How Laura Bush’s Father Fought in Germany

Life in War

How Laura Bush’s Father Fought in Germany (Halle)

By Nico Wingert

Millions of allied soldiers returned home after the defeat of the Hitler regime. Many were unable to speak about the horrors they experienced in Germany. One of those soldiers was Technical Sergeant Harold Bruce Welch – the father of First Lady of the United States, Laura Bush.

It was during the “National Days of Remembrance 2005,” that Laura Bush, First Lady of the United States, first spoke publicly about her father’s experiences in the war. That he served in the 104th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army and participated in the liberation of the notorious concentration camp “Dora” in Nordhausen. As a child, she had asked her father many times about this time in his life, but he never wanted to speak about it. “I think,” surmized Laura Bush in her speech, “He couldn’t bear to tell his child about the evil out there in the world.”

What Laura Bush’s father Harold Bruce Welch experienced in Germany, can be reconstructed from sources. Welch belonged to a raiding patrol called the Timberwolf in the 104th Division. Together with the 3rd Armored Division, they arrived at the concentration camp “Dora” in Nordhausen on April 11, [1945], and found approximately 5,000 dead and dying. Around two miles northwest of the camp, Welch’s division found the subterranean, top-secret production facility for radio-controlled rockets “Aggregate 4 (A4),” better known by its propaganda name “V2”. Nearly 60,000 prisoners worked here under inhumane conditions for the Fascist war machine.

“Misery Everywhere”

At some point between April 13 and 14, the 104th Division reached the Wansleben concentration camp. Herta Römhild, a milk merchant, was in the camp on April 14, and noted the following in an eyewitness report: “Skeletons were laid out on primitive stretchers – beings no longer human. You couldn’t tell which ones were alive or not. The living and the dead – all mixed together. Bodily fluids from those on the top stretchers were dripping through wooden slats on those lying below, but those underneath didn’t pay attention. They were powerless, unable to move. They had dysentery, typhoid, or tuberculosis…. The air was unbearable. A gruesome picture. Misery, misery everywhere you looked.”

Harold Welch and his comrades only stayed a few hours in Wansleben. They provided some help to sick prisoners and – according to the U.S. Army archives – left to prepare for the attack on the tenth-largest city in Germany: Halle (Saale).

Conquering Halle

The commander of the 104th Division, General Terry Allen, planned to conquer Halle without fighting, if at all possible. Flyers were distributed, asking residents to surrender. At the same time, the general set up a raiding patrol under the lead of Colonel Gerald Kellegher. In his troop: Harold Welch. In the early morning hours, the patrol reached the northern outskirts of Halle.

The operation ended five days later, on April 19, with Halle freed from the Nazis. Extensive destruction by the military was avoided. Only the city’s “Siebel Airplane Works” in the northeast was hit repeatedly with bombs and was reduced to ruins. According to eyewitnesses, the residents were friendly to the Americans. The allies distributed sweets and chewing gum, as well as some canned food and cigarettes. The Russians later entered the area, and the Americans retreated farther west.

Keeping Quiet

Harold Bruce Welch obviously didn’t tell his daughter Laura about all of these experiences in Germany. He died at the age of 82 from Alzheimer’s on April 19, 1995. After the war, he entered business.

Welch didn’t live to experience his Timberwolf unit named a “liberation army” in the United States in 1998. Six years later, his daughter became the First Lady of the United States. On that occasion, CNN published a report on Laura Bush on April 8, 2001. Briefly mentioned was the fact that Laura’s father was a leader in the Republican National Commitee and the Central Intelligence Agency after the war. Keeping quiet was part of his job profile.