                75th Inf Div newsline No. 44
                ***********************
                        16 Feb. 2000

Hello veterans and friends of the 75th Division !

I´m back in business !
I hope you all came good into the new millenium. We had a lot of work here and it kept me away from publishing this newsline.

Please don´t hit me for not answering in time, I am trying to respond all letters in the next days. It was good to read from some members, that they were missing the newsletter and they asked if everything is o.k.

Yes, everything is fine, keep the letters coming and now enjoy this newsline !

(If you dont find your message here, it will be in the next newsline !)

*Keep five yards.
(*Means spread out so one round won't get us all.)

Rolf G. Wilmink
„German by birth, american by heart, P.I. by profession„.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For your calendar:

75th Div reunion year 2000: Peoria, Ill.

75th Div reunion year 2001: Denver, Col.

(more infos as soon as we have them or contact the 75th Div Vets. Assn. President Parker, see adress below).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

List of contents:

1.) Feedback regarding newsline No. 43 ( 4 Dec 1999 )
2.) news from Belgium
3.) Map of McCoy in 1944.
4.) 75th Division
5.) Current member of the 75 Division (TS)
6.) Who knew Charles Acosta of 291st Reg ?
7.) Who knew William A. Corner, 289th Reg ?
8.) Who knew 1st Lt. George Sinclair, 291st Reg ?
9.) Information on 556 Ordinance
10.) News story on 75th Inf Div !
11.) WWII letters book project
12.) history of 4th infantry division
13.) MEDAL OF HONOR ARTICLE
14.) Humor

\\|//
(o o)
------------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo------------------------------75th DIVISION online
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DON'T BE A LURKER.... GET INVOLVED... YOU ARE A MEMBER... MAKE THE MOST OF IT
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(actual count: 200 + members online worldwide !)

1.) Feedback regarding our newsline No. 43 ( 4 Dec 1999):

From: "Philippe CONSTANT" <philippe.constant@pi.be>
Re: [Fwd: subscribe-75th list e-mail address]
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 15:12:49 +0200

Dear Rolf,
Pierre is my brother.
He is very interested with the Battle of the Bulge.
He is very active to save and preserve the foxholes of the 99th US Div.
(The site is fantastic and fascinating).
A commemoration will be celebrated in May 2000.

Best regards.
Philippe CONSTANT
philippe.constant@pi.be
http://www.ping.be/~pin00811/

----- Message d'origine -----
De : MK-Wirtschaftsdienst GmbH <mkw-detective@t-online.de>
À : Philippe CONSTANT <philippe.constant@ping.be>
Envoyé : mardi 7 décembre 1999 17:32
Objet : [Fwd: subscribe-75th list e-mail address]

> Dear Philippe,
> below a new member of our list. A relative of you ?
> Greetings from Germany
> Rolf G. Wilmink

> Constant wrote:
>
> > Thank you for your answer.
> > Ah! I dream to convey myself your PS message to our princess...
> > Here is my complete address:
> > CONSTANT Pierre
> > Devlemincklaan 82
> > 1930 Belgium.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Sarah Jane McKenzie" <sarahmck@bellsouth.net>
RE: address change
Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 20:49:33 -0800

new email address for Chester A. McKenzie
sarahmck@bellsouth.net
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "James E Dillman" <jdill26@hitter.net>
Happy Holidays
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 21:43:48 -0500

Rolf, 55 years ago on 24 Dec I first went into action outside Rochefort, Belgium. Terrible weather and would get worse.
I hope it is pleasant there for you now and that you have a good holiday with your family and friends.

Jim Dillman E-291

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TAPS - Robert Byrnes July 1, 1921 - December 5, 1999
291st Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Co H

Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 22:26:14 -0500
From: Jim Moran <jdmoran@packet.net>

Rolf,

I'm writing on behalf of my wife, Barbara. My father-in-law, Robert Byrnes, just passed away this evening. He was 78 years old. I wanted to let you know how much he enjoyed reading your 75th Division newsletter. He actually wanted me to help him buy a PC several months ago so he could learn to use e-mail before he became seriously ill with lung cancer. We never quite got around to buying one.

I think reading about events that he had experienced over 50 years ago, but hadn't discussed until recently, was very therapeutic for him. He was finally able to talk about some horrible events that he had kept inside all those years. It wasn't all bad though. He made some good
friends and was able to find some humor in even the darkest of times.

What a great guy! I'm going to miss him very much.

Thanks again for all your hard work producing this great newsletter.

Jim & Barbara Moran

-----------------------------------

(From earlier emails:)

75th Divison Veteran Robert Byrnes

Greetings,
My name is Jim Moran. My father-in-law fought in WWII with the 75th. My wife & I just came back from the new movie "Saving Private Ryan". The movie portrays the horrors of war about as accurately as anything I have ever seen, other than a documentary. I hope we all have learned a lesson & never become involved in anything that incredibly horrible again.

My wife asked me to see what I could find about the 75th Division. Your website was one of the first I came across in my search. It contains some excellent information which I will pass on to my Mr. Byrnes. He has just recently been able to discuss some of the events he participated in. For almost 50 years he was unable to talk about them. After listening to some of his stories I can understand why he has kept them in the recesses of his mind all this time. Just like the soldiers in Pvt Ryan he was forced to do some things that taken out of context would be considered inhuman.

I see by your website that you are trying to gather some information relating to your city Plettenberg. I'm not sure if he was part of the ocupation but I'll ask him tomorrow when I see him. If you would like to contact him by e-mail you can send your message to me at jdmoran@packet.net & I'll pass it on to him.

His mailing address is:
Robert Byrnes,
2060 Marilyn St. Bldg. B117,
Clearwater FL 33765 USA.

I'll take my laptop computer to his house tomorrow. I think he will enjoy your website immensely. I notice he just missed the 75th's annual reunion. He is 77 & in relatively good health so I hope he can make it to next years.

