22 June 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

22 June, 1945      0900

Reims

My dearest sweetheart –

How I love you and miss you these days and nights! You’ll never really know, darling, until I can come home and tell you and show you. You can’t possibly conceive it from merely reading words. And feeling like that – here I have to sit in France – waiting, waiting – and yet thankful I’m not heading for Marseilles as so many other near here are. A trip to Marseilles, dear, means the C.B.I. without the States first. I don’t know what I’d do or you either, sweetheart – if I had only that to look forward to. I’d feel like going AWOL – I know. So the one comforting thought I have is that I will be coming home. When – I don’t know. We read in the Stars and Stripes that it will take most of a year to get all the men re-deployed. There’s no reason to believe we’ll be the last to go – because this job of being M.P.’s is just one to fill a temporary shortage. When our time comes – regardless of the job – we’ll go. Furthermore, I could be separated from the outfit at any time and come home with another.

There were 12 letters for the whole battalion yesterday – but that’s a sign the APO is straightened out and that any day now our mail will start to flow. One of the 12 letters was for me, dear – from Lawrence. I feel sad every time I hear from him. It was written en route to the Coast – at Ogden, Utah. He seemed to be enjoying the trip. But I still think he did wrong and that he was very inconsiderate of his family. I wrote him last night – and of course I didn’t tell him how I felt. I merely wished him luck.

Meanwhile – here – we know definitely that we’ll move to Nancy on Monday, the 25th. Hq, Baker and Charlie Batteries will be in Nancy, and Able and Dog go to Metz. That means I’ll be seeing Pete again. It’ll be nice having at least half of the officers together again. Nancy is supposed to be a rather nice city – of about 100,000. I hope there are some tennis courts there – as it seems that will be the only outlet for any energy I have and the only way of keeping in shape. All these cities, including Reims, are very crowded and congested – but I hope we manage to get reasonably good quarters.

Reims to Nancy, France

I should stop writing right now, darling, since I have several things to take care of here today – but I just feel like sitting here and writing all day. Say – I was glad to hear that Les White is coming along all right and that the doctors give him good hope of having a good arm. That’s swell. Have you seen him at all? Does he wear his arm in a sling?

Yes – it was thoughtful of Mary to send Lawrence a medal. I hope he got it, for her sake. You know, dear, I still have the one she sent me.

Sweetheart – they’ve just come for me. I’ve got to run down to the hospital and find out about a fellow I sent in last night. He had an acute abdomen and I want to find out whether or not they operated.

And so for a little while, dear, so long. Maybe today I’ll hear from you. There’s quite a few letters missing from the latter part of May and early June. I’ll take them all!! I want to read that you love me, darling. I like to read that as much as I love to tell you –

Love to the folks, sweetheart, and

All my sincerest, deepest love –

Greg

21 June 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

21 June, 1945      0830

Reims, France

Wilma, darling –

The first day of summer – and it’s hot here. I wonder what kind of summer you’re having back home. I wonder how you are, your folks, my folks, Ruth, Lawrence – hell, I feel lost and out of contact, just at a time when I need contact. But we’re just going to have to wait for our mail and there’s not a damn thing we could do about it. But last night – there was. Our lockers – trunks – were picked up at Soissons and delivered to us. I had practically emptied mine when we turned them in – but I found 3 sets of khaki trousers, and a whole stack of letters from you, darling, written when I was in England. I read quite a bunch of them and really enjoyed it. But they don’t quite take the place of up to date letters. You’ve been loving me a long time now, sweetheart, without getting material love back – and I know it must be tough and discouraging. But I’m giving all the love and devotion I can while I’m away from you, dear, and I hope that helps some.

The foot lockers, by the way, were pretty well scuffed about and beat up – but I think mine will be able to make the trip home. I now have the task of transferring everything in my duffle bag – to the trunk – the point being that when we move home we’ll probably be allowed the same as when we came – a locker, val-a-pac, and bedding roll. I’d like to know that everything is ready. I’ll try to send home everything in excess.

Today is the second day of the outfit’s course in M.P. work. It runs until Sunday (this is Thursday) and presumably we take off for Nancy on Monday or Tuesday next. We’ll have the same APO number. We may know a bit more about what the set-up will be by this evening. The Colonel and our S-3 went to Nancy today to see what it’s about.

