January 23, 1945
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310.92.1-4.2016 Transcription
Somewhere –France
c̅[1] 7th Army
23 Jan 45 @ 9 PM
Hi, darlin!
Didya know that every overseas
effort I have made to send you an
Anniversary present [irregardless of month][2]
has been either foiled or in some way
“snafued.” 卐 ! ⋆ ! Ü ! So help me—it
would freeze ya—huh?! Anyhoooo,
I’m getting whittled down to such a
low-level of choice-&-option that
I hereby say:—
HAPPY JAN. 26th ANNIVERSARY
dearest by (#1) sending today [I’d rather
it be in my 26th Jan letter or early enough to
get to you by Jan 26th][3] the enclosed snaps
that I sweat & scrounged enough to get
that they can be considered more
valuable than the average snapshot
in the USA or other Theaters; & (#2) this
paper is souvenir captured Kraut[4]
stationary that they issue to their enlisted
men. Soooo between the two, dearest,
consider yourself “anniversaried.”
[2]
[Boy! –how War will lower a man in his abilities?!
Anniversary-abilities & otherwise.][5]
Guess I better talk about sumthin——
you may or may not “see” it in the snaps—
but just in case you do I’d better put
your mind at ease. You may say I look
thinner—the pictures (to me) dont really
show it so much but I am thinner. The
thing I am glad for is that these snaps
were not taken at certain other times
in my 7th Army life. My first 2 weeks c̅
the 7th Army I lost about #20. Then I gained
some back [it only takes about 5 days to gain some][6]
when work slowed down to a run instead
of the mad-gallop. Then I lost again down to
as lean as I have ever been in my life—
& now again (just prior to these pictures) I had
a few days to gain some back. Sooooo,
m’ love, if you ever see very “lean-looking”
pictures you’ll know that the GIs have
caught Hell the few days prior to the photo
taking. Its funny but true—how I lose
weight so fast when we are working in
those mad-gallop periods. P.S. Just to make
sure—read the backs of the pictures. Did I fool
ya—huh?—hidin’ [them][7] inside the Kraut envelope?!
Well those Krauts will fool ya lots worse if ya arent
on your toes, say the GI-Joes.
[3]
Out of nowhere your Dec 1st letter “hobbled-in” all
alone today. Lordy! almost 2 months old! But, honestly
I enjoyed it, darlin’. I’ll go 1, 2, 3 etc on it:- (1) Boy!
we both never seem to have free, unhampered, & ample
time to write our letters to eachother—if it isn’t
one of a hundred other things to heckle or hamper, it is
one or more of the 8 other guys [living] in this room to
heckle by their noise & Hell-raisin’. (2) When you say
that my 21st Nov letter was censored—do you mean
just read after opening or actually cut/scratched out.
Please answer this for both past 2 letters that I as of the
moment know about--& please tell me about any
& all letters that censorship does happen to {A.= only read B.= deleted.[8]
(3) See!, what I said in the first sentence of this letter—
even my Happy Anniversary telegram for November didn’t
arrive on time & was in conjunction c̅ one sent 5 days
later—both were send via Dobie Field’s & his outfits-
channels way back in those Marsielle says. (4) Again, for
emphasis—I DRINK COFFEE BECAUSE IT IS A
CLEAN (via boiling) DRINK! (now you wont have to divorce me).
(4) You write of canned milk—I could really use
canned milk, but send nothing else in the box
as it is “shakable” ∴ → “pillageable.” Cram an overseas-
shipper box full of it, dear. Tiny cans are preferable.
(5) About the Aix collaborator hanging you remark
“What will happen to these Europeans?”—Em!
they probably will go on & on & on for
centuries (as they have done) c̅ their
inate-unhygiene; their lower
mentality; their “blindness;”
their rabble-ness; their
“suck-in-ableness;”
their “INFERIOR-NESS”
as regards
51% of them.
(over)
[4]
That sounds unchristian, doesn’t it?—just live
c̅ them once after living in Wis[consin], MO, Ohio, Nevada, & N. Dak[ota]:
Again for the “umpteenth” time, you & precious ol’ Thump[9]
be so God-thankful that you were BORN IN-AND-ARE
TWO A M E R I C A N S who have
All of my love & prayers,
Dave
[1] Medical abbreviation meaning “with.”
[2] Bracketed text is part of original.
[3] Bracketed text is part of original.
[4] German.
[5] Bracketed text is part of original.
[6] Bracketed text is part of original.
[7] Bracketed text inserted into original with a caret.
[8] In original, “A.= only read” is written above “B.= deleted.”
[9] Nickname for their infant son, Terry.