Friday, 29 December: Cliff Hope

Cliff Hope:
Friday, 29 December

We moved west to Petitvoir, a village west of Neufchateau. The III Corps had begun to consolidate its gains along the Belgium-Luxembourg border, and the VIII Corps was preparing an offensive to retake St. Hubert and the area to the northeast. Our battalion was switched from the III Corps and returned to VIII. Survey parties went out for triangulation west of the Bastogne highway in the morning but soon were called back. In the afternoon we went through Fauvillers to Neufchateau, doing Triangulation near Tourney and returning to Petitvoir for the night. I was rodman for "shooting Polaris" in the evening. I never did understand why we "shot Polaris" with the transit periodically. All I knew was it seemed to happen on clear and very cold nights. After an hour on guard duty, I joined five others to spend the night in the living room of a house occupied by a nice family with three children.

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