August 27th Journal Entry-Shelling of Plougastel-Refugees

Aug-27th
French girl wanted our carbines to kill Bosch in Plougastel.
Dead GI 8'{ in field-stunk-3 German prisoners sitting on hill.
Saw Plougastel shelled by our tanks, etc.
French Farmer Killed.
Refugees pouring out.

Cliff Hope from his book: The German enemy was known by various names, Jerries, Boche, (from the French), Krauts and Huns.

Lu from Ray Hight's book: I was always moved by the plight of the civilians and the images of them struggling in the midst of their Homeland at war. One incident has stayed with me from when we were surveying on the edge of a beautiful pasture. As shells started coming in, a French farmer was determined to drive his cows out of the field, even if he died in the process. Sadly, the farmer and several of his cows were killed.

Lu from his memoirs: On the 27th I noted that I saw Plougastel shelled by our tanks and a French farmer killed. That entry brings back a memory of a farmer trying to herd his cows out of a field with shells bursting nearby. The entry also notes refugees pouring out of the town. I think that the pain and grief of the civilians caught in these situations was much worse than the soldiers involved. Today as I write, that suffering is shown almost daily on television. In Somalia and Bosnia, they remember about WWII. We don't seem to learn!

Marilu: Unfortunately, this is the end of dad's memoirs that I have been able to find. These entries have been wonderful for explaining and expanding on the brief entries in the journal that jogged his memory. It may be that once he was interviewed by Ray Hight he felt he had fully covered his war experiences. If we had those tapes we would have more of the story, but from this point on I will have to use her edited retelling of his remembrances and Cliff Hope's book and other sources to expand on and explain things from his journal entries the best I can.

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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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