ABOUT

FOREWORD

Dears Visitors, Dears Readers,

In our time, paper publications on the Second World War are becoming more and more folkloric. I’m not talking here about books on specific subjects but books that generally appear under often pompous titles like “The Normandy Landings”, “Operation Husky”, “Battle of the Bulge” etc, as well as all their synonyms. Just take a look at the Bibliography chapter to realize that pages and pages of text are devoted to listing the number of already published books that were consulted to give birth to the book you have in hand. Some Bibliography chapters are so consistent that if the author of the book had used a single sentence from each of the works consulted, he would have produced a book twice as large as the one he is trying to get you to buy.

Now according to the fact that books consulted were also a product of the same habit, you can now locate why some errors are repeated since the late 1960s and will continue to be repeated forever.

This is obviously not a generality because the few good authors who produce books on both sides of the ocean are those who immerse themselves not in published books but in the dust of the archives where they are. Just to cite an example, Charles B. MacDonald worked for about six years on his last book: “A Time for Trumpets”.

ABOUT DOC SNAFU

I only vaguely remember this event, I was 4 years old at the time. I remember that this day while walking in the forest, I found an American Grenade in the Krinkelterwald. One all-yellow painted MK-2. Proud as a rooster, I brought it back to my parents, whose reaction was instantaneous. (1) My Father snatched the hand grenade from my hand; (2) sent my grenade as far as possible and (3) gave me a masterful kick in the ass that I still remember today. It was in 1959.

There is no doubt in my eyes that it was at this precise moment that I caught the virus of field research, archives, papers, photos, and many other things. A few years later, after 2 years in the army in Germany, I returned to the Krinkelterwald to recover the Hand Grenade that my Father had sent as far as possible the day I found it. Metal Detector in hand, it didn’t take me 10 minutes to flip it, defuse it and deactivate it. That’s how I started moving in that direction. What started out as a dangerous coincidence became a pastime, then a hobby, and eventually a mission.

I don’t live in the past. But my activity restricts my field of vision at the time 1940-1945, the period when the so-called European armies stationed along the French, Luxembourg, Belgian and Dutch borders were properly kicked in the ass by the German troops in less than 5 weeks, and almost thrown into the sea in Normandy, Normandy from where the Allies, after North Africa, Sicily, Italy began to liberate these countries one after the other between 1944 and 1945. It is not excusable that in 2023, these men will be forgotten by ordinary mortals or will be forgotten in the history books.

About EUCMH

EUCMH (European Center of Military History) just as USMH (United States Memorial Holocaust), or CMH (Center of Military History) is nothing else than a name. In the case of EUCMH, it wasn’t my idea. After talking with my friend Charle B. MacDonald (1922-1990) he pushed me to do something with history. This was not a bad idea at all as he started to feed me with WWII photos, archives papers, and so on. He allowed me to connect to a lot of very interesting persons all over the planet, mostly wartime Officers, and this prepared me to be online on the Internet a few years later.

However, the perfect orientation had not yet been found. Doing the same thing as the others were in my opinion useless. Taking up and republishing texts already online was also ridiculous. It was then that I came across Siteweb which sold CD-DVDs with archives from the American National Archives and it was in these documents that I finally discovered the perfect orientation I am heading on today; the first (1945-1950) accounts written by soldiers and officers who took part in the fighting and the reports they made on it.

I remembered what Mac told me once, the sources. Of all the documents that exist, it is the source that is the most important. Here I could not find better since all the historians after the end of the War started with these same documents. The advantage I have over my predecessors is that being in Europe and knowing the different regions concerned relatively well (I was an International Truck Driver for 12 years) I can correct a number of errors in the names and places as well as being a WWII guns and ammunition expert (I have studied this area for over 20 years), I, also, can correct any errors in the area.

What is EUCMH

The European Center of Military History is nothing else than a one-man’s work, Gunter Gillot (pseudonym Doc Snafu). I am doing all the work from A to Z. This means the texting, photos research, photo improvement, etc. All you see on this website (not the maps) is my work. I could of course create webpages like every other webmaster but I don’t. I hate the one Paragraph one Advertising Spot and so on. I am using Google Adsense to get a little money back (it doesn’t even cover the Hosting costs) but there is nothing inside a text page that might disturb my readers. I am one of these NAIPs (No Advertising In Post).

In the last sentence of this page, I want you to know that the three persons cited next: I, Me, and Myself, pay everything to keep EUCMH alive and online. I get some financial help via the buy me coffee system and sometimes a donation via Paypal. You will fain this online at the bottom of every archive I publish and on this page under this text.

WANTED FOR EUCMH

Wartime Photos (every kind & every side). Documents, Diaries, and (because I plan another book in the future – Every Model (deactivated US Hand Grenades 1900-1945) as well as (US Army-Engineers Compasses 1900-1945). The only thing I collect is American ID Tags (Dog Tags – WW2).

NOTE Sending deactivated ammunition to Belgium requests the ammunition and igniting device to be into parts and empty 101%. Use the official address of EUCMH and put a real description of the contents of the package.

European Center of Military History
Gunter Gillot
Chemin du Puits 2
Solwaster 4845 – Belgium

Phone +32 (0)476-031-039
gunter@eucmh.com