30 April, 2011

30 April, 1944

438th AAA AW BN
APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
England
30 April, 1944        0900
Sunday Morning
Good Morning, darling –

And a good morning it is, too; nine o’clock is really only 0700 because of the double summer time – but already the sun is shining brilliantly and everything outside seems so much alive. I’ve just had breakfast – there were only a few of us down, the rest were sleeping late. I haven’t shaved as yet, but I’m going to take my time. We’re supposed to have a volley-ball game on later, officers vs. enlisted men, and after that – I think the money will be here for the men’s pay – and ours, too. Another month has slipped by. This month was a good one, sweetheart, although we were actually engaged in March.

Mentioning pay reminds me that with the close of this month – the gov’t is six months late in changing my allotment to myself – and still no word from the New Jersey office where the changes are made. Our personnel office has sent out a couple of tracers – but still no word. I’m not worried because it’s on the books and it will come thru in a lump sum – eventually. In essence I’ve been getting $150.00 per month instead of $200; so I have $300.00 coming to me as of today.

Well – darling – yesterday was the third day in a row without mail – and I hope we’re not off to another one of those delays. When I don’t hear from you – I go upstairs and take out a couple of letters of yours from some time past – and it helps a great deal, too. I got another good laugh when I re-read your account of you and Ruby in downtown Boston. Every time you go to town – it’s like Alice in Wonderland; I never know what to expect. When we get to Salem, darling, I’ll show you all around the main street, point out the high curbstones, the blind crossings – and in general do my best to completely orientate you. If you have to go as far as Beverly or Marblehead or Peabody – I’ll insist on going with you. I’m only kidding, dear –

And according to your letter of April 9th – today is the day my folks are visiting yours. At least – I haven’t heard that the date was changed. Gee – it sure would be swell if I could be there and share in the general get-together. Usually I don’t like to be at things like that – particularly when I’m part of it; but you’ve done your part so admirably, sweetheart, I feel as if I should be along to help you. Anyway – I hope that all goes off well and that everyone gets along well.

Darling I’ve got to run along now. I’ve just had a call that the money has arrived and I want to pay my men before they go off on pass. They’re all ‘broke’. There’s nothing new to tell you about things here. Things are still status quo – and for the time being – that suits me. Remember, sweetheart, that I love you deeply and sincerely and whatever my present status is – it’s a temporary one and must eventually end with both of us together. Love to the folks.

All my sincerest love, darling
Greg

29 April, 2011

29 April, 1944 (to her mother)

V-MAIL

438th AAA AW BN
APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
England
29 April, 1944
Dear Mother B.

First – thanks for your swell letter which I received a couple of days ago. I like your letters for they help me to feel closer to all of you and I like that sensation.

I spend pleasant hours these days dreaming about life after the war – and what it will mean to me – and to all of us. Becoming engaged to Wilma has made so much difference in the way I can sit back and think of the future, and – well – it’s just very very pleasant food for thought.

You recall very nice memories when you mention the Copley. I do remember meeting the Shribmans – although I don’t remember the name – Gwen. I wish I were around to be congratulated – but so long as Wilma is happy about everything, I feel fully satisfied.

CLICK ON POSTCARD TO ENLARGE

Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston, 1930s

Before closing – let me substitute this letter for a card. A Happy Mother’s Day, to you – with many more – at which I hope to be present to pay you my respects as a son – in every sense of the word. Best regards to the family.

With love
Greg.

29 April, 1944

438th AAA AW BN
APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
England
29 April, 1944       1045
Dearest sweetheart –

Another fresh start this morning, dear, this time from the Castle. Perhaps I can finish this in one sitting and make the letter sound a bit more connected. At the moment it is quiet here, and I’ve just been sitting by the window looking out over the back lawn and lake and thinking hard of you, darling. It’s really a continuation of my thoughts last night. I felt particularly mellow then. I was alone in my room for most of the evening – and as usual – I got to thinking of home, and you, and us and I felt so nice about everything. It’s really paradoxical, dear, how I can feel so contented about things, and yet be in the Army and 3000 miles from those I love. I guess it’s because I feel so certain that everything will work out so well for us once I get back. It is absolutely the most satisfying and comforting feeling imaginable to realize that I have you to come home to, – a sweetheart, a fiancée, a girl who loves me as I love her – who wants to be married to me and is willing to wait for me. Well, darling, I just can’t tell you what that all means to me. Only after the war, when we’re married and alone, when we’re sitting around of an evening relaxing – then I’ll close my eyes, sit close to you with my arms around you and think back to these days in England. I’ll tell you then what I used to think on these quiet nights; I’ll tell you what the knowledge of your love meant for me, and how the war and separation were tolerable to me because of what I knew was in store for me when I finally got home.

I have no fear or apprehension of what may lie ahead because my mind seems to transcend that and jumps beyond it, and even when the immediate future becomes the present – I won’t be living in the present – but only in our future. And I owe all this ability to you, sweetheart. And again I say I’m thankful –

It didn’t get dark last night until 2230 and soon it will be 2300 and more before it gets dark outside. It is most peculiar – and quite difficult to think of going to bed. If it weren’t for the shutters that we have for black-out – I don’t know what we would do. And it gets light out very early too. I awaken each morning to the sound of cuck-coos (if that’s the way you spell it) right outside my window. I don’t recall ever hearing that bird in the States. There are many of them here and their notes are soft and musical. The whole countryside is really beautiful here and I know what they meant when they wrote about England in the Spring. It really has something.

Well, darling, I’m afraid I didn’t write much in the line of news – but the truth is – there isn’t any. The only news I’m interested in is you, anyway, and that’s the way it will always be. I’ll close now, dear. Love to the folks – and to you
All my love, sweetheart
Greg

* TIDBIT *

about The Cuckoo


Greg mentioned listening to the cuckoos each morning, saying that their notes are soft and musical.

In his book Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo, Michael McCarthy speaks of the cuckoo's place in the lives of its citizenry:


"In two or three weeks' time, you should be hearing it if you get out into the countryside – the unmistakable two-note call, perhaps the most distinctive sound in all of the natural world, that tells you spring is well and truly under way. Even people who have never heard the real thing know the call of the cuckoo.

It's partly its sheer musicality, for those two abrupt, liquid notes – cuck-coo! – form an exact musical interval in a way hardly any other bird calls do: it is a descending minor third. At its simplest, in the key of C major, it is G to E. (And C major, you may be interested to learn, is a favourite cuckoo key.)

It's partly also its ethereal, disembodied nature. The cuckoo is a shy, secretive bird. You don't often glimpse it, you simply hear it, so you can't see where the call is coming from; but it also has a sort of ventriloquial quality, so you can't hear where it's coming from, either. It doesn't seem to come from anywhere. It exists, disembodied, in the landscape, in a quite magical way, captured by Wordsworth, who called it "the wandering voice". Put them together – perfect musicality and a mysterious, floating resonance – and you have something unique: there is nothing else like the wandering voice in nature. And when, down the years, it was paired, as an aural signal, with the eagerly awaited change of the turning year, the coming of spring, it's not an exaggeration to say that in Europe it became one of the most significant, evocative sounds in human life. It produced a stream of folklore in every country, sayings and stories, proverbs and legends; it inspired composer after composer, from Handel in his The Cuckoo and the Nightingale to Beethoven in his Pastoral Symphony, to Saint-Saëns in his Carnival of the Animals, to Delius with On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring.

In Britain, it was firing musical imaginations more than six centuries before Frederick Delius; the cuckoo inspired the oldest extant song in English, "Sumer is icumen in" (with its rousing chorus of "Lhude sing cuccu!") written in about 1250, probably by a monk in Reading Abbey. And in this country it did still more: it triggered what is perhaps the most celebrated newspaper correspondence in history, the "first cuckoo" letters to The Times, those succinct missives from gentlemen who, for a century or so, from about 1840 to 1940, laid claim to being the first to hear the double note echo across the woods and fields in any given year. These engaging pronouncements – sometimes challenged, sometimes topped by rivals – are evidence above all of the real elation produced by hearing the call, the supreme signal of the soft days coming again and the burgeoning of new life, usually in the first two weeks of April. From about the 10th onward, say. A typical date would be 14 April. Two or three weeks from now, you should be hearing it."

