Merry Christmas to all!

Merry Christmas! It's been a good year for Memoir '44 and a great year for the Memoir '44 History Club.

It's hard to imagine that a year ago I hadn't had any History Club classes yet and the club was just theory. Since then we've learned about D-Day and the Island hopping of the Pacific Theater. We've practiced strategies, worked on the rules, learned how to play Overlord, and enjoyed this great game. It's been good for all of us.

Looking at the rest of the school year, I anticipate running two or three other sessions of the club for different groups of students. Members of my current 5th grade class have expressed interest in joining the Memoir '44 Club so I may look into providing a short session for them. Students from last year are eager to sign up, so I'll determine if there's enough interest to run a full session for the 4th grade students I taught last year (as 3rd graders). Last but not least, I want to provide another session for my original crew of students who are now in 5th grade. This will be their last time to be part of the Memoir '44 History Club and I want to make sure we get some great battles in before they graduate from Jewell Elementary.

It looks to be a busy spring with a lot of Memoir '44. I wouldn't have it any other way. Merry Christmas!

Let the Wild Rumpus Start - Again!

I'm sorry for the long silence over the summer and the first few months of school! I had high hopes of writing some blog entries about books I was reading or battles I was playing during my summer but it just never happened.

We're back and the Memoir '44 History Club has started up again. I only have 10 members for this session. In part this is because some of the students who were in the club last year have moved, a few students play Fall sports and have practice during the club, and one student said that she "wants to take a little break". Most of them want to join up again in the Spring so I may end up with a large group later on.

Even with fewer students, I'm having a great time and I'm happy to offer the club again. We welcomed three new students to the group this year; students I had last year who were eager to join the club even though they playing with 5th graders. They have some catching up to do, but they're smart kids and seem to be doing just fine

Our focus this session is on the Pacific Theater. We started the club last week by watching a few short videos on Pacific battles. I'm trying to make sure the students realize how different the war in the Pacific was from what we've studied in Europe. All of our battles will focus on the Japanese against the US Marines.

Because there are less kids, I have enough Memoir '44 sets for the students to play 1 v. 1 instead of in teams. They love being on their own! It will take a few more battles before they feel comfortable with the new rules in the Pacific expansion, but they have a good base of knowledge and are catching on.

Thanks for your interest in our little game club in Oregon! Welcome back to another great year of the Memoir '44 History Club!

Weiler-Putscheid

When Tom Myers came in to visit, he explained his experience in World War II to my students in relatively general terms. The students still got a good idea of what he had been through but weren't subjected to a gory account of the war. While he was in my class, Tom lent me an original comic that was all about his experience. The comic is called "G.I. Thomas R. Myers, Prisoner of War in Germany" and it was writen and drawn by Marcel Scheidweiler, a man who lives in the town of Weiler and talked with Tom extensively about December 1944.

The comic described in very exact detail how I Company, 3rd Battalion, 110th Regiment, 28th US Infantry Division was stationed at Weiler when the Battle of the Bulge started. Tom was part of the 28th Infantry Division and was sleeping when the first artillery shells started hitting the town. He quickly headed out to face the advancing Germans who turned out to be from the 5th Parachute Division. Tom was positioned in a foxhole in front of Weiler but retreated to the town when his foxhole buddy was killed. Tom and the rest of his comrades held Weiler throughout the day on December 16th, 1944 against a far superior German force.

Completely surounded and out of ammo, Tom and his surviving friends tried to escape during that night but most were either killed or captured as they tried to slip through German patrols. Tom spent the rest of the war in a German work camp. Years after the war, the citizens of Weiler remembered the heroic stand of the 28th Infantry Division and named a round-about after Tom Myers. I believe Tom said it was named Myers Square.

In honor of Tom Myers and his incredible experience, I designed a Memoir '44 scenario titled Weiler-Putscheid. This map, as far as I know, is the most historically correct scenario I have ever designed because I used the detailed maps that were included in Mr. Scheidweiler's comic who happens to be a resident of the area. Enjoy!