01 July 1945

V-MAIL

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 339 % Postmaster, N.Y.

1 July, 1945

Nancy

My dearest sweetheart –

The last I heard – today you became a lady of leisure. You won’t know how it feels until tomorrow, I suspect, this being Sunday. Gee, I hope you manage to stay busy and not too bored, darling.

Last nite, Saturday, I had Dave Ennis over to have dinner or supper with us. It so happened that two other of our officers happened to run into fellows from their home towns – and they came up too – so we had a sort of reunion dinner. Naturally we had a couple of drinks – but it didn’t amount to much. Don’t worry, sweetheart – despite everything, I do not like drinking!

No letters from you yesterday – darn it – but maybe today. There’s so much I’m waiting to hear, dear – particularly your reaction to the news that I’m not on my way home yet. Oh how I wish I were!! I love you so much, darling, and this writing is so difficult!! All for now, dear – love to the folks – and

All my everlasting love,

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about The Last Major Amphibious Assault of WWII


Main Island of Borneo

The Borneo Campaign of 1945 was the last major Allied campaign in the South West Pacific Area, during World War II. In a series of amphibious assaults between 1 May and 21 July, the Australian I Corps, under General Leslie Morshead, attacked Japanese forces occupying the island. Allied naval and air forces, centred on the U.S. 7th Fleet under Admiral Thomas Kinkaid, the Australian First Tactical Air Force and the U.S. Thirteenth Air Force also played important roles in the campaign. They were resisted by Imperial Japanese Navy and Army forces in southern and eastern Borneo, under Vice-Admiral Michiaki Kamada, and in the north west by the Thirty-Seventh Army, led by Lieutenant-General Baba Masao.

The plans for the Allied attacks were known collectively as Operation Oboe. The invasion of Borneo was the second stage of Operation Montclair, which was aimed at destroying Japanese forces in, and re-occupying the Netherlands East Indies, the southern Philippines, Sarawak and British Borneo. Borneo in particular was considered at the time a strategic location for its natural resources, oil.

Although the Borneo campaign was criticized in Australia at the time and in subsequent years, as pointless or a "waste" of the lives of soldiers, it did achieve a number of objectives, such as increasing the isolation of significant Japanese forces occupying the main part of the Dutch East Indies, capturing major oil supplies and freeing Allied prisoners of war, who were being held in increasingly worse conditions. The Sandakan Death Marches and the Batu Lintang Camp are but two examples.

The initial Allied plan comprised six stages:

Oboe 1 was to be an attack on Tarakan;
Oboe 2 against Balikpapan;
Oboe 3 against Banjermasin;
Oboe 4 against Surabaya or Batavia (Jakarta);
Oboe 5 against the eastern Netherlands East Indies; and
Oboe 6 against British Borneo (Sabah).

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Borneo Campaign 1945

In the end only the operations against Tarakan, Balikpapan and British Borneo—at Labuan and Brunei Bay—took place. The campaign opened with Oboe 1, with a landing on the small island of Tarakan, off the north east coast on 1 May 1945. This was followed on 10 June 1945 by Oboe 6: simultaneous assaults on the island of Labuan and the coast of Brunei, in the north west of Borneo. A week later, the Australians followed up with attacks on Japanese positions around Weston on the north-eastern part of Brunei Bay. The attention of the Allies then switched back to the central east coast, with Oboe 2, the last major amphibious assault of World War II, at Balikpapan on 1 July 1945. These operations ultimately constituted the last campaigns of Australian forces in the war against Japan.

30 June 1945

438^thAAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

30 June, 1945      0945

Nancy

My darling fiancée –

As I remember it, on this date the fiscal year ends – whatever that is. I’ve never been sure exactly. But I do know it had something to do with straightening out accounts, balancing books, etc. And so I’m asking you to kindly settle up on the several thousand kisses you’ve owed me so long. Now – how about it? It’s going to be a heck of a mess, really. When I get back, I’m entitled to countless kisses in my own right and you in yours. Just the day to day quota is going to take up a good deal of time – then how am I going to make up the back pay? What a wonderful dilemma!