28 April, 2011

28 April, 1944

438th AAA AW BN
APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
England
28 April, 1944       1010
My dearest fiancée –

I am now at the Dispensary, the most difficult place to write a letter, by the way, but since I am free for the moment, I decided to start writing now. Usually things get busy.

1140

See what I mean, dear? I didn’t finish the above sentence, when our new chaplain dropped into the Dispensary to make a social call. When he left, it was time to come back to the Castle and here I am again. It’s lovely out again, though a bit cooler than yesterday. Charlie et al are not back yet, so I’m still somewhat more alone than usual. Yesterday was a rather quiet day and evening. After dinner I did a little reading – medical journals – and listened to the radio. There was no mail at all for me, but I didn’t mind as much as I used to because I know there’s some mail on the way and I know you’re my true sweetheart and fiancée to boot – and when I think those things over, I feel so good that I can overlook the lapse.

This morning my eye is definitely on the mend and the assortment of colors is starting to disappear. There never was any pain associated with it – and since the cosmetic factor has no value over here to me – I didn’t mind the thing at all.

You mention a Porter girl – a student nurse at the B.I. I don’t seem to recall her although it does seem to me I had a couple of patients by that name. Anyway, as long as she had something nice to say about me, I’m satisfied. It’s too bad you don’t hear some bad things about me too, because you’ll find, darling, that some patients didn’t think I was so ‘hot’. Anyway, I’m glad I have some friends back in Salem and I am glad that you do have confidence in me. With that, I know I’ll do so well and I don’t have the slightest fear about my ability to come back, start practicing, work like hell and get a decent following of patients. And I know darn well that you’ll be a great help to me too! Dinner bell –
1235
Hello darling –

I hate to write you interrupted letters but I sometimes just don’t seem to have one solid hour without interruption. I guess you got an idea about interruptions that night at the Seder at my house – from what you wrote. I’m not that busy now – but I do remember some irritable evenings when I’d just get ready to take it easy and things would start popping. And the worst part of it was that you might have spent a very quiet and unbusy day. Oh well – just trying to scare you a bit, dear!

Well – honey chile – I’ve got to get started back. Someone I have to see is to be at the Dispensary at 1315 and it’s about a 12 minute walk. I hope I hear from you today, dear – but in any case, I’ll try not to mind. Solong for now, Sweetheart and be well.
All my love forever, dear
Greg
P.S. Love to the folks,
Love
G.
P.P.S. I tried to get some Mother’s Day cards. They
don’t have them here – And Mother’s day in England
is the Sunday before Easter.
Love
G.

* TIDBIT *

about Operation Tiger
Part II


CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE... It's spectacular!

Slapton Sands

"Tiger", under the command of US Navy Rear Admiral Don Pardee Moon, was one of several assault rehearsals conducted at Slapton Sands on the Devon coast. So vital was the exercise that the commanders had ordered the use of live naval and artillery ammunition to make the exercise as real as possible so as to accustom the soldiers to what they were soon going to experience. As mentioned in Part I about Operation Tiger, the exercise "landings" were begun during the morning of April 27. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of Operation Overlord (Allied code for the invasion itself), was aboard an observers’ ship on April 27, when Exercise Tiger first went terribly wrong— failed air cover, late landing craft, confusion on the beachhead. Amphibious tanks heading to shore, misfired their guns and wounded soldiers on the beach. At least one of the tanks sank in choppy seas while its frantic crew managed to escape. Furious, Eisenhower returned to his headquarters, deeply worried about what the exercise augured for D-Day. Worse was yet to come as the unloading continued during that day and the next, when a follow up convoy was expected.

The follow-up convoy consisted of two sections from two different ports. The Plymouth section, LST Group 32, was composed of USS LST-515, USS LST-496, USS LST-511, USS LST-531, and USS LST-58, which was towing two pontoon causeways. The Brixham section consisted of USS LST-499, USS LST-289, and USS LST-507. The convoy joined with HMS Azalea as escort and proceeded at six knots in one column with the LSTs in the same order as listed above.

Meanwhile, at a little after 10pm on the night of 27th of April, a group of nine German E-boats set out on a normal reconnaissance mission from their base in Cherbourg into the Lyme Bay area, under the command of Kapitain zur See Rudolf Petersen.


Kapitain zur See Rudolf Petersen

From the French mainland Kapitan zur see Petersen radioed the bearing of a possible target at 2317 hours and the E-boats of the 5th Flotilla split up into pairs for the attack. They followed the usual channel route without any sign of a convoy or 'enemy’ ships. As they headed towards the Lyme Bay area, they suddenly came in visual contact with the LST convoy. Since they could not see any naval escorts, they quickly positioned themselves for a torpedo attack.

As the convoy approached Lyme Bay it was maneuvering a loop to head back towards the shore. It was here that the E-boats made contact and opened fire. No warning of the presence of enemy boats had been received when LST 507 was torpedoed a few mintues after 2am, hitting its auxiliary engine room and cutting all electric power. The ship burst into flames. Gasoline aboard LST-507 exploded and set the ship afire. The fire fighting attempted by the crew proved futile as most of the fire fighting equipment was inoperative due to the power failure. After about 45 minutes or so the survivors of the attack were ordered to abandon ship.

LST 531 was hit by two torpedoes shortly after LST 507 was hit. LST-531 capsized and sank within six minutes. Trapped below decks hundreds of soldiers and sailors went down with the ships. There was little time to launch lifeboats and some of the lifeboats were jammed. Many men leapt into the sea. Several minutes later LST 289, which opened fire at the E-boats, was torpedoed. However LST 289 managed to limp back to shore but only after suffering a number of deaths and casualties of its men aboard. The E-boats used smoke and high speed to escape.


LST 289 after the attack

Senior officers ashore, quickly assessing the damage, ordered the five surviving LSTs to continue steaming toward Dartmouth, their destination. Capt. John Doyle, commanding officer of LST-515, the lead ship, disobeyed the order. He turned back to look for survivors. “We started looking for the ones who were still alive:’ Brent Wahlberg, 515 gunnery officer, remembers. “We found 132 survivors.” Many of the dead, they noticed, were floating head down, feet up, with their life belts inflated. No one had told them that the life belts were to be worn under the armpits, not around the waist, and their heavy backpacks had pulled their heads under the cold water. That lesson from Exercise Tiger would be taught to invasion troops, saving countless lives. Others succumbed to hypothermia in the cold water. In all 749 American soldiers and sailors died that night, 946 in total during Exercise Tiger. In hindsight the casualty list was three times that which ‘U’ Force (VII Corps) would suffer on Utah beach on D-Day. Unfortunately, three months later Rear Admiral Moon shot himself. People close to him said he never got over the disaster at Slapton Sands.


Rear Admiral Don Pardee Moon

The German victory led to further panic at SHAEF. It was discovered that ten officers missing had BIGOT (Access to Operation Overlord plans) security clearance. They did not know the date of the invasion; no one did at this stage. However, anyone with BIGOT clearance would have access to the location of the invasion, landing beaches and probably a whole host of other information that would be of use to the enemy. The German boats had closed on where the LST’s had sunk and switched on their searchlights, presumably to look for survivors. It was assumed they might have taken prisoners, which was later discovered to be the case. A vast fishing fleet mobilized in Lyme Bay to trawl for dead bodies from the attack. Although many bodies were never recovered all ten of the 'Bigots' were found floating in their life jackets.

Meanwhile, orders went out imposing the strictest secrecy on all who knew or might learn of the tragedy, including doctors and nurses who treated the survivors. There was no point in letting the enemy know what he had accomplished, least of all in affording any clue that might link Slapton Sands to Utah Beach. Nobody ever lifted that order of secrecy, for by the time D-Day had passed, the units subject to the order had scattered. Quite obviously, in any case, the order no longer had any legitimacy particularly after Gen. Eisenhower's Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, in July 1944 issued a press release telling of the tragedy. Notice of it was printed, among other places, in the soldier newspaper, Stars and Stripes.

