Beginning to move -- ix

 

The staff at Camp Shelby -- Chaplain Van front row, far right.

October, 1943

At times during the preparation for printing, Chaplain Van must have determined that the storyline needed a few editions. One of them appears here when he stops the diary entries--without clarification--to give a more removed historical sense to his day-to-day recitation.

After the Battle of the Bulge (early spring of 1945 and not "October  of 1943"), the 69th Division was sent to Europe and soon thereafter I was sent to the front. Some of the officers I  had learned to know and appreciate were killed. The 69th Division was the first American unit to meet the Russians at the Elbe river. 

The dreaded troop movements, fearfully imagined during the long months of training, was beginning in October, and some understandably difficult moments resulted between the chaplain and his boys. 

October 6:

About 1000 soldiers were alerted for shipment overseas. Pvts  Richard Moore and Pugh came to my office to say good-bye. I am really sorry to see them go. They were faithful in their chapel attendance and the Bible study hour. Moore wants to study for the ministry. I recommended Calvin College and Seminary for his preparation. Pvt. Hugh subsequently was wounded in the landing at Anzio Beach, Italy. At that time he wrote me a letter stating that he read his Bible every day. And that was his only comfort both in life and death.

Pvt. Hugh's correspondence was also a late addition to the diary, as is obvious--it happened after the diaries were written. Notable here is Chaplain Van's use of the phrase "his only comfort," a phrase with great resonance among his denominational members.

October 8:

You might want to consider that at the time of the exercises he describes, Chaplain Van was not a young man. Born in 1903, he was forty years, maybe two decades older than most of the others.

We went through the infiltration course. Two machine guns shot bullets over our heads while we were creeping along 100 yard to the end of the course. Dynamite charges along the course exploded, blowing large masses of earth into the air. Barbed wire fences were stretched through the course and we had to get under and through them without raising our heads. If any of us  would get excited and stand up, we would be killed instantly.

October 11:

I went on a twenty-mile hike, and on the last mile the colonel, in his jeep, picked me up for a ride. My feet were very sore, but I did not have any blisters.

October 24, Sunday

I preached on "I have kept the faith." 

. . .The Russians have broken through the  German army at Melititopol. The Germans are also cornered in the Crimea and in the Denieper Bend. Some say that the war will be over by Christmas.

For the record, it's this widespread attitude among U.S. forces that made Hitler's sudden and surprise attack during the Battle of the Bulge as successful as it was. Eventually, that massive movement ground to a halt with brutal
hand-to-hand combat during the early days of the winter of '44. The Allies had begun to think the war would be over by Christmas. It wasn't. 

Ending the war included the incredible loses and gains during and after D-Day.