Separated by war, their loving commitment endured after Clarence was taken prisoner by German troops.

Twenty-one-year-old Clarence Beltmann of Milwaukee enlisted in the U.S. Army in January 1942, one of the tens of thousands of young men caught in the swell of patriotism that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor. His fiancée Mildred Friedrich, also of Milwaukee, was similarly driven to serve her country and joined the U.S. Naval Women’s Reserve (WAVES) the following September. Hundreds of letters helped close the distance while Clarence trained in California and Kansas and Mildred attended boot camp in New York and storekeeper training in Indiana. It was in Bloomington that Clarence was allowed a brief visit during Christmas 1943. Both knew it was the last time they would see each other before he deployed.

As part of the 89th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron (Mechanized), 9th Armored Division, Clarence arrived in France in September 1944 en route to the Luxembourg-German border. Meanwhile Mildred, now a Storekeeper 3rd Class (SK3), was assigned to the U.S. Naval Reserve Armory in Chicago. It was there that Clarence’s letters came to an abrupt halt at the end of the year. Mildred received grim news mid-January 1945 that her fiancé was reported missing in action in Luxembourg on December 20. It would be three grueling months before she learned anything further of his fate.

Back on December 17, at the start of the Ardennes Offensive (Battle of the Bulge), then Tech 5 Beltmann was injured while defending a gap near Beaufort, Luxembourg and was taken prisoner the following morning. Clarence was moved repeatedly over the following months as his German captors stayed ahead of advancing Russian forces. Despite deplorable conditions and severe food shortages, he maintained his morale by keeping a diary throughout his nearly five-month captivity, complete with several poems penciled to his future wife.

On April 7, 1945, hope returned when Mildred finally learned that her fiancé was being held as a POW. Then, a telegram on May 29 announced that Clarence had been liberated at long last. He sent his own message to Mildred when he arrived stateside in June, this time to arrange their long-awaited reunion in Chicago. Together again, the couple decided there was no need to further prolong their engagement and wed on July 22, 1945.

Three months later, Tech 4 Clarence Beltmann and SK2 Mildred Beltmann were honorably discharged. They went on to welcome two sons and later settled in Hubertus, Wisconsin where they both remained active in veterans causes. Clarence founded the North Kettle Moraine Chapter of the American Ex-Prisoners of War (AXPOW) in 1985. It was renamed in his honor following his death in 1994.

"An All-American Team: The Story of Millie and Clarence" was written by Andrea Hoffman, Collections Manager at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum and adapted for the web by James Kovaleski. This post is from an article first published in the Winter 2025 issue of The Bugle.