eBook
Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
Related collections and offers
Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781466917064 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 10/08/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 998 |
| File size: | 36 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
Read an Excerpt
A Soldier's Odyssey
To Remember Our Past As It WasBy FRANK W. MARESCA
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2012 Frank W. MarescaAll right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-1705-7
Prologue
The April to October period of 1944, was crammed with preparations of all kinds. During this time, the Company received intensive training in combat procedures in the hills of Kentucky; went through a number of physical examinations; were issued some updated equipment; sent home personal items, and got ready to move east to Camp Shanks where nature was stripping itself for a long hard winter.At Camp Shanks the men of F Company went through a blizzard of paper reviews, and changes; had to adhere to time constraints, and suffered the ever-present plague of being in the Service, namely "Rush and Wait"!
The Company took a ride on a troop train, and a New York ferry to a pier in Brooklyn to board the good ship HMS Franconia to go "Over There"! The boat ride over the tempestuous Atlantic was a "Mal de Mer" event. The Company was off loaded in Liverpool.
F Company stayed a month in southern Wales. First, being crammed into a Drill Hall, and then living in Quonset Huts along a bleak shore.
It crossed the channel on the ill-fated British Control ship, the MS Leopoldville. It had to go over the side using nets to come ashore at Le Havre, France. From there it was trucked to the World War I mud flats in Northern France, and then to the combat zone in 40 and 8 boxcars.
Riding the boxcars it saw up close the carnage that the war produced. In Namur, Belgium, it lumbered through its rail yard squeezing by piles of twisted rail tracks.
It was stopped by British soldiers when it crossed the border into Holland, and told that the Bulge had begun, and the Germans were a short distance away.
It backed into the rail yards of Liege only to be attacked by V-1s (Buzz Bombs).
Off loaded outside of Huy, it was thrown into a chaotic forced march to find quarters for the night.
In its first night in the combat zone, it bedded down in a barn loaded with hay. Moooooo! Naaaa! Oink! Oink! Neeee! Neeee!
The next day, it went trucking in the rain to reach the combat line. It spent the night trying to sleep in a field by a roadside. In the early morning, it arose in the fog like zombies.
It spent part of the day in the "March of Silence". It went through hamlets, villages, and by farmhouses seemingly unoccupied.
In the afternoon, it conducted its first sweep for Germans, walking 3 to 5 yards abreast through woods, up hills, along fire lanes, and finding nothing.
Late at night it caught a few hours of fitful sleep in some roadside cottages only to be awaken to panic yelling to "get outside, and take cover.... Tanks! Tanks!"!
In the attack the German tanks smashed, and flatten jeeps, and weapons carriers before heading back to where they came from. The Company did not suffer any casualties. It followed after them however, to locate, and destroy their infantry support.
It conducted a 12-hour forced march to another sector of the combat line to aid in the taking of the important crossroad village of Grandmenil.
It made sweeps, went on patrols; got involved in house to house fighting; got ambushed; went through a number of artillery duels, incoming 88s, and "Screaming Minie" attacks. It was severely mauled by its own artillery fire ("Friendly Fire").
The Company carried out a number of assaults; took prisoners, and suffered casualties: Killed in Action, Wounded, Captured. However, the numbers involved here were dwarfed by the casualties resulting from the bitter cold, the ice, and snow; the lack of warm winter garments; the hunger, and lack of sleep.
Replacements in terms of enlisted men, and officers filled the ranks left vacant by the "Originals" of the Company.
What was left of the Company came home during the summer months of 1945.
The story of the Odyssey ends with photos taken under combat conditions, and during moments of camaraderie, and reunion.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Soldier's Odyssey by FRANK W. MARESCA Copyright © 2012 by Frank W. Maresca. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Contents
Dedication....................ixForeword....................xxv
Prologue....................xxvii
PART ONE....................1
PART TWO....................174
PART THREE....................480
ADDENDUM 1 "The Heart Of The Battle Of The Ardennes"....................703
ADDENDUM 2 Notes on "Short Rounds" (Friendly Fire) & Excerpts from The US Army Handbook (1939-1945)....................721
ADDENDUM 3 The Company Photo Roster....................733
ADDENDUM 4 Apology....................759
ADDENDUM 5 POWS....................761
ADDENDUM 6 Combat Odyssey In Photos....................769
ADDENDUM 7 Comrades In Photos....................851
ADDENDUM 8 Statistics....................911
ADDENDUM 9 Special Notes....................917
ADDENDUM 10 Memorable Reunions....................931
ADDENDUM 11 "You Can't Go Back To Where It All Began From Where You Are, And Find It As It Was"....................939
Footnotes....................969