Letters from George

Editorial note: one or more pages of this letter appear to be missing.

Germany May 26, 1945

Dear Marian,

I got your letter that you sent May the First and was really glad to hear from you. I haven't been getting very much mail lately but that doesn't surprise me because I hardly ever write anymore either. Our censorship has been lifted and I imagine that you have been wondering what I've been doing here so I'll make a story out of this letter. This is what happened since I hit France.

The invasion is probably the worst thing that I went through but at the time I didn't know it. War was new to me so I didn't realize what I was going through. We hit the beach the third hour of the invasion. By this time the ( ) and the Germans had woke up and were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at that beach trying to keep any more from landing.

As soon as we landed we started removing mines and kept it up for about forty-eight hours. By then the paratroopers were ready to cross the first river so we had to take them across. After they were all across we built a bridge to Quintan. That turned out to be the first bridge built by the Americans in France. We didn't sleep at all the first week but then more engineers came in and we had it a little easier.

At first the people in Normandy would hardly talk to us. They were afraid the Germans were going to push us back and they would get killed for being friendly to us. After they saw that we were going to stay though, they were hauling us eggs, milk, butter, meat and all kinds of drinks. This Calvados that they drink is so powerful that it works in lamps and cigarette lighters.

I was in on the St. Lo Breakthrough where our own bombers bombed too close to us. After this Patton started rolling. He went so fast that we couldn't keep up with him so they gave us a ride. They got about sixty miles from Paris. I had only driven straight through Paris and didn't really see it so I took off with a couple of fellows without permission and spent two days. That took me off the good conduct list so I don't get a ribbon for that.

Not long after that we were taken out of action and given a job at an Engineer Dump in Belguim where Tommy Coleman was working. I caught an office job there checking the trucks coming in and out. That lasted for a month and then we were sent to ( ) still in Belguim for another rear area job. I had to work for a living there but it was a nice city. Plenty of cafes, girls, movies and everything.

Just when I thought I had a racquet in the Army they sent us back in action to the Hurtgen Forest in Germany. We weren't there very long though the Germans started their push back into Belgium. We were sent back to help check it. Instead of picking up German mines we were laying out our own mines to stop the Jerries. Christmas and New Year's I spent guarding one of these mine fields of ours.

Then when the Jerries were checked and being pushed back again we had to build bridges that they blew up as they retreated. When the Jerries were pushed back out of Belgium we got another..........

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.....with them where they swept through Germany and cut off the Ruhr Valley and then kept going to meet the Russians. We were going to build a bridge across the Elbe River but that was where they met.

I'm in a little town now called Freiderburg. You won't be able to find this on the map but it is between Halle, Dessan and Leipzig. We aren't doing anything now, just waiting until they decide what to do with us. I don't have enough points to get home for good but I hope I get a furlough before going to the Pacific.

Give Nick, Gary and all my regards. I hope to see you all soon but I wouldn't bet on it.

Your Brother,

George