Dear Miss B,
Just a short
explanation of these pictures:
#1 this is a typical
scene of hedgerow fighting
GI's. The German's are shooting just as much stuff back at us as we're
shooting at them. It was so hot with flying steel that i
didn't even stick my head up over the hedgerow. But what does
it look like! It looks like a fire in Schenley Park! But,
behind that hedgrow in the middle of the picture there are
Germans and they weren't dead ones either! Behind that house
they had a couple of tanks
that were making a fortune for Germany DuPont. To sum
it up - it wasn't a very healthy place
to be. But in a photograph
it looks like a quiet landscape.
#2 line up the x'
s on 2 & 3 on
the edge of the
prints and this is the story. One day I was up in this church
steeple trying to get a couple of long shots of Brest, when
the Germans started shelling the town, so after making a
couple of shots i left and do i mean fast! I heard a couple
more shells coming so "I
hit the ground" and
after sliding for about 20 feet on nice soft concrete i ended
up behind one of the tombstones. Now, I'm not a superstitious
person, but, gosh, what
a place to be hiding when shells are coming in your direction.
( see photos 4 and 4 a)
August 11, 1944
Dear Miss B,
I won't be able to mail
this for a few days or weeks, but i'm just in the mood and
mental condition to
write to some
understanding person. This is why: I've just come back
from an assignment and
when they say assignment here they aren't kidding. I'm sitting
on my camera case, right next to a fox-hole. Foxholes are the
darnedest things to dig, but, honey, they sure are wonderful
things to dive into. It doesn't take much practice to be able
to dive into a foxhole from 10 yards away, and start digging
before you hit bottom.
And to top it all off -
i just got paid. Here i sit with a whole pocket full of "cigar coupons" and
i can't spend any of it. Now when Herold can't go out on a
payday, that's pretty grim. In fact, that's insulting!
I hope i get an
assignment tomorrow. The reason for such an ambitious attitude is
this : the best assignment is to cover the capture of a town.
As soon as we get into the town we start trading our k rations for liquor
and wine. The other day i got two quarts of red wine for two
packs of
cigarettes. We can get anything for cigarettes, but there is nothing
much that they have that we want. Another reason for getting
into town first is as soon as the first wave of infantry hit the town so do
the M.P. as soon as they get into town they start nailing up "off limits" signs so the idea is to
get into town before the m.p. s and that is a major problem.
But, the m.p. s are doing a superb
job ovr here.
If i do much more writing i'll have to use a
paper towel to write on as I haven't anymore paper. I hope you
are clipping those pictures for me. Incidentally. My mother
thinks I'm still in England and i intend to keep her thinking
that, so please cooperate with me, please.
Dear F,
I haven't much time to
write, but here is a note of explanation for the enclosed
package. Those gloves are hand-made by the peasants around
here. These women bring them into town and sell them in the
market place. They wear their native costumes which are long
black dresses with brilliant colored vests and with white
lace collars and the most fantastic looking hats I've ever seen, they
are about two feet hight and are shaped like a pyramid. I don't
know a darn thing about these things so I hope they are alright. I'll write you more
later.
I never write to you
unless i'm inspired by some ulterior motive, and honey, right
now i have one here's the set: it's raining - in fact, Noah
just went by here with a hammer and saw. I'm hungry, I'm
thirsty. There is a wind blowing. In some circles it's known
as a hurricane. I
want to go to bed but where?
My foxhole? No.
I haven't a life preserver. In the Jeep? Too small. Under the
jeep? No. The mud
is too deep. So where do i sleep? In a french farmer's
rabbit shed! I'm sleeping with, not one, but 4 bunnies!
The fellow here with me has been looking at that 11 x 14
print, yes, that one! Incidentally, that print is getting a
bit beat up. Send me a couple more. I'll write more tomorrow. Even
this roof is leaking now and it's too dark to see. Mais c'est
le guerre. I'm
learning French but I'm having a helluva time developing a
line.
3
Note: a few days have passed.
I have just come back from an assignment. It was a beautiful
assignment with two exceptions. There was plenty of stuff to
shoot but only one angle to compose the picture from. That was
the position a gopher usually looks from. If i had gotten in
any other position
you would have to start looking for another GI. I'm not
kidding, honey, if you know anyone in the infantry, be nice to
him. Those poor boys take a beating. There are two groups of
men fighting this war: the infantry and the stretcher
carriers. You can listen to all the publicity you want about
the air corps, the tank drivers, the pole climbers or anyone
else, but i consider the infantry boys as the fighting man. My
first day with them i learned more than I had since I've been
in the army.
This is German paper I'm using for this letter so would you
please send me some writing paper. I'll send you some German
medals and insignia in trade for the paper. I sure would like
to see that friend of yours over here. I've photographed a lot
of psychosomatic cases here, but there is a slight difference
between them.
Tell Danny that he'd better write to me or else I'm going to
write to his draft board. I don't know if anyone has written
to me. I've been moving around so much lately that i haven't
received any mail for
more than a month.
