“Northern France.”
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.
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.
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.
With love,
Tom
