My Grandpa's WW2 journal

Happy Friday Sup Forums, I have a gift for you.

My dad recently went to visit my terminally ill grandfather. We make trips up to his house by the Canadian border when we can, although my dad lives in Texas and Im now in SoCal.

It isn't very long, and has a part I think you'll find particularly interesting. pic related

While he was up there he discovered my uncle made a transcript of grandpa's WW2 journal. Grandpa was in the US Army and was blown up in Germany later in the war.

Other urls found in this thread:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/102nd_Infantry_Division_(United_States)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)
twitter.com/NSFWRedditImage

September 11, 1944
Left the States night of Sept 11, Sea Tiger cargo vessel. Bad weather first four days. Sighted islands off England on Sept 22. Stayed in Wey Mouth Harbor overnight. Sailed to Cherbourg on the 23rd, landed the 25th. Trucked to area of St. Pierre Egliese. Bivouac area fair. Rain constantly. Lots of hail mingled in. What is our purpose?
October 8, 1944
Sunday, still loafing around. Sun out but clouds beginning to pile up. Sick as a dog. Cramped up terribly. Have eaten little. C-47s still move enmasse.
October 16, 1944
Nothing new. Mud everywhere ankle deep. We were told we were supposed to go to the Luxemburg area. Tommyrot I say.
October 22, 1944
Have been forgetting to make entries and things have been happening. On Oct 19th we were told we were moving to Belgium near Archen. Transferred to 19th corps under General Courtlet, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st army under Lieutenant General Hodges. Wow! Marched from area to Volognes on Oct 21st, my birthday. What misery. This morning we left by rail for Maastricht, about 25 miles from Archen. 35 men in a boxcar. You can’t imagine the situation.
October 23rd, 1944
Going to miss Paris. Most likely hit Liege like I first thought. It is the devil trying to sleep at nights. Crowded as hell.

October 24, 1944
Compience and Valenciennes have been passed, about ready to go to Belgium. Would like to have some mail. We ought to know soon whether or not we see action.
October 25, 1944
As usual with this outfit, things are all messed up. Now we are to go to some little joint near Maastricht called Coloy or there about. Right now we are in Hasselt. Quite a bit northof Liege, and about 25 miles north west of Maastricht. There are rumors that robot bombs are falling in the area where we are headed. Now they say the railroad ahead is bombed out and we must return in order to detour. We’ll end up walking yet. Later – Captain Nust said we would be bivouacked two miles from the front lines. Combat Friday the 27th ????


October 27th, 1944
On Wednesday evening we entered a German town near Aachen and bivouacked outside of it. We are going to be in it alright. Our artillery is terrific. There are duals constantly. At 08:30 we get the final poop. Move forward at 13:00. We are to close the 30th’s lines. It is said that action by ground troops is light at the present, but I believe as does most everyone else that a big push is near.
November 1, 1944
Well, we have had it although it was only a holding action. Plenty of artillery and German “Burp” guns and 34s-42s. Three injuries within the company. Reaction is peculiar up there. You get scared and then it goes away. Things are so damned dirty though. We are now in an area behind the lines a bit, getting some what of a rest. Heavenly.

November 3, 1944
Moved forward again and into one hot spot. Mortars landing around us constantly. These houses have taken a terrible beating. In the States, you read: how there is no church in Germany; how blankets are salvaged for the army; how the Nazis are cracking up. BALONEY! I wish it were all true for then maybe this would be over sooner, but in every house there are many crucifixes, pictures of Christ and all sorts of comforters. The Nazis fight doggedly and there seems to be little hope in a quick surrender. The pill boxes around here are powerfully built. 4 foot reinforced concrete. I have to quit right now. 88s are dropping right on us.
November 5, 1944
Somewhat quiet now. Shelling seems to come in stages. Two men killed last night due to a direct hit. Received first mail today in quite some time. Sure is good. We all wonder how long this stay will be.
November 7, 1944
Election day, vote republican. We are wasting away in this war. Every day is spent in watching? Our minds are becoming stagnant. Nothing is ever gained here. Some what quiet night last night. Very heavy firing this morning however. How long is this crap going to keep up?
November 8, 1944
I have never written our position here. We are attached to the 80th Infantry, 119th Regiment under Major General Hobbs. Wurselen, North of Aachen is the town. The hot poop I received this AM is as follows. The 102nd Infantry Division will move to Holland and be attached to the 2ndarmored division. A big push which may end the war is near. So, the rumor goes. Sounds good, but must wait for time to tell. Glad to leave this Germany, but may return.