Sincerely,
Jim Moran

Greetings,

I spoke to my father-in-law today. He was not in Plettenberg. He was in the 291st Regiment. He would like to see if he could locate any of his friends who might still be alive. He was in the 75th from their inception until it was disbanded in 1945. His name again is Robert (Bob) Byrnes. He was in the 291st Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Company C. He was a Sargent on a machine gun platoon & he was from Ohio. He would like to get a roster of the members of the 75th if you could give me some advice as to how to get a copy of this information.

Thank you,
Jim Moran
----------
Greetings,
I wanted to thank those people who have e-mailed me regarding my Father-in-law's search for some of his old buddys from the 75th. I have printed out the messages & he is getting a kick out of reading them. I did make one major snafu in one of my earlier e-mails which he caught.
He was actually in company "H" not "C". Hopefully that will make it a little easier to track down any surviving veterans who might remember him. Again, he was in the 291st Regiment, 2nd Battalion.

Jim Moran
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Kingfish-1@webtv.net (Curtis Deardorff)
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999 13:58:11 -0500 (EST)
Re: [Fwd: Robert Byrnes July 1, 1921 - December 5, 1999]

Thank you for forwarding this information. As you may know. I was in G Company 291st Regiment. I had a close friend, who was a classmate of mine from elementary school thru college, who was a Lieutenant in H Company. He was killed in action after the Battle of the Bulge in the Colmar Sector of France.

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2.) news from Belgium

From: "Eddy LAMBERTY" <eddy.lamberty@village.uunet.be>
RE: letter
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 1999 22:26:02 +0100

Dear Sir,

          It's always interesting to read the information you publish in the Newsline. I had hope to write you sooner, but my mother has some health problems. So, I have been worried the last weeks. .

          I have been also busy. Indeed, I met several groups of veterans in September and October.
On the 04th of September, I went to La Roche and I met veterans of the 28th I.D.
On the 15th and 22nd of September, I spent the days with a group of the 30th I.D.
October 01-05, 1999 I was able to follow the veterans of the 517th PRCT.

          It's always so nice for me to spend time with our liberators. I work and it's not always possible to get a day off to be there to welcome them. But I do my best to attend to the returns of the veterans in my area.

          I have a great respect for all the men who fought for peace and freedom all around the world. But as a matter of fact, I try to learn more about the events that took place in my village and around (I mean on the Salm river front). So, it's always a great chance to meet a veteran who was in my village with the 82nd A/B Division or the 75th I.D. or other units.

          Last September, I had that great opportunity. I was able to help a veterans of the 75th I.D., 375th Medical Bn, Company C. In fact, I didn't know him, but he contacted me because he saw my name and address in the Bulgebuster. He let me know that intended to do a trip to Belgium. I was very lucky because I had my paid holidays in the same time he would be in Belgium. Then, I was able to help him and I spent three wonderful days with this nice men. His name is Mr. Albert SNIEZAK from Buffalo, NY. I'm joining severl pics of this trip. Pic #1: Mr. Sniezak and Mrs. Hia, who is one of the young lady he met 55 years ago. In fact, he spent several days with his unit in her village, which is Le Grand-Trihxe (hamlet near Werbomont). Mr. Sniezak had a picture of this woman while she was a young lady.

               Pic #2: Mr. Sniezak and myself.
               Pic #3: Mr. Sniezak visited Grand-Halleux where he was during the Bulge. In
                            front of the monument near the church.
               Pic #4: Mr. Sniezak at Grand-Halleux.

          Sincerely yours,

          Eddy Lamberty, Grand-Halleux

**********************************************************************************

3.) Map of McCoy in 1944.

From: T6615@webtv.net
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 1999 13:27:11 -0800 (PST)

I would like to get a xerox copy of the map of McCoy showing the barracks area of the 304th inf. if possible. Thank you.

Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 19:13:50 -0800 (PST)
RE: 76th Inf Div, WW2

Would information on the above. Don"t know how much you have, but I will try:

A map of Cp McCoy circa 1944. I would like areas also covered that are in the immediate area outside the triangle of the camp itself. Thank you...

                             Joseph Terzian
                             110 Dolores St
                             San Francisco 94103
                             415-863-4400

The 76th Div trained at Cp McCoy, Wisconsin in the beginning of 1941 and went overseas in 12/44 and joined Patton"s 3rd Army. They have a reunion every year. JT
**********************************************************************************

4.) 75th Division

Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 17:45:18 -0800
From: Robert Mustain <rmpig@earthlink.net>

Dear Rolf,

Today, I was browsing the Internet and saw your web site on the 75th. I served in the 75th during WWII, joining the Division while on maneuvers in southwest Louisiana in early 1944. I was in the Mine Platoon, Anti-Tank company, 291st Regiment and was with the Division until the end of the war. I am a member of the 75th Division Veteran's Association.

I noticed with interest #26.) Pictorial History of the 75th Infantry Division, 1946. Can you tell me how I might get a copy of that book?

I have also joined the Rhin Et Danube Association, for which members of the 75th, who fought with the French 1st Army during the Colmar Pocket action are eligible. In case you don't already have it on your list, the U.S.
Section President is:
Robert F. Phillips
5530 Beaconfield Court
Burke, VA 22015
(703) 978-1228

Congratulations on an excellent web site, I really enjoyed my visit there!
Sincerely,
Bob Mustain
Robert D. Mustain
8104 Stewart Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90045-2745
(310) 670-6713
(310) 670-1620 Fax
rmpig@earthlink.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: LTERRYMCD@aol.com
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 16:20:46 EST
Re: [Fwd: 75th Division]

Thanks a whole bunch for the message from Robert Mustain (AT-291). Bob and I have talked on the internet. About one year ago I located him, after fifty-three years. Like Bob says, "I really enjoy all the messages and information that I have found on your web site during the past three or four years. " Thanks again, Terry (AT-291)

**********************************************************************************

5.) Current member of the 75 Division (TS)

From: WMarotto@aol.com
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 16:36:49 EST

