The Stories/The Enemy I Knew/Fred Fields: Difference between revisions

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~~'''The Enemy I Knew/Fred Fields'''~~

~~'''~~Fred Fields~~''', Uehlfeld, Germany, XX Corps, Third Army~~

{{Story soldier

~~'''There are seven Ritchie Boys featured in Steven's book~~. ~~Steven has given us permission to reproduce the chapters in their entirety. All content is copyright Steven Karras and Zenith Press. No reproduction without permission.'''~~

|soldier=Fields, Fred D. (32878282)

|name=Fred Fields

|photo=Enemy I Knew Fred Fields 1.png

}}

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Fred Fields was born Siegfried Dingfelder and fled Germany with his family just after Kristallnacht. They arrived in the United States in 1940 and lived in Brooklyn, when Fields worked as a baker until getting drafted into the army. A graduate of Camp Ritchie, Maryland, he shipped out to the ETO as an interrogator and joined his unit 69th IPW in Metz.

[[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] was born [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Siegfried Dingfelder]] and fled Germany with his family just after Kristallnacht. They arrived in the United States in 1940 and lived in Brooklyn, when Fields worked as a baker until getting drafted into the army. A graduate of Camp Ritchie, Maryland, he shipped out to the ETO as an interrogator and joined his unit 69th IPW in Metz.

In the whole village where I grew up, there were eight hundred people and eighty of us were Jews, roughly 10 percent. There were three breweries in the town. On Saturday nights, everybody got together in town, Jew and non-Jews, and played cards. Then Hitler came in and everybody started to alienate themselves from the Jews,

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I was sent to an intelligence school in Fort Ritchie in Hagerstown, Maryland. We always made fun of the cadre at Camp Ritchie, as we had Turks, Egyptians, French, Russians, Poles, and nearly every other ethnic group. We were in classrooms a lot of the time and there was just a lot of training. I was trained as an interrogator. In the training battalion, there were dozens of German Jews in my class.

On a Sunday, I became a citizen before I got shipped out. I was taken in a covered jeep to Washington, D.C., to be sworn in; before they brought the judge in, my commanding officer requested that I change my name because I was eventually going to Germany and it would be better for the nature of the work I would have to do. I was Siegfried Dingfelder, and you couldn't get more German than that. So I changed it to Fred Fields.

On a Sunday, I became a citizen before I got shipped out. I was taken in a covered jeep to Washington, D.C., to be sworn in; before they brought the judge in, my commanding officer requested that I change my name because I was eventually going to Germany and it would be better for the nature of the work I would have to do. I was [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Siegfried Dingfelder]], and you couldn't get more German than that. So I changed it to [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]].

We were taken to a British freezer ship known to transport meat and joined a convoy of fifty other ships to Europe, but we couldn't see them because they were spread out so far. We lost ships, but we didn't even know it. I liked the idea that I was going back to fight Germany; it was in my plans that I could get back to where I came from and get some Nazis, but l was there to do the job I was trained to do, not just to settle old scores.

From a replacement depot in England, I went across the channel to another replacement depot in Paris and then to a suburb called Le Vésinet. where I got my shipping orders, I was sent the French-German border to loin my unit. 69th IPW in Domville, Alsace-Lorraine, outside Metz. We did our work there under the XX Corps. The men in my unit were Capt. Al ~~Lithen~~, Lieutenant Wallach, Staff Sergeant W. Marry, Staff Sgt. Bornstein, and Cpl. Fred Reich. From there we went up to Luxembourg, then Belgium and then up to the Remagen Bridge breakthrough, where we of closest to the action. My first interrogation was in Metz, and I was certainly exhilarated to be able to do something of importance.

From a replacement depot in England, I went across the channel to another replacement depot in Paris and then to a suburb called Le Vésinet. where I got my shipping orders, I was sent the French-German border to loin my unit. 69th IPW in Domville, Alsace-Lorraine, outside Metz. We did our work there under the XX Corps. The men in my unit were Capt. [[Liethen, Alois J. (01056782)|Al Liethen]], Lieutenant [[Wallach, Kurt E. (36741911)|Wallach]], Staff Sergeant W. Marry, Staff Sgt. [[Bornstein, Siegfried (32805425)|Bornstein]], and Cpl. Fred Reich. From there we went up to Luxembourg, then Belgium and then up to the Remagen Bridge breakthrough, where we of closest to the action. My first interrogation was in Metz, and I was certainly exhilarated to be able to do something of importance.

I felt that my training was sufficient enough, our unit officer, a captain, was of German parentage and came from Wisconsin. His German wasn't very good, so much of the work was left to us refugees, while he was more in charge of administration, Certainly, my German background was pivotal to my ability to do an effective job. From the Germans, we had to get information on the strength of their unit, how many men they had, how many they lost, and where their last campaign was. We found out that a lot of men came from the Eastern Front, running tail from the Russians and were corning to the west to gain some kind of foothold and drive us back.

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I was in Tutzing when the war was over. I applied for a civilian administrative job after the war but was turned down because of my limited education, even though I had all of this experience. All of us trained interrogators were well …suited to run an administration to ferret out any Nazis from a town.

Fred Fields is retired butcher living in Riverdale, New York.

[[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] is retired butcher living in Riverdale, New York.

'''The above content is from ''The Enemy I Knew: German Jews in the Allied Military in World War II'' by Steven Karras. Steven has given us permission to reproduce the chapters in their entirety. All content is copyright Steven Karras and Zenith Press. No reproduction without permission.'''

