October 12th, Thursday-Sleeping in the Kitchen

Oct 12 Kitchen brought over chow-
Cleaned up filth-
Now 8 of us occupy two top floor rooms-
Bruno, Ludwig, Gunther and I (Heydril) sleep in kitchen-
good stove
Filled mattress

Cliff Hope from his book: After the kitchen brought us breakfast, we went on detail back to the Gotterdammerung to get our stove, the command post tent, and other items left behind. We lunched near the schoolhouse and spent the afternoon getting straw to sleep on. Survey Party Two took the third floor of the school; Okie, Mac' Winsor and I were in what had been a kitchen: and Grathwol, Peltz and Thompson were in an adjoining room. We hung our clothes on the stove at night. Eight men shaved at one table with water heated on the stove. We drank cocoa and ate sardines and fired potatoes. The beds and bed rolls took up most of the floor space. "From the Gotterdammerung to a New York East Side tenement in one day," Grathwol observed.

I had a field day sorting through the library books and pamphlets in the volksschule (Primary school). One book, published in 1941, was entitled Das Amerikanische Ratsel (The American Enigma). The enigma was none other than Preident Roosevelt. A large collection of photographs at the end of the book portrayed everyone with a Jewish name in FDR's administration. I stashed a good bit of the schoolroom literature in the bottom of my duffel bag.

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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.

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.

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...

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

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