Collection of news clippings about IX Engineering Command building combat airfields, 1945.
This goes back to the third day in France. We were moving forward to get to the start and the leader got lost and we suddenly found ourselves at the front line. We came into a small town and the infantry was just in the process of going through the houses searching out the Germans and shooting and the big shells going overhead sounding like a freight train going overhead was an eerie sound and a frightening feeling. The Captain finally walked up and we went back where we belonged. I must have had a guardian angel looking after me. The scenes are etched on my brain. It still gives me cold chills down my back.
The first Christmas was spent near Haguenau. We, meaning Dutch, Viggo and me, went to town on pass. We found a small café with plenty of wine in the place. We tried to drink up everything they had and finally headed back to camp. It was chow time, so we got in line. The wine suddenly put us on a laughing jag. We had everyone in the camp laughing at us or with us. The next morning, the Germans started a drive, so we blew up the fields and dropped back to Nancy, France. In Haguenau, I had written a letter to Dorothy and told he where I was and all about it. It was the letter the censors did not cut out the information. When Dorothy got the letter, the Germans were retaking Hagenau, and everyone was fighting on the front lines, even the cooks. What she didn’t know was that we had blown up the field and left the territory and went back to Nancy, France. It was a shock to her, and a long time before she knew that I wasn’t in this battle.
After we dropped back, we had it easy for a while. The weather was not too good, as it rained a lot. The air field was made of mesh to keep the planes from going in the mud too deep. We had the job of sweeping mud off the runways after the planes took off or landed. Not a very nice job. I felt a little devilish, so I heckled Sergeant until he got so mad he took his hat off and threw it in the mud and jumped up and down on it. The next day it turn cold and started to snow. Then in the afternoon, it became a blizzard. We stood under the wings of the planes. The snow built up 18 inches around us in freezing weather. It made me mad because it was not necessary to be out in that weather. The officers got promotions for having the men on duty for man hours worked. I sure got the Sergeant mad again because I kept telling him how dumb he and the officers were. He sure didn’t like me very much. This was the time of the Battle of the Bulge and we couldn’t get the planes off the ground on account of the weather. The battle wouldn’t have been so bad if we could get the planes to help.
Historical note from Wikipedia:
The Haguenau area was the scene of heavy fighting between Allied ground forces and the Wehrmacht in late 1944 and early 1945. The airport was liberated in mid-December 1944. Once cleared of enemy forces, the USAAF IX Engineering Command 826th Engineer Aviation Battalion began clearing the airport of mines and destroyed Luftwaffe aircraft, and repairing operational facilities for use by American aircraft. By 20 December the airfield was declared ready for Allied use and was designated as Advanced Landing Ground “Y-39 Haguenau”.[4] The airfield was immediately put to use as a Resupply and Casualty evacuation (S&E) airfield to support the combat units in the area and move combat wounded back to hospitals in the rear area. The airfield was briefly evacuated due to heavy fighting in the area and it being shelled by German artillery during late December and early January, however it was secured and put back into operation by mid January.[5]
