Now where to begin and as always so little time.
The Univ. of Ill. gentleman, Dan, (site with the maps) had left a telephone message for me and I finally happened to listen to messages. I talked to him today and he was so helpful and supportive. Next week he will look at the Bonn map and the other maps he has and see how they connect up to the Siegburg one I sent you all. I doubt Dad went East when he escaped. His sense of direction was not his best sense, but he had Gidrie who surely had a better sense of direction and most importantly they could look down from the Abbey and get some idea of which way to at least start running.
Dad knew how to swim (he had been a life guard for several summers in NY) if that was required getting over the Sieg River. I do not know about Gidrie and his swimming expertise. I do not know the depth of that River or the current, again, if that was the only way to get to the Rhine.
Dan also said he would check their records to see if perchance Dad ran into the outfits whose records they hold. So unlikely, but one never knows - look at this website and the Diary on Walter - that was truly unusual!! And finding Christoph was off the charts!!
Now the other piece of news that I was so anxious to share - Sue, the devoted daughter to the 309th Regiment and the men, communicated with lots of members. She has a letter from June of 2002 from a 309th gentleman and he tells about a battle on Hill 305 where he and others were wounded. He talks about the German Aid Station and then the First Field Station both taking very good care of them. And then he says it - they were taken to Waldbrol! So these guys were part of the 71 that were liberated from Waldbrol. This man according to Sue has been deceased a couple of years and in 2002 he says that 2 of the other gentlemen were now deceased.
There are a couple of additional names that I will see if Sue, when she has a chance, could see if they were still alive and healthy enough or willing to share their Waldbrol experiences. Who knows if they would know when the Siegburg boys came there or anything about them. But would be great to hear anything about Waldbrol!
More to share, but have no definite news on it, so will sign off for tonight.
Jean J