Well, darling, I heard from you yesterday in a letter written on the 19th of June – which isn’t bad at all. The fact is though – there are a whole pile of letters outstanding from early June and some from May, too. I really enjoyed hearing from you again and from a recent date. I can understand your feeling about writing – but you’re wrong about the morale angle. My morale – although definitely affected by the war of course – depended more so on you, what you had to say, how you were taking the war, how often I heard from you, etc. It still does, sweetheart, because that’s the most important thing in my life right now – and more so than ever, do I have time to think about it now; more so is it aggravating not to be able to be with you now that the war is over, and more so do I want to get to know you in person. Your letters, sweetheart, are still the only substitute – although I agree maybe there’s not as much to say now. Anyway – you’ve been in it a long time now, darling. Maybe you ought to skip a day here and there or regularly. You know I’ll understand.

It was a very uninteresting and unexciting day here yesterday, and I’m afraid that there are going to be all too many just like that in the future. I didn’t do a damned thing all day – and that always annoyed me. I did start to read a rather interesting book though – and I finished it before the night was over. “Earth and High Heaven” – by Gwethalyn Graham. You may have read it or heard about it; it deals with the problem of a boy, Jewish and a girl – Protestant – and their love. It interested me particularly because I once had such a problem myself. Incidentally – the book didn’t or the author didn’t have a satisfactory solution – as I saw it.

I called Dave Ennis yesterday p.m. and he’s coming over to eat with us this evening and hang around. It was refreshing talking with him the other day. The fact is I’ve had so little opportunity for a long time to talk with another doctor about anything. The conversation at our place gets pretty monotonous at times – although it’s worse in other outfits that I know about. Anyway, as long as I’m going to be here any length of time, I may as well get out of the shell of my own set-up.

I must go now, sweetheart. Today is payday and I’d like to get it over with this morning if I can. I’ll be with you again tomorrow. How about a midnite dance – on the night before the 4th. You would? Swell! I guess I mean next year – damn it !!!! Well I’ll be with you in spirit anyway, and by gum – I’ll love you almost as hard as if I were with you, dear – Be well, love to the folks – and

All my deepest love is yours,

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about Earth and High Heaven


To read the full text, click here.

Earth and High Heaven is a 1944 novel by Gwethalyn Graham. It was the first Canadian novel to reach number one on The New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list for 37 weeks, selling 125,000 copies in the United States that year. Earth and High Heaven won the 1944 Governor General's Award for fiction, and the 1945 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. It was also the ninth best-selling book of 1945 in the United States.

Producer Samuel Goldwyn bought the movie rights to Earth and High Heaven for $100,000 - intending for Katharine Hepburn to play Erica Drake. He initially hired Ring Lardner Jr. to adapt the screenplay. Goldwyn was, however, dissatisfied with the results, telling Lardner that he "betrayed [him] by writing too much like a Jew". Goldwyn subsequently hired a succession of other writers to develop the script, and remained dissatisfied with the final product. After Elia Kazan released the similarly themed Gentleman's Agreement in 1947, Goldwyn abandoned Earth and High Heaven rather than risk having it labeled by critics as a copy of Kazan's film.

Here is a review by Claire (The Captive Reader) on Wordpress:

Taking place in Montreal over the summer of 1942, Earth and High Heaven details the relationship of Erica Drake, a twenty-eight year old editor of the newspaper’s women’s section, and Marc Reiser, a thirty-three year old lawyer. Meeting at a party at the Drake’s house, there is immediate interest on both sides but Erica is from an established Anglo family while Marc is Jewish, distinctions which certainly mattered in 1940s Montreal. The novel is the story of how their relationship progresses in the face of their families’ objections and their own prejudices.

Erica’s family immediately discourages her interest in Marc, even before the two make contact again after their first meeting (admittedly, this takes them a while as both are very conscious of the issues confronting them). The Drakes’ protests, while not the violent or hate-filled rants polluting Germany at the time, are of a more common, insidious form of racism, the kind found among those who consider themselves tolerant, well-educated and liberal. There is a concern about the lack of shared culture and beliefs, of different values and aims, and the knowledge that, if married, the pair would not fit easily into either of the social spheres from which they came:

‘I don’t want my daughter to go through life neither flesh, fowl, nor good red herring, living in a kind of no man’s land where half the people you know will never accept him, and half the people he knows will never accept you. I don’t want a son-in-law who’ll be an embarrassment to our friends, a son-in-law who can’t be put up at my club and who can’t go with us to places where we’ve gone all our lives. I don’t want a son-in-law whom I’ll have to apologize for, and explain, and have to hear insulted indirectly unless I can remember to warn people off first.’

