March 29, 1945 Dear Folks, Germany I hope you’ll forgive a V-mail this time. If you’ve been reading the papers or otherwise getting the news you’ll understand why I feel lucky to even get this kind of a letter written. Things are moving faster now than I would have ever believed possible an couple of months ago. Even the infantry has to be motorized for an affair like this. We just couldn’t keep up on foot. You wouldn’t have to use much imagination to guess about how well our mail is keeping up with us. We’ve received mail about once in almost a week now. I was lucky that one time though and received a package from you. (Feb 23, I think). I needn’t tell you that it was really welcome. You sent me one thing that I’ve been intending to ask for but don’t think I ever did. That is handkerchiefs. You know how easy it is to ruin them. Send very cheap ones. I don’t care if they’re even made of old feed sacks. But I could use one every week or so. They can be sent in air mail letters. Loads of love, Donald
CROSSING THE RHINE: Training schedules were set up with special attention given to practice in river crossing. On March 23 the Regiment moved to a new assembly area near Oppenhausen, Germany. Company K joined Task Force Sundt, commanded by Lt. Col. Sundt for the purpose of clearing the area East of the Rhine River and spearheading an attack with the armor.
At 0200 hours the morning of March 26th, the Regiment crossed the Rhine at Boppard and moved to an assembly area. The attack continued with light resistance, and the towns of Kehlbach, Singhofen, Frucht, Kondorff, Biebrich, Schonborn, Attenhausen and Birlenbach were captured. The First Army was contacted at Diez near Limburg. The attack was now rolling forward like the Johnstown Flood. Progress was temporarily stopped by the roads being blocked by elements of the Ninth Armored Division and resulted in the entire Division assembled near Kraftsolms to wait until the transportation problem was cleared up.
Following the crossing of the Rhine River, German resistance crumbled to such an extent that it was essential to form a hard-hitting, fast moving armored unit to reach into the German rear areas, disrupt communications, cut up German administrative units and installations. Such a force was organized and placed under the command of Lt. Colonel Harold S. Sundt and was to be known as Task Force Sundt.[…] Units comprising the Task Force were the 607th TD Battalion, less A and C Companies, plus Company A of the 735th Tank Battalion, the 87th Reconnaissance Troupe, K Company of the 346th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Platoon Company C of the 312th Engineer Battalion and supported by fires from the 155 mm howitzers of the 335th FA Battalion. The Task Force was divided into three hard hitting companies plus a CP group. Each company consisted of a platoon of tanks, platoon of TD’s, platoon of infantry, riding on the armored vehicles, and a platoon of the 87th Reconnaissance Troupe. The CP group contained the remaining forces. It crossed the Rhine at Boppard on a pontoon bridge and assembled six miles to the northeast at Dachsenhausen which was the limit of the Division advance.
The Task Force’s first objective was Nastatten, 12 miles southeast of Boppard. At 0545 March 27th the Task Force took off for Nastatten, the plan of attack being to advance along the high ground to Ruppertshaffen. and thence to Nastatten. By 0830 the Task Force had reached Ruppertshaffen, three miles west of Nastatten, where it assembled and regrouped.
The third Task Force Company, under the command of 1st Lt. Glen J. Doman, 346th Infantry Regiment [K Company], made the attack on the town at 0915. […] The infantry under 2nd Lt. Robert L. Picher, 346th Infantry Regiment, [K Company] swept through the town and cleared all enemy resistance […]
[…]
Captured enemy documents and statements of prisoners indicated that the area in the vicinity of Butzbach was an assembly area for stragglers of the Rhine defenses. Accordingly, on March 30 the Task Force received a mission of securing Hoch-Weisel, three miles southwest of Butzbach, and sweeping the woods to the north and west. At 0800 the 3rd Company moved there and the 3rd Reconnaissance Platoon and the Pioneer Platoon occupied positions between Butzbach and the woods to the west. The day was spent sending patrols through these woods. During the day the Task Force destroyed nine 20mm AA guns, eight 37mm AA guns on 21/2 ton trucks, one 40mm AA gun, three 105mm guns, seventeen 75mm AA-AT guns, four 88 AA-AT guns, and twenty-three vehicles. 519 prisoners were taken.
