Category: history

Swiss Leave December 1945

Near Locarno, Switzerland

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 103

At the end of the year Flo scored a leave to Switzerland. She didn’t give enough detail on this page of her album to tell if she was traveling alone or with someone but it seems she was traveling alone.

Famously neutral during the war, the Swiss managed to pull it off, never being bombed or invaded. Switzerland had entered the war determined to remain neutral yet fully prepared to defend itself. In August 1939, days before Germany invaded Poland, the Swiss government mobilized its military, signaling that neutrality would be backed by force. Surrounded by Axis powers, Switzerland relied on its rugged geography, fortified defenses, and a vigilant air force to deter invasion. Swiss pilots even engaged German aircraft that violated their airspace, shooting down eleven while losing only three of their own. At the same time, the country became a refuge for some of those fleeing the conflict and a hub of quiet diplomacy, hosting negotiations and humanitarian efforts that underscored its role as a neutral intermediary.

Swiss businesses continued to trade with Germany, a reality that later raised ethical questions about the limits of neutrality, while the government struggled to preserve independence under constant pressure. Public sentiment, however, strongly opposed Nazism, fueling what became known as “spiritual defense”—a shared cultural and moral commitment to protect Swiss democracy against totalitarianism. Through military readiness, diplomatic maneuvering, and civic resolve, Switzerland managed to navigate the war’s dangers and emerge with its sovereignty intact.

Flo didn’t identify the three men in her picture.

Ch. 104: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/03/17/traveling-in-switzerland/

At the 3rd Division Command Post

Bad Hotel, Bad Wildungen

Flo photographed some of her coworkers and visitors at the CP

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 102

German actress Margot Hillscher
With Gen. Schmidt
I love this picture of Flo in uniform. There are the Red Cross and Clubmobile Captain patches on her shoulder. She looks happy.
Maj. Carey, Col. Drain, Maj. Duncan, Maj. Royce, Maj. Schut
The “Mad Majors” with Flo
Maj. Perkins, Maj. Dwan, Maj. Duncan
The “Mad Majors” at ease
Major Carey
Lt. Leland Nelson
Third Division CP, Bad Hotel, Bad Wildungen
Maj. Duncan AG
Written on the back of the picture of Major Duncan. But who is HW?

Ch. 103: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/03/15/swiss-leave-december-1945/

Front Line Publishes Special Edition

3rd Division souvenir paper tells history of the division

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 100

Don’t throw this away! admonishes the Front Line newspaper of their post-war special edition. Flo didn’t throw it away. She saved it and tucked it into her album. The issue consists entirely of stories which appeared in the big and little dailies of the nation about the Third Division.

From the introduction: “During the rush of battle few men were able to get a hold of a newspaper published in the states, much less take time to read it thoroughly….Hence, this special edition. 

“We hope you hang on to your copy as the supply is limited to one per man. If you want to send it home, go ahead. All the material in it was censored by Sixth Army Group censors before it could appear in the home town papers.”

The Front Line is the official newspaper of the Third Infantry Division. In the interest of archiving, I’m posting the whole six-page paper. You can read it by pinching out the image.

Ch. 101: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/03/07/a-sweet-love-poem-to-a-flyer/

Christmas & New Year’s 1945

Gen. Schmidt’s New Year’s party celebrates Third Division

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 99

The card shows the route of the 3rd Division from Africa to Germany
Third Infantry Division New Year’s party
Flo captioned this “Blackmail material”
Flo didn’t ID these guys
General Schmidt hosted the party
Christmas ‘C’ company 30th Infantry

Ch. 100: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/03/03/front-line-publishes-special-edition/

Parachute Regiment Throws a Party

They celebrate Armistice Day in occupied Berlin

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 98

While they were in Berlin for the football game between the Third Division and the 82nd Airborne, Flo and her comrades were invited to a party hosted by the 504th Parachute Regiment. To celebrate Armistice Day in occupied Berlin must have been especially poignant so soon after the end of this second world war. 

Flo saved the wine list which listed no wine, but more cocktails than I knew existed. I recognize a few—Manhattan, Martini, Gin Fizz—but not most. I wonder if modern bartenders are still making any of these drinks. The list notes that champagne and beer are available, but there is no mention of wine, at least on this page. Maybe Americans were just not partial to wine in the year 1945.

Ch. 99: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/02/27/christmas-new-years-1945/

Cagney Picks Up Murphy

Introduces the war hero to Hollywood

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 95

James Cagney plays the unlikely role of talent scout in 1945 when a photograph on the cover of Life magazine stops him cold: Audie Murphy, the boyish Texan just discharged from the Army and celebrated as the most decorated American soldier of World War II. Impressed by Murphy’s heroism and screen presence, Cagney invites him to Los Angeles and signs him to his production company, determined to help turn a war hero into a movie star.

This is the photo Flo took of Audie Murphy when he was awarded the Silver Star in the field in 1945. Picked up by Wide World Photos without attribution.

Cagney pays for Murphy’s acting, voice, and dance lessons and offers guidance during his first years in Hollywood. But despite the investment and publicity, the arrangement fails to deliver actual film roles. The problem is not personal between Cagney and Murphy, but business. In 1947, a contractual dispute and personal friction with Cagney’s brother and producing partner, William, brings the deal to a quiet end.

The collapse of the Cagney contract leaves Murphy stranded—broke, living on his military pension, sleeping in a gym, and carrying the unspoken weight of wartime trauma. Yet the door Cagney had opened does not fully close. Forced to make his own way, Murphy rebuilds his career from scratch and ultimately appears in more than forty films, mostly Westerns, forging a hard-won Hollywood life that echos the endurance that had first drawn Cagney’s attention.

