Pics : 'Wartime Hell' - Page 3

Mats · #51 (**permalink**) October 28th, 2007, 01:16 PM

Now I get "off topic", but if anyone intends to visit the Bastogne area (Battle of the Bulge), I strongly recomment the following hotel situated a few miles outside the town:

Hotel Grandru

Very nice hotel with very nice owners, and situated along the road the americans took in order to help those poor ones in Bastogne.

Mats

Kai-Petri · #52 (**permalink**) October 28th, 2007, 02:22 PM

Thanx for the tip, Mats!

Kieran Bridge · #53 (**permalink**) October 30th, 2007, 05:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wessex Wyvern

Thought I'd add this short extract from a longer piece from Art Bridge, a rifleman in 14 Platoon, C Company ,Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Canada.

.

Lots more where that came from, my fingers hurt at the moment.

Thanks for quoting my dad's article. It took many years before he would write of his experiences, and there are some things he is still reluctant to write about. The full article with photos and an interesting epilogue can now be seen at The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (P.L.), under the heading "Falaise". Reading it and the others posted there, I wonder how I ever arrived on this earth.

There's a field behind and to the right of where the photographer was standing when he took the famous photo of Major Currie. I have a photo of the field taken in 2006, covered in beautiful spring flowers (I would post it if I could figure out how). My dad says that on August 21, 1944, that field was so covered with dead Germans that it was possible to walk from one side to the other without touching the ground. I believe this is the field Gen. Eisenhower describes much the same way in his memoirs. Hard to imagine, looking at this tranquil place now.

Kieran Bridge · #54 (**permalink**) October 30th, 2007, 06:13 AM

The full article by Art Bridge (my dad) has now been posted at The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (P.L.), under the heading "Falaise". It includes lots of photos from 1944 and an interesting epilogue.

There's a field behind and to the right of where the photographer was standing when he took the famous photo of Major Currie. Attached is a photo of the field taken in 2006, covered in beautiful spring flowers. My dad says that on August 21, 1944, this field was so covered with dead Germans that it was possible to walk from one side to the other without touching the ground. I believe this is the field Gen. Eisenhower describes much the same way in his memoirs. Hard to imagine, looking at this tranquil place now.

Kieran Bridge

Martin Bull · #55 (**permalink**) October 30th, 2007, 08:09 AM

A very warm welcome to the WWII Forums, Kieran.....and many thanks for posting the link and photo

Wessex Wyvern · #56 (**permalink**) October 30th, 2007, 08:59 AM

Hello Kieran,
Hope your Dad is ok, hope you didn't mind me posting your Dad's story.
Do you know George Wilkinson?
I've been looking into his Uncle Lorne Marr's story.
Your Dad helped him alot .

Wessex Wyvern · #57 (**permalink**) October 30th, 2007, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kieran Bridge

Reading it and the others posted there, I wonder how I ever arrived on this earth.

Kieran, after my visits to Hill 195, Igoville and Moerbrugge I'm surprised your Dad got through in one piece, apart from his getting blown up in Holland and being diagnosed with Batttle Exhaustion.
This is Art in that famous photo.EDIT, Looking at that article I've got the wrong one for your Dad. oops! I always though he was another one in the background.
I thought I'd post this post-war one too, hope that's OK.
EDIT Keiran can you tell the ASH Cans that when I clicked the Moerbrugge story the Igoville one appears again.
Another EDIT, Keiran, I just checked my photos and I've got one of you & your girls with your Dad & Fay taken last November 11th .Shall I post it here?

Paul Errass · #58 (**permalink**) October 30th, 2007, 05:19 PM

Welcome to the forums Kieran and echoing Martin many thanks for the link and photo,

Paul

Skipper · #59 (**permalink**) October 31st, 2007, 07:35 AM

Welcome Kieran, nice link, thank you for sharing.

Wessex Wyvern · #60 (**permalink**) October 31st, 2007, 09:23 AM

I emailed webadmin at ASH of Canada site about the wrong link from the Moerbrugge story.

Quote:

Thanks. We did realize just this week and will get it cleared up shortly.

I went to Moerbrugge last October with Art's story as a guide.
It was great to walk in his footsteps.
Here's some photos I took there of the memorial and the Canadian Cemetery at Adegem where the lads who dies at Moerbrugge are buried.

