USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Temple > Temple, New Hampshire, in World War II > Part 3
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Inducted December 8, 1943, Boston, Massachusetts. Basic training: Fort Schuyler, New York; Naval Training School, Mare Island, California.
Served, Naval Yard, Mare Island, California, Office of Industrial Manager, San Francisco, California.
Military Occupational Specialty, Ship Repair Unit.
Relieved from active duty June 1, 1946, San Francisco, California. Employed, civil engineer, Stone and Webster, Toronto, Canada. Married Doris A. Stahl August 10, 1940.
KEEPING THEM AFLOAT
Just give a Navy man a chance to say something about the Service and he will say something that is good-for there is bound to be a pride in Service that will carry over and you will find Temple's Navy Veterans telling their children about the time they wore their sailor hats with pride, and swabbed the decks of Uncle Sam's fleet. Today, perhaps they are swabbing a kitchen floor with no less vigor and with the same pride in accomplishment.
It was a thrill to don the navy blue-and even a greater thrill for me to be assigned to ship repair-to be aboard mighty battleships, carriers, and our cruisers, destroyers, and transports with men and officers from all parts of our country. We were assigned for a brief indoctrination course at Fort Schuyler, New York, and later at Mare Island Navy Yard, California, were trained in ship construction and repair. We were then assigned to various ships for conversion and repair.
During the early period of the war while our passenger ships were being converted into troop transports I was assigned to some of our older vessels for their conversion program. However, later it became my pleasure to be assigned to the U. S. S. WEST POINT which is now the *SS AMERICA, our finest passenger liner afloat.
There was, perhaps, nothing unusual in converting glistening white liners into grey troop ships, but underneath that drab grey hull I always felt the engines were pounding a little faster; like the men from all parts of our country, these ships were donning a common color and setting a course toward a common goal. The motto of our station became-"Our Sole Purpose is to Serve the Fleet." and whether it became conversion, construction, or repair we could feel we were united in a common cause and a common purpose.
As the war progressed and its toll became increasingly greater my duties changed from those of conversion and preparation to that of
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repair- grim repair to our ships that were able to creep back into some port. Ships' names and numbers soon began to mean a great deal, for associations were made that quickened the pulse at the thought of men aboard the ships with those names and numbers.
Late in 1945 radio message was received that the destroyer DD. had received heavy battle damage and was coming to the Pacific Coast for repairs. I knew the number and I knew the name-which meant that Donald Davidson should be aboard ... and so there on the west coast was the first union of two Navy men from Temple since the beginning of the war.
From the dashing grace of our fastest destroyer to the mighty majesty of our battleships, the U. S. Navy came through with the colors flying. Down in the engine room may have been a young blue- jacket who, while sweating amid the engines and boilers was thinking of the sun beating down in a hayfield on a hot summer day in Temple, while up on deck a radio operator or electrician was sticking to his post.
For when Uncle Sam called his men to serve at sea, we of the Navy felt he not only called, but he offered us a chance to enter into a job that enabled each and every man to do his duty with faithful loyalty towards a united and common great end.
*Later used in U. N. Campaign in Korea.
DERBYSHIRE, EARL H., Private, U. S. Army. b. May 16, 1902. Parents, William S. and Clara B. Derbyshire. Educated, grammar school, Temple, New Hampshire.
Inducted October 8, 1942, Manchester, New Hampshire. Basic Training: Camp Campbell, Kentucky, October to December 16, 1942. Camp Wheeler, Georgia, December 16, 1942 to February 16, 1943.
Served as truck driver Camp Campbell, Kentucky, October to December 16, 1942; Camp Wheeler, Georgia, December 16, 1942 to February 16, 1943.
Organization: American Legion, Wilton, New Hampshire, Bent- Burke Post, 10.
Discharged from active duty February 16, 1943, Camp Wheeler, Georgia. Employed as machinist.
Single at time of service.
