Letter from Clarence Williams to Gretchen Williams, August 31, 1945

My darling here we are on our homeward journey and believe me, I will be plenty glad to get back. We have been on the move practically ever since leaving Austria two weeks ago and I have had all the traveling I want. It seems every nite we stop at some camp that has nothing but tents, usually dark as hell when we arrive and no lights in the tents. Night before last we stayed at a camp in Southampton waiting for the ship. While there we did get to see a good show, Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in “Without Love.” It is quite funny so if you havn’t seen it as yet, try and do so. Last night we arrived here at Etretat about 12:30 and by the time they got us placed in tents it was about 2:00. It is right out in   the woods and you can imagine us tromping around here in the dark at that time of night trying to find beds for about 4000 guys. The weather was miserable practically all the time we were gone with the exception of a couple of days. I took several pictures and hope some of them turn out fairly good. I enjoyed seeing what that part of the world was like but don’t believe I would ever take another furlough especially for that distance. Speaking of war time traveling, this was really it. I can hardly wait to get back and get your letters. That is one of the worst features of the trip, no mail from you for three weeks and actually it seems three months honey. We still have about a four day train ride from here to Munich which means being crowded in like sardines and no sleep except sitting up. I am   hoping when we get back the Division will have some information as to when we might leave for home.

We slept late this morning because of going to bed so late consequently missed breakfast. I hope they have some thing decent to eat for dinner and I am really hungry now. As yet we don’t know when we will ship out of here but doubt if it will be today as much as we would like it. The sooner we leave, the sooner we get the train ride over and get back to the company. When I get back honey, I will try and write you two letters each day, one about the trip and one on current happenings until I get caught up with my news.

Well darling they are calling our ship’t number on the land speaker so must close —