January 29th Journal Entry and Cliff Hope

Jan 29 Control to St. Vith. Cats & Dynamite clearing debris of RR underpass.

Oudler not too badly hit. Aldrigen & Maldringen bad. Stand in old school house & look at sky.

Marilu: If you recall, the old school house was where they stayed for sometime, their spot being a kitchen in an upper floor.

Cliff Hope
The next day brought us back through St. Vith. We had last seen it on 17 December while it was intact and still the headquarters for the 106th division. "Saw St. Vith from the top of an embankment--the most destroyed sight I've ever seen," I wrote in my diary. The railroad bridge had been blown up, the track sagging but still hanging together. Engineers were blowing up debris; a bulldozer was hung up on the rubble. It was cold as blue blazes and we stayed out most of the day, although we put in only one station. In doing so we found several of our old stations beneath the snow. We ate partially warmed C-rations. Bliesmer and I were called to Survey Information Center around 9:30 that night to computer four stations.

The mail brought tobacco, two books, film and my sister's Baby Brownie camera. Although I didn't appreciate it much at the time, the camera was really a boon. I was able to take eight rolls of photos by May. Developed after V-E Day, they provided a photographic record of our experiences from late January on, and I was able to give prints to the GIs in our outfit and to other friends.

A symphony of screaming meemies accompanied our surveying from St. Vith two or three miles along the Schonberg road. We went almost to the roadblock and the place where we were surveying on that memorable 16 December several weeks back. "I think I get colder every day when we go out," I noted in my diary. We drove through St. Vith; the center of town was unrecognizable. Throughout the month, the daily log of the January after action report commented on the slow but steady advance of the VIII Corps. It also mentioned various shellings by artillery and mortars and named those who were wounded as a result. Probably the most spectacular, but fortunate, such event occurred on 30 January, when a dud shell landed about six feet from Bob Mason. He was not injured.

Comments

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

Search This Blog