William “Bill” Delbert Miller  

April 17, 1925 – February 14, 2010

William Delbert Miller was born in Ashland, Oregon, to Claude and Eunice Miller. Growing up, his family moved four times. He had two younger brothers, Glenn (1926) and Walter (1929). They lived in Altaville, and San Leandro, Los Angeles, and Garden Grove, California. In his youth everyone called him Bill or Billy, and he often spelled his name "Billie".  Bill transferred to Garden Grove High School in September of 1942. 

He married Milly (Mildred Lucille Burke) on June 23, 1943. They met and fell in love as high school seniors.  At this time, Bill worked for Ford Garage in Santa Ana. Later that same year he entered military service.  He was initially sent to train at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, California, which wasn't far from home.  He was even given a ten-day pass in October, after basic training, to visit Milly, who lived with her parents during the war.  In January of 1944, Bill was sent to Fort Benning, Georgia, and then to Ft. McClellan, Alabama, to complete deployment training. His deployment was delayed several times due to injuries sustained during training.  He was hospitalized at least five times between December of 1943 and May of 1944. He was sent home for an entire month in July of 1944, finally shipping out to Europe August 1, 1944. 

In France, the 318th Infantry formed the right sector of the 80th Division's drive on Metz.  At Marbache (about 28 miles south of Metz along the Moselle River), Billy's unit was ordered to seize the heavily wooded high ground defended by the a tough German Luftwaffe field regiment .  After two days  they managed to drive the Germans out. They continued the drive northwards in the direction of Clémery. During the night of October 1-2, 1944, two platoons of Company B were sent ahead to take the strategic east-west crossroads at Les Quatre Fers. The was met with unexpected and overwhelming force, and most of the men were killed or captured.  Leonard Oviedo of Company C (see profile) had been captured on October 8 as part of the same general action. Despite being in the same regiment, the two men hadn't known one another prior to clambering aboard a train car destined for Germany in the early morning hours of October 10, 1944. Bill and Leonard became good friends.

Bill and Leonard spent several uncomfortable days travelling through Mannheim, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Augsburg and Munich before disembarking at Stalag 7-A near Moosburg. Bill recalled being treated fairly well there. Though it was a bone-chilling winter, he credit the German camp administrators for “giving every man two blankets” and "allowing them (the POWs) to keep their American uniforms, coats and hats.  The food was terrible, however. He spoke of “weak tea”, “grass soup”, “stale black bread”, “beat tops” and “two potatoes for supper every day”.

Bill considered himself lucky that he was given a chance to  be part of work crews outside the camp. At first, these “Kommando gangs” cleaned up rubble from Allied bombings in Munich and its suburbs. He failed to convince Leonard to do outside work until mid-March, 1945, when they both volunteered to transfer to the tiny satellite farming detail camp at Nussdorf am Inn. [1] 

Bill spoke highly of the family to which he was assigned by the mayor of Nussdorf, saying they treated him pretty well but always wondered if their kindness was genuine or whether his “hosts” knew the war was lost and were hoping for reciprocal treatment when defeat came.

Bill worked for the Konrad and Mathilde Bernrieder family, proprietors of a large guesthouse on the main street of Nussdorf: the "Gasthaus Bernrieder," also known for years by its nickname "Sappl".  In more recent times it was "Nussdorfer Hof" and "The London Tea Room and Pub" on the ground floor of the guest house. 

Konrad and Mathilde were NSDAP in Bill's estimation.  Though his German was spotty, they left Bill under the impression that they knew, or at least had met, Hitler. "They [the Bernrieders] had a personally signed photo of AH on the wall surrounded by a wreath with a fancy ribbon, like a shrine", he recalled. "They were also proud of their friendship with the man who owned the villa above the town who was a close friend of Hitler." Because Bill made his anti-Hitler feelings known several times early on, they were not particularly friendly for the first two weeks. After Easter they warmed to Bill, and by the last week he was "eating lunch with them every day and wounded German soldiers." Apparently there was a Luftwaffe rehabilitation home in nearby Brannenburg that was full, so these soldiers were billeted in the Bernrieder guest house.  According to Bill, there were also French and Polish prisoners of war who cooked and cleaned, and some people from Munich whose homes had been destroyed by American bombing who lived on the top floor. [2]

During the short time that Bill was in Nussdorf, fortunately American Red Cross parcels arrived and this gave him and the other men much needed bargaining power. The Bernrieders were not short of supplies but other local families were and the news of the arrival of the packages caused great excitement. According to Bill, Nussdorfers were particularly fond of the twelve-ounce (340 g) cans of vegetable soup concentrate and he was able to trade them for dark bread. [3]

On or about April 28, 1945, Bill recalled, "The guard announced, 'The Americans are coming. You are going home soon.'"  The Bernrieders (and many German families in Nussdorf) had a radio, so two days later they learned of Munich's surrender and it hit him hard. As much as he despised Stalag 7-A, at that moment he wished he hadn't left. 

"The best memory of the entire war" came for Bill on he morning of May 2, 1945, when “a G.I. from California with the 12th Armored Division…a little guy led the way, a big .45 in each hand."  The US soldiers “moved in and took over without a shot fired.  Then that night the 20 liberated POWs had "real creamed chicken," a treat he'd remember for the rest of his life. [4]

[1] History of the 318th Regiment of the 80th Infantry Division: Report of October 1944 (circumstances of Bill's capture) ; Santa Ana Register of June 16, 1945, p. 16; 

[2] Note: Even after the war was over, for perhaps up to a year, wounded German soldiers rehabbed at the Bernrieder guest house.  Source: "Investigation Report concerning case:  Friedrich von Angelotty-Mackensen," Public Safety Assistant Military Government Wolfratshausen to the Director of Military Government Wolfratshausen, March 3, 1948/ Bavaria Land Commissioner; Reports, 1949-1951; Entry A1 189; Records of the U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, Record Group 466. 

[3] "Former Santa Cruzan Back from Germany," Santa Cruz Sentinel, Jul. 02, 1945, p. 4

[4]  Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 02, 1945, p. 4.  

[5] Obituary for Bill D. Miller in the East Bay Times (Brentwood, California), Feb. 17, 2010.

[6] "Divorces", Anaheim Bulletin, Oct. 22, 1959, p. 21.