Dear Mother & all,
How are you today? Gee
what lousy weather for Aug.
I am sleeping at night with
two wool blankets over me.
Inmagine useing wool blankets
in Aug. In the mornings you
would think it would rain,
and sunshine in the afternoon.
Had a letter from Cliff's
yesterday. Marie always tells
me how cute Donna is
getting. Gosh how everything
at home must have changed. I
suppose it will be sometime
for me to get use to civilian
life again. Hope that won't
be long. Received my rations
tonight. I received or was able
to buy 8 ozs of salted peanuts,
a can of orange juice. Four candy
bars, and one 10 oz box of candy.
Then you have a choice of seven
packs of cigarettes or 12 cigars.
That is how our rations run
in one week. Peanuts and juice
every two weeks. It sure
seems good to get these things.
Every Monday we have ice
green now. We had fried
steaks yesterday for dinner.
We have two new cooks and
the meals are better now.
Will you have someone
see Mr. Bailey and see if I
can get some 620 films. I
would like to take somemore
pictures.
All the news seems to sound
very good. Churchills speech sounds
good also. You don't have to
worry about me and the buzz
bombs. I stay clear of London.
Did you receive a letter from
my former C.O.? He told me he
would drop you a letter telling
you I am ok. I guess he knew
about your sickness from
censoring of my letters.
I don't have so many letters
to write anymore. I guess Irene
has gone for good now. It didn't
upset me very much. It has been
so long since I have seen her.
She is a swell girl though. I
wish she could have waited. But
I guess some 4F that has a
good job talked her out of waiting.
I don't know what her folks
think about it. It has been a
long time since I have heard
from them.
Tell everyone I said hello
and I send my love to all. I
hope it won't be long before I am
back there with all of you.
This is about all the news
I have for now. Please write
soon and often.
Love Ralph.
The next letter will be posted on Aug. 6th.
Background Information (and comments):
- Cliff & Marie's daughter Donna was almost two years old (born Oct. 7, 1942).
- I am pretty sure Ralph meant "ice cream", but I type what I see.
- I could not find a specific Churchill speech, but perhaps this is what Ralph meant:
"For Churchill, the last year of the war was a time of great triumph and bitter disappointment. Allied ground forces began to break through enemy defenses late in July 1944 and were soon threatening Germany itself. "
- Here is an interesting first person account about the buzz bombs in London. http://timewitnesses.org/english/doodbug.html
- More on buzz bombs:
London, England •
June 13, 1944Beginning on this date in 1944 in London, one week after the Allied D‑Day landings in Normandy, France (
Operation Overlord), the Germans unleashed their pilotless flying “retaliation weapon,”
Vergeltungswaffe‑1, on England. Only one of ten V‑1 flying bombs launched that day from bases in the Pas-de-Calais region opposite the English port city of Dover caused any casualties—eight civilians killed when a V‑1 struck next to a railway bridge.
Conceived in 1937 as a radio-controlled flying drone for use in target practice, these “buzz bombs,” so-called for the rhythmic coughing and putt-putting sound their pulsejet engine made, turned into one of the crudest, cheapest, and simplest terror weapons ever made. Flying at an operating speed of 400 mph and an altitude of between 2,000 and 3000 ft, the “buzz bombs” (also known as “doodlebugs”) were difficult to bring down at first. A barrage balloon belt fitted with extra cables south and east of London wasn’t terribly effective, bringing down only 300 (15 percent) that reached the area. In mid-July 1944 London’s whole antiaircraft belt was moved down to the coast. These flak guns were effective when paired with the simple computers of the time. RAF pilots developed a technique of “tipping” a V‑1, meaning a pilot approached the flying bomb and tipped his wing onto that of a V‑1 to knock it off balance, sending it careening to earth. The most successful pilot downed 60 of these cruise missiles this way. Adolf Hitler hoped the daily rain of these two-ton missiles would force London’s evacuation (one million people did leave), weaken Britain’s resolve to stay in the war, and snatch a German victory from the jaws of looming defeat after the Western Allies had firmly established themselves on the European continent in mid-1944.
Launched from fixed sites in France and Holland or from aircraft, 3,531 flying bombs reached England, with 2,420 falling on Greater London. At its peak, over a hundred V‑1s a day were fired at Southeast England, which acquired the sobriquet “Hell Fire Corner.” The two-ton bombs with their 1,870 lb warheads killed 6,184 people, seriously injured another 17,981, and destroyed or damaged over 1.1 million structures until the last V‑1 site in range of the British Isles was overrun by Allied forces in October 1944.
The successor to the V‑1 proved even deadlier—a true shock-and-awe weapon feared for its supersonic speed (1,790 mph at impact), silent approach from 50–120 miles high, and awful devastation. About 3,500 V‑2 rockets were fired at London and other cities between September 8, 1944, when the first V‑2 landed on British soil, and the end of March 1945.
