03-23-1945 Drinking with Belgians & Safe Conduct Pass
Date
March 23, 1945
Location
Somewhere in Germany
Transcription
Somewhere in Germany
Mar. 23, 1944
Dear Mother & Dad:
Wow! I have just come the closest
to being drunk that I have ever been in
my life. Don't worry though, I still know
when to stop. It happened this way. Today
I met a group of Belgian soldiers. I
sprung my French on them and they were
So happy to meet an American who
spoke French they took me to the
house in which they are staying. The
first thing they did was bring out a
bottle of wine and fill the glasses.
Well I wanted to be sociable, and I
didn't want to provoke an international
incident. So I drank with them, besides,
you know how I like wine. After
that they refused to let me stop. Then
they brought out cookies and meats
and all kinds of good things to eat.
The only trouble was they wouldn't let
you eat unless you drank also. I
kept with them as long as I could and
then I told them that I had to go
on guard. It was the only way I
could get away. I sure did have a good
time though, and, boy was the food
good.
I am going to enclose in this
letter, "a safe conduct pass." Our planes
drop them over the German positions
in order to try and induce the "Krauts"
to surrender. I think that it might
make a fairly good souvenir.
Lately, I have been getting a little
but more mail, although most of it
2
is pretty old. I was very happy to hear about
George and Elsie. As I said before I wish you
would send me their address, also Tarpey's
and the O'Tooles.
I also wish that you would send a
package of some kind. By the way, If you
should send cookies of any kind, it is a good
idea to put them in a can, an Ovaltine can,
or some such. It keeps them from being all
broken and it helps to keep them fresh. I
also wish that you would send me some
air-mail stamps. I don't like to use V-mail.
It is too impersonal.
Well, there are a lot of other things I could
write about but I want to ration it. I
will then have something for the next
letter. So Long for Now.
Your Loving Son
Oby
1945
Description
Mis-dated as 1944. Paper quality of second page is similar to other letters written in March 1945 and Parcel Post stamp on second page clearly confirms 1945.
Describes getting drunk with Belgian soldiers, and hearing the news about his brother George and Elsie (George's soon-to-be-wife).
He also enclosed a "Safe Conduct Pass" which were dropped over German positions to encourage German forces to surrender.
Since crossing the Moselle River on March 14, the US forces advanced quickly heading to the Rhine river. Town by town they cleared enemy forces, and many German soldiers surrendered or were captured along the way.
To get a sense of some of what he was experiencing, one can read the After Action Report for his battalion, the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion (available here: https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4013coll8/id/3769/). It provides some details of daily activities. This combined with a book by Don. M Fox, "Final Battles of Patton's Vanguard", one can get a small sense of some of what he was experiencing as he wrote these letters.
Dad was in Company B of the 51st Armored Infantry Battalion. So looking for references to Company B or B/51 will tell specifically where he was.
On March 24, the day after this letter, the US forces crossed the Rhine River, from a location near Nierstein, Germany.
