January 15th Cliff Hope

Interactive map 1/15/45

On 15 January I poured out my thoughts, filling several pages of my diary. Once again, I admitted out good fortune We had just learned that the main German spearhead had reached Champlon several hours after we left on 19 December. What a slaughter there would've been had we remained another night! But I was in a surly mood---Gindele, Abney and Bruno found a variety of reasons to go back to Wideumont. There wasn't room for me in the jeep. Bruno managed to get himself a farewell kiss from Christine. She and her uncle and aunt asked about me and wondered why I hadn't come. That helped a little. I pulled out of the dumps long enough to wash out a pair of socks and a handkerchief. That night Elting went to Wideumont again and came back bragging about how Christine was head over heels in love with him.

I decided to write about war..."The stupidity of it is increasingly brought home to me day after day. Heard two more reports of the beating the 17th airborne Division is taking, not from the Huns, but from battle itself. Kids of 18 and 19 look like they were 50...Oh God! if only the human race could rouse itself sufficiently to cast out this scourge forever....

Returning the immediate, I wrote, "It's strange what a galaxy of human emotions war and its close association of men brings. The men in survey section No. 2 represent to me a very vivid cross section of humanity. The things we argue about---the different values each of us holds as of the utmost importance. How a simple little matter like Christine's affections (?) can cause so much petty bickering. I have to watch myself. My temper on many things is becoming very short these days...(such as) The officer who deliberately picks out uncalled-for survey regardless of danger to the survey parties, and suggest men would be "toughened" by moving to the field from buildings in the middle of winter. "

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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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