Russian Prisoner: Private Phillip Leveque
A Very Lucky Dogface

Folks you are reading about a very lucky AMERIKANSKI.

The one and only Dr. Phil Leveque

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - I still get chills down my spine when I think about it even though it happened 65 years ago. I wrote about it in my book GENERAL PATTONS DOGFACE SOLDIER. It has stuck with me all these years as it was possibly the closest I ever got to being killed in WWII. This was even after we lost 150 men crossing the Rhine river, the day I captured 26 German Officers and the next day when we lost 20 men of a thirty man platoon who charged a German machine gun.

This actually happened 6 months after the war was over. I had made a friendly acquaintanceship with my 83rd Division personnel officer and he had given me the papers to visit Vienna to see if they could use someone who could speak fair German.

Like all the rest of the GI’s I went to the nearest GI beer joint and got about half plastered like everyone else. I also got acquainted with a Viennese cutie who happened to live in the Russians zone. Don’t ask why I took her home.

Usually I carried a .45 pistol under my belt in the back. There were a lot of hoodlums in Germany after the war both American and German “werewolves”. If you didn’t carry Iron do not go out nights. The left home pistol probably saved my life. If I was confronted I surely would have pulled and blazed away.

I took Hilde home and started back to the GI club. About half way back, I met a Russian patrol of about 12 men. They were still on combat status probably looking for German soldiers.

When I got to the last two, a Russian officer and a Sergeant. I heard the command STOY. I found out later that it meant STOP. I said AMERIKANSKY and kept going, then I heard the inescapable click of a machine pistol bolt pulled back and set and STOY again. I STOYED. If I had my .45, I probably would have pulled it and blazed away.

Luckily two Viennese men came by. I asked if they spoke Russian, one said “a little”, “what do they want”? He said to the KOMMANDATURA, the command post, over to the left. I hauled out my travel papers which had a dollar size stamp giving day and time but the officer was “impressed” by the stamp and let me go. The presence of the two witnesses probably saved my life.

The next day I told Hilde about it. She said “I don’t believe you, what did they want?” I pointed to the left “to the command post”.

“Now I believe you,” she said.

“Why now?” I asked.

“The command post isn’t to the left but to the right. Last week in the morning over to the left they found an American soldier all beaten up and they stripped him of all his clothes,” she said.

When we got to the beer joint I told my buddies what had happened. They told me, “You crazy bastard, you’re lucky to be alive. Those Ruski’s just love to catch a lone American. They rarely survive.”

Folks you are reading about a very lucky AMERIKANSKI.

I NEVER DID THAT AGAIN!!!

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More information on the history of Leveque can be found in his book, General Patton's Dogface Soldier of Phil Leveque about his experiences in WWII.
Order the book by mail by following this link: Dogface Soldier.

If you are a World War II history buff, you don't want to miss it.

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