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today to visit Field Marshal Montgomery at the headquarters
of the British 21st Army in Germany. I inquired about my hotel
bill and was told that we owed 280 francs, which is $5.60 for
food. This is at the rate of about 25c per meal-the regular
Army mess charges.
Departed at 8:30 a.m. for Ville Coublay airfield where we en-
planed with a special aircraft, C-45 twin-motor Beach Craft. On
the way to the airfield we saw people aimlessly walking-many
old persons-lines of people were awaiting their food rations.
The airfield had been badly beaten up-bomb craters pepper-
ing the field; hangars destroyed; many German planes strewn
about. Our efficient engineers had laid metal ground strips to
make the field usable.
Region of The "Bulge" ... Bomb Explodes
Lieut. Wesley from Bakersfield, California, was our pilot. We
flew northwest over the charming French countryside-below us,
as everywhere in France, the farms, worked by peasants, were
under fine cultivation. We flew over Chateau Thierry, the Ar-
gonne woods, Soissons-many of the famous old places of the last
war. We could see miles of concrete trenches and pill-boxes-
relics from World War I. Flew directly over Bastogne-a badly
beaten-up village. This is the section where the "Bulge" occurred
last December. Everywhere on the ground one sees wrecked tanks
and planes-and terrific devastation from last winter's fighting.
The little city of St. Vith was entirely wrecked-as badly demol-
ished a town as I have seen in all Europe. Here was some of
the fiercest fighting. We flew over Neufchatel and the little town
of Bouillon which has one of the most gorgeous castles I have
ever seen. The pilot flew us about 50 feet from the ground, taking
pictures of the devastation.
In a field immediately outside of Bouillon, a bomb exploded
beneath us. This is not an uncommon sight, as the countryside
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