Local veteran hosts annual reunion for fellow POWs

On June 11 and 12, Jake Underwood, assisted by his daughters Susan Karleskint and Mary Gregory, hosted the annual reunion of the POWs who were imprisoned with Jake in Germany for over six months following their capture in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium in World War II.

The reunion was held at the Embassy Suites at the Kansas City International Airport near Kansas City, Mo. The POW veterans were in the 106th Division, 590th Artillery Battalion, Battery A that was assigned a section of the front in the Ardennes forest on the Belgium-German frontier in the late fall of 1944. It was supposed to be a quiet sector of the front where the division could prepare itself for the Allied attack on German territory in the spring.

After his armies had taken a mauling from the Allies in France in the summer of 1944, Hitler decided to make a last ditch effort to split the British and American armies by carrying out a massive surprise attack through the Ardennes forest in the dead of winter. The German plan was to drive all the way to the Belgian coast and capture the port of Antwerp, thus denying the allied armies their major supply port. He believed the capture of Antwerp would result in the Allies asking for an early peace with Germany. Then Hitler could send his victorious Panzer divisions from the Western front to the Russian front where the war was going badly for Germany.

On December 16, 1944, the Germans began a massive surprise attack through the Ardennes. The attacking force consisted of 24 divisions including 10 armored divisions (Panzer) that totaled over 250,000 men. The 106th Division was directly in front of the 5th Panzer Army and was outnumbered 20-1.

For three days and three nights they fought the Germans with everything at their disposal, but on the fourth day, surrounded by German tanks and machine guns, with no ammunition, no food, and few medical supplies, their officers chose to surrender to avoid the total annihilation of their troops. The 106th Division lost over 8,000 men killed, wounded, or captured in the opening days of the battle. That amounted to 60 percent of its strength. No division in the United States Army in World War II suffered greater casualties in a single battle than the 106th Division, 4,500 of those troops were captured and sent to Germany to prisoner of war camps.

But the sacrifice paid by the 106th Division was not in vain. The three-day delay of the Panzer juggernaut by their stubborn resistance put the German timetable for victory behind schedule. This gave the Allied armies time to bring up reinforcements and ultimately stop the German advance, then go on the offensive.

Troops of the 590th Field Artillery Battalion, Battery A were among those captured and sent by train in cattle cars to a prisoner of war camp at Bad Orb, Germany, about 32 miles from Frankfurt. These men were held in Stalags (prisons) 9A, 9B, and 13B for almost six months until the end of the war. They were given little food, few blankets, slept on board bunks, no bathing or sanitary facilities, little fuel for heat, and no medical services. When they were freed at the end of the war, most of them had lost over 30-40 percent of their weight. They returned to the United States following their release and were discharged at the end of the war and returned to civilian life.

Although many of the men had kept in contact with each other, they decided to have their first reunion in the summer of 1988. The met in Muskogee, Okla., with 250 former POWs attending along with their families and set a format that all other reunions have followed. They usually have met for two days at a weekend resort hotel in a city with tourist or historical attractions.

The last time the Underwood family hosted the reunion in Kansas City in 2007, the men and their guests took a bus tour to Fort Leavenworth and a tour of the Truman Library. There is always a mixer to open the reunion to renew old acquaintances, followed by a luncheon, then one afternoon is given to a presentation of interest to the veteran POWs. This year Fred Campbell, local Fort Scott historian, told of the research that revealed the vital role that the 106th Division played in its stubborn resistance to the overwhelming onslaught of the Nazi Panzer divisions. Their valiant stand was one of the major causes of the failure of the German attack.

Following the presentation, the POWs talked openly about their experiences in Stalag IXB followed by a short business meeting. There is usually a dinner the first evening with visiting and tours the second day.

The number attending this year's reunion had dwindled from 250 in 1988 to 16. All group attendees this year were at least 85-years-old, but in spite of their age the old comrades were planning for the next reunion. These men, who paid such an extreme price so that all of us may be free, were full of true patriotism and love of country when talking about their service to the United States and its government. They truly were a "Band of Brothers."