Christoph and Larry,

Strange thought - suppose the farm house where Guidry and Dad spent their last 2 nights on the run was on the East side of the River Sieg - and they never crossed it - not because they couldn't but might have been more dangerous with the areas they had to then find cover.

I need to see what I have in my long ago written notes.

Food at the farm house was better than the Camp - soup had more potatoes in it and they arrived with no food and got some black/brown bread there. Was it wiser to sit and wait it out at that point. Slept in the hay in the barn at night - and out in the field hiding in the day. Germans were patrolling and looking for Americans at this time.

Lucky the farmers - a couple- did not turn them in.

Jean

I have come to the conclusion that the Miracle worker, Larry, lives in the Stacks at the College Park National Archives facility.

It is not possible to keep up with him!

If you want anything done, he is the man!

Jean

From what we know so far, your dad & Guidry entered the 78th division line on the morning of 21 March 1945 contacting some guys in a jeep.

The Sieg River was designated by General Bradley as the northern limit of the Remagan bridgehead. On 13 March the 78th`s line had reached Honnef, about 4 miles from the Sieg. The 78th reached the Sieg River ON the 21st establishing their line from the Rhine eastward to the autobahn. The north side of the Sieg was well defended by the germans so there would have no patrols across the Sieg and the units of the 78th would not have been close to the river in sight of german artillery, but back maybe half a mile to a mile from the river.

So for them to see a jeep, they had to have crossed the Sieg.

Wherever the farmhouse was, north or south of the Sieg, the farmer knew the american armies were coming soon and figured it was in their best interest to help the escapees.

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/USA-E-Last/USA-E-Last-11.html

Larry the Legend, that is a superb analysis of where Dad could have been.

I am taking that with me to St. Louis - and if enough time, will use it to look through the morning reports.

I do not seem to have that book, even though it looks familiar. I will order it, but while waiting I can read what you have sent.

Even that map looks better than the ones I have seen.

You are Truly Amazing!!!

Thank You,

Jean

Larry the Legend,

Here we go again - you have outdone yourself - even when it seems impossible!!!

Thank you for the info on the gentleman who had been at Siegburg.

There were some new pieces of information and different ways of describing from his mind what he experienced.

I am assuming that he was up in the Abbey - but he does not seem to know - his description during Air Raids - might help but then it could have been up at the Abbey too.

What Miracles you produce! More later,

Jean

Since that entire book is available online for free you vant to buy it?

another book that might be helpful is " Memoirs of Edwin P. Parker " by the Commander of the 78th Div.

not available on amazon.com but is on a couple of booksellers:

http://www.abebooks.com/Memoirs-Edwin-P-Parker-P-Author/1353217826/bd

http://www.antiqbook.com/books/bookinfo.phtml?nr=1263087154&l=en&seller=ver

Larry the Legend,

Great to know it is on line. Thanks - but there are some on Amazon and real inexpensive - strange but for my vision, easier to read book. However, I do realize I can print the online version - so that is good news.

I am excited about the Parker book.

How do you know so much???

Thank You, as always for a great great day!

Jean

Today just some Fotos made by Tech/5 F. Linden, 165th Signal Corps Company, of the 97th US Infantry Division entering Siegburg on 10 April 1945.

1 - A squad of infantry from the 97th stalking German snipers and machine gun positions in Siegburg, April 10, 1945

2 - Men of the 97th Division entering Siegburg ready for the fight ahead. Check out all the extra boxes of .30 cal machine gun ammunition the men are lugging

3 - A 97th Infantry Division Browning Automatic Rifleman grabs a corner to lay down suppressing fire for the rest of his squad as the Americans push deeper into Siegburg

4 - The platoon of GI's he was with have just dived for cover and are trying to communicate and figure out a way to deal with the MG-42 nest

5 - A forward observer team takes cover in a doorway while calling for a fire misison on German positions inside Siegburg

Christoph

Christoph, These photos are FABULOUS!

You are Amazing to have ever found them!!!

Is there a way I can access them to print them at a high resolution!

What a Wow of a discovery!

Do you recognize any of the sites?