I’ve just re-read your letter of 5 June – the last letter I received from you at Leipzig. You were a bit upset at what I had written about going to London or the Riviera. I apparently had left the wrong impression, darling, about the time being deducted from our Leave in the States. It isn’t. It all seems like a long time since we had those Leaves available. We probably won’t hear anymore about it now that we’re service troops – and I’m not very interested anyway. But a Leave here has no connection whatsoever with a Leave at home. That’s definite.

As for the implication that the giving of furloughs and Leaves means being here a long time – there’s no connection at all. The fact is they’ve got a bunch of troops here and they’ve just got to keep them busy.

Yes – a week at the Cape with the Fines would be nice – but it seems a bit unattainable – from here, sweetheart. But an MP officer who was here yesterday – said all this training etc – didn’t mean we would necessarily have to stay long. When our time came – we’d go – regardless of our assignment. Where I’d fit with it, I don’t know – but each day makes me feel more positive I won’t have to go the Pacific – and that sweetheart – is all-important to both of us.

I’ll have to close now, sweetheart. Although I run sick-call early these days and before I write you, there’s always a couple of guys who show up late. There’s a couple of ‘em waiting for me now. Gee, darling, I do hope I hear from you soon. Send my love to the folks and remember, dear, that I love you dearly and that I’ll always be –

Yours alone

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about The Civilian Impact of The Battle of Okinawa


Location of Okinawa in Relation to Japan's mainland

From Wikipedia comes this:

On Okinawa, the last remnants of Japanese resistance in the 82-day battle fell on 21 June 1945. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Japan lost over 100,000 soldiers, who were either killed, captured or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds. Simultaneously, tens of thousands of local civilians were killed, wounded, or committed suicide.

At some battles, such as at Battle of Iwo Jima, there had been no civilians involved, but Okinawa had a large indigenous civilian population and, according to various estimates, somewhere between one tenth and one third of them died during the battle. Okinawan civilian losses in the campaign were estimated to be between 42,000 and 150,000 dead (more than 100,000 according to Okinawa Prefecture. The U.S. Army figures for the campaign showed a total figure of 142,058 civilian casualties, including those who were pressed into service by the Japanese Imperial Army.

During the battle, U.S. soldiers found it difficult to distinguish civilians from soldiers. It became routine for U.S. soldiers to shoot at Okinawan houses, as one infantryman wrote,

There was some return fire from a few of the houses, but the others were probably occupied by civilians – and we didn't care. It was a terrible thing not to distinguish between the enemy and women and children. Americans always had great compassion, especially for children. Now we fired indiscriminately.

In its history of the war, the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum presents Okinawa as being caught in the fighting between America and Japan. During the 1945 battle, the Japanese Army showed indifference to Okinawa's defense and safety, and the Japanese soldiers used civilians as human shields against the Americans. Japanese military confiscated food from the Okinawans and executed those who hid it, leading to a mass starvation among the population, and forced civilians out of their shelters. Japanese soldiers also killed about 1,000 Okinawans who spoke in a different local dialect in order to suppress spying. The museum writes

some were blown apart by shells, some finding themselves in a hopeless situation were driven to suicide, some died of starvation, some succumbed to malaria, while others fell victim to the retreating Japanese troops.

With the impending victory of American troops, civilians often committed mass suicide, urged on by the Japanese soldiers who told locals that victorious American soldiers would go on a rampage of killing and raping. Ryukyu Shimpo, one of the two major Okinawan newspapers, wrote in 2007: "There are many Okinawans who have testified that the Japanese Army directed them to commit suicide. There are also people who have testified that they were handed grenades by Japanese soldiers" to blow themselves up. Some of the civilians, having been induced by Japanese propaganda to believe that U.S. soldiers were barbarians who committed horrible atrocities, killed their families and themselves to avoid capture. Some of them threw themselves and their family members from the cliffs where the Peace Museum now resides.

However, despite being told by the Japanese military that they would suffer rape, torture and murder at the hands of the Americans, Okinawans "were often surprised at the comparatively humane treatment they received from the American enemy." According to Islands of Discontent: Okinawan Responses to Japanese and American Power by Mark Selden, the Americans "did not pursue a policy of torture, rape, and murder of civilians as Japanese military officials had warned." Military Intelligence combat translator Teruto Tsubota — a U.S. Marine born in Hawaii — convinced hundreds of civilians not to kill themselves and thus saved their lives.

