August 24th Journal Entry-Shelling of Brest

8/24
(more later on-B17 & 24s (Flack) hit Brest
Hope visits 155th Observes shelling of Brest-Gets acquainted with French girls
88s shell left & front of us (Night)
(Whistle before Boom)

Aug 24-
First combat survey NW at Dotouenal. Shell burst 200' away in field, 2 Dead Germans on side of Rd.

Lu, from his Memoirs:
My journal noted on August 24th that our first combat survey took us northwest of the village of Dotouenal. there were a few enemy shell bursts in the fields next to us but none close enough to cause concern.

We had an excellent officer in charge of our surveys. Lt. "Red" Tyler always considered the safety of his men as his most important duty. We spent most of our time in "infantry territory" ecause we needed to "see" and "hear" the enemy artillery (that's why we were called Field Artillery Observation battalions). At times it seemed that we were in very dangerous situations, but we knew that 'Red" had checked our survey route and was keeping a close eye on the batle situation. During this first battle we had to lag behind the hedgerow fighting a little but we were close enough to feel the tension and fear.

Cliff from his book: I didn't go out with a survey party until five days after our arrival. In addition to observing shelling and bombing of enemy positions and the return fire by the infamous German 88 mm guns every day, I made friends wherever I could. After taking a field bath from spring water I talked to a Frenchman who apparently owned the field. He promised to bring his 22 year-old daughter who spoke English on the following evening. he didn't show up and neither did she, but I managed to get 6 eggs and a large half-circle of bread from refugees from Brest at a nearby farm. I hung around to show a French girl my "Blitz French" book. On a Sunday two days later Bill Carus and I took a five-mile hike on the south side by the Elorn River, which runs from Landerneau west to the harbor of Brest. We went past the impressive Blue Infantry command post and watched shells landing on the north bank. Had we been older and wiser, we wouldn't have been so daring and foolish.

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Oct 25th, Wednesday-Journal Entry-Bombs and Guns

Oct 25-Lellig to Matternach- Tied in with Party 1 on R.R.- Lt Jones & G. S. scared out of house by civilian in sports roadster0 In at noon- Transferring notes to correct notebook all afternoon- O1:20 Big Buzz Bomb barely 200 ft. overhead-going south Thundering 400 M.P.H. Machine guns fire but miss. Buzz Bombs going into 1st Army positions Lu from Rae Hight's book : For quite a while, we surveyed the areas back and forth between and through Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg. Though the distances were not great, the continued movement required a certain amount of reorganizing each time. By the end of October we were in the Mompach-Berbourg area of eastern Luxemboug, near the front. It was not long before German shells landed not too far away. Our main reminders that the army was just a few kilometers away were the nightly visits by "Bed Check Charlie," buzz bombs that whizzed overhead each night about midnight. The V-1 flying bomb...

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Welcome to Winsor War Notes, the experiences of Luther Snow Winsor in World War Two. Subscribe to experience the day by day journal entries published on the matching day of the year for the time of his deployment to Europe and the Battle of the Bulge. Entries will include scans of the pages of his handwritten notes made at the time with a transcription and pertinent sections of the history he wrote later using these notes to jog his memories. The idea of this project is to publish and read the entries on the days of the year that they were originally written so we can get a feel for the weather setting and of the passage of time as it passed for him as he had these experiences. I will include relevant photos where possible. I suggest viewing Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan if you want a more graphic sense of what he was experiencing. He said that Saving Private Ryan was very realistic to his memories and Band of Brothers depicts many of the same kinds of things ...

November 4th 1945 Embarkation! Headed Home on the USS Westerly Victory ship

Watch for Lu's binoculars in many of his photos. They might be his best used acquisition from the war. This mimeographed newsletter is an interesting view into the voyage home.

Winsor War Notes-Luther Snow Winsor's WW II experiences

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