Jean

An update from my trip to the Archives in St. Louis:

The records were blah! relatively speaking. No great successes as before with Geraghty and others.

I need to look in more depth at what I did get but not much to look at.

Those poor guys, especially those that gave their lives to the War, and they have basically nothing in their file. If a family member wanted to learn more about them, they would have to devote a huge amount of their time to discover anything. Especially if they did not know what Division/Outfit the person had been in. It seems to me the Gov't should provide funding to update/augment the records.

They especially should when it comes to the microfiche and the indices are almost impossible to figure out. I was never successful working with the indices and lost a lot of time. They need to hire Larry and have help figure it all out.

The folks working there could not have been nicer or more helpful - the problem was there were basically no records to work from!

Jean

Well the Legend of Larry continues to grow. He found a book that I would never of even known to look for! It was the Memoirs of Edwin P. Parker. It was published in June of 1976. It actually turns out to be a pamphlet/soft cover document and the description inside the cover is 'The Story of Edwin P. Parker Major General U.S. Army 78th Infantry Division Commander.'

I have not had a chance to read it in depth nor concentrate on all the details that I want to but there is one Very Important thing that I have found! While there are no page numbers here is the paragraph written by Major General Parker:

'The Division CP moved to Konigswinter on the 20th, and the next day continued to Holtorf where the war room was set up in the basement of a hardware store. In Konigswinter we were in the home of the owner of the well-known 7-11 Eau de Cologne perfume. The house had a well stocked cellar of cognac and other liquors which we confiscated and sent to the rear to the rest center for the benefit of the men. About this time a brewery was captured and its output was also sent to the Division rest center. The Division rear echelon moved to the historic city of Bonn and a rest center was located in Bad Godesberg in a fine large building well-suited for the purpose.'

Dad said he was debriefed in a brewery. I tried to locate where a brewery could have been on my trip last summer. The Remagen historian, Kleemann, tried to help me as well. At the brewery I went to I was told adamantly, by probably the owner, that the Allieds had never occupied the place!

So now we have a major verified clue!!! And it was hard for me to believe that my Dad could have made a mistake about a brewery vs some other purpose that the building could have served.

So Larry you bring us closer and closer.... and maybe this will help Christoph or the Remagen historian or ....

Larry, the Wizard, Thank You, as always, for so generously taking your time to try to help figure out the story of my Dad!!!

Jean

Larry the Legend,

You were correct on the crossing of the River Sieg. Met with a 2nd Guidry daughter yesterday. She was born before her Dad went overseas. She recalls her Dad telling her that he crossed a River and Dad got him across.

Guidry as I was told was afraid of the water. So much so that when he would be going to go across the Huey P Long bridge in Louisiana - if he saw a train on the bridge he would stop. He did not feel the bridge was strong enough for a train and them.

Your logic and her comments give me confidence that it is probably true - Dad carried Guidry across the River. Dad never mentioned that to me - that I can recall. And I doubt I have it anywhere in my notes from over the years. Maybe he told someone else that is still alive today - and now I know when I talk to those folks to ask that specific question. And once we find out specifically where they were picked up - there can be no doubt.

Thank You, as always, for everything you have done to help me with this research!!! It is because of you that I am even meeting a Guidry daughter!!!

Jean

Christoph,

In my meeting with this 2nd Guidry daughter we discussed what I thought was like a torn little piece of paper, like a note, with some mention of something German.

I did not get to see the paper it was written on, but apparently it could have been an envelope. If so, Guidry did not get to that location before he was captured in Oct. if it was someone he met, when would that have been? or where? and why? And this would have been mailed to him? If it was someone in the Abbey, they were still there?

Hopefully one of these days I can visit with this 3rd sister who has all of Guidry's papers and see what is there. At that time I will photograph everything, so we know what we are working with.

Don't want to stop writing and thinking together, but better get going!

Jean

Just thought I'd drop in to see what was transpiring! As always, amazed but what I see on a continuing basis!

Just a quick note, research on this topic is continuing, just waiting for Jean to catch up and hopefully hear from some more veterans we are trying to contact.