Mr. Wilmink:
I am an Infantry Captain currently assigned to the 1st Battalion (TS) (CS/CSS), 289th Regiment, 4th Brigade, 75th Division (TS) in Houston, Texas.
This is our new designation we received on October 1999, after the Division was reorganized. The 75th Division (TS-Training Support) now incorporates Active Duty personnel along with Reserve component personnel. The commander of the 75th Division (TS) is Major General Darrell W. MacDaniel (a Reserve Officer). The commander of the 4th Brigade is an Active Duty Colonel (Colonel David Annen) located at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The Battalion Commander is LTC Henry Ostermann, and he is a Reserve Officer. The Battalion Executive Officer (XO) is Major Wayne Mason, who is an Active Duty Soldier. The Division has gone through some dramatic changes in the past year, all in order to make the US Army a seamless organization.
I was given your email address from a veteran of the 75th Infantry Division (Robert Campbell). I interviewed Mr. Campbell and Gilbert Nelson (another member of the 75th Infantry Division) for a paper I am doing for a graduate course at the University of Houston. I am attempting to earn a Master's Degree in History and I am writing a history of the 75th Infantry Division. I would be grateful if you could pass along to other veterans that I am attempting to compile oral or written histories about their experiences in the 75th Infantry Division. Also, please add me to your newsletter. If you have any questions please contact me. Thank you for your time.

Cordially,
Wayne Marotto
CPT, IN
4543 Spellman
Houston, Texas 77035-6021
WMAROTTO@AOL.COM

Mr. Wilmink:
I failed to mention that I was one of several Officers who researched the 75th Infantry Division and my material went into the 75th Infantry Division memorial (it is not a museum). I was fortunate to have access to National Archive documents that a Lieutenant had received from the National Archives in Washington, DC.
Have you ever been to the memorial located at the Headquarters building of the 75th Division (TS)? It has some good artifacts from W.W.II that veterans have given us. Thank you for your time.

Cordially,
Wayne Marotto
CPT, IN
Houston, TX

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6.) Who knew Charles Acosta of 291st Reg ?

From: Acosta Frank A CONT PHCA <AcostaFA@phdnswc.navy.mil>
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 1999 12:08:43 -0800

Dear sir/maam i was wondering if you could help me find out any and all information on my great-grandfather who was attached to the "291 infantry regiment- 275 medical battalion. please respond back with the information you will need.

Sir the following is all the infomation i have on my Great-Grandfather his name is Charles Acosta his rank was Pfc. he was in the 291st and was in the medical detachment. I was told he was attached to the 75th infantry division in mid 1943 or 1944. All i have is his discharge paper and a photo when he enlisted(i believe). Any help on this matter would do a great service to my family as he passed away right after the war and we have no other ties to his past.We are trying to put together a service plaque in his memory and present it to my father his only surviving son. Thank you very much for all your help and time it is greatly appreciated.
v/r
Frank Acosta

Sir i forgot to add that he was from Oxnard, California

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7.) Who knew William A. Corner, 289th Reg ?

From: RWC1975@aol.com
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2000 21:11:26 EST

sir,
my name is rich corner and my grandfather served with cannon co. 289th rgt 75th division during ww2. his name was william a. corner...he was a 1sgt in cannon and later the division's first battlefield commssion. i am in touch with harrold shadday of the 75th and i get his "on target" newsletter. i am in the us army and am currently in kosovo. i am with the 1st ID and am stationed out of Bamberg, Germany. i located your website and was wondering of you had any info on my grandfather or cannon co. 289th rgt. i have learned a lot from his friends, who i am in contact with, and would love to hear anymore info about the rgt. or cannon co. itself. thanks a lot and any info would greatly be appreciated.....sincerely,
1LT Richard Corner,Field Artillery.

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8.) Who knew 1st Lt. George Sinclair, 291st Reg ?

From: "Joan Poleson" <jspoleson@freeuk.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 18:35:51 -0000

I am tring to trace relatives to complete a missing link in my family tree. I had a cousin named James Sinclair who arrived in America in 1910, he was born in Shetland in january 1891. He had a son named George Sinclair who was a 1st. Lieuftenant in the 75th. Infantry Combat Division, 3rd Battalion, 291st. Regiment, Company I. He was in the action in the Little Bulge at Colmar, Alsace-Lorraine, under the command of the French General LeClerc.
I know George has since died but he had a son born in 1946 who may still be alive.
Can you please help

Dear Rolf
Thanks for prompt reply to my query.
James Sinclair was married to a German woman but I have no more info on that. I am a half-second cousin to George Sinclair, we had the same great grandfather but different great grandmothers. Not much help but I hope something will turn up.

Yours sincerely
Joan S. Poleson
Shetland Islands

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9.) Information on 556 Ordinance

Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 04:04:22 -0800 (PST)
From: Janine Bauer <bearofthebears@yahoo.com>

Mr. Wilmink,
I am searching for information on the 556 Ordinance from Zirndorf near Nürnberg, Germany. This was active during WW2. My husband's grandfather served with 556 Ordinance during WW2.

My husband's father is a WW2 baby and has had no contact with his father after his father left Germany for Korea. The US Army told the mother of the child that he would be taken away if she tried to get any financial support from the service member or the US Army.

We thought we found him, however, he denied us in writing after we sent a letter. He has the same birth date and place of birth, yet denies. We are not seeking any financial retribution. We are seeking family roots. That is all.

We have photographs of him and would just like to identify this person if he still lives.

I live in germany as well. I live near Nürnberg. The man i am looking for does live in Maine possibly. I don't know if he was part of the the 75th, but i do know that he was in 556 Ordinance in Zirndorf.

I think what i need is to see if there is another Mr. Thurston besides the one we contacted in November, 1999 who denied his relation.

i was thinking an old photo to first identify the man, then some tracking to see where he went. We do know that he left Germany for service with the Army in Korea. We do know that his child, whom he acknowledged because a picture was taken with them both and his name was placed on the baptismal certificate and he verbally acknowledged the child to the mother and others, this child was identified by the army as a battle baby. Mr. Thurston never had contact again after leaving Germany.

Can you help us?
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Janine Bauer
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10.) News story on 75th Inf Div !

