Citadel History

An unhappy meeting place for four alums in World War II

In November of 1944, fate seemed to handpick four Citadel alumni from the hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting in World War II, placing them at the same prison camp in Schubin, Poland, at the same time.

William Warthen '44

Richard Kellahan '44

William Warthen, ’44, and Richard Kellahan, ’44, were captured during the German attack on Linnich near the German-Dutch border in late November 1944. As Wartham wrote, “We had not seen each other since OCS graduation in May ’44 – that is until our eyes met as Kellahan was coming out of German interrogation headquarters in the town of Titz. We were herded together with about 70 others that afternoon and marched to Dusseldorf."

When they were allowed their first shower in weeks, German guards “thrust a very dirty and exhausted American sergeant in with us and it turned out to be Arthur Tissington, ’43, of Mobile, Ala.” Warthen said Tissington was put in solitary and they never saw him again.

When they were taken to Oflag 64, Wartham encountered former Citadel roommate Jack Monaghan, ’43, who was being treated in the infirmary for severe wounds he sustained during his capture.

Kellahan recalls in detail the military setup of the prison camp, the 20-below-zero days he and other prisoners endured as Germans forced them to march to stay ahead of a Russian invasion. Just as vivid are Kellahan’s memories of sleeping in barns and waking up to frozen boots, German soldiers with machine guns, and frostbitten feet.

Jack Monaghan '43

Hope came in April as Russian tanks rolled through Berlin. Kellahan and fellow prisoners were taken to Wittenberg where they were liberated by the Russians in early May. Warthen was marched to Stalag XIIIB in Hammelburg and later to a camp at Nurenburg where Americans liberated him and 70,000 other POWs from all over the world. Monaghan was taken to Egypt where he was released.

Tissington also survived and all four returned home by June 14, 1945. Tissington died at Mobile, Ala. in 1997. Kellahan now lives in Kingstree, S.C. Monaghan lives in Birmingham, Ala. and Warthen lives in Vidalia, Ga.

Complete listing:

Class	Name	Rank	Branch	Area	Status	Date of Capture	Death/Release
1915	Roy C. Hilton	COL	USA	Philippines	Released	May 7, 1942	August 11, 1945
1916	Wade Rushton Cothran, Jr.	MAJ	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	January 25, 1945
1918	Hiram Tarkington	COL	USA	Philippines	Released	May 7, 1942	October 16, 1945
1928	Joseph Lynn McCarthy	CPT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	January 9, 1945
1929	Harcourt G. Bull	MAJ	USAAC	Philippines	Released	May 7, 1942	October 29, 1945
1929	Tony B. Lumpkin	CPT	USA	Tunisia	Released	April 1, 1943	March 12, 1945
1929	George Roland Weeks	MAJ	USMC	Philippines	Died as POW	May 6, 1942	January 30, 1945
1931	Albert K. Godwin	MAJ	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	December 15, 1944
1933	Julius C. Burge, Jr.	CPT	USA	Philippines	Released	May 7, 1942	October 29, 1945
1933	Pope Lott Browne	1LT	USAAC	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	October 24, 1944
1935	Frederick Hutton
1936	Ralph Palmer Ford, Jr.	1LT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	January 9, 1945
1936	Roland F. Wooten	CPT	USAAC	Germany	Released	October 4, 1944	March 6, 1946
1937	Austin F. Enzor	SSG	USAAC	North Africa	Released	September 23, 1944	May 28, 1946
1938	Stephen Munger Byars, Jr.	CPT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	January 12, 1945
1938	Charles Dixon Lee, Jr.	LTC	USAAC	Germany	Released	April 22, 1944	May 24, 1945
1939	Ernest Scott Haile, II	2LT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	September 7, 1944
1939	William James
1939	James Keene	2LT	USMC	Philippines	Released	May 6, 1942	September 26, 1945
1939	Marion Arendell Parrott	CPT	USA	Normandy	Released	June 6, 1944	March 18, 1946
1939	Ernest F. Peschau Jr.	1LT	USAAC	Japan	Died as POW	May 29, 1944	June 8, 1944
1939	Francis E. Tiller	LTC	USAAC	Germany	Released	April 24, 1944	June 12, 1945
1940	Paul F. Austin	2LT	USAAC	France	Released	May 17, 1943	July 6, 1945
1940	Alton Houston Bryant	2LT	USAAC	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	January 28, 1945
1940	John Shipp Daniel	1LT	USAAC	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	October 27, 1942
1940	Walter Guy Efird, Jr.	1LT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	September 7, 1944
1940	Wilson Glover, III	1LT	USAAC	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	January 27, 1945
1940	John Thomas Leonard, Jr.	1LT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	January 9, 1945
1940	Arthur E. Mallory, Jr.	CPT	USA	North Africa	Released	February 16, 1944	May 30, 1945
1940	John Isaac Moore, III	2LT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	October 24, 1944
1940	Felix C. Sharp Jr.	1LT	USA	Philippines	Released	May 7, 1942	October 30, 1944
1940	Walter S. Strong	1LT	USA	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	February 2, 1945
1940	Milton Woodside	2LT	USA	Phillipines	Released	May 7, 1942	Sept 25, 1945
1940	William Woodside	2LT	USAAC	Germany	Released	January 11, 1944	June 27, 1945
1941	William P. Beckham, Jr.	2LT	USAAC	France	Released	September 6, 1943	June 8, 1945
1941	William Henderson Coffield, Jr.	CPL	USAAC	Philippines	Died as POW	May 7, 1942	July 9, 1942
1941	Samuel A. Rhyne	SSG	USAAC	Germany	Released	June 20, 1944	March 18, 1946
1941	Earl A. Smoak Jr,	1LT	USA	France	Released	December 12, 1944	June 14, 1945
1941	Jack B. Workman	1LT	USAAC	France	Released	May 29, 1943	July 2, 1945
1942	Hugh K. Boyd	1LT	USA	Germany	Released	January 10, 1945	February 4, 1945
1942	William D. Craven	CPT	USAAC	Germany	Released	December 21, 1944	June 4, 1945
1942	Russell J. Thiele	2LT	USAAC	Germany	Released	August 4, 1944	May 29, 1945
1942	Ryan E. Tomlinson	CPT	USA	Germany	Released	December 21, 1944	May 23, 1945
1943	Gadsden M. Ford, Jr.	2LT	USAAC	France	Released	June 22, 1943	July 13, 1945
1943	Robert Griffin	1LT				January 14, 1945
1943	Walter Lunn	2LT	USA	Belgium	Released	January 8, 1945	April 9, 1945
1943	Roderick McAllister
1943	James J. Monaghan	2LT	USA	Germany	Released	October 4, 1944	March 19, 1945
1943	Edward W. Overman	2LT	USA	France	Released	July 15, 1944	November 16, 1944
1943	Arthur B. Tissington	CPL	USA	Holland	Released	October 6, 1944	June 30, 1945
1944	Solomon E. Abrams	2LT	USAAC	Romania	Released	May 5, 1944	September 28, 1944
1944	Lee R. Dixon	1LT	USAAC	Tunisia	Released	February 24, 1943	March 28, 1946
1944	Richard H. Kellahan	2LT	USA	Germany	Released	November 29, 1944	May 26, 1945
1944	William H. Rierson	2LT	USA	Germany	Released	February 8, 1944	June 30, 1945
1944	Thomas W. Teetor	PVT	USA	Belgium	Released	December 24, 1944	February 20, 1946
1944	William Donovan Warthen	2LT	USA	Germany	Released	November 30, 1944	June 12, 1945
1945	Henry F. Garlington	2LT	USAAC	Italy	Released	June 5, 1944	June 11, 1946
1945	William Roberts		USA			August 3, 1944
1945	Edward Roper
1945	John Stearns		USAAC			August 16, 1944
1945	Joe Weaver
1946	P.M. Adams		USAAC			April 13, 1944
1946	Richard B. Burns	PFC	USA	France	Released	September 1, 1944	June 27, 1945
1946	Ben Groblewski
1946	Walter Hagen	2LT	USAAC	North Africa	Released	July 28, 1944	June 4, 1945
1946	Robert Jones
1946	Cliff Lebey	PVT	USA	Italy	Released	February 16, 1944	June 8, 1945
1946	William J. Watson Jr.	SSG	USAAC	Germany	Released	April 24, 1944	July 20, 1945
1949	Richard Wayne Unger	PVT	USA	Germany	16468	February 25, 1946	February 25, 1946