[BluSky]

He was not with Patton's 3rd Army but, they crossed paths several times according to him.

He has only recently opened up to us and is truly a changed man for doing so. We have heard many times, as in your situation with your father, many WW II vets kept it bottled up and refused to talk about their experiences.

He expressed interest in 'closing the loop', as he said, and wished to return to France and re-trace many of the places he had been and fought.

He knew of other vets that are now departed, that expressed interest in going over to Europe (ETO) and Normandy but never did. They have all expressed regret for not going. My father in-law did not want that to happen to him.

We feel blessed that we will be able to make this trip happen.

He does tell the story of Patton's explicit request to encircle a very large contingent of German soldiers at Falaise that would have shortened the war by 6 - 9 months.

Montgomery could not get his units in place in time and this now known as the Falaise gap. Patton wanted to close this gap, capture/destroy the German army where estimates run as high as 800,000 Germans. Instead, the Germans were able to retreat through the gap like a bottleneck and regroup for later battles. Could have saved thousands of American soldiers lives.

He is recounting many of these scenes to us and frequently becomes overwhelmed with emotion, which is a good thing.

Like I said, we very much look forward to this experience and it's not only the experience at stake here it's a person's life and soul that is healing.

[Euro-American Scum]

He does tell the story of Patton's explicit request to encircle a very large contingent of German soldiers at Falaise that would have shortened the war by 6 - 9 months.

The Falaise gap was infamous. Montgomery was nothing less than deliberate in everything he did from El Alamein onward. Eisenhower should have realized this when he (Montgomery) came to him with the Market-Garden plan a few months later. It was folly to put an operation requiring speed, daring and boldness in the hands of a commander who exhibited none of those qualities.