Germany

February 26, 1945

Dear Mom,

We are getting a little respite finally and it seem odd to have so little to do. Today has seemed very long since we made short shrift of our usual reports.

Tonight I have just come from my first movie in Germany. We have had pictures before elsewhere, but I have seldom been able to attend.

You would like our theater! A hay loft in a barn back of our Command Post. After walking through several inches of mud you reach a crude ladder of logs which you climb to the loft. There you duck under a bar and enter the main part of the space, a large rectangle about 20 x 40 feet.

You emerge from behind the screen which is nailed to the supports and rails separating the drop-off below and sit on the few low benches that have been provided. After the usual mishaps which seem prerequisite to the showing of all Army films, the blur settles down to a normal double focus and the picture begins. This one is call "Summer Storm" and features Linda Darnell and George Sanders. It is fair entertainment and the acting holds up well until the end, when Sanders falls off badly.

About half way through, the cold flows from your feet, up your legs and sets your body shivering, making you probably more critical at the show's end than you would be in a warm theater. You notice the openings around the joists and the hole in the roof until complete darkness, as twilight fades, masks everything but the screen. Then suddenly the show ends and flashlights flicker as you grope with the crowd toward the ladder. Here you drop into mysterious darkness and stumble past a queue waiting for the second show.

You emerge into the cold night and the reality of mud and debris and torn houses. Gone are the warm Russian sun, the gypsy music and the lazy warmth of summer. Now remains only the noise of wet clay sucking at your boots to break the strange silence that marks this town from which all civilization has fled.

I had little success in getting the insignia. Only one pair was available, which I bought, but it means changing from jacket to coat, etc. Although insignia is rationed like everything else, you are allowed to buy five pair upon promotion. But, of course, this is dependent upon supply - of which there appears to be none.

There is to be an article on the Division in the May Cosmopolitan on our Moselle River crossing for which we have a citation pending.

I am now entitled to wear another decoration, for the 3rd Battalion with which I was has just received a Presidential Unit Citation for its action in the Foret de Mont Castre. You may have seen some of these ribbons - a plain blue with a gold metal border all around. It is worn on the right breast instead of the left where all other decorations are placed.

Love,

Bob