In my “normal” life, I am a filmmaker and many of you know me through the World War II documentaries that I have produced:
MARCHING ONCE MORE: Veterans return to the battlefield 60 years after the Battle of the Bulge THANK YOU, EDDIE HART: A Dutch woman, grateful for her freedom, makes a lifelong promise to care for the grave of a soldier she never knew NORTH CAROLINA’S WORLD WAR II EXPERIENCE: Personal accounts of North Carolinians from both the battlefield and the home front
For me, sharing such stories has been a true honor as well as an opportunity to learn from those who have lived through such incredible times. During one of those productions, I met Paul Willis – Company G, 329th Regiment, 83rd Infantry Division – who fought from Normandy, through the Hurtgen and Ardennes Forests, to the Elbe River in Germany, crossing just before the war’s end.
Not long after, Paul returned to his North Carolina home where he worked at a paper and fiber company and with his wife, Evelyn, raised their two sons. He also began writing poetry – first, little jingles for colleagues – and then, more thoughtful, inspiring poems reflecting his experiences and love of history. For the past sixty years, Paul has continued to write about the war, nature, the earth, and hope for the future. A year ago, he asked me if I would help him publish a book of his work. While I had never done anything like that before, how could I say no?
And so, REFLECTIONS OF A WORLD WAR II VETERAN: POEMS ABOUT WAR ANDLIFE was born and I must admit, I’m a proud parent! REFLECTIONS features sixteen poems, including two about the Battle of the Bulge. Here is one of them:
INFANTRY OF THE SNOWS
The bleak Ardennen wood shrouded
In mist and snow. Snow, a winding
Sheet for many. Yet life was there,
Merging with the shadows. In this
Solitude men moved among the trees.
The infantry of the snows. There
Amid the sounds of war borne on the
Winter wind, in the dim morning
Light they crossed the no mans land
Into the baptism of fire. When at last
The battle ended, for those who lived
The forest released its hold upon them.
For the sun in its course returned and
In pity erased the fearful record. But
To the living there remained always the
Memory of the white wasteland, and the
Infantry of the snows.
From REFLECTIONS OF A WORLD WAR II VETERAN by Paul Willis. Reproduced with permission.
REFLECTIONS is one more way to remember the price of freedom and those who have so selflessly served. To you, I say, “Thank you!” and may your legacy live on through works such as this.
NOTE: REFLECTIONS OF A WORLD WAR II VETERAN, priced at $9.95, is available at Brenda’s website: wetbirdproductions.com. The documentary, THANK YOU, EDDIE HART, can also be purchased there.
Note: We, Jan Ross and Brad Peters, have created a comprehensive web site over the past 10 years to recognize Jan’s father’s unit that fought in the Battle of the Bulge. The web site is www.300thcombatengineersinwwii.com . The following story was published in our winter 2016 300th Quarterly newsletter and was the result of a recent inquiry to the web site.
Again we have been contacted through the web site asking for information about a member of the 300th. In January, we received a brief e-mail inquiry as follows. “My name is Roy Sweet. Roy Leslie Sweet was killed on Dec. 23, 1944. I am trying to contact anyone who might know him or what happened on the day he was killed. Any help would be great. Roy.” The name was familiar to us and our records on the web site confirmed this information about Roy Sweet. Since he was in Company B, we contacted Don Richter who was clerk for B Company and a significant contributor to the web site. Don came through as he always does and his detailed memory of 70+ years ago gave us the information requested and more.
What follows is Don’s response.
This is regarding Roy L. Sweet, Tec 4, killed in action Dec. 23, 1944 and buried in Henri-Chappelle Cemetery in Belgium. Roy Sweet was not a close friend of mine but I recall that he was a very quiet man who stayed pretty much to himself always working with the Company B radio equipment. He was Company B mail clerk in addition to being the company radio operator, the primary communication for the company. He always rode in the back seat of Company B Commander, Capt. Falvey’s jeep [Capt. Gene P. Falvey] where all of the company radio equipment was installed.
I do know that when Companies A & B were out in front of the main US Army & British Army defense line along the bank of the Meuse River, we encountered forward elements of the Germany Army advancing through the Ardennes Forest. We had roadblocks with bridges set for destruction upon the approach of the enemy. On December 23, 1944 Capt. Falvey, with his jeep driven by McGowan [Tech 5 Willie D. McGowan] and radio operator Sweet, were out checking on our various defense installations when they were approached by what appeared to be a US Army Sherman tank.
