On D-Day anniversary, I revisit Chaplain Frank Arnold’s diary

On the 66th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, I repost links to the World War II diary of Chaplain Frank Arnold, my uncle. I originally posted these last summer with the permission of his son, Frank Yunk-Arnold. Uncle Frank crossed into France to join combat forces a few weeks after D-Day, though his entries in advance of the invasion and on the day itself make interesting reading today. The first of the five posts includes D-Day:

Chaplain Frank Arnold’s World War II diary

“Indescribable hell”

“This is the day Satan hath made”

“16 below. What a day to ride a Jeep”

“Visited Nazi extermination camp”

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

Reviewing a year’s blogging

Reviewing 2009 on my blog (mostly for my own information, but I share it because that’s what bloggers do):

My most popular post by far (more than twice as many views as anything else) was my Blueprint for the Complete Community Connection, posted April 27. I proposed a detailed new business model for community news organizations. It received more links from other blogs and more tweets than anything else I’ve written this year. And interest in C3 remains strong. (After traffic on that post declined from June through September, it increased in October and November. December didn’t quite match November, but exceeded August, September and October). C3 gets more attention in a slow month than my average post gets total.

Everyone wants a blog post to go viral, but I’m glad I didn’t write something quirky that went off the charts. C3 was one of the most important things I’ve written this year (or in my career), so I’m pleased that it received more attention than any other post. I’ve been invited to make presentations dealing with C3 in Florida, Nevada, California, Texas, Siberia and Canada. I hope in 2010 to be writing about how Gazette Communications and other organizations are carrying out the vision of C3.

Read Full Post »

Chaplain Frank Arnold’s war diary continued: “Visited Nazi extermination camp”

This is the World War II diary of Army Chaplain Frank M. Arnold II, my uncle. I have published four earlier sets of excerpts. Uncle Frank used ellipses a lot. I am not using every entry here, but if I use an entry, I use it all. The ellipses are just his writing, possibly indicating multiple times that he wrote in the same day. My notes and translations (using Google) are in italics. CCB is Combat Command B, Uncle Frank’s primary unit.

2/20 Went to Dudelange and Dippach. At D. (sic!) spent quite a while straightening out an undisciplined adolescent who was trying to divorce his wife – whom he said he still loved – to marry an Army nurse whom he hadn’t seen for 3 mos.

2/21 Had services for 46-B and CCB at Bettembourg. Went to see Cohen for a while Went to 37^th to finish up with previous day’s business… Prepared to move quickly, and then find out it is not until tomorrow.

2/22 Left Bettembourg to the tune of tears… Stopped en route and fired Carbine, P-38 and 45. Did surprisingly well with each. Arrived at ruins of Reisdorf. Went over to Wallendorf, Germany. Beat Sgt. Morris in a game of chess.

Read Full Post »