November 14, 1944
We have been in this area for the last five days. Holland! But still close to Germany. The last offensive this winter and we all hope that it will be the very last. Should come off very soon. Weather is holding us back. Plenty thankful for this rest. English are on our left. 29th & 30th on our right.2nd is here.

November 20, 1944
Plenty going on. We moved out of the above area on Wednesday the 15th. Trucked to a village in Germany called Flunereich and walked to some other town near by. Plenty of action had been going on. The town had just been taken and Jerry was plenty near by. At dawn we moved out in reserve in the attack. Pinned down in an open field and dug in. Spent the most miserable night in my life there. Ankle deep in mud, rain , and cold for 36 hours, and shells falling all the time. Friday at 13:00 we went into the attack again and advanced 1,000 yards across the open field. Another night in the holes. At dawn we moved into the small village of Apweilbr. This was Sunday and we got a fairly decent night’s sleep. Again the attack. This time at 11:00 this morning. What a sun of a gun this was. At 15:00 we finally entered our objective town. Company has had quite a few casualties as injuries. Should be relieved. The Nazi is a rat. He snipes away at our men until he is overwhelmed. Then he surrenders so sweetly. They really eat up a company that way. The towns are in near ruins. If Germany hopes to continue this war, all her cities will be flattened. Her whole country will be ruined.

November 25th, 1944
Liege: Nazi finally got me, but he didn’t know it. On the morning of November 21 at 11:00 we again attacked. Objective: high ground 1,200 yards out from the town. We took off right across the fields and after a long pull, gained our objective without encounter. But here a machine gun opened up and we build up a line in German foxholes,which I believe were part of an ack-ack position there. I crawled forward to locate the machine gun position and called it back to Lieutenant Askew. I tried to get tracers to set the haystack on fire and while waiting for these, 88s started blasting away. When these quieted down, I raised up for another look when an overhead burst knocked me flat. Blood was everywhere. Askew fixed me up and after resting for a while, I walked back about ¾ miles to the aid station. I was there all afternoon. An ambulance took me to Heerlen (Netherlands) where two operations were performed. A good size piece of shrapnel struck the left side of my face, splitting the nostril, breaking my upper jaw, smashing my teeth in front top and left side and finally lodging in my left shoulder. Right now, I’m in a general hospital in Liege waiting to go to England so I can be fixed up. This surely is hell. My mouth feels like a mass of unset concrete. What will Jan say?

>the end

Did he survive?

>My dad recently went to visit my terminally ill grandfather.
literally the opening sentence.

I'm tired, ok

leaf pls go

More?

Bump

Wow, that was really cool to read. Thanks for sharing user.

>More?

>>>>>>>>the end

Your grandfather may have fought on the side of evil but he accomplished his duty while believing in it. Respect.

>side of evil

bit of a stretch Julio. He was no commie.

Alright, on the side of kikery.

Did we ever find out what Jan said?

bump

Jan ain't grandma, so idk. She was probably fucking Jody.

Also fyi Grandpa's face looks fine. I never knew he had so much injury until one day he took out all of his false teeth on the left side of his mouth. Top and bottom straight down the middle. Never noticed any scars of his either, could be his age but even in pictures he doesnt have very visible scaring. Next time im up I should try to look through older photos of him. Hopefully I get to see him before he passes. He's developed dementia now since being hospitalized though.

Thanks for posting. How do you feel about his involvement in the war? Do you think that he was really defending his people's freedom so far from home? What does he think? Not trying to attack his legacy at all, just wondering what you think.

I've always been so proud of him. Never will stop being proud.

Given what I've learned after finding Sup Forums, I dont know how I feel about the war in general. Americans were fed bullshit by FDR, and the war with Japan was for real, Germany was allied with Japan, and that meant America needed to support their French and UK allies again. Even with all the banking stuff, this was a valid reason to fight Germany.

Do I wish it happened differently? Of course. If I could control history, the allies would have woken up to what Hitler was doing and joined him to expel jewery in our banks. We would have joined Germany and Italy, the fascists would have told Japan to fucking chill and we could have merc'd all of Russia all the way to Santa's doorstep.

I don't know how he feels and I don't know the extent of his knowledge of geopolitics at the time. He doesn't like talking about the war, and he's naturally grumpy (but not really rude)

The part with him talking about German homes hit me like a wave when I read it. "Sup Forums is always right" I thought. I wish I knew what he thought when in Germany and seeing what it was really like. I don't know how he felt about the gommies

>dad went to visit terminally ill grandpa
>grandpa was blown up in germany later in the war
>questionmarknigger.jpg

more pls

Thank you for sharing this m8

to add to this, I also don't think badly of him fighting Nazis, even though I think Hitler was an OK guy now. The world would be such a more brilliant place had the reich been extended. I dont think I would like it here, but having Nazi Germany as the cerebus of Western Civ would have been glorious fortune for Europe and the Anglo sphere.