From: Tam53013@aol.com
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 13:46:38 EST

Dear Mr. Wilmink --
Here is the newspaper story I wrote about my great-uncle Macon "Billy" Haynes, Co. L, 290th. It was published today, 12/26/99, the day he was killed in the shelling of LaRoumiere.
Your wonderful website and news letter helped me find so many thoughtful, helpful veterans and the children of veterans like Rik Pierson who I think of now as a brother.
I've attached the story as a file because it's so long. I will also e-mail it to you in two parts. Because the story is online at the newspaper's website, it will be placed in the archives online for the next 90 days.The website is http://www.staronline.com/life/life.htm.
The archives which are searchable is http://www.staronline.com/archives.html

Thank you again for your 75th website.
And thank you so very much, you brave soldiers of the 75th.

Tamara Koehler
e-mail: tkoehler@staronline.com or
tam53013@aol.com

Baptism by fire
Macon Haynes was among hundreds of boys thrown into the Battle of the Bulge, to die there. Fifty-five years later, through the pen of Macon's great-niece, he and his comrades are remembered.
By Tamara Koehler
Staff writer
Published Sunday December 26, 1999

The aging voices of my great-aunt and grandmother still falter when they say his name. Macon, the mandolin minstrel, always making music whether crooning old-time country songs with the teen-agers in his band or whistling while picking acres of cotton. They knew and loved him well, this sweet brother, my great-uncle, but the story of his final days is carried in the memories of another family -- a clan of aging veterans spread throughout the country from Camarillo to Needham, Mass.
They are old now too, these men who served in the 75th Infantry Division. Their memories -- and numbers -- are fading.
They have ridden a river of experiences since the war, had families and grandchildren, become investigators, professors, vice presidents of major companies.
But they still remember how achingly young they were in 1944, when the Army wrenched them from farms and suburban homes and the arms of their mothers and threw them virgin-like into the Battle of the Bulge, the worst battle of World War II and the worst, historians say, in American history.
With an average age of 19, the 75th became known as the Diaper Division. In the sometimes strange logic of war, more than 400 of them were sacrificed in their first days of combat in order to save 400 other American GIs trapped by the Germans.
For years, many could not speak about those days when they fought and froze in an icy hell at Christmastime, when even the tall firs in the Belgian forest became lethal enemies. Mortar fire had a way of blasting the trees, sending shards of wood spiraling down into the men below, impaling them in the snow.
Now, as death is near again, they find themselves reliving those days, remembering boys like Macon who never grew old. They want to tell his story -- and their own -- before it's too late and none are left.
Theirs are the stories of boys who had never seen combat, shaking and scared and raped of their innocence within minutes of entering the war. Some cried pitifully before charging on into a maelstrom of steel that cut men in two, some went within to a deep, silent place from which they have never fully returned.
They lived for word from home, for fruitcakes and the smell of perfume on a letter from a wife or girlfriend.
They told their families, "Don't worry about me, I'm fighting the good fight," when what they really wanted was to cry like a baby in their mother's embrace.
* * *
In an undated letter home, in basic training at Camp Breckinridge, Ky.:
Dear Folks,
Boy! I sure do have a good sergeant, and he really thinks a lot of me too. He tried to get me to go to the show with him tonight but I wanted to write like always. I know how I like to get mail and realize how you like to hear from me.
I wish I had my life to live over -- I'd be good to you and Pa. I see a lot of things that I could have done but it's too late now. If I have ever done or said anything that I shouldn't, forgive me for I'll never do it again.
I have a good job now. I'm a "machine gunner boy!" I carry a .45 pistol and don't do anything much. Well I guess I'd better close for now. I'll write again tomorrow.
Love, Macon
Macon Haynes was the second-youngest of seven children, the apple of his mother's eye, a dreamer who made a dirt-poor life on a small Alabama cotton farm better with his mandolin.
It was February 1944 when the order came, drafting him from hard work in the fields and weekend concerts down at the local high school into the Army. His mother cried and cried but never thought for a moment that her 18-year-old son should get out of the draft.
That just wasn't done. Too much was at stake not to go, both men and women believed.
"It was a different time, and I don't think there'll ever be a time like that again. E We were anxious to help America and keep America what it is," said Vincent Raba of Camarillo, a mail carrier in the 75th's reconnaissance troop. He remembers Macon's name from somewhere, he says; perhaps he delivered a letter or two.
Soldiers and civilians didn't protest the war, they rarely questioned and they believed wholeheartedly that America was worth dying for. "And if you survived the war, you didn't talk about it to your family and friends because, well, no one would believe it, the horror of what we saw and did. E We wanted normalcy back more than anything," said Gilbert Nelson, a scout in Company L of the 290th Regiment in the 75th. Today, Nelson is a traffic investigator in Needham, Mass.
It was near the end of the war in Europe when Macon and the 75th recruits completed basic training in Camp Breckinridge.
The youngest ones grew homesick almost immediately -- it was their first time away. Macon worried about his aging father working the farm alone. He worried about his older brother, J.C., a married man with children who was in line for the draft.
* * *
>From Macon's undated Camp Breckinridge letter:
I sure would like to come home for a little while. It seems like every where I go I can see J.C. and Pa. I just can't be still anywhere. My sergeant who sleeps right by me woke me up last night and asked me what was wrong with me. I can't get J.C. off my mind and when I awoke while dreaming about Pa I was about smothering to death. I thought I couldn't hardly stand it.
* * *
Raba recalls the 12-mile grueling hikes and runs that turned his body into hard, lean muscle. "That training was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, and I was a wheat farmer used to hard work," he said.
Richard Archer, Macon's sergeant, who went on to become vice president of Gimbels department stores, remembers the camaraderie that built up among them: "We were like brothers; I was very, very fond of your great-uncle and another boy, Billy McLeod," he said from his home in Sarasota, Fla., his deep voice betrayed by tears.
"Not a night goes by that I don't pray for them, remember them. E I always get weepy around Christmastime."
The boys of the 75th were among the last reaped from the country to replenish the Army. They came from colleges in the East, boatyards in the West, coal mines, wheat fields and cotton farms in the Midwest and South. Most were 18 and 19 years old; the "old guys" were 25 to 28, with the most senior around 32. They all shared one thing: None had ever seen combat, none had ever heard a bullet whiz by his head or a wounded man scream in anguish while bleeding to death.
