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Richard Lockhart - World War II
Dick Lockhart served in the 423rd Infantry Regiment's anti-tank company, part of the 106th Infantry Division, a unit that saw its first action during the Battle of the Bulge. The entire regiment surrendered to the Germans on December 19th, and Lockhart spent the rest of the war in Stalag IX-B during a time when the Germans were unable to adequately care for their POWs. Those American POWs of Jewish descent in Lockhart's camp were sent to a brutal work camp in Eastern Germany..
Interview Links
Abstract
Interview Session 01 (Audio)
Early life, military training
Interview Session 02 (Audio)
Life in Stalag IX-B
Transcript
Related Materials
See also
See also the interview with Dick Lockhart about his over fifty year career as a lobbyist in Springfield, part of the Illinois Statecraft - General Interest collection.
Videos
Photos
Caption
Dick Lockhart following his high school graduation from South Side in 1942 with parents William and Mary Lockhart, taken outside the family home in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Where:
Fort Wayne, Indiana
When:
1942
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Private First Class Dick Lockhart, while at Camp Miles Standish, Massachusetts, in October, 1944.
Where:
Camp Miles Standish, Massachusetts
When:
October, 1944
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
Private Lockhart with the company that he went overseas with, the Anti-tank Company of the 423rd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division. He appears in the upper left row, second from the left.
Where:
Unknown
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
A letter Dick Lockhart sent to his father in 1944. This was written in November, 1944, while the unit was in Belgium, prior to Lockhart being taken prisoner.
Where:
Unknown
When:
November, 1944
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
“106th Infantry’s Casualties High” reported the AP news story just days after Lockhart and roughly 6,700 others were taken prisoner on December 19th, 1944 by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.
Where:
Battle of the Bulge
When:
December 19th, 1944
Ownership:
May be restricted. Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator
Caption
The Western Union telegram Dick Lockhart’s mother received from the War Department in January, 1945 announcing that her son was officially ‘missing in action.’
Where:
Unknown
When:
January, 1945
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
PFC Lockhart, on the right, and a friend at Miami Beach during a sixty day furlough in July 1945.
Where:
Miami Beach, Florida
When:
July 1945
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Dick attended a wedding outside Baltimore during the summer of 1945, just months after his release from Bad Orb. He was still on a 60 day furlough. Pictured are Lockhart, unknown, Gordon Taylor and his fiancé at their wedding.
Where:
outside Baltimore
When:
Summer of 1945
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Lighters pull alongside the Queen Elizabeth to unload U.S. troops in Scotland. Between December 1941 and June 1944 the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth transported a large portion of the troops to the U.K., including the 423rd Regiment.
Where:
Scotland
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
New York Harbor in October, 1945. The 280-odd officers and enlisted men who were with the 106th from activation to deactivation returned, for the most part, on this ship – the Marechal Joffre.
Where:
New York Harbor
When:
October, 1945
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
A letter sent to Senator Durbin in June, 1999 by the National Archives. The Senator was helping Dick Lockhart get information on his POW experience.
Where:
Unknown
When:
June, 1999
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
The record for the War Crimes Office, on Dick Lockhart’s abuse by German soldiers while he was a POW, witnessed by Sgt. Vernon Smith Jenkins following Lockhart’s release, on May 30, 1945.
Where:
Unknown
When:
Unknown
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
Dick Lockhart worked the 42nd ward precinct in Chicago for the Adlai Stevenson Presidential Campaign in 1952.
Where:
Chicago
When:
1952
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Lockhart with his platoon Sergeant, Glenn Kennedy, taken during Lockhart’s visit to Glenn’s home in Tucson, Arizona in March 1987.
Where:
Tucson, Arizona
When:
March 1987
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Lobbyist Dick Lockhart visits with Illinois Governor Jim Edgar some time in the early 1990s.
Where:
Unknown
When:
early 1990s
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
Dick Lockhart visited Berga, Germany circa 2000. Berga was the site of a slave labor camp where Jewish American POWs were sent to after being separated from the rest of the POWs at Bad Orb.
Where:
Berga, Germany
When:
circa 2000
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, Germany, as it appeared in July 1954. The POW barracks where Lockhart and other prisoners suffered and starved had been converted to more peaceful uses after the war.
Where:
Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, Germany
When:
July 1954
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Lockhart visiting the Henri Chapel U.S. Military Cemetery in Belgium in July 2009. He is standing by the grave of Philip Schwartz, Fort Wayne, Indiana’s South Side High School, class of ’42.
Where:
Henri Chapel U.S. Military Cemetery in Belgium
When:
July 2009
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Dick Lockhart’s wartime photo is used for the cover of the Springfield State Journal Register’s Heartland Magazine on May 25, 2001. The magazine’s Memorial Day edition was honoring veterans.
Where:
Unknown
When:
May 25, 2001
Ownership:
May be restricted. Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator
Caption
A wartime areal view of Stalag IX-B at Bad Orb, the camp where Lockhart and others from the 106th Division captured during the Battle of the Bulge were imprisoned.
Where:
Bad Orb
When:
During the Battle of the Bulge
Ownership:
This image is considered to be in the public domain
Caption
Dick Lockhart attended Belgium and Luxemburg’s 70th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of the Bulge, held in St. Vith, Belgium on December 15, 2014. Dick, seated second from the right, is joined by other members of the 106th Infantry Division.
Where:
St. Vith, Belgium
When:
December 15, 2014
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Dick Lockhart shares his memories with a group of WW II reenactors at the 70th anniversary commemoration of the Battle of the Bulge, held in St. Vith, Belgium on December 15, 2014. Dick was captured with thousands of others on December 19, 1944.
Where:
St. Vith, Belgium
When:
December 15, 2014
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo
Caption
Dick Lockhart (center) and another 106th Infantry Division survivor met Queen Mathilde of Belgium at during their visit for the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in December, 2014. Dick’s son David is standing behind his father.
Where:
Bastogne
When:
December, 2014
Ownership:
Property of Getty Images: Patrons desiring to use this photograph should contact Getty Images or the ALPL Audio-Visual Curator.)
Caption
Dick Lockhart and his parents William and Mary, taken after Dick came home.
Where:
Unknown
When:
Circa 1945
Ownership:
Narrator’s photo