[…]
April 1st found all missions assigned accomplished, the Task Force dissolved and the Battalion assembled near Kleeberg. During the Task Force’s operation, it had taken 1485 prisoners and had advanced 76 miles.
From April 10th to the 20th, Task Force Sundt was reconstituted, again with K Company attached
The dash made by this 2nd Task Force Sundt netted 109 miles and 1344 prisoners in nine days. Once the break was made through the Jerry’s lines, the scene became a mad rush, fighting through or bypassing defenses – speed was the watchword. To stop was to be pinned down; to continue was to crush Jerry’s frugal attempts to delay and leave a string of dead Jerries and burning German vehicles behind. The Germans had pitted the 11th Panzer Division, the so called “Ghost Division” in the 87th Division zone to “stem the tide”, but to no avail. The speed with which the Task Force operated was too great to permit a defensive position to be properly set up. 2 tanks, 11 trucks, 4 half-tracks, 3 armored cars, 6 wagons, 3 tractors, 3 motorcycles, 3-75mm guns, and 1-105mm gun were destroyed in comparison with our losses of 1 tank, 2-M8’s, 1-M20, and 1 half-track.
March 23,'45 Germany Hello People, I don’t know how to start this letter. Perhaps after I once do get going I’ll think of something to say. I know if I could just remember anything that I have thought about to say in the last couple of days there would be plenty to say. To start with I’ll tell you about the clipping I am enclosing. I don’t want to give away any valuable information but I think I can tell you that I was in that very house1This is clearly the story mentioned in the April 1945 clipping about his medal, from the Alexandria Times. That indicates that the newspaper story was based on an interview with his parents the morning the town was taken. Of course at the time we didn’t know the significance of the house but I know this is the one. We had a company CP (Command Post) on the first floor. Just as a matter of interest to you: I had my radio set up in the upper right hand window as you face the house. I later moved it to the window just below it (that is the room where the drug store is located). Also I remember that the engineers were using explosives to move a big tree that had been cut down across the road to block traffic. One of the charges blew the shutters off one of the front windows. Well we’ve had it pretty easy for a while so I expect we’ll be doing something pretty soon. You can always expect something when things quiet down a little. Whenever that time comes when I can’t write for a few days you’ll know the reason. I got a Vmail from you yesterday but it was older than some of the airmail letters I have received. I was in hopes that it would tell me what Richard found out but it didn’t. I’ve been pretty lucky in getting to attend church services in the last few days. There were services that I was able to attend both yesterday and the day before. That’s like a lot of other things - when we are in a position to have services they try to hold enough to last for a while. Let’s not cease to look up for His help. The Lord willing we’ll be seeing each other one of these days. He sure has given me a lot to be thankful for. Love, Donald P.S. We are allowed to tell you that the 87th took Coblenz2Koblenz.
Germany March 20,1945 Hello Folks, I hope you get the letter I finished up this morning a day sooner by my cutting it short as I did. I wanted it to go out today and this one I can’t get started till tomorrow. You’ll forgive the abrupt way I ended the other one. You can see in the other letter that I almost forgot that this is mother’s birthday, too. I just thought of it in time to mention it along the margin. I wish I had a birthday present to send. But what to serve as a birthday present is this. I want mom to wear the tiny pin or bar that came with my silver star till I get back. As I understand it, it is the part of the silver star I can wear after I become a civilian again. I’m sure it can be used for this other purpose, too. It surprised me just a little to hear about the library work at school. I don’t believe that I even knew that Aunt Mary had the job. Hope mother isn’t trying to do too much by taking the job. Boy I’d like to know the late news of Richard’s induction. I’ve read so often that most of the boys are being taken into the army that it almost has me worried. The Lord knows best so be thankful for whatever happens or rather has happened. Daddy talks a lot lately about working in the honey house. I’d sort of like to see how the place looks now. As I remember it was just in the state of being planned when I was home last. And that reminds me of a request I’ve been intending to make for a good while. I left all of my pictures in my duffle bag and I doubt now if I’ll ever see it again. I’d like for you to send me some