On Oct. 22, they stepped off American soil -- many for the first time, many for the last -- and boarded the SS Brazil. The ship sailed for two weeks until it reached Wales, where the troops spent another six rainy weeks of training for actual combat. It was their last time of true innocence, and they spent their weekend passes seeing films starring Marlene Dietrich and drinking pints of dark ale in the local pubs with Welsh villagers.
They saw the devastation of the war in bombed-out buildings, but the broken bricks were nothing compared to the carnage they were about to see. "We had no idea, absolutely no idea, what was about to happen," Nelson said. "And that is a blessing. Thank God, we didn't know."
* * *
Nov. 14, 1944, from somewhere in England:
Dear Folks,
How are you all? For me O.K. Well here I am writing again. Tell (all the family) I'm O.K. and I'll write as quick as I can. You know an army man is a busy man. Ha.
Pa how is your hogs and things doing? I wish I was there to help you take care of them. Maybe someday I'll be back to help you. How is your young mule now? You and Ma take care of each other and go out and enjoy life. Drive the wheel off that Chevy. If I were you I would build me a house just like I wanted if it cost me all I had. Enjoy life while you live, you know you never have but one life here on earth and you all are getting older every day.
I hope I can spend most all the rest of my life in the good old U.S.A. Boy! I can tell now what we are fighting for. If the USA isn't worth a man risking his life for, he is not a true American, he doesn't even know what America is. From what I see of these countries over here, she is worth fighting for.
Ma, tell R.B. (his younger brother) to be a good boy and that I'm coming home someday. Well I'll close for now. Mother, you and Dad don't worry about me.
Your son. Macon.
* * *
It was early December, and the Allied generals weren't too worried about Hitler anymore. Victory was in the air. France had been liberated, Hitler seemingly silenced and preparing for inevitable invasion. Allied bombs already were falling on Berlin, and there were rumors American troops would most likely be home for Christmas. With the end of war in mind, fortifications for the Army were slowed to a trickle, leaving boots and gloves and ammunition in short supply.
Meanwhile, on Dec. 10, the regiments of the 75th left Wales and crossed the icy, windy English Channel to the theater of war on an old Australian sheep boat. "It was rumored that we were scheduled to occupy a quiet, defensive sector near Aachen, the first German city conquered in WWII, presumably to acclimate us to the reality of infantry warfare," according to Nelson, in a written narrative about L Company's ordeal in Belgium.
But Hitler wasn't through.
In what historians call the last desperate act of a madman, Hitler had been busy building an army in secret to bash through the Allied fronts in neighboring Belgium. He planned to push through all the way to Antwerp, splinter the Allied forces and take control of the war.
In underground factories, German workers built massive stockpiles of weapons and tanks. Hitler also wrung his country of its remaining men -- the old, the young, the criminal, the elite soldiers -- to form the Volksgrenadier, or the People's Army.
On Dec. 16, he made his first push on the unsuspecting Allies, scattered thinly by now amid the forests and rugged mountainsides of the Ardennes Forest in Belgium.
The onslaught was brutal, as German tanks and artillery emerged from the fog and snow and mowed down unprotected Allied soldiers.
The battles waged on and on, and the orders for the boys of the 75th were abruptly changed. There was no time now to gentle them into combat. Theirs would have to be a baptism by fire.
For Macon and his comrades in the 75th's 290th Regiment, Company L, that fire would be the most intense.
* * *
Christmas Eve, after traveling in a freezing boxcar toward the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium:
The cooks had laid out thermos-pails of hot chow, the first real meal in days. Suddenly, a Jeep raced up, and an officer shouted, "Put that stuff away. We have work to do. We're moving out." We were needed elsewhere, an urgent mission.
We did move out, and quickly E there were foxholes alongside the road; German bodies, a burning German ambulance half-track. Nauseating. Never had I smelled burning flesh.
Nine, ten o'clock. Drizzle stopped, sky opened. A full moon rose above the southeastern horizon, the crest of LaRoumiere.
-- Gil Nelson
* * *
It was dubbed Hill 81 by Army generals, LaRoumiere (pronounced la roo-mee-air), a rolling lush fir-tree farm in peaceful days, now a fiercely defended fortress overlooking vital roadways and bridges the Nazis had occupied for weeks.
Countless battles had left the scenic hill pockmarked with foxholes and craters from a barrage of 88 mm shells used by the Germans to pound oncomers around the clock.
"We soldiers called it Hill 88 because of the 88s," Archer said. "We hated those shells; they were very accurate and made this scary fluttering sound. E You knew when they were coming in right for you."
Attempts to take the hill had turned back the most seasoned soldiers from other divisions. To get to the top meant crossing a wide-open field, a suicide mission at best -- something only the most battle-naive soldier would undertake without question.
But on Christmas Eve, a new urgency to take the hill emerged. Ten miles to the south, a veteran outfit of the Army's Third Division -- Task Force Hogan -- was surrounded by Germans. Seventeen tanks and 400 battle-experienced men were trapped. A passageway out had to be opened, the generals decided.
That doorway was LaRoumiere and the green troops of the 290th companies would be the key used to open it.
It was the worst winter in European history, with temperatures so cold that food froze to mess kits inside a minute, Raba recalls. Fingers stuck to weapons -- " a lot of us didn't have gloves," Raba says -- toes froze in thin nonwinter boots and black Army coats made soldiers moving targets against the white snow.
Who can say how battle decisions are made? Or where a shell hits? Do generals reach into an alphabet soup of companies -- Company A, Company B, Company C E Company Z -- and randomly pull out a group to place in the front line of battle?
Does one man survive and another die because of some cosmic plan? "It's something we all live with now, those questions of why did I make it?" Nelson said. "It's just pure luck, no sense to it, no reason why a buddy is killed in the foxhole with you and you survive. It makes us feel guilty too, somehow, for surviving.
"Why were we the lucky ones?"
At LaRoumiere, it was companies F, I, K, L and M of the 290th that were chosen to lead the charge for the hill. Macon, Archer and Nelson were in Company L. Christmas Eve night, they were ordered up the hill. Under a full moon, carrying less ammunition than normal, K and L companies ran across the open plain. They were sitting ducks, Nelson said. There were no maps. No reconnaissance of the enemy. No artillery support. Just raw, frightened soldiers racing madly in the moonlight and mortar fire to get up the hill.
* * *
>From a memorial booklet for a 75th Infantry reunion in Houston; September 1999:
I remember the death, destruction, and misery of the 24th, 25th, and 26th. I was 19 years old from the hills of Pennsylvania. I believe that chaos and confusion was the order of the day. On these few days, it seemed no one in command had any information as to the enemy. On the 25th we got beat around very bad. Twice we lost and had to take it (LaRoumiere) back, the 26th shelling was horrible. E A horrible Christmas 1944 -- it gives Christmas ever since a special meaning.
-- David Sangrey, of the 290th Regiment
* * *
