Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, February 25, 1945 Dotan, Lisabeth Kohen, Ari Transcription and encoding Roberts, Lindsay A. Tylski, Ethan S. Weakly, Laura K. Bergantzel, Katrina 2020 Nebraska Stories of Humanity University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Digital Research in the Humanities
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 Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams February 25, 1945 Institute for Holocaust Education Clarence Williams Collection Folder 5, Item j English Stories Clarence Williams Harris Cooper, Irv France Williams, Clarence Williams, Gretchen Council Bluffs, Iowa Encoding Review Transcription and initial encoding Tag cleanup Sunday 25 February 45. My Darling Wife —

Well dear, another weekend has come and gone and I have been wondering what you might thave been doing today. Where we are, all days seem alike however I keep straight on the dates because of our records.

We had a new experience last night. Evacuated a German prisoner of war that had been captured shortly before. He stated he was one of the SS troops supposedly some of their best. In our estimation he was a poor example. He was just a kid of 17 and was very thin and bony. Said he had only been on the line an hour when captured. We couldn’t understand much of what he said but from his motions decided he had appendicitis. We also had a casualty tonite that made me feel very blue. He was a young fellow with a severe head injury and died while here. I couldn’t help but think of the shock his loved ones will receive when they are notified of his death. People in the states certainly have no idea how terrible war really is and what the boys go through. I know I didn’t have until actually seeing some of the things. Perhaps I am selfish in my thinking but I’m plenty glad that I am in the Medics instead of the Infantry.

I am enclosing a couple of clippings I found in magazines that you might like to see. The one of the troopship is exactly the way we looked coming over and I was on a bunk second from the top so you can picture how I looked. Speaking of being crowded, that is where the word originated. I got quite a bang out of the other clipping and tho’t you may also.

Played cribbage for a while this afternoon when we weren’t busy. I won two from Sgt. Harris but lost two out of three to Sgt. Cooper. We’re going to try to work out a bridge game some evening when not on duty.

We had fried chicken for dinner this noon and it really tasted good. My first since landing over here. They bring our food up here from the company in insulated containers so we can eat while on duty. Invariably every evening we receive casualties about the time we get our mess gear filled with food. The case I mentioned above kinda spoiled my appetite for dinner tonite, however they can’t help it and God knows they don’t want to be injured. We had a little snack a short while ago. We found some potatoes so made a little wire basket and French fried them using the stove we use for heating water. They were really delicious and some thing we never have. Ordinarily we get nothing but dehydrated potatoes.

Well darling it is 11:15 P.M. so I must get to bed. Will be dreaming of you.

Worlds of love dear Clarence.
Pfc. C. O. Williams 37738878 Co A - 122d Medical Bn. A.P.O. #411 - c/o P.M. New York, New York.
Rec'd 3/7/45 U.S. Army Postal Service FEB 28 1945
Mrs. C. O. Williams 1303 Avenue B. Council Bluffs, Iowa.
2/25/45 Passed by US Army Examiner 50819 H H Zander 26

This item is inserted purely for your morale. One morning recently a young Boston, Mass., wife got out of bed, slipped into her slippers, got into her robe, raised the shade, uncovered the parrot, put on the coffee pot, answered the phone and heard a male voice say: "Hello, honey, I'm back from the ETO. Coming right over."

So the young Boston, Mass., wife unlocked the door, took off the pot, covered the parrot, pulled down the shade, stepped out of her robe, took off her slippers, slipped in bed and heard the parrot mumble — "Judas Priest, what a short day that was!"