Dear Willard and Grace;

I just got through writing you the day before yesterday that I was wondering what happened to you. Yesterday, I received the package with the films and colored prints. So now, I know that you are still there.

As for the colored prints, I received 11 all told. Of course, there were 3 of 1, 4 of another and four of still another. I presume that is all that were printable. Am I right. At any rate I was glad to get the film and prints in good condition.

This town, Bad Homburg, is where I am located now. It’s a little place of about 16,000 and is located about 10 miles north of Frankfurt a. Main. Now as for Frankfurt, it was a nice city. At least that’s what the remains indicate. From what I saw there isn’t a building standing that is of any use. There is a theatre in operation down there, but I don’t know how it escaped a direct hit. It was damaged a little. But most of the place is just a conglomeration of silhouettes.– ghosts of what once was Frankfurt.

I got a letter from John Veselka yesterday and he’s down near Stuttgart. He travels around quite a bit, so now he’s going to try to look me up.

Now that censorship is more or less lifted, I have a few more things that I would like to send home. I would like to get something from here from all of you, but just can’t seem to lay my hands on more than one particular item. It seems every time I try to stock up on one item, I can’t get enough to go around.

I’m gathering up a few postcards around here while the getting is good. Boy when the run out I don’t know where the storekeepers will get any more. Everything is caput.

The people around here don’t know what to make of us. Some of them speak, some of them want to speak and don’t. Others just don’t do anything. We just don’t do anything.

The weather has turned sour the past few days, so we are more than ever inactive. Every time we have moved from one place after staying there for a while, I sort of say to myself “I could fight the ware here and be happy”. But after we move and get in a new place, I get that unsettled feeling and want to move again. You know, we’ve made a lot of friends wherever we have stayed. They all want us to come back and see them before we go home. But it will be impossible to see them all.

I’ve been kept pretty busy here in this section. You know, now I am chief clerk and there are five guys working under me. Last week I had the privilege of recommending to the captain here that they be promoted. I have trouble with only one of them. He has a lot of book learning, he’s from the south, he doesn’t like to take orders, he’s smart, but he has no initiative. No common sense. I don’t know what I’ll do with him.

Well, I guess I’ve just about brought you up to date on things here now. Drop me a line and let me know what’s new.

Russell

Germany