In that first charge, K Company was obliterated, with 180 of its 200 men killed. L Company also suffered heavy casualties. Boys were crying, from wounds and terror. The smell of blood and death and gunpowder still haunt those who survived.
Christmas Day dawned, and another attempt was ordered.
Across the plain again they charged, with bayonets fixed, stabbing steel into the bellies of their enemies, many of whom were as young as they were. This time survivors in companies K and L took the hill, but the victory was brief because their scanty ammunition ran out.
Germans pushed them off the hill and they raced back down across the bloody, snowy field strewn with the bodies of their buddies and bloated, dead cows. On Christmas afternoon at around 3 p.m., a third attack was ordered after American artillery finally blasted the top of the hill, rousting the Germans again from their positions. The remaining companies joined the L Company survivors and again took the hill, this time for good, with help from the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment.
All officers of the 290th companies had been killed, and the 517th commander established order on the hill. As the only ranking officer left living, he also took responsibility for noting the details of the battle in a combat diary. Amid frozen corpses, the weary soldiers hunkered down for the night in foxholes dug by the Germans.
They slept for awhile and ate cold rations --Eif they could stomach the food. It was Christmas night, and the men stayed quiet because the Germans were still close by on a hill across from LaRoumiere. Archer, then 21, had his platoon of eight soldiers, including Macon, armed with machine guns. He placed the men, two to a foxhole, with himself alone in the fifth.
Macon and Private Billy McLeod sat in the foxhole with a 50-pound machine gun between them. Billy was the gunner, Macon the one who fed the gun belts of bullets.
Midnight passed, the night deepened, they dozed and tried to stay warm.
And then the sound they all feared slithered through the night air. An 88, fluttering its way toward them with deadly accuracy.
"We didn't know that the Germans had those foxholes zeroed in -- they knew where every foxhole and trench was because they had controlled that hill for so long," Archer said. "It was dark, they started firing. E They hit all five of our holes."
The earth shook with the impact, and snow dropped from the towering firs, blanketing the dead, the dying and the wounded. Archer remembers cries of pain. He remembers Macon and Billy, and so much blood melting the snow.
"Mortal wounds to the legs," Macon's death certificate read. Not an instant death, but a quick one, mercifully. He would be officially reported killed in action on Dec. 27, a day later, when men with the grave detail identified him by his dog tags.
Two others also were killed in Archer's platoon, and four were seriously wounded.
Archer's leg had shrapnel lodged in the bone, and the beginnings of a lifelong guilt lodged in his heart. If only he had put Macon and Billy in another foxhole, he says.
It was Dec. 26, and as the sun rose, Task Force Hogan troops -- the men Macon and hundreds of others in the 290th had died to save -- began to pass through the American lines on LaRoumiere.
But credit for rescuing the Hogan troops was never given to the 290th. Instead, that honor went to the commander and troops of the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment, who were cited for "their exemplary performance and bravery" in the battle for LaRoumiere.
* * *
Oct. 15, 1945, Section, Ala.:
Dear Sirs,
I am writing you about my son Private First Class Macon Haynes reported killed in Belgium Dec. 27. If it be so please write me just how he was killed, all about it. And I want his body brought back to the states for burial. Now please Sirs, for I am so blue and worried.
Macon was a fine boy, a good obedient child and he was so sweet and nice to me. I can't give him up it seems.
Mrs. Florence J. Haynes
* * *
It would be two more years before Macon was brought home by escort on an ocean liner and, finally, the train that ran straight through his hometown. During those two years, he and Billy were buried side by side in a military cemetery in Belgium, their graves well-tended by Belgians who to this day still honor the World War II American soldiers with parades and memorial services. "We will never forget them, the brave soldiers of the 75th," the caretaker of Henri-Chappelle Cemetery in Belgium wrote to me recently. Macon and Billy's names are on an honor roll there still, he said. My great-grandmother never did learn just what happened to her sweet-natured son -- the Army sought to spare her the details, I guess. But sometimes not knowing can be a worse thing; imagination and grief make a terrible recipe. My grandmother, Macon's older sister, tells me that he once wrote saying that he and a boy with the last name of White in his machine gun platoon had made an agreement: If one was killed, the other would let the family know what happened.
"But we never heard from White after that -- I am sure he was killed, too," my grandmother said. When his casket arrived in Alabama in 1947, the high school marching band followed it down the main street all the way to the funeral home several miles away.
Macon's mother sat by the casket for an hour at the funeral home and talked to him as if he could hear her. She had never fully believed he was dead. "She told him all about his horse, his saddle, his mandolin and everything," my grandmother says. "Then she got up and went to the other room, then she asked the escort to open the casket. He told her he could not do that. He gave her (Macon's) dog tags and pocketbook. She looked at them a long time, then she said, 'Look, he has scratched his name on his dog tag and I feel it is him.' " At that, she finally accepted that he was gone.
After Macon was killed, the green troops of the 75th continued to fight along with thousands of other young new recruits. Historians say these boys were the ones who turned the tide in the Battle of the Bulge, which ended in February 1945.
When it was over, more than 76,000 American lives were lost, twice the number of those killed at Gettysburg during the Civil War.
>From LaRoumiere, the 75th soldiers went on to Germany and helped free Poles and Jews from death camps. They became seasoned in war, earning recommendations and citations for battles along the way.
But they say their most courageous moments came between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26 on the hill of LaRoumiere, where so many of them died.
They cried when I spoke to them. The hurt is still there, and strangely more strong now. Raba could only speak by phone. A face-to-face interview would be just too painful, he said.
Archer found it difficult to speak as well. But he chose to tell the story of what happened to Macon, he said, for me and my family, so that the memories of his final days could become ours, too. And Nelson has become the touchstone of information for so many like me, seeking the stories of our long-dead fathers and brothers and uncles. Recently, he went back to LaRoumiere and found the hill once again flourishing as a tree farm. He found his old foxhole, gently mounded over now. He remembers Dec. 26, 1944, when he went to scout the hill and came across Macon and Billy and the others killed in the shellings. "Those are sacred spaces," he wrote in his memoirs. "It is still a tree farm, and the trees now are probably the second and third generation since 1944. The breezes now are sweet and woody. Our foxholes are smoothly rounded and soft. Most of us of L Company have walked those hallowed paths, at least in our minds; and, maybe we still hear the ghostly, restless breathing of the spirits that dwell there, amongst the drooping firs."

