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Category: Community
Forum: Chat Room
Thread: On this Day |
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Thread Status: Locked Total posts in this thread: 716
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 5th January, 1945.
----------------------------------------There were still no bagpipes to be heard. Normally, they played for reveille, parade, cookhouse and Jankers, but, on thinking back, they had not played since the "funnies" took Blerick. Traditionally, the pipers had also accompanied any advance, presumably in order to scare the Enemy, but we had not advanced since Blerick. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Former Member at Jan 5, 2008 12:13:49 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 6th January, 1945
The Luftwaffe was no longer a fighting force. The previous day they lost 277 aircraft around Bastogne. We also lost some 156 allied fighting aircraft. Not being aircrew of those 156 was among our blessings. Not being among those 277 was an even bigger blessing. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 7th January, 1945.
Every day the snow became thicker and the air colder. We were lucky to have stoves and a good supply of peat, so no way were we going out unnecessarily. The library was desperately short of books, mainly because of losses on Hill 112, which nobody had replaced. In consequence, the next couple of weeks were boring and there was nothing happening locally worth mentioning. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Monday, 8th January, 1945
Hitler ordered a German withdrawal to Houffalize However, in the face of overwhelming Allied superiority in men and hardware the Germans were forced to retreat farther east, and the US First and Third Armies linked up at Houffalize on Monday, 16th January, 1945. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Tuesday, 9th January, 1945
It was on a night such as this one that I went on guard without my greatcoat. However, I did have my cap, comforter, and my new Balaclava helmet as well as my army issue khaki pullover and gloves. The field bakery was not quite dead, so I fed it with peat to keep it going. The evening mug of tea also came in handy, not as much for drinking; more as a hand warmer. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Wednesday, 10th January, 1945
It was also on nights like that one that we were glad to be bored and could count our blessings. Guard duty is better to have than casualty duty and the boring days that we now experienced were better than the hectic ones. The front line was a natural barrier and the weather unsuitable for cross-river swimming so our winter quarters were more like a rest camp than a battle station, and we were not so much in action as standing by for action. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Thursday, 11th January, 1945
Looking back on those days, one thing stands out – the clarity of the skies at night. Even in blacked-out England the stars seemed to shine more brightly while there was no artificial light in competition with them. It was the same here, especially on cloudless and moonless nights. The only occasional form of illumination at night was way across the river, when the R.A.F. was bombing targets in Germany. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Friday, 12th January, 1945
We never saw the bombers coming over, but we did see the flashes reflected on clouds at times. We also saw coloured flares glowing in the sky just before some of the bombs; and in daylight, when the A.A.F. was bombing, pillars of smoke in the same areas. We assumed that these, too, were markers, but who needs markers in daylight? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Saturday, 13th January 1945
It may be that what appeared to us to be markers were actually the vapour/smoke trails left behind by A4/V2 rockets, launched prematurely because it would have been hazardous to have left them on their launching pads during A.A.F. raids. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Sunday, 14th January 1945
I can not remember what pastimes we had during those boring days. A pack of cards or a set of poker dice would have been useful, but I remember none, nor could I remember having previously seen any in the mobile NAAFI (when we had had one). Our home made chess set had long disappeared and there was no other game to amuse us. |
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