Stewart Hihn was born in Baltimore, Maryland in August 1923. His father died when he was only 21 months old, and he was raised primarily by his grandparents. He attended high school in Baltimore. He was very interested in model airplanes as a child. His high school specialized in engineering programs. He went to work first for a machine design company after high school, then left to work for the telephone company until he was drafted into the US Army around March 1943. He spent three years in the military. His brother was also drafted shortly after Hihn and served in the Pacific. Life on the Home Front was difficult for people, they could not access regular goods such as gas or rubber for tires, real butter, pantyhose, lipstick, etc. He rode a bike to work for a long time. Most men Hihn's age served during the war, some of them died [Annotator's Note: Hihn gets emotional]. He found out about the deaths of his friends through correspondence with his mother. He lost his best friend in Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands]. Hihn was 18 years old when he was drafted, having finished high school at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at 16. He hoped to work in the aviation industry.

Stewart Hihn was sent to Fort Meade [Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland] for induction then to Fort Crowder [Annotator's Note: in Neosho, Missouri] where he went through basic training and signal corps training. He received an offer to go through the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers]. The war was not going well at the time, and the government was concerned about how the country would recover after the war, so they decided to send military men to college and pay for it. Hihn passed the required test and was selected to go to Fort Collins, Colorado and to Regis College [Annotator's Note: now Regis University in Denver, Colorado] to become an engineer. The program only lasted nine months, then he was sent to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma and assigned to the 42nd Infantry Division. He had lost all of his signal corps training by that point, became a rifleman, and went through basic training again in a rifle company, Company F, but ended up reassigned to Regimental Headquarters Company in a communications platoon. They thought they were going to the Pacific, as their training had been geared toward the Pacific. They were sent to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey and Hihn was able to go home for a few days before boarding a ship for Marseille [Annotator's Note: Marseille, France] in a convoy. They did not know where they were going until they arrived. They remained at CP 2 [Annotator's Note: command post 2], a cold and wet mud hole, for a few days. They had one night out in Marseille, which was full of temptations. "Bed Check Charlie" [Annotator's Note: nickname given to aircraft that performed solitary, nocturnal operations] would fly over in the night, so they had to put out their bonfires by urinating on them as they had no water. They got new equipment vehicles, and rifles. They left by train or motor vehicle to go to the airfield at Dijon [Annotator's Note: Dijon, France] and were introduced to camping. The second night they took shelter in a bombed-out building. Hihn saw blood spattered all over the walls.

Stewart Hihn's unit [Annotator's Note: 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] was transferred from 7th [Annotator's Note: 7th Army] to 3d Army, Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] Army, and had to sew 3rd Army patches onto their uniforms. Just a few days later they were reassigned to the 7th, Easy Company [Annotator's Note: Company E, 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] had been ordered to attack Gambsheim [Annotator's Note: Gambsheim, France] and were decimated. Hihn's unit generally found shelter in buildings rather than in foxholes, but still suffered from intense artillery fire. It was the worst experience of his life. The American Army was never taught how to retreat. There was snow and ice everywhere. The frontline troops were supposed to be transported by vehicles, but they never showed up, so the men had to walk 14 to 20 miles through the snow and cold. Tanks' metal treads could not get traction on the ice and would slip into ditches. Long Toms [Annotator's Note: M1 155mm howitzer nicknamed "Long Tom"; heavy field gun] were set on fire because everything was being left behind. Hihn's particular group of five men was so scattered it took him three days to find everybody. The entire 7th Army was told to retreat and establish a new defense line along the Moder river [Annotator's Note: a river in northeastern France]. The Germans did not follow immediately, but came in strong after that, probably the last big battle of the war [Annotator's Note: in Europe]. The executive officer was killed that night. Not long after that, men in white capes arrived and they did not know who it was. It turned out to be the 101st Airborne [Annotator's Note: 101st Airborne Division] coming out of Bastogne [Annotator's Note: Bastogne, Belgium] The 42nd was soon pulled off the line and sent back to Lunéville [Annotator's Note: Lunéville, France], where he saw a bidet for the first time. While in Strasbourg [Annotator's Note: Strasbourg, France], at a place called Fort Kronberg [Annotator's Note: unable to identify], there was a soldier looking down into the latrine because he had dropped his rifle down it.