-- Tamara Koehler can be reached at tkoehler@staronline.com.

Resource list
For more on the 75th Infantry Division or other units that served in World War
II, the following are good places to start:
www.plettenberg.de/75th -- An unofficial Web site run by Rolf Wilmink of Germany. (Note: Access using Netscape to avoid connection errors.)
glycine.ncsa.uiuc.edu/~schnitz/75th -- Links to two combat journals of the 75th.
www.awon.org -- Home page of the American World War II Orphans Network, an organization for those whose fathers were killed or missing in World War II.
www.cfcsc.dnd.ca/links/milhist/wwii.html -- A lengthy list of links to online resources around the world about World War II.
hometown.aol.com/dadswar/index.htm -- An informative site explaining how and where to write to get military records.
www.nara.gov/research -- Home page of the National Archives and Records Administration. The site offers access to 100,000-plus electronic records files.

If someone you know was killed overseas, you may request his or her Individual Deceased Personnel File by writing to The Administration Section, Total Army Personnel Command, Attention: TAPC-ALP-A (FOIA), DCS Personnel and Logistics, 200 Stovall St., Alexandria, VA 22332-0405.

11.) WWII letters book project

Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1999 12:58:24 -0500
From: Tracy Quinn <tquinn@adlerbooks.com>

To whom it may concern:

I am researching a book entitled World War II Letters by Walter Cronkite, which is a collection of letters from soldiers to their friends and families back home.

World War II Letters will have letters from soldiers from every country involved in the Second World War, including the United States, England, France, Japan, Germany, Russia, Canada, Australia, and other countries. The book will be published by Knopf.

But we need your letters! Do you have a letter from your father, husband, brother, sister, wife, mother, or friend that you want to share? If so, we would love to hear from you. Please contact me at the following address:

Ms. Tracy Quinn
Adler & Robin Books, Inc.
3000 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008
202-986-9275
Fax: 202-986-9485
tquinn@adlerbooks.com
www.adlerbooks.com/wwiiletters.html

If you are the webmaster of a veterans' site or if you distribute a newsletter, please post this information.
If you have any questions about this book, I would be happy to answer them.
I really appreciate your help. Without your support, this book wouldn't be possible.

Sincerely,
Tracy Quinn

Tracy Quinn
Claren Books
Adler & Robin Books, Inc.
3000 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Suite 317
Washington, DC 20008
phone: (202) 986-9275
fax: (202) 986-9485
tquinn@adlerbooks.com
http://www.adlerbooks.com
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12.) history of 4th infantry division

From: RGeno34382@aol.com
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 18:46:40 EST

to whom it may concern:
i am tryiny to locate history on this division. i served in this divsion.
Re: history of 4th infantry division 22th infantry/e-company
thanks
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13.) MEDAL OF HONOR ARTICLE
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McGARlTY, VERNON
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Day to Remember - 16 December 1944. The final German counteroffensive begins at 0530hrs with a massive artillery barrage and an armor infiltration through the Eiffel Mountains. It was a last, desperate attempt to cut off the western allies from their vital North Sea ports and to split the alliance. The courageous efforts of small units, made up of young American "citizen soldiers," stalled Hitler's plan at landmarks such us Bastogne, St Vith, and Rocherath/Krinkelt. Our MOH action occurred at Krinkelt, Belgium. As you prepare to enjoy a "relatively" peaceful world this X-mas, remember the guys who secured victory in Europe during that decisive December battle. Had Hitler succeeded, Europe would look quite different today -- the Russians could have pushed across the Rhine into the European heartland. If you know a "Bulge" veteran, shake his hand!!!!! ZIMM.
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Rank and organization: T/Sgt., USA, Co. L, 393d Infantry, 99th Infantry Division.
Place and date: Near Krinkelt, Belgium, 16 December 1944.

Entered service: Model, Tenn.
Born: 1 December 1921, Right, Tenn.
G.O. No.: 6, 11 January 1946.

Citation: He was painfully wounded in an artillery barrage that preceded the powerful counteroffensive launched by the Germans near Krinkelt, Belgium, on the morning of 16 December 1944. He made his way to an aid station, received treatment, and then refused to be evacuated, choosing to return to his hard-pressed men instead. The fury of the enemy's great Western Front offensive swirled about the position held by T/Sgt. McGarity's small force, but so tenaciously did these men fight on orders to stand firm at all costs that they could not be dislodged despite murderous enemy fire and the breakdown of their communications. During the day the heroic squad leader rescued 1 of his friends who had been wounded in a forward position, and throughout the night he exhorted his comrades to repulse the enemy's attempts at infiltration.

