I’m continuing a blog on most days until mid 2025 following my father’s exploits and adventures during WWII. Each blog will represent what he and the men with whom he was fighting were doing 80 years ago on the exact day of the blog. Below are links to last month’s blogs:

• January 1, 1945 — The last year of World War II begins
• January 2, 1945 — In Europe the winter fighting conditions were so terrible they can only be marveled at not really imagined
• January 3, 1945 — The return of a leader and welcome additions for the 30th Regiment
• January 4, 1945 — Phil’s celebrates his 20th birthday on the front In Europe
• January 5, 1945 — The GI’s favorite cigarettes
• January 7, 1945 — Phil teaches his men an easy way to dig a foxhole in frozen ground and how to prevent trench foot
• January 8-9, 1944 — It was hellacious winter fighting at its worst
• January 10, 1944 — It was even more hellacious for the German fools broadcasting treasonous propaganda
• January 11, 1944 — Finally some good news, comfort, and a bit of chicken humor on the winter front
• January 12, 1944 — Preventing frostbite, trench foot, and gangrene in the front-line foxholes
• January 13, 1944 — “As long as there’s a war and as long as there is a 3rd Infantry Division, the 3rd Division will be in that war”
• January 16, 1944 — A surprising but warm and wonderful stew on the frozen battlefield
• January 17, 1944 — The nearly miraculous warming and drying tents
• January 18, 1944 — Morale was raised another notch with the far-overdue arrival of winter clothes
• January 19, 1944 — Morale soared as the GIs cleaned up, saw a couple of movies, wrote letters home, and got their mail
• January 20, 1944 — Phil is awarded his second Purple Heart during a blinding snowstorm
• January 21, 1944 — Phil and his men are livid as one of FDR’s cabinet members is actually motivating the Nazis
• January 22, 1944 — A frozen hell would begin at midnight
• January 23, 1944, Part 1 — Angels, doughnuts, and a mistake that led to a colossal loss of GIs
• January 23, 1944, Part 2 — The cost of the mistake was only beginning to dawn on Phil and his men
• January 23, 1944, Part 3 — Phil knew his best friend and all of his men were dead
• January 24, 1944 — 36 hours of fighting left Phil and his men exhausted and hanging on by their fingernails
• January 25, 1944 — The 30th Regiment survivors were dazed, angry, and embarrassed but with a spirit of revenge
• January 26, 1944 — Phil and Audie Murphy meet again the day Murphy earns the Medal of Honor
• January 27-30, 1944 — Phil and his men reclaimed the momentum from the Germans
• January 28, 1944 — Audie Murphy and Stephen Ambrose write about the hell of Colmar
• January 30-31, 1944 — Finally, light at the end of the Colmar Pocket tunnel

• December 1944
• November 1944
• October 1944
• September 1944
• August 2024
• July 2024
• June 2024
• May 2024
• April 2024
• March 2024
• February 2024
• January 2024

Could I ask a favor? Could you let friends and family who are WWII aficionados know about the blog? They can sign up for it at www.DrWalt.com.

You can read more about his heroics and exploits in At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse.

In case you haven’t read or listened to Dad’s book, you can learn more or order it here.

© Copyright WLL, INC. 2024.