In honor of 𝗩𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗗𝗮𝘆, I’m sharing these photographs of a cousin, 𝗞𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗮𝗽𝗸𝗲 who served in the U.S. Third Army under General George Patton during World War II. He was a decorated soldier who was awarded the Purple Heart, Bronze Star, and Combat Infantry badge, among other medals. He fought in the 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗴𝗲 and survived the Ardennes, Siegfried Line, Rhineland, and Saar-Palatinate campaigns. He was wounded in action amid a firefight with a German battalion near Gelnhausen but later returned to active combat. His unit liberated thousands of prisoners at 𝗠𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗻 and other Nazi death camps. They were officially recognized as a liberating unit by both the U.S. Army Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1985.

Keith was a senior at Mankato High School when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Minnesota State University, Mankato; then enlisted in the U.S. Army shortly after he had turned 18. After physical exams, he reported to Fort Snelling where he was mustered into the U.S. Army on March 25, 1943. The first image is a photograph of him at Fort Snelling. He departed by train from Saint Paul on April 5 and arrived three days later at Camp McQuaide, near Monterey, California. He received basic training in artillery and still had twelve weeks left of boot camp when he was selected for the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), a new program designed to train officers and specialists. He was among the few who passed the rigorous tests. The trainees were enrolled in engineering, languages, and other disciplines.

On June 1, 1943, Keith was shipped to the University of Oregon where he studied engineering. At the beginning there were 269 men in the ASTP program at Oregon but by the third term, the group was reduced to 126 men. Keith had already completed the first nine months of studies when the ASTP program was abruptly terminated. At the same time, preparations for the Normandy invasion were already underway while General Dwight D. Eisenhower was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allies in Europe. Almost overnight, the majority of trainees from the ASTP program were suddenly relegated to the role of combat infantry in units scheduled for deployment overseas.

Keith and the remaining men from the defunct ASTP program were sent to Camp Cooke, located near Lompoc, California, on March 5, 1944. He joined B Company of the 63rd Armored Infantry Battalion (AIB) of the 11th Armored Division, nicknamed the “Thunderbolts.” While at Camp Cooke, Keith was trained as an anti-tank gunner in the 63rd AIB which was part of Combat Command A (CCA). Each combat command had a battalion comprised of infantry, tanks, and self-propelled artillery. His battalion had one thousand men organized into three companies. Each company was commanded by a captain, first lieutenant, and first sergeant.

Within each company there were three infantry platoons, each with rifle squads, a mortar squad, and machine-gun squad. A platoon was commanded by a lieutenant and master sergeant. Keith was assigned to the 4th platoon, the anti-tank platoon, commanded by Lieutenant Corley. His platoon was comprised of three squads of eleven men including a staff sergeant, corporal, and half-track driver. Each squad was armed with a 57mm anti-tank gun mounted on wheels. The corporal was the gunner while the rest of the squad, all of whom carried a M1 carbine, protected the flanks. The squad traveled in a M3 half-track, towing the 57mm anti-tank gun, and fought dismounted. The training was intense during his six months at Camp Cooke. On the rifle range, Keith qualified as a “sharpshooter.” By early September 1944, training was completed and his division was deemed combat ready.

The United States suffered 135,000 casualties during the invasion of Normandy. More than 4,400 American soldiers were killed on D-Day alone. The 11th Armored Division, comprised of about 10,000 enlisted men and officers, was transported by troop trains to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey in September 1944. The second image is a photograph of Keith shortly before his departure from Camp Cooke. His unit boarded the USS Hermitage and embarked from New York harbor in a convoy of 48 troopships on September 29, 1944. They landed at Cherbourg and were advancing to the Western Front by early December.

After the invasion of Normandy, American troops moved across northern France into Belgium but lost momentum in October, which allowed the Germans time to regroup. A month earlier, Hitler conceived a plan for a large-scale offensive through the Ardennes region of Belgium with the objective of recapturing Antwerp, the principal supply port for the Allies. This route was chosen for a number of reasons. The 89-mile front stretching from Aachen to Luxembourg was only sparsely defended by 68,822 American troops of the U.S. Army VIII Corps. The heavily wooded terrain provided cover against Allied aerial reconnaissance and bombing during the movement of German troops and supplies. Typically, weather was foggy which also prohibited Allied air support.