The following is the recollection of LT Eugene E. Eckstam, MC, USNR, (Ret.), a medical officer on USS LST-507 when it was struck, adapted from: "The Tragedy of Exercise Tiger," Navy Medicine 85, no. 3 (May-Jun 1994), pp 5-7:

When our medical unit reported back to LST-507 [after a training elsewhere], it was in Brixham and had loaded some 290 Army personnel. The tank deck held 22 DUKWs (amphibious trucks) with jeeps and trucks topside, all chained to the deck and fully fueled. Army troops were everywhere.

Loading occurred 24 April 1944. We and two other LSTs sailed from Brixham on the afternoon of 27 April to join five LSTs coming from Plymouth. Only recently I found that our British escort had been warned about E-boats in the area, but the U.S. forces had not been given the correct radio channel to monitor. We sailed along in fatal ignorance.

General Quarters rudely aroused us about 0130. I remember hearing gunfire and saying they had better watch where they were shooting or someone would get hurt. At 0203 I was stupidly trying to go topside to see what was going on and suddenly "BOOM!" There was a horrendous noise accompanied by the sound of crunching metal and dust everywhere. The lights went out and I was thrust violently in the air to land on the steel deck on my knees, which became very sore immediately thereafter. Now I knew how getting torpedoed felt. But I was lucky.

The torpedo hit amidships starboard in the auxiliary engine room, knocking out all electric and water power. We sat and burned. A few casualties came into the wardroom for care and, since there was ample help, I checked below decks aft to be sure no one required medical attention there. All men in accessible areas had gone topside.

The tank deck was a different matter. As I opened the hatch, I found myself looking into a raging inferno which pushed me back. It was impossible to enter. The screams and cries of those many Army troops in there still haunt me. Navy regulations call for dogging the hatches to preserve the integrity of the ship, and that's what I did.

Until the fire got so hot we were forced to leave the ship at 0230, we watched the most spectacular fireworks ever. Gas cans and ammunition exploding and the enormous fire blazing only a few yards away are sights forever etched in my memory.

Ship's company wore life jackets, but the medics and Army personnel had been issued inflatable belts. We were told only to release the snaps and squeeze the handles to inflate. Climbing down a cargo net, I settled into the 42 degree F. water, gradually getting lower as the life belt rose up to my arm pits. The soldiers that jumped or dove in with full packs did not do well. Most were found with their heads in the water and their feet in the air, top heavy from not putting the belts around their chests before inflating them. Instructions in their correct use had never been given.

I recall only brief moments of hearing motors, of putting a knee on a small boat ramp, and then "awakening" half way up a Jacobs ladder. I was on the only American ship, LST 515, to rescue survivors. This was at dawn, about 0600. I had been in the water over 2 hours fully dressed and insulated. Those that had stripped to swim, only God knows where they died. Drowning and hypothermia were the two major causes of death. I often wonder if many "dead" victims were really in a state of hibernation, and what would have happened had we been able to immerse them in warm tubs. But who ever heard of a tub on an LST in wartime? We couldn't even do a reliable physical exam under the circumstances.

Both dead and alive were taken to Portland. The dead went on to Brookwood Cemetery near London where they were buried individually. The rumor of mass graves is false. We got dry clothes, courtesy of the American Red Cross and then an exam at an Army field hospital in Sherborne.

Lessons were learned although the appalling loss of life had little or no compensating benefit to the allied landings at Normandy. However, recommendations for the D-Day invasion included:

  • using larger escort forces if available,

  • the need for rescue craft during any large scale landing,

  • ensuring that vital information on enemy contacts was disseminated quickly,

  • introducing standard procedures and special communication circuits for each Operation including the use of the same radio wavelengths,

  • reinforcing the message for all hands not to look at flares or fires ... to do so reduced ability to see objects in the dark,

  • limiting the amount of fuel carried to that needed for the operation itself to reduce combustible material and thereby fire risk,

  • making rifles and pistols more generally available to fire on E-boats when they paced close aboard especially when guns could not depress sufficiently,

  • making life boats and life rafts as near ready for lowering as possible,

  • illumination rockets to help slow moving large ships locate E-boats in darkness,

  • improving fire fighting equipment including the installation of manually operated pumps for LSTs and other ships carrying large amounts of inflammable material,

  • providing training in the use of the kapok life preserver jacket in preference to the CO2 single type. The former was more effective in keeping heads above water, and

  • loosening boot laces where an order to abandon ship seemed likely to make it easier to remove heavy waterlogged boots in the water.

  • The following is some rare footage of drills at Slapton Sands.

    27 April, 2011

    27 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    27 April, 1944       1100
    Dearest darling –

    I just got back from the Dispensary. It’s beautiful out today, warm and hazy, and it sure would be swell to go for a long walk or bike ride with you, but that will have to wait a bit. This month has slipped by very fast for me, I don’t know exactly why – but probably because of our engagement and receiving some swell letters.

    Speaking of letters, I got a dandy from Mother B – yesterday p.m.  Considering the little time I had to get to know your folks it’s amazing how close I feel to them – but it’s no doubt due to the fact that they make me feel that way. Anyway I’m tickled that I do feel that way, and I know that when I return it will be the easiest thing in the world to be a member of your family in every sense of the word.

    It is natural to wonder how you and I will seem to each other. I have been away longer, already, than the time I actually went with you –but I don’t have the slightest qualm about us. Our continued correspondence has kept us very close together and it won’t necessarily be a question of making up the interval. I feel that we’ll just take up from where we left off in our last letters and continue from there. I must admit though, darling, that as fertile as my imagination can sometimes be, I get completely lost and bewildered when I think in terms of arriving in some eastern port and wiring or calling for you. I get that far – and I get mixed up on what follows; mixed up only because I know my emotions from that time on will be at a bursting level. The thought of the moment when I see you again, rush to you, hug and kiss you and know that I’m back to stay with you for the rest of our natural lives – well, sweetheart – that thought is what even my imagination fails to give me clearly enough. I suppose it’s better that way –

    Well, where was I, dear? It doesn’t matter, though – ‘cause I’m happier when I’m dreaming – and I was just dreaming. My eye, by the way, isn’t too bad. It’s merely a purple-red color – just over the eye and the swelling is practically nil. The reverend has called a couple of times to see how I was doing. He really felt worse than I did – as is usually the case.

    Oh – yesterday I got the first congratulatory message from Salem – from Barbara Tucker – who wasn’t too surprised, she wrote, because she gathered lots – from my letters. Anyway – she’s sorry she didn’t meet you last summer and says she’ll “give you the once-over” later on. She’s a good kid and I think you’ll like her – even if she is Smith!

    Darling – I’ve got to eat now. Everything’s fine here except for our being apart and someday that won’t be. Until then, Sweetheart, know that I love you dearly and sincerely – and that I think only of you.

    All my love
    Greg
    P.S Love to the folks
    Love
    G

    26 April, 2011

    26 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    26 April, 1944        1030
    Dearest sweetheart –

    I’ve just completed sick-call, kitchen inspection and a couple of other details – and practically speaking, I’m through for the day. What a job! I’m back at the castle and when I’m through writing you, dear, all I have to do is straighten out my room a bit and clean the fireplace. Although the weather has continued to be Spring-like, the castle is a chilly place and central heating has been discontinued. Consequently a fireplace is mighty comfortable most evenings.

    Yesterday I played squash in the p.m. with the Rev. and Mr. Westlake who is a physical director of the School – and plays a good game by the way. One of the games was interrupted by a smart crack over the eye which none other than I received from a racquet wielded by the Reverend. Boy – I saw stars! Don’t worry, dear, it was nothing serious. I was rushing in for a shot which I anticipated was going into the corner. The Rev. swung backhand and clipped me. I now have the makings of a beautiful shiner, – one each, left – English style – as the Army would catalogue it. Of course I told everybody I was attacked by no less than 6 (six) G.I.’s and only one of them touched me.

    Other than that – the p.m. was quite uneventful. On return to the Castle – what do you suppose was waiting for me – but a letter from you, darling, and post-marked April 20!!! Great balls – but if that isn’t wonderful, I don’t know what is! Why it’s almost like being in the States. When I was in Carolina – the mail sometimes took as much as five days from Massachusetts. You had written the letter on the 19th – and gosh that was just a little while ago.

