Chaplain Frank M. Arnold, my uncle, kept a diary during World War II. I wrote in two previous posts about his preparation in the United States and England and then about his first few weeks in France, starting in July 1944. My notes and translations from Google are in italics. Uncle Frank used ellipses a lot. Those are his, not places where I have cut anything out. I am quoting entries in full, though I omit some entries to condense the story. We pick up the story in France in August 1944:
8/16 While sleeping blissfully smashed peep against prime mover. Am now being towed in by similar p.m… We seem to be well into France…
8/18 Gen’l. D. left to take over Div…Got Anniv. card from Florence. He maketh even the wrath of man to serve Him. Borrowed a Bible from Dick Irving!! From this something will follow! CCA took Orleans…Col. Bixby is new C.O. Off again! This part of France looks more like Midwest — wheat fields, gently rolling hills, etc. … Got Anniv. Card from Flo — citizens are throwing tomatoes, pears, apples. They are getting to be worse than the snipers!
8/21 Back to the wars…Made some fudge!! If I die, I’ll die happy…Slow dreary drive…Jerry is on the receiving end of a lot of 240 fire. How can they continue? Black as ink. Got lost. Hit an ambulance.
8/22. Travelling all day. Spent hr. with 8 y.o. boy who was at consid. pains to teach me the language. Sat on a dozen eggs…Progress seemeth slow. We are stopped 7 mi. short of our objective.
8/24 Quiet day. Had lovely eve. serv. at CCB with crimson sunset. Comm. serv. was very well rec’d.
8/25 Off again. Hope it won’t be long now. Hitler must be crazy. Our P47s strafed a column of Free French!!! Got a few bad m.g. cases in tonight.
8/26 First thing — we shot down a JU— (C-47) with 15 women and 7 men going from Bordeaux to Hamburg. Got a Silver Star award for the Pont Scorff affair (described in the last installment, Aug. 8, 1944). Germ column is trying to cut us off from the right. We shall see…
9/2 Five years ago today promised to love, honour and cherish the lady who is among humankind the dearest to my heart…Happy day! We have outrun our gas and other supplies…Waiting…CCA took quite a beating from rocket firing planes.
9/4 Am now Sr. CCB Chapl. A Fr. Cadonic rep’td. in as repl. for Ernst. Today is Labour Day. No School today. News is good via radio…Did lndry…took swim (cold!)…Got lovely package from Flo…Sent home presents to all but H (my mother, Harriet, his younger sister), and S (Frank’s youngest sister, Shirley) and the Hoels (his older sister, Helen Hoel, and her husband, Joel)…Weather is getting cold lately —
9/6 Service in 46C. Went “boating” in the Meuse, using shovels for paddles. Remains of Germ 19th Army being pushed onto our flank…Mortar and Art’y fire commencing.
9/8 Got 17 eggs from generous farmers. Had lovely “hilltop” service for 51st and 253d.
9/11 From the looks of things our prev. battles will prove to have been picnics…From now on there will be some bloody noses…Bridges all out across the Moselle…Women pushing baby buggies all along the road, trying to get away from the artillery fire…Stopped for several hours by Moselle river defences. Moved on again at 1900. Casualties pretty badly shot up coming in…Eng. having rough time getting three bridges in…A few planes over during the night. They couldn’t find us…
9/12 “One more river to cross…” Stiff tank battle going on across Moselle. We lost a few from the 8th. Got 4 letters from Flo, 2 others… Long Toms shelled them continuously all night…
9/13 This is turning into quite a slug-fest…Jerry strafed a little this A.M. Spent an amusing 1/2 hr. with Bernadette (6 y.o.) who came thru this area mooching “gaton, bonbon, cigarette, shoogum, chocolate” etc. ad. inf. Elle est tres jolie aussi (It is also very nice)… Crossed the Moselle — over a bridge that cost a lot of lives… (Here Uncle Frank’s typed copy of the diary has a passage handwritten in another language that appears to be Greek; I have not translated.) Today we got in a bunch of French women and children — all shot up…”Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred.” Germ. 6th Inf. Div. coming down from Nancy to try to stop us. We shelled them all night with long toms.
9/14 Steady stream of casualties all day long. Wish the war were as nearly over as the U.S. news commentators seem to make it!! Our artillery moving up, which we like to see…Good mail today. Today we got in prisoners who had been in the Wehrmacht for three days. They thought they were “going to a training camp.”
9/15 Cold, gray and misty. Moved c. 7 mi., got in a few nasty casualties, incl. G.I. hit in leg with phosporous shell. Wound smoked! And woman with breast cut off with shrapnel. A 6 y.o. boy and 6 y.o. girls both of whom lost arms in a booby trap, a very old woman with left eye shot out…I wonder if Hitler ever say anything like this..
