03 December 1944

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Germany

3 December, 1944        1015

My dearest Sweetheart –

There’s a short lull in activities at the present moment and I’ll get a letter started to you, dear. Church services are being held next door by our Chaplain and it’s comparatively quiet right now. It looks like another fine day and we’re all surprised. We’ve had 4 or 5 fairly decent days in a row and that is most unusual – It’s really a treat – because one of the pleasures of this war has been in seeing a clear sky above and our fighter-bombers overhead having a field day. And don’t think out Infantry doesn’t love it, either. I was talking with an infantry officer the other day and that was one of the things he mentioned. He said that although they had to duck very often, it was very comforting nevertheless to hear the sound of strafing planes – friendly planes – just ahead of them.

Last night, after a quiet day, we sat around and listened to the Army and Navy game direct from Baltimore. The reception was good and it sure was like old times. I lost 5 marks – my bet with the Colonel. The game went on the air at 1900 and was over at 2115. After that – we played 3 rubbers of Bridge and finished up just short of midnight.

Today there’s a rumor around that Marlene Dietrich is to give another show right here in this town at 1300. We don’t know how true that is – but we’ll probably go down to see. It’s supposed to be given in a theater near our C.P.

Do I play ping pong? I have in the past, darling, but haven’t for some time. I don’t like to play unless I can have a shower immediately following the game because surprisingly that game can really give you a workout.

Your remarks about sex etc. – in a letter of yours – I read very carefully. We never did get much of an opportunity to discuss that subject; and it’s more complex than most people realize. Sexual incompatibility is the basis of more unhappy marriages than most people realize. I sometimes think that free love before marriage is a good idea. The only drawback in my estimation is its impracticability. I agree with you dear that it is a very personal subject and I can’t understand how married people can discuss their own sex problems or situations openly in front of others, no matter how close people may be to them. We’ve had several officers married in our outfit since the early days and the way some of them described things – disgusted me. I could never do it. As for your desire to remain a virgin pro tem – I think that’s a perfectly natural desire and that’s the way I want you. We’ll take our chances on sex – as so many people before us have done. I rather think we’ll make a go of it –

With interruptions and an occasional patient – it is now 1150. I sometimes don’t re-read my letters now before mailing them because they sound so disconnected, but I know you understand. It’s rare that I can start a thought and follow it thru without some sort of interruption. But the fact that I love you, sweetheart, and want you – can never be interrupted in my mind – and that is the most important thought of all. Love to the folks, darling and

My sincerest love,

Greg.

* TIDBIT *

about Frances Y. Slanger, U.S. Army Nurse


Lieutenant Frances Y. Slanger, R.N.

A Time magazine article titled “World Battlefronts: The Wounded Do Not Cry,” from the week of 3 December 1944 (dated 4 December), told some of the story of Army Nurse Lieutenant Frances Slanger. Here is a more complete version of her story:

In 1913 Freidel Yachet Schlanger was born in Lødz, Poland three months after her father left for America. In 1920, seven-year-old Frances, mother Eva, and sister Sally boarded a steamship to escape the persecution of Jews in Poland. They arrived at a U.S. Immigration Station where Frances met her father for the first time. It was here that her name was changed by immigration officials to Frances Y. Slanger. In Roxbury, a part of Boston, Massachusetts, Frances helped her father peddle fruit every day. She remembered her family’s suffering in Eastern Europe and longed to help others as a nurse. Her parents instead hoped that she would marry. Much to her parents’ dismay, Frances followed her dreams, graduating from Boston City Hospital’s School of Nursing in 1937.

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Frances Slanger in 1930

At home in Roxbury, 29-year-old Frances Slanger heard news from her relatives in Poland. The invading Nazi forces had torched synagogues and were imprisoning Jews in ghettos. She knew Jews in Lódz were being shipped to Auschwitz and Chelmno. Her Polish relatives (of whom only one survived the Holocaust) were being forced to make German uniforms. Frances longed to help fight for democracy overseas, so in August 1943 she enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps. With bad eyesight, she had to talk her way overseas. It was said that she wrote poetry and short stories, valued life, took risks and wanted to make a difference, including helping to resist Hitler's forces.

Army Nurse Recruitment Poster

Just 4 days after the D-Day invasion, Frances waded onshore at Normandy, France, to find 17 truckloads of injured soldiers. Two hours later Lieutenant Frances Slanger and other Army nurses were at work. They slept on the ground and wore the same clothes four days running. In five weeks of rugged going they helped handle 3,000 casualties. Assigned to the 45th Field Hospital, she worked as part of a surgical team on the front lines. Even through these hard times, Slanger knew that she had found her calling. She cared for each and every patient of hers as if they were a long lost brother or friend that she had met again. Here she was free to help her patients as much as she wanted and in any way that she wanted. If the patient was having trouble lifting his head to drink water, she put an IV bottle and rubber tubing together to create a water bottle. If they wanted the bullet or a piece of shrapnel that wounded them as a souvenir, she gave them what would make them happy. And if she wanted to sing to a wide-eyed soldier to remind him of home, then she did just that. Slanger quickly realized that many times the soldiers needed more than just IVs and surgery to heal. These shell-shocked boys needed love and care, as was evident from their frequent moans for their mother. What stood Slanger apart from other nurses was that while most nurses only tended to the soldier’s physical needs, she tended to their psychological needs as well. She often gave them the will to continue fighting to live. To these boys, the nurses in mud-stained dresses and unkempt hair were angels.

