Humble Danvers veteran honored 62 years after service

Louis Crateau came to the veterans' hall on Conant Street Monday morning to move chairs. Instead, his friends and family, and even a couple of politicians, almost moved him - to tears, that is.

They had come to honor him. The 87-year-old veteran of World War II was given the seven medals he should have picked up at the end of the war but just never bothered about.

"He never talked about it," said his friend Greg Moore, who owns Kimball's Memorials in Danversport.

Until one day, in passing, and that's when Moore decided to do something about it.

Crateau lives on Appleton Street in Danversport, right across the street from Carole Speliotis, mother of state Rep. Ted Speliotis. Moore called the representative, who told U.S. Congressman John Tierney, who put his staff to work on it.

This prisoner of war was sometimes called "Boxcar Louis," Rep. Speliotis said, because of his transfer from train to train during the excruciating treatment he and others suffered after being taken prisoner by the Germans after the Battle of the Bulge.

But Louis didn't talk much about that cruel time, everyone said.

"He was very, very humble," said Jan Collins, best friend of his daughter, Burnett Crateau.

"I was just anxious to get the hell out," Louis said after the presentation.

Rep. Tierney made a special trip to Danvers to present the medals to Louis: the POW medal, Good Conduct medal; American Campaign medal; European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal; Bronze Star; WWII Victory medal; and Honorable Service lapel button, WWII.

Louis was obviously moved that so many people thought so much of him to go to the effort to get these symbols of thanks from a grateful country.

Greg Moore is one of a group who have coffee together every morning. They used to go to the Danversport Bakery before the explosion last year, and now visit various shops as they wait for the bakery to reopen. Among the group are Bill Walsh and Don Gould, who worked with Louis at Beacon Fast Freight.

"He was always the slow one," Gould said jokingly. One friends joked that Louis was the mechanic who wasn't exactly happy when they broke something.

After retiring, Louis worked at Curran's Florists until recently, they said, and he still stays busy every day.

Rep. Speliotis remembered Louis as the "go-to guy" in the neighborhood.

"He was the one with the right wrench," Speliotis said. He also had the biggest garden, and gave away lots of tomatoes.

Louis said he never had any problem with kids in the neighborhood because he promised them all pumpkins at the end of the season.

Speliotis remembered his own father had awful memories of the war and that he revered Louis.

"Whatever he (his father) went through, Louis went through worse," Speliotis said.

That included service from April 1, 1942, in the U.S. Army, 7th Armored Division, according to information compiled by George McCabe in Tierney's local office. Louis left for England on the Queen Mary, then served in France, Scotland and Belgium.

The Battle of the Bulge (Ardennes) began on Dec. 16, 1944. Louis was captured by the Germans on Dec. 22, and he was a prisoner of war until April 28, 1945, when he was liberated by the Britlish.

Louis said separately that he never went to a concentration camp. Instead, the Germans just transferred him and other prisoners at this time from boxcar to boxcar, and walked them here and there for miles in the snow. They would give the prisoners a lump of black bread about the size of a hand that had mold on it and say to them, "three days."

"People don't know what you do when you're a prisoner," Louis said.

More than food, he prayed for water, he said. The men became so thirsty that they would suck the frost from the screws in the boxcars.

"I think of all the guys who got killed," Louis said, his eyes filling up. "Four years in the service, and you see them lying dead in the snow."

"I don't deserve that," he continued, pointing to the medals, "The guys who didn't make it deserve that."

He was supposed to be in his best friend's wedding, he said. But then his friend was killed. Others just suddenly weren't there walking along anymore; others were killed by a bomb or artillery.

Back in the states and recuperating at Lake Placid, N.Y., he asked his late wife, Helen, to marry him. And they came home to Danversport.

He joined the local veterans' post because his neighbor, Mr. LaChance, who had been a veteran of the Spanish American War, took him down and paid for his first-year membership.

But, Louis doesn't march in parades or give speeches.

"I just can't," he said.