Success of the Ardennes Offensive relied on the element of surprise. For the Germans, moving quickly before American reinforcements could arrive was critical. The Nazis amassed four Wehrmacht armies at the Belgian-Luxembourg border. These forces were comprised of more than 400,000 infantrymen and eight armored divisions. Hitler launched the surprise blitzkrieg at dawn on December 16, 1944. American troops from the 106th Division observed eerie red and purple lights streaking through the thick fog followed by the high-pitched screaming of nebelwerfer rockets and earth-shattering detonations in every direction.

American soldiers atop the Schnee Eifel ridgeline were caught completely off guard. Less than 24 hours later, German tanks had broken through the thinly defended center of the Ardennes region and were rolling west through Allied territory towards the Meuse River. Using weather and intelligence breakdowns to their advantage, the Ardennes Offensive proved highly effective, at first. The Battle for Saint Vith ended in a German victory. After three days of arduous combat, two U.S. Army regiments of the 106th Division were cut off, surrounded by German infantry, and forced to surrender on December 19, 1944. More than 6,800 American soldiers in the 422nd and 423rd regiments were taken prisoner.

Elsewhere, at the Baugnez crossroads near the Belgian town of Malmédy, eighty-six American POWs were massacred by German Waffen-SS. One hundred thirty-eight unarmed Belgian civilians were murdered at Stavelot, mostly women and children. Many more American POWs were slaughtered at Büllingen, Honsfeld, Wereth, and Ligneuville. There were other atrocities committed by German Waffen-SS at Cheneux, La Gleize, Stoumont, Bande, Noville, Bourcy, and Houffalize. News of the Malmédy Massacre spread among American troops on the front lines who were outraged.

For the Ardennes campaign, the two most important towns were Saint Vith and Bastogne because each controlled a vital network of roads and railways. After Saint Vith was captured by the 5th Panzer Army, the Germans advanced on Bastogne. Bastogne was a transportation hub where seven main roads and a railroad converged. Taking Bastogne was crucial for the swift movement of Hitler’s panzer armies in the mission to recapture Antwerp. The Siege of Bastogne began on December 20. The defining moment came when the Germans demanded the surrender of American troops who were outnumbered five to one. The 101st Airborne Division were pinned down and surrounded by the XLVII Panzerkorps but refused to surrender.

Against all odds, the “Screaming Eagles” of the 101st Airborne Division held their ground for eight long days against a much larger force. Their story was later dramatized in the acclaimed HBO mini-series Band of Brothers. By the eighth day, the vanguard of General George Patton’s Third army reached Bastogne from the South to relieve the besieged 101st Airborne. Patton’s Third Army was comprised of 230,000 American soldiers organized in four corps with thirteen divisions, including Keith Papke and his unit. They marched hundreds of miles across France, through rubbled towns, until they arrived at the banks of the Meuse River.

On December 23, Keith and CCA were spread out along the Meuse River which separates France and Belgium. After failing to capture its key objective, the 5th Panzer Army bypassed Bastogne and had advanced to within four miles of the Meuse River. Met with stiff resistance, the German advance was stopped at Dinant, three miles short of the Meuse River. The 6th Panzer Army was also unable to achieve its objective and forced to seek an alternative route well south of Monschau and Elsenborn Ridge. After one week of fighting, the Allies had thwarted the German advance in the Ardennes Forrest.

Hitler’s ambitions were to pierce the thinly held lines of the U.S. First Army between Monschau and Wasserbillig by the end of the first day, get the armor through the Ardennes by the end of the second day, reach the Meuse between Liège and Dinant by the third day, and seize Antwerp by the fourth day. However, the plan fell apart after only the second day. The Battle of Elsenborn Ridge lasted for ten days before the Germans took a detour further South. As the blitzkrieg faltered, the circumstances greatly delayed the German advance until Patton’s Third Army arrived to turn the tide.

By Christmas Eve, nearly 500,000 American troops had joined the counter-offensive against the Germans in the Ardennes Forest. On Christmas day, Keith was in Belgium east of Givet, France when the skies finally began to clear. His division marched ninety-six miles through Nefcheateau to Bastogne. At 7:30AM on December 30, they acted on orders to attack northward near Remagne but immediately ran into trouble after encountering two and a half German divisions attacking westward. Keith and his unit were pinned down all day about half mile south of Remagne. Sherman tanks that got up on the ridge were promptly hit by German 88mm anti-tank fire and destroyed. The 11th Armored Division was forced to pull back in the afternoon.