Skipper · #61 (**permalink**) October 31st, 2007, 04:31 PM

The memorial is made with authentic relics, isn't it? Are those parts of tank wheels?

Wessex Wyvern · #62 (**permalink**) October 31st, 2007, 05:03 PM

It's chopped up M10.

Kieran Bridge · #63 (**permalink**) November 1st, 2007, 02:03 AM

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I'm heartened to see so much interest in these old events, and glad that my dad recorded some of his memories for posterity.

Wessex, please feel free to post the photo from last Nov. 11.

I recently came across an internet posting from 2004 by a Walter Jenkinson, inquiring as to whether anyone knew about his father, who was killed at Moerbrugge on Sept. 10, 1944. Today I sent him an e-mail and a copy of my dad's article, but haven't heard back from him. Have any of you been in contact with him? I'm not sure his e-mail address from 2004 is currently operating.

Just before V-E Day 2005, I came across a news item about Capt. Ivor Martin's son being present at a ceremony in Ontario honouring his father. Capt. Martin was standing about 20 feet from my dad in St. Lambert when he was hit by a German shell, and he died shortly afterwards. This event and Capt. Martin's bravery in taking out a German machine gun single-handed are mentioned in my dad's article. I exchanged messages with his son, and it turned out he had met my dad a few years earlier.

Hearing about these sons who lost their fathers makes one realize how fickle fate is.

Kieran

Slipdigit · #64 (**permalink**) November 1st, 2007, 02:37 AM

Kieran,

It is good you tried to contact, I hope he replies.

Fate is fickle. I wonder if that sometimes is what bothers veterans the most, the fact they made it and someone next to them didn't.

Go to the new members forum and tell us about yourself if you have not already.

Skipper · #65 (**permalink**) November 1st, 2007, 07:24 AM

Hey Slip you are a mod now! This is excellent news. It this recent or did I just skip your promotion? Congratulations!
Kieran, I hope the veteran will reply but remeber that his post is a 1000 days old and anything could have happened.

Wessex Wyvern · #66 (**permalink**) November 1st, 2007, 08:15 AM

Ok , Keiran, I'll post photo but I'll edit out the ladies* and just post you and your Dad.

*I'm sure they don't want their images posted on the internet, never know who's viewing.

Slipdigit · #67 (**permalink**) November 1st, 2007, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skipper67

Hey Slip you are a mod now! This is excellent news. It this recent or did I just skip your promotion? Congratulations!
Kieran, I hope the veteran will reply but remeber that his post is a 1000 days old and anything could have happened.

It got hung on me yesterday.

Kieran Bridge · #68 (**permalink**) November 1st, 2007, 08:29 PM

Has anyone seen the film that was being taken at the same time as the famous still photo of Major Currie and Sgt. Mitchell? The film cameraman is visible on the left side of uncropped versions of the still photo. I read somewhere that the film was destroyed in a fire at the Canadian Archives in 1966, but I've seen frames from it reproduced and descriptions of what the film shows.

Kieran

Wessex Wyvern · #69 (**permalink**) November 6th, 2007, 09:29 PM

Kieran, although it hasn't the exact scene this does have some footage that has to be the Argylls and South Albertas at St Lambert.
(posted by another member on WW2Talk)

Kieran Bridge · #70 (**permalink**) November 7th, 2007, 12:50 AM

Thanks, I hadn't seen that film before. There's some good footage in it. Parts of it certainly were taken at St. Lambert, including the segment around "3:10" on the clock of a soldier firing from behind a car. I had seen a frame from that segment.

Cheers,
Kieran

Kieran Bridge · #71 (**permalink**) November 7th, 2007, 01:14 AM

Thanks, I hadn't seen that film before. There's some good footage in it. Parts of it certainly were taken at St. Lambert, including the segment around "3:10" on the clock of a soldier firing from behind a car. I had seen a frame from that segment.

Cheers,
Kieran

P.S. Looking at the rooflines in the background at around "2:57" and the bomb damage to the walls in the background at around "2:45" and comparing them to some of the photos in my dad's article, it looks like those segments were also filmed on the main street of St. Lambert.

I can see know why the "After the Battle" crew enjoy their work!