Skip to main content

August 25th Journal Entry-Surveying in Battle of Brest


"Aug 25 Check mike base SE of Loperhet-
Boys thought German coin was booby trap.
155's going at regular intervals next door-
Naval shelling "Warspite"
B-26's
Stars & Stripes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Warspite_(03)

HMS Warspite was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s.
The ship bombarded German positions during the Normandy landings and on Walchern Island in 1944, despite not being fully repaired. These actions earned her the most battle honours ever awarded to an individual ship in the Royal Navy. For this and other reasons, Warspite gained the nickname the "Grand Old Lady"
Warspite arrived off Ushant on 25 August 1944 and attacked the coastal batteries at Le Conquet and Pointe Saint-Mathieu during the Battle for Brest



B-26 over France

Lu, in his memoirs- On the 25th we checked a "mike base" southeast of of Loperhet. There were dead German bodies along the roads and in some of the fields, and I can still remember that the death and destruction that was taking place still didn't seem quite real. Our graves registration troops seemed to have picked up American bodies, but hadn't removed the Germans yet. Perhaps it was because the death and destruction took place before I arrived, and the pictures I had in my mind were actually worse.

On August 25th the Battalion History noted: "Limited offensive by Task Force B gains some ground against stiff resistance. The Air Force assists by bombing Plougastel.

Cliff Hope from his book: I was driving a weapons carrier on my first day out with our survey party when i saw my first dead American, an officer. His body lay down an embankment. It was a sobering moment, a rite of passage into war. heavy cannonading by tanks and TDs (tank destroyers) continued. Most members of our party proceeded cautiously with an eye out for booby traps. There were appalling sights all around us.

Concerning "Red" Tyler-'our survey platoon leader, returned from a reconnaissance survey of lorient. The battalion after action report regarding it said, "General conclusions were that the Nazis were strongly fortified at Lorient and it would be a tough nut to crack. " Years later, ked Kahner told me Tyler had disuised himself as a French civilian in order to check German gun Positions there. Later that year, Red Tyler became the first man in the battalion to receive the Bronze Star. His citation read in part: "As survey platoon leader during operations against Port of Brest, (he) did display courage, coolness, skill and disregard for personal safety...(He) always reconnoitered ahead and made certain that all avenues for survey were free of mines and small arms fire prior to entrance of his survey parties...real leader of his men...(His) act of gallantry erased all signs of nervousness, anxiety and fear from his platoon...He had inspired his platoon to a pitch where fear practically is non-existent"

All of us admired Red and he did inspire us. But neither he nor anyone else could erase "all signs of nervousness, anxiety and fear."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journal Entry March 27, 28th And Battalion history

March 27 Crashed B-24 March 28 Put in mike base-taped-Jeep broke tape at road intersection. Put in flash OPs. Picked up Helmet, leather. Battalion History: On 28 March, headquarters of the Barnstorming 16th crossed the Rhine, followed the next day by the Letter Batteries. With advancing armor taking the fight out of the Germans, the 16th found itself scouring the woods around Henmethal --- for prisoners, souvenirs and eggs. Souvenirs and eggs were more plentiful than prisoners. From Ray Hight's book:  By the time the 285th crossed the Rhine toward the end of March, much of the area was in American hands and things were moving so quickly we hardly had time to set up. The German forces were pulling back, and there was very little opposition as we crossed the southern part of Germany almost up to the boundary of Czechoslovakia.
Post a Comment
Read more

October 20th, Friday-Movie, steak and fries

10/20/1944- Wrote Wes and Deane and Bud- Saw "Cassanova Brown" with Garry Cooper, Terresa Wright-in St. Vith. Fried Steak and French Fries in evening. Packed to leave on D.S. Cliff Hope from his book: Within the next week we drove to Luxembourg City and back twice. The scenery was beautiful, the terrain honeycombed with small, swift streams. On the second trip, we returned by way of Arlon, Belgium, stopping there for about an hour. Arlon was a clean, small city. The stores resembles those back home. I bought postcards, maps, steaks, three scarves, a buffet piece, and, most important of all, a small dish of ice cream. It was the first ice cream I'd had since Fort Bragg. Along the way we checked out the farm girls of the region. Some of them looked strong as oxen. I saw a girl pulling a four-wheel wagon. They had to be husky. Some of the men sized them up as "13 ax handles wide" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casanova_Brown Cass Brown is about to...
Post a Comment
Read more

Journal Entry March 4th- New jacket and boots

Lu in June wearing field Jacket 1945 issue Combat Boots 1945 issue Field Jacket March 4 Got Laundry. Got ready to move. Red cross girls serve chow. Surveyed in rain. Oh yes, got new field jacket & combat boots.
Post a Comment
Read more