It’s April, and tax time for procrastinators everywhere in the States, including the History Junkie. This past weekend, I was shuffling through stacks of papers, looking for that golden receipt that might save HJ some cash when I came across another random note from my old pal, Hobert. It was a October 1944 newspaper article [...]
Hard to believe, but it’s almost been two years since BOOTPRINTS author and World War II 90th Infantry Division veteran, Hobert Winebrenner passed away. I still think of him often. He was truly one of a kind. I first met Hobert in 2002. Over the next seven years, I saw him almost every week. No [...]
I had three different NCAA Tournament brackets before the weekend started. Now they’re all wadded up, in the corner where they belong. It’s Monday, and back to business. The 90th Infantry Division Picture of the Week features a shot of Fontoy, France. Interestingly, Hobert Winebrenner, in his book, BOOTPRINTS, tells of his unit, the 3rd [...]
Last Thursday, we ran a post regarding a most interesting wayside cross. If you remember the site lies at the intersection of roads D-15 and D-24, just west of Pont l’Abbe in the Normandy region of France. Hobert Winebrenner, author of BOOTPRINTS, and his unit, the 358th Infantry, 90th Infantry Division, helped liberate the area. [...]
In June 1944, the 90th Infantry Division continued to push its way west from Utah Beach. German defenses within the Normandy interior proved stout. American soldiers fought for any and all ground gained, mile by mile, town by town. In BOOTPRINTS, Hobert Winebrenner speaks of the liberation of the villages Picauville and Pont l’Abbe, [...]
Summer 1945 saw World War II draw to a close across Northern Europe. Allied troops simultaneously squeezed German forces from both fronts. As the vise tightened, impromptu meetings of East and West occurred throughout occupied Germany and Czechoslovakia. Perhaps most notable is the meeting of leaders, Stalin, Churchill and Truman, at the Potsdam Conference, where [...]
This kind of weather has the History Junkie thinking of the Battle of the Bulge. The cold. The snow. Hell, HJ even woke up this weekend to thick dense fog. Following the D-Day landing at Normandy, Adolf Hitler witnessed his German forces being systematically pushed toward the homeland. In December, he struck back, with the [...]