By October, the 45th Field Hospital Unit was stationed in Elsenborn, Belgium, where it tended soldiers from the Battle of Aachen. In early October the girls were touched when a news article praised them for sharing the G.I.s' mud and discomfort without a whimper. The night of October 20, Slanger couldn’t sleep. She and her tent mates had been discussing the heroism of the men who put their lives on the line every day, and she felt the need to set her thoughts to paper. The next day, she sent her letter to the Stars and Stripes editors, who ran it in the November 7th edition under the heading, “Nurse Writes Editorial." Here is that letter:

It is 0200, and I have been lying awake for an hour listening to the steady even breathing of the other three nurses in the tent, thinking about some of the things we had discussed during the day.

The fire was burning low, and just a few live coals are on the bottom. With the slow feeding of wood and finally coal, a roaring fire is started. I couldn't help thinking how similar to a human being a fire is. If it is not allowed to run down too low, and if there is a spark of life left in it, it can be nursed back. So can a human being. It is slow. It is gradual. It is done all the time in these field hospitals and other hospitals in the ETO.

We had read several articles in different magazines and papers sent in by grateful GIs praising the work of the nurses around the combat zones. Praising us - for what?

We wade ankle-deep in mud - you have to lie in it. We are restricted to our immediate area, a cow pasture or a hay field, but then who is not restricted?

We have a stove and coal. We even have a laundry line in the tent.

The wind is howling, the tent waving precariously, the rain beating down, the guns firing, and me with a flashlight writing. It all adds up to a feeling of unrealness. Sure we rough it, but in comparison to the way you men are taking it, we can't complain nor do we feel that bouquets are due us. But you - the men behind the guns, the men driving our tanks, flying our planes, sailing our ships, building bridges - it is to you we doff our helmets. To every GI wearing the American uniform, for you we have the greatest admiration and respect.

Yes, this time we are handing out the bouquets - but after taking care of some of your buddies, comforting them when they are brought in, bloody, dirty with the earth, mud and grime, and most of them so tired. Somebody's brothers, somebody's fathers, somebody's sons, seeing them gradually brought back to life, to consciousness, and their lips separate into a grin when they first welcome you. Usually they say, "Hiya babe, Holy Mackerel, an American woman" - or more indiscreetly "How about a kiss?"

These soldiers stay with us but a short time, from ten days to possibly two weeks. We have learned a great deal about our American boy and the stuff he is made of. The wounded do not cry. Their buddies come first. The patience and determination they show, the courage and fortitude they have is sometimes awesome to behold. It is we who are proud of you, a great distinction to see you open your eyes and with that swell American grin, say "Hiya, Babe."

Nurse Slanger never got to see her letter in print. The same day she mailed it, 21 October 1944, the rain fell hard in Elsenborn, Belgium, a town not far from the German border. The area had been quiet for days and dinner was a normal affair. Quite unexpectedly, the 45th Field Hospital came under attack by German artillery. Foxholes had not been dug on the assumption that Elsenborn was in a safe area, and as a result, there was little cover from the barrage of German shells. Days before Frances would get to live her dream as a published writer, a German shell ripped into her tent and slashed through her stomach. She died a half hour later.

Two weeks after her letter was published, the editors of Stars and Stripes printed an article, notifying readers of her death. Hundreds who had been touched by her letter wrote in requesting she be honored for her service to her country. Frances had been the first American nurse to die in Europe. On February 13, 1945, a U.S. Army hospital ship, Lt. Frances Y. Slanger, was named in her memory. The first all-women’s veterans' chapter in the country, the Lt. Frances Y. Slanger Post #313 of the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S. was founded in February 1946. Representing all Jewish women veterans, this post was committed to community service, women’s rights, and programs that helped Jewish communities, such as combating anti-Semitism globally. One of the post’s immediate plans was to create recreational facilities for veterans of all religious denominations.

The Grave of Frances Slanger

Frances was buried in the U.S. cemetery in Belgium. In November 1947 her remains were returned home for a memorial service with more than 1,500 in attendance, including friends, relatives and the Mayor of Boston.

02 December 1944

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Germany

2 December, 1944       1030

Good morning, darling –

Well – I ought to have a bit more time today and maybe this will end up as a letter. We’re almost through our week’s work and we’re just catching the loose ends today. It’s a nice crisp Saturday here – a perfect day for the Army-Navy Game. I’m hoping it rains at Annapolis, though – because on a wet field, Navy could win. I’m a mean guy, huh? Well I have a bet on with the Colonel – he being a West Pointer I thought I’d have some fun and pick Navy. The bet is very complicated. It starts our as an even money, big stakes (5 marks) bet. However – if Army wins by 20 points or more, I pay off double; if Navy wins – I get paid double. One of the boys said the game was being broadcast this evening – so we ought to have some fun this evening playing a little Bridge, having a couple of drinks and enjoying the game.

The Colonel, incidentally, has been very nice to me and gave me a very nice recommendation the other day. All MC’s in this theater received a form to fill out concerning past experience, College and Med. School attended, years of internship etc. The form also asked for a preference in assignment, how long with present outfit – and on the last line it asked for the CO’s estimate of the MC’s ability. I naturally said I’d like to do a little surgery after being a battalion surgeon for 29 months. The Colonel wrote a note saying that I have done a “superior” job as battalion surgeon but he believed that it would be for the best of the Service etc. if I could do some hospital work somewhere. Well – it won’t lead to anything, I’m sure, but it was a nice gesture on his part – for it could conceivably mean that he would end up with another M.C. – and it’s much better having one who knows the men of the battalion. He was being very fair about it and generous in his use of the word ‘superior’ – especially as a Regular Army man. They usually don’t go above the word “excellent”.

I really don’t care much any more about the possibility of getting into a hospital. For awhile – a few months ago I thought I would like to get out of here but one hears so much – it’s difficult to know what to believe. For example – if I thought I would be demobilized the same time this outfit was I’d surely rather remain here; but if when that time comes they take all MC’s and put them into hospitals then, I might just as well get into one right now. Anyway, darling, I’m keeping you as up to date as possible.

