70 Pleasant St. Cohasset, MA. 02025 ,781 383 0215 * Mail Call : Ben Barrett Ben517@aol.com

Hello,

Please send links when possible. It saves me for searching for the link and saves space on Mail Call.

Donations for whatever program involving the 517th should be sent to our treasurer Leo Dean at 14 Stonehenge Lane, Albany 12203

Please let me know if you want to receive Mail Calls or if you have a problem receiving them. You can always read back Mail Calls by clicking on www.517prct.org/archives

Ben

Website                                www.517prct.org
Mail Call                               Ben517@aol.com
Mail Call Archives                 www.517prct.org/archives
Roster                                  www.517prct.org/roster.pdf

Recent website additions:

Photos from Europe trip 2009

Myrle Traver, F Co. biography

Michael A. Sura, H Co. biography

St. Cezaire and Les Arcs today

-----Original Message-----
From: Gilles Guignard <dogface44@gmail.com>
Sent: Sep 7, 2009 2:11 PM
To: hhensleigh@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Fwd: RR track underpass + RR track in 2009

Thanks so much for all the details in your last email. I will print it and take it with me when I go down there in October.

I especially liked your comments about the German Patrol and the grease paint still on you faces! I had never heard it.

The house with the 45th guys was south of the RR track in Les Arcs ? Was it near the bridge that leads in town over the RR station or more

on the eastern flank of the RR station ?

Regarding the last map and your comments, Im getting a bit confused as toward which direction you faced once you had crossed the RR track.

As I understand your direction was not towards the house. Once your crossed, did you face west ?

It would be so great if we could sit together and look at all those maps!

I will send another map tomorrow with a grid on the vineyard in order to check the distances you went and try to locate the spot where Gaunce fell.

kind regards Gilles

Howard Hensleigh

This attack in context was on the late afternoon of D plus one so I'm sure the grease paint was still on our faces. We had made the forced march from the Callian area where we were scattered in the dark on the landing. We closed into the drop zone area in the late afternoon of D plus one and Mel Zais reported in to Col. Graves. Tom Cross was in the Hq. and reported that Mel strode in looking every inch like a conquering hero. Graves told Zais that he wanted 3rd Bn. to make the attack on the South part of les Arcs and at first stated that it should begin the next day. He changed his mind and ordered Zais to attack that late afternoon to relieve other 517th units who had been attacking since they landed on D Day. Zais had a fairly good shell of a Bn. with many elements missing that we had organized as best we could on the road, but he was always ready and accepted the change without comment.

The house where the 45th Division men were held prisoner was south of the tracks, one of the houses up in the open fields not too far south of the tracks.

I crossed near where you have the red lines and headed south and some west. I didn't go very far because no one followed me and my machine gun section i was supposed to be leading was on the other side of the tracks. I saw Gaunce's body, was soon fired on, hit the dirt, rolled several times barely avoiding the lead that hit right where I had been and then got the hell out of there back over the tracks to join the rest of the Bn.

You are in the right ball park and close to exact posiltions.

My best, HH

Jerry Wolfford

Hi Ben, glad you guys are back on American soil. I was just now reading the letter to you from Philippe in Draguignan. That really touched my heart. The fact that he felt compelled to reach out to you and express to you how he feels toward the people who came to their land many years ago to break the bondage that had held them in a death grip for so long. I cannot imagine the fear that these people lived in. I would hope that I would have the courage to do the same if somehow our roles had been reversed and it was his fellow soldiers who had come to my home land to free my people from tyranny all those many years ago. And that I would not allow a mere language barrier to stop me from expressing what has been in my heart since childhood. The letter from Philippe comes as close as I feel it is possible with mere words to express the emotions of a people who wanted nothing more from life than to be able to live it in freedom. It makes me proud to be an American, and this American is proud to know that there are souls out there like Philippe who feel it is their duty to pay homage to those that made that possible. "Angels from the sky" is what they saw way back then and who am I to say that those were not angels sent on a mission from our heavenly Father. Amen.

"Nephew of a Buzzard"

Hello!

Someone has just signed your guestbook!

Name: Gary Hulen
From: Paris MO 65275
E-mail: grhulen@dishmail.net
Website:

My father Marvin R. Oliver died 10/13/44 of wounds he received on patrol
somewhere near Sospel, France. He served in Company A of the 517th. While
he was anticipating my birth and I was told had carved my name on the butt
stock of his rife, never knew of my birth on 10/11/44 two days before his
death. Any information, pictures, or knowledge of him would be greatly
treasured by myself, my 5 children, and my 7 grandchildren. It would help
keep his memory and that of his gallant comrades alive for many more years.
We should NEVER allow the world to forget the gift of freedom we were given
by these young men!

Bob Barrett

You probably noticed that a lot of people have sent us a lot of photos from the recent 2009 517 Europe Road trip. That is great, but there are probably way too many to post. So we only have room (and energy) to post a few of the more interesting ones. Because we often receive a LOT of photos at once, I’m going to ask a favor to make it easier to post them all.

If you have only a few photos to send us for the 517 web site or for MailCall, go ahead and send them as attachments to your email.

But if you have a lot of photos, you should create a web album of your own. With a web Album, you can just send us a single link which we can relay on the MailCall, and your photos will still be available for everyone, without us having to download and edit and re-post each and every photo.

To create a Web Album of your own, you should sign up for one of the free web photo services, such as Picasa web, or Flickr.

Here is a sample of a Picasa web album:

You are invited to view rbarrett's photo album: 2009 517 Europe Road Trip part 1 - Belgium