980th Field Artillery Battalion Pictures - Training to Germany

I have searched and searched for any kind of info on Welch. I was starting to think he wasn't even real. Thanks for the photos!

 

Grandpa Carter has similar pics. Maybe your dad mentioned his name Horace Carter from Pima Arizona.

 

I don't recall the name but I have a bunch of letters I have not read through yet that might mention names. When I get the big unit picture scanned I'll send you a digital file of it. I'll have to take it in somewhere since it is 16x20 or so. I need to do that so my sister and her kids can have copies, it's a pretty cool picture at full scale. My father is in the third row of the bears legs so he is easy to ID, the guys further back, not so much! Love the opportunity to share some of this stuff.

 

My father Earl Winegar was in this unit. Is there any way I can get a copy of the pictures?
Thanks, Scott Winegar

 

I have been going thru my fathers letter and I found one from Horace Carter to my mother. I'm sorry I didn't do this earlier.

 

I would like to have a copy of the 1440reg. photo if you have a better one or have scanned this

 

Okay, time to check back in since it is D-Day. I will be trying to get back to scanning some of my remaining photos. Should have more time since I tossed in my retirement papers today and will be only working a couple of days a week after this month.

I have been looking around for someone to scan the big 144th group shot. Tried our big scanner at work but it has some scratches on the glass and these left lines across the photo. Promise to get that done this summer and have a link where it can be downloaded.

 

Looked up where my dad and the 980th was 70 years ago today on Veterans Day 1944 (would have still been called Armistice Day back then). His unit history shows them as dug in Breinig, Germany near the Belgian border. This was before everything got chaotic there in the Battle of Bulge.

 

would you please send me an email with your email address. I would like to get a copy of the large picture you have if you did get it digitized.
scott winegar
winegar.scott@yahoo.com

 

Getting back to scanning some. Going a little out of order since it is the 70th anniversary of the winter of 1944-45 and the Battle of the Bulge.

Here are a couple of winter shot from that winter.

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Looks like a snow covered German 2cm flakvierling, probably mounted on a PZ IV. Location unknown but guessing around the time and location of the Battle of the Bulge.

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German cemetery. Location unknown but has to be winter 44-45

 

Some tank pictures. I think late winter. Location unknown (somewhere the 980th was) but I think it might be the Ruhr valley.

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My dad posing on a German StuG. They urinated on the iron cross to clean some dirt off of it so it would show up better.

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On barrel of the StuG. You can see my dad's medic helmet on the tank. He hated those helmets, thought the red cross looked too much like a target and kept "losing" them.

 

More tank pics from the same area. Not sure if these were knocked out StuGs or broken down. You can see tow cables in some of the pics.

I do remember my dad saying that while they were doing these photos some Allied fighters flew over which scared them a little since they were sitting on German tanks!

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Different StuG, same area.

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Same area as the StuGs I think. If I recall correctly my dad said this Sherman tank was still hot when he approached it.

 

Another StuG shot. The Sherman in the previous post is in the background as is my dad's jeep (on the road).

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On leave in Liege. I am unsure of the story here but I think the two civilians are a brother and sister that might have run a bar or restaurant. If we have any Belgian viewers I found a note and I believe the women is "Mademoiselle Francoise Blavier, A Horion-Hozemont, Province De Liege, Belgioue" per what I think is her handwritten note.

Original images are like the size of thumbnails so quality isn't that great.

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Great pics! Thanks for posting these.

 

Some bivouacked images. Either France summer of 1944 or Germany spring of 1945. There is an April 1945 stamp on the back of some of these but that is the date they were printed.

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WC51 in the background.

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Note foxhole inthe foreground.

 

More bivouacked images. Either France summer of 1944 or Germany spring of 1945.

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The ever versatile jeep set up as an alter for church services.

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Relaxed under trees and camouflage netting.

 

More bivouacked images. Either France summer of 1944 or Germany spring of 1945.

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No idea what the guys are doing here! Posting in case anyone might ID a relative.

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Misc image, posting in case anyone might ID a relative.

 

The more i look at some of these misc bivouacked pictures the more it looks like Normandy. The downed tree and some others look a lot like apple trees and this picture below looks to have apples on the ground so it would be late summer or fall in France?

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The only reason I can think my dad would take this picture is if this was a German shell hit close to their battery.

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Not sure about this but the back of the photo says USO and "Dinah Shore?". I would put emphasis on the question mark on the photo back.