The Grants’ arguments have nothing to do with Marc himself – they refuse to meet him – but with the exile he represents for Erica, the stigma that an alliance with him would attach to her. Marriage, both sets of parents say, is difficult enough without bringing in these kinds of stresses, stresses which Erica and Marc can do nothing to alleviate. As Mr Reiser tells Marc,

‘You think you could compromise and somehow you’d manage, but sooner or later you’d find out that you can go just so far and no farther. You’d get sick of compromising, and so would she, and some day you’d wake up and realize that it wasn’t a question of compromising on little things any more, but of compromising yourself. And you couldn’t do it, neither of you could do it. Nobody can do it.’

Erica’s own racism colors her views, even after she has fallen in love with Marc. To her, Marc is simply Marc. He is an entirely unique and fascinating person who happens to be Jewish. But she still seems to think of him as the exception. Her racism is unconscious, which she realizes when listening to Marc describing his brother David and finds herself waiting to hear some sort of defining Jewish characteristic in his description, surprised by her surprise that David sounds just like any Gentile:

Evidently it was not going to be anything like as easy as she had thought; you could not rid yourself of layer upon layer of prejudice and preconceived ideas all in one moment and by one overwhelming effort of will. During the past three weeks she had become conscious of her own reactions, but that was as far as she had got. The reactions themselves remained to be dealt with.

She had counted too much on the fact that her prejudices were relatively mild and her preconceived ideas largely unstated…

Erica is a much more forceful presence in the novel than Marc. Marc is rather resigned, beaten down by the world and himself. And yet he is still interesting and quietly competent and forceful, despite this rather melancholy description of him:

There was a lurking bewilderment in his eyes, as though, in spite of all his common sense and most of his experience of living, he still expected things to turn out better than they usually did.

Above all, when that smile went out like a light, his appalling vulnerability became evident, and you began to realize how much strain and effort had gone into the negative and fundamentally uncreative task of sheer resistance – resistance against the general conspiracy among the great majority of people he met to drive him back into himself, to dam up so many of his natural outlets, to tell him what he was and finally, to force him to abide by the definition.

I found Erica incredibly sympathetic and appealing. At twenty-eight, she has a successful career and is generally respected and admired. But she has no particular interest in working, despite having a talent for it, only having started at the newspaper after her fiancé died when she was twenty-one. What she wants most is a family of her own, though her life seems to have been remarkably romance free prior to the arrival of Marc. But most importantly, she has an incredibly close bond with her father, Charles. They are confidantes and best friends, as well as father and daughter. She brings out the best in him and, we see as the novel progresses, the worst. The violence of Charles’ reaction to Marc has more to do with his terror of losing the person he loves most than with any deeply held anti-Semitic beliefs. The fight scenes between him and Erica are harshly realistic and almost unspeakably cruel – no holds are barred and they each know just where to strike to make it hurt the most.

Graham’s dialogue among Erica’s coworkers was equally well-written, though significantly lighter and quite humourous, reading like something straight out of a screwball comedy. These moments of levity blended well with the otherwise serious tone of the book, since even in the office serious topics are never far off, with the war never far from peoples’ minds. It is always fascinating to read books written and published during the war that deal with issues related to it and Graham touches on almost anything you can think of. Anti-Semitism, clearly, is the main issue discussed, with Marc’s insistence that racism in North American has gotten significantly worse over the past decade, that even as people were ignoring Hitler’s militaristic aims they were listening and sympathizing with his racial slurs.  But there is also much said about French-Canadians and their attitudes towards the war and in Miriam, Erica’s younger, divorced sister just arrived in Montreal after years in London, we see the effect of witnessing the war up close and the way the first-hand knowledge of death has made her pursue physical passion at the expense of emotional love and intimacy.

While Graham’s views regarding marriage and religion may no longer be controversial, her determination to expose Canadian anti-Semitism, and her willingness to suggest connections between Canadian attitudes and the Nazi regime at a time when the true horrors of the Holocaust were starting to be uncovered, remains remarkable.

