Tom’s final letter to his parents, received by them several days after his death had been reported.
He discusses the weather and explains that “Everything is going OK and as yet there isn’t much to worry about”.
Mon. night, 23 April 45.
“Northern France”.
April 23, 1945, Northern France
Dear Folks
Just time for a short letter but did want to write to you. I think I have now received all of your letters up to the 11 April. Rcd the V-mail you wrote came yesterday so you can see which is the faster. My mail going to you seems to be going through pretty fast and now with our new APO ours might speed up alittle. Anyway regardless of the service I still enjoy all of your letters, and be sure and tell Elaine the same. I imagine by this time things are settled alittle more definitely for Stan as to his color of uniform, certainly seems things worked out O.K.
Things here are still about the same. The weather has been pretty nice and for awhile was getting pretty hot around noon which didn’t help our sleeping.
Everything is going OK and as yet there isn’t much to worry about. Some of the stories coming back from the front sound like something from the Japs but imagine the papers are covering all that at home.
Tom visited Reims, France, with Andy on their day off. He was nearly run over by an out of control truck, but survived with just a bump and a scare. They were stranded in a small French town at night, were picked up by the Military Police, and provided a place to sleep.
0300 A.M. 20 April 45
“Northern France”
April 20, 1945, Northern France, Page 1
Dear Folks and 828,
I pulled control tower duty officer tonight and now that things have calmed down and there being a typewritter handy thought this would be a good time to write to you. I received all of your letters today, Elaine and Stans of Apr. 3rd, Cleda’s of Match 28th and Dad’s of Apr. 3rd and March 14th so you can see how our mail runs. It really sounded as if Greenville had alot of excitement. I miss out on everything.
Elaine I was glad to hear about all the Sigma Mu’s, I knew all of them that you mentioned, if you get the chance you might ask her about Bud Spencer, he was my roommate and the last that I knew he was with some outfit in France. Jean Kelly went into the AC the same time that I did.
I hope everything has worked out O.K. for Stan, don’t forget to write me all about his setup. I’ll be looking forward to receiving your Easter pictures.
Cleda I was glad to hear that you and Dad had gotten to see Zoe and that she is O.K. She will probably be there when you receive this letter so if she is tell her hello for me (in a loving way).
Benell T. Brown, 1941
I certainly hated to hear about Ben Brown and Mervin Wise.[1]Mervin Wise was a friend of Tom’s from Greenville. He was killed in action on April 16, 1945 while serving with the Army. Benell Brown was also a friend of Tom’s from Greenville. He was … Continue reading
Dad, I have really been seeing France these last few days. I told you about the trip to Paris and yesterday Andy and I were in Reims. Enjoyed it even if I did about get knocked down by some Frenchman in a truck. I was standing on the corner waiting for Andy when this truck couldn’t make the corner, jumped the curb, knocked a chunk out of the building besides a few water drains and ended up just grazing me after I had ma a remarkable twenty foot jump. After looking at the chunk he had taken out of the stone wall right behind where I had been standing I decided I was pretty lucky, as it was I didn’t get a scratch but a damn good scare to remember Reims by.
April 20, 1945, Northern France, Page 2
To continue with the more enjoyable parts of the trip – went into the cathedral and even climbed the stairs all the way to the top of the thing. It looks alot older than Notre Dame, however, I don’t know when it was built but maybe the fact that it has been shot up alittle in two wars makes it show its age more. The town is alot cleaner than most of the French towns we have seen which made it pretty nice to go to. Andy and I tried to make it back to the base that night but weren’t able to and ended up in some little town that had an eleven oclock curfew so we just waited for the M.P.s to pick us up and they got us a room in the officers hotel there. Don’t have any visions of a Palmer House or Statler but it was a place to sleep. However on my days off now I think I’ll stay in camp and forget about this sight seeing and let my feet recouperate.
Hope everything is O.K. with all of you and I certainly enjoy all of your letters. I am so sleepy I am going to have to get up and walk around to keep from going to sleep.
Mervin Wise was a friend of Tom’s from Greenville. He was killed in action on April 16, 1945 while serving with the Army. Benell Brown was also a friend of Tom’s from Greenville. He was killed in action on March 1, 1945, while serving with the 304th Infantry Regiment near Helenenberg, Germany.
Tom visits Paris and describes his trip with three friends.
Tues. afternoon, 17 April 45.
“Northern France.”
APO#374
April 17, 1945, Northern France, Page 1
Dear Folks also 828-
I won’t be able to write this evening and did want to write today and tell you about my trip to Paris and also to let you know about my new address. Should get our mail through faster now.
