TED HAHN
Age: 86
Born: Jan. 2, 1924
Hometown: Portland, Ore.
Residence: Palm Desert
Military branch: U.S. Army; 82nd Airborne Division; Headquarters Company
Years served: June 1943- January 1946
Rank: Private first class
Family: Wife Ina; two children, Allilee Jacoby and David Hahn, both of Portland, Ore.; two grandchildren; four great-grandchildren.
About this series
Staff writer Denise Goolsby will profile desert veterans from World War II through the end of 2010 — the 65th anniversary of the end of the war. Contact her at (760) 778-4587 or via e-mail at denise.goolsby@thedesertsun.com
Coming tomorrow
U.S. Merchant Marine veteran Virgil Blanton of Thousand Palms
LEARN MORE: Read about other Coachella Valley residents who served in World War II at mydesert.com/wwii.
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Paratrooper Ted Hahn, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, made two combat jumps in Europe — including the deadly D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.
The 82nd suffered tremendous casualties in Europe.
“All I know is I jumped with 10,000 men and came home with 1,500,” Hahn said.
Hahn and Joe Bradley were good friends all through high school — they were even drafted on the same day.
They fought in different parts of the world, but both made it back home after the war.
The men were sent to Fort Lewis in Washington, where a recruiter asked for volunteers to join the paratroops.
“He said, ‘You'll probably end up in Berlin. You'll have something to tell your grandkids,'” Hahn said.
It also meant an extra $50 a month in jump pay.
The buddies went in to sign up, but were told they were too late.
The were instructed to volunteer as soon as they arrived at their next destination — Camp Roberts in California.
Hahn would soon be on a train to Fort Benning, Ga., for paratroop training — but he'd be traveling without his friend.
“Joe changed his mind,” Hahn said. “I said, ‘I hope to see you after the war,' and we parted ways.”
After jumping into St. Mere Eglise on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Hahn and the 82nd fought their way across Europe. In September, the 82nd, along with two other airborne divisions, jumped into Holland to seize key bridges and roads behind German lines.
After fighting in Holland, the division was relieved and sent to Sissonne, France, in late November.
“Nice barracks, good food. We thought we were there for the rest of the war. Not so,” Hahn said. “On December 17th or 18th, the sergeant came into the barracks and said, ‘Now listen up we're moving up to the front'.”
The Germans broke through the Allied front lines, triggering the Battle of the Bulge.
In St. Vith, Hahn and a fellow soldier, traveling in the last truck in a convoy, were ordered to take turns standing guard.
“The sergeant said, ‘If they shoot at you, fire your gun off three times — then you're on your own,'” Hahn said.
On Dec. 25, while on a reconnaissance mission, the men came upon an old barn, where the Army's 106th Infantry Division had overrun the Germans.
“Just then, a mess truck drove up with a Christmas dinner,” Hahn said. “I had no mess kit. I took off my helmet and wiped it clean. The guy threw in some mashed potatoes, gravy, some turkey, cranberry sauce, some kind of vegetable, dinner rolls, a piece of pie and some jelly beans. That was my Christmas dinner.”
Near the end of the war in Europe, the division was in Ludwigslust, Germany.
“That's where the whole 21st German Army, 150,000 men, surrendered to the 82nd Division,” Hahn said. “I thought we were big heroes. Not so.”
The Soviet Red Army had moved into a town just up the road from Ludwigslust.
“Those Germans were running as fast as they could to keep from being captured by the Russians,” Hahn said.
In Ludwigslust, at the Wöbbelin concentration camp, 1,000 of the 4,000 prisoners were dead.
The were just lying there — the Germans didn't have time to bury them, he said, adding the 3,000 still living “were more dead than alive.”
“A prisoner asked me for a cigarette,” Hahn said. “I noticed cuts and open sores on his forehead and hands.”
Hahn asked what had happened and the man pointed to a headboard — a log with nails hammered into the wood — and told Hahn the guards pounded their heads against it to get them up for work.
“We made the Germans dig 200 graves — 200 of those dead bodies were buried in that little park. If they didn't, they'd be part of the funeral.
“Those in the graves were known only to God,” he said.
After the war was over, “We were picked to be the Honor Guard in Berlin,” Hahn said. “I carried the colors for the 82nd Airborne.”
Gen. George Patton was standing on the reviewing stand 10 feet away.
“You'd keep looking at him from the corner of your eye,” Hahn said.
Back in the States, Hahn returned to Fort Lewis and on the day he was discharged, he heard someone yell, “Hey, Ted.”
“It was Joe Bradley,” Hahn said. “He was in the South Pacific. We came home together. We were friends for the rest of our lives.”
