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After North Platte, the Canteen's founding visitors went on to World War II

By Todd von Kampen
Dec 11, 2021
Dec 11, 2021 Updated Jun 26, 2026
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7 min to read

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1. 137th Infantry in Pont Hebert, France, July 1944 (unit history, p. 15; courtesy KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

Two 137th Infantry Regiment soldiers inspect one of several bombed-out buildings in Pont-Hébert, France, on or about July 17, 1944. Both the Kansas-born 137th and the 134th Infantry, commanded by then-Brig. Gen. Butler Miltonberger of North Platte, played key roles in the 35th Infantry Division’s July 18 liberation of nearby St.-Lô, which punched a fatal hole through German defenses six weeks after the June 6 D-Day invasion.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

2. 137th Infantry 'shaving in zero weather,' N France, late 1944 (unit history, p. 28; courtesy, KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

After taking part in a sweeping end run through central France with Lt. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third Army, the 137th Infantry Regiment faced stiffer German resistance as 1944 waned. These men were forced into “shaving in zero weather” somewhere in northeastern France.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

3. Fremestroff, France, captured 137th Infantry, late 1944 (unit history, p. 56; courtesy KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

The 137th Infantry Regiment’s 3rd Battalion received a Unit Citation for its Nov. 21, 1944, liberation of Frémestroff in northeastern France. The regiment would penetrate the German border, then less than 15 miles away, on Dec. 12 before being diverted north to help thwart German dictator Adolf Hitler’s last-gasp offensive in Belgium’s Ardennes Forest in the Battle of the Bulge.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

4. 137th Infantry moving up, E France, late 1944 (unit history, p. 64; courtesy, KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

Soldiers of the 137th Infantry Regiment move through a field in northeastern France in late 1944.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

5. 137th Infantry & PW, Battle of Bulge, Geromont, Belgium, 1945 (unit history, p. 73; courtesy, KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

Members of the 137th Infantry Regiment force a German prisoner in a captured U.S. Army uniform to remove it during the December 1944-January 1945 Battle of the Bulge in Belgium’s Ardennes Forest. Disguised Nazi troops, some of whom spoke English with American accents, were part of German dictator Adolf Hitler’s strategy to turn the tide on the western front.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

6. 137th Infantry in central Germany, spring 1945 (unit history, p. 105; courtesy, KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

Stripped of reserves by its surprise but futile Battle of the Bulge attack, German forces rapidly collapsed once Allied troops crossed the Rhine River in March 1945. A jeep bearing two members of the 137th Infantry Regiment, then part of the U.S. Ninth Army, pauses here in mid-April as it nears the Elbe River about 50 miles west of Berlin.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

7. 137th Infantry near Buch, Germany (unit history, p. 106; courtesy, KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

Four 137th Infantry Regiment members pose at a road sign near Buch, Germany, on or about April 21, 1945. The Elbe River town marked the Kansas-rooted unit’s easternmost penetration before the European war ended 2½ weeks later.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

8. 137th Infantry in V-E Day parade, Hamelin, Germany, 5-8-1945 (unit history, p. 113; courtesy, KS Natl Guard Museum).jpg

Members of the victorious 137th Infantry Regiment parade in celebration of V-E (Victory in Europe) Day on May 8, 1945, in the German city of Hamelin (setting of the Pied Piper tale). The one-time Kansas National Guard unit would serve as an honor guard in Belgium July 15 for President Harry S. Truman, then en route to the Potsdam Conference, before returning to the United States. The 137th’s inactivation was completed Dec. 1, 1945.

U.S. Army 1944-45 courtesy of Kansas National Guard Museum

Map of 35th Division progress in Europe, courtesy of Truman Library.jpg

This contemporary map shows the progress of the U.S. Army’s 35th Infantry Division across Western Europe in 1944 and 1945. Nicknamed the “Santa Fe” for its units’ proximity to the Santa Fe Trail, the 35th included Nebraska’s 134th Infantry Regiment, commanded by then-Brig. Gen. Butler Miltonberger of North Platte, and Kansas’ 137th Infantry, whose Dodge City-born Company D inadvertently inspired North Platte’s World War II Canteen when it stopped at the former Union Pacific Depot on Dec. 17, 1941.

Courtesy of Harry S. Truman Library & Museum Independence Missouri

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By Todd von Kampen

We arrived in camp about 11 o’clock yesterday morning. ... (My tentmates) are all Dodge City boys and the best bunch of fellows in camp. It won’t be like home, but under the conditions we can make out fairly well.