August 27, 1945
Near Fritzlar, Germany
No. 48 (conclusion)
Dear Folksies,
Today, for the first time that I can remember overseas, we had fresh bananas!!! And were they good!!!
Yesterday 70 more men left us. This gang went to the 5th Armored Division for transportation with them homeward. They should be home by the end of the month. With that gang leaving, it really stripped us down to about 29 men, so that we didn’t even have enough drivers to take the trucks back after transporting the men to the 5th Armored Area. Soooo, I took the bus and thus transported over 30 men up, saving two trucks. It was funny because all the Motor Pool boys piled into the bus to be driven on this, the last day with the 108th, the first leg of their journey home.
And what are we doing with only 29 men, you ask? We wonder that thing ourselves!!! The latest dope is that we are to join with the 91st Evac., as they have beaucoup men and some nurses, but only a few officers. What a deal! The 91st is the gang that was in Sicily with us, on the hill above us, also in buildings of the Palermo Univ. They had since been in England and then came over with the 1st Army.
If we join them (they are at present not functioning and are also in tents) we will move over to Bad Wildungen into buildings presumably being vacated now by the Germany patients that are in them. The buildings are the same ones that Jobe and I inspected when we first came to this area, and we vetoed them even if we could have gotten them at the time. Sooo, you see what kind of a deal we’re getting into. One never knows, however, what changes may come about at the last minute.
Gil is leaving tomorrow or the next day – to go home. How he worked the deal, I know not, but he and Jack are the hi-point men of the outfit and, of course, Gil has pull down at Army thru all the friends he has made in the past many months. He is supposed to be flying home.
I just came back from going to Kassel with Gil, as he was sending most of his stuff home by mail – a couple of foot-lockers. ‘Tis a hot day for the second in a row.
Yes, Bobsy, I was right with you on the pessimist side, but actually I’m glad that I was, now that it is all over – for none of the set-backs were particular surprises to me. But the way this ending came, it knocked not only me, but all of us, for a loop. Definitely things have changed now – that is, a speeding up of everything that had been planned, but how speeded up things are going to be, and where we were supposed to be on the home-going list, we know not. It is just a matter of sitting and waiting, how many months it will be before we see that Lady With The Torch, we can only guess. One thing I think I can predict (possibly being optimistic for the first time), but I do feel certain that Xmas presents should be held and sent only to 15-26th Avenue.
Loads of love,
.
