February 11, 1945
February 11, 1945Bacarrat, France No. 12 Dear Folksies, We haven’t been doing much of anything these last few days and in fact anticipate going back to our own gang in a couple of days. Tho’ there is little or nothing for us to do, they have been mighty nice to us and their C.O. […]
February 8, 1945
February 8, 1945Bacarrat, France No. 11 Dear Folksies, Have been kept busy working these last few days tho’ I cannot say that I’ve actually been hard at work. Worked nights for two nights and now am on days again. Worked straight thru both nights, but the way they work here they sort of take […]
February 5, 1945
February 5, 1945Bacarrat, France No. 10 Dear Folksies, Eddie and I came over here two days ago to join the boys of the Illinois University gang, the 27th Evac., who needed some help. They are a gang the same size as ours, but are carrying an extra load now and also have some of […]
February 2, 1945
February 2, 1945Epinal, France No. 9 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, Left Monique’s just in time to get back to my hotel to meet one of my boys, Harry Sharp, who had gotten tickets for the two of us to go to see the Folies Bergere. He had gone the first night we were in Paris, but […]
February 1, 1945
February 1, 1945Epinal, France No. 9 (continued) Dear Folksies, Tuesday A.M., I had planned to go on one of the American Red Cross tours around the town with some of the enlisted men, but as luck would have it, the bus we were supposed to go in was completely frozen that A.M. and so the […]
January 31, 1945
January 31, 1945Epinal, France No. 9 (continued) Dear Folksies, Later we walked to Claudine‘s apartment. Lilice and George sleep in a hotel, but eat and spend most of their time at Claudine’s, helping with the baby, cooking, etc. The apartment consists of three small rooms and a kitchen with a minimum of furniture. They […]
January 30, 1945
January 30, 1945Epinal, France No. 9 (continued) Dear Folksies, Monday A.M. I got up and had breakfast at the hotel (regular G.I. mess) and then phoned Jeanne, making arrangements to meet her at 12:30 P.M. at her place. It was fairly nice outdoors, cold but not too bad, so I started walking in search […]
January 29, 1945
January 29, 1945Epinal, France No. 9 (continued) Dear Folksies, I had supper with them all [Jeanne and David Salomons, and The Weills, whose apartment they are living in temporarily] and remained there talking until time to catch the last subway back to my hotel — the subways run only until 11 P.M. The food […]
January 28, 1945
January 28, 1945Epinal, France No. 9 (continued) Dear Folksies, After getting the boys settled in their hotel (a guide was furnished to show us where each hotel was) Harry drove me to mine and then took the truck and parked it for the period that we were in Paris, as you are not supposed […]
January 27, 1945
January 27, 1945Epinal, France No. 9 Dear Folksies, I did it! I made it to Paris! It all came about this-away, Serge and Ann Bryner had left for Paris (loaded with some things for the folks), three of the nurses were scheduled to have their leaves in Paris and the phone rings for […]
January 25, 1945
January 25, 1945Epinal, France No. 8 Dear Folksies, Yesterday I received your package with asparagus, artichokes, chopped olives and the wonderful pair of warm socks that Henriette made for me. Thank her just oodles for me, but shall try to drop her a note in a couple of days, anyway. Thanks, oodles, to you […]
January 22, 1945
January 22, 1945Epinal, France No. 7 Dear Folksies, Nothing much new since last writing, except that all ears are pretty well glued to the radio these days to hear the news of when the Russians reach Berlin. Boy, if they do get there first, old Patton is going to be one sore monkey, I […]
January 18, 1945
January 18, 1945Epinal, France No. 6 And still we twiddle our thumbs. Very little snowing in the last days, but our blanket of white remains except over heavily travelled road-beds. Have become fairly well acclimated when outdoors and moving around, but when the steam-heat in our quarters goes on the fritz and we have […]
January 16, 1945
January 16, 1945Epinal, France No. 5 Dear Folksies, Roosevelt’s speech of about a week ago has irked a good many. This business of making such a point about drafting nurses! Actually I don’t believe the need for nurses is that great. There’s no reason that WACs couldn’t be used in a great number of […]
January 15, 1945
January 15, 1945Epinal, France No. 4 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, The 59th continues to be “wacky” in the eyes of the newcomers. A couple of days ago a strange sight could be seen outside our officers and nurses quarters. There we were, some 25 of us (officers and nurses), almost shivering in the cold, outside, […]
January 14, 1945