Civilians and historians report that soldiers on both sides had raped Okinawan civilians during the battle. Rape by Japanese troops "became common" in June, after it became clear that the Japanese Army had been defeated. The New York Times reported in 2000 that in the village of Katsuyama, civilians formed a vigilante group to ambush and kill a group of black American soldiers whom they claimed frequently raped the local girls there. Marine Corps officials in Okinawa and Washington have stated that they "knew of no rapes by American servicemen in Okinawa at the end of the war, and their records do not list war crimes committed by Marines in Okinawa". Journalist George Feifer, however, writes that rape in Okinawa was "another dirty secret of the campaign" in which "American military chronicles ignore [the] crimes." Few Okinawans revealed their pregnancies, as

stress and bad diet ... rendered most Okinawan women infertile. Many who did become pregnant managed to abort before their husbands and fathers returned. A smaller number of newborn infants fathered by Americans were suffocated.

In the aftermath of the battle, ninety percent of the buildings on the island were destroyed, and the tropical landscape was turned into "a vast field of mud, lead, decay and maggots". The military value of Okinawa "exceeded all hope." Okinawa provided a fleet anchorage, troop staging areas, and airfields in close proximity to Japan. The U.S. cleared the surrounding waters of mines in Operation Zebra, occupied Okinawa, and set up the United States Civil Administration of the Ryukyu Islands, a form of military government, after the battle.

Significant U.S. forces remain garrisoned there, and Kadena remains the largest U.S. air base in Asia. In all, 14 U.S. bases cover 90 square miles (233 square kilometres), occupying 18% of the main island. According to a 2007 Okinawa Times poll, 85% of Okinawans opposed the presence of the U.S. military, due to noise pollution from military drills, the risk of aircraft accidents, environmental degradation, and extra crowding from the number of personnel there. In another poll conducted in May 2010, 43% of the population wanted the complete closure of the U.S. bases, 42% wanted reduction and 11% wanted the maintenance of the status quo.

CLICK TO ENLARGE
U.S. military bases in Okinawa

Some military historians believe that the Okinawa campaign led directly to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as a means of avoiding the planned ground invasion of the Japanese mainland. Victor Davis Hanson explains his view in Ripples of Battle:

...because the Japanese on Okinawa... were so fierce in their defense (even when cut off, and without supplies), and because casualties were so appalling, many American strategists looked for an alternative means to subdue mainland Japan, other than a direct invasion. This means presented itself, with the advent of atomic bombs, which worked admirably in convincing the Japanese to sue for peace [unconditionally], without American casualties. Ironically, the American conventional fire-bombing of major Japanese cities (which had been going on for months before Okinawa) was far more effective at killing civilians than the atomic bombs and, had the Americans simply continued, or expanded this, the Japanese would likely have surrendered anyway.

In 1995, the Okinawa government erected a memorial named "Cornerstone of Peace" in Mabuni, the site of the last fighting in southeastern Okinawa. The memorial lists all the known names of those who died in the battle, civilian and military, Japanese and foreign. As of June 2008, it contains 240,734 names.

Cornerstone of Peace Memorial in Okinawa

20 June 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

20 June, 1945      0900

Reims, France

Dearest darling Wilma –

It’s another fine sunny day here – and France is supposed to have lots of them. But I’d gladly take New England’s uncertain weather if I could have all that goes with New England. But I’d better not start getting blue again. Yesterday was a low day for me and I’m trying to feel better today. Of course – the fact that our mail situation is all fouled up – doesn’t help one bit. The mail orderly implied we might not get anything for a couple of weeks. I sure hope he’s wrong.

I can see already that things are going to be pretty tough for us – or me now. Oh – the life will be easier and the food better – and all that – but with the war over and no real incentive – time is really going to drag. I’ll just have to keep telling myself that despite our continued separation – I’m – we’re still better off than if I were on my way to the Pacific. Perhaps I’m fooling myself; maybe I’ll have to go anyway. No one has the slightest idea over here. I’m just trying to do it by common sense. There must be enough MC’s in the States and enough over here with little time in service to cover the needs of the Pacific.

I don’t know what you’re thinking about all this, sweetheart, – but I can imagine that “impatient” is putting it mildly. I can understand it – what with the build-up given you by the radio and press. It must have been an awful let-down and everyone in this outfit – at any rate – feels very badly about the reaction of his family – because all reacted in the same way. I read yesterday that the 86th Division had arrived in New York and received a tremendous reception. It makes a guy kind of mad. They were over only about 7 or 8 months and they didn’t even go into action until after the Rhine crossing when there was little close fighting to do and the Germans were always falling back. And an outfit like that gets the reception – while one like the First Division, which is still in Czechoslovakia by the way, sweats it out. By the time they get back, people will be a little fed up with returning troops – and they really fought the war – with outfits like the 4th, 9th, 3rd Armored and a good many others. At any rate – the 86th will go right to the Pacific – and they can have it.