snap shots. The only one I have now is Richard’s senior picture. I received that after I hit combat. I’d also like permission to trim the pictures that I want to keep so that they will fit into my billfold. When you are taking pictures I wonder if you’d take one of Grandpa and Grandma Carver. I’ve never had a picture of them since I’ve been in the army. Before I get completely off the subject of letters and get started on what I’ve been doing I want to thank you for something you’ve been doing. I really appreciate these little stickers you’ve been using with Bible verses on them. The including of scripture references does me a lot of good. For the last few days I’ve been doing something just a little different. I’ll still have my old job but this will give me a chance to add a little to my knowledge and maybe help out a little. I am back at cannon company learning to be a “forward observer” (F.O.). The regular artillery always has a forward observer with the line companies and we even have an observer in our company for cannon company but I am learning the job so that I could take over in an emergency. To explain the terms a little: cannon company is a small artillery unit that is directly attached to our infantry regiment, and an F.O. is the observer who is right up with the fight where he can see the artillery is hitting and sends messages back telling how to adjust the fire. My other job will also come in handy along this line too. You can easily see that with the artillery pieces a long way back there must be some method of directing the fire. This will make just one more thing that I’ll have a little knowledge of. It’s almost like having a vacation by being back here, too, so I’m getting a little relaxation out of it. Let’s keep looking up. God Bless you all. Love, Donald
Dear Folks, Perhaps this won’t be mailed for a couple of days or so but I’ve just a little time now so I’ll write something or other. I say that because right now I can't think of enough news to really write a letter. I sure hope to be getting some mail one of these days and then at least I’ll have a letter to answer. There’ll be a little handful to read when I get them no doubt. I could almost get a little homesick right now trying to think what may be happening back there. Boy I wish this war were over and I could really be home. I guess that really will be a great day when I can hit the U.S. again. Being 7 or 8 hundred miles from home used to seem like a long distance but now I’d even be glad to be that close. I guess one good we (those of us who really have seen things) are going to get from all of this is the ability to appreciate what we have. After really getting along on nothing for a while even bare necessities are sure appreciated. A chance to clean up and a place to lay down (even if it's only a corner of the floor with a blanket over you) makes you feel like a king. A real vacation at home is something to dream about. Just think sleeping as long as you want, eating all you want of really good cooking and in general just doing what you want to! I can’t complain too much about the last few days though. We’ve been still enough that we can get hot meals and can sleep inside.
March 20 Happy Birthday Mother! This is sure a spread out letter but I’ll get it sent before too much longer now. I finally got some mail yesterday evening. There were four letters from you Feb 23 to March 5. I don’t think I’ll have time this morning to answer them but I was happy to just learn a little about what Richard found out. He has now taken his examination and knows for sure about getting into the Navy. Of course, I’m interested in that. I also got your little box containing the pocket knife. I think I recognize it and sure hope no one sacrificed his personal knife just so I could have one. Thanks. I’ll finish up in the next letter. Love, Donald
The next move came on March 13th as the Regiment with the 735th Tank Battalion moved to the quaint little hamlet of Rubenach, Germany. White flags were now making appearances in all civilian homes. The outfit’s mission was to defend the Rhine-Moselle river line. Cannon Company supported the Regiment by fire from positions near Wolken. An intricate system of patrolling the banks of the Moselle River was set up, so that the bank would be patrolled at least once an hour. Information was seeping in slowly. The Fourth Armored Division said that the German 34th Division was in barracks on the East side of the Rhine at Fort Ehrenbreitstein. PW information brought forth the fact that the enemy was 200 strong on the small island in the Rhine River at the northern part of our sector. Active patrolling was maintained for the next few days. Patrols were sent across the Moselle River into Koblenz and the First Battalion was the first American troops there since the army of occupation from World War I departed.