January 14, 1945Epinal, France No. 4 (continued) Dear Folksies, Change in assignments slightly at the moment – Eddie Welles has come off the surgical team and gone on anesthesia and Paul has taken his place. After Eddie has had a little while in that job, then Newsom or Pete will come off their team […]
January 13, 1945
January 13, 1945Epinal, France No. 4 Dear Folksies, Sorry, did not mean to let these days slip by without writing to you, but in a minute you shall see where my good intentions yesterday went. We’re still sitting on our – you know what’s, and some have even done so rather dramatically in the […]
January 8, 1945
January 8, 1945Epinal, France No. 3 Dear Folksies, And still the snow falls! We’re really under a blanket now! In fact, I guess that most of France is pretty white right now. It’s hard to realize that actually when one considers latitudes, the whole of France is pretty far above any of the places […]
January 5, 1945
January 5, 1945Epinal, France No. 2 Dear Folksies, We are really under a mighty cold white blanket now, with several inches of that white stuff all over the ground and buildings. Our boys were out freezing their hands off this morning putting chains on all their trucks, for it looks as if they won’t […]
January 4, 1945
January 4, 1945Epinal, France No. 1 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, Had a nice cold ride in an open jeep a couple of days ago. Carroll and I went with Klemperer and Byers in their jeep while the other officers went, warm, in the closed babies that have heaters. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our ride greatly. We felt […]
January 3, 1945
January 3, 1945Epinal, France No. 1 (continued) Dear Folksies, Our party on New Years Eve was quite a party. Originally, a few days before, we had anticipated not being able to have the party, but suddenly it was O.K. and things got under way in nothing flat. We were going to have the electric […]
January 2, 1945
January 2, 1945Back in Epinal, France No. 1 Dear Folksies, Yep, ‘tis now 1945 over here! All have pretty well recuperated from a rather wild ushering in of the New Year about which I shall tell you in a few minutes. We hope that despite the fact that the news from the Western Front […]
December 31, 1944
No letter from René on December 31, 1944. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, about the unit’s return to Epinal on New Year’s Eve. On Christmas night, we received word to stop receiving patients and to start packing our equipment. The news took us somewhat by surprise, and as usual speculation […]
December 29, 1944
December 29, 1944Mutzig, France No. 75 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, There are a lot of screwy things going on at present, as a matter of fact, and I have only heard snatches of things here and there, getting some from Wally when Carroll and I finally pinned him down the other nite. It seems now […]
December 28, 1944
December 28, 1944Mutzig, France No. 75 (continued) Dear Folksies, Yesterday, Carroll Russell and I went out for the first exercise that we have had since here. Only took a short walk, but it was most pleasant. Walked thru the nearby town and back in the hills a little along the roads. Just on the […]
December 27, 1944
December 27, 1944Mutzig, France No. 75 Dear Folksies, Yes, my dears, this is number seventy-five! Where the others have gotten to, if you haven’t received them by the time you get this, I know not. I am really perturbed that you have not been receiving the letters. I know how you may very well […]
December 24, 1944
December 24, 1944Mutzig, France No. 74 Dear Folksies, Well, ‘tis almost Xmas Eve and am wondering how all of you have been enjoying yourselves. It being a Sunday and I hope as nice and sunny out there as it is here today (though not as nippy, I hope), I sort of imagine that today […]
December 23, 1944
December 23, 1944Mutzig, France Unnumbered Dear Gram, Xmas is just about here, and tho’ all have been kept so busy that very little Xmas spirit has been visible, other than the great number of packages that have been flowing in, we have had enough of a breather the last two days for plans for […]
December 20, 1944
No letter from René on December 20, 1944. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, about his impressions of the Maginot Line. We took advantage of a few free afternoons to inspect a fortress on the Maginot Line, which was located on the ridge of a low mountain just behind the hospital […]
December 18, 1944
December 18, 1944Mutzig, France No. 73 Dear Folksies, Surprised that I should write again today, aren’t you?? Well, I am! Have done a bit of writing and also reading in the last 24 hrs. Started reading the “Razor’s Edge” last night and damn near couldn’t put it down – read to the wee hours […]
December 17, 1944
December 17, 1944Mutzig, France No. 72 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, Today, as you see, is another day… After we got done with that case last night and worked up a couple of new cases on the ward, it was time for midnight chow, and then we turned in – not really thinking that we would […]
