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Lt. Elton M. Buck is at Fitzsimmons
General Hospital, Denver, Colorado.
Buck put in a hitch on the bridge crew
in Southern Oregon. N o doubt he
would enjoy lots o f letters now that he
is laid up.
Mr. Woodley also gives us a letter
written by Corporal Berl Williams of
the Third Arm y from Bad Tolz, Ger
many. Berl must have had a pleasant
surprise V -J day, no C.B.I. for him
then.
"Th e town where we are now, Bad-
Tolz, is about 25 miles south of Mur-
chen. I went there and saw the famous
beer halls, which are quite the deal,
that is what’s left of them. We are also
near where the 1936 Olympics were
held.
I don’t know anything to write so
will tell you some of my experiences
since I left the States.
As you know our P.O.E. was in
New York. We were put aboard the
Queen Mary on February 10, 1944,
and made the trip to Glasgow, Scot
land unescorted in seven days. The
weather and water was aw ful rough
(you probably know the results of
that) but to my surprise I didn’t get
sick. We were attacked by subs twice
but were lucky and they missed us.
A fter we got o ff the boat in Scotland
we were put on an English train (their
cars are about the size our our cracker
boxes) and taken to H ay, England, a
little town near the Wales-English bor
der. We stayed there about five months
and had passes to several of England’s
larger towns. On June 6th we were
moved to Exeter in Southern England
and on the channel. I was there about
three weeks when they told us to pack
that we were going to France. We had
a nice trip across the channel. Were
attacked once but our destroyer escort
soon took care o f that interruption.
When we reached the U tah beachhead
we were unable to land so had to stay
on the landing barge that night. We
had plenty of excitement there too,
but managed to get o ff next morning
O.K.
I went into combat at the time of
the St. Lo breakthrough and have been
on the front ever since. I spent most
of my time spearheading with the sixth
armored division which was mighty
rough at times, especially when we had
to bring a load of wounded back
through about 50 to 100 miles before
we saw any o f our troops. The Infan
try couldn’t keep up with us so we
would take o ff without them. I have
had more close calls than a dog has
fleas, but always managed to get out
alive. We had a tough time at Bastogne
last winter, but in the end we came
out to the good.
(Continued on Page 28)
Eugene Sand & Gravel Co.
J. R. McKy
H. R. Ruth
Washed Sand, Gravel and Crushed Rock
Eugene, Oregon