WW2 Era Letter Typed by American Soldier to his mother. It details his travels and experiences through Europe. Boarding the Queen Mary, Landing at Utah Beach, Hürtgen Forest, etc.

[Heartfeltzero]

The letter was written by Alfred Grills. He traveled with the 5th Armored Division.

It reads:

"Germany, May 21 1945

Dear mom,
Well how is everything with all you folks now? Myself I'm well except for a sprained ankle that I have now. The fellows all call me sort of lazy cause all I have been doing lately is laying around waiting for my foot to get better.

It looks like a lot of fellows are getting home on the point system but I'm not one of them. Now I think that they have lowered the number of points to 80 and all I have is 70, it's too bad I dont have a kid, maybe ray would let me have one of his.

I just read in the Stars and stripes that censorship has been lifted to a certain extent over here. Now that it is lifted I guess i can tell where and how i have been. First in April 9th 1944 we left camp Kilmer New Jersey and boarded the "Queen Mary" and headed out to sea the next morning. I wasn't on the deck when we left so I didn't get to see the statue of Liberty. We had a smooth voyage and seven days later landed in Scotland in the firth of Clyde. There we boarded a train and left Scotland and arrived that night in Hanley England. That was about the biggest town we entered.

We stayed there about three weeks and moved to a small town of Waybridge which isn't very much of a place. From there we went to a fireing range at St Agnes. After that we went back to waybridge and moved to Blandford in preparation for France. It was later when I was wounded that I came back to the same place which in the meantime was turned into a hospital. On around June 20 we left England and boarded an Lst "Landing ship tank" and two days later landed at Utah beach and took off for Cherbourg. This is the place that Pat was at the same time as myself if I had only known. We stayed here about a month and really hated to leave the…

*back of letter*

place as we really had it good. It was there that we had our boat, house and good food. At the time we didn’t appreciate it but later when we were in the field we wished we back in good old Cherbourg looking for planes that never came while we were there. After staying there for about a month we joined the fifth armored division in their drive across France.

I left then just before and didn’t get to go thru Paris but the rest of the boys did and they said they had never seen so much kissing. The next 3 or 4 months I spent in hospitals and replacement pools and got back to the outfit in Dec. at Roetgen, Germany. We left there and went to Hürtgen Forest you have read so much about. From there we went for a month rest in Belgium near Upen. From there on it was a matter of rivers, the Roer, the Rhine, the Weser and finally the Elbe. Now I’m still in Germany hoping I’m lucky to get home. Well it’s getting late and I hope you like my little synopsis. Love bill.

May 23rd 1945

Dear mom

Just received your letter of May 15 which is quite recent for mail now days. I also received a letter from dick and he didn’t have much to say. I guess he is still in the hospital according to his address. You say he has enough points to get out and doesn’t want to = I think he is crazy in the head but maybe some people like it for me I haven’t found many that do. I have seventy for the short time I was over here.

In fact we got 5 out of 6 Battle stars given out in the ETO, so you can see we weren’t laying around all the time. I have a sore ankle now which is getting well fast so fast in fact that I’ll be on kp tomorrow. Well mom that’s all for tonight so long for now. Love bill.

Gosh I haven’t any souvenirs for anybody as I didn’t go for them so maybe you will be disappointed. I’ll try and find a few things. The only thing I did have was the piece of shrapnel they took out of me and I even lost that. “

[Willmore]

Hi there.

Another great letter, thank you for sharing it with us. If there is an envelope with a name or address on it I might be able to find out some information about Alfred.

Kind regards,

Will.

[Heartfeltzero]

Of course! Glad you enjoyed the read. And unfortunately back when I got this it didn’t come with an envelope. Thank you though!

Best,

JB

[Willmore]

No worries JB.

Take care.