When it began firing on them, they quickly realized that it must be a tank that was captured by the Germans and was now the enemy. The jeep came to a sudden halt and McGowan and Capt. Falvey bailed out and took cover though both were wounded. Roy Sweet was mortally wounded and remained in back seat of the jeep. McGowan though wounded returned to the jeep, found Sweet dead and recovered the map case in which the defenses of Companies A & B were recorded. Capt. Falvey, though wounded, shot and killed a German soldier with his pistol. The two survivors were able to return to B Company where medics treated their wounds. McGowan was hospitalized but later returned to duty.
I know these to be true facts as some weeks later, after I became B Company clerk, I took and typed depositions from both McGowan and Falvey. Both accounts of what happened to them and Sweet on Dec 23, 1844 were almost exactly the same. McGowan received a Bronze Star for returning to the jeep and recovering the map case while under enemy fire and also being wounded he received the Purple Heart. I am sure that Falvey also received the Purple Heart.
After Roy Sweet was killed, B Company clerk Kenneth Funk became B company mail Clerk, I became B Company clerk because I was the only one who could type having learned in West High School and was given MOS Clerk Typist at Camp White. Jerry Barton was transferred from H&S Company to B Company to become radio operator. It took two men to replace Roy Sweet.
I am glad to be able to help with the inquiry about Roy Sweet. I, along with all who knew Roy, mourned his death. Cpl. Don Richter, Company B, 300th ECB”
Footnote: Warren Chancellor (300th ECB) Remembers Roy Sweet
In December of 2004, Suzy and I [Warren Chancellor and his wife], along with about 150 other veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, went on a tour of Belgium and Luxembourg to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. The tour was sponsored by the governments of Belgium and Luxembourg. One of the stops on the tour was Ettelbruck, Luxembourg to visit an American WWII Museum. I was wearing a military style cap with 300th Engr., Combat Bn. embroidered on it. While walking around the museum, the curator noticed my cap and asked me if I was a member of the 300th. I replied I was. He told me that the museum had an article on display that had belonged to a member of the 300th and his name was Sweet.
My reply was, “Roy L. Sweet, a radio operator and he was killed by machine gun fire from a tank somewhere near the Belgium/Luxembourg border.” He took me to a glass-covered display of smaller articles of American equipment and there was a canteen cover imprinted Roy L. Sweet, 300th Engrs. I wanted to take a picture of it but I had left my camera on the motor coach and it was parked away from the museum. What a surprise! Here I was in Luxembourg and the curator happened to notice that I was a member of the 300th and he remembered that one particular item being there. Small world!”
In March, the younger Roy Sweet wrote: Thank you so much for the newsletter. It is wonderful to have a clear understanding of that day. I will share this with my entire family. Please keep me on the list. I would like to attend any events possible. On behalf of my uncle, my father, his father and mother. Thank you for keeping Roy alive through your organization.
World War II survivor: from a warm dorm to the Battle of the Bulge
By Tony Doris, Reprinted with permission from The Palm Beach Post
George Fisher landed in Normandy 90 days after D-Day, with the 26th Infantry Division of General Patton’s 3rd Army. His unit climbed past empty Nazi pillboxes and burned-out vehicles. They camped in France for a month of training before being ordered to the front lines in the frozen, forested hills of the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg. The Battle of the Bulge began Dec. 16, 1944 and wore on until Jan. 25, 1945. A turning point in World War II, the Americans held back the German advance but at a cost of 80,000 casualties, 19,000 dead.
Fisher, now 91 and retired from the real estate business, lives in Palm Beach and serves as president of the Florida Southeast Chapter of Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge. The group, down from 400 members to 165, is gathering in West Palm Beach this weekend to commemorate the 71st anniversary of the battle that’s with them every day.
You arrived just after D-Day?
We got there by September and by the middle of November we were on the front lines and scared stiff. It was very scary for us because basic training doesn’t tell you anything about being on the front lines. I came from college. They had something called the Army Specialized Training Program. That was supposed to teach us how to rebuild Europe after the war. It was a three-year program. Unfortunately it ended after about nine months. Going from a dorm in a college to a mudfield in Tennessee for basic training was like going from heaven to hell.
December in northern Europe?
There were 200,000 Germans massed behind the lines and they attacked us at 5:30 a.m. The battle started so quickly we never got overcoats, mufflers, gloves, hats. A lot of the guys got frozen feet. It was a terrible situation.
