Gilsdorf Bridge, April 1945 and Christmas, 1944
#9

Well I looked into my grandfather's notebooks (one is more engineering oriented and the other is normal day-to-day army life) to try to date the Gilsdorf Bridge definitively. The engineering notebook, from which the Gilsdorf entry is taken, has dates with years in the begining - Dec 5 through Dec 22, 1943. Then there are about 3 blank pages followed by an entry dated 24 February. I am led to assume that this is 1945 (he didn't use it for more than a year?) due to the fact that the dates go through 3 May (Heillbronn Bridge) and then goes into his trip home. The journal of his trip home (July 14 - August 6) is interesting and have those scanned for future entries.

 

The entries that flank the Gillsdorf Bridge are the Heilbronn Bridge on 22 April (which as I mentioned before is discussed again in May) and Gailsdorf Bridge on 30 April.

 

I wish I had an engineering background so I could make sense of some of these entries, but alas it's not to be. Looking through the other journal does lead me to believe, however, that there are a lot of similarities between the normal day-to-day then as there is now. I only wish I were as organized as he was! The other journal (from which the Christmas entry is taken) begins June 5, 1944 and goes through April 3, 1945.

Maj Todd O. USMC, Retired
Grandson of LTC John O'Brien
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Messages In This Thread
Gilsdorf Bridge, April 1945 and Christmas, 1944 - by CaptO - 04-17-2008, 01:06 PM
Gilsdorf Bridge, April 1945 and Christmas, 1944 - by CaptO - 04-20-2008, 11:29 PM

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