So my question is, did this really happen? And if so, why were the French civilians angry at the Americans? AND, if it wasn't French civilians, then who was it? And why were they throwing rotten vegetables at a train full of American soldiers?

Without a specific date or location, it's going to be very difficult to find to find a record describing this particular incident. Nevertheless, the fact that a significant part of the French population felt distrust, anger or even hatred or fear when confronted with American soldiers is well attested, even if it is not very widely known.

Between the landings in Normandy in 1944 and the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, there had been a significant number of cases in which American soldiers had assaulted, raped or killed French women who had refused to have sex with them. As early as 1944 it was reported in Le Havre that women and young girls were afraid to go out on the streets after 7:00 p.m. because of the American soldiers who had recently taken up quarters in their town.

To give you some idea of the kind of incidents, I'll provide some examples of actual incidents that took place in France during this period :

In March 1945 two young women in the Yonne went out on dates with GI's, and the evening ended badly. One soldier held his date tight and tried to kiss her, even as she struggled to get away from him. When she bit and kicked him, he punched her in the mouth, threw her to the ground, and tried to rape her. She said "OK, but not here," and led him away. She then started yelling for help, which was heard by some French workmen, who came running. The soldier fled, and the Frenchmen escorted her home.

In April 1945 a GI shot dead a twenty-one-year-old French woman in Laon who refused to sleep with him.

In a town near Paris, two drunken GI's forced their attentions on two young French women, who appealed to two civilian men passing by for help. The GI's attacked the men, punching and kicking them, giving the women the opportunity to escape. French police were called, but the GI's had already fled, and they could not be identified.

Numerous witnesses to a fight among GI's in a bar in Jouarre testified that an inebriated soldier became angry when the barmaid, with whom he was infatuated, refused to pay attention to him. The drunken soldier first pulled a knife and then waved a gun around, threatening to shoot the barmaid. When other GI's in the bar tried to wrestle the .45 caliber gun away from him, he shot the barmaid's mother.

Adding to these excesses (which were widely reported on in French newspapers), there was an additional general sentiment that some American soldiers were out to get intimate with French women. Partly, this feeling among the French was strengthened by the American military's unfortunate practice of sponsoring dances where they would invite French women to attend but excluded French men.

These dances tended to be rowdy to say the least. For example, a company of the 13th Airborne Division stationed in Joigny arranged to hold a dance at the Café the Voyageurs, starting at 7:30, but when no Frenchwomen showed up the GI's decided to go out and recruit some. They accosted several women leaving the cinema at 8:15, causing them to flee. With no one to dance with, the GI's drank, got into fights with one another and busted up the café, smashing glasses and windows.

Editorials were printed in French newspapers warning parents to keep their daughters from attending such dances. With one French official noting that many American soldiers promised marriage to young French girls, but that almost none followed through, doubting they ever intended to.

In a report brimming with complaints about the Americans, the commissioner in Chalons-sur-Marne wrote in March 1945 that "the American mentality is so opposed to that of the French that only our debt to them for liberation prevents a complete rupture which is beginning to form in public opinion."

In short, in the popular French mind American soldiers were a mixed blessing. Yes, they were liberating France from German occupation for which they were respected and greatly appreciated, but at the same time groups of soldiers on leave could pose a serious, sometimes even lethal, threat to their safety and in particular to young French women. Adding to this the American reputation for being unruly brawlers, large groups of American soldiers in ones town or village, were also a cause for concern to some of the French.

So to get back to the incident described by your grandfather: in all likelihood the town station in which the throwing of rotten vegetables took place was meant as a rest area or way station for American soldiers. It is possible, that fears of excesses by American soldiers similar to those described above (or perhaps rage at a similar incident having taken place prior to your grandfathers arrival) resulted in townsfolk behaving in the way they did.

​

Sources used:

- The Struggle for Cooperation: Liberated France and the American Military, 1944–1946 by Robert Fuller

- What Soldiers Do: Sex and the American GI in World War II France by Mary Roberts

There are a lot of really interesting theories here, but the first question should be: What unit was your grandad in?

Today that should be pretty easy to find out. Then start looking into unit histories, because I can 100% guarantee that if this happened, and I suspect it did, that other veterans discussed it. Furthermore, there would probably have been something at the various HQs going all the way up to SHAFE.

It almost certainly did not happen in Germany, because German civilians were petrified of US soldiers at that point, worried about being executed or just sent to the Soviet zone. But in France by early 1945 it is believable. By the summer of 1945 it seems like it is a very good bet, but that would be at least five or six months after the end of the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945.

There certainly were incidents with French civilians - mostly from criminal acts by servicemen. At the top, Ike was serious as cancer about punishing soldiers who committed crimes against civilians in anywhere in the ETO. 443 American soldiers sentenced to death in the European Theater of Operations and seventy were actually executed.

Some were for crimes against German civilians, but I have not read up on all the details. If you want to you can read every single case: United States Army. Branch Office of the Judge Advocate General. European Theater of Operations (ETO). Board of Review, Holdings and Opinions (1942–1946)

When you compare that to the single GI, Private Eddie Slovik, executed for a purely military crime it gives an idea of where Ike, Bradly, and most of the upper brass stood on the issue. How harshly anyone was punished in any individual instance is hard to say because it depended upon the attitude of the chain of command starting at company commanders.

There is no doubt lots of company commanders covered for "good solders" and so did every other officer who reviewed the case. That meant there were probably about a dozen people who could sidetrack a prosecution, so it is pretty amazing so many were actually executed.

This is not even counting those who received sentences of hard labor. That number must run into the tens of thousands. The future heavyweight champion of the world Rocky Marciano was court-martialed and spent twenty-two months in military prison for a robbery and assault he committed in England the night before his unit was supposed to ship out for Europe. The recent biography of Rocky, Unbeaten, goes into this issue in a good bit of detail.

But as for your question, the first step to discover his unit. You can probably do that with the really, cool and easy to use tool from the National World War II Museum. Then you can start the dive into other records.

Once you have their transportation record you can really get to the bottom of it. I would bet this occurred in one of the embarkation ports, because all troops would have been disarmed before they where put on troop ships.

Here is a very good thesis on the American occupation of Cherbourg. Chapter Four, "Post Liberation" makes it clear that there was a certain amount of tension. Some came from American misconduct, but some also came from hunger and stress.

Please, let us know what you discover!

Best Wishes!