August 6, 1945
(Derdingen, Ger.)
Dear Mudder and Dad,
To be perfectly frank I don’t feel like writing tonight but I owe you a letter and so here it is. There is really quite a bit to write about but it’s so hazy and indefinite that I just don’t. Sometime this week we are supposed to be alerted. That simply means that we’ll be told where and when we’ll be leaving. Semi-official rumor has it that we’ll leave France for home in late October and will be in the Pacific by late January. However the latter part of that is merely supposition. I know because everyone here from his own experience knows troops can’t be moved that quickly. Ships don’t go that fast. However the first part of the report is probably true. This, of course is way ahead of schedule but events in the Pacific are moving so fast that it is inevitable. My only fear is that Japan will begin to go to pieces so rapidly that we will be sent direct. There’s not much chance of it but it’s always a possibility. However, there’s a good chance that I’ll be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Let’s just pray that Japan folds before I even get home from here.
(Derdingen, Ger.)
Dear Mudder and Dad,
To be perfectly frank I don’t feel like writing tonight but I owe you a letter and so here it is. There is really quite a bit to write about but it’s so hazy and indefinite that I just don’t. Sometime this week we are supposed to be alerted. That simply means that we’ll be told where and when we’ll be leaving. Semi-official rumor has it that we’ll leave France for home in late October and will be in the Pacific by late January. However the latter part of that is merely supposition. I know because everyone here from his own experience knows troops can’t be moved that quickly. Ships don’t go that fast. However the first part of the report is probably true. This, of course is way ahead of schedule but events in the Pacific are moving so fast that it is inevitable. My only fear is that Japan will begin to go to pieces so rapidly that we will be sent direct. There’s not much chance of it but it’s always a possibility. However, there’s a good chance that I’ll be home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Let’s just pray that Japan folds before I even get home from here.
I feel sorry for the Japs even if they do act so brutal. I’ve seen what total war is on this side and it’s only a taste of what Japan is blindly walking into. The feeling here rightly or wrongly is that Russia has something up her sleeve. Russians in this area are out and out in declaring that Russia will jump all over the DESPISED JAPS at the right time. The Germans claim Japan is insane for not accepting our generous offer and say Germany would have surrendered in ’43 to such terms.
Next Saturday we’re going to some little town about 60 miles away and fire weapons and have a general review of basic training insofar as weapons and marksmanship is concerned. By the way, I’m burned up because they say here they have no verification of my being an Expert Rifleman.
That’s about all. I hope my mail is coming through better now.
Best Love,
Bill
Imagine the anxiety of these men before the Bomb was delivered....The thought of being sent to
ReplyDeleteanother War after the one in Europe was done.
I know the feeling. My Battalion was to go to the South Pacific at the beginning of November.
A few Port outfits actually left.
Solfine
As my dad says in this letter he felt sorry for the Japanese having seen the devastation in Europe, but he was forever grateful to Harry Truman for authorizing the dropping of the atomic bomb. Who can blame him? It must have been quite a moment to realize that you were not going to have to invade Japan and that the war was finally about to end.
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