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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits The Sinking of the SS Leopoldville (Dec. 24, 1944) - Dec. 24th, 2004
see educational sources

Posted on 12/23/2004 11:49:48 PM PST by snippy_about_it



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.



...................................................................................... ...........................................

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

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The FReeper Foxhole Revisits

Nightmare Before Christmas


As we here at Skylighters do each Christmas, we take a journey of remembrance back to that final Christmas of the war in Europe. We usually tell a story about what it was like to spend that holy day on a windswept ridge above the Seigfried line, or at a frozen airstrip in eastern France, or in a POW camp on the Polish frontier. Sometimes the stories are uplifting; other times, they're tragic. Sometimes, the story contains elements of both. The point is to remember what it was like for those who won our right, all those Decembers ago, to enjoy our freedoms this December, and there is no more poignant tale for this purpose than the sinking of the Leopoldville.

This year, thanks to the kindness of an English newspaper, we relay the story of the "Nightmare Before Christmas," the sinking of the troopship SS Leopoldville in the English Channel on Christmas Eve, 1944, a tragedy that took nearly 800 American lives. It's a story that few Americans of my generation are aware of, and even some of the WW II generation may not have heard.



As a (relatively) young man myself, it's always a sobering thing to read the names of war dead, and in the case of the Leopoldville, it seems all the more horrible that all those bright young men of the 66th Infantry Division ("The Black Panthers") died on Christmas Eve just under six miles from friendly shores. That a U-boat fired a torpedo into the former Belgian liner was a known risk of warfare. As a result, many of the young infantrymen aboard never saw Christmas 1944, or, indeed, another Christmas at all. But what contributed to the deaths of so many of the 800 and what happened afterward could not have been imagined.

Who were these men? I took the trouble to look up some of their names. There's Carlton Garlan of Stockton, Alabama; James L. McNair of Calhoun Falls, South Carolina; and William A. Klosterman of Rockville Center, New York. And Pablo G. Franco of Loving, New Mexico and John Marzotto of Weehawken, New Jersey. Scranton, Pennsylvnia gave Walter J. Skibinski and Chicago, Illinois sacrificed Albert Verbauen. I whisper the names in the dark room as I type this. For those moments that the letters materialize on the page in pronounceable patterns, I feel somehow this long-dead men are remembered. Like the scene in Saving Private Ryan where Ryan asks what the names were of the men who died looking for him, the mere intonation of each name (Caparzo, Wade) has resonance, meaning. Like Ryan, who repeats the names to himself, saying the names of the dead aloud is a way of remembering them.

With each name uttered I'm transported back to that black Christmas Eve 58 years ago. The lights twinkling in the windows across the street may have been how the harbor lights of Cherbourg may have looked through the mist that night in 1944. I see wreaths floating on the dark water — not Christmas wreaths, but funeral wreaths. Black circular holes in the water through which these young men disappeared as if down a coal chute into those cold English depths, the surface chopped by the hand of fate that night to the whipped green-white color of frozen spinach. It must have been much like the cold water of Long Island's Great South Bay that lays before me today as I contemplate the events of December 24, 1944. Somehow the common ocean connects this spot to that, across that other ocean, time. And that place is no hallowed "altar of victory" on which those boys were symbolically sacrificed. That night the sea was an unforgiving slab concealing a murderous vortex that stupidly robbed those GIs of their futures in pure "here one minute, gone the next" finality. And today it is in no uncertain terms a silent graveyard 180 feet below the Channel. A gash in the ocean through which the 66th passed to join the drowned and dead of the 1st, and the 4th, and the 29th, and others of dozens of units who had made the same crossing on a much warmer day in June, all without completing it. It's just that there are no white crosses or stars for these 800. Just darkness and murk.



