May 22, 1945 Plauen, Germany Dear Grandparents, A rainy evening is a pretty good time to get a job done that I’ve been needing to do for quite a while now. Praise God that this part of the war is over and I’ve got a little more time for things of this nature. I was very happy to get your letter of May 7 last week. I suppose that school’s being out makes you feel a little like I felt when things settled down a little over here. It makes you feel that you can do things just a little more the way you want to. Just as in your case, the work hasn’t ceased but you feel better towards it. You can see that restrictions have been lifted from several things now that it’s over. We can now say definitely where we’re at. Just in case you can’t find Plauen it’s almost on the border of Czechoslovakia. We were about forty miles further east but we moved back a little to be out of the Russian zone. If you’ve been reading the letters I’ve been sending home you know by this time that I had a little vacation about a week ago. I had a pass to Paris and got to see a few sights while resting up a bit. The ride to and from there was long and hard but if for no other reason it was worth it just to see the interesting and historical places in Paris. I also saw a few things between here and there that you would miss when you only came through once. The main roads that are traveled now naturally run through several large towns. I hope everything back in Indiana is progressing satisfactorily. I hate to miss Richard’s commencement but it can’t be helped. May the Lord bless you. He certainly has been good to me. Your grandson, Donald
This is scanned in color because he mentions his new (blue/purple) pencil. This was in an envelope postmarked June 3, but addressed using the same pencil, so possibly it got held up in the mail.
May 20, 1945 Germany Hello all, Don’t think I am getting extravagant doing all this writing in one day. The other letter I dated the 20th I really wrote last night. This is the first I have written today. By the way how do you like my new pencil. It is something that was in a captured warehouse. I was using it tonight when I was helping the mail clerk re-address some letters to boys in the hospital. It wrote so easily that I decided to write a letter with it. (It looks like a carbon copy doesn’t it?) You can see that I got your letter of May 1 today because I am using the air mail paper you included. I had received later letters but this cleared up a few questions in my mind so I was very pleased with it. You asked if I had ever got any of Ben’s letters. As I remember I have gotten one of them and I wrote to him once not so long ago. I expect I ought to write him again. I knew at the time that it would sound crazy about that prisoner deal (guarding them and writing at the same time) but I guess that’s why I mentioned it. But that actually wasn’t such a complicated situation. Most of those guys were soldiers who had been wounded and were at home recuperating. They just couldn’t get out of town when we came in and weren’t very likely to cause trouble. An order just came out that we can now tell you where we are and I expect you would be interested. I know you can find Plauen, Germany on the map. Well if you could find the Plauen airport at the little town just outside or Plauen, you’d have my exact spot. We’re living in tents as we’ve always done but it’s pretty nice weather now and not bad at all. An airport makes a nice area to bivouac in but of course when it rains there aren’t any hills for the water to drain from. If your tent happens to be on ground that’s an inch or so lower than the next spot you’re liable to have to move out of a puddle of water. I got to go to church again this morning. I hope that since the war is over, we will be able to have services more regularly. Our company is away from the rest of the battalion and we had a service of our own this morning. Consequently the crowd was pretty slim and it almost was like being at a prayer meeting at home. It was such a nice little get-together and the chaplain talked on such a good subject that I got a lot of good from the service. The theme of his talk was God’s wrath on the evils that we see around us. Boy he really brought it down to our present situation. I learned something tonight that made me feel a little better about my silver star’s not getting home yet. I had told the mail clerk to insure it for me and thought I had paid him for it. But I never had been given any receipt so in had no proof. He asked me tonight if it ever reached home and so I was asking him about it. We got to figuring on the date, etc. and he found my receipt. So now if it doesn’t get home I’ve got a little proof on my side. Well I’m about to run down for now. Hope things are running smoothly back there. God be with you all. Love, Donald
May 20, 19451Apparently actually writen the night of May 19 Dear Mother, As I said in Mary’s letter this isn’t a letter but just a note of explanation. This handkerchief too came from Paris but I am not at all satisfied with it. It was just impossible to get anything at all suitable. I got handkerchiefs because I could send them in a letter and also because there was hardly anything else worth getting. So just to make up for it a little I am sending you one of these awful pictures. They weren’t very expensive so I had another bunch taken in hopes of getting something better. They are mailing these to me and if the are any better I want you to throw this one completely away. You’ll just have to overlook the many faults. Love Your son, Donald I almost had a notion not to even show you these pictures at all.
