Carl Klopfenstein, World War II
Carl G. Klopfenstein was born in Cleveland and grew up in Attica. His father, a 1911 graduate of Heidelberg, was an engineer for Goodyear in Akron and his mother was a R. N. He graduated from Heidelberg in 1939 with a history major.
He was influenced by Professor John Kolehmainen to go to Western Reserve University where he received a Masters degree. He was in Cleveland when he was classified as 1-A by the local draft board on July 12, 1941. He was later deferred because of medical problems. He received another call for a physical and was inducted into the Army at Camp Perry on March 4, 1943. He did his basic training at Camp Belvoir near Washington D. C. The Signal Corps was interested in his background and training, so he was then assigned to Camp Green Hills near Washington, D. C. There he learned cryptography and typing.
Carl was in a group that was sent to the Mediterranean aboard the communication ship, the USS Catoctin. His ship was escorted across the Atlantic and through the Strait of Gibraltar by two destroyers. One of the destroyers was later sunk off the coast of Algiers, bombed by German planes. A German sub was sunk inside the harbor near Gibraltar not long after the Catoctin passed through.
For twelve months Carl served with the Fifth Signal Detachment on board the Catoctin off the coasts of North Africa, Italy, Sicily and Russia. He prepared, revised, and compiled code books . These contained cipher systems and cipher keys for use in safe guarding military communications. He assisted in crypto-analysis and was given cryptographic clearance.
Cryptography on a naval vessel was the realm of naval officers and on the Catoctin, a naval officer trained at Harvard, tried to pull rank and wanted the enlisted army cryptographers to do the chore work. This did not go over well since the army personnel, made up of T-4’s and T-5’s, were well trained. Dummy sentences and messages were often included in their work to confuse the enemy. Also the situation became more complicated when an army signal corps truck was stolen and the codes had to be changed.
When their ship, the Catoctin, was in the Naples harbor, German JU-88’s dropped fragmentation bombs on the men on the beaches. Six sailors from the Catoctin were killed, but the ship was not damaged. Robert Bremigan wrote a poem titled “These Six” in tribute to his fallen comrades which was published in the CAT TALES of Sept. 8, 1944.
We who are left know not the reason why
God chose you six as martyrs to our cause
That night when death descended from the sky
And struck you down because there are no laws
To stop the madmen eager for the world
To own; rest well–you six are not forgot–
Each morning when we see our flag unfurled
We vow anew our oaths to square your lot.
No more we feel your touch, nor hear your voice
Among us; you have left a vengeful crew
And we will make your soaring souls rejoice
By meting out to them as they did you.
We do not know just why it was that He
Chose you instead of Ed, or Jim, or me.
The six sailors were buried in a newly developed US Military Cemetery in Praguignan some 30 miles inland from the coast.
The ship was now anchored at Naples with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. It received many important visitors. Relief models of Southern France assault beaches were studied by Vice Admiral Hewett, Major General Patch and Secretary of the Navy Forrestal.
King George VI came aboard. Three famous daughters, Mrs. Anna Roosevelt Boettiger, Mrs. Sarah Churchill Oliver, and Miss Kathleen Harriman, daughter of US Ambassador to the USSR were welcomed.
The most noted guest was President Roosevelt. He was wheeled up the gangplank and stayed overnight. He was on his way back from Yalta where he met Churchill and Stalin.
With the war in Europe winding down, there were discussions about sending Carl to the Pacific Theater. However, since he had already lost his only brother, Donald, in the infantry in Germany, he was sent back to the states. He arrived at Fort Jay and had to be hospitalized for a gall bladder attack. His gall bladder was removed at Fort Jay. Since the army learned that he had an uncle who was a surgeon at Crile Hospital in Cleveland, he was sent there to recover.
Carl was then discharged March 10, 1946 as Technician Fourth grade, a Cryptographic Code Compiler.
He went back to Western Reserve to continue work on his Ph.D. He taught at the Cleveland College, part of Western Reserve, and at Mather College in Cleveland. He came to Heidelberg, along with the new president, Terry Wickham in the fall of 1948. He received his Ph.D. in history from Western Reserve in 1956. In his tenure at Heidelberg, he became one of the best known historians in Ohio. He retired in 1983.
Carl met Esther Willoughby, who was a teacher of piano in the Heidelberg Conservatory, and they were married December 19,1949 at the Christmas break. Carl and Esther, now deceased, have four sons, Kurt at Waverly, Ohio, Kris in Tiffin, Bruce in Bowling Green, and Kraig in De Moines, Iowa. He has four grandchildren.
One of the particular joys and pleasures of teaching at a small college like Heidelberg, has been to get to know in a very personal way, the students and the professors from the various departments. Carl in the history department has always been a favorite.
– Percy