So, on this Christmas Eve 2002, I will think about the last days of those 800 GIs, many of them teenagers, sons who would never have sons or daughters of their own. Perhaps there was a cure for cancer among them. Or a peace plan for a future conflict. Or a small instance of tenderness when it was needed, or the right words at the right time to a single person. I will think about their last vision of Christmas, spent perhaps in a chilly English drill hall with makeshift trees strung with garlands of silver gum wrappers, "ornaments" of balled-up cigarette packs, and crowning stars fashioned from flattened tin cans. And when the last order came, to " gear up and move out," perhaps they were really scared for the first time. They were heading to France, and into combat to reinforce the units being bloodied in the Battle of the Bulge.

Only they never made it. They died before they had the chance to die another day.






FReeper Foxhole Armed Services Links




TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: freeperfoxhole; history; samsdayoff; ssleopoldville; usnavy; veterans; wwii
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To: Samwise

Oops. PE here, on Msdrby's machine.


21 posted on 12/24/2004 6:31:45 AM PST by msdrby (Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.)
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To: snippy_about_it

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on December 24:
0003 BC Servius Sulpicius Galba 6th Roman emperor (68-69)
1167 John "Lackland" Plantagenet, king of England (1199-1216)
1745 Benjamin Rush, Byberry Pa, physician/general/signer (Declaration of Independence)
1809 Christopher (Kit) Carson(frontiersman: subject of adventure novels; fur trapper, guide, American Indian agent and brevet Union general)
1818 James Prescott Joule, physicist (discovered conservation of energy)
1868 Emanuel Lasker, Germany, world chess champion (1894-21)
1905 I.F. (Isidor Feinstein) Stone ("journalist")
1922 Ava Gardner Grabtown NC, actress (On the Beach, Night of the Iguana)
1940 Paul Tagliabue NFL commissioner (1989- )
1944 Mike Curb (music executive: producer: Oscar-winner You Light Up My Life)(Burning Bridges-Kelly's Heroes)
1950 John Matuszak (football: Oakland Raiders defensive end: Super Bowls XI, XIV)



Deaths which occurred on December 24:
1524 Vasco da Gama Portuguese explorer/viceroy of Cochin India, dies at about 55
1863 W M Thackeray writer, dies at 52
1869 Edwin M[cMasters] Stanton US Secretary of War (1861-65), dies at 55
1942 Admiral Jean Darlan French naval officer is murdered
1979 Rudi [Rudolf] Dutschke German student leader, founder Green Party dies at 39
1980 Karl Dönitz German great admiral/Führer (1945), dies at 89
1984 Peter Lawford actor, dies of cardiac arrest at 61
1991 Walter Hudson 1,025 lb man, dies at 46
1992 Pierre Culliford [Peyo] Belgian cartoonist (Smurfs), dies at 64
1993 Norman Vincent Peale (Power of Positive Thinking), dies at 95
1994 John Eastburn Boswell medievalist, dies at 47
1994 Rossano Brazzi Italian resistance fight/actor (Final Justice), dies at 78
1996 Nguyen Huu Tho President of Vietnam (1980-81), dies
1996 Peter Dormer arts writer, dies at 47
1997 Alan Fluck musical educationalist, dies at 69
1997 Toshiro Mifune Japanese actor (Shogun), dies at 77


Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 CHRISTIANO JOSEPH---ROCHESTER NY.
[MAYDAY HEARD SEARCH NEG]
1965 COLWELL WILLIAM K.---GLENCOVE NY.
[MAYDAY HEARD SEARCH NEG]
1965 EILERS DENNIS L.---CEDAR RAPIDS IA.
[MAYDAY HEARD SEARCH NEG]
1965 HASSENGER ARDEN K.---LEBANON OR.
[MAYDAY HEARD SEARCH NEG]
1965 JEFFORDS DERRELL B.---PHOENIX AZ.
[MAYDAY SEARCH NEG]
1965 THORNTON LARRY C---IDAHO FALLS ID.
[MAYDAY HEARD SEARCH NEG]
1967 POWERS VERNIE H.---BALTIMORE MD.
1968 BROWNLEE CHARLES R.---ALAMOSA CO.
1970 LUNDY ALBRO L. JR.---SHERMAN OAKS CA.
1971 FINN WILLIAM R.---METAIRIE LA.
1971 TUCKER TIMOTHY M.---LAS ANIMAS CO.
1972 CLARK PHILLIP S. JR.---FAIRCHILD AFB WA.
[GOOD CHUTE AND VOICE CONTACT REMAINS RETURNED 03/88]
1972 JACKSON PAUL V. III---HAMPTON VA.
1972 RIESS CHARLES F.---EAST ST. LOUIS IL.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY PL]

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.