B Company suffered immensely. Nearly one-third of the men on that slope were wounded or killed. Keith recalled that most of his unit was wiped out, mainly because the Germans targeted the artillery. Although trained as an anti-tank gunner, he quickly realized that if he was ever going to survive the war, he’d better change jobs. So he picked up a rifle and joined another infantry unit. On New Year’s Eve, the 11th Armored Division rifle squad reorganized for a renewed attack. Although the fighting over the next five days was intense, the division held against the German attacks.

Heavy fighting continued until January 13 when the Allies had repelled the Germans. The 𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝗹𝗴𝗲 finally ended on January 25, 1945. Forty days after launching the Ardennes Offensive, the Germans orchestrated a skillful withdrawal that marked the beginning of the end for the Third Reich. Winston Churchill called it “the greatest American battle of the war” but victory came at a heavy price for the Americans who suffered more than 90,000 casualties: 20,000 killed, 47,500 seriously wounded, and 23,000 missing in action. The Battle of the Bulge was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States during World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history.

Afterwards, the 11th Armored Division turned eastward to break the Siegfried Line. On February 5, three infantry battalions of the 11th moved to relieve the 90th infantry division and begin the attack. The final assault on the Siegfried Line began on February 17 and continued until Leidenborn and Reiff were captured. With the conclusion of the Siegfried Line campaign, there were a few days before the start of the next offensive. Keith sometimes passed the time by reading 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘦𝘴 newspaper. He recalled reading an article about a law recently passed by Congress called the G.I. Bill that was intended to provide funding to any veteran who wished to continue his education after the war.

Once the Siegfried Line was broken, the 11th began the advance to the Rhine. The Rhineland campaign started with the initial attack on March 3. Heavy fighting continued for several days as the tough 5th German Parachute Division fiercely resisted the 11th infantry division. On March 7, CCA captured Kelberg despite heavy mortar, 88mm cannon, and nebelwerfer fire. By the early afternoon of the following day, CCA reached the town of Mayen. Keith recalled seeing burning wagons, dead horses, and surrendering German soldiers everywhere. CCA reached the Rhine at Andernach. By this time, they had captured 33 towns, the largest of which were Mayen and Andernach.

The third image is a photograph of CCA advancing through smoky Andernach on March 9. The division had captured more than 10,000 German soldiers, including one general, as they continued deeper into Germany. The campaign had been a long and hard fight in snow and subzero weather. They stayed in Andernach until March 14. Keith was promoted to squad leader while the next several days were spent engaged in house-to-house fighting. His squad liberated a small camp of forced laborers. He recalled the horror of seeing dozens of nude corpses stacked against the walls like cordwood.

During the Saar-Palatinate campaign, the 11th was leaving Andernach on a new mission to clear the Saar-Moselle-Rhine region to the south. After crossing the Moselle River at Bullay, CCA reached Simmern on March 18. By March 20, they had reached Marnheim after capturing seventy-nine towns and 12,000 prisoners in the previous two days. Eight days later, CCA crossed the Rhine River at Oppenheim and were advancing to the heart of the Third Reich. On March 29, the division marched through Darmstadt to Hanau. They were involved in house-to-house fighting and action against anti-tank guns.

After crossing the Rhine, Keith had been in active combat for three months which was a rather long survival period for an infantryman. Ninety-five percent of casualties were infantrymen. At this point, his rifle squad was down to only three men. After CCA resumed the assault on March 30, the 63rd AIB captured Roth at one o’clock in the afternoon. Near Gelnhausen, the 11th encountered stubborn resistance from a battalion of German troops with small arms, panzerfaust, mortar, anti-tank guns, and tanks. Keith and his platoon, at the point of attack, came under heavy fire as they advanced up the road from Roth toward Gelnhausen.

A German machine gun opened fire from the hills ahead, hitting Keith and the others in his squad. Lieutenant Corley was carrying the radio when he was hit in the chest and killed by machine gun fire. The men were pinned down and their only hope was to call for support using a radio. So Keith crawled back over to retrieve the backpack radio and was wounded by a bullet in his upper left thigh. He was lucky it didn’t hit bone or any major blood vessels. Nevertheless, he was able to drag the radio back so he could call for help from the tank unit. He communicated with the Major from another unit by radio who requested tank support.