I found your discussion of love, constancy etc. – which you brought up in one of your letters – very interesting and enlightening. I never did take you for a flighty person. You just didn’t strike me that way – although I’m fully aware that you can be emotional. I know some girls can take their ‘loving’ – regardless of the source and as often as possible. I’m glad you’re not like that, sweetheart, but then – I couldn’t love you if you were. As for me – I am a man, and I have “been around” – to use a very old expression – but I guess you know, that was before I met you. Even if you wondered – you know very well about my activities ever since I met you and left you. I’m much too sensible to become involved in anything – as so many of our soldiers have done since leaving the States. And even if I were at home – if you don’t know, darling, I, too, am a pretty constant, one-woman sort of fellow. I want only you, dear, and will always feel like that. I need only one attraction to keep me interested and sweetheart, that interest is you and you alone.

One more thing before I close, dear. You mentioned in a P.S. that I don’t answer a good many of your questions. Gosh – I read every one of your letters over and over and when I write you, I try to answer everything chronologically. The only explanation I can imagine is that I haven’t received all your letters. I have no file – so I can’t be sure. But anyway – I’ll answer everything I’m asked darling. O.K.?

I’ll stop now, dear. No mail yesterday – but maybe today. Hope all is well at home, darling. My love to the folks and

All my everlasting love,

Greg.

* TIDBIT *

about Eisenhower and the Rubber Shortage

Greg received the letter below in his role as Battalion Surgeon

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HEADQUARTERS EUROPEAN THEATER
United States Army
Office of the Commanding General

2 December, 1944

TO ALL OFFICERS AND ENLISTED MEN, EUROPEAN THEATER OF OPERATIONS:

Today, as our armies exert ever-increasing pressure against the last defensive walls around the German Reich, the importance of bending every effort to hasten the day of victory in Europe is of personal concern to us all. From the top to the bottom of our military structure there is room for but one thought: to win the war.

This is a war of supply quite as much as it is a war of tactics. Furthermore it is a war which consumes supplies at a terrific rate. While our factories at home produce these supplies it is up to us to use them wisely and conserve them where possible.

One item of surpassing importance is tires. Tire wear in this Theater has exceed all pre-combat estimates. As a result we now are faced with a tire shortage which will, unless drastic conservation steps are taken, deadline ten percent of our vehicles by the first week of February.

Care and conservation of tires is based on a few simple rules. Observance of these rules is a clear-cut function of command. In addition there must be a keen awareness and eagerness on the part of every officer and soldier who rides in or operates a motor vehicle to protect that vehicle's tires for future trips.

I am not exaggerating when I say that the war will be needlessly extended unless we extract every possible mile from our tires and use them only as we find it necessary to do so.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
General, U. S. Army

Although the following article from The Pittsburgh Press was not published until 21 March 1945, it does address a bit about the rubber situation in 1944:

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01 December 1944

V-MAIL

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Germany

1 December, 1944        1035

Dearest sweetheart –

And now the start of another month away from you. How many more – I wonder? I’ve a pretty busy day scheduled ahead of me and therefore the V-mail. If I don’t get this off now – I might not get a chance to write.

I got some more mail yesterday – and the service in delivery seems to be getting worse. The letters yesterday were from the 23rd and 24th of October. I had almost forgotten that those letters were missing – but they were welcome nevertheless. I also got a letter from Mother B – from way back, one from Stan and one from a friend in the Pacific. Stan told me about the trouble of getting an apartment etc. He did not refer to you at all – or anyone in Boston for that matter.

Right now I’m in the mood for some hard kissing, darling; how about you? I sure would love to give you a sample of my own special brand – Deluxe – Can you wait? Naturally – it’s on a wholesale basis only, dear. Most stop now – sweetheart. Love to all at home – and

All my everlasting love –

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about The Debacle at Merode and
The End of The Battle of Huertgen Forest

From The Siegfried Line Campaign, Chapter XX, page 490 written by Charles B. MacDonald for the U.S. Army's Center for Military History (1990) comes this:

To the 26th Infantry, Merode was no ordinary objective. It was a promise of no more Huertgen Forest. To fulfill that promise, the 26th Infantry had but one battalion, already seriously weakened by thirteen brutal days in the forest. Merode lies on a slope slanting downward from the eastern woods line. Although numerous roads serve the village from the Roer plain, only a narrow cart track leads eastward from the forest. Astride this narrow trail across 300 yards of open ground the 26th Infantry had to move. Behind a sharp artillery preparation, the attacking battalion commander, Colonel Daniel, sent two companies toward Merode shortly before noon on 29 November 1944.

Despite stubborn resistance from a battalion of the 5th Parachute Regiment in a line of strongpoints along the western edge of the village, Colonel Daniel's men by late afternoon had gained the first houses. Yet no one believed for a moment that the Germans were ready to relinquish the village. Employing numbers of pieces that the 1st Division G-2 estimated to be equal to those of the Americans, German artillery wreaked particular havoc. Despite several strikes by tactical aircraft and several counterbattery TOT's by 1st Division artillery, the German pieces barked as full-throated and deadly as ever.

The minute the riflemen gained the first houses, Colonel Daniel ordered a platoon of tanks to join them. Two got through, although one was knocked out almost immediately after gaining the village. Commanders of the other two tanks paused at the woods line, noted the "sharpness" of the enemy's shellfire, and directed their drivers to turn back. As they backed up, a shell struck a track of the lead tank. The tank overturned. Because of deep cuts, high fills, and dense, stalwart trees on either side of the narrow trail, no vehicle could get into Merode past the damaged tank.

