By: Stan Jordan
The town of Antwerp became incorporated in 1864. It had been deemed a Village in 1841 and celebrated 100 years in 1941. This is the original plat of Antwerp, surveyed by Horatio Curtis, Samuel Rice, William Riley and James Riley sometime in 1841.
Look at it closely and it made room for a public square. You can plainly see why SR 49 makes that big “S” type curve down by the southern end of Canal St. This plat is the one used when Antwerp incorporated in 1864.
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The Lobo Tank Busters
By: Stan Jordan
While the crew was refueling our plane, we jumped in our Jeep and went down to the mess hall. We had Spam sandwiches and soup – a good meal. We blew the carbon out on the way back to Belgium. We went back to the same area around Echternach, actually that is in Luxembourg. Again today, we saw some spit-fires that were carrying some rockets and doing a good job. We were a few miles south of where we were this morning, but it is probably some more of that same German division. It has the same older-type tanks and we caught them in an old pasture field or a meadow.
I took the one on the right side and a put a 4” jumbo rocket into his right side. It blew him over on the side and his turret came off and I spent too much time watching him. I had to make another big left turn and come back from the other side. I was down to about landing speed, and I took good aim at this tank and squeezed off a rocket. It hit him in the left front and it blew him over on the side and his left track just kept turning and piling out in front in a big pile. The left front of that old tank was gone. I made a circle and came back at the next tank head-on and my rocket hit the tank just were the turret sets down on the frame.
That turret came out and I could see under it and it split and fell to the ground. That older tank is no match for these new-type rockets. I used up my last rocket on another old tank and I caught a German supply truck in my sights, and I poured round after round of .50 cal into him and he started to burn. We formed up at about 1,000 feet altitude and we could see the flight of R.A.F. Spitfires that were armed with jumbo rockets were coming in and we started back to our airbase. I hope that they have as good as luck as we did.
We spent extra time at the mess hall discussing how good of a job we did on the old tanks. A Major came to the table and said he was from S-3, that is intelligence. He said he was examining a captured German tank driver who was willing to talk, as he had enough of the war. He told us all we wanted to know about the big King Tiger Tank. He said the front of that tank has 8” of steel armor plate and the American’s shells would bounce off like rain. He said on one day’s tank battle, he counted 22 hits by an American 75mm shells on the front end and didn’t do any damage. He said the only part of that tank is vulnerable is the engine area. You have to come down from above and hit him in the engine. They have no fear of the American German Tank.
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Cabin 21 at Vally Forge
By: Stan Jordan
This is the middle of March in 1780. We have had a hard winter, but not all that much snow. Sgt. Baker told the Woodcutters that they should get in all the firewood they can while the ground is still frozen. After the spring rains come, it will be a lot harder to get in firewood.
The hunter went along with the boys, but he went in on further in the forest. He didn’t go very far until he came to a clearing of some natural reason. There was a big oak facing the south in the sunshine, so Hunter #5 sat down and rested to let the forest be quiet again. He laid his musket across his legs so it wouldn’t fall in the snow.
It wasn’t too long before #5 went to sleep. He had plenty of warm clothes on and the warm sunshine helped him drift off into a little nap. He didn’t know how long he slept, but the sun must have gone behind a big limb, and when he lost that warm sunshine, he woke up. He laid still and opened his eyes slowly into a pack of trouble. Just a few yards away was a pack of wolves. They had advanced on him and was looking him over without making any noise.
He slowly moved his rifle around towards the front towards the wolves and that set them to snarling and growling. There must be 6 of them and he with a 1-shot rifle. He knew he had to kill one with that first shot. It takes about 16 seconds to reload his musket and he knew he wouldn’t have time for that. There was one who seemed to be the leader of the pack, as he came the closest to the hunter. He got closer and started to snarl and the hunter fired. The forest rang out with the echo and the wolf howled and fell over dead.
This quieted the other wolves down a little bit, but not for long. The other wolves advanced now and the hunter had to watch in all directions. But, he was guarded by the big oak to protect his rear. He was grateful. This lasted a few minutes, but it seemed like ages. He figured out that when he would point his guns at the wolves, they would back up a little. They seemed to know that the gun was dangerous. But, he couldn’t reload his rifle now because he had to keep it pointed at the wolves.
Back at the woodcutters, they heard the shot a while ago and started to become worried because the hunter didn’t come out and ask for help to drag his dead game out. Two boys picked up their muskets and hurried down off on the trail to look for the hunter. They soon could hear the snarling and growling of the wolves. They advanced to the north slowly, as they knew it wasn’t good for the hunter where the trouble was.
They came up behind the big tree that protected the hunter from the rear. It didn’t seem to bother the other wolves and one of the boys said, “We will fire our guns and we will get you out of this!” Each boy killed a wolf and Hunter loaded his musket and killed another one. One of the wolves gave out a “YIPE!” and he ran off, followed by the other wolves. Hunter seemed unhurt, so after a fashion, they rested up by the bon fire.
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