The reason I’m in Florida: I don’t want to see snow in my life anymore. It snowed for 10 or 12 consecutive days. It was so cold you couldn’t dig a foxhole. We couldn’t light a fire because the smoke would give us away. So there was no way to warm up. We urinated on the rifles in a circle to keep the bolts from freezing. Otherwise the rifles would not work.
How did it end for you?
The entire thing was just one big nightmare. Luckily I was wounded. Shrapnel went through my legs in January — Jan. 3 to be exact. I spent almost a year in a hospital and then I was discharged.
Survivor’s guilt?
Most of the guys in my unit were either killed or wounded…. We were 19 and 20 years old…. Very few survived. The ones that did, I’ve been in touch with.
Does it trouble you that, as you say, most young people these days think the Battle of the Bulge is a diet?
I’ve visited many, many schools. I speak to 10th graders, 11th graders. It’s very important to get the younger generation to know what this is about. Ten years from now, you will never ever see a World War II veteran.
You lived to tell the tale.
I met my wife in college in June of 1947 and we graduated together. We’re celebrating our 68th anniversary. People ask how we stayed together so long. It’s simple. We go out to dinner twice a week. I go Monday and Wednesday and she goes Tuesday and Thursday and it works out very well.
Through a newly acquired friend in Luxembourg, I learned of a fascinating story of his 79 year old mother’s contact with some Third Army troops during the time of the Battle of the Bulge. Marguerite Groff was only 8 years old at the time.
As such, we are trying to locate four Third Army veterans who befriended the Groff family in Luxembourg in either December of 1944-January of 1945 in the small town of Strassen. I am attaching Marguerite “Maggie” Groff’s story, “A letter from Luxembourg .” I hope it will receive wide readership and that someone might recognize one or more of these soldiers and help us learn of the circumstances that found them in Strassen at this pivotal time in history.
I left for Europe from Boston two days after my 19th birthday on February 25, 1944. We set sail off the coast of New England and my young mind raced with manifestations of the old world waiting for me across the pond. Like the very ship I sailed on, I seemed calm and steady on the surface but had propellers of nervous excitement violently churning below. I had never lived outside my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, and the thought of leaving the only place I had ever known was already intimidating enough without adding to it the thought of war.
After seven days at sea, we landed safety in the British Isles (at the Firth of Clyde in Scotland) and from there we took a train to Solihull, England. Then off to Northwich, England where I did my initial training. My training involved learning how to maneuver a ’45 Harley because I was a ‘lightweight’. I remember the roars of our military-issue Harley motorcycles competing with the bed check Charlies (German bombers) that flew over the English terrain during the late afternoons. Over the next year and a half, I took in enough sights and sounds to last a lifetime- including landing on the Normandy beaches (Operation Cobra, 26Jul1944), to the Cotentin Peninsula, to Brittany (Brest Peninsula), through Paris and Northern France to Neufchatel (near Bastogne) and then the Battle of the Bulge. I was attached to the First Army in the Cotentin Peninsula and the Third Army while in the Battle of the Bulge—and both Armies saw plenty of action.
Even with all my military accolades (including the Bronze Star), the fondest memories I have from my time at war stem from the two quiet months I spent living with a family in the small Belgian town of Gouvy during the fall of 1944. As part of a unit assigned to guard the divisional food ration depot of Gouvy, I handled police duties as well as kept traffic flowing through the town. I stayed in the home of a local family called the Lallemands. I will never forget the kindness shown to me by Joseph and Ida Lallemand and their daughter Gabriella.
They put me up on the third floor of their flat in the middle of the town and I eased into their home like a long-lost American family member. They cooked me meals and embraced like as one of their own. Occasionally I would escort Gabriella to her various social functions and would fraternize with her friends and my fellow US soldiers in the houses of the local townspeople. We were embraced more as acquaintances rather than soldiers … Foreign law enforcers tor a community that had never really needed policing in the first place. The father, Joseph, ran a sort of bistro outside of the building and was popular among the townspeople. He took a liking to me and was happy when I would take Gabriella out for the night. I believe he secretly wanted me to marry her, but my role was reserved to that of a guardian… A big brother to the young 14 year old girl growing up war-exposed and restless, in what should have been the sleepiest of small towns.
I remember eating wild boar from the neighboring Ardennes Mountains, expertly prepared by local chef, and drinking Belgian beer with Gabby’s friends and my fellow soldiers as we sang songs into the autumn night. The best times were the accidental moments when they forgot we were strangers and we forgot we were, too.
