WORCESTER, Mass.—The lines handwritten in cursive and pecked by typewriter on onionskin stationery still resonate more than 70 years later.
From Luzon in the Philippines, June 26, 1945:
“I tripped over a root, felt something hit my rifle, saw something plow up the ground under me and, as I was told later, had a hand grenade explode at my feet. Lucky tumble.
“This is the second time that I’ve been missed by mere inches. Tonight I'll be on my knees all night thanking God.”
From Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific, Dec. 6, 1944:
“You’ve probably heard or read by now that we’ve been banging away at Tokyo... We had hardly started before the Japs decided to retaliate.
“It’s quite a feeling to be awakened in the middle of the night to the roar of planes, bursting flak and exploding tracer bullets . A fireworks exposition on July 4th at White City would have to go some to compare with this.”
From Darmstadt, Germany, June 8, 1945:
“The outfit got as far as Dessau and we were called back off the line that was about two days before the war ended. At that point we weren’t very far from the Russians .
“There is no need to say that I am glad that the whole mess is over... It has been a pretty long grind from Normandy in June last year to Dessau in May there were many long and hard miles and many times that we wondered if we would be able to go another mile.”
