Strange thought - suppose the farm house where Guidry and Dad spent their last 2 nights on the run was on the East side of the River Sieg - and they never crossed it - not because they couldn't but might have been more dangerous with the areas they had to then find cover.
I need to see what I have in my long ago written notes.
Food at the farm house was better than the Camp - soup had more potatoes in it and they arrived with no food and got some black/brown bread there. Was it wiser to sit and wait it out at that point. Slept in the hay in the barn at night - and out in the field hiding in the day. Germans were patrolling and looking for Americans at this time.
Lucky the farmers - a couple- did not turn them in.
From what we know so far, your dad & Guidry entered the 78th division line on the morning of 21 March 1945 contacting some guys in a jeep.
The Sieg River was designated by General Bradley as the northern limit of the Remagan bridgehead. On 13 March the 78th`s line had reached Honnef, about 4 miles from the Sieg. The 78th reached the Sieg River ON the 21st establishing their line from the Rhine eastward to the autobahn. The north side of the Sieg was well defended by the germans so there would have no patrols across the Sieg and the units of the 78th would not have been close to the river in sight of german artillery, but back maybe half a mile to a mile from the river.
So for them to see a jeep, they had to have crossed the Sieg.
Wherever the farmhouse was, north or south of the Sieg, the farmer knew the american armies were coming soon and figured it was in their best interest to help the escapees.
Here we go again - you have outdone yourself - even when it seems impossible!!!
Thank you for the info on the gentleman who had been at Siegburg.
There were some new pieces of information and different ways of describing from his mind what he experienced.
I am assuming that he was up in the Abbey - but he does not seem to know - his description during Air Raids - might help but then it could have been up at the Abbey too.
Great to know it is on line. Thanks - but there are some on Amazon and real inexpensive - strange but for my vision, easier to read book. However, I do realize I can print the online version - so that is good news.
Today just some Fotos made by Tech/5 F. Linden, 165th Signal Corps Company, of the 97th US Infantry Division entering Siegburg on 10 April 1945.
1 - A squad of infantry from the 97th stalking German snipers and machine gun positions in Siegburg, April 10, 1945
2 - Men of the 97th Division entering Siegburg ready for the fight ahead. Check out all the extra boxes of .30 cal machine gun ammunition the men are lugging
3 - A 97th Infantry Division Browning Automatic Rifleman grabs a corner to lay down suppressing fire for the rest of his squad as the Americans push deeper into Siegburg
4 - The platoon of GI's he was with have just dived for cover and are trying to communicate and figure out a way to deal with the MG-42 nest
5 - A forward observer team takes cover in a doorway while calling for a fire misison on German positions inside Siegburg
An update from my trip to the Archives in St. Louis:
The records were blah! relatively speaking. No great successes as before with Geraghty and others.
I need to look in more depth at what I did get but not much to look at.
Those poor guys, especially those that gave their lives to the War, and they have basically nothing in their file. If a family member wanted to learn more about them, they would have to devote a huge amount of their time to discover anything. Especially if they did not know what Division/Outfit the person had been in. It seems to me the Gov't should provide funding to update/augment the records.
They especially should when it comes to the microfiche and the indices are almost impossible to figure out. I was never successful working with the indices and lost a lot of time. They need to hire Larry and have help figure it all out.
The folks working there could not have been nicer or more helpful - the problem was there were basically no records to work from!
