2F.  Paul Walter Linz was born in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A., on Monday, September 10, 1923. Anna Marie Flury was born in Baltimore on Thursday, October 16, 1924. They were married in Sacred Heart Church, Baltimore, Maryland, on Saturday, October 26, 1946. She took the name Anna Marie Linz. He is the son of Conrad Julius and Anna Mary (Telljohann) Linz. She is the daughter of George Michael and Theodora (Nosek) Flury. They had three children:

Walt and Ann Linz, wedding

Walt left school before finishing high school and _____. At age 17, with the war in Europe escalating, the United States certain to be involved, and feeling he certainly would be drafted, Walt wanted to enlist in the Marines. However, his father would not sign the papers; he tore them up: "What do you want to do, get yourself killed? Your turn will come soon enough; they'll wait for you."

Walt was drafted into the Army in 1943. After basic training, he was sent to England and made a cook. He disliked cooking and very much wanted to be fighting on the front. His appeals were ignored. One day in ____ he and his buddy was preparing sandwiches and coffee for an evening of recreation for a group of higher ranking personnel and some local girls. The Mess Sergeant, who was fairly drunk, came in and asked Walt where his girl friend was. Angered by Walt's evasive answer, he put his hands around Walt's neck in a choke hold. Walt brought his arms up, knocking the sergeant's arms away, then swung his fists down, catching him on bridge of the nose. With another punch or two to the face and the sergeant was on the floor. A master sergeant tried to subdue Walt and was also punched. Finally, a lieutenant broke up the fight and placed Walt on three days of house arrest. Walt was relieved from cooking and sent back to England for infantry training under the Rangers. This was what he really wanted.

After two intensive months of intensive training, during which he earned the rating of sharpshooter, Walt was flown back to _____ with a small group of men. This was a decisive point in his military life. He very clearly remembers being asked by a ____ if they were the replacements. He said "Yes." Names were called and each man was assigned to an infantry battalion. However, when Walt's name was called, he was assigned to the _____ Artillery. He had no artillery training.

He arrived at the emplacement and was informed that he would be a powder man. When the size of the powder charge for a particular cannon shot was called out, Walt would provide it. The first time a cannon was fired, not only did he jump "two feet in the air" from the noise, he was almost hit by its recoil; no one had told him to stand out of the way. Thus was his artillery training.

Since Walt had infantry training, he was selected to secure the area whenever the artillery was moved to a new site. This meant combing through the woods with a small band of men to flush out any German soldiers. Walt stayed with the 945th ??? battalion of the Third Army until the war was over. One day, near the end of the war, three armed German soldiers came out of the woods and caught Walt off guard and away from his weapon. They called out something in German which he did not understand but made no attempt to attack him. He could only assume that they wanted to surrender, as was becoming more common, and called out for them to put down their guns. They did. Walt took them in for processing.

In April 1944, in an active battle situation near the end of the war, a young German soldier came into a clearing. Walt had a bead on him and could easily have shot him. However, Walt could not bring himself to kill this kid so he shot over his head. He always felt good that somewhere there is a German family that exists only because Walt did not kill their father.

Twice during the war, Walt met up with his brother Conrad. The first time, Walt learned of Conrad's proximity from the Red Cross—it was always a better source of this type of information that was the Army itself. He and a driver were driving around and, as he related, "he heard Coonie before he saw him." They spent some time together which included being shot in the middle of the night at by a French farmer.

The second time they met was in probably in Luxemburg where Conrad's unit was setting up a hospital after the Battle of the Bulge (December, 1944, or January, 1945). Walt came by and gave Conrad a "grease gun", an automatic weapon, and several clips of ammunition, then disappeared. Walt was concerned that Conrad, who was not authorized to carry weapons, was in danger.

It was ironic that during the last battle of the war for Walt, his company was shelling Linz, Austria. They were instructed to avoid its historic buildings. It is likely that the Linz family originated there centuries before.

After the surrender of the Axis, Walt remained as part of the Army of Occupation. He was part of the Red Ball Express, a trucking operation. His buddy was a driver and Walt would occasionally ride "shotgun"; drivers were never sent alone. He met Conrad once more at the Sternberg See. Conrad was maintaining a collection of boats. One day the two took a sailboat out and were caught in a storm. Since neither had any experience sailing, they could not get back to shore before the boat was capsized about 100 yards out. Walt could not swim. Conrad set out to swim back but was soon met by an old German man who rowed out and rescued them. The next day he was rewarded with coffee, sugar, flour, and whatever Conrad and Walt could find.

Walt was always active in sports. He played first base on his division's fast-pitch softball team. The team traveled widely in Europe to play other teams.

At one point, Walt was asked if he would help set up a kitchen since he had experience as a cook. He agreed. He soon noticed German children eating from their garbage cans. He asked the mess sergeant to save the uneaten food for him; he would put it out for the children. The group of children soon grew large. One day, a colonel from another outfit told Walt to stop feeding "the enemy". Walt countered that these were only children who had no part of the war. The colonel's orders were continuously met by Walt's compassionate responses and refusal to stop. Eventually the colonel left; Walt continued to feed the children.

Walt returned home on ____. His first stop in Baltimore was at the bar where his Uncle Pat (John Linz) was bartender. Pat, who had served in World War I, made everyone in the bar be quiet and listen to Walt's accounts of the war. At home, when his mother opened the door, her first words were: "Where have you been all night?" That evening, they left the dishes in the sink—in the spirit of a popular song of the time—in honor of his safe return.

Walt's world was quite compact. He lived at 3911 Foster Avenue, relaxed at St. Girard's Club at 3513, got a job with his Uncle Joe at 3509, and started dating Dorothy Flury at 3507. Joe was a dental technician; he hired Walt as an apprentice and received a government subsidy for hiring a veteran. Soon Walt was a full partner in the business, making false teeth and partial plates for several dentists in the area. He and Dorothy were soon married and moved to ____.

Walt and Dot bought the house at 343 Hornel Street in East Baltimore, about a mile and a half from his parents on Foster Ave. Here they raised their family, saw them all marry and move away, and lived into their retirement. In the early years, he made ends meet by setting up his own dental lab in the basement and "bootlegging": working directly with patients instead of through a dentist.

• Personal interview November 15, 1999