29 June 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

29 June, 1945      1040

Nancy

My dearest sweetheart –

It’s a rather cool, dull day today, but it has been fairly busy here this morning so far, and I haven’t minded too much. I haven’t heard from you since we hit this place, but mail started to trickle in yesterday. Once it gets going, we’ll get really good service and I should start hearing from you regularly again. I did get one letter yesterday – a V-Mail from Verna Fine – written 19 June. She’s still expecting us down – to spend part of our “honeymoon” – (what a lovely word!) and she said she hoped she wasn’t assuming too much. She wasn’t, as far as I’m concerned, darling – although I don’t suppose we’d be spending it there. It’s such a nice subject to think about though.

I had a fairly busy day yesterday. In the p.m. I had to take blood tests on our civilian help – just to make sure they didn’t have Syphilis. That’s always a good precaution when you’re in France. The rate is high. I went up to the General Hospital near here to see if they’d do the tests and while there I thought I’d walk over to the O.P.D. to meet the MC in charge – because I send all my hospital patients through him and it’s better if I know him. I was pleasantly surprised when I walked in and saw a fellow I hadn’t seen in six years. He was a resident at the Beverly Hospital when I was an intern there – and I hadn’t run across him since. He lives in Rochester, N.Y., name – Dave Ennis, and a pretty nice guy. We had a swell chat, reminiscing, and talking about a good many mutual friends. He knew the whereabouts of some, and I of others. His outfit has been in France ever since they hit the continent. It was really nice running into him. I’m going to have him over for dinner some night and he asked me to come up and do the same at his place.

The evening was quiet – as usual and we sat around listening to the radio and gabbing. I have a really comfortable room, plenty of space, good lighting etc – and since we have to stay for an indeterminate length of time, I’m going to try and make it as livable as possible. I managed to dig up a large rug, and I’ve got a couple of small tables, bed lamps, and 4 chairs. It’s not bad. Of course – there are no curtains, dear, but what the heck – this is summertime – and I can do without them. Non? Oui! And now I’m forgetting my German again and trying to pick up my French. I’ve forgotten a lot of it but it comes back easily – although I never did know French as well as I know German. Incidentally – quite a few people here speak German – this being Lorraine and bordering on the Alsace-Lorraine district that was under German domination from about 1870 until the last war.

Yup – when I finally arrive, sweetheart, I’ll put in a call to you immediately – as you suggested. I’ll probably give the operator your number and that of my home and take whichever comes first and then make the second call. Whichever it is – I’ll tell them (my folks) or you not to call the other because I want it to be a surprise – in either case. All American money had to be turned in in England. I kept one American dollar bill – so I’d have something with which to make a call. That was looking ahead a bit – but some day it may pay off. They’ll probably exchange our money before then, though. And, darling, I’ll tell you I love you, all night – just wait and see. I’ll like nothing better. Boy – I can hardly wait for that experience. Gee – I hardly remember what your voice sounds like – dammit, it’s a shame to say it – but it’s true. And then to be able to see you, hold your hand, kiss you – well, I don’t know sweetheart – maybe I’ll be the one who collapses. Just the thought of it is so very very stimulating!! Am I ever going to love you!!

And now, again, darling, I’ll say “so long”. Be with you again tomorrow. Until then, dear, hold my love, love to the folks – and don’t forget,

I’m yours – for always

Greg

28 June 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

28 June, 1945      1000

Nancy

Dearest darling Wilma –

I’m sorry I had to rush away yesterday, but I was busy and I just had to get some things done – and on schedule. I did. It involved going down to Metz (about 40 miles from here) and setting up a sort of sub-aidstation – with the dental officers in charge. Metz, by the way, is hardly beat up at all. I was surprised, remembering the description of the bloody battle for Metz. But apparently it involved the Forts – and very little more.

Here at Nancy we’re becoming pretty well organized. Our men have taken to their M.P. duties quite well, and so far, there’s little trouble. There are a couple of airborne divisions here in town and they sure know how to act up – officers as well as men.

