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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August 28th 1944 Journal Entry-Rain and Rations

Aug 28th RAIN RAIN and mud Lu from his memoirs: We settled into a routine of extending and improving our control surveys and existing on "K" and "C" rations and sleeping in soggy pup tents. There was lots of rain and mud and finding ways to improve living conditions was a constant challenge. As Cliff pointed out in his book, we had some talented buddies with inventive minds. Tom Fourshes, of Cadiz, Kentucky built a compact, wood fired cooking stove on which we could heat our rations, spread hot cheese on crackers, and boil eggs obtained from farmers. We found straw and dry grass to put under our bed rolls, but we never found a way to keep the water our of our fox holes. We didn't have too much incoming artillery, but I noted on August 26 'Priebe hits fox hole as I leave it going for mine as shells land in river' We also began a close relationship with our Field Artillery gun battalions. The 561st next to us were equipped with "155 Long T

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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

January 12th Battalion History

Battalion History: We'll remember of the overall picture, the general German withdrawal toward Houffalize to escape an allied trap, the enemy counterattack which regained Noville and Foy, the American attack which retook Noville, the original objective of the corps in this area. Houffalize was taken by First Army troops and Corps' new objective became Limerle. The Germans began to withdraw toward the Siegried Line. Limerle and Echo were taken. The First Army retook St. Vith. VIII Corps troops pushed on through Trois Vierges, Luxembourg, went on to take Burg Rowland, and reached the Our River on a braod front. Bridgeheads over the Our were established and enlarged. Winterscheid and Sehonberg fell to corps troops. Poor weather made sound and flash ranging results almost negligible. And the buck privates who didn't want to go to war in the first place wondered if spring would ever come. The folks back home complained about meat shortages and said, "They say all the m

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

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