Another thing that makes us kind of mad is to see how much better rations the troops back here get. You read in the Stars and Stripes that everything goes to the combat troops and you believe it. But it isn’t true. We’re seeing for ourselves. And to top off everything we find that the troops in Reims were awarded the Campaign star – Battle of the Rhineland! We couldn’t believe it. It means that they got a star and 5 points for being here and we got the same. The only difference is – we had to sweat out the mud and the incoming artillery, and they didn’t.

Well, darling, this is a sort of “bitchy” type of letter – but the views I’ve expressed are pretty typical. Everybody here is all dressed up, clean and smart and they walk around as if they just got thru winning the war. Our Colonel says it was the same after the last war. The rear areas really had a time for themselves.

Last nite, dear, still in our combat clothes – because we have no facilities for getting dressed up – a few of us went down town. There was a U.S.O. show – with Grace Moore and Nino Mantini – in person. We got in at the tail end and heard a couple of numbers – well done. We then found an officer’s club where they had cokes and we had a couple – and then we came back to our bivouac area – sat around and went to bed. Today – the battalion starts its 5 day M.P. school – which ends Sunday next. How soon after that we’ll move to Nancy – I don’t know – but I believe soon after.

Meanwhile I’m just aching to hear from you, darling, and to see how you’ve reacted to all this. I’ve been worked up to a pitch these last several weeks and I know you have too. All I know is that I love you no matter where I am or what the situation is. You must remember that always, sweetheart. And someday, somehow – I’ll be coming back and telling you and showing you what I mean.

So long until tomorrow dear. Love to the folks.

All my everlasting love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

USO Performers Grace Moore and Nino Martini


Grace Moore (1898 - 1947)

Mary Willie ‘Grace’ Moore, the internationally famous star of the Metropolitan Opera, Broadway, motion pictures, radio and recordings, was born 5 December 1898, in the community of Slabtown (now considered part of Del Rio) near Newport, Tennessee. Her family moved to Jellico, Tennessee when she was a young girl. She attended Jellico High School where she was captain of the girls basketball team in 19l6.

Grace Moore's first Broadway appearance was in 1920 in the musical Hitchy-Koo, by Jerome Kern. In 1922 and 1923 she appeared in the second and third of Irving Berlin's series of four Music Box Revues. In the 1923 edition she and John Steel introduced Berlin's song "What'll I Do". When Moore sang "An Orange Grove in California," orange blossom perfume was wafted through the theater.

After training in France, Moore made her operatic debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City on 7 February 1928, singing the role of Mimì in Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. She debuted at the Opera-Comique in Paris on 29 September 1928 in the same role, which she also performed in a royal command performance at Covent Garden in London on 6 June 1935.

In the 1930s and 1940s she gave concert performances throughout the United States and Europe, performing a repertoire of operatic selections and other songs in German, French, Italian, Spanish, and English. During World War II she was active in the USO, entertaining American troops abroad. Moore was at one point chosen by Florenz Ziegfeld of Ziegfeld Follies as one of the ten mostbeautiful women in the world. In 1935 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her motion picture, "One Night of Love".

Grace Moore was a "rebel" of her time. She broke many rules of convention and sometimes even shocked the small town she grew up in. She left her mark on the world, and such a mark it was that Elvis is said to have named his beloved Graceland after her. She was widely criticized in December 1938 when, in Cannes, she curtsied to Wallis, The Duchess of Windsor (who was not royalty, and therefore not entitled to a curtsy). Upon her return to the United States , Moore defended her curtsy, saying:

She would have been a royal duchess long ago if she had not been an American. After all, she gave happiness and the courage of his convictions to one man, which is more than most women can do. She deserves a curtsy for that alone.

On 26 January 1947, Moore died tragically in an airplane crash in Copenhagen Airport, at the height of her career. She boarded a KLM DC3 to fly to Stockholm. The aircraft taxied out to the runway and was cleared to takeoff. The aircraft rotated and climbed to an altitude of about 150 feet. The aircraft stalled, crashed to the ground and exploded. On the evening before her death, Grace Moore had sung to a packed audience of more than 4000 people in a concert which ended in a standingovation and countless encores. Among the other plane crash victims was Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden, who was at the time second in line to the Swedish throne and who was the father of the present King of Sweden, King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Moore's life story was made into a movie, So This is Love, in 1953, in which Kathryn Grayson portrayed the "Tennessee Nightingale", as Grace was called.

