01 April, 1944

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 578 % Postmaster, N.Y.

England

1 April, 1944      1145

My darling,

It’s very close to lunch and I shall have to stop in a few minutes, but I thought I’d start writing anyway. All Fool’s Day – and just another day here. There hasn’t been a prank pulled so far today. Maybe I’m premature. The fact is, sweetheart, there seems to be a sense of seriousness about all the men and officers which has grown on all of us in recent weeks. And it isn’t only our outfit; I seem to notice it on the other troops as well. Whether or not it has any significance, I don’t know – but it must have something to do with the time of the year and the part of England we’re in. I think everyone is aware that there must be big things ahead of us soon and I guess everyone feels he will be a part of it. And it’s a good feeling, too. The confidence which everyone seems to have is so much different from that when they came overseas. They’re proud of the way they look when they march down the street and they really handle their guns. The rivalry between various sections is very keen and they arrange all sorts of bets, prizes etc – as to which is the speediest, snappiest, most accurate – and so on. Dinner bell – dear – I’ll run along now –

1606

Hello sweetheart –

I haven’t been eating all this time. We were supposed to have a court martial last night – but because of a long class, it was too late and it was held today at 1300. We just got through. It was the case I wrote you about – one of my men. He had a fair trial and a fair sentence, too, I believe. I think it will help the discipline in my own detachment which I fear hasn’t been too good – chiefly because of my being easy.

This Saturday p.m. is dull and rainy – a lonesome sort of day. I hate to keep writing you, darling, that there’s been no mail – but there’s no point in hiding that fact. No mail again last night – and that includes any kind – for any one in the battalion. They’ll be swamped when it finally does come thru.

On March 7 – dear – you wrote that it was 128 days since we had seen each other. It’s hard to believe that. We’ve been in such close touch with one another by mail despite the distance, and I’ve looked at your picture so often, that it seems as if I’ve seen you since then. I think part of that illusion is due to the fact that I see you so vividly and so often in my dreams. Other times though – I try to relive times when I was out with you. I try to imagine you smiling or laughing; I remember touching you when we were sitting side by side riding in my car; I see myself putting on the radio and you reaching out to tone it down. I kick myself for not having taken more advantage of each one of those occasions, for not having been alone with you more often, for not having been more forceful in telling you how much I loved you. I thank the Lord you found out anyway – but in retrospect I almost wonder what made you love me when I was so – shall I say – slow, or backward? But the fact that 128 days after you saw me last you can still love me enough to want to be engaged to me and marry me – thrills me more than I can say. There must be something darling that’s keeping us so close together – and no matter how long it is – you must know that there can never be anyone else for me in the world but you. You are my goal and ambition, dearest, my one thought that makes all this lonesomeness and distance worthwhile or a least tolerable. I think of no one but you – ever – and knowing how you feel about me is wonderful beyond compare. You continue to make me feel that way in each of your letters, darling, in everything that you write and think about us – and I know that one day we’ll be together as husband and wife, you and I – and it seems like the nicest and most natural thing in the world to look forward to.

Sweetheart – you won’t know how much I really love you and want you until I can tell you and show you – and no amount of words can make that any clearer. If you’ve thought I was the sort of fellow worth waiting for – believe me, if it’s in my power at all – I won’t let you down.

I’ll stop now, dear. I’m going down to the Px now which we run to get my rations for the week. I hope all is well at home, my fondest regards to your folks. I haven’t written to them lately because I’m waiting to hear what they have to say to my last letters to them. It’s not that it’s their turn – or anything like that – but merely, I want to know how to write them, understand?

So long for now, darling, and all my love is for you alone –

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about Some Words from Winston Churchill

Greg mentions that everyone seems to be aware that there must be big things ahead soon, and that a seriousness is settling in. Perhaps he and others heard Winston Churchill's speech, broadcast from London on 26 March, 1944. That speech ended with these words:

The hour of our greatest effort and action is approaching. We march with valiant Allies who count on us as we count on them. The flashing eyes of all our soldiers, sailors, and airmen must be fixed upon the enemy on their front. The only homeward road for all of us lies through the arch of victory. The magnificent armies of the United States are here or are pouring in. Our own troops, the best trained and best equipped we have ever had, stand at their side in equal numbers and in true comradeship. Leaders are appointed in whom we all have faith. We shall require from our own people here, from Parliament, from the Press, from all classes, the same cool, strong nerves, the same toughness of fiber, which stood us in good stead in those days when we were all alone under the blitz.

And here I must warn you that in order to deceive and baffle the enemy as well as to exercise the forces, there will be many false alarms, many feints, and many dress rehearsals. We may also ourselves be the object of new forms of attack from the enemy. Britain can take it. She has never flinched or failed. And when the signal is given, the whole circle of avenging nations will hurl themselves upon the foe and batter out the life of the cruelest tyranny which has ever sought to bar the progress of mankind.

Click to read a full copy of Churchill's speech, The War and Conditions in England, in which he reviews the progress against Mussolini, Hitler and the Japanese fleet, and thanks the armies of Australia, the United States and Russia.