Last night about five of us started out to go to the movies and instead we went to the Red Cross Club for officers. It was quiet – no drinks except coke and coffee, so we didn’t stay long. In the same square we found the Lorraine Officers’ Club. They have a bar and drinks must be without a profit because Cognac, for instance, was only 10 francs. Civilian prices are 50 fr. The also have a dance floor and apparently run dances every so often. We managed to wander all over town. It closes up tight at 2300 – so we went home. I guess if we ever feel like tying one on, we’ll have to do it at home.

Well, darling, your story of the “beetle bug” and its landing on a spot where it had no business landing – only proves one thing: you need a man around you to take care of details like that – and others – and I’m that guy! Well – I used to hate bugs etc – and I still do; living in a foxhole at night teaches you to overcome the feeling of revulsion because you just can’t do a thing about it. Boy – a year ago this time – we were really in a fog. We were still up in the peninsula, everything was new including the war – and they were really trying days. If there are any letters of mine that I would like to review – it will be those of the early days in Normandy.

It’s too bad I didn’t know Phil was interested in a reflex camera before this. Many of the boys when we were in Germany managed to “liberate” a good many of that type. They’d hold onto them until they were broke and then sell them at a reasonable price. I never bought one because I had a fair camera and was getting decent enough pictures. Back here in France you don’t see any and of course – they’re impossible to buy. But I’ll be on the lookout for one. I would have to bring it home. They can’t be mailed.

You really make my mouth water, darling, when you write about the Cape. By the way, do you like the water, and do you swim, dear? I can’t remember your ever telling me about it – or my asking. And Stan and Betty will be able to make it? Do you mean to visit Verna and Irv? I thought when they parted – it wasn’t on the best of terms, or am I old-fashioned? I would like nothing better than to come home and be able to do the same thing, sweetheart, although I rather feel I’d like to be alone with you most of the time. I’ve got to get to know you in person, too, dear – and that will be the only way. But right now I haven’t the slightest idea whatsoever – when I’ll be coming home. I know only that I’m not on the way to the Pacific – and I will get home to see you and I hope – to marry you, too. Because I love you, darling, more than anything else in the world and that’s all I care about. It sure would be swell to know that once I go back – I would stay. Perhaps I will. Meanwhile, dear, try to hold out a little longer – just as I’m doing. It’s bound to come sometime and I know it will all have been worthwhile. So long for now, darling, and love to the folks. Regards from Pete, by the way, and you have

All my sincerest love

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about The Battle of Luzon


The capital of the Philippines, Manilla, is on the island of Luzon

From the web page of The Stamford Historical Society came this:

The Battle of Luzon was fought on the island of Luzon in the northern Philippines and pitted the Allied forces under General Douglas MacArthur against a large Japanese force under Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita, noted for his capture of Malaya and Singapore. Because of the vital nature of the Philippines as a key route to sources of rubber and oil as well as the proximity of the islands to Japan, the Japanese High Command had reinforced the islands with a total of 430,000 troops distributed across the islands, 260,000 of which were on Luzon. The destruction of much of the Japanese carrier fleet earlier in June 1944 at the battle of the Philippine Sea and the subsequent loss of the remaining surface fleet in October at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, with the additional destruction of Japanese air power, left the defense of the Philippines in the hands of ground based forces.

As Leyte Island was still too distant for efficient preparations against Luzon, MacArthur made the decision to seize Mindoro, an island half the size of New Jersey and lightly defended by the Japanese. Mindoro was invaded by the U.S. forces on 15 December 1944. Despite kamikaze attacks, the landings were otherwise unopposed as there were only 1000 Japanese troops on the island. Airfields were seized by the end of that first day and preparations began for the taking of Luzon.

On 9 January 1945 General Krueger’s 6th Army landed at Lingayen Gulf with 175,000 men. The 8th Army commanded by General Robert L. Eichelberger landed at Subic Bay on 29 January and at Batangas on 31 January. Ultimately ten U.S. divisions and five independent regiments would see action on Luzon, making it the largest campaign of the Pacific War, involving more troops than the U.S. had used in North Africa, Italy or southern France. These attacks trapped the Japanese defenders in a giant pincer movement, but they put up bitter resistance at the battles for Manila, Balete Pass and the Cagayan Valley. Yamashita’s forces, despite their large number, were under-supplied with artillery, armor and other equipment, forcing him to fight a delaying action against the Americans with no real hope of victory. As such, Yamashita withdrew to mountainous zones, where the terrain afforded him some degree of protection and advantage.

