Hi Phil,
The small bridge was a pedestrian bridge at the cabin. There was a driveway
and a vehicle bridge just a few feet below it. In the picture of Jimmy Fulmer, a
small structure can be seen to the left of the frame (Jimmy's right). It is
about five high, three feet wide and about two feet deep. The bottom part is
masonry and the upper part is metal. That was the ammo storage for the
German Guards.
Til next time,
Bill Evans
Bingo! It is Jimmy Fulmer, cook, currently residing in Birmingham, Ala. He is
leaning against the hand rail of the small foot bridge that led into the cabin.
Til next time,
Bill Evans.
P.S. The original cabin was made of wood and was barracks for the German
Guards. After the Labor Service Units (of which our guards were a part)
were disbanded, GIs moved into the cabin. Short-timer SP4 Joseph "Frenchy"
Beaudet of Woonsocket, RI repainted the interior. I was the second GI to
move into the cabin, to keep Frenchy company. 1Sgt Casey and Ops Sgt Merv
Balyeat bought, with their private money, new linoleum. I helped Merv
Balyeat install it in the two rooms nearest the road. The room fartherest
from the road was the German's kitchen/messhall. Under the dining table
was a padlocked trap door. The Germans kept their beer in a small brick
vault under the trap door. Merv Balyeat and another helper installed the
linoleum in the third room. Of course the hasp had to be removed. Merv
Balyeat thought he was going to help himself to a bottle of my Maisel Brau, that
he KNEW I had, but found the vault empty, or so he thought. There was
space between the top of the vault and the underside of the floor. T hat is
where I had my case of Maisel Brau stashed. The brick part of the cabin
was an extension of the original wooden structure. The steam heat for the
addition was extended to original three rooms. Don't recall what happened to the
original latrine with its little coal fired water heater.
Bill
Hi Paul,
I was in a near state of panic yesterday when I wrote from work. I went to
the Schneeberg site and less that half the usual stuff was displayed. I tried
again after I got home and again this morning at work - everything is 5X5.
Yes, that is Jummy Fulmer leaning against the small bridge at the cabin.
There was a vehicle bridge just below it. Can't tell from Jimmy's picture
if it is the old wooden vehicle bridge. At one point it became too rotten
to drive over and was torn out. No bridge was a problem for a jeep or
truck, but was for our cars. One night Jimmy and I "liberated" some
concrete pipe where the Germans were rebuilding a side road off of Route 303
below Bisch. My poor car was so loaded down it would hardly move.
How we got the pipe back to the cabin without breaking a spring or an axle is a
tribute to Opel engineering. Don't recall where we had been drinking
before we "requisitioned" the pipe. Bill Randall laid the pipe.
We didn't have the proper machinery so Randall just packed the dirt around the
pipe by driving a deuce'n'half back and forth. Did a good job of packing
the dirt and waking up the shift workers who were trying to sleep.
Ed Brophy was the volunteer in charge of "procuring" the sheep. He is
not on line but his daughter is. Next time I call, I'll ask him to send his
recollection.
Til next time,
Bill Evans
Hi Phil,
Every time some one mentions something, it sets off another chain reaction of
memories. As we all well know winter on Schneeberg lived up to its name.
The winter of '56-'57 was an especially bitter one. Since it had not snowed for
two or three days (can you imagine that) no one started the deuce'n'half
that had the snow plow mounted on it. Don't recall exactly what time it was
other than it was dark-which could have been 5:00PM. It was starting to
snow very lightly. Ops Sgt Merv Balyeat wisely decided to make sure the
snow plow would be running when needed. The engine was so cold it would not turn
over, even with a jumper cable. To warm the engine we put a five gallon can of
motor oil in the kitchen sink and filled the sink with hot water. When the oil
was warm we poured the entire five gallons into the engine. This warmed
the engine enough for it to turn over, but it would not start. Bob Gouras
let the other truck idle and got a pint bottle of alcohol from ops that we used
for cleaning recorder heads (spray cans of starting fluid had not been invented
yet) and poured that into the carb. All this time I was cranking the
engine-with the starter of course. The starter was getting so hot I could
smell it when the engine finally caught. A new policy was put into effect
on the spot. That deuce'n'half WOULD BE started a minimum of twice a day.
But I digress. I set out to tell you that we too used mother nature's beer
cooler when we lived in the ops building wing nearest the gate. We would
push the shutters open and stuff bottles of beer into the snow. For a real
quick buzz we would wait for the beer to turn to slush and drink the almost pure
alcohol. When the snow melted we had a big police call. The easiest
way to get rid of the beer bottles was to toss them over the fence. The
German guards were pissed. Not only were we breaking bottles in their
patrol path - it was their bottles.
Good night to all.
Til next time,
Bill Evans
