WW2 Era Letter Written by Combat Engineer in France. He writes about seeing a Dead German laying in a Tank, as well as other topics.
This letter was written by a Lt. Henry Milton James. He was born on December 18th 1916 in San Francisco. During the war he served in the 61st Engineer Combat Battalion, 4th Army. The letter reads:

“August 7th, 1944

My dear sweet, darling Honey-babe:

Here is that man again who loves you so very much. I have moved again but the general area is the same. But even such a short move is encouraging because each mile I move is that much closer I am to you and home. I feel fine and the weather is warming up considerably. In fact it is almost hot and I am beginning to get sun burned all over. We work very hard and are out in the sun all day. We put in some rather long hours. In yesterday’s V-mail letter I told you about how long we had been working. We were supposed to move last night but when we located our new area we found that it had been mined and we had to remove all the mines before we could move in. We made the area safe but it was too late to make the move last night so we waited until this morning.

This part of France has seen a lot of battles. Yesterday afternoon I was looking over an area and found a German tank that had been crippled by American shells and on looking inside the tank I saw a young Nazi with the top of his head and one leg blown off. He had tried to run his tank thru an American bivouac area and was shot and practically cremated in the tank. Everyday we see truck after truck loaded with German prisoners. There are usually about 35 to 40 Germans on each truck and they are so frightened that we only need one guard on them. After the beating they have been taking they are glad to give up. I hope that the entire German army gives up because then I will be on my way home to you that much quicker.

My dear I love you so dearly and need you so badly. I surely would never ever ever think of raising my voice to you. I know you didn’t like it and I shouldn’t do it anymore. All I want to do is hold you and cuddle you and kiss you and love you up til the end of the world comes and then love you some more in the other world. I just had a sudden thought darling, how is your cooking coming on? You remember you said that you were going to learn to cook so that you could surprise me when I came home? Now is a good time to practice cooking because you are not working and should not be too tired in the evening. Because I think it would be a very nice gesture on your part to give your mother a little spell off now and then. You know my dear it always pays to treat those you love very, very well while you have the chance to and then you will never regret it when you think back over the times you spent with them. What is your opinion on that, my dear?

Well my dear I must sign off for now. Please give my love to all your folks and to you all my love and unfaltering devotion. I am yours forever, and ever more. Please take good care of yourself and don’t forget I love you only.

Your guy,
Hank.”

Henry would survive the war and would pass away on May 4th 2016 at the age of 99. Interestingly, there was a video interview conducted with Henry regarding his service back in 2011. If you wish to watch it, the link is here : Henry Milton James Collection | Library of Congress

WW2 Era Letter Written by Combat Engineer in France. He writes about seeing a Dead German laying in a Tank, as well as other topics.
WW2 Era Letter Written by Combat Engineer in France. He writes about seeing a Dead German laying in a Tank, as well as other topics.
WW2 Era Letter Written by Combat Engineer in France. He writes about seeing a Dead German laying in a Tank, as well as other topics.
WW2 Era Letter Written by Combat Engineer in France. He writes about seeing a Dead German laying in a Tank, as well as other topics.