Part 3
Introduction for my uncle's letter in this post will not begin with the usual. It begins with my personal reflections. I never served in uniform let alone in a war. I, therefore, will understand if my reflections are not what our brave soldiers would agree with from their personal experiences.
Charles Knight is 27 years old as he enters the US Army in 1942. He went to work to support his parents and siblings as a teenager. He is working at S.D. Warren, a major paper company in 1942. He has some "living experience" under his belt. Able to look at the world differently than a young man just turning 18.
I am reading two books written by soldiers of WW II in the European Theater of Operations. One is by a 30 year old college graduate entering the US Army in 1944 to be a replacement. He is Raymond Gantter. He doesn't have as much military training as my uncle when he steps on the beaches of Normandy in the fall of 1944. He is to replace a soldier from the front lines of battle either killed or no longer able to serve.
Raymond Gantter and Charles Knight are doing the same thing in November 1944. Waiting. Raymond is waiting to take the city of Cologne as part of the 1st Division. Charles is waiting to fight another battle on the Siegfried Line in the 2nd Division. However, they both share something else. Neither are teenagers. Both have lived at least a few years as men requiring to be responsible for others and learning what the world is like after the high school years.
Their age and their waiting causes them to look at the war with some remarkable similarities, I personally believe. In the book by Raymond and in the letter by Charles they express some intriguing feelings. This waiting time is giving them both time to think. What do you think about their feelings? Though expressed with different words let's find out.
Dear Mother,
A few lines tonight saying everything is well. Sure another big let down in the mail. When I wrote you last I told how sure I was of receiving some mail the next day but here it is quite a few days later and only one letter so you see I missed my guess. There will be plenty when it does come.
Sure plenty of people missing their guess on the date this war will be over. One fellow told his wife not to send him anything as he would be home to take them off the tree. Another told his dad to have plenty of beer ready so they could celebrate Christmas. This all took place back in Normandy but to-day they have changed their minds. Many civilians in the States are doing the same thing. I still say it won't be over this winter. In a speech to parliament Churchill said it might be late spring or early summer before the war with Germany would end then it would take eighteen months to finish Japan. To me it doesn't seem as if Japan could last long after the fall of Germany if the Allies throw all they have at her. I write this so you won't expect too much from all the news you hear.
I might be wrong in saying this but besides fighting for freedom there is a ----- of a lot of politics and the almighty dollar mixed into it. When it's all over with they'll do with the soldiers like they did after the last war---give him a kick in the -----. Some get away with a lot of things in the States (strikes etc.) but if you did half that much in the army you would get death from a firing squad or twenty-five to fifty years in the can. You can see every day from the papers how much some care. {emphasis mine by underlining}
The rain has let up quite a bit. We have had a couple of wonderful nights but the days have been more or less cloudy. There seems to be a cold fog and this chills the winds which blows most of the time. The fog come in the early evening then clears away only to return in the early morning and away again by ten o'clock. As I was saying a couple nights ago the moon was full , the air still with a cold frosty feeling which makes me think of a good skunk hunting night back home around this very time of year.
I sent Eugene a letter and sure enjoyed hearing from him. Not much I could write him about as you get all the news. (Just heard a flying bomb go over)
So you have a new post office. Gee, I won't know the old place when I get home.
I wonder if that house Ralph bought is the place where Helen Davis lived? Her name was Helen Knight before. ha ha kind of funny. [He has a sister also Helen Knight.] She worked for me at S.D. Warren. (Another robot plane just flew over, we call them rowboats.)
Did LeRoy [His sister's husband.] get his new car? Oh Roy oh boy big money now. Gee, a person should save for a rainy day.
If all those packages come I'll sure have a good time while they last. I have received five cards from Flavilla's family. [His sister has four children plus with her and Ralph, there are 5 cards.]
It was quite clear and the sun was shining so that fellow from Headquarters came over with an extra roll of film and took up some pictures for me. I'll give him my film when it comes and if not he said it would be okay if I'd give him one of the whole gun crew. I sent it in but it may take two or three months before it comes back. Hope you can get some film.
Helen Ladd sent me a nice long letter, told me quite a bit of news. Said she had been over to Flavilla's about a month pass. Also think she wrote seeing you.
Guess you all are in for a disappointment for I do not believe that picture was mine. [I believe he is writing about a picture in LIFE magazine the family thought it might be him.]
Yes it has been over a year since October 8 and I will sure be happy when this is over. No one knows and words can never tell, it's only the boys who's lived through this hell that realize.
I can hear the wind blowing outside, go on guard duty in a half an hour so must close for now. Here's a Belgium fifty francs note or ten belgas which is equal to $1.14 in good old greenbacks. Good night will write soon. Remember me to Dad and brother. Good night Mother.
Love Son Charles
Charles Knight is 27 years old as he enters the US Army in 1942. He went to work to support his parents and siblings as a teenager. He is working at S.D. Warren, a major paper company in 1942. He has some "living experience" under his belt. Able to look at the world differently than a young man just turning 18.
