USAREUR - Cities - Würzburg

RESPONSES:
(Souce: Email from Daniel J. Jeffries)
I was on your website and saw the picture of the River Building. That is the correct building. It housed the Military Police Station, MP investigators, Physical Security, Provost Marshall, and Military Intelligence. I was an MP with the 3rd Division MP Company, 1988-1990, at Leighton Barracks.

We had the whole building - not sure if it was always that way or changed after I left but from June 1988 until May 1990 3rd ID had the whole building.

(Source: Email from Bernd Deppisch)
Bernd points out that the building shown in the aerial view above is the River Building but that the US Army offices were all located in the southern third (right side) of the building. The other two-thirds of the building was occupied by the German Arbeitsamt (which is still located there).

(Source: Email from Dale Little)
You do have the correct building as the River Building in Wurzburg, Germany. As an MP I worked in the Provost Marshal's Office in 1967-1968. I can't remember the names, but I drove for the Provost Marshal who was a bird colonel and the Assistant Provost Marshal, a Lt. Colonel. Even thought I grew up in North Carolina the Provost Marshal said he would rather have me driving in the snow than any of the guys from the New York area.

I drove full time for about 6 months until I intentionally got myself reassigned because I lived off base near the River Building on Franz-Ludwig Strasse and usually had to walk to Leighton Barracks Motor Pool to pick up a sedan or jeep. I usually had to walk a couple of miles a day to pick up the vehicle and then take it back in the evenings. I asked if one of the other MP's could bring the vehicle from the base, but the answer was no, so I intentionally quit doing a good job cleaning the vehicle until I was reassigned to another job at the River Building.

Even then, the colonel still wanted me driving his jeep when we went on maneuvers. I was assigned to a job which involved traveling to outlying areas from Wurzburg and inspecting arms rooms and ammo dumps. The last couple of months of my tour, I worked alone as the night Desk Sergeant at the Provost Marshall's Office. I can still remember looking out the window by the street which ran by the Main River and seeing a car coming slowly down the street with the hood up with a mechanic standing on the front bumper and leaning under the hood while making some adjustments to the engine.

Thanks for what you have already posted. It may sound strange but it has brought back some memories that were not always that pleasant at the time, but it has been pleasant to look back on those times. When I clicked on the picture I was able to find the location of the apartment (if it could even be called that) on Franz-Ludwig Strasse where I lived for almost a year. It was little building that was thrown up on the edge of the parking lot to a larger apartment building which housed almost exclusively military couples and prostitutes. What I lived in was an old rock structure shaped like an old mobile home about 7 or 8 ft. wide and maybe 30 ft. long with three rooms. I was also able to locate the Military Police barracks where I stayed a couple of months before my wife was able to come over. There were so many of us who arrived at one time they had to place a bunch of cots in the upstairs training room for us to sleep. Some of our records got misplaced for a while and some of us were forgotten about for 2 or 3 weeks.

My first morning there, I was running down the stairwell to make morning lineup when I heard the sergeant yell "fall in" as I went by an open window. I hesitated and then decided I would rather have the sergeant come looking for me rather than being made an example of in front of everyone, so I went back up to the training room and waited, but no one ever came. The game room was adjacent, so I played pool most of the day. Unbelievably, the next morning I was at exactly the same place when I heard "fall in", so I turned around and went back to bed. I never bothered to get up after that until I was visiting some friends who were in a normal four man room downstairs when a sergeant came by making a duty roster. He couldn't believe it when I told him I had not yet been assigned to a squad when he asked what squad I was in.

I always wanted to go back to visit, but it has been interesting to "visit" via the satellite imagery. I did map the distance from Leighton Barracks to the Provost Marshal's office and it was 2.4 miles.

(Souce: Email from William J. Des Roches, 1st Lt, 3rd MI Det. 3rd Inf. Div.)
I saw that you might be looking for any information regarding the River Building in Wurzburg Germany which housed some elements of the 3rd Infantry Div. I was there in 1970-71 and thought the following might be of interest.

The 3rd MI Detachment was headquartered there and housed the C.O., the X.O. (me), counterintelligence officers, and supply and maintenance. The order of battle officer was collocated with the G-2 up at Leighton Barracks, and there were NCOs up near the East German border.

The detachment also had billets on the same floor for the enlisted personnel who worked in the River building. One or two bays?

The unit, along with others, had storage units in the basement. These were jail cells. During my time, we were told that the building was the former Gestapo headquarters in Germany, but I cannot confirm that.

Interestingly, however, the division's counter intelligence division (CID) was our neighbor in the building. Its entrance, an attractive dark stained wooden door, was marred by a cut plywood piece covering part of it. When one removed the plywood piece, it revealed an inlaid swatzika, indicating that the River building certainly had some significant role during the war.

I hope this is helpful and adds a bit to our understanding of the times.

(Souce: Email from Philip Koshkin, 3rd ID Mental Hygiene Consultation Service (MHCS)
I just came across your page on Wuerzburg and I was especially interested in the section about the River Building, which housed the 3rd ID Provost Marshal and served as Division MP headquarters. I'd like to provide some additional information about that location.

