Category: Letters

Friday June 8
19301This would be the time, not the year

Dear Family,
   I intended to do this last night but bedtime slipped up on me before I got it done - To add a little variety to things around here there has been a softball league organized with each company having a team participating. I went to the ballgame right after supper and then after that I worked till dark remodeling my tent a little. Since it gets dark about ten o’clock, it’s not long from then till six in the morning.
   I didn’t hear from you tonight but yesterday I got your letter of May 31. You said that Grandma had received her pictures . I hope you have gotten your’s before this. Do you know what thought passed through my mind when I had them taken? The last time (and it was also the first time) that I had my picture taken and sent it to you, I almost beat it home. Perhaps it might work as some sort of a charm and I’ll get to be home again soon. Maybe the reason I thought of it was because that has been one of the most important topics for discussion for several weeks now. That's just something to hope for and not plan on. I’m not worrying about the time I spend here, though. This may not be a place to be thrilled about but as long as I’m here I’m not in someplace worse. 
   It was good that Ben got to be home once again. Of course, it seems that he always has to have bad luck to get home but it looks as if the Lord is on his side too. There sure is a lot to be thankful for. Since Jim was there at the same time that Ben was home, I suppose he got enough visiting done with Ben to sort of make his furlough seem a little more real to the rest of you.
    Well I seem to have more or less run out of news. I think I told you the other day, didn’t I, that we have moved from where we were near Plauen? I think the name of the town we are near now is Schleitz. But it's only about twenty or twenty five miles from Plauen so we are still in the same general area. This is an assembly area for the whole division and when we came here we thought we would be gone before this time. You never know what to expect.
    It’s not unusual for me to have something other than the regular training to do so I don’t often do the regual drilling. But this afternoon I started on a hike that was supposed to take all afternoon. After we’d been out about an hour it began raining so we turned around and started back. When we got here the sun was shining but we didn’t start out again. So it turned out to be more of a nice little walk for exercise than a tiresome hike.
   How are things coming in Orestes? I wonder if Richard  made the trip to Purdue this week. God bless you all.
                Love, 
                  Donald
I liked that fried chicken offer and if I get a chance I’ll take you at your word.

June 6, 1945
Germany

Hello,
    Tonight there is even less news than usual. Just for a starter though I’ll say that this was really written on the 5th. I guess I was thinking about tomorrow’s being the anniversary of D-day when I wrote the day. I see that Gen. Ike has declared tomorrow an legal holiday but I have not  heard how it will effect us. I guess that naturally the time is getting closer to when we’ll move but no one seems to know anything definite about it. We’re just stalling time trying to train much as we did in the garrison.
---
    Well this is June 6 now. It’s almost 9 o’clock and I just woke up so you can see that this is a holiday. I was side-tracked last night and had to abandon the idea of letter writing. It was more luck than good sense but since it has turned out this way this will get started as soon as if I’d finished it last night.
    I didn’t hear from you last night but I don’t believe I told you about the letter I received the evening before. It was the one that had been written on Sunday just after school closed. That was the second letter that I have got recently that took only seven days to get here. So mail can make pretty good time now. Talking about mail getting home quickly, did anything ever happen to confirm or disprove the suspicion that Ben was back in the United States?
    I was glad to hear in the letter from Richard  that his senior week could be termed successful. So often the activities, especially the class day programs, turn out to be passable but not worth talking about.
    I’ll bet Jim had a big time at Uncle Everett’s. If I were guessing I’d say that he talked a blue streak about it for four days after it was over. How is the building project coming now? Hope you are all OK.
                       Your son and brother, 
                                    Donald

This is written on flimsy 8″x12.5″ paper, folded into a booklet. It’s hard to read in either color or b&w, but color was a bit better. It was in an envelope postmarked May 23, 1945, presumably the wrong envelope.

June 1, 1945

Hello Folks,
    I’ve got something to start with that will interest Daddy very greatly. Day before yesterday when I received the letter that described the little Aladdin stoves you are making. I had never seen them. When we came overseas we were issued a little coleman stove just a little bigger than the Aladdin ones for each squad (12 men). But in the course of combat most of them were lost. And now that we are through fighting they are reissuing all the equipment that we are supposed to have. Well this time instead of getting Coleman stoves the company got a supply of Aladdin stoves. It says Alexandria, Indiana as big as anything on the box and they are just like you described. So it looks to me as if you’re doing real war work this summer. If you could tell me some special parts that your machines make, I could really see what your work is like.
    It’s about seven o’clock (1900) and I am going to church at 7:30 so I won’t get very much in one of this written before then. I’ll have to leave in time to get there. Just in case I don’t get back to writing tonight I want to tell you that I got your letter of May 23 this evening and also your package that contained the salve that I asked for. I sure can’t complain about the way my folks look after me.
    Boy I sure was glad to hear from Wendell. I’ve had experiences but I’m very happy I didn’t have the one he went through. Church. Later. We had a very nice service.
    My daylight lighting system is going to give out pretty soon so I expect the best thing for me to do would be to sign off and go to bed.
    May the Lord watch between me and thee while we are absent from one another.
                 Love,  
                       Donald

This is another one scanned in color because it was written on both sides of folded onionskin paper

May 30, 1945
Plauen, Germany

Dear Folks,
    Perhaps I’ll get this letter written to go out on today’s mail. But if I don’t it’ll go out tomorrow. It’s almost eleven o'clock and it seems for the last couple of days, sort of my slack time. Everything is ready to go except the letters that are to be sent out today and it's hardly time to pick them up yet. Maybe I shouldn’t talk so much about this mail job since it’s only temporary. But it’s the main subject on my mind now and of course topics of immediate interest always make something to talk about. If you get this job learned once, it’s actually not a very big job. Just learning the names of the people and the addresses (or where to send them quickly) of people who are not here is the biggest job.