Keith was transported to a hospital in Darmstadt which had been almost completely destroyed in the firestorm that followed a massive attack by Allied bombers. The next day he was transported by C-47 Skytrain and then by train to an army general hospital near Thionville in northeastern France. Keith was deemed fit for active duty on April 12 and he later returned to his unit. By the end of April, the 11th had captured Suhl, Coburg, Bayreuth, Weiden, and Regen while liberating three thousand Allied POWs.

On May 1, the 11th crossed the border into Austria and captured Linz, the birthplace of Hitler. Four days later, the 11th liberated 16,000 prisoners at the infamous Nazi death camp at 𝗠𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗻 and its subcamps where 120,000 victims had already been murdered. The fourth image is a photograph taken shortly after the 11th had arrived at Mauthausen.

The unconditional surrender of Germany was signed in the early morning hours of May 7, 1945. President Harry Truman proclaimed V-E (Victory in Europe) Day on May 8 and the war officially ended at one o’clock in the morning on March 9. The Thunderbolts of the 11th Armored Division had been in combat for more than eighteen weeks. More than forty men from B Company had been killed in action including fifteen from the group of 126 men in the ASTP program at the University of Oregon, a high percentage.

Keith reached the port of embarkation on July 13 and spent nearly a month at a camp near Le Harve, France while he and his group waited for a troopship to transport them back to the States. During his return voyage, the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. He landed at Newport News, Virginia on August 13 and traveled by train to Camp McCoy, Wisconsin. While on furlough, he arrived home in North Mankato on August 17, two days after V-J (Victory in Japan) Day. Then returned to Fort Snelling where he was discharged on November 5, 1945.

Within a month, Keith had enrolled at South Dakota School of Mines in Rapid City. His courses at Minnesota State University, Mankato and University of Oregon gave him nearly two years worth of college credits toward a Bachelor of Science degree in Mining Engineering. The remainder of his schooling was funded by the G.I. Bill. He graduated with High Honors in 1948. Then relocated to Tucson where he attended graduate school and earned a Masters of Science degree in Geology from the University of Arizona in 1952. For the next fourteen years, he was employed as an exploration geologist by several western mining companies including Phelps Dodge Corporation, American Smelting and Refining Company, Southern Pacific Company, and Standard Slag Company.

Keith and his wife moved to Reno in 1961. He was the head geologist for Standard Slag Company. From 1966 to 1986, he was employed as an industrial minerals geologist by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He was universally considered the foremost expert on industrial minerals in the state of Nevada. His range of expertise extended from abrasives to zeolites. He authored more than sixty technical publications on industrial minerals and geology. Some of the more notable publications included those on Nevada barite, gypsum, clays, evaporates and brines, talc and fluorspar.

In 1976, he published a road trip guidebook of the geology, geography and history from 𝗟𝗮𝘀 𝗩𝗲𝗴𝗮𝘀 to Death Valley and the return by way of Shoshone and Pahrump, a distance of 304 miles. The next year he completed an extensive report on lithium mining at Silver Peak. It was interesting to find information from Keith in a newspaper article published by the Reno Gazette-Journal on January 23, 1978. More than seven years before the invention of the lithium-ion battery, he saw the potential for lithium to be used for “lighter, rechargeable batteries for electric automobiles.” He said, “the auto battery is hoped for by 1985 on the commercial market. The idea is to provide a rechargeable, high-energy, low-weight power source with long-duration power.”

Keith authored a book, 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘊𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘕𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘥𝘢 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘴, containing detailed sections on locating lode and placer claims, mill sites, and tunnel rights. He retired in 1986 from a career in geology that spanned thirty-four years and was named Emeritus Professor at UNR’s Mackay School of Mines. In 1992, he received the Hal Williams Hardinge Award, the top honor given by the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME), “for distinguished field work and publications on the industrial minerals of Nevada and for his service to the Industrial Minerals Division of the Society of Mining Engineers (SME).” He was recognized as a Distinguished Member of SME in 1993 and a Legion of Honor Member of AIME in 1996.

After he had retired, Keith volunteered as a docent at the Plumas Eureka State Park. He contributed his time by mapping and writing reports on the geological features of the region and leading tours. On April 8, 2000, he was awarded a medal by the Army for “heroic or meritorious achievement or service in connection with military operations against an armed enemy” during World War II. He passed away six years later and was buried at the 𝗩𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 in Fernley, Nevada. I came across his obituary while I was researching a great-granduncle. So I contacted his son who corresponded with me back and forth. The war memoirs written by Keith Papke were submitted to The Library of Congress as part of the 𝗩𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁.