Stories from the Route Map
Shown completely in The 20th PID Book, The Route Map is a single page filled with over 40 small drawings, each illustrating a time, or a memory, from the 2oth PID's journey throughout Europe. It begins in 1944 as they helped prepare for D-Day, residing in the Allied Intelligence quarters in Sunninghill Park in England and ends in war-torn Germany in 1945, with the Allies victorious.
Sections of the Route Map are enlarged and discussed in The 20th PID Book. But there are so many vignettes that there wasn't room to discuss all of them. So, I'm including some additional drawings from the Route Map and their WWII stories below.
Mont St Michel, France One day, after completing the work on the 20th PID Book, I was looking at the Route Map and noticed some drawings I hadn't really noticed before. One was towards the bottom of the Route Map, just off the coast of France. Is it an island, or perhaps a castle, I wondered. It was labeled "Mont St. Michel." Since I had learned that each drawing held a story, I googled it and found a fascinating story, which must had delighted GI's everywhere. Beginning in 1940, the island was occupied by the Germans, who used the spire of the island's abbey to monitor Allied air activity. After D-Day, many of the Germans left the island, but some remained to hold their position. On August 1, 1944 a single GI, along with two journalists arrived in a jeep. (During low tide, you could drive to the island). The few German soldiers remaining, too tired to put up a fight, surrendered to that GI! Read more about the history of this tiny island and "History's Smallest Liberation Army" at the link below:
Saint Lo, France Near Mont St. Michel is a drawing of the nearby town of St. Lo. This vignette represents one of the most hard-fought and destructive chapters of the Allied bombing in July 1944. A vital transportation hub, the town of Saint-Lô was utterly devastated by Allied air strikes and fierce artillery duels, reducing nearly the entire city to a landscape of shattered stone and blasted trees. The 20th PID artist captured the stark reality of this 'Capital of Ruins' by drawing a fractured church tower with the somber figures of displaced French refugees fleeing the devastation with their belongings on their backs—a sobering reminder of the heavy civilian cost tied to the liberation of France. Before the German occupation of Mont St. Michel, the French had moved over 1,000 years of priceless artifact and records to St. Lo, where they thought they would be safe. But, with the destruction of St. Lo, all the priceless art, statuary and records were destroyed.
The Lone Scotsman, France The Scottish people were such a presence this summer during the World Cup, singing in bars, marching in parades and waking people at dawn playing a bagpipe on the random street corner, all conveying so much pride and enthusiasm. It reminded me of this drawing, shown in Northern France on the Route Map. Who is this lone Scotsman, playing the bagpipes in a field? Although we may never know the exact circumstances, we can be sure the men in the 20th PID knew the story and I hope it brought them joy and a momentary respite from their brutal wartime toils. ,
Surrounded by the devastation of war in northern France, we see this drawing of three GI's relaxing over what seems to be a meal served by a waiter. It's such an ordinary moment, that I can only wonder what the story was behind it. What makes this an important moment, to include it in the Route Map? Who were they and what were they eating? Were they relaxing waiting for the weather to improve so the recon planes could fly again?