Like me, the Lallemand family was Catholic and attended mass on a regular basis. I would go to church with Gabby and felt comforted by the fact that the mass was the same in Belgium as it was in the United States. We may not have shared a language, but we knew how to follow the Latin proceedings of a Catholic service. If nothing else, this bit of familiarity would set my 19-yea-old mind at ease, if only for an hour of the day.
On the chilly nights during that autumn of 1944, the cold air would creep into my room on the third floor of the home, Gabriella or Maria would be bring me a hot brick from the fireplace wrapped in a towel to put in my bed. These little comforts made me feel at home and homesick, all at the same time. I truly was lucky to find a peaceful refuge during these violent times in Europe.
After one of those chilly nights in Gouvy, I awoke to new orders that we had to leave. My time in Gouvy had come to an end and as we were on the German-Belgian border, we had to evacuate in such a manner that the Germans could not get access to any of the rations that had been stationed with us. We were ordered to destroy all the rations in Gouvy. It was indeed devastating, but necessary in such a violent time. After leaving Gouvy, I was sent to Bastogne, Belgium. This was the location of the 8th Corp Headquarters before, during and after the Battle of the Bulge. I was sent to various roads around the Bulge area and patrolled for enemy soldiers dressed as GI’s. They would speak English and drive captured Gl vehicles. I would also direct traffic for military vehicles making their way through the town. I received my Bronze Star Medal Citation for withstanding enemy artillery fire and blizzard weather to insure the safe and speedy movement of essential traffic through the besieged town of Bastogne.
After Bastogne we crossed the Rhine river and liberated the Ohrdruf concentration camp. We pressed across Germany, continuing to guard large concentrations of POWS. I was in the town of Zeulenroda, Germany when the war ended. I made one trip back to Gouvy before leaving to go home. I had left a duffle bag of items in my old room on the day we had evacuated. I hoped to retrieve it and catch up with the Lallemand family. When I arrived at my former home, I was informed by Mr. Lallemand that Gabriella was off to school and that my belongings had been burned, along with other items, so as not to be seen as a threat to the Germans who had taken over. I thanked Mr. and Mrs. Lallemand for all the kindness they had shown me, and hopped a train to Marseille, France. Marseille would be the last city I would see in Europe.
NOTE: George Merz continued to correspond with the Lallemands for many years after the war. He still keeps in touch with Gabriella’s son (who lives in the Briton Peninsula). Currently, George lives in Louisville, Kentucky and has a family of seven children and 12 grandchildren—one of whom is named Gabriella.
Exactly 70 years later (December 2014), while participating at the commemoration of the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and Luxembourg, George returned to Gouvy for the first time since he left Europe after the War.
He and his grandson Steve visited the exhibition of the local tourist information center, trying to discover any souvenirs of his time in Gouvy. He was very surprised to find a photo of him and three of his fellow soldiers, standing at the remainders of a V1 rocket. He shared his personal story about the Lallemand family with the staff of the tourist information center. They were very grateful to George and his family for visiting and sharing his story.
I am a World War II Army veteran who served in Europe from the Cherbourg peninsula beach landing near Saint-Lo France, to the Battle of the Bulge.
So to get to my story: our artillery training in Fort Bliss, Texas was completed in 1943. Now that our training was completed, we were transported to Camp Myles Standish in Massachusetts by troop train. The troop train ride was quite a long and exhausting ride from El Paso, Texas. I will never forget we were nearing the end of our transport from Texas. It was very late. I was seated at a window seat and in the distance I could see a bright, light on the horizon. Soon we came to a platform dock at the train station in Alliance that was very brightly lit. When the train stopped and we left the train, we were greeted with coffee, donuts and sandwiches by a group of women who told us that they were Gold Star Mothers, wives and others. There was plenty of food and we ate until we all had our fill. After we were finished eating, they told us to take anything that was leftover with us. While we were leaving, they were telling us, “God’s blessings”, and “We have lots of love and pride for you soldiers”. This send off was something that I have never forgotten over all of these years. It meant so much to me and all of the troops on the train.
I am now ninety-one years old, and I can remember and still see that shining light shining ever so bright for us on the horizon. About fifteen years ago, I wrote to the Alliance mayor and this wife of this ever-meaningful event on that evening in 1943. They were very happy to hear the story and they even called to talk with me one Sunday. During our conversation, they mentioned that the platform in Alliance had just been replaced.
So in closing “THANK YOU ALL” and God bless all for the wonderful welcome that the community of Alliance gave to the troops who were heading overseas to fight for our country.
