April 17, 1945
Click Here to Enlarge Item
310.142.1-4.2016 Transcription
Somewherelseyet–Germany
With 7th Army 17 Apr 45 - 6 PM
My Precious,
This seems good—to be able
to write you 2 days in a row after horrible
“gaposis” that couldnt be prevented.
Anyhooo, we’re back [AGAIN!][1] into that
101% “mad-housish”-holocaust of War wounded.
It is said that this time we are the only Evac
within a hundred miles—& I believe you
can figure out how many wounded guys that
sends our “channel”/way. Also we seem to
be pitched-in-tents for life—I dont
imagine we will ever get back into buildings.
When I’m home ask me about how the
RAF goes & does their bombing. Also ask me about
one of the most fa[s]cinating cases I ever did viz.
a bullet in the abdomen → liver → diaphragm →
pericardium → thru the heart → into the media-
stinum → & lodged in the undersurface of the
sternum. [He made it!][2] I gave him 2 quarts of blood back
out of his own chest. (hemothorax). Also ask how Piper “Cub” planes
“scout” incessantly {day & night.[3]
The Chaplain has perogative to dispense his
vehicle (jeep) for “morale-purposes” per Army Regulations—
so he dispensed his jeep trying to find the
mail center (7th APO[4]) yesterday & after much chasing
found its newly advanced foreward-section about
50 miles away c̅[5] the news—“come back Wed”
(tomorrow)—so here’s hoping. [Rep][6] I surely regret
[2]
that there will (some week in the future) be an
awful “gaposis” in the Bis[marck] mailmans service
due to my being unable to write in recent days (9-11).
[Rep][7] I hope that 7 page-2 days-in-the-writing
letter about Aunt K. doesnt get lost as I just
do not have the time [or energy][8] to repeat it all over
again. I’ve sent a 1 Mark note (10¢) in 2 different letters;
an old fashioned $2 Mark note; a bent bloody German coin
c̅ its fascinating story; “poems”; 3 playing cards;
convention lapel-label; surrender leaflet; etc; etc.
Heres a duplication of the cards (yet “faces” a bit different);
odd—eh?
I may be wrong—but I believe our only
cercease (sp?) from this (page #1) 101%-holocaust will be
The Wars End. Each day it seems possible; it
is possible; & it should have been already if those
insane fools, so badly beaten, had only sense
enough to give up. Hell! we are even operating on
“the-bottom-of-the-barrell” (15 & 16 yr old soldiers!).
So many of the Krauts[9] have soggy-tissues due to
a nutritional (hypoproteinemia) edema—Lordie!
Say! do you know I am closer to Checkoslovakia (sp?)
right now, than I am to France————its
unbelievable! [& gosh, it seems I “go” farther away from you all
the time, the farther we chase across Germany—maybe
pretty be soon it will seem Im “closer” via the “San F-route-
distance” rather than the “NY-route-distance”—GOSH!][10]
Gotta hurry to work darlin’—I love ya
loads n’ heaps n’ piles n’ ALL—
My love,
Dave
[3]
[This message is written on an advertisement for Allen Edmonds leather shoes.]
Rep:- Here are the shoes I bought at the end
of my 8 day convoying-(materiel)-trip at that
Staging Area’s Px.[11] I also post-war-stockpiled
a second Shick electric razor for only $8.
The cost was $6.86—in the
States they are of the
$15-Class. I surely
“leaned” toward a
French-Souveiner-Earner
shoe, but I knew
this was your choice
Remember[12] how hard I (we) tried to get this
one as you liked it so well.
[1] Bracketed text is part of original.
[2] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[3] In original, “day &” is written above “night.”
[4] Army Post Office.
[5] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[6] Bracketed text is part of original.
[7] Bracketed text is part of original.
[8] Bracketed text is part of original.
[9] Germans.
[10] Bracketed text is part of original.
[11] Post Exchange, for shopping.
[12] In original, there is a two-way arrow pointing from “Remember” to “’Jodox,’” the style of the shoe described and pictured in the advertisement