Hi folks! I'm new to this forum. My father, who was with the 157th has just started to talk about the war. He asked me to attend his 63rd reunion as he could not make it. His legs just don't have it anymore. Sense he started to talk about the war and attending his reunion, it has got my interest up in just what he went through. I went to the Army Heritage and Education Center in Carlisle, Pa. and got a unit history and have researched the web for all I can get. What I am doing is to make a movie for my father showing his travels from Murrysville, Pa. when he was drafted, through Camp Maxie, to England and Normandy, France, Germany and Austria. The unit history I have is real good but I need some pictures to go with it. It seens as though after the Seine river bridge, any pictorial history is non existant except for the bombing of Nurnburg and a few of the winter in the Ardeneese. What I am looking for are pictures of the cities, like Charmes, Luneville, Bitchie, Worms, Frankenthal and some of the towns he was in, in Austria. I served 7 years in the Air Force and have never seen such destruction while I was overseas in SEA in the early 70's as to what my father saw. England at one time (4 years ago) released around 5 million aerial recon photos of before and after bombing to the general public, but they have closed down the site and have moved the records to Scotland where they tell me there is now a fee for them and I need to supply a map with coordinates and all sorts of stuff. BULL!!! There has got to be a better way. So, I ask that if any of you have any town photos of the towns I have mentioned, I would really like to talk to you. Also, does anyone have a picture of the Joshua P. Lippencot that took troops from Southhampton, England to Utah beach on Normandy? I really need that ship photo.
Any help would be really appreciated as i want this to be a Christmas gift to him.
Thanks, Son of a vet
Bill