I and three others went to Paris last Sat. and got there in the evening. Spent most of the evening getting lost and getting our hotel assignments. There wasn’t a thing open that night as the city was paying its respects to the President.[1]President Franklin D. Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. Sun. morning we took a Red Cross motor tour through the city and saw all the sites of interest. It was really interesting and Paris hadn’t been changed hardly at all. The Cathedral of Notre Dames seemed to me the most remarkable when you consider that it was started in the year 1163 and completed in 1235. It is really very beautiful. Alot of the statues in the city were removed by the Germans to make guns out of. They have Nap. son’s coffins in the same building with Nap I now. Hitler sent it back to Paris as a present to the city from Austria where it had been and whereas before they would not return it. I would hate to open the thing as it is probably booby trapped.
In the afternoon we went to the “Folies Bergere” which you have probably heard of. I wasn’t bery impressed as a burlesque in the states is just as good. We walked all over the city and rode the subway the rest of the time, in Paris the subway is the “Metro.” It seems that Paris has been the least effected by the war as any city I’ve seen. However, there is a food shortage and we are not allowed to eat in a civilian restaurant – permitted to buy some things. However, it being Sun. none of the stores were open. Wish they had have been so I could send you all something. I have been through Reims and hope to go there again soon and do some shopping as it seemed like a nice place. I probably won’t be able to send much of anything as nothing you get is very good. At least I’ll try to get something to you from France. We had to leave early Mon. morning out of Paris on the train and it was alot nicer than the one we came up here on.
April 17, 1945, Northern France, Page 2
This afternoon Mort Blaisdell came over and we went out and practiced up on our .45 gun shooting. We can both stand alot more practice.
Tom describes his Easter in France and reminisces over previous Easter Sundays.
417th NFS War Diary: APRIL 1ST AND A NEW MONTH IS WITH US AGAIN. CONVERSION TO THE P-61 AIRCRAFT WITH WHICH WE ARE NOW EQUIPPED IS WELL UNDERWAY.
Easter night 4/1/45.
“S. France.”
April 1, 1945, S. France
Dear Folks,
This Easter Sunday seem to be getting stronger and stronger each year. Truly didn’t seem much like Easter but guess that is to be expected. We didn’t have church till four this afternoon but guess the Chaplain had many stops before getting to our abode. Even at that we probably went to church a couple hours before you did if you consider the time zones.
There isn’t any thing new to write about and there isn’t any sense in boring you on repetition. I imagine all of you went to church this morning. Dad, if I remember right you really tried to make church on Easter.
In Zoe’s last letter she told about Ruth not being able to reserve a room in Phoenix, so she wouldn’t be going for awhile. She didn’t know when she would be going to Chicago as she had planned to go after Ruth left. Hope she is able to visit you , and take good care of her. Hope to see all of you before so very long. –
From April 3rd through April 7th, Tom’s squadron was occupied with moving from La Vallon Airfield in Southern France to St. Dizier Airfield in Northern France, about 275 miles. Wartime censorship does not allow him to discuss any of this.
“Somewhere in France.”
8 April 45.
April 8, 1945, Somewhere in France
Dear Folks,
Sorry I haven’t written sooner but it couldn’t be helped. I wrote last night but had to retrieve the letter as I doubt if you would have received it. There isn’t much that I can say.
I received all of your letters yesterday, Elaine and Stan’s of the 23rd, Cleda’s of the 28th, and Dad’s of the 24th. It was certainly swell to get all of them. Cleda, you will have to tell me about your trip home and I haven’t seen the V-mail yet so draw your own conclusions. Elaine I hope Tom isn’t tearing up any more of your cakes, there should be an easier way of entertaining the grandparents. If stan has to go I hope your job deal works out OK ___________ but don’t work too hard. Hope to be able to write you later –
Tom is trying V-Mail as a means of writing to his parents, thinking that because the processing plant is in Chicago, it will be delivered fairly quickly. In this case, he wrote on March 28, and the V-Mail was postmarked in Chicago as April 8th.
417th NFS War Diary: MAR. 28. THE SQUADRON WENT OFF OPERATIONS THIS MORNING FOR AN INDEFINITE PERIOD FOR THE PURPOSE OF CARRYING ON A CONVERSION PROGRAM FROM THE BEAUFIGHTER TYPE A/C TO THE P-61.
Wed. night 3/28/45
Southern France.
