Krauter Brothers - Harold, Leroy, Johnny, Jimmy

The Krauter Brothers are Part II of Interviews by Juell Krauter Brown of her 8 uncles in WWII -the Reeh Brothers and the Krauter Brothers. Juell has many pictures and war albums, but not the equipment totransmit them at this time.

ELLA and AUGUST KRAUTER, had four sons in the Army in World War II- Harold, Leroy, Johnny and Jimmy. In 1960 Ella Krauter received a Four Star “Mother of the Year” award plaque at the 40^th VFW annual convention. Harold “Buddy” Krauter received an outstanding District Commander award during this convention.

LEROY KRAUTER

Leroy Krauter was married shortly before going into the Army in 1941. He did not come home for 42 months. He was assigned to the engineers, a general service outfit that set up hospitals, bridges, railroad tracks, high lines that had been shot down in Italy and in Africa. Leroy said the army years were a lot of work. He was made Second Lieutenant with the deal that he would go to the Pacific if needed. Luckily the war ended, and he got out in 1945.

Leroy and Anna had two children, Anna Lea and Dorothy. Leroy owned a feed store and a restaurant and racing horses.

HAROLD KRAUTER

Harold Krauter (husband of Lucille Reeh) was a Flying Cadet in 1931. In 1934 he was a First Lieutenant in the Tree Army of the Civil Commission Corps. On 1/8/41 he joined the U.S. Army and became a military professional. During World War II Harold served in the American Amphibious Armored Corp. He advanced to the position of Major and commanded troops that fought Japanese on various South Pacific islands, returning to the U.S. several times to learn different techniques. Harold received a World War II Victory Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, American Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal, PI Independence Medal, and four overseas bars.

He kept picture albums of his experiences on these islands, of the killing as well as the beauty. One story he told was of a tribe in which the women went nude above the waist. The soldiers, trying to instill modesty, gave the native women t-shirts to wear. The next day they were wearing the t-shirts, but had cut out two holes to let their breasts hang out. Humor was found even during wartime.

Toward the end of the war in 2/45, Harold was hospitalized for two months. In 1946 he reviewed the Philippine troops for two months. In 1947 he spent six months in various hospitals. In 1948 he was stationed as part of postwar occupation in Shizuoka, Japan. His wife Lucille and their three children (Juell, David, and Tootsie) joined Harold for six months in Shizuoka and found the Japanese very gracious.

On 6/1/49 Harold was relieved from active duty at age 42 with a 100% service connected disability. Throughout his life Harold was periodically hospitalized with various ailments including chronic rheumatoid arthritis. Each time, with much persistence, he learned to walk again. He died at 78 on 12/22/84 after a lengthy illness at the Audie Murphy Hospital.

Harold enjoyed people, and the caption under his picture in his high school annual said, "Wherever he met a stranger, he left a friend." This propensity for making friends continued into the war years where he was loved and respected by the men he commanded and later by the veterans he served for many years as the District Commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He also had the trust of the people of Comfort as shown in his elected office of Justice of the Peace in 1960-67.

Harold, as well as most veterans, did not speak about his war experiences. The traumas were too deep and painful to come to the surface. So we have lost many of the accounts of these heroic and tragic times.

When Harold’s beloved dog was run over in the 1970's, Harold cried uncontrollably. He spoke of “his boys” who had been killed in the war. Year later we found this note he had written, “There’s really nothing anyone can say or do to ease the pain I feel when one loses or is losing someone close. I suffered much emotionally in World War II when losing many of my boys because I had become emotionally involved with all of them.”

The two world wars were difficult for Germans in Texas, fighting the country of Germany from which their ancestors came, fighting their cousins in Germany. Cisco forgave the German submarine commander 12 years after the war, when the commander came to their reunions.

During the war Harold Krauter killed the Japanese, and watched American soldiers being killed by the Japs. Three years after the war, Harold and his family lived in Japan in harmony, and found the Japanese people to be very gracious.

War brings out the barbaric in us all. After the war, we all come together again to try to create a peaceful world. We don’t want our descendants to have to go through another period of killing.

By Juell Krauter Brown

JOHNNY KRAUTER and JIMMY KRAUTER

John Lawrence Krauter and his identical twin brother James Calvin Krauter served together in the Army, entering in May of 1943. Since they had had military training at Schreiner in Kerrville, they were both acting NCO’s during their 13 weeks of basic training at Camp Roberts, CA. They transferred to Fort Ord, CA for embarkation overseas. Their brother, Harold “Buddy,” was there at the same time with his Amphib Tank Battalion.

They left for New York City to ship to England for preparation for D-Day invasion. However, due to running late on troop trains across Wyoming, 150 of US infantry troops were rerouted to New Orleans, to board an LST. They arrived at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where they joined up with a convoy from the East Coast. They spent two weeks on the LST, just like a floating tub with a flat bottom. Encountering a storm in the Caribbean, all sailors on the ship were sea sick, and they had to man the guns topboard. They arrived in Panama, crossed the Isthmus to the Pacific side, then returned to the Atlantic side of canal by train to Ft. Davis. The 150th Infantry Combat Regiment, responsible for protecting the Panama Canal, was in need of 150 troops to be up to full strength. They had some jungle training while waiting to see if they would be shipped somewhere in the Pacific. Luckily this never occurred. At one point one or more people showed up in Panama to offer troops a whole month of holiday leave to sign up for a planned assault by parachute along the French coastline (The Normandy Invasion). Fortunately, both Johnny and Jimmy declined. Only a few enlisted men signed up for this offer which later became known as one of the major blunders of the invasion and of WWII. The paratroopers numbering in the thousands were erroneously dropped near and/or behind enemy lines, and the vast majority were shot during descent and even after landing. A small minority survived by either escaping and hiding out, or being taken prisoner.

Jimmy and Johnny celebrated their 21st birthday on 8/17/45 in Panama about two weeks before the signing of the treaty in Japan aboard the battleship Missouri which they had seen go through the Canal after the end of the war in Europe. They also saw the Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Franklin return from the Pacific with Bull Halsey on the bridge, as well as the Admiral, after it had been torn up so bad by Japanese Kamikaze pilots flying their fighters into the deck of the ship. It was almost three years before they were able to visit their hometown again. They mustered out in January 1946.

After the war Johnny married Gloria Bratrich (also a twin), and they had one child. Johnny retired from the Exxon Oil Company, and they live in Ardmore, OK.

Jimmy married Gladys Ingenhuett, the first native-born female in the Texas Hill Country to get a Pilots License at 18 years of age. They had four children. Jimmy has worked as a mail carrier, a restaurant owner, a rancher, and a co-operator of an authentic old General Store.

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