On this day...
0640 John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1046 Pope Clement II [Suitger] elected
1294 Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII
1476 400 Burgundy soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
1515 Thomas Wolsey appointed English Lord Chancellor
1638 The Ottomans under Murad IV recapture Baghdad from Safavid Persia.
1724 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1799 Jacobin plot against Napoleon uncovered
1851 Fire devastates Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes
1861 The USS Gem of the Sea destroys the British blockade runner Prince of Wales off the coast at Georgetown, S.C
1889 Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake
1893 Henry Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor
1904 German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
1906 Reginald A Fessenden became 1st to broadcast music over radio (Massachusetts)
1941 1st ships of Admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor-fleet return to Japan
1942 1st powered flight of V-1 buzz bomb, Peenemünde, Germany
1943 FDR appoints General Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
1946 4th French republic established
1946 US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor nazis" amnesty
1956 African Americans defy a city law in Tallahassee, Florida, and occupy front bus seats.
1963 New York's Idlewild Airport is renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy.
1964 Shooting begins on "The Cage", the pilot for Star Trek
1966 Luna 13 lands on Moon
1968 Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis
1971 Peruvian Airlines Electra crashed at headwaters of the Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later.
1986 French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released
1989 Panama's dictator, Manual Noriega seeks asylum at Vatican embassy
1990 Saddam says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Soviet Union
1992 President Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger of Iran-contra affair
1994 4 Moslem fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers
1996 The streets of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, turned violent as demonstrators traded blows with supporters of President Slobodan Milosevic and then were clubbed by riot police.
1997 1st time a Channukah candle is officially lit in Vatican City


Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Laos : Sovereignty Day (1954)
Libya : Independence Day (1951)


Religious Observances
Christian : Christmas Eve
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St Sharbel Makhlouf, Lebanese monk, hermit
Jewish : Hanukkah-Festival of Lights


Religious History
1784 Methodism was officially organized in the newlyÂindependent United States of America, in Baltimore. Francis Asbury was consecrated the first Methodist bishop, a few days later.
1818 In St. Nicholas Church at Oberndorf, Austria, church organist Franz Gruber, 31, composed a melody on guitar for the poem, "Stille Nacht," written earlier by pastor Joseph Mohr, 26. This evening the world heard "Silent Night" sung for the very first time.
1871 The Northside Tabernacle in Chicago was dedicated by evangelist Dwight L. Moody. It became the original structure of what is today the Moody Memorial Church.
1943 German theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in a letter from prison: 'Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.'
1951 "Amahl and the Night Visitors," a Christmas musical, had its TV debut. Written by composer Gian Carlo Menotti, it was the first musical to be broadcast over television.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.


Thought for the day :
"There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries."


Hidden Meanings in Commercial Slogans
"Just Do It"
"We know you'll never get off the couch lard-butt; just buy the friggin' shoes."


How to tick off Santa Claus...
Leave out a copy of your Christmas list with last-minute changes and corrections


The Rules of Chocolate...
If you can't eat all your chocolate, it will keep in the freezer. But if you can't eat all your chocolate, what's wrong with you!


You Know Your Life Stinks When...
Your children's school calls to surrender


88 days till spring


22 posted on 12/24/2004 6:47:14 AM PST by Valin (Out Of My Mind; Back In Five Minutes)
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To: alfa6

Howdy sir.


23 posted on 12/24/2004 6:58:43 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Hey God, this is Texas, 15 degrees is NOT right.)
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To: bentfeather

Hi miss Feather


24 posted on 12/24/2004 6:59:10 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Hey God, this is Texas, 15 degrees is NOT right.)
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; All
<=====

"I'll be home for Christmas"

Merry Christmas to all our men and women in uniform and FRiends at The FReeper Foxhole.

