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October 28, 1944

October 28, 1944Epinal, France No. 63 (conclusion) Dear Folksies,             We got a good break today alright, got done at 6 A.M. and even made rounds before breakfast, leaving a few stray things only to be done after breakfast. Saw Leon M. after that and he seems able to sit rather comfortably. Just had lunch […]

October 27, 1944

October 27, 1944Epinal, France No. 63 Dear Folksies,         Another breather, and that only because there were not enough beds, so here it is afternoon and I have already finished doing a couple of weeks worth of laundry. Worked from midnight to breakfast alright – in fact, another brain, not a bad one thank goodness […]

October 25, 1944

October 25, 1944Epinal, France No. 62 (conclusion) Dear Folksies,             The weather has been none too pleasant – pretty much of S.F.’s miserable type, i.e. foggy, drizzly, etc. Some of the patients come in dripping wet, and in fact, at first the chills that some of them got when transfusions were started were thought to […]

October 24, 1944

October 24, 1944Epinal, France No. 62 Dear Folksies,             Have just had lunch and for the first time since last writing, have not had a million and one things to do on Wally’s ward in the P.M. Yes, we’ve kept plenty busy and tho’ our team hasn’t operated twelve hours straight each of our shifts, […]

October 20, 1944

October 20, 1944Epinal, France Conclusion of No. 61 Dear Folksies,          The “Cohn Regime” of the Officers’ Club is over! Roy’s 6-month reign was terminated and a new group of officers elected for the next 6-month period. Had anyone challenged the count of the votes for President and Vice-President, it would have really been something, […]

October 18, 1944

October 18, 1944Epinal, France No. 61 Dear Folksies,        Am now on the “swing-shift”, Mattie having changed everyone around again when we hit a twelve-hour slack period, and one group has been able to sleep well during the time that they usually were operating. Still working with Wally and Carroll, now on the midnight to noon […]

October 16, 1944

October 16, 1944Epinal, France Conclusion of No. 60 Dear Folksies,            The other night when Wally, Carroll and I worked straight thru supper and finally went over to the Mess at about 9 P.M. to find what they said they had kept hot for us was plenty cold, despite the fact that they had had […]

October 15, 1944

October 15, 1944Epinal, France No. 60 Dear Folksies,             Last night we got stuck with a nice longie that kept us going way past midnight – in fact to after 3 A.M. Got up this A.M. thinking I might help as I was wide-awake, but they seemed to have caught up pretty well, so shall […]

October 14, 1944

October 14, 1944Epinal, France No. 59 Dear Folksies,             Got to bed at midnight last night, but was able to pile out of bed to take off in search of Lynn Rudee this morning. Got some info as to where I could find him, but as usual such info was a bit haywire – why […]

October 13, 1944

October 13, 1944Epinal, France No. 58 Dear Folksies,             At the moment I am in surgery, but as there are no cases for our team of Greene, Russell & me, I’m taking this opportunity to write.             News items: Cy Kiernan got his Captaincy. Bessie Lawrence and Irene Gallagher, who used to be in our […]

October 10, 1944

October 10, 1944Epinal, France No. 57 Dear Folksies,             A bit more of a breathing spell than I anticipated when I pounded out my last letter to you. Sooo, here I am in Receiving at the moment with good night’s sleep behind me and nothing in particular to do this afternoon unless things get good […]

October 9, 1944

October 9, 1944Epinal, France No. 56 Dear Folksies,        Just a shortie to say: “am fine, am busy as h…, and have no time to write”.        Pete got sick with ?? what about a week ago and just now walked in the door. The night I got here Paul was assisting Gerbode in place […]

October 7, 1944

No letter from René on October 7, 1944. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, about their arrival and early days at Epinal.      We arrived in Epinal itself in the evening, after a 3-hour trip. Epinal is a textile industrial city, through which flows the now battle-famous Moselle River. The “Krauts” […]

October 5, 1944

No letter from René on October 5, 1944. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, about their trip from Rioz to Epinal.      We bade farewell to Rioz and headed north by truck convoy to Epinal, which at that time was about 5 miles behind the lines. Our route north took us […]

October 4, 1944

No letter from René on October 4, 1944. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, about the end of their time in Rioz.      Much to our surprise [after a lull] we had a second spurt of activity at Rioz before actually closing. This was due to an unusual number of casualties […]

October 1, 1944

October 1, 1944Rioz, France No. 55 Dear Folksies,             Yesterday took a ride with Jones and Eddie Welles, going to a fairly large town, but unfortunately Jones had a lot of business that took up our time, and then we spent a good bit of time going to a factory where they make pipes. Eddie […]