December 16, 1944
December 16, 1944Mutzig, France No. 72 Dear Folksies, Am over in Surgery at the moment, we are on 3rd call tonight, and at the moment Shock and Receiving are empty — so it may be that what does come in will be able to be taken care of by Gerbode, as he is 1st […]
December 13, 1944
December 13, 1944Mutzig, France No. 71 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, Well, we got put to work yesterday afternoon – I might have known that that would happen just soon after I got a letter started. Now have a new system whereby we work 6 days on days and then 6 days on nights and then have […]
December 12, 1944
December 12, 1944Mutzig, France No. 71 (continued) Dear Folksies, I stopped writing three days ago because of the inability to adequately elevate my foot at the same time as I typed. Wally came in while I was writing and as my toes looked worse, he made me stop and soak and elevate. So I […]
December 10, 1944
No letter from René on December 10, 1944. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, describing their move from Epinal to Mutzig, France. In his personal journal, Phil was able to describe his experiences in the 59th Evac. with specifics (place names, information about the enemy) that, because of censorship rules, René […]
December 9, 1944
December 9, 1944Mutzig, France No. 71 Dear Folksies, The packages I’ve received in the last few days have managed to just about fill my barracks bag. I wasn’t going to open them till Xmas, that is this last batch, but to conserve space, I thought I had better consolidate some of them. Even that, […]
December 8, 1944
December 8, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, Alain, you wrote to me that the black sheep of the family was dead. That may or may not be true from what Jean-Pierre says and believes. The subject is a distasteful one and one hard to understand except if one believes that there was […]
December 7, 1944
December 7, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 (continued) Dear Folksies, The story of Yvette is a proud yet sad one and all can only hope that she and her husband [Jean-Guy] are still well and alive. George Baumann [Yvette’s father] had recently gone to Paris and gotten a lot of the details concerning Yvette that […]
December 6, 1944
December 6, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 (continued) Dear Folksies, Mathilde, as you know, died in Nice in March of this year. Jeanne and David were with her, but Lilice and family had already had to leave. Why Jeanne and David remained, Jean-Pierre knew not, but apparently they got away with it at first and […]
December 5, 1944
December 5, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 (continued) Dear Folksies, The rest of the news which I can give you has all come from Jean Pierre and Jacqueline Marx, rather than direct from Lilice as I had hoped – tho’, of course, none the less – and probably more authentic. Lilice, George and Claudine […]
December 4, 1944
December 4, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 (continued) Dear Folksies, After I had gotten a thumb-nail sketch concerning each and everyone of the family and being still none too clear how the Horvilleurs are related to us, I asked whether Jean Pierre knew Jacqueline Marx. With that both J.P and Doude let out a howl, […]
December 3, 1944
December 3, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 (continued) Dear Folksies, Jean Pierre at present is continuing his traveling-sales, and has as his line a selection of briefcases, folders and beach bags – all made from a form of oil cloth, rather than leather. Now his latest line is a construction game for the kiddies, constructing […]
December 2, 1944
December 2, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 (continued) Dear Folksies, Next A.M. off we were again, pounding the poor little jeep for all she was worth. And then we find that the bloomin’ Rhone has pulled a “Mississippi” and overflowed at just some of the points we wanted to transverse — so naturally the detours […]
December 1, 1944
December 1, 1944Epinal, France No. 70 Dear Folksies, It’s again with mixed emotions that I write, but let me begin where I left off with my last letter where we were still in the throes of hard and constant work. And then, bingo! Came a lull, adequate sleep one night when I should have […]
November 30, 1944
No letter from René on November 30, 1944. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, as things calm down and the unit prepares to leave Epinal, France. After 7 weeks of feverish activity here in Epinal, we have finally closed our doors and are preparing to move. We are mighty proud of […]
November 28, 1944
November 28, 1944Epinal, France No. 69 Dear Folksies, Tonight I am a bit more calm and collected and yet again with rather mixed emotions. When I awoke at 5 P.M. this afternoon, I found awaiting me on our desk, a card from Lilice, and in it considerable news for which all of us have […]