Stewart Hihn's unit [Annotator's Note: 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] went back to get replacements around January [Annotator's Note: January 1945]. From then on, they were mostly doing training, and had warm food until March [Annotator's Note: March 1945]. The final offensive was imminent. They were moved out on foot in the middle of the night, in the pitch black on the side of a steep hill. Someone cried for a medic all night long, he had apparently stepped on a mine [Annotator's Note: stationary explosive device triggered by physical contact]. When daylight came, they started moving again. Hihn's job was to keep telephone communication lines open, which his unit did completely on foot because vehicles could not travel through the hilly terrain. They were eventually given mules, which they knew nothing about. Hihn and a friend of his, Harry Manger [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], loaded the mules up with equipment but did not know how to lead them. When crossing a slit trench, one of the mules bucked up and all of the equipment fell off. They were not able to get that particular job done. The radios they worked with were all tube radio sets, not very advanced. Whenever armor entered the area, the tread chewed up the telephone wires. They could not know where the wires lead unless simply picking up the wire and following it to the end. A soldier named Hansen [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] in a battalion wire crew was killed by Germans who had cut a wire and laid it to lead directly to them. Hihn's regiment was part of Task Force Linden [Annotator's Note: comprised of the 222nd Infantry Regiment 42nd Infantry Regiment, 232nd Infantry Regiment, and 242nd Infantry Regiment of the 42nd Infantry Division under the command of US Army Brigadier General Henning Linden]. They were in the vicinity of the 14th Armored Division, 16th Armored Division, and 20th Armored Division. The artillery would move in and fire at German positions but would pull out as soon as counter battery was fired. Artillery fire was rationed at this time. Units only given a limited number of shells per day. Sherman tanks [Annotator's Note: M4 Sherman medium tank] were no match for German artillery.

Stewart Hihn's [Annotator's Note: with the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] clothing was inadequate. The soldiers wore hard leather shoes until they finally received shoe pacs [Annotator's Note: specialized boot for wet, winter weather conditions]. His unit was far enough back from the action that they were pretty at ease. The Germans were pulling back towards the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River in Germany] at this point. In March [Annotator's Note: March 1945], the first day they attacked, the only thing Hihn ate was a D ration [Annotator's Note: Army Field Ration D; chocolate bar intended as snack food]. When Hihn had been trying to work with mules [Annotator's Note: for transporting telephone equipment around Lunéville, France], they had set up a position monitoring and repeating messages between Collins [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General Harry J. Collins] and Colonel Luongo [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Henry Luongo]. Collins asked what Luongo needed, and all he requested was hay for the mules or else they would not work. The Germans wrapped primer cord around trees and blew it up to fell the trees, so it was difficult to get mules over them. They moved through the Vosges Mountains [Annotator's Note: range of low mountains in Eastern France]. One morning when Hihn woke up, possibly in Ludwigswinkel [Annotator's Note: Ludwigswinkel, Germany], he saw a pond surrounded by bodies of G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier]. There was a pillbox [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] along what was part of the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by Germany in the 1930s]. It was the worst sight Hihn ever saw. The next thing he knew they were crossing the Rhine and encountered the 12th Tac Air Force [Annotator's Note: 12th Air Force, possibly XII Tactical Air Command] who had caught the Germans retreating on horses and wagons. It seemed like there were dead horses and destroyed wagons for miles. They then went to Wertheim [Annotator's Note: Wertheim am Main, Germany]. The I&R [Annotator's Note: Intelligence and Reconnaissance] platoon lost four men in a place called Nassig [Annotator's Note: Nassig, Germany], near Wertheim. They were ambushed on their way to Wurzburg [Annotator's Note: Würzburg, Germany], four men were killed, and some taken prisoner. One man, Sidney Shafner [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], was able to survive because he was Jewish and able to speak Yiddish. A German farming family sheltered him. Hihn did not lose any of his five-man crew who considered themselves lucky.

Stewart Hihn [Annotator's Note: with the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] spent most of the war with his five-man crew consisting of himself, Joe Hazel, Bob Combers, Harry Manger, and Joe Eves [Annotator's Note: phonetic spellings]. They had too much work to do so men from rifle companies were lent to them for a time, though they did not want to be there as they felt too alone. They generally worked in twos, and never knew where they were. Around this time, end of March or April [Annotator's Note: 1945], they were heading to Furth [Annotator's Note: Furth, Germany], outside of Nuremberg [Annotator's Note: Nuremberg, Germany]. Civilians were always moving around them. They knew how things were going to go judging by what flags the civilians hung. In the Strasbourg area [Annotator's Note: Strasbourg, France], they encountered the FFI, or French Forces of the Interior. They were as dangerous as the Germans, as they often functioned at night, and no one knew who was who. The American soldiers avoided them. Each German town had a mayor, or Burgermeister in German, who was responsible for burying the dead German soldiers. Once they crossed the Rhine [Annotator's Note: Rhine River in Germany], they did not see many dead soldiers. The civilian populations in Germany were able to survive by hiding in their basements. Hihn encountered no resistance from civilians, they were just happy it was all ending. Hihn feels fortunate that he did not have deal with the killing aspect of war. His unit headed to Wurzburg [Annotator's Note: Würzburg, Germany], then Schweinfurt [Annotator's Note: Schweinfurt, Germany], Furth [Annotator's Note: Furth, Germany], and finally Munich [Annotator's Note: Munich, Germany]. There were hordes of Germans surrendering. They also began to encounter more and more displaced persons, Poles and Czechs who had been imprisoned as slave laborers by the Germans. Hihn reached Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany] the day after it was liberated [Annotator's Note: 30 April 1945], he had no idea it was even there. There were boxcars were filled with emaciated dead. In the camp itself, the prisoners had turned on the German troops and killed a lot of them. Most of the camp had been cleared out by the time Hihn had arrived, though the dead were still there. When they left there to go back to the house they were billeted [Annotator's Note: a place, usually civilian or nonmilitary, where soldiers are lodged temporarily] in, they were so furious that they destroyed the house. They tore the doors off, knocked the windows out, tore up the furniture. Before they left, Hihn even put a clay crock pot over the front door so that whoever walked in would be hit in the head. He will never forget the smell of the dead or the crematorium with bodies waiting to be burned. The 42nd has been accused of murdering German troops there, but Hihn does not know if it is true or not.

