Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, August 17, 1945

Well honey, here I am back in France again. We had to stop at this little town for clothing, supplies and instructions. I guess we will be here yet tomorrow and will probably take the boat for England the following day. The trip thus far has really been rough and the one thing I have missed most of all no mail from you.

We left Salzburg Tuesday evening with 18 of us in 2 ½ ton truck. It started raining soon after we departed and kept up most of the way to Munich. It was 8:00 PM when we left and we arrived at Munich about 11:00. I was on the rear of the truck and the suction created brought the rain and mud inside. I got plenty dirty but didn’t get too wet as I had my raincoat. At Munich we had coffee and doughnuts at the railroad station and while there I ran into Miller and Lobodyinski who were supposed to have flown to Paris the previous day. It seems their travel orders were incorrect and because of the murky weather the planes   were grounded anyway. They were both plenty disgusted and said they were going back to the company the following morning. I tried to get them to come with us on the train but they had no blanket or rations with them. We couldn’t board the train until 1:45 so in the mean time I saw their movie. It was “Mrs Parkington” and even though it was very old and I had seen it before, I enjoyed seeing it again. While we were waiting to board the train they announced on the speaker system that Truman had announced that the Japs had agreed to our surrender terms. There were about 2000 fellows waiting there and there wasn't any kind of response, not a cheer from a single one of them. (My pen ran out of ink). All the guys are really disgusted and no one even talked about the Japs surrendering. We finally got on the train with 8 of us in each little compartment with our bags and all. We had to sleep sitting up or lay in the aisle on the floor but most of us were so tired we went to sleep immediately even tho the train didn’t pull out until 3:30 AM. I slept sitting up (wooden seats too) and even slept through chow that morning at 7:00 in   Augsburg, Germany. That day I ate only an orange and a bar of candy that I had brought along until we arrived at Salzburg that evening about 7:00 PM. On the way up we passed through Strasbourg, Saverne, and also Luneville, and Nancy where we were when we first got here in January and February. See it seems ages since the time we first were there. Coming through Germany and France and seeing the pillboxes and barbed wire entangelents reminded me of our first trip only going in the other direction. We had good chow at Sarrebourg and it really hit the spot. First hot food for the day and it was ground beef patties, mashed potatoes, string beans, bread and pineapple. They had quite a nice place set up there alongside the tracks including wash racks complete with helmets so I took time to wash and shave which made me feel 100% better. The place is kept up nice and clean by German PW’s who also served our food.   Another group of them swept out and tidied up our cars while we were eating. Can you imagine sweating out a chow line of 1500 guys, anyway I was hungry enough that I did it and it took only about 20 minutes. One thing that helped was the fact a lot of the fellows didn’t have their mess gear and by having mine I got to move forward in the line quite some distance. After eating, we climbed back in the train to head to Paris. It was another rough nite on the train but we finally arrived in Paris about 7:00 AM. We ran up stairs and had breakfast and then moved by bus to another station where we checked our bags. We then took off in every direction for Red Cross clubs to get cleaned up a bit. There are thousands of GI’s in paris and facilities are bad for getting food and showers unless one is on pass to Paris and assigned to some hotel. I think I walked more in Paris than any other time in my life. My legs were so tired they felt like they were about to fall off. I did   see some very interesting sights including the Arc De Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Grand Palace and many others and think Paris is beautiful city but think the French are about as low as they come. They screw the G.I. at every possible chance and they figure out plenty of ways. Some of the boys spent $40 or $50 there in one day. I spent about $4 and a shave and haircut cost me $1.70 of that amount. Thats some contrast to 15¢ for a shave and hair cut in Austria isn’t it? Actually the people of Germany and Austria are much more industrious, cleaner and neater and better in every way than the French in my opinion. It burns me up to see the French using our vehicles and wearing our uniforms all at our expense. The women have no morals what ever, they walk right in the urinals where the men are urinating just like it was a public place. About 90% of the women are whores and they challenge you for business right on the street. I had two girls ask me in the same block just one block from Rainbow Corner (a Red Cross Club) and it is located on one of the main streets in Paris. Well enough of that.

I had a hard time finding a place to eat chow downtown and went to four different clubs before I could finally get in one but did have a very good dinner. Also had some doughnuts and Coca Cola at Rainbow Corner so was pretty well filled up. After that I walked back down to the station, had a few beers and waited for the fellows to meet to catch the train for Le Havre.

Well darling, I must close as we leave soon for the dispensary for a physical before sailing for England. Mostly a short arm examination I think. I will write you again the first chance I have —