25 posted on 12/24/2004 7:01:49 AM PST by Jen (Merry CHRISTmas!)
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To: snippy_about_it; All

 

Merry Christmas to EVERYONE at the FReeper Foxhole!

26 posted on 12/24/2004 7:02:13 AM PST by tomkow6 (...................TOMKOW6 ! The ONLY voice of reason & sanity in a chaotic Canteen!...............)
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To: snippy_about_it; SAMWolf; All

December 24, 2004

Born To Die

Read: Matthew 1:18-25

The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. —Matthew 20:28

Bible In One Year: Habakkuk 1-3; Revelation 15


Although millions celebrate Jesus' birthday, few seem to be aware of its real significance.

We recognize that His birth was unusual because He was born of a virgin. His life was unique too, for He was the only one who lived without sinning. His death was also unusual. Jesus was not a martyr. He was not the victim of unfortunate circumstances, dying for a worthy cause. Nor did He lay down His life just to set a good example. There's much more to it than that. The Lord Jesus came into this world to be our Savior!

Jesus Himself said that He came "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10). Who are the lost? The Bible tells us that "all have sinned" and that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 3:23; 6:23). In order to save the world, Jesus had to die for it. He came and lived the perfect life and then died the death we should have died. The true meaning of Christmas is that Jesus was born to die. Because He was crucified and then rose from the dead, forgiveness of sin and assurance of heaven is now offered to all who believe (John 1:12).

Have you accepted God's gift of salvation? If not, do so today, and this will be your most meaningful Christmas ever. —Richard De Haan

God offers new life;
Yea, what more could He give?
For He sent the Redeemer
That sinners might live! —Morgan

Unless we see the cross overshadowing the cradle, we have lost the real meaning of Christ's birth.

27 posted on 12/24/2004 7:13:31 AM PST by The Mayor (let the wisdom of God check our thoughts before they leave our tongue)
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To: Valin
1980 Karl Dönitz German great admiral/Führer (1945), dies at 89

I had no idea he lived that long.

28 posted on 12/24/2004 7:15:40 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Hey God, this is Texas, 15 degrees is NOT right.)
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To: Valin
1968 Apollo 8 astronauts read passages from Book of Genesis

Oh the horror, on a gubmint owned radio no less.

29 posted on 12/24/2004 7:17:39 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Hey God, this is Texas, 15 degrees is NOT right.)
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To: Valin
You Know Your Life Stinks When...
Your children's school calls to surrender

Shouldn't have sent them to a french school!

30 posted on 12/24/2004 7:18:50 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Hey God, this is Texas, 15 degrees is NOT right.)
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To: snippy_about_it
One must never forget the heroics of the HMS Brilliant when she hove to so she could take on survivors. She made herself a sitting duck for the next torpedo that fortunately never came.

But war seems in many ways to take the innocent, because we should also pray for the two German ships that were sunk near the end of the war by a Russian submarine. Between the two ships that were sunk in only days of each other, close to 25,000 souls went down with them. I believe one of these was the Wilham Gustav and I can't remember the name of the other. One was loaded with refugees and the other a hospital ship displaying her recognition lights.
31 posted on 12/24/2004 7:30:58 AM PST by U S Army EOD (John Kerry, the mother of all flip floppers.I)
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To: snippy_about_it

As far as discipline, I will never forget a painting I saw of all places,in the French naval museum in Paris. It was the painting of a English troop ship that sank in the 1880's. She was headed from England to India with a British regiment and their dependents. She started to sink and was able to fire off distress rockets. A French ship came to their rescue but it was almost to late. The Regiment was formed up on the deck to make sure no one rushed the life boats and rescue boats as in the tradition of the sea, first the women and children were being saved. As the ship sunk under them and the waters washed across the deck, not a man in the regiment broke ranks as the ship went down under them.


32 posted on 12/24/2004 7:40:17 AM PST by U S Army EOD (John Kerry, the mother of all flip floppers.I)
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To: Professional Engineer

I was guarding the alert birds when this happened. Clear sky, colder than the 9th circle of hell, I recall looking up and thinking there are men (Americans!) up there right now!


