Journal Entry Jan 10-Packages! Cliff Hope-Battalion History

Jan 10th Survey on N 4 Hwy west of Bastogne. Gliders in fields all over in various states of completeness. Moved to Siberet in afternoon. Window of house w're in are full of bullet holes or completely out. Moved to Sibret

Jan 10 Packages. Mom-Airmail stationary. Sept 14. Amy-Raisin cookies Oct 12
Leona-2 Hershey Bars, Cocoa, Tiddley Winks, TALK (talcum) powder Bouillon Cubes, comb, laces, handkerchief, spam, mik, (milk?) peaches, ink. 5 letters.

Stayed in all day. Shaved. 290th signal company boys took pictures of us in evening.

Cliff Hope: We surveyed for three kilometers on the Marche road out of Bastogne on the morning of 10 January. In the afternoon we moved to Sibret. Elting impressed Christine again. I left Wideumont with a heavy heart. I told all about it in my diary: "Elting starred with Christine again, and I muffed an opportunity for kissing her goodbye. I don't know how to say it exactly, but I really fell for Christine---beginning with that first night until the very end when Elting 'took over' and I was more or less put in the shade. It was an experience which I'll not forget for a long time. My meager knowledge of french and inability to jitterbug, which she loves, gave me an inferiority complex which I just couldn't seem to break. I have a lot to learn I know, and I seem to act more childish over things like this than anything else. "

Tiddlywinks is a game played on a flat felt mat with sets of small discs called "winks", a pot, which is the target, and a collection of squidgers, which are also discs. Wikipedia

I had to add this image of a 1958 Game that I'm pretty sure we had in our family.

Battalion History: The American drive to push the enemy out of the Bastogne pocket gained momentum and on 10 January it was reported "The enemy showed more signs of adopting a defensive attitude." Though the battalion was to run into tough sledding later, there was a general feeling that we were on the downhill side of the war, that there no longer was any doubt as to who was to come out on top.

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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

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