WW2 Era Letter Written by U.S. Serviceman. He writes of the mind blowing destruction in Aachen and more.

[Heartfeltzero]

This letter was written by a Jack C. McLean. During the war, he served with the 303rd Field Artillery Battalion within the 97th Infantry Division. Unfortunately I was unable to find more information on Jack. The letter reads:

“ Please tell me when you get this letter so I can check the traveling time. Don’t forget to tell me if we break into the news!

Somewhere in Germany
March 29, 1945

Dear Family ~

Notice the heading, please! We don’t fool around too long when we do start rolling. Ever since we hit New Jersey, we have been moving like Ex-Lax. Did I ever tell you that we were at the actual POE for only 20 minutes or so? This is the best way, though, as you never get bored with your surroundings ~ enyhoo, it’s the way I want it.

You can check the atlas (if you have one) and see where we were. The town I wrote that I went to on pass was Fécamp in Normandy not far from Dieppe (which still shows scars from the commando raid and later allied shelling).

To date, I can’t mention anything about the trip from France here but hope to be able to do so someday as it was mighty damn interesting. In fact, I’ll never forget it.

At this point, I am searching my mind for the appropriate words to describe what a destroyed German town is like. It is almost impossible to believe your own eyes when you see it. As far as that goes, the whole damn country, from the very minute you cross the border, looks like an impact area. You read that Aachen was taken building by building, yard by yard. Well, it’s easy to believe when you see it, and I did. The destruction staggers the mind and defies the power of the pen to describe.

Just picture a city twice the size of Indianapolis Ind. with every structure a solid one of brick or stone. Now turn loose all hell on the damn place, thrown in a couple of hurricanes and an earthquake, shake well for a couple of years and you have the Aachen of today. Imagine it - every God damn building in that whole city, every one, was beaten and battered to piles of rubble. There were a few skeletons of tall buildings left but they were completely gutted. The most astonishing thing to my mind was that anything lived through that hell on earth.

And then I say, and it is the Gods own truth, that we have seen other cities that were plastered worse than Aachen. One town in particular, positively did not have one solitary wall, beam, tree, building, pole or what have you that stuck up more than 20 feet above the ground. Can you conceive of sitting in a car on State & Madison and being able to see the horizon all the way around, 360°? You sure as hell could do that in that burg.

We are garrisoned in buildings with all the conveniences of home: electric lights, radio, washing machine, beds and good (and plentiful) food. I’ll be on the lookout for those packages. (I got that trick, thank you). Send some candy and air mail stationary.

Don’t waste your energy on useless worry now cause this is no different than life in the states (in fact it’s a lot better). By now, love,

Jack. “