8/4/2019 Sample from Dearest Letty - 2

1/3

[Malmdy, Belgium]

Oct. ,

My Dearest Letty:

Well, I hope I have time to finish this, but a guy never knows.Anyway, I just had a flock of letters from you and a few other people and

it is high time I tried to answer some of them. Everyone except you and

the family has about quit writing to me. They cant remember to write

if I dont answer their letters, and that is not always possible.

Say, you should have been with us a couple of days ago. It was Jim

Modlins wedding anniversary, and we had to do a bit of celebrating. So

we did it with a dinner.

We are staying in an abandoned farmhouse just now, so we had astove. One of the boys acquired three fryer chickens for the occasion,

and we did them in grand Southern style. I must break down and mod-

estly confess that I am not a bad cook when it comes to preparing fried

chicken. (But I cannot compare with your mother, of course. You may

tell her that truthfully.)

Anyway, we fixed up quite a tasty meal. We had genuine milk gravy

(we also have a cow, which we milk twice a day), salad, cheese, onion,

French-fried potatoes, milk and coffee, toast and jam. It was very good.The best part of it was that some of the boys discovered a white table-

cloth, so we ate from China plates on a nice clean table.

And to add a bit of the feminine touch, some guy produced two big

beautiful dolls (one blonde and one brunette) and set them up on either

side of Jims plate. A party is a dull affair without girls, you know, and

the dolls were the best we could do.

There was only one hitch to the whole party. While we were lingering

over our coffee and cigarettes, the jerries opened up with their artillery.

One shell landed on a side room of the house and blew the roof away. It

knocked soot into all our coffee and we had to pour out a gallon of good

milk. They have very bad manners about such things. (Naughty boys!)

We had a good house when we moved in, but the usable part of it

is getting smaller by the day. The roof is gone from one room, and the

artillery knocks out the windows from a new room almost every day.

Very soon now, we shall have only the cellar. Luckily, that has no win-dows, and there seems to be no way for the shells to damage it.

The Siegfried Line H

8/4/2019 Sample from Dearest Letty - 2

2/3

I was pleased to learn that you would probably go to work at

Russellville before long. It is a pleasant little town, and you should enjoy

working there more than at Kansas City or Fort Smith. Then, too, you

will be easier to find when the war is over.

Hope you dont mind my starting this note with ink and finishingwith pencil. My ink supply is exhausted and there is no drugstore on the

corner.

Love Always,

Leland

[Belgian border, near Aachen, Germany]Oct. ,

My Dearest Letty:

Since I have time to write a little today, I hope you wont mind my

using wrapping paper for stationery. It is all I have and they say the

American Army is supposed to be good at improvising. That is, we do

the best we can with what we have.

Things are going pretty good here, but it is still as muddy as theDelta country. It rains regularly, but that is to be expected. Otherwise,

conditions are good.

Chow is plentiful, and we even get plenty of cigarettes. Writing paper

is not so plentiful, but we get plenty of envelopes. My only complaint is

that I cannot get a new pipe. I only have one now and, being a bit on

the absent-minded side, I keep it lost half the time.

Oh yes, they finally took the Fifth Armored Division off the secret

list and admitted that we were in the war. Gave us quite a write-up inthe paper, too. They told how we gained miles in our first days

in action, and listed many of the towns we had captured. They also gave

this division credit for being the first Allied troops to enter Germany. I

intended to send you the story but lost the paper.

I suppose you are working again, but I can only guess at that. Your

letters have been scrambled as to the dates, and many of them have not

arrived. It is like missing several installments in a serial story or movie.

I simply have to guess at what transpired in the preceding chapters.

Dearest Lettyh

8/4/2019 Sample from Dearest Letty - 2

3/3

Guess mine are the same, but the saving feature is that nothing hap-

pens in my letters. The only point I dont want you to forget is that I am

still in love with you. Remember that and even if all my letters fail to

arrive you have missed nothing.

Love Always,

Leland

[Heerlen, The Netherlands]

Oct. ,

My Dearest Letty:

Well, here it is almost the middle of October and Saturday, too, but

I have not seen a single football game this year. Tragic, isnt it? But if I

were home we would see one today.

That is not so bad. Football can wait. But for several days I dont

even get a letter. Can you imagine that? And all the time you complain

that you cannot get mail. We both seem to be in the same boat.

I just learned that Ardis shipped out for overseas some place. Dont

know where he is going, but his postoffice is New York so he might beon his way to Europe.

I am investigating to see if it is possible to send you a box of sou-

venirs, etc., which I have collected. They are all utterly worthless, I sup-

pose. I could get nothing of any special value, but you might want to

take a look at some of them.

I have a few coins from various countries, including England, Hong

Kong, Belgium, Germany, Holland and Luxembourg. Also have a couple

of decorations of honor for Nazi soldiers and even an identification but-ton for a Nazi underground worker from Miami. But I dont think he

will ever get back to Miami, so I am sure he wont need the button again.

Guess I might as well call this off. I have quite a cold (had a chill last

night) so the thinking wheels in my head simply wont go. Will try to

be better when I write again.

Love Always,

Leland

The Siegfried Line H