Here is a YouTube recording of Grace Moore singing Vissi d'arte
live at the New York's Metropolitan Opera in 1946:






Nino Martini (1905 - 1976)

Nino Martini was an Italian operatic tenor and actor. He began his career as an opera singer in Italy before moving to the United States to pursue an acting career in films. He appeared in several Hollywood movies during the 1930s and 1940s while simultaneously working as a leading tenor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.Martini possessed a warm lyric tenor voice that had a wide range and considerable amount of coloratura facility.

In 1925 he made his professional opera debut in Milan. Shortly thereafter he toured Europe as a concert artist appearing in many of the continent's major music centers. While in Paris he was discovered by the film producer Jesse Louis Lasky who engaged him for several Italian language speaking roles in short films.

In 1929, under the influence of Lasky, Martini immigrated to the United States to pursue a film career. His first appearance was in the all-star revue film Paramount on Parade (1930). Further forays into film were postponed, however, as Martini decided to continue to pursue an opera career. He made his U.S. opera debut in 1931 in Philadelphia. This was followed by several broadcasts of opera for radio. In 1933 Martini joined the roster at the Metropolitan Opera, making his debut on 28 December. He appeared in several more productions at the Met over the next thirteen years. His last performance at the Met was as Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) on 20 April 1946.

While performing at the Met, Martini occasionally returned to Hollywood to appear in films, mostly appearing in pictures directed by Lasky. His film credits include Here's to Romance (1935), Music for Madame (1937), and The Gay Desperado (1936). The latter film featured Ida Lupino as his co-star. His last film appearance was in One Night With You in 1948.

In the late 1940s and 1950s Martini continued to perform as a singer mostly on the radio. He eventually returned to Italy where he lived in Verona until his death in 1976.

19 June 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

19 June, 1945      1000

Reims, France

My dearest sweetheart –

Let’s see – I last wrote you on Friday the 15th and this is Tuesday. We left Leipzig at 0800 in convoy and did about 200 miles along the Autobahn. We stayed for the night in the outskirts of a town named Giessen. The outfit pitched tents in a large field – but a couple of us went into the nearest village, saw the Burgermeister and got a nice clean bed for the night.

Geissen, Germany today

We left early the next day – that was Sunday and kept traveling west and a little South. We passed Frankfort on the Main, then Mainz, crossed the Rhine below Mainz and then the Moselle at Trier. This all was very beautiful country and the ride was enjoyable. We did more than 200 miles the second day.

Before hitting France – we passed thru a delightful small country – Luxembourg – and the City of Luxembourg is one of the prettiest I’ve seen over here. Well – we finally got here to Reims, dear, and not to Chalons – as I had written you. We got our mission too – and we’re not too pleased, although no one can tell what’s what – these days – anyway. We are to become M.P.’s!! – not the medics of course – although we still stay with the outfit. We live in a tent city here in Reims for about a week – while the men take a course in M.P. duty – and then – as orders read now – we go to Nancy – for our Hq – and in addition – we cover the cities of Metz, Dijou and Epernay i.e. – there’ll be a battery in each city. Now, what do you think of that, darling? How long it will be – no one knows right now – of course – but there are other Cat. IV outfits doing the same thing. It seems that the mechanism of getting all men in the outfit ready for eventual discharge – takes time. Newer men, replacements – etc. – with fewer points, have to be weeded out and the outfit – filled with high point men. Then – when this is done – the outfit is ready for sailing home and discharge en masse upon arrival.

Tent City at Reims - June 1945

Where I come into the picture, sweetheart, I don’t know. It seems as if my chances of being dropped out of the outfit are about 50-50. If I’m dropped right away, the chances are I’d be added to an outfit going to the States and then to the Pacific. If I stay on here and am overlooked, because the outfit is small and easily forgotten about, I’ll build up good time, and even if I’m eventually separated – I’ll have a pretty good background by that time – against going to the P.T.O. And do you want to know how I feel about it all, darling? I’ll tell you. Despite the fact that I hate the thought of the Pacific – I’m so fed up, and bored with all this, I’m so dreadfully homesick for you and my family – that I’d gladly settle right now for a trip home for 30 days – even if the penalty were the Pacific. I’m terribly blue right now, sweetheart, and I miss you fiercely. Each day now seems endless – and I just don’t know where I am or fit in the scheme of things. This mood will pass over, I know, and I’m sure that as I look back at things later on – I’ll realize that this all was for the best. I’ve been pretty lucky so far and I guess I’ll just have to hang on to that a little while longer.

