From Lee R. Christensen's book " You Knew Me As Buddy"

courtesy of American Press

Dear Historian, Could you:


1. Furnish me with the unit, Division or Lower that took Coblenz Germany in WW II. Probably mid March 1945, Third Army.


2. And if they have a Division Association, its address.


I’m trying to reach members of this Unit and enlist their help in a gesture of Friendship and Peace. I was never in Coblenz but was stationed at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on the mountain above and across the Rhine from this city in April 1945. Coblenz had been badly damaged but the detail I remember was of a Horse and Rider statue blown off their granite pedestal. I don’t know who the rider was, a Kaiser or perhaps Frederick the Great. But as they lay there, alone, on their sides, in what had once been a dramatic park where the Moselle River flows into the Rhine, they suggested the eminent surrender of Nazi Germany.


Now, some 45 years after that War, the people of Coblenz are making plans to put the Rider and his Horse back on their pedestal. They have waited, I understand, for a reunited Germany.


I would think the members of the Unit who knocked the rider and his Horse over would want to participate.
I thank you for any help you can furnish me.
Lee R. Christensen

Kathy:  I’m guessing it may come as a surprise that Kaiser Wilhelm from today’s posting has a Mt Pleasant connection.  But then again  maybe you’ve read my letters to Beth, pages 62 and 64.   I never discussed this with  Helen, Emil or Murray and do not know if they agreed with Beth that their Mother Augusta was related to the Kaiser.   It is certainly not as big a stretch as some I’ve heard.  

     The Army History Center did furnish me with the unit that  captured Coblenz .   I wrote to the unit  Association suggesting they participate in the restoration and did receive a strongly worded negative reply.  Their reply also gave their reason for knocking the Kaiser over.  As an old artilleryman I know the reason given is nonsense.  I’ve since read a book by an artilleryman that was present at the shelling.  He called it pure vandalism.   lee