A Side Bar. I note in my photo album that on Dec. 15 a USO troupe headed by comedian Frank McHugh put on a performance for the 2nd Armored Div. troops. The next day things would change rapidly.
Dec. 16 – Morning Staff Meeting. The Corps G2 opened the meeting and quickly reported that a major German attack had begun during the night. Gen McLain probed the G3 and G2 officers as to the status of our three divisions and locations. Our line was quite thin, covering many miles of front…. The G2 officer said that he had just gotten a report that a German plane with American markings had just been shot down. The German soldiers in it were wearing American uniforms…. I remember, I think it was the G3 officer, telling us that the day’s password would be changed every two hours. Everyone had better know who won the World Series last year, etc.
As the meeting was ending, I remember Gen. McLain saying something to the effect that he would never be taken alive. That was something to have your general make such a startling pronouncement. It was to be a fight to the death. That really hit me as to how serious the situation was. As the meeting closed, Gen. McLain said he wanted to see me. He ordered me to get a photographer and go immediately to the downed plane and get pictures that might be needed at some future time.
Skipping breakfast, I took a still and a movie man. In less than half an hour we were at the downed plane with American markings. Dead Germans lay in and around the plane. I went up to one dressed in American uniform. His jacket was partly unbuttoned. I saw something in his shirt pocket, a picture of a girl. On the back was her name and Heerlen, Holland. The Germans expected to be in Heerlen that day. The Germans had done a masterful job in disguising their troops.We had trouble with our cameras being so cold the oil in them stiffened and slowed the shutter speed on both movie and still cameras. Many of our troops were not equipped for 10 below zero.
Another picture in the album is of my weapons carrier (like a Ford pickuptruck only built sturdier) that I had named Sweet Sue. What a coincidence. Four years later I married Mabeth Sue Stewart, whom I lovingly call Sweet Sue. There’s more of a story behind that from my 1937 trip to Holland to attend Fifth International Boy Scout Jamboree. When we were enroute and stayed a couple of days in Brussels, Belgium, one Sunday afternoon in our hotel where the orchestra was playing dinner music, an American tourist girl requested that the orchestra play Sweet Sue. It broke up the dining room of staid Belgium diners. Also it made an impact on me, a 17-year-old Boy Scout. Hence Sweet Sue has had a special place in my memory.
January 2010. A World War II buff, in going thru my photo album, saw a Jan. 31, 1945 picture of me in Sweet Sue going by the destroyed town of Houffalize, Belgium with the battered town sign in the background. He called that picture a classic. Earlier I had actually stayed one night in the little hotel in Houffalize before Dec. 16 but now wanted to see how badly the town had been hit during the battle.