----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Listening post WW2 Listening post After 65 years, some of this is a little foggy to me. But I will relate what I still remember. A listening post was a small hole dug into the ground camouflaged by surrounding.native vegetation. It was usually dug at the edge of a forest overlooking no mans lane. As a rule it was about a couple hundred feet in front of the front line. I only had one experience in one. It was the longest night of my life. It happened one night in early January 1945.. Just before dark, we dug the hole and covered it with evergreen branches since we were in a Pine forest.It snowed very heavy that night. I entered the hole with . two blankets a pack of K rations and hunkered in. Soon my tracks were cover by the snow and so was my hole. The snow covering the branches on my hole offered some insulation from the cold. It was quiet cold and lonely and I felt fear. Sometime in the night I heard a snapping sound. I could see nothing. In my mind I wondered what it was. Could it be a tree branch snapping under the weight of snow, maybe a deer? Or was it a German patrol? I made no sound for I saw nothing. In time I heard no more.. I hunkered back down and covered myself as best as I could to keep warm. Toward morning I was cold and hungry. With me I had a can of STERNO, It was filled with jelly like substance. When lit it produced a blue flame and heat. Small but enough to heat a cup of melted snow to make a cup of hot soluble coffee. I ate cheese and crackers and drank the hot coffee.. That helped.. Finally daybreak came. I climbed out of the hole and joined the rest of the GI's. I was sent to the rear where I was served hot breakfast with real coffee. That was the worst night of my life.