    You bet we’ll have a dog, Sweetheart, although until you get them grown – they require care. But I think they add warmth to a house, home or apartment. Of course kids do too – and so we’ll have to have them.

    By the way, dear, I meant to ask you before; isn’t there a new air-mail rate? I notice you use a 6 cents stamp. It seems to me I read some time ago that the rate was going up. There’s nothing been said here about it.

    You mention going to lunch with Verna. I think you mentioned it once before, dear. How do you find her anyway? And just what do you think she thinks about us? You remember Stan had rightly or wrongly inferred that Irv and Verna thought we weren’t exactly suited. I wonder what they really think. As a couple – I like them both – and I’ve always liked Irv – individually, too. Incidentally – one or the other of them owes me a letter.

    One more thing, Sweetheart, please don’t feel that I’m being cheated in any way because I’m not around to enjoy your happiness – our happiness. I love you enough, darling, to get happiness out of just reading of yours. You’ve made me happy in becoming my fiancée – and I don’t forget it for a moment. I’m nowhere near as lonesome as I used to be – because I have such concrete things to think about that I didn’t have before. No – I’m not cheated, darling. I’m thankful for what I have and for what I hope to have – years of happiness with you, sweetheart.

    That’s all for now, dear. I hope my mail is reaching you regularly and rapidly, too. Best love to the folks and

    My love is forever yours –
    Greg.

    * TIDBIT *

    about Operation Tiger
    Part I

    In preparing for the Normandy Invasion, the United States Army conducted various training exercises at Slapton Sands in Start Bay and in the nearby Tor Bay on the Southwestern coast of England, beginning on December 15, 1943. Slapton was an unspoiled beach of coarse gravel, fronting a shallow lagoon that was backed by bluffs that resembled Omaha Beach. After the people in the nearby village were evacuated, it was an almost perfect place to simulate the Normandy landings. Here are some villagers recollections of the evacuation, as told by Norman Wills, copied exactly from BBC's WW2 People's War:

    In November 1943 my Father received a letter from the Admiralty telling us that we had to give up our home. One usually thinks of children being evacuated without their families, however, in our case the whole family was evacuated with everything we possessed, furniture, sheds and even the chickens! Although we only moved a few miles it had a great effect on us and our whole village of Chillington in South Devonshire.

    We moved eight miles away to share a house in the village of Aveton Gifford. We had no real idea why we had to move, except perhaps, that our village and others near Start Bay were to be used as a military practice area.

    American military vehicles soon began rolling through Aveton Gifford on their way from Plymouth to Start Bay and thousands of American soldiers marched through in single file on each side of the road. When they sawchildren the Americans would sometimes stop and make pancakes and we would beg them for some “Gum Chum”, but the Americans marching through the village often wanted bread and they would give us as much as 2/6d (12 ½ p), a lot of money, as a 2 lb loaf of bread only cost 5d (2p). To us the Americans seemed very well off and we envied their canned food, but, as we were in the country we managed to get enough fresh food and sometimes even Devonshire clotted cream on Sundays.

    CLICKON PICTURE TO ENLARGE

    Slapton Sands, Devon, UK

    TIGER was the code name of the training exercise for the Utah Beach assault forces under Admiral Don P. Moon. It was held from April 22-30, 1944. The invasion training was long and thorough. The culmination of the joint training program was a pair of full scale rehearsals in late April and early May, involving 30,000 soldiers and two assault forces.

    The troops and equipment embarked on the same ships and for the most part from the same ports from which they would later leave for France. Six of the days in the exercise were taken up by the marshaling of the troops and the embarkation of the landing craft.

    The convoy of ships set sail from local ports, including Dartmouth and Plymouth with escorts provided by the Royal Navy. HMS Scimitar, a destroyer, was to take the lead and a corvette, HMS Azalea, bring up the rear. The first signs of anything going wrong was that HMS Scimitar was rammed and holed by another vessel and was ordered to remain in port. Nobody thought to inform the commander of the exercise of this fact. The convoy started without an escort and the corvette, HMS Azalea, had no radio contact with the Landing Craft - it was not deemed necessary! A typing error in the frequencies has come to light as a probable cause for the ships not having the same information.

    During the night of April 26-27, 1944, the main force proceeded through Lyme Bay with mine craft sweeping ahead of them as if crossing the channel. German E-boats, which were high-speed torpedo boats capable of operating at speeds of 34-36 knots, sometimes patrolled the channel at night. Because of this, the British Commander in Chief, who was responsible for protecting the rehearsal, threw patrols across the mouth of Lyme Bay. These patrols consisted of two destroyers, three motor torpedo boats and two motor gunboats. Another motor torpedo patrol was sent to watch Cherbourg, the main ports where the German E-boats were based. Following the "bombardment" on Slapton Sands, the exercise "landings" were begun during the morning of April 27. Landing craft were used to deploy the soldiers, and their equipment, onto the beaches. Meanwhile, along the Atlantic Wall in France, German listening posts picked up prolific signals emanating from American forces in the Southwest of England. They were listening in on Operation Tiger.

    25 April, 2011

    25 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    25 April, 1944       0725
    Good Morning, sweetheart –

    Well – today is a sort of key date also. I associate it with Thanksgiving day and you know what significance that has for me. I can hardly believe that so much time has elapsed and it just proves that humans can take things in stride if they have to.

    I’ve just finished my breakfast, dear, and since I’m a bit early for the Dispensary I thought I’d jot down a few lines. Charlie left early this morning for a few days with some of the others – so I’ll be able to take it a bit easier for a short while. As a matter of fact I have a date to play squash with Reverend Bell this p.m. He’s turned out to be a pretty swell guy, by the way. His wife has been very friendly, too. They called me Sunday and invited me to tea. I was quite busy most of the day – as I wrote you – but I managed to get over there between 1600 and 1700. When you’re invited for tea – you are supposed to go. I don’t know how much I’ve told you about the Bells. He did missionary work in Rhodesia, West Africa – where he met his wife. It was because of an illness – that they had to leave Africa. He then came here to take the job as chaplain of the school. They have the nicest little house imaginable with a large surrounding garden – entirely closed by a high wall. Tea is served in the garden and we’ve had some delightful chats.

    Well, darling, it’s close to “eight-ish” – as the English insist on saying and that means I’ve got to go do to sick-call. See you later kid –
    1045
    Hello darling –

    I just got back to the Castle and came up here to my room – where it’s nice and quiet for a change and I can concentrate on you and tell you I love you and think hard about you. Our room is down a long corridor at one end of a wing, but there’s always someone coming in or out of it and rarely less than 4-5 fellows in it. I enjoy that, of course, but once in a while you like to be alone and quiet.

    In one of your recent letters, darling you mention the ‘story’ I once gave your mother on love, etc. I’ve often thought about that and wondered how you or your mother ever came to believe me when I said I really loved you. The fact is, darling, I still feel that successful love and consequently marriage is based upon more than pure emotion and that’s the basic point I tried to make. I know, dear, that our love will be balanced by so many things that we like about each other. It is not just love, per se. I know you know what I mean and that you cannot misinterpret me – because I love with emotion, too, of course; I’ve always felt that I wanted more than that – and in you, my darling fiancée, I’m attaining what I’ve always desired – and for that I’m thankful. With our love for each other as a foundation, plus our other mutual interests – we’re going to have a happy, interesting life and who could ask for anything more?

    I sometimes grow so impatient about the slowness of things here, darling, that it is almost unbearable – but on the other hand, I have so little to complain about – I shut up my thoughts and I feel a little better. But I have only one goal and thought and that is to get back home to you and marry you as soon as this thing is over – and it just can’t last forever! That’s all for now sweetheart; remember, dear, that I miss you terribly and always will when you’re not near me –

    Love to the folks.
    All my love, darling
    Greg.
    Regards from both Pete and Charlie.
    Love
    G.

    24 April, 2011

    24 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    24 April, 1944       1100
    My dearest darling –

    Yes – nine months ago today I met you and little did either of us dream that we would end up becoming engaged. But then – lots of other people start out the same way – so we needn’t feel we’re too different. I don’t know what the statistics are concerning engagements by mail; probably not too high, but hell – anybody can get engaged the usual way. I shall insist on the latter, though, for our marriage, darling, for general reasons.