DOWNEY, WILLIAM BERTRAND, Captain, Chaplain Corps, U. S. Army. b. June 24, 1907, Syracuse, New York. Parents, Louise Kofsky and Bertrand Baylis Downey. Educated, Wellesley High
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Earl H. Derbyshire
William B. Downey
Francis C. Eaton
Royal A. Edwards
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School, Wellesley, Massachusetts, 1925; Colby College, B. A., Water- ville, Maine, 1930; Andover-Newton Theological School, B. D., 1935.
Inducted January 2, 1943, Chaplain School, Harvard University. Basic Training, Chaplain School, Harvard University, January, 1943.
Served: January to August, 1943, U. S. August 1943 to February, 1945, Great Britain. February to July, 1945, France.
Organization, Fighter Group, U. S. Army Air Force; 455 Service Group; 436 Troop Carrier Group, U. S. Army Air Force.
Decorations :
ETO Service Ribbon
Relieved from active duty December, 1945, Fort Devens, Massa- chusetts.
Civilian Occupation: Minister, Congregational Church, Temple, New Hampshire.
Married Ann Greta-Elizabeth Fundahn, July 28, 1933.
VALUES IN TRAGEDY
It would be difficult to point to any one experience as outstanding. Although I was chaplain in a combat organization, I was stationed along with the other ground personnel, located far from the actual fighting zone. Our aircraft were in England and the fighting was over the Continent.
I will of course always hold precious in my memory the fellowship that I had with our men of all faiths. I have also many letters as tokens of appreciation from the next of kin of the men who were lost in combat. Through correspondence I feel that I have made many friends in this way. I think of one family in particular, living near Boston. Their only child was lost on a mission in the spring of 1944. On my return home I looked up this family and there has resulted a friendship which still continues. Thus, even out of tragedy there emerge enduring values.
I think that one of my outstanding experiences came just a few days after VE Day in France. I was stationed at a Troop Carrier Base at Chateaudun, about twenty-five or thirty miles from Orleans. Some of the B-17's (Flying Fortresses) of the Eighth Air Force from England were flying French prisoners of war out of Germany and were using our base as a landing strip for this operation. It was both heartwarming and heartrending to see these men who had been in German and Austrian prison camps for five years returning to their native soil.
I talked with one of these men who spoke English faultlessly. His
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home was but a few miles away in Orleans and he had not seen his family in five years. He had a small son who, because of the war, was too young to remember his father. I also talked with one of the crew members of the aircraft who told me how his passengers went wild when they flew over the Rhine from east to west. They had not seen their native soil in so long that they had well nigh despaired of ever seeing it again.
DREW, RALPH E., Technician 5, Quartermasters Corp, U. S. Army. b. New Hampshire, March 29, 1922. Parents, Gladys and Harry Drew. Educated grammar school, Temple, New Hampshire. high school, Wilton and Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire.
Inducted Manchester, New Hampshire, December 12, 1942. Basic Training: Fort Custer, Michigan, December to May 1943. Advanced training Fort Devens, Massachusetts, May to August, 1943.
Served 5 months Fort Custer, Michigan. 3 months Fort Devens, Massachusetts. 9 months England. 6 months France, Belgium and Germany.
Organizations: 466 Truck Regiment, Q.M.C. 3601 Truck Com- pany, 3601 Refrigerator Truck Company, member Motor Transport Service. Military Occupational Specialty, truck driver, heavy vehicles.
Decorations and Citations:
European African Middle Eastern Campaign Ribbon Good Conduct Medal
Victory Medal
Meritorious Service Plaque
Red Ball Express Motor Transportation Decoration
Served in Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, the Ardennes and Central Europe. Received scroll from the Mayor of Antwerp, Belgium, for aid in defense of Port during buzz bomb and V-2 attack.
Discharged November 24, 1945. Employed, laborer and operator lumber mill.
Married Viola S. Goetsch November 30, 1947.
EATON, FRANCIS C., Lieutenant Commander, U. S. Naval Reserve. b. April 26, 1916, Boston, Massachusetts. Parents, Lesley and Henry C. Eaton. Educated public schools, Waltham, Massachusetts, Bel- mont Hill School, Harvard University.
