As a longtime Columbian reporter, Ted Van Arsdol had a knack for writing about people in our community.
Van Arsdol died a week ago, leaving behind a wealth of writing. But even in the history of his Army outfit, which included pivotal events of World War II, he could put a human face on global conflict.
In a Columbian piece that ran in 2014, following the 70th anniversary of D-Day, Van Arsdol described how Yankee ingenuity could trump German discipline — and how a sergeant invaded Normandy while packing a briefcase.
The sergeant’s landing craft didn’t get close enough to shore, so he jumped in. He couldn’t swim. He flailed around, calling for help as papers floated away from his briefcase.
A member of Van Arsdol’s unit jumped into the water. Then everybody realized that the “hero” wasn’t trying to save the sergeant: All that paper in the briefcase was a shipment of French francs, and the rescuer was trying to save the money.
By April 1945, the 535th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion was processing POWs and had more German prisoners than they could handle — in one truck, at least.
Van Arsdol wrote how the elite German soldiers refused to squeeze together tightly enough to get them all in the truck. Even though six more prisoners needed to be loaded, the Germans in the truck refused to make room.
“I’ll fix that,” the sergeant in charge declared. He climbed into the cab, stepped on the gas, and then suddenly stomped on the brakes. The Germans were hurled to the front of the truck, and the other six prisoners were quickly herded on board.
After the end of hostilities in Europe, the soldiers still had plenty of work at camps set up for refugees and liberated workers. At one camp, a couple of teenage Polish girls who could speak German were used as interpreters. An Army medic slapped one of them on the butt. She slapped him back. Really hard. They learned that the 17-year-old had been a slave laborer at a steel mill since she was 12.
One soldier figured that she could have whipped a good share of the guys in the 535th.
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
