Journal Entry Jan 4- Letting off Steam

Jan 4 Traverse up Hwy N-15 to Bastogne-Town shot to pieces. Shells still landing at intervals-Civilian came by carrying mortar dud-German prisoners working in wreckage-

G. S. tried to tell me I forgot to write down an angle so I blew my top.

Hope brought the record player over to our place in Wiedmont station. Listened to records and danced with Cristine till 11:00 Darn cute gal & dances as well as any I've ever danced with.

Cliff Hope: My diary entries for the next several days contain a curious mixture of reports about Bastogne and its environs, the snow and bitter cold, and, of course, Christine. On the third day of the year, survey started out in the morning but dense fog turned us back before we had gone more than a block. "Spent the day doing nothing--what a heavenly feeling, " I told my diary. I also spent a lot of time with Christine and her aunt and uncle.

At midnight I stood guard for an hour out in the cold, a strong wind driving the falling snow. In a heavy snowfall the next day, we surveyed from previous stations into Bastogne, I carried an umbrella for Peltz, who was operating the transit. Bastogne was pretty well wrecked. About half the buildings were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. It was extra sad to see a town, which you once saw intact, in ruins.

The day's chores and the devastation of war were forgotten that night as Christine and I danced to the music of our section's record player. She was quite a good dancer but my feet were so frozen they seemed like two stumps. As I wrote in my diary, "I had a helluva time dancing."

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