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Inducted U. S. Navy Yard, Boston, Massachusetts, 1940. Basic Training, U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland.
Served 4 years, sea duty on mine layers, Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. 1 year Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps Unit, Dart- mouth College. Military occupational specialty, navigation.
Decorations and Citations:
Bronze Star Various Area Ribbons
Relieved from active duty August 1946, Boston, Massachusetts. Civilian occupation, magazine advertising, Curtis Publishing Co., Needham, Massachusetts.
Married Janet Bradley Nichols, 1944.
EDWARDS, HAROLD V., Staff Sergeant, U. S. Army Air Force. b. January 28, 1923, Hancock, New Hampshire. Parents, Jennie R. and Royal B. Edwards. Educated grammar school, Temple, New Hamp- shire. High school, Wilton, New Hampshire.
Inducted Manchester, New Hampshire, December 8, 1942. Basic Training: Miami, Florida; radio operator and mechanic Scott Field, Illinois; Air Force Gunnery School, Kingman, Arizona. Graduated from Gunnery school, Kingman, Arizona, received gunnery wings, after intensive training in principles of ballistics, sighting, turret maintenance, range estimation and aircraft machine gunnery. Over- seas June 1, 1944, for participation in a course designed to bridge gap between training in States and active participation in overseas theater; Ardennes, Rhineland. Air offensives, Normandy, Northern France.
Served 10 months U. S., Ireland and Europe as aerial gunner on B-24. Engaged in 35 combat missions.
Organizations: 754th, 458th Squadron Group, 2nd Division, 8th Air Force.
Decorations and Citations:
Air Medal with 5 oak leaf clusters
Meritorious Achievement Certificate for Combat Certificate of Valor
Discharged Camp Devens, Massachusetts, 1945. Employed W. W. Cross Company, Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
EDWARDS, ROYAL A., Technician 5, U. S. Army, 32nd Cavalry, Reconnaissance Squadron. b. July 13, 1919, Temple, New Hamp- shire. Parents, Jennie R. and Royal B. Edwards. Educated grammar
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school, Temple, New Hampshire. High school, Wilton, New Hamp- shire.
Inducted August 26, 1943, Boston, Massachusetts. Basic Training Fort Riley, Kansas.
Served: Reconnaissance Car Crewman, Ardennes, Rhineland, Cen- tral Europe. Hospitalized, England.
Decorations and Citations:
American Theater Service Medal
European African Middle Eastern Service Medal
Good Conduct Medal
Discharged November 4, 1945, Fort Lewis, Washington. Employed carpenter.
Married Marie A. Despres, June 22, 1940.
FLEMINGS, AMOS WILLIAM, Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Infantry. b. December 16, 1904, Lowell, Massachusetts. Parents, Etta Corson and Charles F. Flemings. Educated, Boston University, B. A.
Originally commissioned May 31, 1928, Officers Reserve Corp. Entered active duty for World War II February 1, 1941, Peter- borough, New Hampshire.
Basic Training: Graduated Infantry School; Basic Course, May 2, 1941, Battalion Commanders' and Staff Officers' Course, February 27,1943.
Served Camp Wolters, Texas, May 1941 to March 1943; Fort Lewis, Washington, March 1943. Mojave Desert, March to June, 1943. Hawaiian Islands, June 1943 to November 1945.
Organizations: 130th Infantry, Commanding Officer 3d Battalion; 33d Division, 298th Infantry, Commanding Officer 2nd and 3d Battalions.
Military Occupational Specialty: Battalion Commander and Staff Officer, Staffs of Pacific Ocean Area, Central Pacific Base Command, Army Port and Service Command, Honolulu.
Decorations:
Army Commendation Ribbon Expert Infantryman
Relieved from active duty Camp Blanding, Florida, March, 1946. Employed, hotel consultant.
Marital Status: Single.
