Battle of the Bulge

The Attack beyond Berdorf 26-28 Dec, 1944.

The 99th ‘Viking’ Battalion in WWII

The Ghost Plane of La Fosse | WWII Documentary

We are proud to announce the release of our very first 60-minute WWII documentary. The Ghost Plane of La Fosse features Victor Yansenne, who saw a US B-24 Liberator crash just outside his hometown of La Fosse, Belgium at the age of six on December 25, 1944. He saw two parachutes coming down to earth just moments before the crash. He assumed the other crew members died as the aircraft exploded…

American Ambulance Strafed By American P-47

The series of photographs of a strafed ambulance of the 5th Infantry Division is well known to people interested in this American unit of the US Army.  According to the original captions and several books, the American ambulance crashed and burnt out after it had been strafed by an aircraft behind combat lines near Gonderange, Luxembourg on Christmas Day. As the orignal caption of the photograph…

The US 5th Division Photographers – 166th SPC

Little is known about most Signal Corps Photographic units that were attached to US Armored and Infantry Divisions. These Signal Photographic Companies were divided into smaller detachments. Detachment No. 6 of the 166th Signal Photographic Company was a group of seven photographers who followed the 5th Division during its combat on the European front, and was is responsible for the many…

Military Mapping: The Grid System

Military Mapping: The Grid System One of the newest inventions in military map making was the use of grids and coordinates. Up to the First World War, firing techniques for field artillery was one of “trial and error.” This meant that an artillery battery had to shoot itself in. It registered on its target by a series of trial shots, making corrections with each shot. The problem was that the…

The Battle of Berdorf, Luxembourg – Dec 26, 1944

In the past few posts I’ve been talking about a few personal stories of men of the 2nd Infantry Regiment who gave their lives in their first two combat days during the Bulge (Dec 24 & 25). During those days the Regiment managed to advance Breitweiler and Consdorf to the woods south of Berdorf. It was now time for the capture of Berdorf itself.Two hours before dawn on the morning of the 26th, the…

THEY LOST THEIR DAD 76 YEARS AGO

Pvt Charles M Wilkinson of Chemung County, NY, was 36 years old, was married and had three kids. Unfortunately, he was drafted early in 1944 and immediately sent to the front where he joined Company L of the 2nd Regiment in November. Before going overseas he sent his family a card with a photograph of him.   On December 24, 1944, the 2nd Infantry Regiment of the 5th Infantry Division went into…

Killed in Action on Christmas Eve

Sergeant Adam A Wegrzyn was Killed in Action on December 24, 1944, when his Company, Co E, 2nd Infantry Regiment, 5th Infantry Division, had their first day of combat in ‘the Bulge’. The 2nd Bn attacked on the left flank between Breitweiler and Consdorf through the Mullerthal Draw toward Berdorf Company F and Company G battled for eight hours to gain only 200 yards, while Company E, attacking in…

Dutch Immigrants in the US Army.

Dutch people in the US Army? For a new project I am researching Dutch and sons of Dutch immigrants that served in the US Army during World War II.

Nick van Beek, 9, emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1893. The Van Beek family came from Bennekom (GLD) and settled in the state of Iowa. Nick grew up and married Agnes Snoek, who had also emigrated from the Netherlands to the US…

WW2 VETERAN VISITS SITE WHERE FRIEND WAS KILLED IN ACTION

In November 2019, WWII Veteran Ceo Bauer returned to Normandy for probably the last time. We made the trip a bit more special for the 95th Infantry Division Veteran and visited the site where his friend of the 35th Division was Killed in Action on July 14, 1944.

In Honor of Rolland J. Hill and the rest of the 35th Infantry Division

Produced by: Joey van Meesen and Florent Plana

Guestblog WWII Veteran: Dogfaces in Frankfurt am Main

Edgar Valderrama – 5th Infantry Division, 11th Infantry Regiment, Company C Entering the City We were a scraggly, dusty, sorry looking line of Dogfaces dragging ourselves single file into the first German city I had seen since ‘joining’ the Fifth Infantry Division as a replacement. The city had been rendered an impressive pile of ruins by merciless bombardment. Nevertheless, industrious German…

Museum in the Dark – Vince Speranza

Last Friday I was invite by the War Museum in Overloon, The Netherlands, to join one their first-time ‘Museum in the Dark’ event. The Museum is known for it’s annual Militracks Event, but this was something different. The event is evolved around the military experiences of Vincent J. Speranza, former member of H company, 501st PIR, 101st Airborne Division. Vince fought during the Battle of the…

When you guys are reading this, I’ll be on an airplane on my way to Okinawa, Japan. For two weeks I will move around the island to research the World War 2 Battlefields. Throughout the trip I will be actively posting pictures and other content on Facebook and Instagram. But the biggest effort will be put into my YouTube Travel Video series where I will walk the battlefields and explore the island.

Returning a WWII Relic to the family!

Today I took possession of the pocket knife owned by Prentice W. Ball. This WWII relic was found on April 1, 2018, by Frank van Vark and my dad, Ronald van Meesen. Traveling to Germany, me and my dad went back to the original location and foxhole where the knife was found.

In March 1945 Pfc Ball’s unit, A Company, 117th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division was in position preparing for their…

On January 10 1944, near Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, Alex M. Penkala was sharing a foxhole with Warren H. ‘Skip’ Muck. On that day in January their foxhole received a direct hit from a German 88mm FLAK gun. Both men are portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. The series is its turn based upon the book Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose which follows Easy Company of the…