    Well I got a good night’s sleep last night and feel quite chipper this a.m. I almost had to go on another business trip today but on studying the map, it seemed a little bit too far – so I’ve decided to transact my business by mail this time. I’ve just returned from the dispensary and am at the Castle now – waiting for a battery commander’s meeting at 1130.

    Late yesterday I got a letter from you written on the 13th and one from my dad of the 12th. My folks are so tickled about us, darling, it’s wonderful. And they like your folks so much, too. I hope yours feel the same way about mine. In this letter – my father first alluded to Stan. You had mentioned that Stan had called my mother and that she was surprised. I wondered just what you meant. Apparently my folks know about what went on; my father said he was disgusted with the way Stan acted when he heard of our engagement. The whole thing is too bad because we were always – what I thought, at least – good friends; but chalk that up to the “you never can tell” department. I haven’t heard from Stan since we were engaged – but I suppose I will soon. I had no idea he reacted so badly about it all. Anyway – he’s probably sorry and as I wrote you before – as far as I’m concerned, I’ve forgotten about it. The fact is, Sweetheart, I do have you and that’s what matters most. Stan does have lots of good qualities, and it’s not strange to human nature for man to be jealous of another’s good fortune. I should probably be the same.

    I enjoyed reading about your dream, dear – and the way you talk about a child here and there, “two already”, and the possibility of twins. I’d say off hand that prolific is the right word to use.

    I’m glad, dear, that you are reading the Stars and Stripes and the Yanks I’m sending out. The SandS are old when you get them, I know, – but it’s a well done newspaper and does have a good bit of Army lingo. They’re widely read here in the E.T.O. and it is a good way to keep up to date on what’s going on. I’ll keep sending them along as long as I keep getting them.

    I’ve got to go now. (11:25)
    1255
    Hello, dear –

    Oh sorry – I have to leave again.
    1635
    Hello, again –

    This is beginning to look like an appointment book. I thought I’d be able to finish this letter right after lunch, but I had to leave. I’ve just returned – and I’ll have to stop in a minute to go to a meeting. Boy – don’t I sound important – I mean busy! Anyway, sweetheart, I’ve got time to write you that I love you very much, all the time and everywhere I go – and I always shall. I’m never too busy to let you know that. That’s all for now, dear – except love to the folks.

    All my love forever, darling
    Greg

    * TIDBIT *

    about Military Organization Terms

    Greg mentioned he was going to a battery commander's meeting. This list of terms puts that meeting into perspective relative to the Army's organization. At the highest level was the Supreme Allied Commander of the European Theater of Operations,  General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

    Army Group — A tactical and administrative military unit, consisting of a headquarters, two or more armies, and auxilliary units. Greg was part of the 21st British Army Group, commanded by General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery.

    Army — A tactical and administrative military unit, consisting of a headquarters, two or more Corps, and auxilliary units. At this point, Greg was part of the First US Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Omar Bradley.


    First Army Shoulder Sleeve Insignia

    Corps — A tactical military unit of ground, combat forces, between an army and a division, and composed of two or more divisions and auxilliaries. Greg was part of the VII Corps, commanded by Major General J. Lawton Collins.


    VII Corps Shoulder Sleeve Insignia

    Division — A tactical and administrative unit, smaller than a corps, but self-contained and equipped for long combat activity. Usually consists of three regiments, or four combat commands (armored div.), and attached units. At some time during the assault and drive across Europe, 17 different Infantry Divisions, 6 different Armored Divisions and 2 Airborne Divisions were part of the VII Corps. The 2 Airborne divisions were the well-known 82nd and 101st Airborne. Twelve Units were attached to these various Divisions.

    Regiment — The major, tactical unit of a division. Divided into three battalions, each with four companies (or) batteries (in artillery battalions). Commanders are usually colonels.

    Battalion — The major tactical unit of an infantry regiment. (See above). It also may be a separate, tactical unit, not organic to the division, which may be attached to a division during combat. i.e., the 438th. Battalion Commanders are usually lieutenant colonels. 


    Crest of the 438th AAA
    Automatic Weapons Battalion

    Company — One of four, tactical units into which an infantry battalion is divided. Company commanders are usually captains.

    Battery — One of four, tactical units into which an artillery battalion is divided. Battery commanders are usually captains.

    Platoon — One of the tactical sections (usually four) into which the company (or battery) is divided. Platoon commanders are usually lieutenants.

    Squad — The smallest, tactical unit into which a platoon may be divided. Number of men in a squad may vary from eight to twelve. Squad commanders are usually sergeants.

    23 April, 2011

    23 April, 1944

    V-MAIL

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    23 April, 1944
    Dear Sweetheart –

    It’s 2300 now and I’m just getting ready for bed. This has been the first opportunity I’ve had to write today. Yesterday – Saturday – we had the brawl we expected – and darling, temporarily at least – I consider I partly celebrated our Engagement. We started sipping beer at about 1500 and gradually worked into the Scotch, rum and gin. When that was gone, we went back to the beer and I really felt more gay than I have for a long time. If only you could have been here, dear, everything would have been perfect.

    Today I slept late – and after lunch I had to leave and have been away most of the day – until a little while ago. There’s nothing else to write now, dear, except to say I love you and miss you terribly. I got a letter from my father yesterday in which he told me how happy he and my mother were – over our engagement. That makes it unanimous. I’ll write again tomorrow, dear. Love to the folks – and for now –

    All my love
    Greg

    * TIDBIT *

    about Operation Overlord:
    Primary Missions of the Air Plan


    Operation Overlord, the code name for the allied invasion of France, had built into it the movement of a total of 3 million men in 47 divisions, moved by 6000 ships with aerial cover provided by 5000 fighter planes. On April 23, 1944 the primary mission was set forth in the over-all air plan for Overlord. According to HyperWar: Army Air Forces in World War II: Volume III, this mission was defined as:

    The attainment and maintenance of an air situation in which the German Air Force would be incapable of interfering with the Allied landings. In the first or preliminary phase, extending from D minus 50 to D minus 30, the stress would be placed on counter-air force operations and on reconnaissance. Air priorities for a second or preparatory phase, running from D minus 30 to D minus 1, were named in the order of (1) the German Air Force, (2) Strategic Railway Centers, (3) Selected Coastal Batteries, and (4) Airfields within a radius of 130 miles of Caen.

    Summarizing, using extracts from HyperWar, the 4 priorities listed were well met:

    (1) The German Air Force. The plans rested upon the assumption that the Allies would enjoy the advantage of overwhelming strength in the air. Beyond all expectations, by D-day British and American air strength amounted to 3,467 heavy bombers, 1,645 medium, light, and torpedo bombers, 5,409 fighters, and 2,316 transport and troop carrier aircraft against Germany's 3,222 fighters and bombers in condition for combat on the eve of the invasion.

    (2) Strategic Railway Centers. The primary purpose of the transportation plan was to isolate the invasion area through extensive bombing of vital rail centers and repair facilities, since their destruction would likely cripple the entire system immediately. The battle against enemy transportation was a splendid success. On the eve of D-day, British-American aircraft had dropped a total of 76,200 tons (on rail centers 71,000, bridges 4,400, and open lines 800). Germany had been unable to move effective reinforcements into the Seine-Loire triangle at the time of the invasion, and its forces had been committed piecemeal rather than being deployed as units. Thus the Allies had won their premier objective in the transportation campaign: they were able to build up their forces in Normandy from across the Channel faster than the Germans could reinforce theirs from adjacent areas in France.

