I just
wanted to say Hi to everyone. I wanted to let you know that I made my
reservations at the Hotel for the Savannah
reunion and I also sent Helen and Hal my sheet with the registration fee.
I sent the registration fee in for my brother also (Denny
Ruby). At this point
I am not 100% that he will be coming but I wanted to send in his registration
fee anyway.
There sure are
a lot of people reading the website and asking for information about members of
their family. You and Bob made all of this possible. The
517th Website is GREAT!!!!!!
I will
be looking forward to seeing everyone in Savannah.
Chris
Lindner
Nathan
Rubenstein's Daughter
HQ 2nd Bn
Howard Hensleigh
Note to John
Dempster--There are several of us left who were out there between Ridge X and
Mt. Scandeous near Col de Braus and Sospel, France that fateful afternoon Willis
Woodcock and Capt. McGeever were killed, Reed Terrell was severely wounded and
Dan Brogdan taken prisoner. That aborted attack and the successful one
that followed are well covered in the website as you have found. You
probably know from information on the website that Willis' grave near
Niagara Falls is well tended by a boyhood friend.
We are happy to hear from men like you
who are interested in the lives your relatives lived during the fighting of
WWII. We are also happy that we won that one. Howard
Hensleigh
Bob Piper
Ben, I regret that my
physical status (a nerve
problem that has effected my walking) will
keep
me from attending the BIG gathering
in Savannah. As one of the very few
honorary
517'ers I hate to NOT SHOW
but hopefully I'll improve and put
in
appearances in the future.
I'm sorry to miss meeting the
European
friends who will be attending and hope that
the $200 I sent to
Bob Christie some time ago
will help the Regiment in hosting this
group.
Airborne--All the Way
Bob Piper, Old 505 BUT HONORARY 517.
*************
Bob will be missed. He has attended many of our reunions_
Ben
Bob
Christie
Ben, Could you send me some more 517th
calling cards. How are you doing? Looking forward to seeing you in Savannah. I
am expecting to receive the Thunderbolt any day now. Keep up the good
work.
Here is something to think about. On the
average, we are mailing 1300 Thunderbolts each quarter. 100 members are paying
for the 1300. Sometime during this next year we will be out of money.
Bob
*********
Bob tells it what it
is.-Ben
Boob Boom Alicki
Wacht am Rhein?the German offensive, 16-25 December
1944
On December 19, the senior Allied commanders met in a bunker in Verdun. Eisenhower, realizing that the Allies could destroy German
forces much more easily when they were out in the open and on the offensive than
if they were on the defensive, told the generals "The present situation is to
be regarded as one of opportunity for us and not of disaster. There will be only
cheerful faces at this table". Patton, realizing what Eisenhower implied,
responded "Hell, let's have the guts to let the bastards go all the way to
Paris. Then, we'll really cut'em off and chew'em up". Eisenhower asked
Patton how long it would take to turn his Third Army (then located in
south-central France) north to counter-attack. He said he could do it in 48
hours, to the disbelief of the other generals present. In fact, before he had
gone to the meeting, Patton had ordered his staff to prepare to turn north; by
the time Eisenhower asked him how long it would take, it was already part-way
done. (Citizen Soldiers, p 208)
*****************
Maybe that was what Eisenhower in his
warm bunker thought but the infantry soldiers who were sent into the Ardennes in
near zero weather would have preferred that his intelligence command had
warned him ahead of time and that could have prevented many of the 80,000
American casualties
including 20,000 KIA'S. - Ben