Various individuals tried in various ways through the early part of the night to get more tank and antitank support into Merode. They might have been dogs baying at the moon, so futile were their efforts. Someone called for a tank retriever to remove the damaged tank, but not until the next morning did one arrive. Then for some unexplained reason, the retriever could not remove the tank. Someone else called for engineers to build a bypass around the tank, but this would be at best a long, tedious process. A sergeant trying to borrow tanks attached to another battalion of the 26th Infantry met a rebuff from the regimental operations officer. "You keep your tanks," the S-3 told the battalion commander. "He can't have them unless we know the [full] story on [his tanks]."

This was fiddling while Rome burned. The Germans even then were laying down a curtain of shellfire to prevent reinforcement of American troops in Merode. Soon after, they counterattacked. Because American radio batteries had been weakened by constant use, communications with the two companies in Merode failed. No one knew where to throw artillery fire to stop the German drive. Not until near midnight was there further word from the men in Merode. Then a plaintive message, barely audible, came over Colonel Daniel's radio set. "There's a Tiger tank coming down the street now, firing his gun into every house. He's three houses away now... still firing into every house... Here he comes.... "

That was all anyone heard from the two companies in Merode until about three hours later when a sergeant and twelve men escaped from the village. Using these men as guides, a combat patrol tried to break through to any men who still might be holding out. Shellfire and burp guns forced the patrol back.

For all practical purposes, this marked the end of the 26th Infantry's fight for Merode. Though prisoner reports through the next day of 30 November and into 1 December continued to nourish hope that some of the two companies still survived, attempts to get help into the village grew more and more feeble. The 26th Infantry listed 165 men missing on the day of the Merode engagement. For the Americans it was an ignominious end to the final fight to break out of the Huertgen Forest.

In fifteen days the 1st Division and the 47th Infantry, with an assist on two occasions by contingents of the 3d Armored Division, had registered a total advance of not quite four miles from Schevenhuette to Langerwehe. The division had cleared a rectangle of approximately eleven square miles embracing the northeastern extremities of the Huertgen Forest and a fringe of the Eschweiler-Weisweiler industrial triangle. 1st Division also had paid dearly. Indeed, with 3,993 battle casualties, including 641 in the attached 47th Infantry, the 1st Division would go down as one of the more severely hurt participants in the Huertgen Forest fighting.

The 26th Infantry, which fought fully within the forest, lost more than any of the other regiments, 1,479 men, including 163 killed and 261 missing. These did not include non-battle losses attributable to combat exhaustion and the weather. For the 26th Infantry, at least, these must have been as severe as in regiments of other divisions which fought completely within the confines of the forest.

For all practical purposes, the dread battle of the Huertgen Forest was over. More than 8,000 men from the First Army fell prey in the forest to combat exhaustion and the elements. Another 23,000 were either wounded, missing, captured, or killed. That was an average of more than 5,000 casualties per division.

30 November 1944

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Germany

30 November, 1944        1115

My dearest sweetheart –

Another morning coming to an end and sick call just about over with. This is the end of the month again and it marks the 8th month anniversary of our Engagement, dear. It doesn’t really seem so long to me for I still get the same thrill at the realization that I am actually engaged to you, darling. It is so much more pleasure to me when I write you and am aware of what you mean to me. If you yourself are not fully aware, dear, I’ll tell you again that you mean more to me than anything else in the world – and that, sweetheart, is a great deal.

The end of the month also means paying off the men and getting paid myself. I believe I told you that last month I sent all of my pay home; I didn’t miss it either. There’s nothing to spend it on. Playing Bridge now solely and no Poker – I can’t lose much. As a matter of fact, since we’ve started paying, I’m ahead a few dollars. No one ever loses or wins more then 2 or 3 dollars a night and very often we pay off or collect 4 or 5 marks. I’m a confirmed Bridge addict now and prefer it to Poker – whenever there’s a choice. There are about seven of us that play – and there’s a game almost every night.

Last night we saw “Two Yanks Abroad” – and it was good entertainment, although rather thin. We did miss out on something good, though, earlier in the day. We found out about it too late. Marlene Dietrich was in this town and put on a show in the very next block – for some Armored Division troops. Had we known about it, we could have very easily attended.

And I got some mail, too! Three letters from you, darling, dated 28 October (2) and one of the 30th. Now that’s pretty darned slow. They must have come over on a freighter. One of your letters mentioned Rose Courtiss’ brother who received the Silver Star. That’s a pretty smart award! If he were in this Army, I could look up the citation and see why or how he got it, but he must have deserved it. An armored division gets around though.

I don’t know how I neglected to write you that I loved you from Holland, too, because I did, darling. But then – you know that. The fact is I love you everywhere and all the time – now that’s pretty all-inclusive, I think. And please don’t talk about China! That gives me the willies, too, dear.

It’s been so long since we’ve had anything like recent mail – I’m beginning to get a bit curious as to the results of my sending those packages to you. I can’t remember whether I wrote that the value did not exceed $50.00 – or not, but I know I didn’t write “gift”. And I don’t need anything, sweetheart, so you don’t need a request from me! The letter in which you asked me for a request came yesterday – and was written on the 27th of October. I can’t imagine what you had on your mind, dear, concerning my Birthday. You say you think it would be fun. Are you coming over, darling? Boy! oh Boy!! Now I can hardly wait! And what do you mean by “I might like it, if it works”? Do you mean if the object you planned to send me works – or if the plan works? See, dear – you’ve got me all mixed up! Oh well – we’ll see – .

