January 30th Journal entry and Cliff Hope-Back to St. Vith

Same view of St Vith after it was taken by Germans and re-taken by allied forces.

Jan 30 Control. St Vith towards Schoneburg (German Held)

St. Vith unrecognizable. Some streets not even there. No buildings left standing. Girls in house sewed on stripes and patches (8th Corps) for us. Lot of fun. They speak good English. Finy & Sidey

Lu, in Ray Hight's book: Toward the end of January, we went back through St. Vith , so different now from the last time we'd seen it on December 17. The town had been essentially leveled, with not much left standing. I remember trying to find some of our survey stakes along what used to be the main roads, without success. The feelings about the devastation of war were already a part of my being, so St. Vith was just one more shock. Here was a town that had been a fairly serene part of our lives in October, November, and early December. Now there was nothing left.

Cliff Hope
When I wrote home at the end of January, I reviewed everyday events---Bruno and I nearly always slept warmly, my feet were all right: "As long as the shoes can be removed at night, there's no danger of trench foot. "The cold seemed to make us feel more tired. I explained we were on the move most of the time, "but if we can keep pushing the Jerries back, it's certainly worth it...Everyone here is more interested in the Russian drive than anything else now. I hope by the time this reaches you they'll be at the gates of Berlin but of course everyone has been fooled on that score before and I refuse to make any more predictions." As I told my family, I knew certain sections of Belgium and Luxembourg better than I ever knew Kansas.

Keeping busy and on the move didn't ease my conscience on a matter that was always creeping up on me. As the month ended, we surveyed toward Schonberg, turning off at Setz and the area where we were on December 16th. It was cold, rainy and noisy---screaming meemies most of the day. I took pictures of seven German Prisoners brought in by the 87th Division Infantry. We didn't get in until dark. My toes ached from the cold and my head was weary with a day of regretting that I wasn't in the infantry.

Comments

Oct 25th, Wednesday-Journal Entry-Bombs and Guns

Oct 25-Lellig to Matternach- Tied in with Party 1 on R.R.- Lt Jones & G. S. scared out of house by civilian in sports roadster0 In at noon- Transferring notes to correct notebook all afternoon- O1:20 Big Buzz Bomb barely 200 ft. overhead-going south Thundering 400 M.P.H. Machine guns fire but miss. Buzz Bombs going into 1st Army positions Lu from Rae Hight's book : For quite a while, we surveyed the areas back and forth between and through Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg. Though the distances were not great, the continued movement required a certain amount of reorganizing each time. By the end of October we were in the Mompach-Berbourg area of eastern Luxemboug, near the front. It was not long before German shells landed not too far away. Our main reminders that the army was just a few kilometers away were the nightly visits by "Bed Check Charlie," buzz bombs that whizzed overhead each night about midnight. The V-1 flying bomb...

Welcome

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 ...

November 4th 1945 Embarkation! Headed Home on the USS Westerly Victory ship

Watch for Lu's binoculars in many of his photos. They might be his best used acquisition from the war. This mimeographed newsletter is an interesting view into the voyage home.

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

Search This Blog