March 16, 1945 Dear Mother and all, Before I forget it, I want to wish mother a happy birthday. This will be late getting there, I know, but I hope you’ll forgive me. I thought about it before I wrote my last letter but forgot it again when I got around to writing. Lots of things slip up on me and I feel sort of good just to remember a date at all. I see by the date also that three days ago I passed my year and a half mark in the army. I guess I’ve got about five months overseas time in, too. If the situation doesn’t change in another month I’ll be entitled to an overseas stripe. Of course, it wouldn’t make me mad, though, to be back in the U.S. even before another month is up. It’s been about a week now since I’ve had any mail. I’m getting pretty anxious to find out just what Richard is doing. No doubt by the time he is doing something or is about to. It could be (and I sure hope so) that this half of the war might not last too much longer. But things will be far from over even then. We’ll just have to keep our chins up and keep working and praying with our eyes always looking toward the complete finish. One of these days we’ll all be home for good. I’ve been pretty lucky for the last few days as far as work is concerned. That is far from even implying that I haven’t been busy but I think you’ll understand what I mean when I say it hasn’t been too bad. Did you get my V-mail a few days ago telling you that I received a raise in pay? Before my insurance is taken out I should be getting around a hundred dollars a month counting everything. Just to fill space I’ll tell you what I should be getting paid. The base pay for a Sgt. is $78, then I get 20% for being overseas, $10 combat pay (I think), $10 for the combat Infantry Badge and I think and $2 for the Silver Star. Say figuring that all up if I haven’t been misled somewhere it’s a good bit more than I thought! As far as I know I’ll still be doing the same sort of work. Spending most of my time messing with the radio and whatever other communications is necessary to keep things operating. I guess I never really thought when I started to radio school, almost a year ago now, that it would ever really be my job. And not only that it’s turned out to be almost a full time job. All the communications work I do seems simple and routine but I suppose if I realized just how much knowledge I have picked up altogether since I began I wouldn’t feel too bad about it. Let’s keep trusting and praying. It really pays. Love, Your son and brother, Donald
March 12, 1945 Hello Folks, I’ve not much time today so one of these little letters will be my limit. I wouldn’t even try to get this to you if I didn’t want to tell you something. You may already know it by this time, though, if you noticed the address. If you didn’t notice it before, look at the upper right corner of this page.1He had been promoted to Sergeant - bypassing the rank of Corporal. Apparently this wasn't unusual in front line units, which needed to fill holes in squad leadership. What might be a bit unusual is that, based on later letters, he doesn't seem to have moved into a squad leader role - he continues doing radio work. He finished his service as a "Technical Sergeant" (renamed to "Sergeant First Class"/E-7 in 1948) but it's not clear whether this was a promotion to that rank or to E-5. It is possible that this is related to the training he mentions on March 20 to be a forward observer, maybe it helped in that role to have some rank, for credibility. If this is my last letter for a few days, and no doubt it will be, I’ll be busy again. Little vacations are wonderful but they can’t last forever. A chance to rest up a little, eat some hot food instead of cold rations, and go to church is about all we have a chance for. But even that much really helps a lot. Of course we also try to write a few letters. Let’s still keep trusting in the Lord to bring us together soon. With His help we’ll be seeing each other. Keep praying and I’ll do the same. Lots of love, Donald
March 10, 1945 Hi People, I am a little surprised to be still where I can write to you today but you can be sure I’m not unhappy about the situation. There are a few things, mostly samples of money, that I’ll send along for you to see. These aren’t anything special but just bills from each country that I happened to have. I hadn’t even intended to send them home but decided the other day that you might be interested. You’ll be able to decipher what country they are from and how much they are worth. These bills are invasion money (printed and backed by our gov’t.). Invasion money is always printed in these two sizes and the larger denominations the size of our dollar bills. That way it fits into our billfolds. European money is printed in a million different sizes and always has to be folded someway or other to fit our pocketbooks. Some of their notes are bigger than this sheet of paper. We had this trouble in England and if we were to use what is printed by the governments on the continent it would be the same thing. There isn’t much new I can tell you as far as news goes. It’s just the same old story of sweating out the time when we start moving again. Yesterday someone was talking about dogs and the thought came to me that it has been a long time since I have heard anything about old Topsy. Is she still around? If she is she should be old enough now I’d think to have lost a little of her puppy pop. I got a whole stack of Tribunes yesterday evening. One bunch of them was from Dec 24 to 27 and the others from the latter part of January. You can see that they come sort of irregularly. Any time there is anything really special even in the Tribune I’ll be glad to receive it as a clipping. Then I’ll be sure to get it and I’ll have it 2 weeks to 2 months sooner. Think I’ll hold on to this letter until after mail time this evening. It's time I was getting a letter again.