Be a good little girl,
but you know how good i mean and don't forget, I'm still in
England if my mother get's curious.
November 28, 1944
Dear Miss B,
I will briefly explain the local atmosphere and living
conditions. It's raining as usual and it is cold. I am sitting
in a cellar
somewhere in Germany. The time is about 8 pm. I am holding a
pencil in one hand; a cigarette in the other; a flashlight in
the other. Now that i think about it - where did i get 3
hands? I am spending the night with the crew of a cannon, this
is a very nice place to spend the night. The conversation is
as usual. But before i begin to think about such things, I'll
change the subject.
I'll try to explain how these guys work. Their job is to fire
these big guns. It is a rather safe job, but it sometimes gets
hot. It is a 24- hour-a-day job. Right now we are just sitting
here. A couple of them are sleeping; the rest are just sitting
here doing nothing. They will continue to so until the man on
the telephone screams "fire mission!" Then all hell breaks
loose, everyone will go running out to the gun, load it and
wait for the “fire
directions”. After the gun is adjusted and fired they will
come back here and take up the conversation where they dropped
it. Most of the time they never know
What they are shooting
at as the target is a few miles away. The target may be a
bridge, a troop concentration or a counter attack. Some days
they may fire all day or other times they may not fire a shot.
Everyone is praying that there won't be any fire missions
tonight. They have been very busy today and everyone wants
some sleep tonight. But just about the time we get to sleep,
we'll have to run out and do a little shooting, then rush back
and try to get some more sleep. This is the routine they have
24 hours a day. The amount of shooting they do depends on the
"forward observer". The "forward observer" is as close to the
front line as possible . His job is to destroy as many Germans
or German equipment as he can. As soon as he spots something
he wants to shoot at he
calls the "fire control center" where they determine the
range, altitude, wind and type of shell to use. If the forward
observer is a good man he will keep these guys shooting all
day and all night. I think i will do like everyone else is
doing - get some sleep- more tomorrow.
Dear Miss B,
I received some mail
today and this is the first mail I've gotten in about two
months. I received two sweet letters from you which i read
with much glee and merriment. I have been getting some good
shots lately. We have been doing more street fighting and that
makes better pictures than hedgerow fighting.
Yesterday i was with a
tank crew when we found three cases of German beer so we sat
inside the tank behind a building while the infantry went
after a sniper who had been getting a little too personal.
There were six of us inside
that tank and
we were all smoking cigars and drinking beer so it wasn't very
long before there was a rather heavy atmosphere. Did you ever
drink beer inside a tank!
You didn't! My,
honey, what you have missed! There was a cozy feeling
surrounding the place that
reminded me so much of the elevator at 713 Penn Avenue. Can
you imagine 6 GI's inside a tank blowing hot cigar smoke into
each others faces. Well, mix that with the noise of a tank
motor, add some gun smoke and you get the general idea. We
were having a wonderful time while the poor infantry boys were
getting shot at by a sniper. But, they got him. You should see
my graphic. When i got it , it was a new camera, but since
then i have either taken or broken off everything. I would
like to sit here and write to you all night but i am so sleepy
i can't keep my eyes open much longer. I am back at the rear
area tonight which means i can sleep above ground which is an
extreme luxury and since I intend to go to work tomorrow I
have to get some sleep. I am so sleepy that even you couldn't
tempt me tonight. What am I saying! I could.
Never get that sleepy.
I'll write you more as soon as I get the time.
Dear Miss B,
I haven't anything to
write but since it is Saturday night I feel it is my duty to
write my American public - just to help the morale - my
morale!
For the past few days i have been up at the front trying to
get some pictures but the weather hasn't been very
cooperative. Not only has it been uncooperative but at times
it has been very rude. All day today i laid in a muddy hole near some
German fortifications waiting for a dive bombing raid which
never came because the weather was so muddy the planes
couldn't see the target. So after getting thoroughly wet, muddy and hungry i came
back here to sleep under a roof. My how my standard of living
has sunk! Here i am satisfied to sleep under a roof on a
Saturday night. But then there just ain't nothin else to do.
But today wasn't a complete failure. I at least managed to get
a tommy gun. I've been trying to get one ever since i got
here, so to steal
a phrase from a nigger gun crew, "Mister Hitler, count your
children!"
Here is another expression you may have heard, but i heard it
for the first time one night when i was lying under a table in
a french house, when some guy timely said, “praise the lord,
the ammunition passed me!” And he wasn't kidding either. Some
of the best spontaneous humor I've heard has come when things
were really hot. I member one day when we were lying in a
ditch behind a wooden fence with machine guns making
toothpicks out of
the fence while
an ammunition dump was
burning and exploding on
the other side of the ditch, some GI had the nerve to very
calmly state, "you know, someone could get hurt around here."
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3264th Signal Service Company (Photographic) |
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All material not in the public
domain © 2016 Leonard
H. Cizewski and Barbara Herold Marquet Last Major Update: Minor Revision:August 3, 2016 Posted: August 2, 2016 Last Reviewed: |
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