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June 20, 1945:
Today we had twenty-nine men from our company leave for the States.
Two of them were close friends, Leslie Kraft from Racine, Wisconsin,
and Ralph Young from Altoona, Pennsylvania. All of the guys had
eighty-five points or more. Sure hated to see them go and many
of them were sad to leave their buddies that they lived with
for so long.
June 25, 1945:
There are 103 of my buddies on the waiting list to go home. They
all have over eighty-five points. I am a little short. All I
can squeeze out is sixty-six points. So guess I'll stick around
for awhile. I sure hate to see these guys leave. I have become
such good friends with many of them and they treated me so good
when I joined them last August.
June 30, 1945:
Had a letter from my mother. She tells me that brother John has
landed safely in Okinowa. I guess I'll start to sweat him out
just as he did while the fighting was going on over here.
July 6, 1945:
We have been assigned to the 7th Army. This now makes the fourth
different army I have been in. All through the war we were with
the 1st Army (General Hodges) except for a two week period during
the Battle of the Bulge, when we were assigned to the British
2nd Army. Prior to being assigned to the 7th Army, we were assigned
to the 9th Army shortly after our arrival in Gross Gerau.
Today is a very sad day for me and many others.
Eighty-five members of our company left us to head for the States.
The place is quiet and leaves an empty feeling. We are sitting
around in a stupor. Among those that left are Tex Bolt, Carl
Kieffer, and Boyce Key, three of my best friends. There are a
few left but they will soon be leaving. It will be hard to take.
It is surprising just how deeply you can get attached to some
of these guys. I am happy to realize it's a step home for them.
To cheer me up, I received a box of goodies
from Lale. A word about this: I have never mentioned this, but
now that I have time, I will remark about the many, many boxes
that Lale, Mom and Dad, Sis, and others have sent me while overseas.
They were terrific morale builders. After a few early experiences
of receiving crushed and broken packages, Dad devised a foolproof
method. He took a large metal container that Spam came in, and
after neatly packing the contents, he would take a wooden block
and use this to close the end by hammering small nails into the
block. Then he would wrap it up. He taught everyone how to do
this. One of the reasons I was popular was that I seemed to get
more packages than the others. The contents were usually cookies
of all sorts (especially Toll House, because it was my favorite),
candy, which was hard to get over here, an occasional orange
or apple, plenty of gum, cigarettes, and other miscellaneous
items like film, shaving lotion, and an occasional knick-knack.
NOTE TO THE READER: It's extremely important
to remember that all these items were hard to get because of
rationing and Lale and the family were depriving themselves because
of the scarcity of these mentioned items. This was always a highlight
at mail call.
July 8, 1945:
Lieutenant Nebus asked me to drive him to Frankfurt. It reminds
me of a big town in the U.S. on a Sunday night (I mean a big
soldier's town). There are long lines on every street corner
waiting for coffee, donuts, frankfurters or a bus. There are
a heck of a lot of soldiers in Frankfurt because it is the headquarters
of all the U.S. Armies and SHAEFF (Supreme Headquarters of Allied
Expeditionary Forces) are also located here.
Things are gloomy around here since the last
group of buddies left. We received a shipment of eighty new men
from the 6th Armored Division. All of these men have less than
eighty-five points. So once again I am back to square one (where
I was last August). I've got to make new friends.
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