    (3) Selected Coastal Batteries. By the spring of 1944 the Nazis had built a wall of intricate and ingenious shore defenses along exposed beaches in the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France. This so-called Atlantic Wall was supposed to dominate the coast sufficiently to keep Allied landing craft from approaching the continent, thus rendering a seaborne assault impossible. The Allied planners were most concerned about coastal batteries along the Atlantic Wall, each of which held from two to six guns ranging in caliber from 105 mm. to 400 mm. Perhaps fifty of these batteries, it was estimated, would be functioning in Normandy by June 1944. The guns could command the sea approaches and inflict murderous damage on the assault craft. Camouflaged, cleverly located, and usually buttressed with steel and concrete, these coastal batteries would be exceedingly difficult to neutralize. The greatest pains had to be taken to conceal from the Germans the special interest which the Normandy batteries had for the Allies. Thus two targets outside the area were chosen for each one inside it. On the eve of D-day, 5,904 tons of bombs and 495 sixty-pound rocket projectiles had been directed at coastal batteries in the Normandy area, while 17,190 tons had been dropped on batteries outside the invasion sector. Most post-invasion surveys concluded that the bombings of coastal batteries before and on D-day destroyed comparatively few gun emplacements. But the unbalancing and dislocation of guns, the demoralization of their crews, and delays to the completion of the Normandy beach batteries were accomplishments of no small nature.

    (4) Airfields around Caen. There were approximately 100 airfields within 350 miles of the Normandy shore from which the German Air Force could operate. The master plan for Allied air supremacy depended upon three main programs: continued policing to keep the Luftwaffe in its reduced state; heavy bomber missions deep into Germany just before and soon after the invasion to discourage the Germans from removing their fighters to France; and wholesale attacks on airfields in France during the three weeks before D-day. By waiting until the last three weeks before D-day to bomb airfields around Caen there would be less danger of giving away the invasion secret and less time for those airfields to be repaired. By D-day, airfields in a 130 mile arc around Caen had received 6,717 tons of bombs. The principal purpose of the program had been attained. Because of the ruined air bases, the transportation chaos, and the danger of great British-American fighter fleets ranging over France, the Germans could not possibly move substantial Luftwaffe units to contest the invasion. Indeed, one of the most remarkable facts of the entire war is that the Luftwaffe did not make a single daylight attack on D-day against Allied forces in the Channel or on the beaches.

    Click Here to read the full text of what was extracted for this overview.

    22 April, 2011

    22 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    22 April, 1944        1145
    Dearest darling Wilma –

    I’ll just start a few lines before lunch. How are you, dearest? I didn’t hear from you yesterday, but I ought to today, perhaps. A short while ago – after weeks of arranging – I got a photographer to come up to the Castle grounds and take a picture of the 3 officers and our medical detachment personnel. No darling, I could not get him to take one of me myself. They just don’t have the paper and they are not interested in taking single photos; they save the paper for group pictures. At any rate, we all got dressed up, posed and were taken. While we were all together – I got a few snaps of the group and I’ll try to have the pictures developed. I just got back one roll, sweetheart, and I’m having another set made. As soon as it’s back I’ll send you a set and my folks one. There’s so much damned red tape about photographs – but I guess these will be O.K. Gotta run now, darling – dinner bell is ringing –

    1225
    Hello again, dear –

    As you can see – dinner wasn’t very much today. I guess it was really a lunch. But tonite we’re having steak and it looks as if the binge I mentioned is going to materialize. Some time this p.m. – after I clean up a little of my work – we’re going to start drinking beer (saving our Scotch for the last possible moment). We got hold of a piano – 10 shillings a week. Half the keys don’t work – but we gather around it and yell our heads off. Thru Special Service we get most of the popular songs.

    Well – to date – I haven’t heard from anyone concerning our engagement, sweetheart – I mean from none of my acquaintances. I think I will soon, however, although it is conceivable I could come back from the war and run into a good many people who didn’t hear about it. But I’m interested in some of their reactions. I was reading your letter of April 2nd last night and it must have been great fun for you, darling, to have your old school friends etc. – calling you and dropping around to see you. Gosh it would have been so nice to be with you and meet them all. But it’s your family particularly that I want to meet. I keep thinking that I met so few of them – and I’m anxious to meet and know them all and have them approve of me.

    I keep telling you I’m happy about our engagement; you can’t know how much because you’d have to see me and be with me to really know. I have so much to be thankful for, darling, that I find myself feeling very humble at times. First of all it’s because of you – and our love for one another; then – it’s because of your folks and relatives who have been so darned nice about things. After all – they don’t really know me or my characteristics – and you don’t go and get your only daughter engaged very often. I’m fully aware of it and that’s what makes me love them and their trust in me; and finally – it’s because of my own folks whom, I know, I’ve made very happy – and I’m so glad about that. They really are swell parents and I guess I had them a little worried at times. It’s a pleasure to feel that they’re genuinely in love with you and therefore happy for me. All in all, darling, I’m content with the world and what it has given me. My love for you, dear, is greater than I knew love could be. I hope only – that until you can see for yourself – you get some idea of it thru my letters. So long for now, dear – and love to the folks.

    Yours forever, dear
    Greg

    21 April, 2011

    21 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    21 April, 1944       1230
    Wilma, darling –

    Busy seems to be the word for things for me in the last couple of letters, but I’m doing my darn’dest to keep the mail going. I’ve just finished lunch and I’m up in my room. If I don’t finish writing now, dear, I’ll probably get a chance a little later.

    I got one letter yesterday – a V-mail from you of April 9th. There was no other mail – but it has really been excellent these past 10 days or so.

    Today, darling, makes 3 weeks that we’re engaged – but only 9 days that I know about it. I don’t suppose I’ll really get the real thrill of it until the day I actually see you again – but I know I am getting the maximum sensation possible – with us apart. It’s just such a satisfying feeling to know I have you, darling, and – willing to wait for me. You will be so nice to come home to – and just think of the real pleasure that awaits me – knowing that one day I’ll be heading for home and you. I wonder how much elation and joy a person can stand. Whatever the limit – on that day, Sweetheart – I shall approach it.

    Back here it’s been reports and reports and running around – but I’ve welcomed whatever busy days or nights we’ve had because time does go faster – and that’s what I like. This town, though, still has me captivated with it’s quaintness, age – and nice class of people. Last Sunday, I forgot to mention to you, dear, the old housekeeper took Bruce and me through the locked portion of the Castle. I’ve been taking care of her arthritis – and she promised to show me around – as a reward. Well, sweetheart, it took most of the afternoon and you can’t imagine the store house of treasures that this place has. Before the war – every room in the house was in use and it wasn’t unusual to have 100 men on a week-end of a hunt – stay up here. Well all the furniture, lamps, clocks, draperies, rugs, oil-paintings are in one wing of the castle and it was like going to an auction or a gallery – seeing it.

    Other than that there’s nothing new. For the past several Saturday nights we’ve tried to plan an old-fashioned 438th brawl – but always something has turned up to prevent the officers from being together. But at this moment, dear, it looks as if we may be able to have it tomorrow night. We’re going to have a special supper – which will include ICE CREAM. I’ve had that delicacy about 4 times since I’ve been in England. And best of all – we’ve rounded up some liquor. For the bar – we’ve got about 18 bottles of Scotch, rum, gin – together and in addition we’ve been able to get some Black Market liquor. I haven’t been ‘drunk’ or anywhere near it for so long – that I bought a bottle of John Haig Scotch (and lucky to get it too) for £3 ($72.00) and I’m going to tie one on – as they way in the U.S. I owe myself an Engagement Party and this may be it – if something doesn’t turn up. I’ll let you know, dear.

    Meanwhile, darling, I love you and miss you more dearly than I can write about and it’s in the knowledge of our future happiness that I keep my spirits up. I know we won’t be let down. Love to the folks –, dear and

    My love is forever yours –
    Greg

    * TIDBIT *

    about John Haig Scotch and "The Pinch"


    1944 UK John Haig Scotch Whiskey Ad
    "Dimple Scots" and "Gold Label"

    Greg did not say which bottle of Haig Scotch he purchased, but the price may mean he bought The Pinch. The Pinch, known as "The Dimple" everywhere except in the USA, is the fourth most popular Blended Deluxe Scotch worldwide. Dimple Blended Scotch Whiskey contains a high percentage of malt whiskeys including Glenkinchie and Linkwood.

