[jluetjen]

Originally Posted by tabs

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.

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.


This picture was taken at a PW Enclosure near Florange France.


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.



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.

"There was nothing glamorous about fire direction survey work, but I guess that it served it's purpose or the Army wouldn't have had it. I did that kind of work through 4 campaigns and was always far enough in the rear so that it seemed like an ordinary day's work. But I got one of the best deals of all later on when I was put in charge of the guard over 500 Polish WACs who had been captured by the Germans and released by the Americans. The guard was placed there to keep the GI wolves away and it was a tough job as those guys tried all kinds of tricks to get near them. Still it was interesting and funny too. I know a lot of guys who would have liked to have had it."