Hq XIX Corps Artillery
APO 270
1 August 1944
My darling Sminx,
Yesterday was the happiest day for me since I reached France. Do you know the reason why? It was because I received large bunch of letters from you. You don't know how much weight was taken off my mind to know after almost two mnths that you and Billy are both well and that everything is OK with our expected arrival, Elizabeth. I didn't have any reason to believe that anything would be wrong but it is somewhat demoralizing to be completely cut off from news of you and I was becoming very anxious. It was therefore a great relief to get your letters and my morale is much higher now.... You are the sweetest and most wonderful wife in the world and I am living only for the day when I come home to you and we can live our life together again. This present separation is just an unavoidable and very unpleasant interlude and I hope that it will soon be over....
I was delighted to hear that you are living in our house at Hancock Point and that you like it. What wouldn't I give to be living in it with you. It was fortunate that you were able to get such a good person to cook for you. It must be awfully hard to find people now-a-days. Right now I would like to be sitting on that beautiful sun porch looking at the view across Frenchman's Bay with you beside me. Do you remember the last time we sat there? The whole place must be far more beautiful now with the leaves out and the flowers.
Two days later
Darling this letter was interrupted and this is the first chance I have had to get back to it. Things have been fairly busy around here and I am of the impression that it will continue this way for some time so you probably will not be getting quite as many letters from me. Don't worry about me, I am with a very good group of men and officers and we'll come out all right. I am enjoying what I am doing a good deal more now and in reply to your question about cleanliness I can say that I am not too filthy.
* * *
Two hours later
Speaking of baths I just had a chance to take another one. Things were quiet, the sun was out (then but not now) and there was some hot water available so I took a complete sponge bath. An amazing incident occurred. Just as I was standing in the nude soaping myself, two French women walked by about 50 feet away. I did not notice them until they had passed on but I understand from someone who was there that they were quite intrigued. They should not have been around but these French civilians do not seem to be much disturbed by the war and they return to their houses just as fast as they can. In some instances, they never leave their houses at all even though the fighting is going on in the fields just outside.
* * *
Dearest, i am going to close this letter to you now so that there won't be any more interruptions and it will be sure to get off to you.
With all my love to you and Billy,
from your devoted husband,
Bill
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21 August 1944
My darling Sminx,
On this table beside me as I write this letter, there is vase containing 5 large roses, four white and one red. They were a gift from the French and it is characteristic of the welcome we are receiving. They are very friendly to "les Americans" and are constantly giving us flowers, wine and they even offer us food. They seem to be very grateful to have us here. It is nice to get such a good welcome from the people.
I finally found a way to spend a little money. I came across an officers sales store for clothing the other day so I bought myself a pair of parachute boots and a new woolen shirt to replace one that had worn out. That is about the only money I have spent over here except for laundry and haircuts.
Darling, your snapshots are a constant source of delight to me, especially the ones of you. I look at them several times a day and I think of you all the time. You are the sweetest, most wonderful wife that I could imagine and I adore you. Please take good care of yourself.
How is Billy's vocabulary getting on?
Your devoted husband
Bill
_________________________________________________________________________________
26 August 1944
My darling Sminx,
Wasn't the news about the liberation of Paris exciting? We heard it on the radio yesterday and we were thrilled by it. I heard it broadcast in French and translated it for everyone else's benefit. I have found that my knowledge of French has been a tremendous asset over here. I have had many interesting conversations with the natives and have found it useful in asking directions on the road. The French continue to be very friendly and offer us eggs, [illegible] and champagne. When we go through a town, everyone stands on the sidewalks and waves at us. The other evening I saw an interesting sight. On passing through a town we saw all the people standing in front of the Town Hall. We asked what was going on and they told us that they were shaving all the hair off the heads of the women of the town who had given their favors to the Germans. Just then we saw one of the women come out with her hair clipped short and all the people in the streets jeered as she walked by.
Dearest, I miss you and Billy more and more every day and I wish that I could be with you now especially so that I could look after you and take care of you.