First of all, I can confirm that the River Building is identified correctly in the photo shown on the page (the caption asks if someone can provide that confirmation).

In June 1972, upon completing AIT at Ft. Sam Houston (my MOS was 91G, currently classified as behavioral science specialist), I was assigned to the 3rd Medical Battalion in Aschaffenburg. After a few days of in-processing there, I was permanently detached to the 3rd ID Mental Hygiene Consultation Service (MHCS) in Wuerzburg. I remained with the MHCS until my ETS in May 1975 (I was originally due to ETS in January 1975, but I obtained a 4-month extension).

The MHCS provided outpatient mental health and counseling services to Division personnel and their dependents, and its headquarters was located upstairs in the River Building, aka "das MP-Gebaeude." As I recall, we were on the third floor, but I can't be sure now - it may have been the second floor.

The unit comprised the Division psychiatrist, the Division social worker, and several mental health specialists, most of whom were detached separately to outlying 3rd ID garrison towns to provide MHCS services there (for two years, I covered Bad Kissingen, where I was billeted with the 31st Medical Detachment - click here to read his recollections about Bad Kissingen).

Each week, all unit personnel would convene at the River Building for an entire day to do case reviews, undergo continued training, and receive professional supervision.

When I arrived for duty with MHCS in the summer of 1972, I was initially billeted (along with a couple of other MHCS specialists, who had Wuerzburg caseloads) in a bunk-room adjacent to the MHCS offices (which consisted of three rooms: a small reception area, the Division psychiatrist's office, and the Division social worker's office). I remained there for about a month, receiving a complete orientation to MHCS practices and procedures, and undergoing intensive training on providing mental health services in an overseas military environment. In late summer, just before I was scheduled to move to Bad Kissingen, MHCS received word from the Provost Marshal that its personnel would no longer be billeted in the River Building - they would have to find other accommodations. For me, the timing was perfect, since I was going to be moving out anyway. Later, in the spring of 1974, I returned to work at the River Building on a permanent basis as NCOIC of the unit (while living "on the economy" in a town a few kilometers north of Wuerzburg).

I have very fond memories of Wuerzburg and especially of the River Building. The MHCS offices fronted on Ludwigskai, and each room had large windows that overlooked the peaceful Main River, which ran only about 40 or 50 yards in front of the building. It was one helluva beautiful view! Trees and flowering shrubs lined the Ludwigskai, there was a lovely Baroque church atop the bluff almost directly across the river from us, and we would often see rowing teams sculling on the water past our windows. There was also a small gasthaus on the ground floor in the south corner of the building (in the photo, the right side of the building by the greenery), and some of us would occasionally get together there for happy hour after our weekly meetings.

Late one afternoon in spring 1975, shortly before the end of my tour, a colleague and I stopped in for a beer after work. We sat at one end of a long table toward the rear of the room, and we were dressed in fatigues - so we were obviously American soldiers. Some minutes later, three middle-aged German men came in, sat down at the other end of our table, and began talking in a quiet, almost conspiratorial tone. My friend and I both spoke German fairly well, and we began eavesdropping on their conversation. It turned out that the three men were WWII comrades-in-arms, members of a panzer unit in the Waffen SS - they were reminiscing about the war and talking about "the good old days." We finished our beers and were getting ready to leave when one of the men produced a traditional, lidded beer stein and set it on the table. It was decorated with SS insignia, and the man asked his two companions to put money inside. It seems that he was soliciting donations to help out other Waffen SS veterans (and perhaps - who knows - for some less charitable purpose), and the stein was a kind of "collection plate"! Given the men's backgrounds and evident continuing interests, and the fact that they were openly discussing those interests mere feet away from two uniformed American military members, and the fact that the gasthaus itself was right next door to (indeed, under) the 3rd ID military police headquarters, we found the whole incident quite bizarre, ironic, and amusing!

Wuerzburg-photos.de - Bernd Deppisch, a professional photographer in Wuerzburg, maintains this commercial site that shows many of his photos. Includes several links to photo series on US installations in Wuerzburg, Kitzingen and surroundings. Bernd has graciously supplied many photos that are included on these pages.

Wuerzburg-Barracks

- Bernd Deppisch, a professional photographer in Wuerzburg, has started a separate page on the former US barracks in the Wuerzburg area.

Some historical photos and Giebelstadt AAF Oct 2001 - Robert Pearson's photo albums with great pictures of Giebelstadt AAF and a few "Dackels".

Giebelstadt Air Base Page - Ren L'Ecuyer has revamped his Giebelstadt section (The Pinetree Line web site). He now includes the 603rd AC&W Squadron (1950-1956), the U-2 Detachment (1956-1957) and the 602nd AC&W Squadron (1956-1968). (Broken LINK)

Wertheim Page Dead Link - one of many pages on the Bernhard Weiss' outstanding Fliegerhorste (military airfields) web site. Wertheim Page has been totally revamped!!

Giebelstadt Page - one of many pages on the Bernhard Weiss' outstanding Fliegerhorste (military airfields) web site.

3rd Division Photos - Peacetime/Cold War - this is one of many pages on the Society of the 3rd Infantry Division website. Great pics of various 3rd Inf Div kasernes.