May 18, 1945 Germany Hello Folks, I am going to start this while I have a little time this evening but no doubt it will be tomorrow before I get it finished. The main reason for writing tonight is to sort of half way answer some of the questions that you have asked me. Since I got so many letters at once (8 in case you didn’t get the letter I wrote this morning) when I got back from Paris, I’ll be sure to miss some of the things I might have said if I had received them singly. One of the things I remember that mother wanted to know was how many battle stars do I have on my EJO ribbon. I guess the reason I remember it is because we have been discussing that question recently in connection with the point system for discharges. As yet we have not been issued any stars but we’re pretty sure of at least two. The list I saw the other day said that there would be stars issued for the following campaigns: Normandy, northern France, southern France, Ardennes and Germany. We certainly fought in the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Germany and we fought about two weeks in the Saar before that. I don’t know whether that will be considered as part of one of the campaigns of France or not. We did do some fighting in France but that may turn out to be a donation as far as stars go. Daddy seemed to be worrying a little bit about changing things while I am gone. We’ve been wanting to get a little remodeling done on the house for so long that I’d feel bad if you didn’t do it now that you have a chance. It’s even more pleasure to look forward to seeing something better than it is to think about seeing the same old things. Don’t take me to mean that seeing familiar sights won’t be good though. I can see that what mother said about Jim’s growing is sure true. The picture of him in the basketball suit shows quite a change. It would be a shame if he didn’t grow though. I am very interested in what is happening and will happen to Richard. It looks as if he certainly will have a high school record to be proud of. Being valedictorian and getting the scholarship is sure getting his honors off to a good start. Maybe this should have been a letter congratulating him. I guess that's even better than a guy could really ask for. Richard’s course in chemical mathematics sounds interesting to me. He mentioned about using the slide rule a little. It has passed through my mind several times that I would like to know a little about that instrument. I’d be interested in getting a little pamphlet or anything that might enlighten me a little on this subject. Don’t go to any trouble and be sure not to send anything that Richard will be able to use. It’s getting almost dark so I think I’ll sign off for tonight. Hope things are OK. back there. I sure hope that Dad is coming along with his job. Goodnight
May 19 If I am guessing correctly, this should be Richard’s last day of high school work. Perhaps this won’t get there till after commencement but I sure want to send my congratulations. I wish it were possible for me to attend the commencement. You’ll just have to understand the circumstances and forgive the fact that I don’t even send a graduation present. I sure would like to be where I was this time last year. A year is a very long, long time to be away from home. I hope that I never have to spend another year like the last one. One does get pretty lonesome for home but letters etc. do help out a lot. I got quite a thrill out of that box yesterday and the day before. The mail didn’t bring me anything yesterday so I’m sort of looking forward to mail time today. Be good and God bless you. Your son and brother, Donald
May 18, 1945 Hello Folks, Could you guess what I’ve been doing? I’ve been to Paris. I didn’t intend to let all the time slip by without writing at least one letter but I just didn’t get it done. When I wrote you on the morning of the eighth I had no idea when I was leaving. But no sooner than I got the letter finished and I was off. I just got back yesterday evening so you can see that there is a good bit of traveling time to spend three days in Paris. We did spend one night going each way at a rest camp in Belgium. Trucks took us from here to the rest camp and then it was a train ride from there on. Five hundred miles by truck sure was a long, hard, dirty ride. I did have an enjoyable stay though in Paris. The Red Cross furnished a place to stay and your meals. It only cost me 40c a day for a room and 20c for each meal. With food conditions like they are, eating would be quite a problem if it weren’t for this. There was nothing that one would want to buy except some souvenirs and you can just about guess what sort of a hold-up price they charge for things like this - about six times what it is worth. You could see movies for nothing, ride the subways for nothing and get your necessities through the army or the Red Cross so the trip cost very little. Lots of army men spend enormous sums in Paris but it’s always on something to drink or something along that line that’s no good at all to them. I spent one afternoon on a sight seeing trip so that I could see the interesting places that I might never find for myself. The Red Cross sponsored this also so you can see they do a pretty good job of making your pass interesting. I'll send you the leaflet telling about the trip rather than try to list the places myself. In the letter you wrote on V-E day you wondered how I would be spending the day. I believe that starting to Paris was a pretty good way of ending the war. I got eight letters and a package from you last night but I'm not going to try to answer the letters this time. I want to be sure this gets in the mail today I was happy to hear about Richard’s scholarship. Congratulations. The package was mailed April 6. I have opened one of the cases inside of it and it turned out to be divinity fudge. That sure made me mad! We’re living a pretty easy life right now. Most of the outfit is guarding captured equipment. I don’t know anything about the future and don’t suppose I could tell you if I did. Of course, everyone is trying to guess about it. I’m going to sign off on this and get it started on its way. I think I’ll start another letter to you before the day is over. Be good and God bless you. Love, Donald