We won’t get mail for some time, I guess – but our official APO is now 513. I’d love to hear from you soon, but I’ll have to wait – just like everyone else does. I haven’t had a chance to see much of the city yet – but I will. The Cathedral here is one of the world’s most famous.

Reims Cathedral today



Reims Cathedral - June 1945

I’ll stop now, darling, and write tomorrow. I’m still a little tired from the long trip. Be well, dear, and remember always – how much I love you – and I hope that makes you feel just a bit better. I do love you and strongly and constantly and I always will, sweetheart.

So long for now and love to the folks.

All my deepest love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

Reims Cathedral

From the online Encyclopedia Britannica comes this.

Reims Cathedral, also called the Cathedral of Notre-Dame at Reims, is located in the city of Reims, France, on the Vesle River east-northeast of Paris. Reims was the site of 25 coronations of the kings of France, from Louis VIII in 1223 to Charles X in 1825, including the crowning of Charles VII in 1429 in the presence of Joan of Arc. The cathedral, which was begun in 1211 under the auspices of Archbishop Aubry de Humbert and designer Jean d’Orbais, was modeled on Chartres Cathedral (begun about 1194) and was intended to replace an earlier church destroyed by fire in 1210. The main construction was overseen by four different architects and lasted some 80 years; expansions and decorative work continued on the church for centuries.

Reims Cathedral incorporated several new architectural techniques, notably bar tracery. It has a total finished length of 489 feet (149.2 meters)—about 26 feet (8 meters) longer than Chartres—with an interior length of 455 feet (138.7 meters) and a nave reaching 377 feet (115 meters). The twin towers in the west facade have a height of 266 feet (81 meters). The chevet (eastern end), with its five relatively large chapels, is nearly the same width as the transept (201 feet [61.3 meters]), giving the cathedral an unusually compact, unified appearance. This unity is emphasized by the use of nearly identical window types in the aisle and clerestory stories, as well as the complementary rose windows in the west facade and central portal and those in the transepts’ facades. Reims is richly decorated with elegant masonry sculpture (particularly the exterior) and exceptional stained-glass windows, making it one of the artistic masterpieces of the French High Gothic period.

The cathedral’s historic site, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1991, includes the former Abbey of Saint-Rémi (begun about 1170 and containing the remains of the 5th–6th century archbishop St. Remigius) and the archiepiscopal Tau Palace (reconstructed in the 17th century). Restoration was undertaken in the 20th century after the cathedral was seriously damaged by shelling during World War I.

18 June 1945

No letter today. Just this:

Here are some photos Greg took on the way
from Leipzig to Reims, 16-18 June 1945


Mainz - June 1945


The Rhine at Mainz - June 1945


The Rhine and the Moselle Meet - June 1945


Village near Trier on the Moselle - June 1945


Village along the Moselle - June 1945


Railroad Bridge thru Luxembourg City - June 1945
and now (below)



Luxembourg - June 1945
and now (below)



Luxembourg - June 1945
and now (below)



* TIDBIT *

about Too Much of a Good Thing
"The Clap:" Then and Now

On 18 June 1945 TIME Magazine, (Vol. XLV, No. 25) published this article concerning the new use of penicillin to treat gonorrhea.

Medicine: Quick Cure

Not so long ago, "the clap" used to be considered "no worse than a bad cold." Thanks to this cavalier attitude, many a child has become blind, many a woman made sterile, many an, oldster made insane. Syphilis killed its thousands, but gonorrhea crippled its tens of thousands.

Ever since penicillin's potency against the gonococcus was discovered, health experts have hoped it would eventually provide a quick treatment that a doctor could give in his office. Hitherto gonorrhea patients have had to be hospitalized (expensive) or treated repeatedly (difficult because many are too irresponsible to keep appointments).

Using penicillin dissolved in water, treatment was gradually worked down to three hypodermic injections two hours apart. Then came the discovery, announced last year (TIME, Sept. 11), that penicillin mixed with beeswax and peanut oil is disseminated slowly through the body, keeping the penicillin content of blood high for hours. The Public Health Service acted swiftly. To 137 doctors throughout the land went instructions and the penicillin mixture with the request that they try single injections of 200,000 units (2 cc.) on as many patients as possible and report the results. Back came results on 1,060 cases: over 91% apparently cured, regardless of sex, color or stage of the disease. Many of the failures were cured by a second injection. The rest were re-treated — and nearly all cured — by slower penicillin methods.