When morning came and the Germans attacked with tanks and infantry, he braved heavy fire to run to an advantageous position where he immobilized the enemy's lead tank with a round from a rocket launcher. Fire from his squad drove the attacking infantrymen back, and 3 supporting tanks withdrew. He rescued, under heavy fire, another wounded American, and then directed devastating fire on a light cannon that had been brought up by the hostile troops to clear resistance from the area.

When ammunition began to run low, T/Sgt. McGarity, remembering an old ammunition hole about 100 yards distant in the general direction of the enemy, braved a concentration of hostile fire to replenish his unit's supply. By circuitous route the enemy managed to emplace a machinegun to the rear and flank of the squad's position, cutting off the only escape route. Unhesitatingly, the gallant soldier took it upon himself to destroy this menace single-handedly. He left cover, and while under steady fire from the enemy, killed or wounded all the hostile gunners with deadly accurate rifle fire and prevented all attempts to regain the gun.

Only when the squad's last round had been fired was the enemy able to advance and capture the intrepid leader and his men. The extraordinary bravery and extreme devotion to duty of T/Sgt. McGarity supported a remarkable delaying action that provided the time necessary for assembling reserves and forming a line against which the German striking power was shattered.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEDAL OF HONOR ARTICLE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GINO J. MERLI
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This week's Medal of Honor Winner is from the European Theater. The recommendation for this publication came from one of our readers, a soldier himself and a relative of this true hero. I thought it worthwhile to include his letter to us because it not only makes us reflect on the incredible act of heroism but also on the man's subsequent contributions to society, humanity, and future generations. Gino, we all salute you!!!
**********************************************************

I would like to suggest putting the citation of Medal of Honor recipient Gino J. Merli in an upcoming newsletter. I know him and his wonderful wife Mary personally since they are both my great aunt and uncle. Hence, I have known Gino my entire life. At the age of five, my father made me aware that he was some kind of war hero. I really didn't understand or comprehend the feat that Gino had accomplished until I was in my teens.

Gino's heroism and act of bravery never really sunk in until I joined the Army myself in 1984 and understood fully what the Medal of Honor represented, and what Gino had done. Since then I have done all in my power to live up to the high standards of service and patriotism that my great uncle has set for our family and this country. He has not only set an example for me but for thousands of people whose lives he's touched in his 75 years of serving his country, which he still does to this day. He served as a veterans' benefits counselor for the VA for over 40 years, helping thousands of veterans get the services they deserved. He has spoken to hundreds of High School and College students and has remained a pillar of the community in the small town of Peckville, PA ever since he returned from W.W.II.

His heroic act near Sars la Bruyere, Belgium in Sep of 1944 was probably one of the most ingenious and incredible feats of bravery to have occurred during the war. It's hard to believe that a 20 year old PFC, would have been able to remain so cool headed and focused on "the mission" to have accomplished what he did. Lately however, Gino has been fighting another battle, one that has slowed him down, but as of yet, has not been able to stop him. Parkinson's Disease, compounded by Coronary Artery Disease are taking their toll, but like a true warrior Gino soldiers on as brave as ever. I thank you in advance for considering this request.

Frank R. Antenori
SFC, USA
Special Forces Medic/18D
**********************************************************
MERLI, GINO J.

Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, 18th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Sars la Bruyere, Belgium, 4-5 September 1944. Entered service at: Peckville, Pa.Birth: Scranton, Pa. G.O. No.: 64, 4 August 1945.

Citation: He was serving as a machine gunner in the vicinity of Sars la Bruyere, Belgium, on the night of 4-5 September 1944, when his company was attacked by a superior German force Its position was overrun and he was surrounded when our troops were driven back by overwhelming numbers and firepower. Disregarding the fury of the enemy fire concentrated on him he maintained his position, covering the withdrawal of our riflemen and breaking the force of the enemy pressure. His assistant machine gunner was killed and the position captured; the other 8 members of the section were forced to surrender. Pfc. Merli slumped down beside the dead assistant gunner and feigned death. No sooner had the enemy group withdrawn then he was up and firing in all directions. Once more his position was taken and the captors found 2 apparently lifeless bodies. Throughout the night Pfc. Merli stayed at his weapon. By daybreak the enemy had suffered heavy losses, and as our troops launched an assault, asked for a truce. Our negotiating party, who accepted the German surrender, found Pfc. Merli still at his gun. On the battlefield lay 52 enemy dead, 19 of whom were directly in front of the gun.
Pfc. Merli's gallantry and courage, and the losses and confusion that he caused the enemy, contributed materially to our victory .

HARRY S. TRUMAN
THE WHITE HOUSE
June 15, 1945

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14.) Humor:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FRUITCAKE RECIPE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bing Crosby came up with *White Christmas* after trying the recipe himself!

HOLIDAY FRUITCAKE RECIPE

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
2 cups dried fruit
1 tsp. salt
1 cup brown sugar
lemon juice
nuts
1 gallon tequila

Sample the tequila to check for quality. Take a large bowl. Check the tequila again to be sure it is of the highest quality.
Pour 1 level cup and drink. Repeat.
Turn on the electric mixer; beat 1 cup butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 tsp. sugar and beat again.

Make sure the tequila is still okay. Cry another cup.

Turn off the mixer. Break two legs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers, ply it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the tequila to check for tonsisticity. Next sift 2 cups of salt.

Or something... Who cares.

Check the tequila. Now sift lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Spoon. Of sugar or something. Whatever you can find.

Grease the oven. Turn the cake tin to 350 degrees. Don't forget to beat off the turner.

Throw the bowl out the window. Check the tequila again.

Go to bed. Who likes fruitcake anyway?

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And in the next newsline...............
........your feedback to this newsline !!!!

Greetings from Germany
Rolf G. Wilmink
75th Inf Div WWII Veterans Association Unofficial homepage
www.mknet.de/75th
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If you want to become a member of the 75th Div Veterans Association, please contact the president of the Association:
    Geoffrey Parker (75th Recon)
    1104 Tanner Rd.
    Plant City, FL 33756
    USA
    Phone: 1-813-752-6988

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