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March 31, 1945

No letter from René on March 31, 1945. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl about the 59th’s journey from St. Avold, France to Saarbruken, Germany. Our route from St. Avold [in French Lorraine] took us north through the town of Forbach, just south of the German border and the Saar River. […]

March 30, 1945

March 30, 1945Tiefenthal, GermanyNo. 24 (continued) Dear Folksies,               Next A.M., up bright and early, and then at noontime we got word that we were going to have to take patients that night, despite the fact that the vehicles that were supposed to move us had just arrived in the area an hour before […]

March 29, 1945

March 29, 1945Tiefenthal, GermanyNo. 24 Dear Folksies,                Have been plenty busy the last five days.  As you see by the above, we have hopped again and no sooner got a tent or two thrown up than we were up to our necks in work, and since only part of us were here at […]

March 25, 1945

This excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl around March 25, 1944, tells the story about the unit’s short stay at St. Avold, which René couldn’t tell his parents due to censorship rules… We worked day and night for six days before the breakthrough into Germany and our casualties became light. The casualties consisted […]

March 24, 1945

March 24, 1945St. Avold, France No. 23 Dear Folksies,                     I can see that this is going to be some letter. I’m trying to type this in our tent and it is 7 P.M., and it looks as if Bish, Jack & Roy are contemplating consuming most of what is left of the last […]

March 21, 1945

March 21, 1945St. Avold, France No. 22 Dear Folksies,                     It’s good to be working again!  We’ve been plenty busy, are tenting it once again and enjoying it.  Of course, we are still forced to keep our long woolens on for, even with our oil-burning stoves, things are a bit cool.  The first nite […]

March 17, 1945

No letter from René on March 17, 1945. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, describing the 59th’s move from Epinal to St. Avold, France. On March 17, we finally left Epinal and headed north to take part in the push of the 7th Army into Germany. After 2 months of inactivity […]

March 15, 1945

No letter from René on March 15, 1945. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, describing his visit to the grave of his brother, Dick, in Normandy. Before returning to duty I had the good fortune of being able to fly to Normandy to visit my brother Dick’s grave. The flight from […]

March 14, 1945

No letter from René on March 14, 1945. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, describing his visit to Paris earlier in the month. [In early March] I had the grand opportunity to see the famous city. Although it couldn’t actually be described as beautiful at this time of year with its […]

March 11, 1945

March 11, 1945Epinal, France No. 21 Dear Folksies,                     I left off yesterday’s letter just as we went off to play some volley ball. Managed to spend a good part of the afternoon – both yesterday and today – at that game. In fact, today had some pretty good games of it. The weather, […]

March 10, 1945

March 10, 1945Epinal, France No. 20 Dear Folksies,                 There’s so darn little doing as far as we’re concerned that ‘tis difficult to find things to write to you – don’t have any opportunities for interesting conversations as you do. They’ve GOT to put us to work soon!!           We have been spending a […]

March 8, 1945

March 8, 1945Epinal, France No. 19 (conclusion) Dear Folksies,                  Why is it that the Army at home doesn’t seem to want to profit from the experiences of those who have been through various things over here and know what they are talking about?  Strangely enough, even over here, in a lot of things, […]

March 7, 1945

March 7, 1945Epinal, France No. 19 (continued) Dear Folksies,                   Two days ago we had a pleasant surprise for, who walked into our quarters but “Skinny” St. Claire.  Remember, he was, and still is, in the Judge Advocate’s office of Army Hdq, had some of his law training at Stanford. Anyway, the last week […]

March 6, 1945

March 6, 1945Epinal, France No. 19 Dear Folksies,                   A few nights ago Bob Treadwell returned home from his leave in Paris. He felt just as I had — that two days there was much too short time. He had just begun to find his way around a bit and to enjoy some of […]

March 2, 1945

March 2, 1945Epinal, France No. 18 Dear Folksies,                      On the day I last wrote to you, I did take a hike — with Bret, Tony Ilacqua and Helen Baker. Walked around some of the back roads and went through a few old forts that dated back some seventy years. There actually wasn’t much […]