The Beer Barrel Poka 275TH VETERANS REVISIT EUROPE 30 YEARS LATER The photo above was taken at Medendorf, Belgium, looking east into Germany, from a point between the 1944 locations of "A" Btry and the Battalion Aid Station. That had been our first combat gun position (Oct. 23 to Dec.16, 1944) and the area was familiar to all of us; it's a shame the greenery of fields and forests captured by our color pictures is lost in this black and white reproduction. The house that served as Battalion Hq. in 1944 had faded from bright pink to dirty red by 1970, but by 1975 had been re-plastered (below, left) in clean gray-tan. "C" Battery veterans Win Hallman and James Bass had no trouble finding their 1944 gun positions a couple hundred yards in front of that house. East of Medendorf, beyond the first mountain ridge, the country inn at Lanzerath from which "A" Btry observers directed fire into Losheim and other German target areas was easy to spot; John McWil1iams, Don Herman and Bob Schnulle remembered it well. But the convent at Manderfeld (Hq of the l8th Cavalry, with a "B" Btry OP in the attic) had been torn down since 1970 to make way for a modern, stone church. Our limited time in the area did not permit us to go through border-crossing formalities to visit the "C" Btry OP's in Roth and Auw, Germany, but none of us on the tour had manned those OP's. We did stop briefly at Herresbach (lower right) where Service Battery veterans John Matthews and Kenny Stevens revisited locations of our wartime supply and motor maintenance activities. We found many local people who remembered our outfit, but only "Doc" Kelley played such a unique role during the war that he was personally recognized by civilians with any regularity. Moving westward from the Medendorf area, over a road as narrow and twisty as ever, we approached St. Vith from the west, giving us a view (above, left) of how that town had been rebuilt after its almost complete destruction during the Bulge. In its town hall (above, right) Bill Pilati and Bill Merrill held our 275th banner as Councilman Charles Kreins read (in German) a message of friendship prior to presenting us a St. Vith plaque that is now one of our Association's prized trophies, and leading a vin d'honneur (wine of honor) ceremony in our honor. Tour guide Diana Brown translated the Councilman's words into English, and Dave Cleary's response into German. After a good lunch in St. Vith, we moved to Ober Emmels and the nearby intersection where Bernie Fredkin had lain in a ditch, dodging bullets, with only his upraised arm and hand visible to point the way to Hinderhausen during our move under fire on Dec, 19, 1944. At Hinderhausen itself, we found many more civilians who remembered our three days there, including Widow Bertha Goebels, whose side yard had been the "B" Btry gun position. The scene below is not likely to be forgotten by men of "C" Btry; it's the field in which SS troops attacked their gun position. Mr. Schneider, in the picture, was a boy then. Farther west, we visited Vielsalm, Manhay and Harre, from where our guns fired on Manhay at the 275th's farthest point of retreat. There were memories aplenty for all of us; Bob Schnulle even identified the tree north of Manhay under which he briefed Gen. Matthew Ridgway on the situation in that crucial battle. Manhay was the spot, you'll recall, where the 275th and 46 other artillery battalions massed fires under control of 7th Armd. Division to pulverize German forces trying to move north toward Liege. All the places described so far were visited on Tuesday, July 22. We had flown into Amsterdam the previous Sunday morning, and spent that afternoon napping to adjust to the time change. On Monday morning we saw the sights of Rotterdam, a beautifully rebuilt city, and that afternoon our tour bus made the easy run to Liege, where we stayed three nights. Wednesday featured a visit to the Malmedy massacre memorial and a retracing of our route (Basse Bodeaux, etc) as we had "flattened" the Bulge in 1945, plus an afternoon tour of the Lammersdorf and Schmidt (Germany) areas where we supported the American attack on the Schwammanuel Dam controlling the Roer river. While that area has been rebuilt, with a lovely recreation area at the dam itself, the concrete "dragon's teeth" used as tank barriers were still there. It would cost too much to remove them, we were told. Thursday was another busy day. We visited the grave of Charles R. Clarke, Jr. (Hq Btry) in the military cemetery at Margraten, Holland, then made an all-too-short stop at Venlo, where Burgemeister (Mayor) Gysen made us acutely aware that