Some of the broad history in the orginal posting is a bit mixed up. The pictures of the Long Toms being transported was likily taken in France in the summertime as the trees are full of leaves and the roads dusty.

Also notice the grimace on the face of the Sergent in the concentration camp photo. He is biting his lip.

Keep in mind Tabs that my Grandfather never spoke a word about the war, it had to be dragged out of him and as a grandchild, he NEVER spoke to me about it.

The exact order of the accounts may be a bit off, realize as well that the author of that is also dead now dying last year. So his recollections of the stories may have faded with time. I am just glad he wrote them down at one point. These were stories I never heard until I read them.

My grandfathers attitude toward his service in the war was just that, service. He served his nation to help it through a battle and once it was over it was behind him. He never looked back.

Tab; My Dad took the pictures that I posted, including the Long Toms. I posted those pictures on a slight tangent to Jim's post since Jim suggested on another thread that possibly his Grand Father and my Dad may have been serving near each other. I don't believe that this was the case.

My Dad's unit -- the 374 FA Bn, didn't receive their 155s until some time between the end of the Battle of the Bulge, and 9 March, 1945. Prior to that time they performed miscellaneous other duties, often acting as MPs. They did such things as processing and guarding German PWs, as well as guarding bridge installations, 3rd Army HQ, 12 Army Group and SHAEF Transmitters, as well as Radio Luxembourg. In fact during the Battle of the Bulge, the unit was stationed in and around Luxembourg, although most of the men were assigned to help other units - I suspect to reinforce and support Patton's redeployment to the North. The 374 FA Bn regrouped some time in February 1945.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202739315.jpg
This picture was taken at a PW Enclosure near Florange France.

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I suspect that this may have been the surrender of a German AA Battalion near Revigny in France. Unfortunately I can't see enough of the uniforms to ID the unit as Luftwaffe or not.

In the case of my Dad, he was guarding a bridge emplacement near the boarder of France and Luxumbourg during the Battle of the Bulge.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202739434.jpg

The 374 FA Bn first went into action as an artillery unit on 9 March, 1945 near Hebron Luxembourg. They fired their first 155 mm rounds in anger from near Wittlich in Germany on 12 March 1945. So in the case of the picture of the Long Tom convoy that I posted, in all likelihood that picture was taken in 1945 in Germany. Given the season, it would have somewhere near Gross Freison to Poppengrun in Southern Germany. Battery "C" apparently fired the last round of Heavy Artillery in the 1st Army (to whom they were attached starting 27 April, 1945).

In general my Dad's attitude was similar to Jim's Grandfather's. He didn't speak much of the experience until a few years ago after he went to a reunion from the 734 FA Bn. He prepared a scrap book with some of the pictures that I have, and he and I went through it while I recorded his fairly brief thoughts. I've since found the negatives which I've been slowly scanning into our computer. Soon after returning from Europe, he once provided these comments to a booklet that was compiled by the State of Connecticut about the retuning servicemen. It seems to have summed up his experiences pretty well.

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http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1202739271.jpg