DIY History | Transcribe | World War II Diaries and Letters | David R. Elder correspondence, June-July 1945 | 1945-07-23 Maj. Al E. Baldridge to Dave Elder Page 3

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David R. Elder correspondence, June-July 1945

1945-07-23 Maj. Al E. Baldridge to Dave Elder Page 3

does not permit shooting back - where they just do their work, disregarding this danger - until they too become casualties.
And those cub-pilots - Why any are living today I'll never understand. They also didn't have the means of shooting back - other than a pistol.
The commanders - up to division level, if they were worth anything had to get up front to see what was going on & they did. A good many of them were wounded. It wasnt a case of directing things from the rear. I have seen a division commander ahead of the recon.
By the way - outfits like the 113th have won a place in the hearts of armored outfits. Our Cavalry is the reconnaissance group. They go out in jeeps & armored cars & locate enemy guns & tanks - how? - often by getting shot up or at least fired upon.
Then the Ordinance - those boys with the retrievers would come up at night to try to get some of our tanks out that were either stuck in the mud or disabled. Of course when they started their motors the Krauts opened with artillery & mortar fire.
No, there wasn't any one branch or group that won the war.

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does not permit shooting back - where they just do their work, disregarding this danger - until they too become casualties. And those cub-pilots - Why any are living today I'll never understand. They also didn't have the means of shooting back - other than a pistol. The commanders - up to division level, if they were worth anything had to get up front to see what was going on & they did. A good many of them were wounded. It wasnt a case of directing things from the rear. I have seen a division commander ahead of the recon. By the way - outfits like the 113th have won a place in the hearts of armored outfits. Our Cavalry is the reconnaissance group. They go out in jeeps & armored cars & locate enemy guns & tanks - how? - often by getting shot up or at least fired upon. Then the Ordinance - those boys with the retrievers would come up at night to try to get some of our tanks out that were either stuck in the mud or disabled. Of course when they started their motors the Krauts opened with artillery & mortar fire. No, there wasn't any one branch or group that won the war.