the Dutch have not forgotten that it was Americans who liberated much of Holland, including his city, from the Nazis. Our tour bus then crossed the Rhine at Wesel, near our 1945 pontoon bridge crossing. East of the Rhine, we moved so fast in 1945, seldom in one position longer than 24 hours, that we could remember very few specific places. But we all remembered the area near Gottingen where we set up military government late in April, 1945, and spent Saturday there. After visiting "our" towns (Rittmarshausen, Etzenborn, Rinehausen, Falkenhagen, etc.) we were guests for tea at the "Schloss" (castle, above) Gleichen, which "B" Btry had used as quarters. Hans was 14 then; his father is now dead. But his mother was our hostess (again!) and is shown with men of our group on her front lawn. Kneeling, left to right, are Bass, Matthews, Redcay and Kelley. Standing are Scoggins, Nanney, McWilliams partly behind Stevens, Schnulle, Hallman, Merrill, Herman, Bauerle, Cleary with Hodges behind him, the Dowager Baroness, Pilati, Dofflemeyer and Fredkin. Totally obscured are Sam Brooks, behind Nanney, and Reid Leishmen, behind Pilati. We won't soon forget that occasion, and are hoping to have Hans and his wife, Juliana, with us in Carlisle. The Rhine river, so formidable in 1945, is now busy with both cargo and passenger boats. We began our cruise at Bachrach (left) on a boat like the one pictured, and spent a pleasant night in the lovely Rhine town of Boppard. Having by then visited our wartime areas, we became sightseers in Brussels (beautiful by night!) and London, with smooth crossings of the English channel both ways. In the British capital we had an excellent guide who took us to Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, etc., and led us to perfect spots for Photographing the changing of the guard (above, left) at Buckingham Palace. Throughout our trip, there were opportunities for relaxation and conviviality that are hard to capture on paper. Photos on this page depict only a few of those, showing (left) the Mathews family at lunch with Mayor Gysen in Venlo; a gang of us on the KLM 747 (Win Hallman in front of Pilati, Bass, Kelley and Dofflemeyer) and (above) the snack bar area atop the Schwammanuel Dam where we spent a pleasant hour overlooking a lakeful of water sport opportunities we couldn't envision during the battles of 1945. Our big regret was that 15 days didn't allow us to follow our entire wartime route (France wasn't on our itinerary at all) nor to stay as long as we would have liked in some of the places we did visit. We were all surprised, for example, by the warm esteem in which the Dutch hold their American liberators after so many years; we now wish we had spent more time in Venlo, where we sensed a spirit of gratitude --almost reverence-- toward American war veterans we found nowhere else. Several who made the trip favor another "Return to Europe" in the future, and that possibility can be discussed during our business meeting in Carlisle, along with plans for future "Stateside" reunions. This report can be only a small "taste" of the memories carried back from Europe by the 42 of us who made the trip, reflected in hundreds of rolls of color snapshots, more than 100 reels of color movie film, and the anecdotes each of us will be telling for years to come. We'll utilize a lot of the anecdotes, and the best of the color movies and still pictures, in the "travelogue" we'll be presenting in Carlisle. It may turn out that we'll have more movie film and still pictures than we can fit into a program of decent length, and you'll want to see the individual pictures and movies taken by a close friend. The place to get the rest of our "Return to Europe" details will be Carlisle, and we hope to see you there next July. Reunion Committee 275th Armd. F. A. Bn. Assn. Thanks to Harold Ricks for sending this newsletter from 1975 Medendorf 1974 dcooper1924@comcast.net
The photo above was taken at Medendorf, Belgium, looking east into Germany, from a point between the 1944 locations of "A" Btry and the Battalion Aid Station. That had been our first combat gun position (Oct. 23 to Dec.16, 1944) and the area was familiar to all of us; it's a shame the greenery of fields and forests captured by our color pictures is lost in this black and white reproduction. The house that served as Battalion Hq. in 1944 had faded from bright pink to dirty red by 1970, but by 1975 had been re-plastered (below, left) in clean gray-tan. "C" Battery veterans Win Hallman and James Bass had no trouble finding their 1944 gun positions a couple hundred yards in front of that house.