We are sorry to report that the 526th Armored Infantry Battalion Association has disbanded, as announced in the November 2015 [final] issue of The Pekan Newsletter. We thank Glenn Damron, President, and Sherrie Morrison, Editor-Secretary/Treasurer, for the great job they have done in keeping the legacy of the 526th alive all these years. We thought it fitting that we reprint these articles from The Pekan Newsletter.
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VALIANT WARRIORS “VALIDI MILITES” by Tom Hanchett, M.A., 526th Historian Reprinted with permission from “The Pekan Newsletter”
The 526th Armored Infantry Battalion played a unique role in the United States Army’s European Theater of Operations during World War II. First, this battalion was the only separate armored infantry battalion (AIB), as they were usually attached to armored divisions. Second, the 526th was the only AIB to train with the top secret canal defense lights, or “Gizmos”, in the Arizona desert and Rosebush, Wales.
In late October 1944, while in Belgium, the 526th was attached to an intelligence organization called T Force, authorized by General Eisenhower soon after D-Day. T Force was designed to rush into captured towns and seize intelligence information and German personnel.
Company C of the 526th was detached and assigned to provide security to Eagle Tac, the advanced headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force, including Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, Patton and Simpson. At the end of the war, they provided security to visiting Russian marshals.
On the night of December 17th, 1944, the 526th convoy headed to blunt the German attack, more commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge. A task force comprised of Company A and a platoon from another battalion in T Force, under the command of Major Paul J. Solis, battalion executive officer, was sent to Stavelot. The remaining battalion, under Lt. Colonel Carlisle B. Irwin was ordered to defend Malmedy. As Company B entered Malmedy, some soldiers heard the church bells playing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to warn the Germans the Americans were coming.
At Stavelot, though outnumbered in an unfamiliar area, Major Solis and Captain Charles Mitchell, Company A commander, set up a strong defense which delayed Colonel Jochen Peiper’s German SS Panzer regiment. Part of a large fuel depot along their retreat route was ordered burned so it would not fall into German hands. Their efforts bought time for American reinforcements to advance, and time for removal of fuel stores.
Throughout December, the 526th fought off the German forces that were trying to take over Stavelot and Malmedy. German Colonel Otto Skorzeny, whose American-uniformed commandos spread confusion behind American lines, led one of these attacks.
Just after New Year 1945, as the Allied command was beginning a large counterattack, the 526th was ordered to attack a German position near Malmedy. In a battle that has gone unrecorded in Battle of the Bulge history books, Company B was ordered to attack a much larger German unit without any support. Company B suffered enormous casualties.
T Force operations commenced again in March 1944 through May 1945, which included seizing the IG Farben plant in Germany. The 526th also guarded top Nazi leaders such as Field Marshals von Rundstedt, Kesselring and Colonel Skorzeny.
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A LOVE STORY BEGINS IN LUXEMBOURG 1944 by Triny Morrison Excerpted with permission from “The Pekan Newsletter”
In late October 1944 some American soldiers came in to our café to drink and bowl in our bowling alley. I stayed in the kitchen, sometimes peeking into the café. I had turned sixteen years old the month before and was quite bashful. This young soldier, blond hair and blue eyes, would sit so he could look into the kitchen when the door opened and closed. Several times I caught him staring at me, which made me turn red as a beet!
The word got around that the Neuser Café was run by a nice family. A few days later, I was sitting at a table working on my homework with my mother and sister Aline, when that same soldier came in and sat at a table across from us. I wanted to move into the kitchen but my mother told me to sit still, act my age, and be polite. When I looked up at him, he would smile and wink at me. He kept drinking beer, which made him so brave. After a while he leaned over my table and started singing “Night and Day” (a popular American song) to me. While I was turning various shades of red, he asked my mother for my name. Then he looked at me and said, “My name is Frank.” My mother had an English-German dictionary from World War I lying on the table. So, there followed a lot of leafing through the dictionary to communicate.
We were told about a big American holiday called Thanksgiving, so my mother cooked a huge meal for Frank and his friends. That evening Frank asked my mother if he could take me on a date. She agreed only if we were always chaperoned by my older sister! We went to see the movie, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” starring Charles Laughton and Maureen O’Hara. While we were walking home through our neighborhood Frank spotted a “photo shop” where, a few days later, we had our pictures taken.
Frank would come over often and we would walk around the city, chaperoned of course. I started learning and understanding a few English phrases such as “Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, How are you?, Fine.” Then one day everything changed. The German Army attacked the northern part of our country on December 16, 1944. The Germans were headed north to Antwerp to destroy the American supply ships in that harbor. The Battle of the Bulge had begun. We saw large convoys of American trucks driving through our city on the path to the Ardennes.