Lieutenant Colonel Flemings built the first recreation center in the Pacific to rejuvenate combat personnel at Kilauea Military Camp,
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Hawaii National Park, Island of Hawaii, accommodating 325 guests.
When the first peacetime draft was started, he was recalled to be Public Information Officer at Fort Ord, California, where all the draftees from eight western states were trained. Following this assignment, Lieutenant Colonel Flemings was a Public Information Officer on Joint Operation MIKI, the largest post-war amphibious maneuvers in which 50,000 troops landed on the Island of Oahu in the fall of 1949. These were the 2nd Division troops who landed in Korea in 1950.
*HILL, LAWRENCE R., Private, U. S. Army. b. August 6, 1900, Dayton, Ohio. Parents, Mame and Harlan Hill. Educated in music, specialized training.
Inducted Manchester, New Hampshire, September 2, 1942. Basic Training, Camp Pickett, Virginia.
Served: Fort Benning, Georgia, September 2, 1942, to March 4, 1943, Service Battery 3d Field Artillery. Also served as Private, Special 3d Class, February 18, 1920 to August 8th, 1922.
Military Occupational Specialty: military band; 1920's Medical Corp; Chaplain's Assistant in special field of music.
Discharged March 4, 1943, Fort Benning, Georgia. Employed, painter and musician.
Married Anna E. Hedman, May 6, 1940.
*Deceased November 6, 1947
HOLT, MALCOLM L., Private First Class. b. June 27, 1921, Temple, New Hampshire. Parents, Sadie L. and Alvin W. Holt. Educated grammar school, Temple, New Hampshire. Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire.
Inducted U. S. Army, June 26, 1942, Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Basic Training, Camp Pickett Medical Center, Virginia.
Served 3 years Mediterranean Theater of Operation: This service included active participation, Africa and Italy.
Organization: 61st Station Hospital. Bugler. Clerk General. Decorations and Citations :
European African Middle Eastern Theater Campaign Ribbon Good Conduct Medal Meritorious Service Plaque Mediterranean Theater of Operations Victory Medal
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Amos W. Flemings
Lawrence R. Hill
Malcolm L. Holt
Harold N. Kullgren
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Discharged November 11, 1945, Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Employed, dairy farming.
Married Shirley Shaw, June 12, 1948.
KULLGREN, HAROLD NEWTON, Corporal, U. S. A. Coast Artillery Anti-Aircraft. b. October 24, 1915, Temple, New Hampshire. Par- ents, Mabel and Gustaf Kullgren. Educated grammar school, Temple, New Hampshire. High school, Wilton, New Hampshire.
Inducted Manchester, New Hampshire, January 6, 1941. Basic Training, Camp Hulen, Texas.
Served 4 years 8 months, including 3 years 6 months overseas: Australia, New Guinea, the Netherlands, Indonesia.
Organization, 744th C A-A A, Battery D. Military Specialty, anti-aircraft gunman.
Discharged Fort Devens, Massachusetts, August 29, 1945. Farmer. Married Myrtie Flanders, July 19, 1947.
KULLGREN, HOWARD B., Private U. S. Army Air Force. b. Decem- ber 16, 1920. Parents, Mabel and Gustaf Kullgren. Educated gram- mar school, Temple, New Hampshire. Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire.
Inducted October 8, 1942, Manchester, New Hampshire. Basic Training, Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Served 112 years, United States.
Discharged March, 1944, New Haven, Connecticut. Employed W. W. Cross Company, Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
KULLGREN, ROBERT PAIGE, Sergeant, U. S. Air Force. b. August 11, 1914, Temple, New Hampshire. Parents, Mabel and Gustaf Kullgren. Educated grammar school, Temple, New Hampshire. High school, Wilton, New Hampshire, Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire.
Inducted October 14, 1941, Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Basic Training, Camp Lee, Virginia. Service school, Normoyle, Texas.
