Belgium April 22.

Dear Mother & all,
      Received your letter of April
9th today. I am glad you have
received my letter telling you of my
arrival in Belgium. I like Belgium
very much. Much better than I
did France. The people here have
very clean homes. There is one
woman here that does my laundry
for me. I was at her house after
it the other night and was inside.
She really had things spick & span.
They seem so much friendiler
here also.
      I was in Brussels for a short
while and what I seen of it I want
to go back there again. It really is
a neat city. They have real modern
apartment houses and it looks

more like a city back in the
states.
      I sure wish that the story
you heard about me, was true.
I would give almost anything to get
back, and you can bet I would
come home first before I would
stop off anywhere else.
      I guess the nation is being
hit hard by deaths lately. First
Roosevelt and then Pyle. He sure
was the soldiers friend. I read
quite a few of his articles and things
happen just as he wrote about
them.
      I had a letter from Morgan F. telling
me he was in England. But I haven't
heard from him since I wrote to him.
I hope I will be able to see him, some-
way and somehow. Maybe make contact.

     Our nice weather has left
us today. The wind really blows
hard and rains and the sunshines
once in ahwile. The lilacs are in
bloom here now. It sure seems good
to see spring again. We are living in
an old apple orchard and the trees are
in bloom now. It really is a
scented place now.
      I wish Dad would write a little
oftener. He always writes quite a
bit of news in the letters that every
one writes Harley sent me his chain
letter to me and I sent him mine.
      I suppose Morgan Meham looks
quite a bit different now. I sure hope
this war will end soon. I am writing
this letter now and waiting for the
news to say the Yanks and Russians
have linked up. We try to listen

to most of the new broadcasts. We
have a radio in the shop next
to us even.
      Do you read about the things they
are beginning to uncover in Germany
now? How they treated there prisoners
and the slave labors. There was
a fellow in a town that was a
slave labor. He was freed and he
walked almost five hundred miles to
his home. Quite a few have told
me things that happened. Some of them
almost seem impossible.
      I guess this is about all for tonight.
Please send me my OD overseas
cap. The one I sent home when I was
in Texas. It has braid on the top and
a leather sweat band on the inside.
Not the one with a visor on it.
These can not be worn over here now.

I think you will under stand the
one I am talking about. Also include
anything esle you want to.
      Goodnight for now. Please write
soon and often.
                                   Love Ralph.


The next letter will be posted on April 29th.

Background Information (and comments):

During World War II, journalist Ernie Pyle, America’s most popular war correspondent, is killed by Japanese machine-gun fire on the island of Ie Shima in the Pacific.

• Pyle, born in Dana, Indiana, first began writing a column for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain in 1935. Eventually syndicated to some 200 U.S. newspapers, Pyle’s column, which related the lives and hopes of typical citizens, captured America’s affection. In 1942, after the United States entered World War II, Pyle went overseas as a war correspondent. He covered the North Africa campaign, the invasions of Sicily and Italy, and on June 7, 1944, went ashore at Normandy the day after Allied forces landed. Pyle, who always wrote about the experiences of enlisted men rather than the battles they participated in, described the D-Day scene: “It was a lovely day for strolling along the seashore. Men were sleeping on the sand, some of them sleeping forever. Men were floating in the water, but they didn’t know they were in the water, for they were dead.” The same year, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished correspondence and in 1945 traveled to the Pacific to cover the war against Japan.
  On April 18, 1945, Ernie Pyle was killed by enemy fire on the island of Ie Shima. After his death, President Harry S. Truman spoke of how Pyle “told the story of the American fighting man as the American fighting men wanted it told.”
  Pyle is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific on the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
• This may be the cap Ralph was referring to:

Garrison Cap in WW II

The Garrison Cap originated during World War I. The French soldiers wore a cloth cap that was the inspiration for the U.S. Army "overseas cap" adopted during World War I, but that cap was not used inside the U.S. By the late 1930s the cap was altered for use by both officers and enlisted men, and piping was added to indicate the branch of service. Since it was used in the U.S. as well as overseas, it became known as the Garrison Cap.

     
Two officers in wool and khaki garrison caps.