Many of you know that I have struck up a friendship with Gilbert Stevenot who served as an interpreter for Gen Bradley 12th Army Group during WWII and the Battle of the Bulge. Gilbert hails from Belgium. I was introduced to him by John McAuliffe of the 87th Infantry Div. John has met Gilbert several times in Europe when he's attended various WWII commemorations.
This morning I received a very fascinating email from Gilbert regarding Major Baum. You might recognize the name if you know the history of Patton's 3rd Army and the attempted liberation of a POW camp that contained Americans including the son-in-law of Gen Patton. Anyway...
Gilbert shared the letter below and is going to meet Major Baum this fall if all goes as planned.
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I was very happy to speak with you by telephone today.
Col. Lyons and Gen. Irzyk have spoken very highly of you,
your historical research, and your kindness to US veterans.
I am attaching a tentative schedule of the visit to Europe
Oct. 19 through 28 which will include Maj. Baum, his wife,
2 sons, a daughter, a daughter-in-law, and myself (7 persons,
though possibly one or two more may join us as plans develop).
There is a re-tracing of the Hammelburg raid on Oct. 22
and 23 which is organized by our good friend and co-author
German Lt. Col. Peter Domes (pdomes@aol.com), he also
has a nice website http://www.taskforcebaum.de
There will be 9 or 10 restored US jeeps, some US uniforms,
following the original route with details given along the way
and some receptions in the towns and villages.
Then Major Baum wanted to revisit Bastogne, where he
has not returned for 60 years. I am a screenwriter who has just
finished the screenplay about the raid called "Patton's Secret Raid."
We are now looking for a producer of this as a feature film.
Abe asked me to plan the trip and make hotel reservations.
Attached is the schedule as we have arranged it so far.
I have been to the Bastogne area 3 or 4 times, but I don't know
any of the hotels there. Perhaps you can recommend a 2 star
hotel in the Bastogne area?
We have obtained permission to get a tour of Patton's
HQ at the Fondation Pescatore in Luxembourg City. Then
we would like to follow the route of the 10th Armored Infantry
Battalion. It will be interesting to see if any of the landscape
is familiar to Abe. I have attached the diary of this unit during the period
Dec. 19, 1944 through Jan. 16, 1945.
Perhaps we can follow some of the route Anlier-Louftemont-
Fauvillers-Hotte-Menufontaine-Burnon-Chaumont (perhaps a detour
to Remoiville-Nives-Vaux sur Sure) Grandru-Hompre-Clochimont-
Assenois. I suppose the troops were out in the surrounding hills and
woods, not often in the villages.
Would you be able to accompany us on this part of the trip?
It would be a great honor for us if you could share from your
wealth of local knowledge.
Looking forward to meeting you, I am
Sincerely,
Jim Sudmeier