This menu was on a folded card that included a decorated front showing USA and Germany, plus a group photo, names of same. 

Budingen Germany Battery A Menu Xmas 1945

Group picture of 9th Field Artillery Battery A. This was printed on a folder card with an outline of USA and Germany pointing to Budingen. Included was a menu for Christmas dinner 1945. They were a part of the 3rd Division, Rock of Marne

Budingen Germany 9th Field Artillery Photo

After the successful landings in France on D-day, Allied advances had been painfully slow against determined German resistance. Operation Cobra was intended as a breakout from this beachhead, and was to be preceded by a massive air bombardment. On July 24 1944, the first wave of heavy bombers took off, but heavy cloud caused the operation to be postponed for one day. However, the message did not reach all of the aircraft. 300 bombers flew in, dropping bombs down the Saint-Lô–Periers road rather than across it. Bombs hit American and German positions alike on either side of the road, killing or injuring 156 Americans. 

The next day, Cobra started for real – 3000 fighter-bombers and heavy bombers dropped 4000 tons of bombs which obliterated the elite German Panzer Lehr Division. Once again, bombs hit American positions, causing 601 casualties. Among the dead was Lieutenant General Lesley McNair, the highest ranking American soldier to be killed in Europe. Nevertheless, Operation Cobra was a decisive Allied success, causing German resistance to rapidly collapse in France. 

