Eugene Hugh Richardson

Their Story

            Eugene Hugh Richardson was born on August 27, 1920, in Davenport, Iowa. His father, Frank Richardson, was born in Scotland and was a 30-year member of the Davenport Fire Department.^[1] His mother, Kathryn “Kate” Jessen Richardson, died in 1928 at the age of 45.^[2] He had a brother, Frank, who was 14 years older than him, who served during WWII, and two sisters.

Richardson graduated from Davenport High School in Davenport, Iowa, and was involved in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), Company B, in 1936.^[3] He worked for the Rock Island Arsenal as a clerk in 1940^[4], and was married to Marjorie Mae Riley, though the two later divorced.^[5] When the time came to serve his country in the Second World War, Richardson answered the call, enlisting in the U.S. Army Air Corps on October 17, 1942, and served as a bombardier.^[6]

            He served overseas beginning in April 1944. During the course of the war, while serving with the 447th Bomb Group,^[7] Richardson was shot down and detained by the Germans at Stalag VII, A prisoner of war camp, at Moosburg, Bavaria,^[8] for 13 months.

U.S., English, and Russian troops held captive at the camp were subject to insufficient clothing, forced labor, and physical abuse. Though there were reportedly ample stores of clothing that the Germans could have distributed to the POWs in a nearby warehouse, they decided instead to let them suffer the extremes of the elements. In one case, the Germans even made 500 POWs stand in heavy rain for five hours as a punishment. The POWs were expected to work for their German captors without the expected pay afforded to POW labor, with the Germans giving the excuse that the POWs had to contribute to a local civilian “emergency labor” force. When Germans thought that POWs might be working purposefully slow or trying to escape, they subjected them to beatings, stabbings, and even gunfire:

At the Munich [Kommando], guards jabbed [prisoners] with bayonets and hit them with rifle butts. In the base camp, an NCO reported being kicked, then being mistaken for a Frenchman and choked during an argument; and later handcuffed after an escape attempt. Once an American, using a hole in the fence instead of the open gate, to go from one compound to another, was shot at but not hit. In April 1943 a Russian was shot on the compound wire and left hanging there wounded. An Englishman went to lift him off the wire and was shot, but recovered. The Russian died.^[9]

In addition to these mistreatments, Richardson and the other Stalag VII-A POWs suffered cramped living spaces. Their quarters were designed to house 200 men, but an influx of POWs meant that they regularly housed around 300 men. The latrine situation was also abysmal, as the Germans were reported to have only emptied the latrines when they were in danger of overflowing, and as a result the camp regularly stank of human waste. Richardson and the others were rescued and returned to their home countries’ forces on May 19, 1945, when Combat Team A of the 14th Armored Division liberated them from captivity.^[10]

            After his imprisonment, Richardson was sent to recover from his ordeal at Fitzsimmon General Hospital in Denver, Colorado. He was there until March 1947.^[11] While a patient there, he met Lorraine Eleanor Smith, a captain in the U.S. Army Air Force^[12] serving in Fitzsimmon as a nurse, and the two fell in love and were married. She previously spent 10 months overseas as a flight nurse.^[13]

Richardson reenlisted, and served as an Army recruiter before his discharge in 1951.^[14] He then enlisted in the Air Force (at that point a separate branch of the Armed Forces) and served in that branch during the Korean War and the Vietnam War period. He retired after 22 years of military service in 1964.^[15]

The remainder of his life was spent raising his three sons and two daughters alongside Lorraine. He passed away on March 9, 1994, in his home in San Marcos, California.^[16] Eugene Hugh Richardson leaves behind a legacy of resilience in the face of capture and abuse by an enemy nation, and courage for his decision to reenlist after such torment.

^{[1] Frank Richardson (1883-1950) – Find a Grave Memorial}

^[2] Kathryn “Kate” Jessen Richardson (1883-1928) – Find a Grave Memorial

^[3] “Eugene Richardson in the U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999,” Ancestry, 2010,.

^[4] 1940 United States Federal Census – Ancestry.com

^[5] “Eugene Hugh Richardson,” Find a Grave, November 12, 2010.; “Eugene Hugh Richardson in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947,” Ancestry, 2011.

^[6] “Eugene H Richardson in the U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946,” Ancestry, 2005.

^[7] Iowa, U.S., World War II Bonus Case Files, 1947-1954 – Ancestry.com

^{[8] U.S., World War II American and Allied Prisoners of War, 1941-1946 – Ancestry.com}

^[9] “American Prisoners of War in Germany,” Moosburg online: Stalag VII A, April 4, 2000.

^[10] “American Prisoners of War in Germany,” Moosburg online: Stalag VII A, April 4, 2000.

^[11] Iowa, U.S., World War II Bonus Case Files, 1947-1954 – Ancestry.com

^{[12] Lorraine Eleanor Smith Richardson (1921-2005) – Find a Grave Memorial}

^{[13] Marriage of Smith / Richardson – Newspapers.com}

^[14] “Miss Lorraine Smith And Sgt. Richardson Take Marriage Vows,” The Daily Times, September 5, 1947, p. 22.

^[15] “Eugene H Richardson in the U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010,” Ancestry, 2011.

^[16] “Eugene H. Richardson,” Times-Advocate, March 15, 1994, p. 15.