Map of 87th Division in Europe from arrival to VE Day
Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. From the 346th History
Orders were received on May 5 for a limited objective attack the next morning. So Third Battalion jumped off at 0830, meeting some small arms fire and a few rounds of artillery. Plans for the following day’s attack were stopped at 0525 on May 7 by a message from the Division Commander reading: “Sit tight, hold what you have, accept any surrenders. “
GERMANY SURRENDERS
At 0945 May 7 the following message was received from the Division Commander: “Representatives of the German High Command signed the unconditional surrender of all German land, sea, and air forces to the Allied Expeditionary Forces and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command at 0700, 7 May 1945 under which all forces will cease active operations at 0900, 7 May 1945. Effective immediately all offensive operations cease. Troops will remain in present positions. Moves involved in occupational duty will continue. Due to difficulty in communications, there may be some delay in similar orders reaching the enemy troops, so full defensive precautions will be taken.”
The commander of a German Artillery Battalion came through the lines to arrange surrender of his unit to the Second Battalion at 0500 in the morning. The German colonel did not know at the time of the surrender that the war had ended.
May 8 found the Regiment accepting the Artillery Battalions surrender at 0500 as previously arranged.
May 8, 1945 Germany Dear Folks, Yesterday sure was a great day for me. We attacked on the sixth1This would have been the attack described from the point of view of the 347th Regiment on page 11 of this document, but it mentions that the 346th was also involved. and were supposed to shove off again yesterday morning. But instead of receiving an attack order, we were ordered just to stay where we were. Then a little after ten o’clock we got the news that the Germans had signed unconditional surrender. Even though it doesn’t take effect officially till tomorrow, it meant that we were though fighting. Boy oh Boy! What a feeling. The Lord has certainly been good to me. I’ve got lots to thank Him for. The “Stars and Stripes” also brought us some pretty good news yesterday. It said that over half of the combat troops would get a furlough back in the States before they are shipped to the CBI2 CBI stands for The China, Burma, India Theater, but evidence shows that it was used by the soldiers in Europe as a term for the Japan/Pacific Theater as a whole. Don’t plan too much on it because there’s just about as much chance against it as there is for it. But wouldn’t that be great! Yesterday also I received a box from you and my name was turned in for a pass to Paris. It was the package containing pop corn and it really hit the spot. The corn was still as crisp as it was when you packed it. It would have done your heart good to have seen the fellows (and me) go after it. I wish I could send the box home and let you fill it up again. If my pass had come a little bit sooner it might have kept me out of a little fighting but I’m glad to get it now. I’ll be going in a day or so. Considering everything that happened, wasn’t yesterday a pretty eventful day for me? Well it looks like Spring again today. Maybe the weather is doing a little celebrating. We’ve really had some pretty rough weather for this late in the season during the past week. There has even been a little snow. I hope it stays nice now. It’s been almost a week now since I got any letters but no doubt there will be two or three when they do come. Hope everything is ship-shape back there. Be good and God bless you. Love Donald
May 5, 1945
Here’s what I almost wrote
May 5, 1925
Dear Family,
I’ve been hoping that the war would be over or something big would happen today. But the big surrender of the Germans in the north and in Holland and Denmark that we got news of last night was about as much of a birthday present as I could expect. Last year at this time I was wondering when I was going to get my furlough and this time I’m wondering when the war is going to be over in Europe. And come to think of it, it’s only ten days less than a year since I was home. I sort of hope that the war here will be over before ten more days.
I’ve sort of been on a vacation for a couple of days now since I’ve been back at cannon company. I can’t quite understand why they wanted me back here but since it’s such a holiday I’m not complaining. There sure is a big difference just to be even no further back than this. Maybe if we were in the midst of the war instead of the tail end of things wouldn’t be quite so settled back here but its almost like having a rest period to me. I am learning a little and sure am hoping that I never have any real need to use my knowledge.
