Received your letter of Dec. 19 today so
will answer it now. Your letter was the first
I had received from anyone back home that was
written in Dec. I don't think I have had a letter
from home for almost three week. I guess the
Christmas rush is holding them up. I think I
received most of my Christmas packages.
Well old man winter has finally caught
up with us. It froze up last Friday night. It
is frozen for about 8 or 10 inches deep. We haven't
had any snow as yet, but feels as if it could
start in for a good snow tonight.
Well the news hasn't been sounding so good
lately. I guess it gave everyone a scare around
Christmas time.
I suppose everyone was able to get home for
one of mother's delicious Christmas dinners. We
has roast turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, beets, dressing
sliced peaches, ice cream, candy, apples, coffee, bread
and butter. No [sic] bad for being over here in France.
We all were to have the day off but due to
circumstances beyond our control there was work just
as any other day. But it so happened it was my
day off anyway. Which I was very glad of.
I haven't heard from Harley for a long time. I don't
know why he doesn't write to me a little more oftener.
I suppose he is kept rather busy at other things
besides writing letters.
I wrote to Morgan Ford awhile back and told
him all about my trip into Paris. I have been there
twice and expect to go again. It really is a grand
place. One would never think it has gone through
four years of war. I like it a lot better than London.
There is no bomb damage in Paris. I guess my
old base in England caught a few V-2 after we
moved out. Boy am I glad we were gone from there.
Well I can't think of anymore for now. Keep
the letters comeing this way. I will be looking
for them.
Your brother
Bill.
The next letter will be posted on Dec. 31st.
Background Information (and comments):
- This letter to Ralph's youngest brother, Freeman, was included in the letters he had sent home to his mother/family, so I've included it in this blog. According to the address on the envelope, Freeman was not living with his parents; they had a Blissfield, MI address.
- Here is the information I found about the V-2:
The V-2[edit]
V-2 rocket launching sites were set up by the Germans around The Hague in the Netherlands on 6 September 1944. The first was launched from here against London on 8 September 1944 and took an estimated 5 minutes to fly the 200 miles from the Hague to London where it struck at 6.43pm on 8 September on Chiswick causing thirteen casualties.[19] As the V2 explosions came without warning, the government initially attempted to conceal their cause by blaming them on defective gas mains. However, the public was not fooled and soon began sardonically referring to the V-2's as "Flying gas pipes".[20]
By October the offensive became sustained. A particularly devastating strike was on 25 November 1944 when a V-2 exploded at the Woolworth's store in New Cross Road, killing 168 people and seriously injuring 121.[21] Intercepting the supersonic V-2 missiles in flight proved virtually impossible and other counter measures, such as bombing the launch sites, were fairly ineffectual. Sustained bombardment continued until March 1945. The very last missiles arrived on 27 March 1945, with one of them killing 134 people and injuring 49 when it hit a block of flats in Stepney.[22]
1,115 V-2s were fired at the United Kingdom. The vast majority of them were aimed at London, though about 40 targeted (and missed) Norwich. They killed an estimated 2,754 people in London with another 6,523 injured. A further 2,917 service personnel were killed as a result of the V weapon campaign. Since the V-2 was supersonic and could not be heard (and was rarely seen) as it approached the target, its psychological effect "suffered in comparison to the V-1."[23]
The V-weapon offensive ended in March 1945, with the last V-2 landing in Kent on March 27 and the last V-1 two days later. In terms of casualties their effects had been less than their inventors hoped or their victims feared, though the damage to property was extensive, with 20,000 houses a day being damaged at the height of the campaign, causing a massive housing crisis in south-east England in late 1944 and early 1945.[24]
The existential horror of the V-2 attack on London is the theme of Thomas Pynchon's novel Gravity's Rainbow.[25]
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