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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

Feature Excerpt

Attack on the train

Abstract

Interview Session 01 (Audio)

Early life, military training & capture

Interview Session 02 (Audio)

Life in Stalag IX-B

Transcript

Related Materials

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.

Video from the Greatest Generation Theater

Photos

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 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
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
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
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
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 and his parents William and Mary, taken after Dick came home.

Where:
Unknown

When:
Circa 1945

Ownership:
Narrator’s photo

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
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 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
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
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
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
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 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
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



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