General Patton drove the Third Army from France through Luxembourg City up the Skyline Highway to relieve the city of Bastogne. He drove his convoy of trucks and tanks through the streets two blocks from our home. The buildings shook from the tanks rumbling through the streets. We were hearing German Nazi propaganda on our radio, telling us they were destroying the American army all the way into Belgium. German artillery started shooting into our city every evening, attempting to hit the U.S. Headquarters for General Omar Bradley. We were told to stay on the main floors of our buildings because the artillery shots were hitting on the second floors and upwards. It took about two weeks for the Americans to figure out the artillery location – There was an abandoned railway tunnel outside the city about a kilometer away. The German artillery gun was on a railroad flat car. They would roll it out of the tunnel every night after dark and move it back into the tunnel after the artillery barrage.
Then came the day when the Battle of the Bulge was over and the Germans were on the run. Frank told us they were leaving Luxembourg (his Company C had been guarding General Bradley) and rejoining the rest of their battalion in Belgium. He asked for my address and we kissed goodbye All I knew was that he was from California. He asked my mother how old I had to be before he wrote letters. She misunderstood him to ask how old I had to be for marriage! She told him 18 years or older.
The war was over, I had not heard from Frank, and I needed to learn a trade. I went to work in a small workshop, an atelier, to learn how to embroidery on a treadle sewing machine. I was paid for piecework, embroidering handkerchiefs, pillowcases, tablecloths, etc. I came home one day at noon for our supper break, and found the family acting strangely quiet and pointing at a letter. It was a letter from America! It was a letter from Frankie! He did not forget me! It was addressed to “Miss Triny Neuser, c/o Neuser Café, Luxembourg City”, postmarked November 24, 1947.
“Dear Triny, It has been almost three years since I have seen you. I think of you often and miss the swell times we had together. Now that the war is over and things are back to normal I decided to write and see how things are over there. I guess you are having cold weather now. I remember how cold I got on guard duty. Have you guessed who this is yet? Well, dig out your pictures and look me up. We had one taken together. Remember how we used to do your homework in the café? Triny, do you still love me? Guess you want to know what happened to me. From Luxembourg I went to Belgium and then to Germany. I stayed in Germany until December 9, 1945 until I left for the United States. I arrived home on January 3, 1946. I worked on a farm for a while, then went into the bee business, selling honey. Have you ever thought about coming to the U.S. to live? Say, Triny, be sure to write. When I left, you promised to write if I would. With all my love, Frankie
NOTE: Frank and Triny wrote dozens of letters throughout the next year. Frank’s future bride agreed to come to America and marry him. She said goodbye to her family and the only life she knew in Luxembourg. This brave young lady sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on the ship, Cunard White Star S.S. Soythia, docked in Halifax, Canada, and rode the passenger train to California. They were married just a few days later on December 30, 1948. Their first child Edward was born ten months later, then their two daughters Cathryn and Lisa. They are very proud grandparents of six grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. —Sherrie Morrison, Associate, Daughter-in-Law
WORLD WAR II ORDER OF BATTLE By Capt. Shelby L. Stanton
In this extraordinary encyclopedic reference book, Shelby Stanton provides a detailed picture of the U.S. Army’s fighting edge. “World War II Order of Battle” covers the structure and organization of the Army’s ground combat forces. It documents and illustrates the service of U.S. Army infantry, cavalry, armored, tank destroyer, field artillery, coast artillery, and engineer units from battalion through division.
The sum of the information gathered here is not available anywhere else — in the private sector, the military, or in the government and includes:
Unit listings organized according to major command and branch of service:
Combat units including engineer, detailed to battalion level.
Divisional attachments are given and Army garrison forces listed.
Insignia: A collection of distinctive insignia for those Army units, larger than battalion, as authorized by the U.S. Army.
Photographs: Weaponry, equipment, vehicles and combat.
Army deployments and stations: a detailed overview for every area of the world.
Listings and descriptions of Army ground force posts, camps, and stations, including ports of embarkation.
Authorized strength tables for all units listed, as well as detailed organizational charts for many battalions and subdivisional units never before published.
The author spent ten years painstakingly researching and compiling the information for this book. He worked from government and military archives, from the actual unit records stored in restricted files and depositories not generally accessible.
A must for historians, writers, researchers, modelers, educators, veterans, collectors, and military buffs. If you want to know where your unit (Regiment, Division) fought, this book will give you the answers.