I like to hear you complain about the Red Cross from time to time. It’s a healthy symptom – as long as something is done about it, and I suppose something is, eventually. At any rate, I would not aggravate myself too much over it, darling; it’s not worthwhile. You do your job and let the supervisors worry about the rest. I hope you have your uniform by now, dear; gosh – I’m anxious to see a picture of you in it, too. Send one on!

I’ll stop now, sweetheart. I’m already a little late for lunch but I wanted to finish this before eating. Hope to get more mail from you today. Meanwhile, dear – love to the folks and

My sincerest love is yours

Greg.

* TIDBIT *

about General Hodges and the Industrialists

The snapshots that follow were taken from Normandy to Victory: The War Diary of General Courtney H. Hodges & the First U.S. Army, by his aides Major William C. Sylvan and Captain Francis G. Smith Jr.; edited by John T. Greenwood, copyright 2008 by the Association of the United States Army, pp.192-193.

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29 November 1944

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Germany

29 November, 1944       1115

Good Morning, sweetheart –

We’ve been giving some more inoculations again this morning and that will keep us busy for the next few days. It’s a whole lot more trouble when we’re in the field than when we were in garrison – as you can easily imagine. But it gives us something to do and we don’t mind.

Last evening, after supper – before I forget it, let me tell you about our suppers of late. I don’t know how the Army does it – but we have been having some swell food in recent weeks. This past week starting with Turkey on Thanksgiving, we had chicken the next night, steak the next, then roast beef, then steak and tonight we have chicken again. If we get all this, the rest of the Army gets the sauce – and yet there are some guys who bitch at the food.

Anyway, after supper, we had a movie, the first in some time – it seems to me; the title – “Ladies in Washington” – with I don’t know whom. Suffice it to say, it was not Class A.

We didn’t get any mail yesterday, dear, but we do expect some today – and some of the packages should be starting to arrive. Every issue of the Stars and Stripes mentions the thousands of packages arriving here daily from the States – but our battalion hasn’t received very many as yet. Have to stop now and grab a bite to eat, darling. See you soon.

1250

Hello sweetheart –

Here I am again whether you like it or not for a bit more rambling. Gossip at lunch included the facts that the mailman had returned with two large bags full of mail – so I hope I get my share; also that there was to be another movie, probably tonite. “Two Yanks Abroad” – with Wm. Bendix; can’t recall having heard about it – but the price is right.

I enjoyed reading in one of your letters darling that you felt that you could confide in me more than you believed possible and more than in anyone else. That’s the way it should and will be, too. It is inevitable and right that we end up being closer to each other than to anyone else – including our families.

Yes, dear, you did mail a letter to me written 3 Nov. I received it some time ago. I know how you felt, too. I sometimes wonder what I did with a certain letter and for the life of me I can’t remember having mailed it. And I don’t play chess, by the way. When I was a junior intern at the Malden Hospital, years ago it seems, I learned, played it a few months – and I’ve never played it since. I don’t think I’ve ever had enough time to myself. I enjoyed it when I played it though. As you suggest, sweetheart, I’d just as soon stick to love. The Lord knows it’s difficult enough to carry that on by correspondence, darling. Imagine being able to say “I love you” and hearing you say the same to me. It will be strange, but wonderful and so easy to get used to – I should say offhand, dear.

And offhand I should say I ought to stop and do some work now, dear – There’s a new bunch here waiting to be inoculated. I don’t have to do it myself, but I have to get things started. So – for now, au revoir, sweetheart – and love to the folks.

All my deepest love

Greg.

* TIDBIT *

about The Taking of Grosshau

From "The Siegfried Line Campaign", written by Charles B. MacDonald for the U.S. Army's Center for Military History (1990), Chapter XX, page 471 comes this:

If Colonel Lanham's 22d Infantry could capture Grosshau, the division finally would be in a position to turn its full force northeastward on Duren along a road adequate for a divisional attack. Already commanders at corps and army level were making plans to strengthen the division for a final push. Except for CCR, which was fighting with the V Corps, the entire 5th Armored Division was transferred to the VII Corps and CCA earmarked for attachment to the 4th Division.

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22nd Infantry in the Woods Near Grosshau, Germany
November 1944

The 22d Infantry commander, Colonel Lanham, intended to attack early on 29 November at the same time the V Corps was striking the neighboring village of Kleinhau. For all their proximity, Grosshau and Kleinhau were different types of objectives. Kleinhau is on high ground, while Grosshau nestles on the forward slope of a hill whose crest rises 500 yards northeast of the village. Appreciating this difference and all too aware of the carnage that had resulted on 25 November when the regiment had tried to move directly from the woods into Grosshau, Colonel Lanham planned a wide flanking maneuver through the forest to the north in order to seize the dominating ridge. Thereupon the enemy in Grosshau might be induced to surrender without the necessity of another direct assault across open fields.

Kleinhau, Germany - November 1944

German shelling interrupted attack preparations early on 29 November, so that the 5th Armored Division's CCR under the V Corps already was clearing Kleinhau before Lanham's flanking force even began to maneuver. Perhaps because CCR was getting fire from Grosshau, the 4th Division's chief of staff, Col. Richard S. Marr, intervened just before noon in the name of the division conimander to direct that Grosshau be taken that day. Because Colonel Lanham could not guarantee that his delayed flanking maneuver would bring the downfall of Grosshau immediately, Colonel Marr's instruction meant in effect that he had to launch a direct assault against the village.

Too late to recall his flanking force, he had only one battalion left. This was the 2d Battalion under Major Blazzard, which during the attack through the forest had borne responsibility for the regiment's exposed right flank and therefore had sustained correspondingly greater losses than the other battalions. Indeed, at this point, the 2d Battalion, 22d Infantry, was easily as weak as any battalion in the entire 4th Division. To make matters worse, Major Blazzard had only one company in a position to attack immediately.

