Skip to main content

Journal Entry February 9th and Cliff Hope


Feb 9 Stayed in made up G.I. bed roll. Bill gave me Diamond I tried to pull out T.D. (7 ^) stuck behind barn)

Marilu: I'm not sure what the diamond was...a gem? 

Cliff Hope: "Thompson is dead," my diary stated on 9 February. "He is reported to have died before reaching the hospital, being 75% covered with burns. St. Troy (the supply sergeant) came up today to get his personal effects and clothing. It was a helluva feeling to watch Troy sorting out his clothes. There is plenty I could say about how Thompson was becoming a regular obsession with all members of the party, but all this must now rest...Party stayed in all day ---read and writing letters and tried to keep warm. We are moving to Bleialf."

A paragraph in the after action report for 8 February gave more details: "The mission of Party #2 was marred by an unfortunate tragedy which resulted in the death of the Chief of Party, Staff Sergeant Gordon Thompson. Shortly after noon, Sgt. Thompson and his driver, Tec 5 Wagner went out on reconnaissance northeast of the town of Brandscheid, Germany. Despite the fact that the area was heavily mined and booby-trapped, Sgt. Thompson proceeded on his mission. around 1230, the jeep struck a mine on the road, injuring both occupants. Both men were rescued almost immediately by members of a regimental CP of the 90th Division, and treated by medical aid men prior to the arrival of an ambulance. Tec 5 Wagner had been thrown clear of the vehicle and suffered only minor injuries. However, S/Sgt. Thompson had been very seriously hurt and died before reaching a clearing station." In the official battalion history, Thompson was listed as killed in action and as recieving the Bronze Star award posthumously.

"There is certainly a perceptible difference in daily lives with Thompson gone," I wrote in my diary. "Everything seems so quiet & one keeps expecting to see him storming in at any moment."

In the months and years that followed I came to see the life and death of Sergeant Thompson in a different and broader perspective....There was no question that Thompson was bucking for any promotion possible...and we all suffered from the intensity of his ambition. all of us were pretty punchy at that time. You could say we had the 'rattle of the battle'and we certainly were 'fed-up with the setup'. ...In reflecting, I could see that Thompson had qualities of leadership beyond ambition. He was constantly looking after his men, helping them with personal problems. When we landed in France, he drove Giulio Anfuso up and down the beach looking for Anfuso's brother, who was in a port battalion. And, as previously related, he tried very hard to get immediate medical attention for me when I had a high fever in the Aldringen schoolhouse.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August 28th 1944 Journal Entry-Rain and Rations

Aug 28th RAIN RAIN and mud Lu from his memoirs: We settled into a routine of extending and improving our control surveys and existing on "K" and "C" rations and sleeping in soggy pup tents. There was lots of rain and mud and finding ways to improve living conditions was a constant challenge. As Cliff pointed out in his book, we had some talented buddies with inventive minds. Tom Fourshes, of Cadiz, Kentucky built a compact, wood fired cooking stove on which we could heat our rations, spread hot cheese on crackers, and boil eggs obtained from farmers. We found straw and dry grass to put under our bed rolls, but we never found a way to keep the water our of our fox holes. We didn't have too much incoming artillery, but I noted on August 26 'Priebe hits fox hole as I leave it going for mine as shells land in river' We also began a close relationship with our Field Artillery gun battalions. The 561st next to us were equipped with "155 Long T...
4 comments
Read more

September 29th Journal entry continued-Last day of travel to Ardennes

Sept. 29- Convoy 0830 Cloudy windy day-Saw Tiger tank-Montigny, Guise, La Cappelle, ?, Trelon (Belgium Border) Chimay, Petigny, Givet (Back in France) ( Briefly-mc ) Dinant, Chigny, ? and Bastogne.  Bivouac area about 3 km out in edge of beautiful spruce forest. Hope, Bliesmer & Peltz- got kissed in Petigny.  Marilu: I traced this route in google maps to confirm spellings of the sequential towns. I wasn't able to find all of them, but I could see that when they went through Givet they went through a little outcropping of the French border and out again. Fun to see him referring to the kiss Cliff Hope describes in more detail in his book, quoted in the other entry for this day. From  www.warhistoryonline.com The Tiger Tank was without a doubt the tank which was most feared by the Allied forces during the Second World War. The thing that made this tank so feared and respected was the 88 mm gun, which could destroy a Sherman tank at ranges up ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more