Hello!
This is information that I wanted to share last week but so much news was coming that I delayed it.
The gentleman that I mentioned Dan, is with the Third Armored Division Association, he is the one who is helping me locate more maps that connect to the Siegburg map with the hope that some of Dad's escape route/paths/options could be determined. He sent me the following message:
I looked at the maps. Combining the Sechtem, Bonn, and Eitorf maps to the Siegburg map should give you the coverage you are looking for. The Sechtum map has Sechtem in the North, Bornheim in the middle, and Hemmerzheim to the South (and a little east). The Bonn map connects to the Sechtem map a little south with Widdig and Rheid in the north, Boisdorf in the middle east, Bonn in the middle west, and Lengsdorf to the South. The Bonn map also extends west of the river -- from Meindorf to Putzenen. The Eitorf map connects with the Siegburg map at the river (the river at the top of the Siegburg map) and runs west.
I am ordering all 3 of those maps while we wait to see if he can find the one that includes Remagen.
Because the maps are too big for their scanners I order them on disc and that work gets done from a different group and takes much longer for me to receive.
It will be interesting to see if these maps will help us with Prisoner #2, KF and feel certain I will have to order at least one additional map more with an emphasis on Cologne. More to follow on that.
The Dan that sent the above message on the maps is the one that went through the records he has available and found the entry and wrote “Your father wasn't French, right? The March 16, 1945 G-2 Report talks about two French PsWs who escaped and crossed the Rhine.”
Dan is an employee or maybe a volunteer with the Third Armored Division Association. If he is an employee, he loves what he does and clearly goes above and beyond whatever his job requires!!! Now that is a man you want working for you!!!
From a book in my queue that I want to read in its entirety there is one page that I marked and would periodically reread. You can access it here:
www.jjworld.com/images/Book-DeathTrapsPg266-3rd ArmoredDivMarch20_1945
I could never figure out how they were handling E and W and the sides of the Rhine – why refer to the main road to Remagen which it says ran down the West bank of the Rhine if they were traveling on the East Bank and how did they get on the East Bank.
Christoph, so to answer one of your questions about Dad after March 22, 1945, and while I have said Dad was tough and maybe he could swim the Rhine, what about Gidrie. Gidrie supposedly had his rear end blown out – or something like that. Gidrie’s health was such that it delayed Dad leaving Europe. They wanted to keep the 2 of them together after what they had been through. And so Dad was in several hospitals before returning home. And even then they came back on a Hospital ship. Maybe Gidrie’s health was okay enough, but Christoph with the water conditions on the Rhine as they were around mid March 1945 could you have rescued someone and then you personally with them swim across the Rhine and carry them as dead weight over to the other side of the Rhine? Could my father? Did my father? I doubt it happened, maybe the men writing the report meant the River Sieg. Dad mentions that River in some random notes.
If this is Dad that the report refers to, will it be accurate with the location where he was picked up. Like the Hodges Diary entry – thank gosh it exists – but many discrepancies.
And as I went back and forth last Wednesday on this topic with Dan as to why I thought this could be Dad, Dan wrote back:
There isn't much information on the two but I will send you a PDF of the report.
Also, the Hodges diary says General Collins told Hodges of the two escapees. I am not sure if you know this, but General Collins was a member of the Third Armored Division.
I think Dan works an afternoon/evening shift because his messages come late in the afternoon and evening. Only a couple came in close to noon.
I want to go to Mom’s tomorrow because while I went yesterday and today, she is not doing very well. Hopefully the weather will be no worse than today because of Hurricane Isaac-Christoph.
So the wait goes on to see if Dad found a beret, spoke a little French, found one of those long cigarette holders and a cigarette, all after he left the Abbey. You know, I never asked him if he took a shower knowing he was going out. Actually, that is another question, did they shave while at the Camp?
Jean J