David Knee
Good morning Ben,
We are moving tomorrow and I will be
disconnecting the computer very shortly. When we get to our new
location, I will send our new e-mail address. This might be as long as
3-4 days. Thank you so much for all the e-mails that you send. We would
like to send another contribution, so I will be asking you for your address
again. Have a great week-end.
David Knee
**********
Send contributions for the 517
PRCT to Bob Christie rjcx517@aol.com 390301 Blvd. Unit 10C,
Bradenton, Fl. 34205
We don't accept contributions for the
website or Mail Call . However, we will accept contributions of emails for
Mail Call.
Ben
Irene Franck-Bartlett
Hi Ben,
I'm with Lud.
I'm from Belgium, and I live
here in the US. My name is Irene Franck and I'm 45. My daughter is
visiting from Belgium and we are having a nice party at Lud's granddaughter in
West Chester Pennsylvania. Lud asked me to write something about myself
and my daughter. I was born in Brussels in 1959. My father lost his
father in WWI and served in WW2 (he was in his early thirties during WW2).
My mother was in Poland during WW2, and from what I heard, it was really
tough. After the war, she went to live in Belgium where she met my
dad. Would you please include me in your mail call.
Here's my
Email address :
SteveIrene@comcast.net
I am going to graduate tomorrow
from nursing school with Lud's granddaughter
Tyler.
It is a real pleasure
to meet Lud, he's a very interesting guy. Picture
will
follow.
It's hard for me to believe Lud.......
Best regards,
Irene
Franck-Bartlett
Gene Frice
Ben,
Reference # 903 and Howard
Hensleigh"s response to Fred Bayer about the coastal guns.
Yes, in that portion of Southern France, above
Sospel, we did receive naval support. We received little on the way from the
valleys and hills from LeMuy to Levens and Luceram.
In the area before (and above Sospel) we were close enough to the coast to
receive that support. That was the area around Col de Braus, which was about
10-20m from the coast (an effective range for the naval guns). On a number of
occasions, on the ridge above Col de Braus, and later on hill 1098, we heard the
shells passing overhead, and on several occasions I actually saw the shells as
they passed over. They sounded like bath tubs passing over with both faucets on
and the drain pulled. The shells were not directed at the enemy immediately to
our front, but to the several forts on the hills before us, and above Sospel. It
was most fortunate that at least on that occasion there were no short rounds as
they passed nearly overhead.
However, on the
receiving end the heavy artillery and mortors of the forts took a toll on our
company on 1098. I had heard that we received no casualties on 1098-wrong. Pvt's Pacey, Sherman, Shanefelt and Thomas
were all KIA's on and the vicinity of 1098.
We have
visited the forts several times in recent years. On the sides of the forts we
saw the efforts of the naval fire and the P-51's to damage the forts. I saw no
damage and bombs and naval fire likely only woke our enemy up from a nap.
Craters exist today on the side of the forts and it appeared that there was no
penetration. Those forts were well built. It was the wrong generation of weapons
that were deployed.
That must have been pretty good
duty for those krauts. It was most interesting to go the many stories down into
the system to see how well they were constructed.