But the mountains did not provide the desired protection. In the video below, troops of the 11th Airborne Division coordinate air and artillery attacks before moving up Hill 2380 in Luzon, April 1945. This film was shot "live" with sound, unlike the majority of WW2 combat films, which were usually shot silent and had sound effects added later.

The Stamford Historical Society continues:

On 28 June 1945 MacArthur's headquarters announced the end of all organized Japanese resistance in the Philippines. Pockets of enemy resistance continued for many months thereafter. American POWs were freed at Santo Tomas, Cabanatuan, Los Banos and Baguio. On 15 August General Yamashita surrendered with 50,500 troops.

Yamashita following his surrender

Japanese casualties were about 230,000. The American forces suffered 10,380 killed and 36,550 wounded. There were also 93,400 non-combat casualties including 260 deaths, most from disease.

27 June 1945

V-MAIL

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 339 % Postmaster, N.Y.

27 June, 1945      1115

Nancy

Hello Sweetheart !

Yes! Yes! another V-mail – but I really haven’t abused them. I got a late start today – meeting, conferences (I sound like you) and right after lunch I have to go down to Metz and look the set-up over there to see that all is going along well.

The Colonel and I played Bridge at the neighbor’s house last nite. I played with the Mrs. and we lost. They play a mixture of auction and contract and they keep score the old way. But the bidding is pretty much the same – and since it is, I now put in a bid for your hand, sweetheart! Think it over! Incidentally – clubs – are trefle, diamonds – cameau, hearts – couers, and spades – piques. Anyway you look at it, though – I love you dearly and want to marry you – and as far as I’m concerned – that’s 7 no trumps (sans attut), doubled, redoubled and vulnerable – and made! All for now darling – love to the folks – and

All my love is yours –

Greg

* TIDBIT *

about To Bomb or Not to Bomb
(continued)


Ralph A. Bard
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Feb. 1941-June 1944
Under Secretary of the Navy, June 1945-June 1945

Ralph A. Bard was a member of the Interim Committee, the small, secret government advisory group on the atomic bomb and nuclear energy. The Interim Committee's purpose was

to study and report on the whole problem of temporary war controls and later publicity, and to survey and make recommendations on the post war research, development and controls, as well as legislation necessary to effectuate them.

On June 1, 1945, the Interim Committee had recommended to President Truman

that the bomb should be used against Japan as soon as possible; that it should be used on a war plant surrounded by workers' homes; and that it be used without prior warning.

But Bard continued to think about whether there was a better way to win the war against Japan. And on June 27, 1945, he wrote a memo for Secrtary of War Henry Stimson that contained the results of his thinking. For the rest of his life, Bard insisted that this approach would have been better than using atomic bombs on the people of Japan.

The following is the complete text of Bard's 6/27/45 memo from the National Security Archive of George Washington University. A few notes of explanation: "S-1 bomb" means atomic bomb. The "three-power conference" refers to the Potsdam Conference between the leaders of the Great Britain, Russia, and the U.S., scheduled to begin on 7/16/45. "Russia's position" refers to the likelihood of Russia soon declaring war on Japan. "Assurances... with regard to the Emperor" referred to telling Japan that they could keep their Emperor, whom they believed to be a god.

CLICK TO ENLARGE



MEMORANDUM ON THE USE OF S-1 BOMB
by: Ralph A. Bard, Undersecretary of the Navy
to: Secretary of War Stimson
June 27, 1945

Ever since I have been in touch with this program I have had a feeling that before the bomb is actually used against Japan that Japan should have some preliminary warning for say two or three days in advance of use. The position of the United States as a great humanitarian nation and the fair play attitude of our people generally is responsible in the main for this feeling.

During recent weeks I have also had the feeling very definitely that the Japanese government may be searching for some opportunity which they could use as a medium of surrender. Following the three-power conference [Potsdam Conference emissaries from this country could contact representatives from Japan somewhere on the China Coast and make representations with regard to Russia's position and at the same time give them some information regarding the proposed use of atomic power, together with whatever assurances the President might care to make with regard to the Emperor of Japan and the treatment of the Japanese nation following unconditional surrender. It seems quite possible to me that this presents the opportunity which the Japanese are looking for.

