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Journal Entry February 13



Feb 13 Survey towards Prum. Germans observed rd. Threw 150's. We stopped when dough boy ahead was hit. Drove through Schnee Eifle forest fortifications. C 47's dropped supplies.

Cliff Hope: Survey on the following day on the road junction east of the Schnee Eifel, south on the main highway to Prum, was abandoned after three kilometers because the area proved to be under enemy observation. A number of shells landed on either side of the road. The 8th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Division was along the road with mortars. Someone in the outfit asked me when they were going to be relieved. He said the 22nd Infantry took two-thirds of Prum just the night before.
And then a full colonel stopped me to ask the way to Bleialf. I guessed he was going to pick up supplies that were being dropped by C-47s, escorted by P-47s, just as we returned.

In traveling the length of the Schnee Eifel, we saw a number of pillboxes, painted green. Most of them were virtually undamaged, but one, a massive block of reinforced concrete, had been turned up on its side.

I took a shower at the 4th Division shower unit in Bleialf in the afternoon, noting in my diary: "What a sensation after two months."


A pillbox is a type of blockhouse, or concrete dug-in guard post, normally equipped with loopholes through which to fire weapons. It is in effect a trench firing step hardened to protect against small-arms fire and grenades and raised to improve the field of fire. Wikipedia

Pill Box ---The origin of the term is disputed. It has been widely assumed to be a jocular reference to the perceived similarity of the fortifications to the cylindrical and hexagonal boxes in which medical pills were once sold; also, the first German concrete pillboxes discovered by the Allies in Belgium were so small and light that they were easily tilted or turned upside down by the nearby explosion of even medium (240mm) shells.[1] However, it seems more likely that it originally alluded to pillar boxes, with a comparison being drawn between the loophole on the pillbox and the letter-slot on the pillar box.

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