Winter - 70th Infantry Division Association

MaiJ CaJJThey volunteered!Lee Miller, D/275, thinks the old 29thCavalry deserves a little recognition oftheir infantry volunteers. Lee headed agroup of 39 and I had 15. Contingents of29th men also went to the 42nd and 63rdDivisions.Gen. Herren (then Col.) issued ourtravel orders. His arrival at Adair immediatelyafter ours was coincidental, I think!But interesting.The 29th Cavalry was a creature of TheCavalry School. With the closing ofOCS,and a winding-down of school activity, wewere going to miss . the boat as a unit.Hence, the "defections" .I "nominate" Lee Miller, a H.M.G.squad leader, as spokesman for the 29thtroopers. Lee was a mechanic in the 29th,being an M8 armored car expert.Of my contingent of volunteers , FrancisBergin, Raymond Hahn and I aremembers of the 70th Assn. Lee may knowof more, including Earl Koontz, F/275, inhis group.Basement or loft?In the Fall TrailBlazer-you ask 'Wereyou a prisoner in the basement of thechurch at Wingen?" My answer: yesand no. I was a prisoner with about fiftyto sixty others in the church-but wasnot aware of any basement. Most of ushuddled in the rear under a balcony orloft so as to provide, in effect, two roofsover us. The day before we were rescuedthe mortar and artillery fire wasintense; in fact the church sustained anumber of direct hits. One shell camethrough a window and exploded upnear the altar wounding me slightly. Thenext day we knew our guys were gettingclose because the artillery fireceased and the rifle and machine gunfire grew in intensity. Some of the prisonerswould from time to time yeii"Nogrenades-GI's in here" and otherswould yeii"Shut up!-the Germans arestill out there." A very tense and nervoustime.William H. BirnieA & P PlatoonHQ, 1st Bn/27 6Winter, 1988After the Portland Reunion, Lee visitedthe museum at the Cavalry School andfound that the 29th Cav. was listed amongthe regiments, but that's all! We infantryvolunteers escaped an indecent buriaLJames H. PendletonHQ 3rd Bn/275Did you know Dad?My father, Charles E. Fuquay, C/725FA, served wi th the 70th in World War II.My wife and I do genealogical researchand thought that maybe some of his oldcomrades might still be active in yourorganization.I do research at the Washington NationalRecords Center (National Archives)on the 725th and also plan to look up oldstill pictures at the main building of theArchives on the 70th. My father is deceasedbut I know he would appreciate anyhelp that you could provide on his service.Please do write.Steven Fuquay5729 Wooden Hawk LaneBurke, Virginia 22015I'm the Tower observerLast week I received a call from HaroldVickory, an Association member innearby Walnut Creek, who wanted to confirmthe fact that I was a former Trailblazerand further, whether I was the mortarobserver referred to in your latest issue.After reading the article, Harold, on ahunch, looked in the telephone book andlo! and behold, there was an Albert Crumli sted. A call determined that it was mynamesake son who, upon questioning,thought I might be the man in question.My son furnished the proper phone numberand as a result I learned about theassociation and the article from Harold.Needless to say, I was dumbfounded! 1was unaware of the Association and delightedto hear the news. I've often wonderedwhat became of Hilman Knapp,Steve Liptak and the others mentioned inyour article. I plan on writing to them soonhoping, perhaps, to arrange a rendezvousof sorts.I am enclosing my check for a lifemembership.Oh yes, I am the mortar observer-anexperience I' ll never forget.AI CrumM/276Seals for saleOrville Ellis recently acquired and sentme 3,000 Trailblazer seals. We will beselling them for 15¢ each.Alvin Thomas, secretary-treasurer203 So. Major StreetEureka, Illinois 61530Who remembers George?I have just recently begun to try to finddetails of my brother' s death in France onJanuary 4 , 1945, while fighting withCompany C of the 275th Regiment.He was Pfc George Mead. The familyassumed, in light of the date of his death,that he was in the Battle of the BelgianBulge. However, through our Congressmanwe learned that three regimentswere shipped out before the 70thDivision-which landed in France onJanuary 18 . So George was with that advancegroup, Task Force Herren.The Center of Military History in Washington,D.C. has suggested that I writeyou. If any of your readers served withGeorge and is willing to engage in correspondencewith me it would be greatlyappreciated.Lorraine Mead27 Bridge StreetGardnerville, New York 10923Reading "Ordeal*in the Vosges," thatfine book by Charlie Pence and GenePeterson, brought back a lot of memoriesfor Merrill Holliday, M/27 5 ."I was supply sergeant forM Companyand spent about a week in and out of thecompany CP in the south side of Phillipsbourg.I had the unhappy job of identifyingLt. Zahora' s body. He had been shotthrough the temple." After things had quieted down a bitthere, a lookout in an upstairs room alertedus to ' a column of Germans marchingnorth on the Phillipsbourg road.' They hadno weapons. They had been cut off fromtheir outfit so they just threw away theirguns and looked for a way to surrender.' '"There was a lieutenant and about 70enlisted men. The lieutenant was so scaredhe was trembling from head to foot. OurCO, Capt. Oliver, ordered me to assemblefive or six other G ls and to march theGermans back to Battalion."Our company clerk, Clyde Wooley,had the great idea of having an M Companyreunion. This time it was in St. Louisin June. We had about 16 men present,twice as many as we started out with. Nowwe' re looking forward to Nashville. "13