I empathize with him a bit too. I also served in the Marines and in my only deployment I participated in assault support aviation against ISIS in 2015. Now knowing everything about Syria I feel like I've been fucking used like a whore. I'm still proud of myself though. Even if the enemy was just like the shadows of soldiers in Plato's Cave.

You can get blown up without dying for fucks sake summer.

great thread OP, deserves more (you)'s

thank (you)

>We are to close the 30th’s lines.

The 30th are the unsung heros of the western front. You here about the 82nd and the 101st all the time but you never here about "Roosevelt SS" Seriously look them up. Its damn criminal they dont get the recognition they deserve.

Whats the full name of their unit?

Just looked up what I thought was Grandpa's unit. He has this patch on his uniforms but according to the wiki that's just the name of the bootcamp unit. pic related

Fuck so what unit was he in?

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/102nd_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

fuck me forgot to paste the link

Read the post retard.

>I tried to get tracers to set the haystack on fire and while waiting for these, 88s started blasting away. When these quieted down, I raised up for another look when an overhead burst knocked me flat. Blood was everywhere. Askew fixed me up and after resting for a while, I walked back about ¾ miles to the aid station. I was there all afternoon. An ambulance took me to Heerlen (Netherlands) where two operations were performed. A good size piece of shrapnel struck the left side of my face, splitting the nostril, breaking my upper jaw, smashing my teeth in front top and left side and finally lodging in my left shoulder. Right now, I’m in a general hospital in Liege waiting to go to England so I can be fixed up. This surely is hell. My mouth feels like a mass of unset concrete. What will Jan say?

Nice LARP 4/10

They were the 30th infantry division. They live on today as the 30th ABCT. They were then and still now made up of national guard units from NC, TN, SC.

Nicknamed "Old Hickory" after Andrew Jackson, and again, "Roosevelts SS" by German commanders during the war.

I only know their history because i was part of them for a while when i was in the NG.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

>The 30th Infantry Division was regarded by SLA Marshall as the number one infantry division in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), involved in 282 days of intense combat over a period from June 1944 through April 1945.

>The Nazi is a rat. He snipes away at our men until he is overwhelmed. Then he surrenders so sweetly.
kek
people from that era were built from different atoms, tough motherfuckers

We are attached to the 80th Infantry, 119th Regiment under Major General Hobbs.

It seems you grandfather made a mistake. the 119th INF was under the 30th, and MG Hobbs its commander.

Hmm I think he meant that rest of the 30th was too his right?

also dem 1940s slang:

>The hot poop I received this morning is as follows:

top kek but also ffs grandpa dont write that shit down for a kraut to find

>Hmm I think he meant that rest of the 30th was too his right?

Disregard this, Im stoned.

Maybe he made a mistake? Yeah.. I mean to him his sargeant probably just grabbed him at some point and grandpa heard "We're all now under the 26256 div 16374715 inf ABC company" and grandpa didnt give a shit because it means nothing to him personally.

Yeah probably We getting shot at and shooting at nazis all day for a few weeks doubt he cared.

also
>The hot poop I received this morning is as follows

yeah i was looking at that. We still use it today. When when i was deployed every night our NCO would call a meeting to hand out the "poop". That basicly shit that happened today, Shit that will happen tomorrow, and shit that is upcoming.

Poop is just a daily brief.

Thanks for sharing. I think you're fortunate to have a relationship with your Grandpa, and I wish you and your family the best.

should post to /his/ im sure they would enjoy a thread about actual history

>Im now in SoCal.
W.H.Y?

Good read m8, thanks for sharing

let's be honest, the Germans never gave anybody nicknames. our guys just came up with stuff because it sounds cool and said the Germans gave it to them

>crap

No one said crap in the 1940s. You wrote this.

Should I post my Grandpa's notebook from WWII? It's much like yours, except my Grandpa was on the B-24 Liberator. Each entry was the mission he went on.

Here's the places he bombed:

Venzone, Italy
Passeau, Germany
Trent, Italy
Linz, Autria
Moosbierbaum, Austria (x3)
Regensburg,Germany (x2)
Vienna, Austria (x3)
"A bridge in Austria"
Treste, Yugo
Pola, Yugo
Knittlefield, Germany
Graz, Austria
Mueldorf, Austria
Wels, Austria (x2)
Brescia, Italy
Bologna, Italy (x5)
Robereto, Italy

lol I didnt you faggot.

Stationed here while I was in.

SoCal >>>>> Home. Even though Texas is based.

>September 11, 1944

What does it mean?