On June 10, 1945, the 508th PIR arrived in Frankfurt. It moved into apartments in Heddernheim, a suburb of Frankfurt. The US Military Government officials allowed the German residents of the apartments less than an hour to vacate their homes - permitting them to take only bedding and clothing. Each apartment contained a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bath. The Hq1 men were billeted two or three men to an apartment, and lived quite comfortably. The larger apartments had two or three bedrooms and housed more men.
The Hq1 men were quickly housebroken and domesticated. Officers or Noncommissioned Officers (NCOs) making inspections often discovered men in their underwear busily ironing uniforms for guard duty or performing related housekeeping tasks.
The “privileged” Hq1 battalion staff section men had apartments above the company orderly room, next to the Battalion headquarters building.
An Hq1 company and a Battalion headquarters sign was procured on the “black market” by an anonymous member of Hq1 for a few packs of cigarettes.
Note the grave outside the Hq1 orderly room door. A Duty Officer discovered a very senior, highly decorated NCO with a bottle of Spanish Brandy (“Franco’s Revenge”) in his quarters – a serious offense. Rather than reduce the NCO as required, the Company Commander (CO) offered to “take care of the problem” pro viding, that when he arrived for duty the next morning, a six-foot hole had been dug outside the orderly room door.
The “hole” was dug; the bottle of brandy deposited therein, and the hole was filled up. End of serious problem. Not Quite!
A day after the incident, the CO was surprised to find the hole was now a “grave” carefully marked with white stones, and a tombstone like marker. | 