East of Medendorf, beyond the first mountain ridge, the country inn at Lanzerath from which "A" Btry observers directed fire into Losheim and other German target areas was easy to spot; John McWil1iams, Don Herman and Bob Schnulle remembered it well. But the convent at Manderfeld (Hq of the l8th Cavalry, with a "B" Btry OP in the attic) had been torn down since 1970 to make way for a modern, stone church. Our limited time in the area did not permit us to go through border-crossing formalities to visit the "C" Btry OP's in Roth and Auw, Germany, but none of us on the tour had manned those OP's. We did stop briefly at Herresbach (lower right) where Service Battery veterans John Matthews and Kenny Stevens revisited locations of our wartime supply and motor maintenance activities. We found many local people who remembered our outfit, but only "Doc" Kelley played such a unique role during the war that he was personally recognized by civilians with any regularity.
Moving westward from the Medendorf area, over a road as narrow and twisty as ever, we approached St. Vith from the west, giving us a view (above, left) of how that town had been rebuilt after its almost complete destruction during the Bulge. In its town hall (above, right) Bill Pilati and Bill Merrill held our 275th banner as Councilman Charles Kreins read (in German) a message of friendship prior to presenting us a St. Vith plaque that is now one of our Association's prized trophies, and leading a vin d'honneur (wine of honor) ceremony in our honor. Tour guide Diana Brown translated the Councilman's words into English, and Dave Cleary's response into German.
After a good lunch in St. Vith, we moved to Ober Emmels and the nearby intersection where Bernie Fredkin had lain in a ditch, dodging bullets, with only his upraised arm and hand visible to point the way to Hinderhausen during our move under fire on Dec, 19, 1944. At Hinderhausen itself, we found many more civilians who remembered our three days there, including Widow Bertha Goebels, whose side yard had been the "B" Btry gun position. The scene below is not likely to be forgotten by men of "C" Btry; it's the field in which SS troops attacked their gun position. Mr. Schneider, in the picture, was a boy then.
Farther west, we visited Vielsalm, Manhay and Harre, from where our guns fired on Manhay at the 275th's farthest point of retreat. There were memories aplenty for all of us; Bob Schnulle even identified the tree north of Manhay under which he briefed Gen. Matthew Ridgway on the situation in that crucial battle. Manhay was the spot, you'll recall, where the 275th and 46 other artillery battalions massed fires under control of 7th Armd. Division to pulverize German forces trying to move north toward Liege.
All the places described so far were visited on Tuesday, July 22. We had flown into Amsterdam the previous Sunday morning, and spent that afternoon napping to adjust to the time change. On Monday morning we saw the sights of Rotterdam, a beautifully rebuilt city, and that afternoon our tour bus made the easy run to Liege, where we stayed three nights. Wednesday featured a visit to the Malmedy massacre memorial and a retracing of our route (Basse Bodeaux, etc) as we had "flattened" the Bulge in 1945, plus an afternoon tour of the Lammersdorf and Schmidt (Germany) areas where we supported the American attack on the Schwammanuel Dam controlling the Roer river. While that area has been rebuilt, with a lovely recreation area at the dam itself, the concrete "dragon's teeth" used as tank barriers were still there. It would cost too much to remove them, we were told.