November 27, 1944
November 27, 1944Epinal, France No. 68 Dear Folksies, Before I begin, I must warn you that this letter is bound to be the most misspelled and probably the worst typographically written letter that I have written in a long time. I am at the moment so bloomin’ happy, yet sad, and my eyes are […]
November 23, 1944
November 23, 1944Epinal, France No. 67 Dear Folksies, It’s Thanksgiving and I just finished a really scrumptious meal. While the meal is still fresh in my mind, or I should say stomach, and the gastric and duodenal juices haven’t had much of a time to get to work on it, I shall give you […]
November 19, 1944
November 19, 1944Epinal, France No. 66 Dear Folksies, I have been going steadily today, except for a slight interlude, luckily, when George Davis showed up – much to my surprise and joy. George arrived with an MP Major friend of his and stayed around for a few hours, going over and getting Major Kay […]
November 16, 1944
November 16, 1944Epinal, France No. 65 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, Had a visit today from a Major Kay Barber. She is a good friend of George Davis and the head nurse of a hospital that is not too far away. She had seen George a couple of weeks ago and knew that if she was […]
November 15, 1944
November 15, 1944Epinal, France No. 65 Dear Folksies, Since my last letter, I have been kept on the go, as you might well imagine and we never seem able to know what day of the week it is. Only those that make it a practice to visit the Padre weekly are the ones who […]
November 10, 1944
November 10, 1944Epinal, France No. 64 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, Busy today until just a little while ago. Mom, YOUR TYPING IS MARVELOUS!!!! Heck, you have many less mistakes than these letters of mine! Keep it up! I should think, however, that now you would be kicking yourself for not trying to type long ago! […]
November 9, 1944
November 9, 1944Epinal, France No. 64 (continued) Dear Folksies, At the moment, the Old Man is wandering around sort of like a lost sheep, waiting for his time to go home — tho’ he has not any definite time of departure, nor have we any inkling who the new C.O. will be. At any […]
November 8, 1944
November 8, 1944Epinal, France No. 64 Dear Folksies, Have been plenty busy, tho’ in the last couple of nights we have managed to catch up on much needed sleep and am now feeling well rested. Someone got a brain-storm and decided that since some of the other hospitals seem to prefer the 8 to […]
November 2, 1944
No letter from René on November 2. Here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, reflecting about their time in Epinal, France. [During October] we have been going quite steadily. About every other day, following a drive, our receiving and shock wards pile up with a backlog of 80-90 patients, requiring a bout […]
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 […]
September 30, 1944
September 30, 1944Rioz, France No. 54 Dear Folksies, With nothing to do at the moment, a good music program on the radio here in Receiving, a good typewriter un-busy, and never knowing what the next days might bring to cut short my letter-writing for while, guess I might as well pound out a few […]
September 29, 1944
September 29, 1944Rioz, France No. 53 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, The new dietician plus the French cooks we have acquired have been putting out a damned good mess, despite no change in foodstuffs. The greatest improvement in the mess has been in the flavoring and the addition of some excellent sauces for otherwise tasteless canned […]
September 28, 1944
September 28, 1944Rioz, France No. 53 (continued) Dear Folksies, Our “Planning Commission” of Gerbode Inc. picked out a decent enough area alright, but their fatal mistake was to fix the Mess Dept. and a couple of other spots that need vehicles coming to them, up on the top of the area, so that the water-truck […]
September 27, 1944
September 27, 1944Rioz, France No. 53 Dear Folksies, Another breathing spell, so another letter. Have been kept plenty busy anesthetizing for the team of Armanini & Russell. They’re fun to work with as Russell has about the best and oddest sense of humor of any of the officers and Armanini is always the butt […]
September 26, 1944
September 26, 1944Rioz, France No. 52 (conclusion) Dear Folksies, I’ve just heard the 10 P.M. news — sounds pretty good. It looks as if the next big deal is going to be the Philippines. A lot of people seem to feel that Germany is going to fold rapidly, but it looks to me as […]
September 25, 1944
September 25, 1944Rioz, France No. 52 (continued) Dear Folksies, I was sure glad the other day that I had my high English-type boots, for there I was in the middle of a river, stuck!! But, let me tell you more about that cute little incident. I had gone over this particular section of road […]