Skip to main content

November 11 1944 Saturday- Letter home from Lu on his birthday-Journal-Cliff Hope-Battalion History


Belgium November 11th 1944
Dearest Mom, 
I was going to wait til I had a letter from home before writing, but something's screwing up the mail, so I'll get this off to you and sure as shootin' I'll get a letter from you tomorrow, it's worked several times before.

It looks like the first snow is going to melt and leave things muddy again. For several days it really came down and the landscape was beautiful. It was quite warm all the time it was snowing too, which was quite a relief. You ought to see some of these Belgian girls when they get into a snowball fight with some of the boys!  Most of them have lost their shyness and really have a jolly time giving the boys a drubbing-and I mean they can do it too. One of the boys grabbed a buxom gal round the waist intending to wash her face with snow but instead he ended up on his back getting his fill of the snow. 

I'm waiting anxiously to hear how your trip to Mexico turned out mom. I'll bet it was a thrill to visit places you used to play as a little girl, and I know you still have a great many friends down there. 


I got a letter from Mip a few days ago. She isn't planning for any overseas service I'm glad to say, and seems very happy with her job down in good old southern Cal.

Oh say, mom, will you check up on my skiing equipment for me? The skis should be overhead in the garage along with the poles. The boots and wax etc. are in that pack of mine I think. Here's what I'd like to see-I don't think Ken has tried his hand at the sport before and I think he'd like it if he would try it once. I think the boots will just about fit him right and the skis are just about the right length. He's bound to take a lot of spills at first but if he takes gentle slopes for awhile he'll learn without hurting himself. He doesn't need to worry about breaking the skis either cause we can always get another pair after the war and if he gets some fun out of them it'll be worth it.

Give all my love to the rest of the family. I miss you and all the rest so much I really get blue at times.
Love and lots of it,
-Lu-


Nov 11, Took it easy all day-got package from Leona-sox-soap and shaving lotion

Battalion History:  B Battery celebrated Armistice Day by moving out of foxholes and into houses in the wide spot in a muddy road town, Binefeld. A Battery was in Auw, in houses too. Passes to the corps rest camp at Arlen started. And there was Turkey at Thanksgiving. Gi's thought about Christmas presents and sent home V-Mail greetings. A rough war!

Cliff Hope from his book: back at the war, the routine of several weeks was broken by assignment to a week of KP. At the end of the first day I found myself scrubbing pots and pans after supper in the dark with rain and sleet beating down on the tarpaulin. The pot washing was odne outdoors even though it was snowing all wek. It hadn't been cold enough to freeze the ground, so there was considerable sliding around in the mud as we juggled the cooking utensils in the dark.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

November 4th 1945 Embarkation! Headed Home on the USS Westerly Victory ship

Watch for Lu's binoculars in many of his photos. They might be his best used acquisition from the war.  This mimeographed newsletter is an interesting view into the voyage home. 
Post a Comment
Read more

July 20 1945 Letter to Mom

Bensheim Germany July 20th 1945 Dearest Mom, I started to get a letter off to you last night about midnight. I was corporal of the guard on duty in the orderly room. But an electrical storm was commencing and I no sooner got paper and pen out than a crash of lightning hit the power relay station nearby and all the lights went out. That storm was a beaut. Great jagged forks of lightning playing everywhere and the thunder sounded like all the artillery in the E.T.O. (European theater of operations) was sounding off in unison. In between flashes it was pitch black but most of the time (for about a half hour) you could read street signs a block away it was so bright. One triple forked bolt lit up the castle up on the hill and really made an eerie scene. You (You) know this is the first place I've seen actual balls of lightning. They looked like balls of fire.  Mail came in at last yesterday. A big batch of it and it was really swell to hear what's going on at hom...
Post a Comment
Read more

August 29th Journal Entry-Hedgerow Fighting, Plougastel taken

29th SAME- Still eating K's & C's Germans blow 1 span of bridge-Plau. taken Lu from his memoirs: The infantry fighting, as the circle around Brest was tightened, was brutal. This was "hedgerow" country, which provided great defensive cover and a huge obstacle to attack forces. The countryside was covered with a patchwork of small fields, each surrounded by "hedgerows". Over centuries of cultivation dirt collected in the hedges that surrounded each field. The hedges gradually became raised on high walls of soil, some of them eight to ten feet thick. The brush and small trees that formed the hedges were cut, dried and used for fuel to heat and cook with.   Since the stumps and roots were not disturbed, they grew back rapidly, and were an excellent source of energy. There was an entry way to each field, and cart roads back to the farm buildings but it was extremely dangerous for American Infantry to try to attack along these roads and through ...
Post a Comment
Read more