On Aug 18th at 1410, the bn was alerted for movement and moved out at 1700 along the road Chateauneuf--Dreux for 37 miles thru recently liberated territory. Our mission at Dreux was that of supporting CCA who was to outpost the town to the north and relieve the 5th Armored Division.
Friday, Aug 18, 1944
Somewhere in France
My darling;
I bet you have been worrying about me, especially as we were not allowed to write any letter for a period of a couple weeks. I think that it has been so long since I wrote you. I bet my mother has been calling you to see if you received a letter. Call mom when you get this, and let her know you heard. I written her a letter today also. And I really don’t know which one is going to get home the sooner.
Well Honey we arrive in France much sooner then I expected, The reason I sent home that $96.00 or so was I knew I would never get a chance to use it over here. I keep about $16.00 from which I now have 800 Francs. So you see each franc is worth only 2 cents. And I haven’t been able to spend a franc since I been in this country.
The saddest thing that has happened around here was the day we left England. Leo Penny received a cable from his mother, Carol, his wife, had suddenly died. Leo didn’t even know she was sick, and up to the present moment knows no more than that, as no body has received even a post card since we left England.
Betty the French people are a thousand times nicer to you then the English people. Each and every town we go there we collect flowers, cider, wine and even bread. They stand out in the road and even clap their hands as you go by. We have never seen anything like it. The only thing bad about it was the driver may get a little too much. And then the fun begins. They sure try hard to please you. I could say more but censorship restricts what I can say. The French have had it much the harder than England will ever know.
Betty, please don’t worry if my letters are short. My work is harder and the hours much longer. So when I get a chance to sleep I sleep. Last night I got six hours sleep which is the most I had over here so far.
Honey this isn’t to much of a letter so I’ll just put it away and add more to it later. It can’t go out until the ration truck goes away.
I increased your allotment to $250 today. So you should get the new amount about Oct 1st. Hope by that time this damn thing is all over.
Betty right now there are about six French women around the C&R. They are trying to give us eggs. We will take them and in turn give them something from our 15 rations. One has a little girl 3 ½ years old and her husband has never seen this baby. Boy is it hard to understand this people, and to try and talk to them is out of the question for me. Use everything but my toes. For instance you ask them there age and you rise fingers for age.
Honey the ration truck is going to leave so I’m going to cut this short. I sure hope I got to come home some and spend some time with you. I really need a lot of loving. Be good.
All my love
Jack