Well, here I am again. There is
still nothing much to write about. I am
now stationed at what was once a
concentration camp. We have about one
thousand Hungarian prisoners of war here.
They are kept inside a barbed wire
enclosure. We pull guard on the main
gate and in the towers around the
enclosure. I am Cpl. of the guard, so I
do not have much to do except keep
a check on the guard. However it takes
up a lot of time.
Yesterday, our division was
awarded officially the Presidential Citation.
A big parade was held not far from
here. All units of the division participated.
There was one four star general and the
place was crawling with lesser generals.
There were hundreds of newspapermen
and newsreel cameramen. Pathe, Paramount,
Movietone were all represented. They got
pictures of the whole ceremony. I hope
that you get a chance to see them
back home. The whole thing seemed
rather incomplete, however, without Gen.
Patton. After all, they called us "Georgie's boys."
Our condition here as been
slightly improved in the last few days.
They picked 90 men out of the company
to come out here to this camp. Since
2
we have arrived here, we have been
receiving excellent food. Our quarters
are still fairly poor though. We are
living in German barracks. There are
five men to a fairly good sized room.
However, we have no electricty, water,
beds, or furniture. We have just an
empty room and we sleep on the
floor.
I suppose you read about the
third army being designated as
army of occupation. I do hope that
you did not let that news arouse
within you any false ideas that
I might stay here. The units and
the personnel within the units that
make up the 3rd Army may still be
shifted around according to the score
of the unit or its personnel. As yet I
can't say what I am going to do for
I have no idea. The only thing I
know is that I have 42 points the
critical score is 85.
Well, that's all for now. I still
wish that you would send a
package. As I said before any kind of
food would be welcome.
Your Loving Son
"Oby"
Description
Describes being stationed at a former concentration camp where his unit guards approximately one thousand Hungarian prisoners of war. He also recounts the division’s official award of the Presidential Citation at a large ceremony attended by generals and newsreel crews. Newsreel of the ceremony was found on the national archives and can be viewed here https://catalog.archives.gov/id/18589 -- well worth the watch to see cute wire haired fox terrier photo bombing the announcer.
Dad notes that the whole ceremony felt "incomplete" without Patton being there since they were known as "Georgie's boys." Patton had butt heads with Generals Eisenhower and Bradley and was increasingly seen as a political liability, so he was sent home back to the states in early June. He gave a speech in Boston on June 9 praising the 3rd Army. A recording of the speech was found on youtube and is included below. It's a little hard to follow. I do wonder if Dad's parents might have been able to attend.