Stewart Hihn [Annotator's Note: with the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] was reminded why they were there fighting after witnessing the atrocities at Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau concentration camp complex near Dachau, Germany]. It still does not feel real to him that it could have happened. From what he read, there were 30,000 people at Dachau, and most of them were not Jewish. They were on the Czech [Annotator's Note: Czechoslovakian] border when they learned that the war was over]. They then moved down the Enns river valley [Annotator's Note: in Austria] to a place called Schwarz [Annotator's Note: Schwarz, Austria], and trouble began. They did not have anything to do. There was too much free time on their hands, too much alcohol, and too many guns. To this day Hihn is afraid of small arms. If he sees one, he gets out of the way. He saw one man shot accidentally and another shot himself accidentally. There was a man named Fritz Krinkler [Annotator's Note: Federick "Fritz" Krinkler,] whose family went over to the United States before the war. He saw German troops coming while he was riding his motorcycle, stopped, and realized the officer was his uncle. From there they went to Salzburg [Annotator's Note: Salzburg, Austria], billeted [Annotator's Note: a place, usually civilian or nonmilitary, where soldiers are lodged temporarily] at the castle Anif [Annotator's Note: Anif Palace on the southern edge of Salzburg] which can be seen in the opening sequence of the film "The Sound of Music" [Annotator's Note: 1965 American film]. There was a lot of partying there and they played a lot of cards. He decided there that he would not go to the Pacific. He applied for a transfer, which came through just before the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. They left Salzburg for Vienna [Annotator's Note: Vienna, Austria], which he enjoyed, it was a good place to be. They sometimes drove into the Russian Zone in Hungary to swap necessities like toilet paper, sugar, and butter for wine.

Stewart Hihn [Annotator's Note: with the 222nd Infantry Regiment, 42nd Infantry Division] was transferred from the 42nd to an Engineering Battalion, troops were shuffled around into divisions that were coming home. There was a points system [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home]. They shipped out from Vienna [Annotator's Note: Vienna, Austria] by boxcar with a wood stove to keep warm, arriving in Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] after five days. The camp was being run by German prisoners of war. He boarded the Saint Albans Victory [Annotator's Note: SS Saint Albans Victory]. There were 100 WACs [Annotator's Note: Women's Army Corps; women's branch of the United States Army, 1942 to 1978] on the ship as well. They arrived in New York and went to Camp Kilmer [Annotator's Note: Camp Kilmer, New Jersey] where they were given fresh milk for the first time in months. They then had a steak dinner. Everybody got sick from the fresh Red Cross milk. Hihn then went to Fort Meade Annotator's Note: Fort George G. Meade in Anne Arundel County, Maryland] but had no way to get home. He was scared a lot when he was overseas. The only thing that feels significant about his service is that it is how he met his wife. They met while he was in college in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado]. He and a friend went on a blind double date. When Hihn's date ate onions, which he could not stand, they swapped dates and he ended up with the woman who became his wife. Things were more valuable to his generation than today's generation, which made them more careful. There were 13 million people in the military during the war, they were just doing a job. People took more pride in what they did. During the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] they would hide when someone came to the door because they did not have enough food to share. People are wasteful today, but he is very impressed with some young people and what they have accomplished. Hihn visited the World War 2 Memorial [Annotator's Note: World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.] and was disappointed that it was not more respected by the public. He will never visit the Vietnam Memorial [Annotator's Note: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington, D.C.] because it is too personal. They also went to a tattoo ceremony [Annotator's Note: a performance of music or display of armed forces]. As young men and women came out of the grandstand, they were so impressive.