Dear Gentle People,
I received the following email from JPAC this evening. You are all people, whom has helped with this research to date and as I promised, the purpose of this email is to let you know, the next step has begun. I realize, they will attempt to push us all aside and I promise to do as much as I can, to insure that will not take place.
Willis S. Cole, Jr. “Sam”
Executive Director/Curator
Battery Corporal Willis S. Cole Military Museum
13444 124th Ave NE – Kirkland WA 98034-5403 USA (425)823-4445
www.ww1.org – email : ww1@ww1.org
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Feb
06
2010
Oct
11
2009

We left our assembly area near Landerneau, France at one o’clock on the afternoon of September 27 1944, heading for that Western Front. The first two days were uneventful, as we covered around 300 miles, stopping at dusk by pulling off the main road. We slept beside our vehicles, by the side of the road, wrapped up in our blankets.
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Jun
18
2009
The Red Ball Express was a gigantic convoy system created by Allied forces to supply their forward-area combat units moving through Europe following the breakout from the D-Day beaches in Normandy. The term “Red Ball” was a railroad phrase referring to express shipping. The system lasted only three months, from August 25 to November 16, 1944, when the port facilities at Antwerp, Belgium were opened. The term Red Ball is often used incorrectly to refer to all WWII European supply convoys by historians and the veterans themselves.
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Feb
05
2009

After Action Report
7th Armored Division
Period : 1st December 1944 -31st December, 1944
Area : St-Vith & Vicinity
Country : Belgium
Revised & Corrected : Gunter G. Gillot Jr
The 7th AD was activated on March 1 1942, reorganized on Sept 20 1943 and arrived in the United Kingdom in Jun 1944. The division landed on Omaha and Utah Beaches, on Aug 13-14 1944, and was assigned to Third (3rd) US Army.
The 7th AD drove through Nogent le Rotrou in an attack on Chartres which fell Aug 18. From Chartres, the Division advanced to liberate Dreux, then Melun, where they crossed the Seine River, on Aug 24.
The 7th AD then pushed on to bypass Reims and liberate Chateau-Thierry and Verdun, Aug 31, then halted briefly for refueling until Sept 6, when it drove toward to the Moselle and made a crossing near Dornot. This crossing had to be withdrawn in the face of the heavy fortifications around Metz.
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Feb
05
2009

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After the landing in Normandy, followed by some weeks later with the landing in the Provence (Sourth France), the US Army Air Force started to move ahead it’s Airfields to reduce the fly distances between the bombing targets assigned in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany and the home’s Airfields in the UK.
This started with the North part of France on Jun 7 1944 then in the South part when the troops landed on the beaches.
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The 7th Armored Division was activated on Mar 1 1942 at Camp Polk, Louisiana and moved Sep 15 1942 to the IV Corps Louisiana Maneuvers. It returned to Camp Polk on Nov 9 1942, arrived then Mar 11 1943 at the Desert Training Center for the #2 California Maneuvers, was transferred Aug 12 1943 to Fort Benning, Georgia and arrived at Camp Myles Standish, Massachusetts on Apr 22 1944.