March 28, 1945, Southern France
Dear Folks –
I thought V-mail would get to you pretty fast as Chicago has one of the photographing labs. I’ll mail this in the morning so you might let me know when you receive it.
Andy and the other two boys are asleep but you know the Cartmells when it comes to going to bed. The electric lights went out some time ago but a couple of candles are OK to write by. I slept a great deal today so am not very tired tonight.
There isn’t much to write about other than to let you know everything is OK. Received a couple of letters from Zoe today that she had written on the 5th and 16th. She had planned on writing you folks around the first of April but now that Ruth is still at home she might wait till she leaves. Wish we could all spend Easter together but guess we’ll have to take a rain check on that till next year. What news we get over here all sounds good so it might not be too long. Cleda, hope the meat shortage there isn’t giving you too much trouble. What I wouldn’t give for a couple gals. of ice cold milk. Goodnight –
Tom’s unit has left Southern France (La Vallon Airfield) and moved to Northern France (St. Dizier Airfield). He describes his travel by train, and his concerns about the children growing up in war-torn Europe.
Wed. night. 11 April 45.
“Northern France.”
April 11, 1945, Northern France, Page 1
Dear Folks & 828,
Our censorship ban has been lifted alittle so can tell you alittle of what has been going on.l As you can see I have moved out of S. France. Really had it nice down there, more on the order of a vacation but that seems to be all past. Had a nice trip up and got to see alot of France. Came up on the train and followed the Rhone River a great deal of the way. It was really beautiful country and at a pretty time of year. Alot of the towns were damaged a great deal and every bridge crossing the Rhone had either been bombed by our AF or else destroyed by the Germans. Our engineers had built temporary spans at all the railroad crossings so we didn’t have to swim. Our train accommodations were pretty lousy, box cars, flat cars, and one what I guess you would call a French day coach. Road in the coach and just about froze at night. Had to live on K & C rations and it was good to get a warm C ration meal when we did finally arrive up here. The trip was might slow.
From the 417th NFS War Diary:
256. APR. 3. THE SQUADRON IS MOVING AGAIN. LEAVING BEHIND 26 OFFICERS AND 37 EM ON DS AT THIS FIELD, THE BALANCE OF THE SQUADRON WILL LEAVE TONIGHT AND TOMORROW MORNING FOR ST. DIZIER, FRANCE.
257. APR. 4. PART OF THE SQUADRON LEFT SALON, FRANCE BY RAIL AT 2300 HRS LAST NITE AND THIS MORNING AT 0830 HRS, THE MOTOR CONVOY LEFT. THEY TRAVELLED NORTH ALONG THE RHONE RIVER AND STOPPED OVERNIGHT AT A BIVOUAC AREA NORTH OF MACON. THE RAIL TRAVELERS (IN BOX CARS (40 X 8) ARE STILL ENROUTE AND PROBABLY WON’T ARRIVE UNTIL EARLY TOMORROW MORNING AT ST. DIZIER.
258. APR. 5. THE RAIL ECHELON ARRIVED AT 0500 HRS THIS MORNING AND DISEMBARKED AT 0830 HRS. IMMEDIATELY THEY ARRIVED AT CAMP SITE, THEY BEGAN TO SET UP TENTS AND OTHER INSTALLATIONS. AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME THAT THE RAIL ECHELON WAS DISEMBARKING, THE MOTOR CONVOY LEFT THEIR OVER-NIGHT STOPPING POINT AND COMMENCED THE BALANCE OF THEIR LONG DRIVE, FINALLY ARRIVING AT ST. DI2IER LATE IN THE AFTERNOON, COLD, TIRED, DUSTY AND HUNGRY BUT READY TO PITCH IN AN GET SETTLED. APR. 7. THE AIR ECHELON ARRIVED AT ST. DIZIER TODAY.
We came through Lyon and it seems to be the best city I’ve seen in France yet as it had alot of modern buildings and didn’t seem to want to have everything walled in as everyplace else was. I hope to get into Paris before so very long as I hear it is pretty nice.
April 11, 1945, Northern France, Page 2
We are still living in tents but the weather is getting warmer now which doesn’t make it so bad. Elaine, your hearing about the children over here was pretty near right. It is better here than I have seen it anywhere but things are still bad. They have alittle carnival in the small village near by and we have been in several times. All the little kids are around picking up cigarette butts and anything else they could find when they should be eating ice cream, pop-corn, and candy cotton. After a while you get use to seeing such things but at first it hits you pretty hard. None of them have had a chance, as when you consider how long the war has been going on this is the only life they know. I am certainly glad that our kids are coming up when they are and I think we ourselves can feel pretty lucky. Enough for now.