== See also ==

* [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] (soldier page)

* [[The Stories/The Enemy I Knew|The Enemy I Knew]]

* [[The Stories]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 __NOEDITSECTION__
 {{DISPLAYTITLE:The Stories/The Enemy I Knew/Fred Fields}}
-'''The Enemy I Knew/Fred Fields'''
-'''Fred Fields''', Uehlfeld, Germany, XX Corps, Third Army
+{{Story soldier
-'''There are seven Ritchie Boys featured in Steven's book. Steven has given us permission to reproduce the chapters in their entirety. All content is copyright Steven Karras and Zenith Press. No reproduction without permission.'''
+|soldier=Fields, Fred D. (32878282)
+|name=Fred Fields
+|photo=Enemy I Knew Fred Fields 1.png
+}}
 <div class="story-figure">
@@ Line 10: / Line 12: @@
 </div>
-Fred Fields was born Siegfried Dingfelder and fled Germany with his family just after Kristallnacht. They arrived in the United States in 1940 and lived in Brooklyn, when Fields worked as a baker until getting drafted into the army. A graduate of Camp Ritchie, Maryland, he shipped out to the ETO as an interrogator and joined his unit 69th IPW in Metz.
+[[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] was born [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Siegfried Dingfelder]] and fled Germany with his family just after Kristallnacht. They arrived in the United States in 1940 and lived in Brooklyn, when Fields worked as a baker until getting drafted into the army. A graduate of Camp Ritchie, Maryland, he shipped out to the ETO as an interrogator and joined his unit 69th IPW in Metz.
 In the whole village where I grew up, there were eight hundred people and eighty of us were Jews, roughly 10 percent. There were three breweries in the town. On Saturday nights, everybody got together in town, Jew and non-Jews, and played cards. Then Hitler came in and everybody started to alienate themselves from the Jews,
@@ Line 38: / Line 40: @@
 I was sent to an intelligence school in Fort Ritchie in Hagerstown, Maryland. We always made fun of the cadre at Camp Ritchie, as we had Turks, Egyptians, French, Russians, Poles, and nearly every other ethnic group. We were in classrooms a lot of the time and there was just a lot of training. I was trained as an interrogator. In the training battalion, there were dozens of German Jews in my class.
-On a Sunday, I became a citizen before I got shipped out. I was taken in a covered jeep to Washington, D.C., to be sworn in; before they brought the judge in, my commanding officer requested that I change my name because I was eventually going to Germany and it would be better for the nature of the work I would have to do. I was Siegfried Dingfelder, and you couldn't get more German than that. So I changed it to Fred Fields.
+On a Sunday, I became a citizen before I got shipped out. I was taken in a covered jeep to Washington, D.C., to be sworn in; before they brought the judge in, my commanding officer requested that I change my name because I was eventually going to Germany and it would be better for the nature of the work I would have to do. I was [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Siegfried Dingfelder]], and you couldn't get more German than that. So I changed it to [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]].
 We were taken to a British freezer ship known to transport meat and joined a convoy of fifty other ships to Europe, but we couldn't see them because they were spread out so far. We lost ships, but we didn't even know it. I liked the idea that I was going back to fight Germany; it was in my plans that I could get back to where I came from and get some Nazis, but l was there to do the job I was trained to do, not just to settle old scores.
-From a replacement depot in England, I went across the channel to another replacement depot in Paris and then to a suburb called Le Vésinet. where I got my shipping orders, I was sent the French-German border to loin my unit. 69th IPW in Domville, Alsace-Lorraine, outside Metz. We did our work there under the XX Corps. The men in my unit were Capt. Al Lithen, Lieutenant Wallach, Staff Sergeant W. Marry, Staff Sgt. Bornstein, and Cpl. Fred Reich. From there we went up to Luxembourg, then Belgium and then up to the Remagen Bridge breakthrough, where we of closest to the action. My first interrogation was in Metz, and I was certainly exhilarated to be able to do something of importance.
+From a replacement depot in England, I went across the channel to another replacement depot in Paris and then to a suburb called Le Vésinet. where I got my shipping orders, I was sent the French-German border to loin my unit. 69th IPW in Domville, Alsace-Lorraine, outside Metz. We did our work there under the XX Corps. The men in my unit were Capt. [[Liethen, Alois J. (01056782)|Al Liethen]], Lieutenant [[Wallach, Kurt E. (36741911)|Wallach]], Staff Sergeant W. Marry, Staff Sgt. [[Bornstein, Siegfried (32805425)|Bornstein]], and Cpl. Fred Reich. From there we went up to Luxembourg, then Belgium and then up to the Remagen Bridge breakthrough, where we of closest to the action. My first interrogation was in Metz, and I was certainly exhilarated to be able to do something of importance.
 I felt that my training was sufficient enough, our unit officer, a captain, was of German parentage and came from Wisconsin. His German wasn't very good, so much of the work was left to us refugees, while he was more in charge of administration, Certainly, my German background was pivotal to my ability to do an effective job. From the Germans, we had to get information on the strength of their unit, how many men they had, how many they lost, and where their last campaign was. We found out that a lot of men came from the Eastern Front, running tail from the Russians and were corning to the west to gain some kind of foothold and drive us back.
@@ Line 62: / Line 64: @@
 I was in Tutzing when the war was over. I applied for a civilian administrative job after the war but was turned down because of my limited education, even though I had all of this experience. All of us trained interrogators were well …suited to run an administration to ferret out any Nazis from a town.
-Fred Fields is retired butcher living in Riverdale, New York.
+[[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] is retired butcher living in Riverdale, New York.
 '''The above content is from ''The Enemy I Knew: German Jews in the Allied Military in World War II'' by Steven Karras. Steven has given us permission to reproduce the chapters in their entirety. All content is copyright Steven Karras and Zenith Press. No reproduction without permission.'''
 == See also ==
+* [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] (soldier page)
 * [[The Stories/The Enemy I Knew|The Enemy I Knew]]
 * [[The Stories]]