5PM Rather than start a new page on this letter I’ll sign off by telling you I got to attend church this evening. I’ll be looking again tomorrow for mail. No luck today. God bless you all. Lots of love, Donald
Dear Folks, There may be a little repetition in this and the V-mail I wrote yesterday but I doubt if you’ll receive them both at once so maybe you can bear to read it again. You can see that I received my package by the paper I am using. Enough other people will help me out on the using of it that I won’t have to take care of it long. Having a box of stationary to use reminds me of being a garrison soldier. I couldn’t use a folder of it a week but you needn’t worry about an occasional one being wasted. Just to be truthful about it I don’t think there was a thing in the box from the home made fudge down to the funny papers that wasn’t enjoyed. The candy and cookies were just too good to be true. It may sound as if I am stretching things but I have a cup of the hot chocolate beside me right now. In the last ten days when I was actually unable to write I received letters from you dated Feb 9, 12 and 26. I think there were at least a couple of others, too, but they got away from me somewhere. No doubt Richard knows a little more about this future now than he did when I last heard. I sure am anxious to know how things turned out. Thanks for the news and all the clippings of the sectional. I’ll bet Jim got a big thrill out of seeing it. I told someone the other day that I would rather be sweating out a good basketball game than going through some of the exciting (if you can call them that) spots we were seeing. I expect you have guessed from the news that things have been happening pretty fast for me the last few days. Well you guessed right. I just came through the longest and perhaps hardest stretch of fighting of any so far. We actually spent a week without ever seeing the inside of a building and then we didn’t even stop when we came to a couple of little towns. I think it would take me a year to catch up on my sleep. Getting only one or two hours a night soon puts you behind. I’m not griping through. I really am glad to see things moving the way they are. In order to make gains it stands to reason that we have to keep pushing along.
10 March Well I sort of got lazy and didn’t get this finished yesterday but maybe by waiting a day longer I’ll be able to give you just a little more news. I guess the biggest reason why I didn’t write more yesterday was because it was pay day. Since I am in Co. Hq. I usually have to help out on things like that. I spent almost all day making out forms for the fellows to send money home. I myself sent $45 home but you can expect it when it arrives as it may take a good while. I am pretty sure you are receiving my bonds & $20 allotments OK but I have never heard from the other I have sent. The first time I got paid I sent it myself by money order and this makes the second time I’ve sent it by govt. Check. Let me know about these things. We got paid in German marks this time. Altogether now I’ve been paid in marks, French francs, and Belgian francs. I also used Luxemburg francs in Luxemburg. Of course our govt prints all we use over here and stands back of it so it won’t lose its value by inflation. The marks we use are know as “invasion marks” and are worth 10c apiece. Our French francs are worth 2c apiece and the Belgium and Luxemburg francs a small fraction of a cent more. In addition to the letters I told you about yesterday I have found (stuck away in my pockets) letters of Feb 7, 14, 16 and 19, so you see I haven’t done too bad recently. I presume you really want me to ask for things to be sent or you would stop asking about it. As I have said so often it's hard to know what to ask for. Did you get the letter (it’s been several weeks ago) in which I asked for a pocket knife and cheap fountain pen? You know how we feel about anything to eat. It's up to you and it really works well but I don’t ask you every time to go to the trouble of packing the stuff in tin cans. But sometime when you are using cans I’d like for you to fill one can with good fresh popcorn. It wouldn’t be a big fill-up bit it sure would do me good. You don’t have any idea how often I think of the endless hours I’ve spent munching popcorn. You also might fill a can with some of your cracker-jack. Just as a further suggestion I often see in packages small cans and jars of stuff that you can find by just keeping your eyes open from grocers shelves. For instance, jars of jelly, any kind of thing that can be eaten cold or heated a little , esp Campbell’s soups or anything you might see. (I used Campbell’s soup just to give the idea rather than even necessarily suggesting it). It doesn’t have to be anything special; in fact plain things are even better. But remember anything I mention is just a suggestion. Be sure to use your own judgement. I still say that the Lord has been most gracious to me. Out of forty that started out together in our platoon, there are five of us left. And three of them have been in the hospital and have returned. He has been with me every step of the way. You’d be surprised to know how much easier it is to go through difficult situations just trusting in Him. Keep praying. Love, Donald
PS - I made a p.s. So you can use this as a different request if you wish. If you use 21/2 size cans you might start one with salty peanuts and finish it with cookies. How about a can of marshmallows? It might even be possible to can up a piece of cake.