Tom has joined the 417th Night Fighter Squadron at the La Vallon Airfield, where the squadron has been based since September, 1944. Tom has been working on building out his tent, with his 3 other tent-mates. Tom and Andy took a day trip to Aix-en-Provence, France.
Sat. night.
24 Mar. 45
“Southern France”
March 24, 1945, Southern France, Page 1
Dear Folks,
Well we have finally got our tent all fixed up. Today I put the finishing touches on my part by building a table. There are four of us in the tent and we really had to start from scratch. We built a floor, door, sky light, a bunch of shelves, two wardrobes, stove, and desks. It is pretty nice now after getting everything arranged. There are a good many women that come out from one of the town who will do your laundry. We also buy fresh eggs (oeufs) from them which taste pretty good. It is a big job cleaning up the mess kit after cooking them so I usually hard boil mine.
Aix-en-Provence, FrontAix-en-Provence, Back
I went to Aix the other day and just got to see alittle bit more of France. Andy and I went in together and we really felt lost for awhile. Neither of us know much French and we had one heck of a time finding the hotel we were looking for. We walked all over town before finally finding it, every Frenchman we asked for directions did give us just the opposite directions than the last. Next time remind me to take French in H.S. instead of Latin because it hasn’t been a bit of help.
Alot of the people know German which helps alittle but it would be much more interesting to know French. I am enclosing a post card from Aix, there isn’t much to buy that is worth having. They even say the perfumes are pretty lousy and anything that is half way decent you pay about fifty times more than whit it’s worth. Once you leave the base about all there is to drink is wine or French beer. The water in the town isn’t too safe to drink unless you go to an officers’ club or someplace where it has been checked. I don’t care much for the wine and the beer taste like one part of American beer mixed with five parts water. We ate lunch in a French restaurant and believe me never again. Some kind of salad with potatoes in it, spinach, something that looked like oysters but finally decided it must have been barnacles, and wine. Cost of which was 130 francs ($2.60), it made Andy sick and I didn’t feel too well. From then on we ate in the officers’ club in Aix.
March 24, 1945, Southern France, Page 2
There isn’t much more that I can tell you as things are censored pretty close. I am enclosing two cards, one for you folks and one for Elaines’. Hope everything is working out OK for Stan and that all of you are well.
Just a short note to let you know my new address and that I have been moving. While in Italy I went through Naples and it is really a mass of ruins. One evening Andy and I went into Caserta where the royal palace is and where the king at one time lived. It is the only decent building I saw while in Italy. The people there are in pretty bad shape and there isn’t anything to buy that was worth having. Flew up here and came over the Anzio beachead. Italy isn’t much to brag about. It is alot nicer up here and all we did today was build a floor to our tent. There are four of us in it.
Tom has landed in Italy on his way to join up with his assigned night fighter squadron. He experienced a very cold night in a tent on a cot. He’s glad he was born in the U.S.
Afternoon
March 15, 45.
“In Italy”
March 15, 1945, In Italy, Page 1
Dear Folks,
This will have to be another joint letter but hope you don’t mind. Besides there isn’t an awfully lot that I can say other than I am mighty glad that this boy was born in the U.S. I think about everyone feels the same way. I’ll be able to tell you more at a later date but from what I have seen so far someone has really given this country a going over.
I am enclosing alittle allied currency that we have to exchange all our American currency for, one lire is equal to 1 cent, a 100 lire bill is about like a dollar bill.
March 15, 1945, In Italy, Page 2
I just about froze last night. We have tents with wooden floors (the difference between officers quarter and enlisted men’s) but no stoves. I had two blankets on the bottom of the cot (canvas), two sleeping bags, one inside the other, and two more blankets on top. I wore P.J.’s and socks. They say to keep your face out of the bag, but after freezing for several hours I went down in the sack and zipped it closed. It was till cold but not so drafty. Tonight I’m wearing my flying boots and heavy flying gear. I have heard that awhile back several of the boys in one tent pulled up part of the floor and built a fire in the middle. Another night like last and I think I’ll follow suit.
Our food is pretty good and the mess building and officers club look something like something the Germans used.
There isn’t much else to say, I did get some letters from Zoe but so far that’s all. However, the mail service isn’t to certain and most of hers had been forwarded to me from Hammer.
Hope everything is OK with all of you. I’m OK and things don’t look too bad.
