American Legacies Organization, Inc.

"I've been listening to you boys and girls recite the Pledge of Allegiance all semester and it seems as though it is becoming monotonous to you. If I may, may I recite it and try to explain to you the meaning of each word?

Falaise Gap. We were set on a sloping field about two hundred miles from the road. When the Gap was closed we saw truck loads of prisoners being hauled out. I remember the funeral services for Sgt. Roy. We went over to Headquarters battery. The service was like one that would take place at home except it was held outdoors in a small clearing in the forest. It struck me as being ironic that we could hold a service like this after all the dead we had seen before this who were disposed of like so much garbage.

The village that we stayed in while we were there was shelled the morning that we landed, and most of it had burnt completely flat. One native woman cooked a ton of food for us. We had fried chicken twice while there, which was a treat, and a thanks at the same time. Then one of the boys bought a pig and they cooked that while we were there.

There was one thing about the wind that comes howling in the winter, (howling is when the wind makes a noise that sounds like a train, then it gets louder, then fades, then comes back again). The major reason for the howling is usually due to cracks in the walls,

We flew our 24th mission on New Years Day 1945, and from our 14th mission on, we Led or Deputy Lead in the formation of our 36 plane formation. It was a position in formation we thought and considered to be safe. At least better than tail end Charlie. We were flying Deputy Lead on January 6, 1945, target railroad marshalling yards was our primary, Duetz Bridge, Cologne, Germany our secondary target.

When thinking back, about days gone by, we can recall the different games we played as young’uns; it may have been marbles, played with “Cat-eyes and logrollers, dodge ball, or the more manly game of “Mumbly-Peg.”

The whole time that we were on the front it rained, day and night. So, I suppose that did not make it any easier. They told us that it would probably rain for at least two more months. I was wet and scared, dug into a little three foot fox hole, and seeing my first action of the war. One of the two other boys whom I came into this outfit with were wounded on the front. He was only a few yards away from me when he was hit. It was just an arm wound, so he was all right, but it definitely indoctrinated us into the combat life.

In 1950, Elizabeth McCaughen was 23 years old, a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where she earned her Bachelors in Psychology in 1948, and was currently enrolled in the Masters program at the same University. 29-year-old Harry Blagbrough was working for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Little did these two young people know that their paths were about to cross, and that neither of their lives was ever going to be the same again.

William Gieske during WWII

By William Gieske

(Continued from 2/7/22)

There were six of the black, eight week old pups in the cardboard box when we looked inside. All the pups looked fat and healthy except one. For some odd reason, his tail was only a stub and he was clearly the runt of the litter. He apparently didn’t realize he was small as he bulled his way right up to the front of the box, so he could get his fair share of our attention.