Note: Penicillin is also effective against syphilis (TIME, Oct. 25, 1943). Standard treatment with arsenic compounds used to take months or years. Penicillin treatment is a matter of weeks.

Sixty-seven years (less 12 days) later, from the World Health Organization's web site comes this article about how some gonorrhea is now resistant to all known drugs once used to kill it.

WHO: Urgent action needed to prevent the spread of untreatable gonorrhea

6 June 2012 | Geneva -

Millions of people with gonorrhea may be at risk of running out of treatment options unless urgent action is taken, according WHO. Already several countries, including Australia, France, Japan, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom are reporting cases of resistance to cephalosporin antibiotics – the last treatment option against gonorrhea. Every year an estimated 106 million people are infected with gonorrhea, which is transmitted sexually.

“Gonorrhea is becoming a major public health challenge, due to the high incidence of infections accompanied by dwindling treatment options,” says Dr Manjula Lusti-Narasimhan, from the Department of Reproductive Health and Research at WHO. “The available data only shows the tip of the iceberg. Without adequate surveillance we won’t know the extent of resistance, and without research into new antimicrobial agents, there could soon be no effective treatment for patients.”

In new guidance issued today, WHO is calling for greater vigilance on the correct use of antibiotics and more research into alternative treatment regimens for gonococcal infections. WHO’s Global Action Plan to control the spread and impact of antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhea also calls for increased monitoring and reporting of resistant strains as well as better prevention, diagnosis and control of gonococcal infections.

Health implications are important

Gonorrhea makes up one quarter of the four major curable sexually-transmitted infections. Since the development of antibiotics, the pathogen has developed resistance to many of the common antibiotics used as treatment, including penicillin, tetracyclines and quinolones.

“We are very concerned about recent reports of treatment failure from the last effective treatment option – the class of cephalosporin antibiotics – as there are no new therapeutic drugs in development,” says Dr Lusti-Narasimhan. “If gonococcal infections become untreatable, the health implications are significant.”

Antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is caused by the unrestricted access to anti-microbials, overuse and poor quality of antibiotics, as well as natural genetic mutations within disease organisms. In addition, gonorrhea strains tend to retain genetic resistance to previous antibiotics even after their use has been discontinued. The extent of this resistance worldwide is not known due to lack of reliable data for gonorrhea in many countries and insufficient research.

Gonorrhea

Untreated gonococcal infection can cause health problems in men, women and newborn babies including:

• infection of the urethra, cervix and rectum;
• infertility in both men and women;
• a significantly increased risk of HIV infection and transmission;
• ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous abortion, stillbirths and premature deliveries; and
• severe eye infections occur in 30-50% of babies born to women with untreated gonorrhea, which can lead to blindness.

Gonorrhea can be prevented through safer sexual intercourse. Early detection and prompt treatment, including of sexual partners, is essential to control sexually transmitted infections.

17 June 1945

No letter today. Just this:

* TIDBIT *

about The U.S. Army Signal Corps and
United News Newsreels

Today's "embedded journalists" may certainly be compared to WWII's US Army Signal Corps photographers. From the Holocaust Encyclopedia on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's web site came this:

The US Army Signal Corps began in 1860, with the appointment of Dr. Albert J. Myer, a physician, as Chief Signal Officer. Under his command, the unit transformed sign language used to communicate with deaf persons into a semaphore system incorporating red and white “wigwag” flags. During the Civil War, the Signal Corps operated air balloons and telegraph machines. By the time the United States entered World War I in 1917, the corps had integrated the airplane and more advanced technology into its communications systems.

In World War II, the Signal Corps' size and role in military affairs increased dramatically. From a staff of 27,000 persons, it expanded to over 350,000 men and women by 1945. The need to coordinate swift and accurate communication for air, ground, and naval units required more sophisticated technology and services. The Signal Corps pioneered in the development of radar to detect approaching aircraft as well as mobile communications and deciphering machines.

In addition to its primary role in military transmissions, the unit also played a key role in producing training films for army and civilian personnel, and documenting combat missions. During World War II, noted Hollywood producers, directors, and photographers (such as Darryl Zanuck, Frank Capra, John Huston, and George Stevens) all served in the Signal Corps. They brought their talents in the motion picture studio to the field of battle, while dozens of others provided instruction to the personnel.