Quickly scraping together two tanks and a tank destroyer to support this company, Blazzard ordered an attack on Grosshau down the main road from the west. Within an hour after receipt of the chief of staff's directive, the attack jumped off. Within fifteen more minutes, the infantry was pinned down in the open between the woods and the village and the two tanks had fallen prey to German assault guns. Two hours later Major Blazzard assembled eight more tanks of the attached 70th Tank Battalion and sent them around the right flank of the infantry to hit the village from the southwest. Two of these tanks hit mines at the outset. The others could not get out of the woods because of mine fields and bog.

The sun was going down on an abject failure when two events altered the situation. In the face of persistent resistance, Colonel Lanham's flanking battalion finally cut the Grosshau-Gey highway in the woods north of Grosshau, and as night came one battalion emerged upon the open ridge northeast of Grosshau, virtually in rear of the Germans in the village. Almost coincidentally, a covey of tanks and tank destroyers took advantage of the gathering darkness to reach Major Blazzard's stymied infantry along the road into Grosshau from the west. Firing constantly, the big vehicles moved on toward the village. The infantry followed. In a matter of minutes, the resistance collapsed. By the light of burning buildings and a moon that shone for the first time since the 4th Division had entered the Huertgen Forest, Major Blazzard's infantry methodically mopped up the objective. More than a hundred Germans surrendered.

Grosshau, Germany - November 1944


Sankt Appolonia Church
Grosshau, Germany - Today

In a larger setting, Grosshau was only a clearing in the Huertgen Forest, the point at which the 22d Infantry at last might turn northeastward with the rest of the 4th Division to advance more directly toward the division objective of Duren. During the night of 29 November, General Barton directed the shift. The first step was to sweep the remainder of the Grosshau clearing and to occupy a narrow, irregular stretch of woods lying between Grosshau and Gey. This accomplished, CCA of the 5th Armored Division might be committed to assist the final drive across the plain from Gey to Duren and the Roer River.

28 November 1944

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Germany

28 November,       1944

Dearest darling Wilma –

Well, I don’t know; There’s one thing about the war at this point, and that is – the Germans are catching more hell than we are, because in addition to their Army, the civilians are taking a beating. I can’t tell you how many civilians I’ve treated in the past couple of days – badly wounded civilians with serious injuries incurred from booby traps and anti-personnel mines – left behind by their own godammed army. It’s a pleasure to hear these same civilians curse their own soldiers for using tactics like that – because it certainly is a bastardly way to fight a war. Well, every mine exploded by a civilian – is one less we have to worry about. I guess I have about the busiest practice in town – and I think I’ll open an office in Filene’s – on the street floor after the war, dear. This central location of ours – with our Geneva Cross flying in the front and from the back door certainly keeps them coming – wounded, sick babies, old men, children with rashes, etc. Too bad I haven’t got an adjoining operating room – I could really have a field day.

We got some mail yesterday, darling, but I got two only, one from you and one from Eleanor. I’ve still got a bunch of them due me – but they’ll be coming in one of these days. What I’ve just written you, dear, is not to worry you – but merely in answer to one of your letters some time ago in which you hoped we were giving the Germans hell. If the papers say we are – you can believe them in that respect. Any single town that is defended – is being leveled by our artillery, and of course the Air Corps has already done a terrific job. This whole Rhineland is being devastated – and after the war they’ll be busy for years trying to build up some of their cities. I hope the other side of the Rhine catches a bit of the same medicine. If it does, Germany – as a modern, civilized country – will cease to exist.

You also asked me in one of your letters if I knew my ARC Field Director. The answer is “No” – darling, since I have had no occasion to contact him for any reason at all. I did know a couple of them in England, one in particular who had the Ipswich district. He was a regular fellow – came from Cleveland and his name was Bob Armstrong. Over here – the Directors remain with the Corps – Rear, usually – where we aren’t. Our only contact with the ARC has been the Club-Mobiles, whose effect upon us is much more immediate.

And one more thing you asked of me in a recent letter – and that was – to love you hard. Sweetheart – if I love you any harder – you’ll soon start to ache – even at this great distance! Yes, dear, I love you hard – and long and constantly – and I know I always shall no matter how long I’ll be away from you. And when I’m finally with you and marry you – my pent-up love will have to be metered – or I’ll be classified as dangerous.

That’s all for now, sweetheart. I hope everyone is well at home and taking things in stride. My love to the folks, dear and

My sincerest love to you

Greg.

* TIDBIT *

about The Destruction of Germany

Greg speaks of the devastated Rhineland and the rebuilding that will have to take place after the war. Here are some of the facts:

All German towns and cities above 50,000 population were from 50% to 80% destroyed. Dresden with a population larger than that of Liverpool was incinerated with an estimated 135,000 civilian inhabitants burned and buried in the ruins. Hamburg was totally destroyed and 70,000 civilians died in the most appalling circumstances. Cologne with a population greater than Glasgow's was turned into a moonscape. As Hamburg burned the winds feeding the three-mile high flames reached twice hurricane speed to exceed 150 miles per hour. On the outskirts of the city trees three feet in diameter were sucked from the ground by the supernatural forces of these winds and hurled miles into the city-inferno, as were vehicles, men, women and children. Between 1940 and 1945, German cities with a total population of 25 million souls were destroyed or devastated. Here is a list of 111 of those cities, towns and villages:

