchtesgaden ... |  |
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| Burned-out S.S. barracks at Berchtesgaden. | |
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... provided a sharp contrast to the quiet beauty of nearby Knönigsee. |
| In June we were able to attend Jack Benny’s U.S.O. show near Stuttgart. |  |
| The show included Ingrid Bergman (Oh, those incredible blue eyes!), Larry Adler showing off his harmonica virtuosity, and good ol’ Les Brown and his "Band of Renown". I had never been a great fan of Jack Benny, but he stood up there on a makeshift outdoor stage and, in a style of humor very different from his radio personality, kept us all roaring for a solid two hours. |  |
| In July, as the 51st prepared to move to Stuttgart, the first of our medical officers with enough points (the most number of children) received their orders for rotation home and discharge. There is no problem recognizing this as the first happy group. |
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| The hospital ceased operation on July 20th, the ambulances pulled in and evacuated the last of our patients, and unit was shut down. |  |
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The problem was that we had as yet no place to move to from the field of clover outside of Welzheim. |
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