I don't see that we have anything in particular to lose in following such a program. The stakes are so tremendous that it is my opinion very real consideration should be given to some plan of this kind. I do not believe under present circumstances existing that there is anyone in this country whose evaluation of the chances of the success of such a program is worth a great deal. The only way to find out is to try it out.

[Signature]
RALPH A. BARD

27 June 1945

26 June 1945

438^th AAA AW BN

APO 513 % Postmaster, N.Y.

26 June, 1945      1045

Nancy, France

My dearest sweetheart –

Well, I didn’t write you yesterday and as usual – the reason was because we were on the road. I doubt if any outfit in the Army has moved as often as this one. At any rate, dear, we left Reims, traveled 130 miles east and here we are. I hated heading back in the general direction of Germany again – but directions don’t mean much. When the time comes to go – I’ll go swiftly – from any corner of France.

The set-up for the officers is swell. We have a large private home and the dental officer and I share a tremendous room, with closets, shelves, large windows which open outwards, and roller type sun shades. By the way – I’ve never mentioned the new dental officer. We got him – the last days in Leipzig; he’s Jewish and from Brooklyn – but he seems to be of a much nicer type than our previous dentist with the same combination. He’s married, and about the same age as I.

Well – to go on – the house has a front porch, and rear and side patios, back lawn etc; there are 3 bathrooms and a couple of other washrooms besides. But get this, darling – we’re running our own officers’ mess for the 15 of us and we have two full time French cooks and two waiters. We also have outside help to do our room – in the persons of German prisoners. Incidentally – German prisoners are being used all over France. The master race doesn’t look too proud, either.

So here we are, dear, and for how long – I don’t know. No one here at Hq knows. Our Colonel is Provost-Marshall of the City and our boys are the M.P.’s – that’s Baker and Charlie batteries. Able and Dog are doing the same at Metz. Nancy has a population of 125,000 and is quite modern because it was badly beat up in the last war. There’s practically no damage from this one. It has been called “the little Paris” – but so far, I don’t know why. Last night we spent in fixing up our room and it looks fairly nice considering everything. I managed to find a rug, couple of small tables etc.

The Colonel and I were talking – out front - and a neighbor came over to say “hello.” He asked us over – he has a beautiful home – and we met his wife. They have a couple of kids – 8 and 10 yrs old and we spent a nice hour or so. We found they played Bridge and they asked us over tonite to play. It’s next door.

The latest letter I have from you, sweetheart, is dated 15 June and which I received before we left Reims. That’s not bad, either. And you discussed marriage, etc. – in it. I’ve been waiting for you to mention the subject. I’m pleased with what you had to say, too, dear. I haven’t wanted to pin you down or anything like that. But I didn’t know exactly how you felt, for instance, about my coming home and having to leave. I wanted to know if you’d marry me – all other factors being O.K. I realize we’ve been apart a long time, darling, and that there’ll be a few things we’ll want to see about – to see how things shape up – etc. But if all things do seem to be all right – I feel we ought to marry, regardless of my next assignment. I gather, dear, that you feel the same – and it makes me very happy to know that – because it’s the one thing in the world I’ve been thinking about since the war was over. And I honestly believe everything will work out all right, too, because first of all and most important – we love each other and we’ve got a lot of good time behind us – I mean testing time – and we’ve proved we can take it. Families, problems, details – I’m sure will seem easier once I get back – and so, sweetheart, here’s to an early return and us.

And now I’ve got to go and take care of many details – water supply and whether it’s potable, V.D. rate, prostitution – etc. etc. Be well darling, and patient a little longer. We’ll make it up. So long, dear and love to the folks.

All my sincerest love –

Greg

25 June 1945

No letter today. Just this:

Here are some photos Greg took while in Reims

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Reims - Bill Bowman, Bruce Silvus and George Thiessen - June 1945


Reims - Joan of Arc - June 1945


Reims - June 1945


Reims - June 1945


Reims - School where Armistice was signed - June 1945


Reims - War Room where Armistice was signed - June 1945


Reims - Interior of Reims Cathedral - June 1945


Reims Cathedral - June 1945


Reims Cathedral - June 1945


Reims from the Cathedral - June 1945


Reims from the Cathedral - June 1945


And one missed from Leipzig in May of 1945!

Greg