Letters from the Brown Jug

Germany April 21, 1945   Dear Dad:   Received a couple letters from you a while back and will answer at this opportunity. We’re still having good weather. It’s a little cloudy this morning but the sun is trying to come out. We had just enough rain last night to settle the dust. Haven’t heard from Kenny for a while. Sure hope he is ok.   I broke three studs off the left rear tractor wheel, day before yesterday, one of the other guys took my load up, and yesterday Lance and I put the new studs in. We had one of the mechanics tune up the motor while it was in the shop. She’s all set to go again and I guess we’ll be pulling out for another load this afternoon. I am in the best of health at present and hope you all are the same. Tell everyone howdy for me. So long.   Your buddy, Jug

Reims, France May 15, 1945   Dear Grandmother:   I hope this letter finds you and all in the best of health. I am in the best of health at present. We have come back to France since the war ended and are working just as steady as we were in Belgium and Germany before the war ended. Most of our work is now hauling Allied prisoners of war who have been freed from German prisoner camps. They are flown here in cargo planes from all parts of Germany to be processed and given all new clothes ect. so they can return home as soon as possible. Liberated prisoners of war have priority on transportation to the states and England or wherever they may live and they are working day and night over here to get them all home as soon as possible.   I guess you have read the point system for discharge. I have counted mine up several times and all I can get out of them is 68. Our outfit has three battle participation stars. I heard we have a chance for another in the battle of the Ardennes l...

Reims, France May 24, 1945   Dear Dad:   Received a couple v-mails from you yesterday. So you want to know where I’ve been. Well they don’t censor our mail here anymore but it is spot checked by the base censor. I guess what I write will get through. If I don’t I guess you’ll have to wait till I get home to find out where I’ve been.             When we left the desert we went to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. We left California on Easter Sunday April 7, 1944. Arrived at Kilmer about the 13 th . Loaded on the British Luxury liner Queen Elizabeth the largest ship in the world, on the night of the 18 th . Landed at Gourock, Scotland the morning of the 25 th . We were officially overseas April 19. Gourock is a few miles from Glasgow on the Firth of the Clyde. We traveled by train south through London and got off at Tidworth England 17 miles from Salisbury. We stayed there till July 13 when we moved to a marshalling area near So...

Epinal, France June 11, 1945   Dear Dad:               Received several letters from you, but this is the first chance I’ve had to answer. I am with a group of twenty trucks. We are attached to an engineer forestry company for thirty days and will haul poles and sawed timbers. We are at the southern end of the Argonne Forest in the Vosges Mountains. The Moselle River runs right through town. It’s very nice country here, a lot like Missouri. So you were surprised to hear where I was when the war ended. The jobs a trucking outfit gets would surprise a lot of people. Just because we have been lucky is no sign we just came over here for a boat excursion or sight seeing tour. When Patton raced across France he had no railroads so they moved the stuff by trucks. After the Rhine crossing the rails stopped. Again they hauled the stuff in trucks. After V-E Day all the truck companies got a letter from Ike. It was a letter of t...

Reims, France June 25, 1945   Dear Dad:   Haven’t heard from you for a while. I am back at Reims after being at Epinal for a while. We got the baseball team going and we are in a pretty hot league. We have won one and lost one so far. We should have won the one we lost but a few bad break and a couple errors in the last inning and we were beat. That’s the first game we’ve lost since we were on the desert. In Camp Young we won eight straight and in England five straight. We sure have been having good weather. We have a good baseball diamond to play on. It was made by the German prisoners. It has a grass infield, foul lines, outfield fences, grandstands, concrete dugouts and they sell hotdogs, peanuts & Coca-Cola and have a band and a public address system. Right in the back of the diamond the prisoners have built a large ampitheatre (open air). We have a game tonight and at 8 o’clock they are having a big U.S.O. Camp Show starring Jane Froman singing star. Pat Nivens has be...

Reims, France June 28, 1945   Dear Dad:   Received both an air mail and a v-mail from you in the last couple days. We are still having good weather here although it has rained and cooled off a little the last few days.             We are hauling for the troops that are going to the Pacific. Some will come through the states for a 30 Day furlough and some will go direct. We are not attached to an army now, but are attached to Assembly Area Command. If we stay with this outfit we will probably be here for the remainder of this year, as it will take that long to get all the troops redeployed. Of course it’s like the Captain says, our assignment can change any time.             I was reading in the paper today that there is a possibility that the war department would lower the final critical score for discharge to 78. If I get that fifth star, I’ll have 78 right ...

July 4, 1945 Reims, France   Howdy Dude:   Received a letter from you not long ago. We are hauling for troops that will go to the Pacific. We haven’t had a day off since the war ended. We worked on the June 6 D-day holiday and also yesterday July 4. We don’t mind it though, as we know the sooner the men and materials get to the Pacific from here, the sooner we can finish off the Japs.   We have four battle stars now and have a chance for the 5 th . I definitely have 73 points now and there is a possibility that I may get 78. Sure hope the lower the score quite a bit when it comes out this month.   I am in the best of health and hope you are the same. Someone got our dog a few days before the war ended. The last we saw of him was at Sinzig, Germany on the Rhine River. So long.   Your pard, Brown Jug