{"id":2188,"date":"1945-03-29T18:48:00","date_gmt":"1945-03-29T18:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2023-05-12T04:53:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T04:53:04","slug":"page-94","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/diary\/page-94\/","title":{"rendered":"Page 94"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[continued from previous page]<\/em> At 1200, we reached our destination for the night. It is a woods just on the outskirts of a little village called \u201cBirlenbach\u201d. We took several prisoners here after a brief discussion. We found them hiding in a partially completed mine, which was built into the side of a hill, deep in the woods. There is a beautiful cemetery just across the way. Each grave is a little garden in its self and is well cared for. There were several Birlenbachs buried there, evidently the family for which the town was named. Many new graves indicated that they had felt the blows of war. Some mail came in today. I received 5 letters. Studied our situation maps for a while although the front is so fluid it is impossible to keep track of it. I hit the sack at 2000. We had advanced 25 miles today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday, 30 March [1945] Villmar, Germany<\/strong>1<\/a><\/sup>Goetz\u2019s unit continued eastward to Villmar, a small market village in Hesse, Germany.<\/span>
Up at 0600. Shaved, had breakfast and were on the move at 0930.\u00a0 The country is flatter now and we made rapid progress.\u00a0Took 12 pw\u2019s during the trip.\u00a0 Passed through several villages.\u00a0 There are many Frenchmen (Forced labor, presumably) who wave and throw us the victory sign.\u00a0 We stick closely to our Non-Fraternization plan although it is very difficult at times.2<\/a><\/sup>A strict Non-Fraternization policy was put in place to control the relations between Allied soldiers and German civilians.\u00a0 Goetz saved a copy of this policy in his diary.\u00a0 See \u201cSpecial Orders of German-American Relations,\u201d issued by General Omar Bradley, Headquarters, Twelfth Army Group, Europe, n.d., Diary Inserts, Insert 14.

\n<\/a>\u200b\u200b.<\/em><\/span>\u00a0Especially when the girls wear sweaters.\u00a0 We will be strong though. After going about 20 miles, we bivouacked in a woods near Villmar. We took several prisoners here and learned that many more Jerries were hiding in the woods. We will organize a hunting party tomorrow.\u00a0The 2D Platoon is close by and Bob came over for a visit.3<\/a><\/sup>Cpl. Robert J. \u201cBob\u201d Hertz was a good friend of Vernon\u2019s in the Army. He served with Goetz in B Battery, 549th<\/sup> Anti-Aircraft Artillery, 87th<\/sup> Division. He lived in South Carolina with his wife and they kept in contact for many years. Interview with Mary Goetz, April 14, 2014.<\/em><\/span>\u00a0We enjoy our occasional get togethers very much.\u00a0 No mail today.\u00a0 Hit the sack at 2000.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[continued from previous page] At 1200, we reached our destination for the night. It is a woods just on the outskirts of a little village called \u201cBirlenbach\u201d. We took several prisoners here after a brief discussion. We found them hiding in a partially completed mine, which was built into the side of a hill, deep in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":818,"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-2188","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\/2188","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2844,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/2844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humanitieslab.goucher.edu\/lest-i-forget\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}