Served 4 years, 1 month and 13 days: Camp Lee, Virginia; Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas; Lake Charles Army Air Field, Lake Charles, Louisiana; Aloe Field, Victoria, Texas; Walker Field, Kan- sas; Tinian Island, Mariana Island. Western Pacific Campaign.
Organization, 20th Air Force. Military Occupational Specialty,
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Howard B. Kullgren
Robert P. Kullgren
John D. Marr
Charles T. Maynard
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Mechanic Automotive Wheel Vehicle. Sharpshooter Carbine Motor Vehicle.
Awards and Citations:
Motor Vehicle Driver's Award
Good Conduct Medal American Defense Medal Asiatic Pacific Theater Campaign Ribbon American Theater Campaign Ribbon Victory Medal
Discharged November 26, 1945, Fort Devens, Massachusetts. Employed as mechanic, Draper Chevrolet Company, Milford, New Hampshire.
Married Barbara Emily Holt, February 13, 1944.
MARR, JOHN D., JR., Captain, Federal Service, U. S. Army. b. January 2, 1921, Wilmington, Delaware. Parents, Marian H. and John D. Marr. Educated grammar school, Temple, New Hampshire. High school, Appleton Academy, New Ipswich, New Hampshire. University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, class of 1943.
Employed as draftsman for State Highway Department and as a U. S. Engineer Department Surveyor summers during college course.
Basic Training: Reserve Officers Training Course, University of New Hampshire. Inducted at Camp Devens, Ayer, Massachusetts, June 15, 1943. Commissioned following completion of Officers' Candidate School Course, Anti-Aircraft Artillery School, Class 79, Camp Davis, North Carolina. Attended Officers Training Course No. 2, Army Ground Forces, Engineer Training Center, Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Service: Combat duty European Theater-Northern France, Belgium, Holland, Rhineland, and central Europe.
Organizations: 171st Engineer Combat Battalion, 9th Army for training and combat duty. 1262 Engineer Combat Battalion. Engineer's Supply Depot E. 508, Paris, France.
Military Occupational Specialty: Combat Engineer Unit Com- mander, 1331. Post Engineer and Utilities Officer.
Decorations and Citations:
Bronze Star Medal
American Campaign Medal
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European African Middle-Eastern Campaign Medal Army of Occupation Medal World War II Victory Medal
Date and Place of Separation: September 22, 1946, Camp Dix, New Jersey.
Employed, civil engineer.
Married Harriet B. Schriker, June 21, 1947.
WITH THE NINTH ARMY
Christmas Eve '44 I was in Gilenkirchen, Germany. A box came from home, more welcome than any other Christmas gift in all the years before. I wanted to open it but there was not time. A bridge had to be destroyed before morning to prevent an enemy crossing. There seems to be a misconception as to the duties of the Engineer Corps in battle. We go ahead of other ground forces to prepare a way. So I started out under the Christmas star in line of duty, hoping that our mission would, somehow, sometime, contribute to permanent peace to a troubled world. I put my precious box from Temple in my locker unopened.
Mud commanded the action of our Ninth Army during the battle of the Bulge; that stands out in memory. The Bulge also drained off most of our troops. Bridge destruction and construction during bombardment, among our dead and dying, characterized that period of World War II. As the engineer battalions worked on the Rhine River bridges, the Luftwaffe came out at night, skimming over the barage balloons.
The largest concentrations of AA fire since the Normandy landing, criss-crossed the sky with red and yellow cones. Speed, speed and then greater speed was our word.
In reaching Hanover, we found that the Air Force had left the city a heap of rubble. We removed twisted street-car tracks, filled bomb craters, bull-dozed the hazards of falling walls and cleared overpasses. In combat we laid 8430 yards of mine fields, using 3400 mines and trip flares and 200,000 pounds of T.N.T. in blowing pill boxes and in other demolition work. Each yard, cach pound of destruction, had its common toll in the front-line action by the engineering battalion. The 171st Engineer Combat Battalion built 30 bridges which, if laid end to end, would cross a mile-and-a-half wide river. Our battalion vehicles, in line of duty, traveled about three quarters of a million miles, always with the hazard of meeting annihilation on the way.
