Towards the end of the war in March 1945, young German soldiers were used to defend the homeland. Huge numbers of Hitler Youth soldiers were removed from school in early 1945 and sent to war. In the Ruhr area of Germany, young boys practiced guerrilla warfare against American troops. In the forests, the boys stayed hidden until the tanks had passed, waiting for the foot soldiers. They would then spring up, shoot at them and throw grenades, inflicting heavy causalities, then dash away and disappear back into the forest. The Americans retaliated with furious air-attacks and leveled several villages in the surrounding area.
Source: Hitler's Boy Soldiers 1939 - 1945.
Picture: A soldier of the 94th Infantry Division searching two young anti-aircraft gunners who surrendered in Frankenthal, 23 March 1945.
HARRY S. YOUNT. BORN MARCH 18, 1839.
Mountain man, professional hunter and trapper, prospector, wilderness guide, and the first game warden in Yellowstone National Park, father of the ranger service.
After serving in the Union Army, Yount spent the fifteen years as a guide, packer, hunter, wrangler, and bullwhacker for government geological surveys during the summer, then hunt and trap in the winters in the Laramie Range of Wyoming.
Yount was hired in 1880 as the first gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park at a salary of $1,000 per year, when the park's entire budget was just $15,000 per year. During his 14 months in that job he wrote two annual reports which were then submitted to Congress.
In his report of September 30, 1881, Yount described how he spent the unusually severe winter of 1880–1881, and his efforts to prevent poaching by tourists and Indians, while still hunting to provide food for the park staff. Yount reported that snow had fallen on 66 of 90 days between December 1880 and February 1881
He described the range and habits of Yellowstone's large mammals and expressed regret for "the unfortunate breakage of my thermometer when it could not be replaced," along with a submitted synopsis of the weather the previous winter. In this report, he resigned his position "to resume private enterprises now requiring my personal attention," and concluded with a clear recommendation:
I do not think that any one man appointed by the honorable Secretary, and specifically designated as a gamekeeper, is what is needed or can prove effective for certain necessary purposes, but a small and reliable police force of men, employed when needed, during good behavior, and dischargeable for cause by the superintendent of the park, is what is really the most practicable way of seeing that the game is protected from wanton slaughter, the forests from careless use of fire, and the enforcement of all the other laws, rules, and regulations for the protection and improvement of the park.
There are indications Yount had a difference of opinion with park superintendent Norris, who wanted him to spend more of his time building roads for the convenience of tourists, while Yount preferred to concentrate on protecting the wildlife.
His reports described the challenges of protecting the wildlife in the first U.S. national park and influenced the culture of the National Park Service, which was founded 35 years later in 1916.
Horace Albright, the second director of the National Park Service, called Yount the "father of the ranger service, as well as the first national park ranger".
After Yount resigned from his job in Yellowstone, he lived for a while in Uva, Wyoming. He spent nearly 40 years prospecting in the Laramie Mountains, and developed copper and graphite mining claims. He settled in Wheatland, Wyoming, and worked on developing a marble mining claim west of there. Yount was actively involved in prospecting until the day before his death, when he had been looking for a ride to inspect a possible gold deposit. On May 16, 1924, he walked into downtown Wheatland, as was his daily habit, where he collapsed and died of heart failure. He was buried in the Lakeview Cemetery in Cheyenne.
Younts Peak, located in the Absaroka Range at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, is named after him.
In 1994, the National Park Service established the Harry Yount Award, given annually to an employee whose "overall impact, record of accomplishments, and excellence in traditional ranger duties have created an appreciation for the park ranger profession."
Photo: Yount in 1873
Berlin at the end of World War Two, 1945
A pioneer family with most of their worldly possessions at Gates P.O., in Custer County, Nebraska, 1886.