9/17 Miserablest of all wet, cold days. Moved all day slowly, fighting as we went. CCA was attacked by 1550 Germans. They killed all but 12, who were wounded, and 600 whom they captured.
9/19 Met 4 y.o. Jeanette whose mama had recently been shot by Nazis. Fred got picture…Well, we didn’t get far this time either. Stopped by Maginot Line guns. G.S.P. Jr. (presumably Gen. George S. Patton Jr., with whom Uncle Frank served) is now travelling with us.
9/20 We may hit the border today…1600 hrs — we haven’t moved an inch. Have been shelled quite a bit…This compared with Raids. Diagram of 150 shell landing (the hand-drawn diagram shows a shell hitting 9 feet away)
9/21 Yesterday was a good day to live through. We seem to be up against pretty tough opposition. Expert opinion has it that the reason we are alive today is that we are in very soft, spongy soil. Shell penetrates too deeply before exploding. They let us have quite a bit of shelling again. Continual fog and mist helps them. Had to call off a service at CCB. Had a good one for 46-C, 126_B and 253-S.
9/22 They moved some mortars in on us under cover of heavy fog, and gave us a good going over this morning as we were finishing breakfast…Found much peace and joy in meditation on the 12th chapter of St. Luke this morning…large scale battle raging on our left flank. Heavier even than Raids…We missed our usual supper shelling — thanks to 16 “Thunderbolts” overhead. Good boys! Supper was good for a change…
9/23 Lots of mortar and art’y. exchange today in incessant, ceaseless rain…Rained all day…Nothing attempted, noting done…Shelled quite a bit…
9/24 This is the day that Satan hath made. A day to remember — or try to forget…Shelled continuously from 1530-1430 when we retreated. All this in a steady howling rain that soaked doctors, aid men and casualties. Don’t know what losses Jerry had, but this was a major set-back for us…About dark it began to get noisy again — but this time we were making the noise. 155s and 240s worked on them all night long. (Handwritten note says, “Got Bronze Star for this day.)
9/25 Cold, wet, dreary…all day…Had small service inside at CCB. Everyone — almost — went to sleep. Must have been good!
9/26 “Don’t know why — there’s no sun up in the sky — stormy weather…keeps rainin’ all the time…” (From lyrics to “Stormy Weather”)
9/27 Went to Nancy. Got home sick…Nice place…Got HOT SHOWER!!!! Bought stuff for all my ladies…
9/30 Cold and dreary. What will we do when Winter comes? Had meeting of Protestant chaplains at St. Nicholas. Enjoyed pleasant interlude with Josette and Yvette, both 12 years old.
Uncle Frank spent most of October and early November behind the front lines, so he interacted more with the French and saw less military action than he had seen in August and September. He clearly had the family sweet tooth (as do I) as well as a fudge recipe that worked with ingredients you could find in a combat unit. He reported making fudge on Oct. 3, 11 (“made fudge in 5 gal. oil can, using tent pole for spoon”), 24 and 29 (for the Meuillets, a French family he befriended and visited frequently over a two-week stretch; they made him a cherry pie and “delicious hot bread”). A few highlights of that stretch:
10/5 Service at 37th Tank Bn. Went to Nancy and blew 2 months’ pay. The boys are all excited about the prospect of relief. This is our 81st consecutive day in the line.
10/7 Being relieved by 26th (Yankee) Div… our 83d day! Got Silver Star Medal…also small wall tent.
10/8 Was a bright sunny day — mirabile dictu (wonderful to relate)! No mail… Confidential report received today states that after crossing the Moselle River, from 9/12 to 9/29 inclusive the 4th Armored Div. met and defeated 3 Infantry Divisions, 1 armored division, 2 armored Brigades, 5 combat teams, 6 separate regiments and 12 separate battalions. They took 3009 prisoners, killed 3040 (known), knocked out over 100 tanks, 67 guns, 59 armored cards, and 514 other vehicles.
10/17 Good “4 preacher” meeting at the 10th Inf. Dined with l’Abbey, Capt. Irving, Steve, Crane, Fr. Cabret…Fr. Cabret says that 4 ft. of snow and 15 to 20 below zero is not uncommon here…
10/23 What a day! Was “Father Arnold” at the Redemptorist House in St. Nicholas. Had a little trouble explaining my wedding ring. Put on a feed for them that they will never forget. Made quite a hit with the 2nd in command.
11/8 Services for CCB, 8th, 24th, 22-S, 53-C, 489-C and 51st. Had a profitable talk with Dick. I must pray for him…Evening with family (the Meuillets). What a family! They all wept when I told them I was going. Simone: “Je vous embrasse pour Lynn.” (I kiss you to Lynn.) Oo la la la! God bless them all.
Combat resumed the next day. The next installment will describe the fighting and cold weather that ensued, including the Battle of the Bulge. Continue reading with “16 below: What a day to ride a jeep” and “Visited Nazi extermination camp.”
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