Camp Boston, Rheims, France -Waiting to Ship Home

Chow time instructions and line up. Those may be some wash stands out in the open too, with puddles around them and an extra layer of gravel laid down to keep the mud in check.

Marilu: This looks like a big camp set up to handle large numbers of troops to house and feed until the time comes to load them onto their ships. The mood must have been relaxed and elated as the wheels were now in motion for a return to civilian life and loved ones at home.
According to a letter posted earlier in this blog, This was probably Camp Boston and Lu and many others were here for over a month waiting to move to an area to board a ship.

Cliff Hope in his book talks about his returning home experience:"20 November: Then began a dismal, four-day ride in a truck convoy to the Calas Staging Area near Marseilles. The stops were few and far between. We arrived at the Calas staging area, a desolate-looking place....We were in unlighted, winterized tents. The 13 days we spent waiting were the usual stuff-hurry up and wait, long lines and ridiculous chores. For instance, Service Battery was ordered to nail waterproof paper on the urinal troughs in the latrine."
When Boarding the ships-" Getting up at 5 am we loaded into huge trailer trucks to go to the port of Marseilles on 6 December. Some four hours later we started to board the John Jay, a liberty ship. On board, warm quarters and good food awaited us."

Tents for a temporary stay. A brief 'home sweet home"

Just passing time. That's Lu in the doorway. There must have been some amount of leisure since this was a holding camp.

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Here's Lu, sitting in the doorway reading something to pass the time.

Goofing off...

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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

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

January 12th Battalion History

Battalion History: We'll remember of the overall picture, the general German withdrawal toward Houffalize to escape an allied trap, the enemy counterattack which regained Noville and Foy, the American attack which retook Noville, the original objective of the corps in this area. Houffalize was taken by First Army troops and Corps' new objective became Limerle. The Germans began to withdraw toward the Siegried Line. Limerle and Echo were taken. The First Army retook St. Vith. VIII Corps troops pushed on through Trois Vierges, Luxembourg, went on to take Burg Rowland, and reached the Our River on a braod front. Bridgeheads over the Our were established and enlarged. Winterscheid and Sehonberg fell to corps troops. Poor weather made sound and flash ranging results almost negligible. And the buck privates who didn't want to go to war in the first place wondered if spring would ever come. The folks back home complained about meat shortages and said, "They say all the m

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

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