Women ‘Can Do’ Too! A visit to the Rosie the Riveter WW II Home Front National Historical Park
by Doris Davis, Associate
On August 21, 2015, I visited the Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, CA (north of San Francisco). This was my 2nd visit there. I highly recommend a visit to this park Visitor Center.
Richmond, California was chosen as the site for this National Historical Park because it has so many surviving sites and structures from the World War II years that can help tell the diverse stories of the home front. These stories include the mobilization of America’s industry and the changes in production techniques; the struggle for women’s and minority rights; the labor movement; the growth of pre-paid medical care; advances in early childhood education and day care; recycling and rationing; major shifts in population; and changes in arts and culture.
Richmond played a significant and nationally recognized part in the World War II home front. The four Richmond shipyards produced 747 cargo ships, more than any other shipyard complex in the country. Richmond was also home to over 56 different war industries, more than any other city of its size in the United States. The city grew from less than 24,000 people in 1940 to nearly 100,000 people by 1943, overwhelming the available housing, roads, schools, businesses and community services. At the same time, Executive Order 9066 forcibly removed Japanese and Japanese-American residents from the area, disrupting Richmond’s thriving cut-flower industry. The war truly touched every aspect of civilian life on the home front. Through historic structures, museum collections, interpretive exhibits, and programs, the park tells the diverse and fascinating story of the WWII home front.
There is an education center with exhibits, along with movies that show how Richmond, CA was transformed. It brings out the fact that people worked together for a common cause and that there was a strong sense of patriotism. One of the movies has interviews of ladies who remember entering the work force for the first time and what they had to endure as they worked alongside men for the first time. It had its challenges, but they persevered. We can thank those women for changing the course of history for us.
If you decide to visit this beautiful location, filled with history, the chance is great that you might even meet some of the Rosies! The Historical Center has a number of volunteers—many of whom actually worked in the shipyards in WW II. Take time to talk to them and hear their stories, and you will feel like you’ve gone back in time with them. They love telling their stories!
In 1945, when World War 2 ended in Europe, thousands of brave, Young American soldiers were buried in cemeteries across Europe. Buried in foreign soil without any family attending their funeral.
Captain Joseph Shomon, who was in charge of the 611th Graves Registration Company, and his men had the task to bury American soldiers at the American Military Cemetery in Margraten The Netherlands. When they were finished, more than 17,000 Americans were buried there. Captain Shomon asked a local office worker if it was possible to look after the graves of the more than 17,000 American graves there. The Americans were going home again. That’s when the idea for an adoption program came to mind by this man.
Within a couple of months all 17,000 graves were adopted. People were bringing flowers to the cemetery and placing them on the grave of a soldier whose grave they had adopted.
In 1948 more than 8,000 bodies were repatriated to the United States. Now there are 8,301 American soldiers buried in Margraten. The adoption program still stands, and all graves are adopted. There are 1,722 names of men on the Wall of the Missing. All names have been adopted as well. There is even a waiting list for people who want to adopt a grave, or a name on the Wall of Missing.
It is an honor for people to adopt a grave and bring flowers to it on several occasions. During Memorial Day, Christmas and Easter there are lots of flowers decorating the American cemetery. In Europe, we don’t want to forget what these men did for our freedom—they paid the ultimate sacrifice.
The adoption program started in Margraten, The Netherlands. It is now also possible to adopt graves at the American cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Neuville-en-Condroz (both Belgium) and in Normandy (OMAHA-Beach). Thousands of graves have been adopted at all these cemeteries. All over Europe, people want to express their thanks for those who gave their lives so we can live in peace.
Lots of Americans are unaware of this. We don’t do this to get a thank you from Americans. We want the people to say thank you to the veterans and those who didn’t come home. They are all heroes to us. It is the least we can do for those men.
Last year, a group of enthusiastic Dutch people organized “The faces of Margraten”. They are trying to find a picture of every soldier who is buried in Margraten. Within a year they collected more than 3,000 pictures. It seems easy but it is very, very difficult to find pictures of these soldiers. If anyone can help locate pictures, it would be highly appreciated. You can find more information on their website: www.fieldsofhonor-database.com.
I would like to end this by saying thank you to everyone who fought for our freedom.
Lest we forget!
by Frank Gubbels, Associate, The Netherlands
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Passionate about collecting the history of the 82nd Airborne, I found a jumpsuit model 1942 that belonged to Edward L Mokan, the 504th PIR, at Cheneux in the Ardennes. In 2002 I learned that he was dead.