33 posted on 12/24/2004 7:40:49 AM PST by Valin (Out Of My Mind; Back In Five Minutes)
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To: Professional Engineer

Neither did I.


34 posted on 12/24/2004 7:41:51 AM PST by Valin (Out Of My Mind; Back In Five Minutes)
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To: Professional Engineer

Yep, it was a brisk 5F this morning on my way into work, we are experiencing a heat wave at the moment. It is now a balmy 15F,

And a Merry Christmas to you and the family

BTW, will be sending some more F-O-G pic next week :-)

Regards

alfa6 ;>}


35 posted on 12/24/2004 7:44:37 AM PST by alfa6 (I don't suffer from stress, I am a carrier)
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To: Professional Engineer
When he was buried, a bunch of the "old gang". Sang "Germany Over All" at his funeral.
36 posted on 12/24/2004 7:45:40 AM PST by U S Army EOD (John Kerry, the mother of all flip floppers.I)
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To: Valin
I recall looking up and thinking there are men (Americans!) up there right now!

I'm afraid my thoughts weren't quite so far along.

Here I am in 1970 admiring an Apollo11 moon rock at the Bishop museum in Honolulu.


37 posted on 12/24/2004 7:52:35 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Where there's a GI, there's a way.)
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To: alfa6

I THINK we may be up to 18F or so right now.

Every once in a while my dad gets the idea of sending an Orange tree to me. When he asks how could it gets in winter, typically down to about 20 or so a few nights, his reply is "nevermind".


38 posted on 12/24/2004 7:55:17 AM PST by Professional Engineer (Where there's a GI, there's a way.)
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To: gradient_salient

Morning gradient_salient.

Thanks for the link and the lead on the 66th Div history.


39 posted on 12/24/2004 7:56:44 AM PST by SAMWolf (WINTER is Nature's way of saying, "UP YOUR'S!")
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To: Brig_Gen_George_P_Harrison_CSA


George P. Harrison (1841-1922)

Finegan's second brigade, consisting of the Thirty-second Georgia, Sixty-fourth Georgia, First Georgia Regulars, Twenty-eighth Georgia Artillery Battalion, First Florida Battalion, and the Georgia Light Battery, was commanded by Colonel George P. Harrison. This young officer, still one month short of his twenty-third birthday, had already established a solid military reputation. In January 1861, while a student at the military institute at Marietta, Georgia, he took part in the capture of Fort Pulaski and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First Georgia Regulars. After serving in Virginia during the winter of 1861-1862, Harrison returned to Georgia and took command of the Fifth Regiment of Georgia State Troops.

Harrison then organized and was appointed colonel of the Thirty-second Georgia Infantry, a regiment he commanded throughout the 1863 siege of Charleston. During the defense of the city Harrison and his unit were stationed at various locations, including James Island, Fort Johnson, Morris Island, John's Island, Fort Sumter, and Fort Wagner. At Fort Wagner he contributed significantly to the bloody repulse of the July 22, 1863, Union attack. Despite his age, by early 1864 Harrison had developed into a seasoned combat commander, displaying the aggressiveness of youth and strong leadership traits, coupled with coolness under fire. As yet untried in commanding a brigade in battle, few doubted that he would continue to maintain his solid reputation.

Harrison commanded the second Confederate infantry brigade at Olustee. It consisted of the First Florida Battalion, First Georgia Regulars, 28th Georgia Heavy Artillery Battalion (also known as Bonaud's Battalion and serving as infantry), 32nd Georgia, 64th Georgia, and Guerard's Battery. The brigade suffered official casualties of 50 killed, 406 wounded and four missing.

After a competent performance at Olustee, Harrison continued in brigade command for the rest of the war. Although some works cite him as him as being promoted to brigadier-general in 1865, he apparently was never formally advanced to that rank. In the post-war years, Harrison worked as a lawyer in Alabama.

40 posted on 12/24/2004 8:00:41 AM PST by SAMWolf (WINTER is Nature's way of saying, "UP YOUR'S!")
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