    The story of Pinch is reflected in the spirit of over 350 years' of whiskey distilling and blending experience. In 1655 farmer/distiller Robert Haig was summoned before the church elders for operating his still on the Sabbath (Sunday). This marked the earliest documented reference to a distillery company which is still operating today. The art and craft of whiskey distilling were passed down through generations of the Haig family dynasty, and Robert's descendants operated distilleries in Scotland, England and Ireland. One of them, John Haig, opened a distillery in 1824 at Cameronbridge in the fertile and historical Kingdom of Fife, which lies across the Firth of Forth from Edinburgh. Around 1870, his son John was the first Haig to use the newly developed practice of blending. The deep understanding of product and their long tradition of whiskey making was realized, to perfection, in the early 1890s with the creation of Pinch.

    According to marketing material, this deluxe blend of exceptional distinction is found in the world's most exclusive bars and elegant homes and is enjoyed by those who appreciate rare quality. Pinch is said to be the perfect international companion when friends meet in smart surroundings. In recognition of the consistent high quality of Pinch, the whiskey was awarded a gold medal in 1987 in the Deluxe blended whiskey category of the International Wine and Spirit competition.

    Pinch is distinguished even further by its famous triangular, dimpled bottle wrapped in wire net. The whiskey has been bottled in this attractive container since its creation in 1890, with the hand-applied wire mesh originally designed to prevent the cork from coming out during export shipments through rough seas. The Pinch 'decanter,' after the precious contents have been enjoyed, has been put to decorative use around the world. To protect its exclusive use, the Pinch bottle was the first bottle to be patented in the United States, in 1958. It is a fitting and unique container for a whiskey that is said to have no equals.


    For connoisseurs, it is described this way: At the first whiff of the nose of The Dimple Pinch, a bit of pepper and malt unrest the senses. Then comes hints of honey, fruits, and peat smoke. The light golden blend then finishes with notes of vanilla. The flavor brings back to mind some of the aforementioned scents, but the fruit becomes much more pronounced. After the initial peppery bite, heavy apple and pear flavor takes over the palate moving to a smooth smoky sweetness in the finish.

    The Pinch is bottled by United Distillers (or UDV as they've become known). The distilling company is currently owned by Diageo. Also produced by Diageo are: Jose Cuervo (#1 global tequila), Bailey's (#1 global liqueur), Johnnie Walker (#1 global scotch whiskey), J&B (#4 global scotch whiskey), Smirnoff (#1 global vodka), Guinness (#1 global stout), Captain Morgan (#2 global rum), Tanqueray (#1 US imported gin) among other spirits, as well as Don Perignon and Moet & Chandor champagnes, 6 more wines and 8 more beers.



    Diageo says that many of their brands have stories...  Click here to read some.

    20 April, 2011

    20 April, 1944 (to her Dad)

    V-MAIL

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 c/o Postmaster N.Y.
    England
    20 April 1944

    Dear Dad B. –

    I got your letter of April 2nd – yesterday and you certainly make me ‘feel at home’, so to speak. I sincerely hope that all your wishes came true, for all of us – and certain it is that my one ambition is to get home well – to marry Wilma and really get to know my other folks. It will all come in due time – I have not doubt about that.

    As for being pals – I guess you can count on me – and I look forward to having some great time together. Meanwhile – I’m very happy about our Engagement – and all in all, considering circumstances etc. – I think I’m a pretty lucky guy. Love to the family and so long for now.
    Love
    Greg.

    20 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    20 April, 1944       1330
    My dearest sweetheart –

    I’m at the Dispensary right now and if it stays quiet long enough I’ll try to get a letter off to you. I’ve got quite a few of your recent ones to re-read and answer because it seems to me that you mentioned a few things here and there that require some comment.

    In the first place, darling, your trip to the Boston Public Library was very amusing to me – even if you did get drenched. I can’t tell you very much, dear, but you aren’t far from wrong. You know, though – what surprises me more than anything else is the speed with which you receive my mail – and on the whole – how regularly. I think it’s swell that you do and it seems to me that Air-mail must be arriving ahead of the V-mail. Again I must warn you though not to expect it to continue indefinitely that way. The chances are that there will be delays – and also – that there will be days when I can’t write at all. I don’t think it is breaking censorship rules to write that; I am merely implying that I expect to be busy –

    Your having lunch with Shirley F. interested me – when you mentioned that Stan’s name didn’t come up at all. Apparently she means to forget him completely. I don’t know when she wrote me, by the way, but as yet I haven’t received it. And about a call from London – if it is being allowed, I’m sure it is from London only. If I get there again – that’s the first thing I’ll try to do, believe me. It would certainly be worth it to me to be able to actually tell you I love you and have you say the same to me. For the time being, darling, it will have to wait.

    Your letters, sweetheart, re-iterate that you like your ring. You’ve really got me curious as to what it looks like. I’m so glad that you’re fond of it and I hope you’re getting as much kick out of telling people that you’re engaged as I am. My audience is so limited, though – just the officers – who, by the way, found it hard to believe, except for those few who really knew about us. I owe them all a drink – and maybe it’s a good thing that hard liquor is almost impossible to obtain here.

    You make a very correct statement, darling, when you say that we owe our folks a great deal. The spirit with which they went right ahead and got things done to make us happy – was wonderful – and I shall always be thankful to them for it. When we first started writing about the possibility of an engagement, I honestly wondered how it would ever work out – not our being engaged – but the steps leading up to it. I too have never been worried about us – ourselves. It’s really wonderful to be so confident that things will work out well between us. As for providing for you – I guess I just don’t worry about it. We’ll go back to Salem, I’ll open my office, and people will just naturally want to see me when they’re sick – well, some people.

    Sweetheart – I’ll stop now. I have a little job to do on one of the soldiers and he has just arrived. Remember, dear, that despite our separation – I’m constantly happy and contented now that you are my real fiancée. Love to the folks and for now –

    My sincerest and deepest love
    Greg

    19 April, 2011

    19 April, 1944

    V-MAIL

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    19 April, 1944

    Hello Darling!

    I haven’t taken much advantage of V-mail before but I have to today, dear or I won’t be able to get anything off to you at all. The plain fact is we’re quite busy and my days are full.

    Yesterday I got your letters of March 31 and April 3 – very important ones to me, sweetheart, because I now have a pretty complete story of what was going on a few weeks ago. You certainly were happy and I guess you know you’ve made me that way.

    I also received some swell letters from your Dad – our Dad, I mean, Jeannette Berns, my brother-in-law Irv, and my sister Ruth. All were congratulations, and very sweet and made me feel quite important. The first chance I get I’ll start answering some of them – but it will be a few days yet before I can do it.

    Incidentally, Charlie and the boys got back yesterday and we’re all together again – and so I’m a little less lonesome. It doesn’t seem like a holiday at all here today – just another work day and a busy one at that. But I’d much rather be busy then to have to sit around. That’s all for now, darling. Love to the folks – and

    All my love
    Greg

    17 April, 2011

    17 April, 1944 (2nd letter)

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    17 April, 1944          2230
    My dearest darling Wilma –

    I haven’t written you at this hour for a long time, it seems – but I thought I’d better write tonite because I’m pretty certain I won’t be able to get a letter off tomorrow. I have to make a trip after some medical supplies starting early in the morning and since it’s quite a way off, I’m pretty sure of getting back quite late – and probably tired. Besides, darling, I got three letters from you, dated on the outside of the envelope April 6, April 11 and April 12!! Just think of it – 5 days later and I’m reading it! That is absolutely the best time ever – and there doesn’t seem to be any doubt about those letters having been flown over. Boy, it’s wonderful to read something you wrote less than a week ago – that makes me feel so close. I had to stop and wonder how I’d feel when I actually saw you in person. I know I’ll be beside myself with joy and exaltation when that time comes, darling.

    Your letters, dearest, are very sweet and give me the uplift you imply mine do for you. Being actually engaged to you is still like a dream for me – and when you refer to our first meeting each other – I have to stop and recapitulate events and wonder how I was so lucky to have reached this state. I can’t believe it possible – and yet you write me of your ring and I see in print – that everyone else can see too – our name linked in engagement. I was thrilled by the newspaper clipping sweetheart – and thrilled isn’t even the word. There in print it says that Mr. and Mrs. Etc. announce the engagement etc. – and this time as I read it – it concerns you and me and not some other couple. It almost startles me, darling – but oh! so pleasantly! Darling I’m so proud of you and so happy that I was able to become your fiancé in every sense of the word.

    CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
       

    I loved your picture, dear, and I’m so glad you included one of my Mother and Father B. – my family. You have – shall I way – a wistful look on your face – and sweetheart, I love it. And the one of yourself is swell. I’m going to try to get both into my wallet. You mention not calling my folks Mother and Dad. Darling – if they haven’t mentioned it it’s simply because they’re modest and haven’t wanted to impose anything on you you might not want to do. Knowing my mother A. as I know you are beginning to – you can understand what I mean, I’m sure, dear. Everyone thinks his mother is about the best ever. I know this about my mother – and that is that there aren’t many just quite like her – and I know you’ll agree. Anyway, dear, I know they would like to have you address them as Mother and Dad. Incidentally – I yet haven’t received a letter form home telling me about our Engagement – except for one from Lawrence – that I’ve already mentioned. There must be a couple on the way, no doubt.

    In your V-mail which I received today you mention a Dr. Alexander. Yes, I know him – he’s Ben A. – a very brilliant M.D. who has done a lot of research work at the B.I. He’s very well known in his field, too.

    I saw the picture “Lassie Come Home” and at the time never dreamed I would ever visit a Yorkshire. It’s actually as you see it in the movie – just as quaint and fresh and green. I wish you could be here to see some of this lovely countryside – dear.

    Well – Sweetheart – it’s getting late for me – and I have to get an early start in the a.m. – so I’d better stop. I’m very happy, dearest, despite the war – and it’s because of my love for you – which is certainly becoming fuller and richer with each passing day. I am just living for the time when we can materialize that love, darling – and that day will surely come for us –

    Love to the folks – and good nite – Sweetheart
    All my love forever, dear
    Greg

    17 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    17 April, 1944           0820
    My dearest sweetheart –

    The start of another week and Charlie and the boys should be back tonight or tomorrow. I’ll be glad to see them again – because although it has been quite restful here – it has also been very lonesome. The weather hasn’t been too good either – but the natives say that around this time of April there’s always a 10 day period of cool, raw weather – which is then followed by real spring.

    Yesterday, sweetheart, I wrote you early – and that was about the only active piece of work I did all the day. I read and dozed and dreamed and listened to the radio. Incidentally it has been announced here that one game a day – baseball game – will be broadcast directly from some ball-park in the States. They are certainly trying to make us feel at home here in the E.T.O. The game will be heard here at 2130 – corresponding to 1530 at home and will mean we’ll hear a full game minus the first few innings perhaps. I think it’s wonderful except for the undeniable fact that all these radio programs from home make you fundamentally more homesick. Lying on my bed yesterday p.m. and evening, I would close my eyes – and it was so easy to imagine myself at home – and so disappointing to realize you weren’t. Well – we shouldn’t kick – because there are so many fellows in such tough set-ups.

    Gee – in two days – you’ll have your Patriot’s Day Holiday. I always liked that one. For one thing it always heralded the end of another school year; and there was usually a double-header at the ball park – with a chance to see the end of the Marathon. I haven’t seen a recent Boston Herald – but I assume the B.A.A. is still putting it on. Here of course – Patriot’s Day is not even known – and incidentally – it’s surprising how little most of the British know about the Revolution etc. Apparently it just isn’t studied here at all. And in discussing it at all – they always say that the King didn’t really want the colonies and planned on giving them up – a little different slant from ours.

    I was re-reading a letter of yours from March 23rd (there was no mail for me yesterday) in which you mention sending snapshots, darling. I too, get mixed up in sequence, – it’s natural with the mail delay. I got some of you as a child some time ago and I believe I mentioned receiving them. Incidentally – I have them in a safe place – but would you prefer to have them back home? Now am I to expect more snaps – darling? If so – to date – I have not received any. In another letter you mention having sent a poem on “Love”. I haven’t received that either – but it will probably catch up with me. Oh – by the way, darling, I sent off another parcel the other day with a couple of pieces of junk. I really don’t know why because we’ll never use some of it probably. But I pick it up here or there and then it collects around the room and rather than throw it out – I mail it. But I guess we can always use the ash-trays. Oh one thing in this parcel – we will be able to use – on our front door. I liked it because it was odd, and incidentally, very old. Maybe you’ll think differently, dear.

    Well, darling, I’m going down to the dispensary now and get things organized for tomorrow. I hope I hear from you today, dear. Now that we’re actually engaged, it seems as if I miss even more – not hearing from you regularly. It’s as if you belong to me and I want to know everything that you’re doing and thinking. You don’t mind the possessive feeling on my part – do you sweetheart? I do love you, though, dear – so very much and it’s natural to feel that way, I guess.

    Darling – I’ll close now. My best love to the folks and to you, dear –

    All of my “extra special” kind of love
    Greg.
    P.S. “extra special”cannot
    be put into words.
       Love
                   G.

    16 April, 2011

    16 April, 1944

    438th AAA AW BN
    APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.
    England
    16 April, 1944       0900
    Dearest darling –

    Although it’s Sunday morning and we’ve been sleeping later, I’ve already had my breakfast, tidied up my room and I’m ready to write you, dear – and it’s only 0900. I’m so darned rested up, it’s appalling. What with taking it so easy these past 10 days, plus several work-outs in squash – I’m really in better shape than I’ve been in a heck of a long time.

    Today should be another quiet day, like yesterday. I didn’t budge out of my room all day except to eat. It was sort of raw out and I had my fireplace going the whole day. I shall probably do the same today as the weather is still about the same. This room of ours – is really pretty. It’s rectangular except for a sort of bay window with fancy glass – the window overlooking the Lake. If you received the card I sent you – you can see what we look out on. The fireplace is at one end of the room with a fancy white mantelpiece, and of course there’s room for two single beds, one large desk and two bed tables. We have a straw – summer type rug and our own sink and mirror. So it’s not too bad a room to have to hang around in, darling – if only you were around here to come up and visit it.

    Yesterday I got two letters from you – March 25th and 26th – and what interests me particularly, sweetheart, is that apparently everything concerning our engagement was hanging mid-air, so to speak, until the very last moment, because for example, in your letter of the 26th – no mention whatsoever is made of it and yet 5 days later we were engaged. Apparently my letters were held up and they were the necessary go-ahead signs – which is as it should be – I think.

    In one of the two letters I received yesterday, you mention liking Ruth. I’ve been wanting to hear you say that – but I guess you hadn’t seen much of her. Ruth and I were always very close to each other – all our lives – with only 1½ yrs’ difference in our ages. We grew up together as real pals. She has always been sincere and straightforward with everyone and I knew you’d really like her when you got to know her. As for Eleanor – the simple fact is I don’t know her. She was growing up while I was doing junior interning, regular interning and practicing, and before that, of course, she was just a child – so I hardly know her at all.

    I was glad to read, dear, that Les was able to get home on a 3 day pass. Boy – what I wouldn’t give to be able to do that! Incidentally – you mentioned telephone calls overseas. I was greatly interested in that – because I hadn’t heard about it. I’ll be able to find out nothing in this town though – it’s too small and I shall have to wait until I can get to a big city. I believe I intimated in a letter of several days ago that from here I don’t think we’ll be able to get to any big cities, at least – not in England. Well – I’ll see. You can bet Sweetheart – that if it’s at all possible to call – that I would do it at the very first opportunity. Gee it would be just wonderful to be able to say ‘hello’ and have you answer! Even if they allowed us a minute or so – it seems to me I could say so much and yet I’ll bet I’d end up saying “Darling, I love you and miss you very much” – and our time would be up.

    I started to say something about Les, and I got sidetracked. So the guy’s in the infantry? What is his rating? One thing about the infantry is the chance for advancement, because they have a large table of organization. Incidentally – the place you mention – you may or may not know – serves as a large staging area for troops getting ready to go overseas – or at least it did. I don’t believe that is a breach of censorship – because it is known generally in the States. I knew it before I was even in the Army. He’ll probably get hooked up with some infantry division that’s already trained and ready to go over. Find out what outfit he’s in, dear, if you can.

    Well, Sweetheart, darling and fiancée – that’s all for now. How does it feel to be engaged so long, anyway? It feels good over here! Hope all is well at home, dear. My love to the folks. For now, darling – so long and

    All my love
    Greg.