This is really a crazy war now. You don’t know whether to expect it to be over soon or not. You know what sort of stories you hear about victory etc. at home and you can just about imagine how much worse it is here. Really the big question in our minds now is what will happen after Germany is finished. Everyone is dreading the thought about going to the other half of the war. And then if you want to hear some big rumors you should you listen to them about this. I hate to think about it but I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself among those that do go from here to Asia. As far as the army is concerned I guess there’s no big reason why I shouldn’t . The Lord is supreme there too so I’ll just trust him as I have thus far.
As far as my birthday goes, I have received three or four cards from you. If I could get back to the company this evening I expect I would have a couple of letters. And to be truthful a letter with a little news in it is appreciated as much or more than anything that could come.
Mon. Night1May 7
Well I didn’t get this finished at the time I was writing it for the simple reason that I sort of relaxed for a minute and went right to sleep. Then when I awoke we were receiving orders to shove off so that fixed the letter writing. So much has taken place between then and now that I’m just going to sign off on this and start a completely new letter.
Love, Donald
A lot of things have taken place since I last wrote to you - both here and over there. We have covered a whole lot of ground here and we are all trusting that this part of the war won’t last too much longer. The prospect of having to go to the other side of the world after it is over here has us pretty deeply concerned, but I know that the Lord reigns supreme there too. He has certainly been close to me over here. Back there Maurice has left for the Navy and your work is finished up once again. You had to work hard to keep up with the job and I am hoping that it will be possible for you to rest up a bit now that it is over. Perhaps it doesn’t sound very patriotic to my branch of the service to say that I am glad that Maurice got into the navy but that is what he wanted and anyway I had told Richard that he should consider the Navy if he had to put on a uniform. Well Ben had a birthday the other day and tomorrow will be mine. The Lord willing we’ll celebrate at home next year. God be with you. Your grandson, Donald
This is scanned in color because it is written on the back of a letter from his father1also scanned, see the post for April 14 and is more legible in color.
April 29,45 Hello again (this is Jack Benny) I have often thought of this but never actually did it before. But since this is airmail paper and my supply is just a little short, I hope you won’t mind. I feel sure that you will be writing to me today so since I can, I guess it’s only fair that I should write you. In my last letter I mentioned all the mail from you up to the one I am writing on (April 16): I can’t complain too much when write you on the first of the month and before the month is over hear that you received it. Perhaps I might try answering a few of your questions. Daddy wanted to know if stories about prison camps are true. I have never seen any of these that our boys have been in but from what I have seen of the way the Russian prisoners were treated, there is little doubt in my mind about the truth of the stories. There have been scores of times that we have found American Red Cross packages in German hands. They were intended for our boys but never reached them. About sending me sox once in a while. We are usually pretty fortunate in getting clean sox. We trade our dirty pairs for clean ones and they are sent back to be laundered. We generally get changes about twice a week and I try to keep an extra pair in my pocket so that I can do a little laundering for myself once in a while. However, sometimes things slip and it’s a good while before you get a chance. I won’t say not to send a pair occasionally but just to use your own judgement. Mother mentioned how nice it would be to meet someone I knew and if I’ve told you about either one of these just overlook my forgetfulness. I didn’t know either one of these but I have run onto (in this regiment) a boy from Muncie and one from down around Markleville somewhere. You might even recognize the guy’s name from Muncie; I’m pretty sure I do. It is McKenzie and he played on the Burris basketball team. He also went to Ball State and played basketball there. Guess what was just about the first thing he asked me when he heard the word Orestes. Did I know Muff Davis. The other fellow I met in Cannon Company. His dad is a big farmer and he said that he had been to Alex several times for 4H affairs. He also said that his mother was great for home economics stuff so you might have seen her name in the paper. His name was Whistler, Joe Whistler I believe. If it’s possible to find people from that close to home, one might run into anybody. I’m sure glad to hear that you have made a start toward fixing the back part of the house. I’d like to be helping on that deal but since I can’t, I’m just glad that it is being taken care of. It sounds sort of familiar to hear Richard tell about his class getting ready for Senior week. I guess it’s just about as much fun to plan for an occasion like that as the actual thing is. Well I hope things are running along as well as usual back there. I guess summer vacation has started now. God bless you all Your son & brother, Donald Oh yes I got to go to church this morning