Thursday was another busy day. We visited the grave of Charles R. Clarke, Jr. (Hq Btry) in the military cemetery at Margraten, Holland, then made an all-too-short stop at Venlo, where Burgemeister (Mayor) Gysen made us acutely aware that the Dutch have not forgotten that it was Americans who liberated much of Holland, including his city, from the Nazis. Our tour bus then crossed the Rhine at Wesel, near our 1945 pontoon bridge crossing.
East of the Rhine, we moved so fast in 1945, seldom in one position longer than 24 hours, that we could remember very few specific places. But we all remembered the area near Gottingen where we set up military government late in April, 1945, and spent Saturday there. After visiting "our" towns (Rittmarshausen, Etzenborn, Rinehausen, Falkenhagen, etc.) we were guests for tea at the "Schloss" (castle, above) Gleichen, which "B" Btry had used as quarters. Hans was 14 then; his father is now dead. But his mother was our hostess (again!) and is shown with men of our group on her front lawn. Kneeling, left to right, are Bass, Matthews, Redcay and Kelley. Standing are Scoggins, Nanney, McWilliams partly behind Stevens, Schnulle, Hallman, Merrill, Herman, Bauerle, Cleary with Hodges behind him, the Dowager Baroness, Pilati, Dofflemeyer and Fredkin. Totally obscured are Sam Brooks, behind Nanney, and Reid Leishmen, behind Pilati. We won't soon forget that occasion, and are hoping to have Hans and his wife, Juliana, with us in Carlisle.
The Rhine river, so formidable in 1945, is now busy with both cargo and passenger boats. We began our cruise at Bachrach (left) on a boat like the one pictured, and spent a pleasant night in the lovely Rhine town of Boppard.
Having by then visited our wartime areas, we became sightseers in Brussels (beautiful by night!) and London, with smooth crossings of the English channel both ways. In the British capital we had an excellent guide who took us to Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, etc., and led us to perfect spots for Photographing the changing of the guard (above, left) at Buckingham Palace.
Throughout our trip, there were opportunities for relaxation and conviviality that are hard to capture on paper. Photos on this page depict only a few of those, showing (left) the Mathews family at lunch with Mayor Gysen in Venlo; a gang of us on the KLM 747 (Win Hallman in front of Pilati, Bass, Kelley and Dofflemeyer) and (above) the snack bar area atop the Schwammanuel Dam where we spent a pleasant hour overlooking a lakeful of water sport opportunities we couldn't envision during the battles of 1945.
Our big regret was that 15 days didn't allow us to follow our entire wartime route (France wasn't on our itinerary at all) nor to stay as long as we would have liked in some of the places we did visit. We were all surprised, for example, by the warm esteem in which the Dutch hold their American liberators after so many years; we now wish we had spent more time in Venlo, where we sensed a spirit of gratitude --almost reverence-- toward American war veterans we found nowhere else. Several who made the trip favor another "Return to Europe" in the future, and that possibility can be discussed during our business meeting in Carlisle, along with plans for future "Stateside" reunions.
This report can be only a small "taste" of the memories carried back from Europe by the 42 of us who made the trip, reflected in hundreds of rolls of color snapshots, more than 100 reels of color movie film, and the anecdotes each of us will be telling for years to come. We'll utilize a lot of the anecdotes, and the best of the color movies and still pictures, in the "travelogue" we'll be presenting in Carlisle.
It may turn out that we'll have more movie film and still pictures than we can fit into a program of decent length, and you'll want to see the individual pictures and movies taken by a close friend. The place to get the rest of our "Return to Europe" details will be Carlisle, and we hope to see you there next July.
Reunion Committee 275th Armd. F. A. Bn. Assn.
Medendorf 1974
dcooper1924@comcast.net
report sent with
a newsletter before the second reunion of 275th Armored Field Artillery Battalion
in Carlisle, PA. in 1976. The article was written by Capt. David M. Cleary,
Battery Commander of "B" Battery during W.W.II. He is pictured to the right
with E.L.D. Breckenridge and his wife, Sue.