Ch. 96: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/02/15/to-berlin-for-a-football-game/

The US and USSR Sign a Peaceful Pact

The agreement marked a territorial change in the occupied zones

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 93

The meeting took place at the Russian and American liaison headquarters in Wanfried.

Flo attended the historic Russian–American conference in Wanfried, Germany, where the Wanfried Agreement was signed on September 17, 1945. The agreement was a post–World War II territorial exchange between U.S. and Soviet occupation authorities, finalized in English and Russian, to resolve a logistical problem along the Bebra–Göttingen railway. A roughly 2.7-mile stretch of this crucial rail line briefly crossed into the Soviet zone near Wanfried, disrupting traffic vital to U.S. connections between southern Germany and the American-controlled port of Bremerhaven. To secure uninterrupted U.S. control of the line, two villages in Soviet-occupied Thuringia were exchanged for five villages in American-occupied Hesse. The agreement, informally known as the “Whisky-Vodka Line,” stands out as a rare, peaceful, and highly localized negotiation between the two superpowers in the tense early months of the occupation.

Figuring out the new borders between occupations zones
Flo’s head sticks out on the left. It looks like there was one other female at the table. At least one participant wore a gun to lunch.
Flo sitting next to Russian regimental CO. Col. Michael Paschchenko. Flo told me she had a big crush on this handsome guy but neither spoke the other’s language.
Agreement signed! Russian general and Gen. Sexton toast.

Ch. 94: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/02/07/english-americans-russians-party/

Flo Goes to a Football Game

Third Division vs. 29th

Ch. 91 My Mother and Audie Murphy

The football games were part of a sports program organized to occupy restless American and Canadian troops awaiting discharge. In August 1945, the U.S. Army had staged the “GI Olympics” in Nuremberg, with high-ranking Russian observers in attendance. Events included a baseball game played in the former Hitler Youth Stadium—an unmistakably symbolic reclaiming of Nazi space. That same day, news of Japan’s surrender crackled over the loudspeakers, unleashing a roar that seemed to lift the roof as GIs tossed caps, coats, and red-white-and-blue programs into the air, hugging, kissing, and celebrating the war’s end. The festivities continued into the night with performances by Hal McIntyre at the amphitheater and Bob Hope at the Opera House, drawing thousands of cheering troops in a city freshly transformed from fascist spectacle to victorious release.

Pretty sure Flo was rooting for the Third Division
Reserved for the brass.

Ch. 92: https://mollymartin.blog/2026/01/30/around-witzenhausen-autumn-1945/

Regimental Review Schloss Klessheim

Audie Murphy Honored

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 82

On June 2, 1945, the Third Infantry Division assembled for a division-wide review in Salzburg, their ranks drawn up before their headquarters. Flo was there with her clubmobile crew, Liz Elliott and Janet Potts, watching as Seventh Army commander General Alexander Patch presented decorations and commendations. A Congressional delegation stood in review alongside Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, among them South Dakota Senator Chan Gurney, the first chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Forces.

June 2, 1945. This is the last picture of the three Red Cross clubmobilers together–Janet Potts, Flo Wick and Liz Elliott. Fritzie Hoaglund never returned to the crew after having been hospitalized.

That day, Lieutenant Audie Murphy of B Company, 15th Regiment, received the Medal of Honor and the Legion of Merit in front of his entire division. Five other Third Division soldiers were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star, their citations read aloud to the troops who had fought across Europe and now stood at attention in peacetime formation.

Gen. O’Daniel shakes the hand of 1st Lt. Audie Murphy of B Company, 15th Regiment, 3rd Division. Murphy received the Medal of Honor and the Legion of Merit on June 2, 1945 in front of his entire division in Salzburg, Austria. Photo: Dogface soldier collection

The ceremony took place at a site heavy with layered history. Built in 1700 as a Baroque summer residence for the Prince-Archbishops of Salzburg, the palace later became a Nazi showpiece where Hitler hosted Axis leaders and stored looted art as the Reich collapsed. Captured by the U.S. Third Infantry Division in May 1945, it was repurposed as headquarters of the American Occupation Authority during the decade-long U.S. presence in Salzburg, before eventually becoming a casino.

Gen. J. W. O’Daniel 3rd Div. Commander; Flo Wick, ARC; Gen Alex Patch 7th Army commander. June 1945. Schloss Klessheim Salzburg
A delegation of the US Congress witnessed the Audie Murphy ceremony. Chan Gurney, South Dakota, the first chairman of the US senate committee on Armed Services, is seen here with Flo.
Letter from Sen. Gurney to Flo’s parents. He thought they were South Dakota constituents. Flo was born in Redfiled, SD, but the family hadn’t lived there since she was a baby. They lived in Yakima, WA. Her father had died in 1938.
On June 2, 1945 the 3rd Division staged a grand review at Schloss Klessheim.
Soldiers march past the reviewing stand. photos from Flo’s album

Ch. 83: https://mollymartin.blog/2025/12/24/london-leave/

Invitations to Parties

Red Cross women were expected to attend

My Mother and Audie Murphy Ch. 79

Invitations posted in Flo’s album

After her death, in Flo’s jewelry box I found a bracelet made from a Combat Infantryman Badge. The badge is a U.S. Army decoration awarded to infantrymen and Special Forces soldiers, colonel rank and below, who fought in active ground combat after December, 1941. The same badge appears here on the dance invitation. I imagine it had been awarded to Flo’s fiancé, Gene Gustafson, and that she had it fashioned into a bracelet she could wear.

Photo: Wikipedia commons

Ch. 80: https://mollymartin.blog/2025/12/16/goodbye-to-the-high-pointers/