All my love,
Bill
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Falaise, Rosny-sur-Seine
This month of August, 1944 is a critical month in the campaign of the XIXth Army Corps. In early August, it was at the southern end of the Cherbourg Peninsula, and by the end of the month it was ready to cross into Belgium. So it is understandable that he would have his letter interrupted by business. The XIXth Army Corps swung south and became a part of the southern side of the "Falaise pocket", a pocket of Germans around the town of Falaise to the north and Argentan, about 15 miles to the south of Falaise. There were about 150,000 soldiers in this pocket which was being encircled by the Allied forces, leaving the eastern route as the only escape route. On August 16, Hitler finally gave the order to retreat and the retreat gradually turned into a rout as the artillery pounded the German positions and the Allied air forces blew up or shot up anything that moved. The German escape route was called the "corridor of death" as they ran the gauntlet between the Americans in the south, the Canadians and Poles in the north, and the British to the west. The race was on to see if the escape hatch could be closed. Along the way, again from "Normandy 44", "[s]moking carcasses clogged up the roads, maddened horses ran hither and thither and hundreds of bodies lined the lanes and fields, surrounded by the clutter of abandoned weapons and equipment." By August 21, the encirclement was complete. However, by this time, about 100,000 troops had escaped leaving behind 50,000 prisoners, 6,000 dead, 400 tanks, 1,000 field guns, and 2,000 motorised vehicles. Eisenhower visited the battlefield, observing, "This is one of the greatest scenes of carnage of the war. One could go literally hundreds of yards walking over nothing but dead and putrefying flesh, in a deathly silence, in the middle of the luxuriant countryside where all life had brutally ceased, leaving only destruction and death."
Interestingly, both Ike and Dad observed the incongruity between the beautiful scenic setting and the carnage that war brought to the scene. Re-reading Dad's letter of August 21, there is no mention of the carnage, only stories of roses, the gratitude of the French, and buying new clothing. It is possible that his XIXth Corps Artillery, especially its headquarters, were far enough south that he did not witness the results of the incessant artillery barrages and the turkey shoot conducted from the air.
The XIXth Army Corps was in hot pursuit and by the 26th of August, was stationed on the banks of the Seine, at Rosny-sur-Seine, where Sugar and I are tonight. This is the view from the window of our hotel on the Left Bank of the Seine.
We have also been on the move, turning a 3 hour trip into a 5 hour trip by retracing our steps from St. Malo back to Caen, and then south to Falaise and Argentan and beyond, and then turning easterly and generally following the route of the Corps during the second half of August. The Corps, attempting to find a way to cross the Seine, moved a few miles south to Buchelay on the 27th and started crossing the Seine shortly thereafter, and headquartered in Mezy north of the Seine on the 30th. It rushed north, toward Belgium, but that is a story for tomorrow. And that is where we are headed tomorrow.
Dad's letters remind us again of the importance of word from home when you are in the service far from your loved ones. Sugar brought up a good point this morning. Mom was all Dad had. His father had died when he was 5, his mother died when he was 19, his brother, Martin ("Muggins") was fighting in the Pacific Theater and they weren't ever particularly close, and I'm not sure why. Dad also confirmed the advantage his knowledge of French gave him, an advantage he would compound later by his knowledge of German when they entered Germany. We see that he is finally satisfied by his job assignment and that it is keeping him busy. And we feel his excitement at the fall of Paris and his pride in being able to interpret the broadcast for his fellow soldiers, meaning one more step toward his going home to his beloved. The cutting of the woman's hair is a cruel reminder of the price some will have to pay, whether or not the sharing of their favors was a means of survival. I recall Renee who lived in Paris at the time and she wouldn't even go out of her apartment on the day Paris was liberated because of the risk that someone might grab her and accuse her of something she didn't do. "It just wasn't safe for a proper young woman to go out of her apartment."
So we will be off tomorrow in hot pursuit of Dad, as he and his XIXth Army Corps were in hot pursuit of the fleeing Germans.
Love, Nat
PS And just how is Billy's vocabulary coming along? Maybe he would like to tell us?
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