WW2 Era Letter written by Combat Engineer. “dead krauts laying all over”
The letter was written by Benjamin Frank Southam. During the war he served with the 1101 Combat Engineers. It’s dated May 22nd 1945. It reads:
“May 22nd 1945
Hello anna, just a few lines to let you know i received your letter yesterday and glad to hear from you. I am feeling fine and glad to know everybody at home is ok. The weather is not so hot here today. It is raining all day. But I think the sun will be out after while. Excuse this writing letter, as it is the best I have at present. Sorry to hear all the strawberries are frozen. We did not have any frost over here for quite awhile. Do you even hear from mellie any more? I did not hear from her for quite awhile. I was wondering if she still lives in Delaware. I wrote her a letter on Sunday. I am making good use of the clippers now. I cut quite a lot of hair. I am still at the same place.
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I do not know just how long we will stay here. There is a rumor that we will stay here about three weeks. This is not such a bad place. But it is much better back in the states. I am enclosing a few razor blades. I have about two thousand of them. I will put a few in each letter I write. I think they are pretty good. I am also sending you a (?) and a little chain. I guess the chain is not much good but it is something from the Nazis(?), any way, I am starting to learn German pretty good. Tell mom I will soon be able to talk it better than her. Only it is a little different than Pennsylvania dutch. I wrote a letter to lizze(?) also yesterday. I will write more often now since they are not censoring the mail and I also get more time. My truck is in getting fixed since Friday. The front axel was bent. So they are putting in a whole…
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new front end. I don’t know how it happened. I did not bump anything. But I don’t care when they get it fixed. The longer it takes, the less I have to drive it. But otherwise it is in good shape. I have ten thousand miles on it in about four months. I came across the rhine about the middle of February. From (?) to Mannheim. But traveled a few hundred miles since that. I was at heilbronn when they took it. Our company was putting a bridge across the Nechar river and we lost seven men. We had the first bridge just about finished and the Germans sunk it and also the second. But the third one stayed and boy did they get the shit knocked out of them, dead krauts laying all over. Well I guess I said enough for one time but I will write again in a day or so and tell you more. So with love and luck,
your pal,
Frank”
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by AndyM35
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