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Post by connie on Mar 22, 2009 8:45:00 GMT -5
By March 16 1945 the Division had moved to the area around St. Quentin France to begin rebuilding. There would be moves to other spots in France. There was a pocket of German troops and I believe some preparation for confrontation that ended instead in a German surrender. But, for the most part this time in France was a move into a different way of life than had been lived since December. Some of the changes were welcome. Some were not. Can you speak to this time after The Bulge and before VE day that was spent in France?
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Post by floydragsdale on Mar 23, 2009 11:23:08 GMT -5
Hello:
Somewhere, in Belgium, the 424th Regiment moved, by rail, 40 & 8s they were called (forty men, or 8 mules) Box Cars, to France. It was a fun move, compared to front line duty and the journey was several days long.
That operation took us through Paris. From the rail yards in Paris, we could see the Eiffel Tower; it stood out like a sore thumb.
Our destination was San Quintin, France. We were there for Easter Sunday and some of us attended Easter morning services that day.
I recall that we witnessed a "sky train" of C47 Aircraft, pulling Gliders going north, to Germany. The Operation was a "jump across the Rhine River. That date would have been sometime in March.
While at San Quintin the 424 Regiment had the 106th Div. colors returned to it. They had been "captured", by the German Army.
It was an impressive ceremony, with a big parade. The new, 422 & 423 Regiments re-joined us and we were at full division strength. That took place at the parade also.
The San Quintin stay was a short one; from there we moved to Rennes, France in the Brest Peninsula. There was a German submarine base at a sea Port located at the town of St. Nazarre (sp) & 90,000 German troops were in that area. Our duty was to keep them "bottled up" at their base.
Late March, or early April, the 106th was rushed back to the front lines, in Germany. Soon, we would have thousands of German P.O.W.'s on our hands as the War was being brought to a conclusion.
Floyd
424th Regt.,
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