Berlin		Essen		Koblenz		Recklinghausen
Aachen		Frankfurt		Konigsburg		Regensburg
Arrnang-Pucheim		Frankfurt-Oder		Krefeld		Remscheid
Aschaffenburg		Freiburg		Kreuznach		Reuel
Augsburg		Friedsrichhafen		Kulmbach		Reutlingen
Bad Kreuznach		Gelsdenkirchen		Leipzig		Rome
Bayreuth		Genoa		Linz		Rostock
Bielefeld		Gieben		Lubeck		Saarbrucken
Bocholt		Gladbach		Ludwishafen		Schweinfurt
Bochum		Gladbeck		Luneberg		Schwerte
Bonn		Graz		Madgeberg		Siegen
Bozen		Hagen		Mailand		Solbad Hall I.T.
Braunschweig		Hale		Mainz		Solingen
Bremen		Hamburg		Mannheim		Stuttgart
Bremmenhaven		Hamelin		Moers		Turin
Chemnitz		Hamm		Munchen		Ulm
Coburg		Hanau		Munich		Vienna
Cuxhaven		Hanover		Munster		Vilach
Danzig		Heilbronn		Neapel		Wanne-Eickel
Darmstadt		Hildesheim		Neumunsster		Wetzler
Dorsten		Homberg		Noremberg		Wiener Neustadt
Dortmund		Innsbruck		Oberhausen		Wiesbaden
Dresden		Kaiserlautern		Osnabruck		Wilhelmshafen
Duisburg		Karlsruhe		Paderborn		Witten
Duren		Kiel		Passau		Woms
Dusseldorf		Klagenfurt		Pforzheim		Wuppertal
Elmshorn		Kleve		Pirmasons		Wurzburg
Emden		Knittelfeld		Plauen

Here are photos of some of these devastated cities, copied from a website called "rvision".

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE

Aachen


Berlin


Braunschweig


Bremen


Cologne


Darmstadt


Dresden


Duren


Essen


Frankfurt


Freiburg


Karlsruhe


Mannheim


Mittelwihr


Munich


Münster


Nuremberg


Sigolsheim


Ulm

27 November 1944

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 230 % Postmaster, N.Y.

Germany

27 November, 1944        1125

My dearest sweetheart –

Well, as I was saying yesterday, I’ve been pretty busy the last couple of days; particularly so yesterday. In the first place, as I wrote you dear, we are now working out of a large department store. It’s only a one story affair, but it occupies the width of perhaps 7 or 8 ordinary stores, and it is quite deep. We live upstairs in what was an apartment house. The Germans living there were told to scram – and although that sounds rather hard, darling – this is war and I can’t feel sorry for any one of them. In France and Belgium we couldn’t do that. Here – if we find an empty house – we just move in. If we need a spot because of the tactical situation, we so inform the military government and there’s no question asked – the people move out. Where they go – I don’t know, but they don’t argue with us. Of course our military government has said that we can’t be in the same house as Germans – or vice versa, and that makes it tougher on the Germans – because we sometimes have enough room for us and the Germans. It is so in this case, and thus, we’re occupying only about half this apartment house, but the other half is now empty. You don’t realize you are part of an invading Army until things like this occur. If we need stoves, for example, we inform our military government and they tell us where to go and get them – German stoves of course.

CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE

American Military Government Headquarters
Stolberg, Germany - December, 1944

Yesterday we had a very busy day for a second reason, but I can’t go into details on that, dear. Suffice it to say, I was on my toes for the greatest part of the day. It started off that way again this morning, but it looks as if I may have less to do this p.m. Right now I’m going to lunch, dear, and I’ll finish this later.

1300

And it is now, later, darling – and let’s see, what was I going to comment upon? Oh – yes – you mentioned having visited the Christian Science Building and the Mother Church, and you wondered whether I had. Yes, dear, I did – a few years back. I think too few people in and around Boston are aware of how beautiful a structure that is. I’ve never seen anything quite like it anywhere else – and I’ve seen some beautiful buildings in my travels. Ahem – that certainly sounded stuffy, didn’t it dear – but this war, if nothing else, has given me the opportunity to see more places and things of interest than I ever dreamed of seeing.

Yes. I too wish I had been present at our own engagement, sweetheart, but in lieu of that, I’m happy that we became engaged anyway, and it makes me even happier to read that you feel that same way. However, don’t forget, dear, that whether I put the ring on your finger or not – the significance is absolutely the same, the seal is just as strong, and you are just as much mine. I will want to put it on your finger myself, though, as soon as I see you, darling, – and then – and then we’ll be married. Lord – how often and how hard I think about that! I know I love you more than I’ve ever been able to tell you, dear – you’ll just have to wait until I get back, I guess, to find out for yourself.

That’s all for now, dear, I must move on. I hope you’re hearing from me fairly regularly now. My love to the folks – and

My everlasting love,

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about The Military Government

Greg sent a picture of the Stolberg Military Government Headquarters. The following description of their role in the occupation of German towns was excerpted from Chapter 10 of the Army Historical Series titled The U.S. Army in the Occupation of Germany 1944-1946, written by Earl F. Ziemke for the Center of Military History of the United States Army, first printed  in 1975.

The procedure was the same everywhere, as it was to be throughout Germany. First came the posting of the Supreme Commander's proclamation and the ordinances.

Ordinances Being Posted and Read

 
   

The second step was to find the Buergermeister (mayor) or, if he could not be found or was obviously a Nazi, appoint one and thereby establish a link to the population. The military government officers had to make decisions on the character of certain Germans immediately, namely, those whom they appointed to administrative posts in the occupied communities. Such decisions were almost never easy. One of the first and most frustrating discoveries was that administrative ability usually went hand in hand with political taint; the Nazi party had been thorough in enlisting able men one way or another. The Germans themselves had unintentionally helped solve what was probably the easiest part of the problem, getting rid of Nazi incumbents, by evacuating almost the entire civil administration, including the police and fire departments; but they had also either destroyed or taken along the local records, which left military government nothing to go on in reconstructing the governments or in checking on the people who had stayed behind. One information source the Germans had overlooked was the Church. Since the occupied area was overwhelmingly Catholic, the priests knew nearly everyone and a great deal about local politics. In the early weeks, before both became a bit more wary of each other, the detachments relied heavily on the priests for advice, and a few priests became temporary Buergermeisters in their communities.