I am reading two books written by soldiers of WW II in the European Theater of Operations. One is by a 30 year old college graduate entering the US Army in 1944 to be a replacement. He is Raymond Gantter. He doesn't have as much military training as my uncle when he steps on the beaches of Normandy in the fall of 1944. He is to replace a soldier from the front lines of battle either killed or no longer able to serve.
Raymond Gantter and Charles Knight are doing the same thing in November 1944. Waiting. Raymond is waiting to take the city of Cologne as part of the 1st Division. Charles is waiting to fight another battle on the Siegfried Line in the 2nd Division. However, they both share something else. Neither are teenagers. Both have lived at least a few years as men requiring to be responsible for others and learning what the world is like after the high school years.
Their age and their waiting causes them to look at the war with some remarkable similarities, I personally believe. In the book by Raymond and in the letter by Charles they express some intriguing feelings. This waiting time is giving them both time to think. What do you think about their feelings? Though expressed with different words let's find out.
Charles D Knight
Somewhere in Germany
November 4, 1944
Dear Mother,
A few lines tonight saying everything is well. Sure another big let down in the mail. When I wrote you last I told how sure I was of receiving some mail the next day but here it is quite a few days later and only one letter so you see I missed my guess. There will be plenty when it does come.
Sure plenty of people missing their guess on the date this war will be over. One fellow told his wife not to send him anything as he would be home to take them off the tree. Another told his dad to have plenty of beer ready so they could celebrate Christmas. This all took place back in Normandy but to-day they have changed their minds. Many civilians in the States are doing the same thing. I still say it won't be over this winter. In a speech to parliament Churchill said it might be late spring or early summer before the war with Germany would end then it would take eighteen months to finish Japan. To me it doesn't seem as if Japan could last long after the fall of Germany if the Allies throw all they have at her. I write this so you won't expect too much from all the news you hear.
I might be wrong in saying this but besides fighting for freedom there is a ----- of a lot of politics and the almighty dollar mixed into it. When it's all over with they'll do with the soldiers like they did after the last war---give him a kick in the -----. Some get away with a lot of things in the States (strikes etc.) but if you did half that much in the army you would get death from a firing squad or twenty-five to fifty years in the can. You can see every day from the papers how much some care. {emphasis mine by underlining}
The rain has let up quite a bit. We have had a couple of wonderful nights but the days have been more or less cloudy. There seems to be a cold fog and this chills the winds which blows most of the time. The fog come in the early evening then clears away only to return in the early morning and away again by ten o'clock. As I was saying a couple nights ago the moon was full , the air still with a cold frosty feeling which makes me think of a good skunk hunting night back home around this very time of year.
I sent Eugene a letter and sure enjoyed hearing from him. Not much I could write him about as you get all the news. (Just heard a flying bomb go over)
So you have a new post office. Gee, I won't know the old place when I get home.
I wonder if that house Ralph bought is the place where Helen Davis lived? Her name was Helen Knight before. ha ha kind of funny. [He has a sister also Helen Knight.] She worked for me at S.D. Warren. (Another robot plane just flew over, we call them rowboats.)
Did LeRoy [His sister's husband.] get his new car? Oh Roy oh boy big money now. Gee, a person should save for a rainy day.
If all those packages come I'll sure have a good time while they last. I have received five cards from Flavilla's family. [His sister has four children plus with her and Ralph, there are 5 cards.]
It was quite clear and the sun was shining so that fellow from Headquarters came over with an extra roll of film and took up some pictures for me. I'll give him my film when it comes and if not he said it would be okay if I'd give him one of the whole gun crew. I sent it in but it may take two or three months before it comes back. Hope you can get some film.
Helen Ladd sent me a nice long letter, told me quite a bit of news. Said she had been over to Flavilla's about a month pass. Also think she wrote seeing you.
Guess you all are in for a disappointment for I do not believe that picture was mine. [I believe he is writing about a picture in LIFE magazine the family thought it might be him.]
Yes it has been over a year since October 8 and I will sure be happy when this is over. No one knows and words can never tell, it's only the boys who's lived through this hell that realize.
I can hear the wind blowing outside, go on guard duty in a half an hour so must close for now. Here's a Belgium fifty francs note or ten belgas which is equal to $1.14 in good old greenbacks. Good night will write soon. Remember me to Dad and brother. Good night Mother.
Love Son Charles
Raymond Gantter
In one of the letters I wrote Ree from the cement factory, I enclosed a clipping from the Stars and Stripes that had made me sick and angry. ….. in one of the local papers, datelined November 29, 1944, St. Joseph, Missouri:
The little bakery shop was crowded and a woman was clearly heard to say, "I hope this war lasts awhile longer so we can pay off our mortgage."
Another woman turned quickly to the clerk. "Forget the cake," she said. "I'll take the lemon meringue pie - and don't wrap it."
She laid down the money, picked up the pie, hit the other woman squarely in the face with it, and stalked from the shop.
Was this what America and the people back home were like? I wondered after reading the newspaper story. Were we expected to toss away our lives so that someone could pay off his mortgage?
Roll Me Over: An Infantryman's World War II by Raymond Gantter, Ivy Books, New York, p. 45.
Anything you noticed coming from both writers?
Raymond Gantter will serve in the first squad, first platoon, Company G, 16th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division.
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