May 31
    This is sure a big lapse of time and I am sure ashamed of myself for it. To be truthful it is almost exactly twenty-four later then when I started this. I’m going to hurry this and be sure to get it off today. I’ll do my best to make up for this by getting another one started before the day is over.
    The reason why I didn’t get more written yesterday is because everything is moving and we thought we were moving this morning. It was a longer trip to get the mail and I didn’t get back till late and then it took all the rest of the evening to get everything rounded up to move. I think we’ll wind up by moving tomorrow though. This is a short move this time but I’m pretty sure before very much longer we’ll be starting on our final move over here.
    Oh yes. I got two letters from you yesterday evening. May 2 and 23. Pretty good eh? I hope my mail is coming through to you now. I’ve about decided why you had a period of not getting mail from me. There were almost two weeks the first of the month when I was on my Paris trip that I didn’t get any mail written.
    I’ll try to answer your letters the next time I write. Hope things are still OK back there. Be good and God bless you.
                  Love,   
                        Donald

This is scanned in parts, because it was written on the 8×12 onionskin, but not folded into a booklet, so it was too long to fit in the scanner.

Monday May 28,45

Dear Family,
    I don’t know how to start this mostly, I guess, because I haven’t thought about what I’m going to say. Anyhow there isn’t very much that I can say. To start with I’ll tell you that I got a letter from you this evening. It made me especially happy this time because it has been three or for days since I had received any. It was written May 18 and at that time you hadn’t heard from me for quite a while. I hope by this time that my letter have started coming through.
    It sounded as if on the 18th that you were having changeable weather a good bit like ours over here. It finally has settled down enough though that we had one nice day (today). Maybe it will decide to act like summer one of these times.
    I sure hope that the sun did shine a little back there during senior so that you could get a picture of Richard  in his cap and gown. If you haven’t sent them already perhaps it would be well to keep them till things become a little more settled. Keep writing, of course, but anything you wouldn’t want to get tangled up in the mails for a long while had better not be sent. There are all sorts of rumors flying around but anything that seems to be the least bit official seems to think we’ll be doing something soon. Of course, some few people will be staying here but I expect I’ll be traveling. I can’t see any angle that will keep me here. Perhaps - just perhaps - we’ll get to go through the states though. At least it makes something to hope for. If I did get home this summer it would be nice for it to be before Richard leaves for school. But looking at it another way, the longer it takes to get started traveling the longer it’ll take to get there. And I’m in no hurry at all to get started fighting again. I can’t very well take much stock myself in the rumors of Japan's surrendering.
    I’m still doing the job of mail clerk but I’m beginning to get onto it a little more now. It doesn’t quite take every minute of my time as it did in the beginning. Everybody’s beginning to get excited about moving and I’m getting a lot of boxes of stuff they’ve picked up to send home for them. That just makes one more headache for me. 
    Let’s keep looking to God for strength and guidance.
         Your son and brother,   
                         Donald

May 25,1945

Hello Folks,
    Well right now I’ve got another job so I didn’t get to write to you yesterday. I don’t know why but for some reason or other (my main reason was just for something to do) I’ve been helping the mail clerk some since I’ve been back from Paris. Well he was hurt yesterday in an accident on the way back from getting the mail. So it just came natural for me to take over the job. The mail clerk wasn’t hurt too bad - (outwardly at least) so he should be back before too long. This is a good job while the outfit is in a combat but since I couldn’t actually hold the job I’m not so enthused over it. It’s a job for a cpl or T/5 on the books so a Sgt couldn’t hold it. And anyway since I did all the work of communication sergeant in combat I might as well have the job now. It’s just about about the best job in the company when an outfit is in training. The reason why the mail job is so good in combat is because the mailman stays back to take care of the mail and rarely if ever goes up to where the firing is. But I was up there not only doing a hard job but also taking the risk. So to sum it all up I’m glad to do the job temporarily but I doubt if it will be permanent. As I said about the forward observer job, it’s just one more subject that I’ll know a little about.
    I’ve not received any letters from you for a couple of days now so I’ve none to answer. I guess or rather am sure that Richard  graduated last night and if school let out early it is all over by now (9:30 - 6hrs = 3:30). Maybe it’s just winding up at this very minute.
    If you remember I said that I had some more pictures taken in hopes that they would be better. Well I am just a little prouder of them. I’d really rather they would be displayed than the others but it doesn’t make too much difference. I’ll send them in two or three letters  so there won’t be too much weight at any one time. You can do as you please with them but at least I want Grandma Carver to have one of these.
    I got your package of Readers’ Digests and S.S. papers tonight so I think I’ll read just a little bit before I go to bed. This is the first time for a while I’ve had anything to read and now I’ve hardly time to read it. 
    Forgive this messy letter. I tried using German ink and it even stopped up the pen so the other won’t work. God bless you.
      Donald