In Stolberg the 3d Armored Division uncovered a bona fide Nazi Buergermeister, Dr. Ragh, who had been in office since 1935. Under the Weimar Republic, he had been a leading member of one of the middle class parties. After all other parties were abolished in the spring of 1933, he had joined the Nazis. Under Ragh, the government of Stolberg had been markedly less Nazi than those of the surrounding towns, reportedly to the annoyance of the local party leaders. People questioned about him said he had done his job well and had made it clear that his party membership was a formality, necessary for being in office. While conceding that he was the kind of man who would probably win in a free election, the military government dismissed him.

His successor, Dr. Deutzmann, was just the opposite type. His ability as an administrator was unproven, but he was not a Nazi. He had supported the republic in the 1920s and had not switched after Hitler came to power. He had been a primary school principal slated for promotion. When the Nazis came in, he was demoted to the rank of ordinary teacher. In appointing him to replace Ragh, military government had deliberately chosen political character over administrative efficiency, no doubt both out of moral conviction and out of knowledge that a Buergermeister with Ragh's past service under the occupation would make headlines in the press from London to San Francisco. The local clergy and reportedly the people seemed to support the sacrifice of efficiency for character. For military government the Ragh case, nevertheless, raised qualms about determining who were "active Nazis or ardent sympathizers."

Next came a series of security actions. The first was to collect weapons, ammunition, and explosives in civilian possession and confiscate radio transmitters and other means of communicating with the enemy, including pigeons. The orders to surrender prohibited items were followed by house-to-house searches, which in fought-over areas frequently turned up sizable collections of arms that the civilians had not turned in, probably more out of fear than malice. For convenience and for security, the civilians also had to be kept out of the way of the tactical troops.

Collecting Guns and Cameras


Searching a House

Often the commanders would have preferred to have the civilians removed altogether; in early October V Corps tried evacuating a five-by-ten-mile area in the Eupen-Malmedy sector where the inhabitants were nominally Belgian although real loyalties were difficult to determine. V Corps' G-5 thought little of the experiment at the beginning, and even less later. It appeared only to prove what military government doctrine had assumed all along, namely, that people could be controlled best at home. Moving them was expensive; imposed hardships on the old, the young, and the ailing; made the evacuees economic charges of the occupation forces when their own crops and property were lost or damaged; and probably allowed dissidents to conceal themselves more easily.

From the start military government - and, after the V Corps' experience, the tactical commands too - preferred to rely on circulation restrictions and the curfew. The stringency of both tended to depend somewhat on the tactical situation and the whim of the local commander. In general, no one was allowed to travel more than three miles from his home, and gatherings of more than five people, except in food queues and in church, were prohibited. The curfew was always at least from sunset to sunrise, and very often local commanders extended it through the daylight hours as well, giving the men an hour in the morning and evening to go to and from work and the women an hour or two during the day to fetch food and water.

The key to population control was knowing who was being controlled; this problem usually provided the detachments with their first big job. Every adult civilian had to be registered and issued a registration card, which would give military government a permanent hold on him. In the towns occupied in September there appeared at first to be almost no one to register. The German authorities, to avoid the propaganda embarrassment of having Germans under Allied rule, had ordered all inhabitants to evacuate to the east. The towns seemed empty for several days after being occupied, until those who had disobeyed the evacuation order felt safe enough or became hungry and thirsty enough or just curious enough to leave the cellars and woods. None of the places occupied in 1944 had their usual populations, but on the average, excluding Aachen, about a third of the people stayed behind which, after the war had passed through the communities, was more than most of the towns could house or the land could support.

The Germans were easier to understand in the abstract and from a distance than as flesh-and-blood people in their own communities. The French had been friends and allies - even if frequently not very friendly. The Germans were enemies and alleged inveterate disturbers of world peace; but how well they lived up to their image seemed to depend on the angle and distance from which they were observed. G-5, First Army, was struck by their orderly behavior and reported that they kept to their homes but seemed to be watching the troops with great interest while attempting to conceal their curiosity. On the streets, the army reported, the men saluted the American soldiers or tipped their hats politely. The children were more friendly. Many of them ventured to wave at passing soldiers, which their elders allowed them to do.

Further removed, Headquarters or the European Civil Affairs Division (ECAD), described the Germans as outwardly blank, stolid, and indifferent, while inwardly harboring "subdued, latent hostility mixed with fear." Most of them, ECAD claimed, shied away from anyone in uniform and remained stubbornly taciturn under questioning. However, an observer from the Psychological Warfare Division of SHAEF, who actually entered the occupied area, reported:

The crossing of the German frontier is something of a shock. Even in Nazi Germany the cows have four legs, the grass is green, and children in pigtails stand around the tanks. Self-indoctrination by years of propaganda make it a shock to rediscover these trivialities. All the officers with whom we spoke reinforced this. The people left behind in this area are human beings with a will to survive. Just because we are conquerors and they know it, they are in certain ways easier to handle than the liberated Belgians or Frenchmen. They know they must obey our orders, and if they are allowed to survive and reconstruct their lives by self-help, they do not of themselves cause any trouble. Behind the front line, for instance, every road and byway is littered with cables, telephone lines, etc. Minor sabotage would be child's play. It has not happened because the people are not interested in the war but in looking after themselves.