In the European theater of operations (ETO), Signal Corps photographers took part in the landings in North Africa, Italy, and later Normandy. On D-Day (June 6, 1944), members of the unit hit the Utah and Omaha beaches, forwarding the first film of the amphibious assaults to England via carrier pigeons. The Signal Corps subsequently documented every major military campaign in the ETO, producing millions of feet of combat film and hundreds of thousands of developed still images. From these sources, the Army supplied the news media in the United States and elsewhere with imagery of the war, using 24-hour air delivery service and later sophisticated telephoto electronic-transmission equipment.

In the course of photographing World War II, the Signal Corps also played a crucial role in documenting evidence of Nazi atrocities and the Holocaust. Many of the early still and moving pictures of newly liberated Nazi concentration camps were taken by Army photographers such as Arnold E. Samuelson and J Malan Heslop. A number of these images were later transmitted to news agencies in America and other countries, where they helped to inform the world about the horrors of Nazism and the plight of concentration camp prisoners.The US Army and the Allied military governments of Germany eventually used these photographs to confront German prisoners of war in the United States and the German population with the evidence of Nazi crimes.

From Ancestry.com's website comes this information about "United News" newsreels.

The U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) was created during World War II. Part of its role was to oversee U.S. propaganda and promote patriotism. As part of this role, the OWI produced 267 newsreels called the United News. These newsreels were shown throughout the U.S., but were targeted to overseas viewers. The reels were released in several languages, including German. However, they were primarily distributed to allied and neutral countries.

Newsreels averaged 10 minutes in length and consisted of U.S. military footage depicting allied military operations and other events from the home front. Much of the footage was taken by military combat photographers and is in excellent condition. Some of the better known WWII events depicted in these newsreels include:

• Marines Raise Flag Over Iwo Jima
• D-Day
• Japanese Sign Final Surrender
• Invasion of Sicily
• MacArthur Returns to the Philippines

Here is an example of a United News newsreel.

Here is this newsreel's description from YouTube:

National Archives and Records Administration - ARC 39071, LI 208-UN-164 - FINAL VICTORY ON OKINAWA--ALLIES INVADE BORNEO [ETC.] - DVD Copied by Thomas Gideon. Series: Motion Picture Films from "United News" Newsreels, compiled 1942 - 1945.

Part 1, Gen. Buckner observes artillery of the 10th Army and Navy planes blasting Japanese positions on Okinawa. Australian troops land on Borneo and Gen. MacArthur arrives. Navy torpedo boats assault a Borneo oil depot.

Part 2, sections of a floating drydock are launched in the U.S. and assembled in Pacific waters. A cruiser is repaired.

Part 3, Gen. Eisenhower, accompanied by Eleanor Roosevelt, visits F.D.R.'s grave at Hyde Park.

Part 4, the Queen Elizabeth arrives in New York with returning veterans.

16 June 1945

No letter today. Just this:

* TIDBIT *

about One San Francisco Conference Report

This San Francisco Conference Report, as it was heard over NBC on 16 June 1945, was posted on "Past Daily" from the Gordon Skene Sound Collection.

That post stated:

We were still less than two months away from the end of World War 2, but even in June of 1945 the movement was afoot to establish the United Nations as soon as possible. Held in San Francisco, the members of the U.N. gathered and got busy hammering out a Charter, trying to succeed where the League of Nations had fallen apart.

This broadcast from 16 June 1945, part of the NBC Radio Series "Our Foreign Policy", featured a discussion of the charter and the day's activities by Undersecretary of State, Archibald Macleish, and Dean of Barnard College, Virginia Gildersleeve, who was the sole female representative from the U.S.

Dean Virginia Gildersleve: “The Human Rights Commission is expected to draft a Bill of Rights for all mankind that will be comparable to our own Bill of Rights in our own Constitution. It will investigate abuses in this field, and do continuous research, and in general serve the conscience of the United Nations.”

The irony in all this is that Gildersleeve, as Dean of Barnard College, was adamant about preventing the number of Jewish students enrolling in the college. She was also adamantly against the formation of Israel. It would appear the concept of Human Rights applied to other countries and other people, not necessarily her.

And somehow a charter was adopted.

[Click below to hear the report from Past Daily]

Report From The San Francisco Conference – June 16, 1945
Gordon Skene Sound Collection.