Belgium, meanwhile, was authorizing the adoption of American soldiers’ graves, so I wrote a letter to the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, to ask if it was possible to adopt the grave of a paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne, 504th PIR.
Two weeks later, I received a letter from the Henri-Chapelle cemetery giving me the name Francis L. Allen. A few days later I went to visit and adorn his grave. Subsequently, I received a certificate of adoption from Belgium.
by Bruno Pollet, Associate, Belgium
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VBOB is honoring those fine citizens in Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands who adopt the graves of our Battle of the Bulge soldiers, by sending them a VBOB certificate of gratitude. Please send the name, mailing address and e-mail of the grave caretaker and the name [and service unit if known] of the Battle of the Bulge soldier.
Send the information to: VBOB, PO Box 27430, Philadelphia, PA 19118.
I met Stanley at a 106th Division reunion. We had something in common, as we both were from that division, and we became great friends. He invited me to join the Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge, an organization in which he was active, and always saw to it that I was included in their functions.
Stan felt the Battle of the Bulge did not receive enough recognition, so when he became National President of VBOB, he investigated places that would be willing to have a monument installed that would be visible to many. The Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, PA was approached, and agreed to provide the space. Several of their graduates had fought or died in the Bulge. Through Stan’s efforts and cooperation from Belgium and Luxembourg, many donations were received, a prominent memorial was installed and a scholarship to the Academy was also donated. Each year at Christmastime, the members of the local Delaware Valley chapter met at the Military Academy for a church service with a speaker about the Bulge, had dinner there, watched the cadets in parade, and laid a wreath at the memorial in honor of those who had died.
Forging ahead, Stan then started a drive for funds to install a stained glass window in the chapel at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as well as a standing monument in the parade grounds, as a reminder to all students who attended of the importance of the Battle of the Bulge. This window depicting G.I.’s in the Bulge was dedicated on the infamous 9/11/2001.
Among his other accomplishments, he worked with his Congressman for permission to have a larger monument for the Battle of the Bulge installed at Arlington Cemetery, where many wreaths have been laid over the years by members of VBOB, as well as by the Belgians and Luxembourgers. As a result of his close work with them, he was knighted by both Belgium and Luxembourg for his efforts in perpetuating the memory of the Battle. These two small countries show their continual gratitude for what our American soldiers did to free them from their German occupation in WWII.
With boundless energy, Stan kept his local chapter active, talked to schools, and always contributed in a multitude of ways. Stan served as the National President of VBOB for several terms (1995-97; 2006-07), and planned many National VBOB conventions. He was on the committee to erect the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. In later years, his efforts went to Wreaths Across America. His abilities were many. He left a legacy of accomplishments. He will be missed.
Duncan T. Trueman Chapter #57 President Elliot S. Hermon reports that their meeting in May was an outstanding success.
“The turnout was another fairly large one, and although our guest speaker, Lieutenant Colonel Jack H. Moore, US Army (Ret), the Senior Army Instructor at the US Army JROTC at Washingtonville Senior High School, was unable to join us as promised, four of his cadets did come, and provided a terrific slide show presentation on their many cadet activities.
Leading the presentation was Cadet Lt Col Valentin Olingheru, the Washingtonville Sr High School Jr ROTC battalion Commander, ably assisted by Cadet Sgt. 1st Class Thomas Sheboy, Cadet Command Sgt. Major Corey Lisa and Cadet Corporal Jonathan Matsler.”
ROTC Cadets from Washingtonville High School spoke about their activities at the Duncan T. Trueman Chapter #59, Battle of the Bulge Veterans Luncheon on May 21, 2015 at Birchwood Caterers in Monroe, NY.
My name is Roger S. H. Schulman, and I am a screenwriter. I am writing a book about the over 1,000 letters that my mother and father exchanged during his stint in the Army during World War II. My dad, Cpl. Hyman I. Schulman, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was a chaplain’s assistant. He died about two years ago. The book will be published by Regan Arts and distributed by Simon & Schuster.
I plan to attend your organization’s next reunion in Seattle. Meanwhile, I hope that the Veterans of the BOB might be able to put me in touch with any veterans who can, and would, still talk about their experiences. In particular, I am looking for anyone who served in the 55th Armored Infantry Battalion, or may have come into close contact with my father (or had a similar training experience) in Camp Adair, OR or Camp Cooke, CA.
I read a wonderful article by Homer Olson (deceased) about 55th AIB in a 2013 edition of your newsletter. Does anyone know how to get in touch with his son, Dennis Olson?
I’m happy to answer any questions about this project.