Cliff Hope
Wednesday, December 27th
The official word on this date had the Allied air forces continuing to inglic heavy losses on the enemy forces. The Germans were making very little headway in pressing toward Liege. The 4thArmored Division finally broke into Bastogne to relieve the isolated 101st Airborne Division. Watching supplies dropped to Bastogne and taking a sponge bath were the highlights of the day for me. One hundred and thirty C47s, in three formations, dropped supplies over a period of a half-hour. It was something to see.
Our survey parties went out late in the morning after taking a tour of the slate works building. In the basement we discovered two Mercedes Benzes and a Packard with red leather seats. We continued to survey on the road to Bastogne then moved off to the west beyond Warnach for triangulation. triangulation. "I don't mind saying," I confided to the diary, "that I was a little uneasy on the hilltops as P47s were overhead again and again." But the bath, my first in two weeks, at the end of the day made me feel like a new man. Bruno had his own high for the day. He had a reputation for always running into generals. This time, as he told it, he was holding a red and white survey rod at the edge of the Arlon-Bastogne highway when who should wheel up but George Patton himself. "What are you doing, soldier?" The general asked. "Survey, Sir!" Bruno answered crisply
The General drove on, perhaps muttering to himself, "What now!" in the manner of a later-day general in the comic strip "Beetle Bailey."
Interactive map 2/27/44
Wednesday, December 27th
The official word on this date had the Allied air forces continuing to inglic heavy losses on the enemy forces. The Germans were making very little headway in pressing toward Liege. The 4thArmored Division finally broke into Bastogne to relieve the isolated 101st Airborne Division. Watching supplies dropped to Bastogne and taking a sponge bath were the highlights of the day for me. One hundred and thirty C47s, in three formations, dropped supplies over a period of a half-hour. It was something to see.
Our survey parties went out late in the morning after taking a tour of the slate works building. In the basement we discovered two Mercedes Benzes and a Packard with red leather seats. We continued to survey on the road to Bastogne then moved off to the west beyond Warnach for triangulation. triangulation. "I don't mind saying," I confided to the diary, "that I was a little uneasy on the hilltops as P47s were overhead again and again." But the bath, my first in two weeks, at the end of the day made me feel like a new man. Bruno had his own high for the day. He had a reputation for always running into generals. This time, as he told it, he was holding a red and white survey rod at the edge of the Arlon-Bastogne highway when who should wheel up but George Patton himself. "What are you doing, soldier?" The general asked. "Survey, Sir!" Bruno answered crisply
The General drove on, perhaps muttering to himself, "What now!" in the manner of a later-day general in the comic strip "Beetle Bailey."
Interactive map 2/27/44
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| George Patton |
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| The General giving news to Beetle Bailey and others. |
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