{"id":1472,"date":"1944-12-06T18:03:00","date_gmt":"1944-12-06T18:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2023-05-12T02:09:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T02:09:44","slug":"page-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/diary\/page-24\/","title":{"rendered":"Page 24"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wednesday, 6 December [1944]<\/strong>
[Continued from previous page<\/em>] moved North-East \u2013 60 miles to Lotes \u2013 where Bn. is assembled.1<\/a><\/sup> Lotes , France.<\/span> What a trip \u2013 we passed scenes of destruction which were horrible to look at. Whole blocks, sometimes whole cities, completely leveled. We are working on our equipment, getting ready to move to Metz at the end of the week.2<\/a><\/sup> Metz was a highly fortified city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers in the Lorraine region.  Patton\u2019s Third Army captured Metz from the German Army on November 22, 1944.  Rick Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light:  The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945<\/em> (New York, 2013), pp. 343, 348.  For its location, see Map, Site #3. <\/span> We are assigned to the third army, which is under the command of General Patton.3<\/a><\/sup> General George S. Patton (1885-1945) commanded the Third Army in its drive across France to Germany, August 1944-May 1945.  His leadership of the Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge, especially at Bastogne, proved essential in stopping the German advance.  Atkinson, The Guns at Last Light,<\/em> pp. 149, 465-70.<\/span>  We are with the 87th<\/sup> Division.  There are lots of Land mines and booby traps. I don\u2019t think that we are going to waste much time. Mud is everywhere, a foot deep. I haven\u2019t been able to get galoshes or boots because of my size. My feet have been wet and cold for over a week. We were issued ammunition today and we all feel better to have it in our possession. There was a Red Cross Clubmobile here today and we really enjoyed the coffee and donuts.4<\/a><\/sup> In World War II the American Red Cross was asked by the U.S. Armed Forces to provide recreational services to the servicemen in the various theatres of operation. They would reach the serviceman at his camp or airfield. Also, by having a club on wheels, the Red Cross was able to get around the army’s request that servicemen pay for food. Everything distributed on a clubmobile was free. Clubmobiles began operation in Great Britain in late 1942, eventually covering some thirty bases and docks at Liverpool, Greenoch, Scotland, and Belfast, Ireland. \u201cA Brief History of Red Cross Clubmobiles in W.W.\u201d Accessed April 27, 2014. http:\/\/www.clubmobile.org\/history.html.<\/span> One of the girls was from Newport News, Virginia. Her brother and I were in the 74th<\/sup> together and had mutual friends. We had quite a chat and I promised to write to her. I wonder if I ever shall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, 7 December [1944] Lotes<\/strong>
Spent the day in last minute checkups of equipment. Want to get in shape for an expected move. Everyone is hard at work. The kitchen force is building onto the kitchen truck, enlarging their trailer. The maintenance is painting 3A on all of our vehicles along with 36233 \u2013 our Unit Designation. We hit the sack about 10 and prepared for a night of uninterrupted slumber. [Continued on next page<\/em>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, 6 December [1944][Continued from previous page] moved North-East \u2013 60 miles to Lotes \u2013 where Bn. is assembled. What a trip \u2013 we passed scenes of destruction which were horrible to look at. Whole blocks, sometimes whole cities, completely leveled. We are working on our equipment, getting ready to move to Metz at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":626,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2799,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions\/2799"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}