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Our extra duties included enemy reconnaissance, releasing slave labor and, ourselves, taking prisoners.
I had an unexpected experience of that kind in Germany. One evening as my driver and I returned from a reconnaissance trip, we were confronted with a German soldier who wished to surrender. Before we could get him in the vehicle, we found that there were several more. As collecting, searching, and loading continued, I found that there were still many more hiding in the woods. I began to wonder if the offer could have been a ruse, but finally they were all loaded, 101 of them herded into the only two available trucks and headed for the prisoner cage. It was about 1:00 a. m. and in total darkness the group guarded by only the drivers and me drove back 75 miles from the line to an MP unit who took them off our hands.
The 180 days of our action up to two weeks before V. E. day slips into the limbo now as I build bridges for peace in my own country. Battle experience, front-line battle, which is the lot of the engineer, is indescribable. It is completely outside life as we Temple boys had known it, outside all life really. Objectivity in remembering that war is almost impossible.
I quote from Stars and Stripes describing the difficulties of our Thirteenth Corps in the push north:
"If, a year ago, anyone had said that the Roer River crossing was possible, he would have been considered mad. The rate of flow of the stream was nine feet per second, approximately six miles per hour. All engineer bridging equipment needed in the crossing had no rated capacity faster than seven feet per second ... yet engineers of the Ninth began construction of footbridges across the stream.
The first footbridge was completed in relatively quick time but an enemy shell broke two cables that held it in place and it washed downstream. Another was started but rushing waters uprooted a tree which fell and broke the bridge in two. Other Thirteenth Corps engineers with bulldozers started building approach roads but when one of the bridges was well under way, enemy artillery opened up and annihilated the work. The entire bridge sank. Attempted for the third time, the bridge was completed. .. . "
Another scene described in One Hundred and Eighty Days, pub- lished by the Thirteenth Corps, Ninth Army, is different but interest- ing:
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"There was a mammoth eight-building German food warehouse just south of Hanover that we reached when American armored columns swept the territory clear of enemy resistance. Foreign slave laborers of many nationalities plus a few German civilians literally trampled one another to loot the enormous food stores.
"I thought I was having a nightmare for a while", said Lt. John D. Marr of Temple, New Hampshire, in charge of a road re- connaissance patrol of Company C, 171st Combat Engineers. His group noticed the excitement at the warehouse and decided to investigate. Almost as hazardous as bridging the Roer, Rhine and Weser Rivers under fire was the way the four men met the situation of the liberated laborers who were pushing over what- ever stood in their way and throwing boxes and crates from the upper windows of the buildings. There were casualties aplenty before the Allied Military Government could impound the stores.
The stores included tons of granulated sugar, dehydrated vegetables, rooms full of flour and hundreds of other items. The looters waded through cloves and other spices up to their knees; the place reeked of cocoa, syrups, and wines. When the crowd found the narrow staircases blocked, they took to the spiral con- veyor chutes that emptied out on the ground floor. Even the older slave laborers were agile enough to sit on 200 pound sacks of flour and whiz around and around on a trip down. From the first floor, many of the mob jumped to the ground after dumping hundreds of pounds of sugar to serve as a cushion below." ...
The Thirteenth Corps, on the push deeper into Germany, dis- covered teen-age German SS troops had committed atrocities on some 2,000 Polish, Hungarian and Russian slave laborers during the retreat. These men were herded into a Gardelegen barn, the doors fastened and a sixteen-year-old German boy set it on fire. My Corps was assigned to investigate the crime. April 17th, 1945 we began. The account in One Hundred and Eighty Days states:
"A few of the bodies in the barn were still burning. Most of them were piled by the doors. One man was in a sitting position as though he had resigned himself to death. Another had a protective arm about a young boy. What flesh remained was dusty in color so that it was difficult to distinguish it from hair and clothing.
Outside, along the northern wall of the building, were two
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