Obituary for Ralph L. Ott Ralph L. Ott, 93, of Chambersburg passed away on Sunday, October 27, 2013 at Menno Haven Nursing and Rehab Center He was born on Thursday, December 25, 1919 in Scotland, PA the son of the late G. Harold and Rhoda (Jones) Ott. He spent his early years in Chambersburg, attending schools in the borough, graduating from Chambersburg High school in 1937. He attended Tampa University in Florida on a Football Scholarship. Ralph worked at the Pennsylvania Railroad in Chambersburg before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1941. He spent four years in the Army, 2 ½ years of which were in Iran with the 730th Railway Operation Battalion. Upon his return home, he married Helen Wise on November 8, 1947. He returned to the Pennsylvania Railroad shops in Chambersburg until 1972; then took employment at Letterkenny and retired from there in 1981. Ralph was a member of the First United Methodist Church and the following organizations: The Chambersburg Club, V.F.W. Post # 1599, American Legion Post #46, Amvets and the Marine Corp League. He is survived by his wife, Mary Wise Ott, who he married on November 25, 1977, two sisters: Evelyn O. Franklin and Shirley O. Barkdoll, nieces and a nephew. He is also survived by a step-son, David Shetter, wife Angela and two step grandsons: Vincent and Mitchell. The Funeral Service will be held at the convenience of the family. Burial will be at Lincoln Cemetery. Online condolences may be expressed at www.sellersfuneralhome.com

Bruce writes ....
Henry Brill was born in Yorkville, Manhattan, New York 24 January 1913. Yorkville was known then as a German neighborhood and --according to the 1920 Census, it has 8 year old Henry's language at home as German. His German speaking ability, I believe, came in handy in the army as the 757th advanced through Germany and then set up headquarters in Kasel, Germany. At the same time, my Dad was Jewish and he was given two different sets of dog tags: his official with "H" for "Hebrew" indicating he was Jewish; and an alternative set with "P," Protestant, for when the battalion landed in Europe and confronted the Jew-hating German forces (in case of capture) . Dad didn't talk much about the war except to mention that there was German resistance when his unit landed on the Normandy beach (even if it might have been a day or two after D-Day) and he hid behind a rock, which, he said, was "his best friend" that day. He also mentioned that when advancing on towns, that artillery would bomb certain factories and leave others untouched, which seemed strange to him. Only just now after viewing a conspiratorial-type documentary in which they maintained that Auschwitz and other concentration/extermination camp were actually more factories of "robber barons" which were big profit makers since they used slave labor. (and maybe --this is my own "thinking out loud"-- that's why Auschwitz

itself wasn't bombed??) Back to my Dad..... If you watched "Band of Brothers," one of the running themes was American GIs risking their lives to get a hold of a German Luger. Dad had one and sent it home (along with three sniper rifles, a German officer's sword, a Voigtlaender camera and other "souvenirs"). Before the war he tried to open a couple fruit and vegetable stores and each time they didn't make out and closed. . . so, the joke was that once he became part of the war effort, the war, too, would soon be over too. One very piquant story: sometime in May '44 he sent my Mom a letter from Great Britain and asked her to "give Aunt Sherry Berg birthday wishes for her birthday on June 6th" ..... Get it?....My Mom knew D-Day would be June 6th at Cherbourg ("Sherry Berg"). No one can figure out how Henry and Evelyn Brill knew when and where D-Day was going to happen when General Eisenhower himself didn't know! (I WISH I had that letter: no "experts" believe this story). After the war he began working for the Post Office as a letter carrier. Retired in the mid-70s to Florida. Loved fishing.

Taking the photo of my wall with Henry's grandson's (named for him, "Henny,") caricature along with photos of Dad and Mom with the trophy fish, brings my attention to another Henry-Brill-WWII item: that knife hanging on the wall. My dad made that knife himself in Kasel from an airplane propeller! I forgot to mention his rank: He was a buck private going into the army AND COMING OUT. I don't understand that. It SEEMS like it was a conscious decision not to take any rank ...not even Pfc, which, I thought came automatically after a few months of service. Am I mistaken? When I was in the army in the early 70s, I got E-4 in about a year. Dad was in for 3 full years. 

 Thanks to Bruce for sharing these amazing photos  ...

Thanks so much to author, Michael Heinzel for providing to the blog an English translation of a chapter pertaining to MRS units from his new book, Buch Eisenbahn in Ostbelgien nach dem 2. Weltkrieg: Besetzung - Befreiung - Wiederaufbau (Railway in East Belgium after World War II: Occupation - Liberation - Reconstruction) 

Reports from a German, American and Belgian perspective The railways in the Belgian-German border area served as deployment lines for the German invasion of Belgium in the First and Second World Wars. 

During the First World War they were only slightly destroyed, but then mostly ceded to the kingdom. During the Second World War, the destruction was serious. The local events of the years 1940-59 can be reconstructed using original documents from the Federal Archives, diary reports by American railway pioneers and official SNCB files from the Belgian train station Weywertz, and interesting insights into the political upheavals of that time can be gained. 

You can purchase in German here you can purchase in German here: Softcover 14.7 x 21cm 103 pages : https://bityl.co/B7jj 

 

If you can't see image click here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/165mOKwCNngH8q7hrAjwgEaQJGOWIOzK9/view?usp=sharing

 A Tragic Truck Train accident in Palestine kills 3 members of unit on their way home from leave to visit Jerusalem.

Sam Reed has a wooden desk plaque of his grandad's,(759th Railway Operating Battalion T/Sgt. George A. Akers) who he thought had been given to him by a soldier he knew in training who later died during service. I did some snooping in old newspapers and contacted a few families of these soldiers through Ancestry. 

Sam thinks the "Bill" might be PFC William Evans - he writes ...  "he was with the 711th and was killed in action Oct 31 1944 in Carthage, Tunisia. The 711th and 759th overlapped at Camp Claiborne for nearly two months in Sept. and Oct. 1942, and they did some training at the Southern Railroad shops in Meridian MS."

Some articles from his local paper and his internment record.

other from the unit were Eric Fall:

Sam writes about his grandfather, T/Sgt. George A. Akers.. 

I'm also attaching his formal Army photo in dress uniform, along with a snapshot of himself in a regular duty uniform and one of his wife, Mary Elizabeth (King) Akers that he carried throughout the war in a small brass envelope-shaped photo holder with two photo windows. He's wearing corporal's stripes in the snapshot, which would date it somewhere between May 2, 1941 and June 2, 1942. Outside of Army service, Grandpa worked for the Missouri Pacific in the DeSoto, MO
shops his whole life (other than a short stint when the DeSoto shops were closed and they were all commuting by train to Dupo, IL). He was a reservist, and called up to active duty with the 140th Infantry in late 1940. When the 727th ROB was formed, he was transferred there, and then was one of the core members of the 759th when that unit and others were activated and some soldiers from the 727th were transferred
to the new units. 

After the 759th was transferred from Italy to France, he was temporarily transferred to the 756th, HQ company, at Marseilles. In the last month of the war, he was returned to the 759th.

I'm attaching a much better scan of the 759th group photo if you would like to upload it. My grandfather, T/Sgt. George A. Akers, Company B, is in the fourth row, just left of the leftmost officer. When I had his copy of the photo professionally unrolled and mounted after 70+ years rolled up, I also had a high-quality scan and several duplicates made by a local photo shop.

 

 

thanks Richard

8010 TMRS Dining Card Menu 1952 by Nancy on Scribd

721st History of 721st ROB by Nancy on Scribd