March 29

I have found that if you double click on the letter itself and go to a full screen, the letters are much easier to read. The letters that look like telegrams were written on regular paper and then the army made them smaller-about 5 inches by 6 inches. They folded this sheet in half (your letter could only by one page) and inserted it in a 3 by 5 envelope.

After breaking out of the Remagen bridgehead, the 9th assisted in the sealing and clearing of the Ruhr Pocket, then moved 150 miles east to Nordhausen and attacked in the Harz Mountains, 14-20 April. On 21 April the Division relieved the 3d Armored along the Mulde River, near Dessau, and held that line until VE-day.

From the best I can tell, Company B of the 15th Engineering Battalion was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division which is assigned to the V Corps, First Army, 12th Army Group. from 17 February 1945 to March 31. Following the Rhine crossings in March 1945, the Allies fanned out with columns of armor and motor-borne infantry and soon were making advances. The U.S. Ninth and First Armies, with the help of the new U.S. Fifteenth Army, encircled the Ruhr (an industrial section of the country) and took more than 325,000 prisoners. They were racing across Germany to take the agreed upon land before the Russians could arrive.

A company usually consists of three to four platoons and roughly 100 to 130 soldiers. At one point Dad talks about sharing food sent from home among his platoon of 50 to 55 men. The platoons are then divided into squads. In November Dad says his squad has 12 men. The sergeant was Isley.

Dad was inducted into the Army in May of 44 at age 35 with a wife and 2 daughters. He listed his occupation as Hydraulic Engineer. In March of 1945 he found himself in the European theather assigned to the 15th Combat Engineer Battalion. The history of the 15th appears to parallel closely the history of the 101st Airborne as depicted in Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose. Band of Brothers was presented as an HBO miniseries by Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg.

Combat engineers could act as infantry and did so frequently. In the Battle of the Bulge, a handful of engineer battalions proved to be a vital asset to the American Army.

Arriving in Europe, March 11

In March of 1945, Company A of the 15th Engineering battalion was attached to the 9th Infantry Division that was assigned to the 3rd Army at the time. At the time of the crossing of the Ludendroff Bridge the 15 Engineering battalion had been shifted to the First Army. The First was responsible for snuffing out resistance in Bonn; later that month they crossed the Ludendroff Bridge and established the Remagen Bridgehead . Later the 9th Infantry was reassigned back to the 3rd Army.

World War II

For my first blog I thought I would try to honor a request I received in June to share some of the details of a trip John McNallie took on October 28, 1945 while stationed in Germany with the occupying forces. On October 28, he and some of the friends in his unit visited the small town of Berchtesgaden in the German Alps.

Adolph Hitler had built his home, Berghof, nearby in Ober Salzberg. Berghof meant "mountain house".

Near Hitler's home was a home for Hess, Hitler's second in command. Also living nearby were Field Marshals Goering and Borman. Next to Hitler's house were SS barracks for 800 men, the administrative building, the motor pool, and a hothouse for the plants that Hitler loved. There was also a guesthouse. Tunnels connected all these buildings and in the last months before Germany's defeat these tunnels held huge amounts of food. In the basement was a shooting gallery. Nearby was a guest hotel for 350 people. That hotel is open today.

Hitler enjoyed visiting with some of his Gestapo friends. He also took short walks down the mountainside to a summer house next to some lands he owned.

Some people say Goering enjoyed walking in the alpine hills wearing shorts with a hunting gun.






The man on the right is my father, John McNallie.

This is Adlerhorst--Eagle's Nest--Hitler's hideout. It was a short distance away from the Berghof. The road ended a 100 feet below the house. An elevator took you to the rest of the way up.

Here are three of my father's friends posing in the window at the Berghof with the Alps in the background.