Author: David

Pvt. W.D. Johnson Jr34945847
Detachment of Patients
4314 U.S. Army Hospital Plant
APO 887 c/o Postmaster
New York N.Y.

Dec 27, 1944
Paris France

Dear Rip:

Here I am in gay Paree with a purple Heart N.Y.A. (not yet awarded!) and not a Chinaman’s chance of breaking out of this rehabilitation factory and getting at this illustrious city. I’ll be back in a foxhole without getting any closer to a drink of cognac than the ward boy’s breath.

I had a slight altercation with a Jerry tank which proved that an 88 is slightly more potent than an M1. My wounds didn’t amount to much and I’m headed back to duty after a few more days of convalescence here. If you took pen in hand at once and shot a note at the above imposing address you might have a chance to cheer me with your kind words and terrible handwriting before I leave here. Try it! I wrote Mom to take it easy about me when they get the G.I. telegram otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered the folks with my minor personal difficulties with this war.

Take it easy sonny & write your ole brother. Love David

Pvt. W.D. Johnson Jr 34945847
Detachment of Patients
4314 U.S. Army Hospital Plant
APO 887 c/o Postmaster
New York, N.Y.

Jan 1, 1945
Paris

Dearest Mother & Dad:

Happy New Year! Little did I dream this time last year that I’d be half way across the world from home at this time. It demonstrates what a rotten thing it would be if we could see into the future. I’m afraid it would have spoiled my New Years day last year. But I believe I’ll be home next year so we can forget the past and look forward to that.

I don’t have any startling news for you. I’m about well again-well enough to realize that I’m disgustingly spoiled by clean sheets, soft bed and good food 3 times a day with un-failing regularity. It’ll take a couple of days for me to get comfortably reacquainted with Mother Earth again – but I haven’t by any means forgotten what a great old gal she is, and how many times I would not have traded a small hole in the ground for a palace full of feather beds & hot & cold running water. No ordinary ditch digger ever realized what a noble instrument the shovel is! This is heresy, but I’ll declare I believe if an infantryman was faced with the choice of throwing away his rifle or his shovel, I’m inclined to think he would keep the shovel, such is the persuasive power of the mortar and the 88!

I’m hoping that, being New Year’s Day, they might trot out some turkey for us today. We really had some good turkey Christmas here. But no cranberries. I wailed bitterly at that. I didn’t know a turkey would ever roast done if there weren’t also some cranberries stewing on the stove. And then Louise, says you have spoiled me, Mom. the hulls & seeds have to be taken out to suit me!

How’s my old friend Sol Binsfield doing? I’d like to know what vitamin he takes to keep from breaking under the strain of his job! We could probably use some of those vitamins over here!

Mom, are you looking after Rip’s trombone? Take a look at it now & then & oil it so that it won’t corrode.

How’s business Dad? I enjoyed that letter you wrote me last month – how about another? Where did Kirby finally wind up in the service?

Well, I’ve about shot my bazooka for today. There just ain’t anything to write about and I hear the chow wagon coming. They roll food into the ward on a big cart & serve trays from that.

I wrote Rip a note the other day – thought maybe I could hear from him fore I leave here.

You all take it easy & don’t worry about me. Remember me to all the folks.

Love always
David Jr.

PS. They brought turkey but
no cranberries!

 

Pvt. W.D. Johnson Jr. 34945847
Detachment of Patients
4314 US Army Hospital Plant
APO 887 c/o Postmaster
New York  N.Y.

Paris France
Jan 3, 1945

Dearest Mother & Dad:

I know you all remembered that I was born 36 years ago yesterday. I had a very nice birthday. It was a pretty day, and I rested and took it easy and had nothing to worry about. The day before yesterday we had a New Year’s turkey dinner. But no cranberries!

I ran across a boy from Alex City who was a friend of some of my friends and business acquaintances there. I have enjoyed talking to him. You would think that as much as a soldier gets around, and as many soldiers as there are, a fellow would always be running into someone he knew, but it doesn’t happen that way. It seems that I’m mostly thrown with fellows who came all the way across the States from Alabama. So it’s always good to meet a guy with whom you have something in common. Not long ago I ran across Grady Lemmon, a boy from Tennessee with whom I trained at Blanding. I was happy to meet up with him.

I think I told you all I wrote Rip the other day hoping maybe I could hear from him before I left here. I’m scheduled to go farther back to a rest area just any time and it will be a week or two before I’m back with my outfit. I think by that time I’ll be thoroughly fed up with just lying around doing nothing and will be glad to get back.

I wrote Louise all about my fortune telling nature. Get her to tell you about it.

Dad, when I get back, I can give you enuf dope to improve your armchair generalship and by the time the next war starts you should be in fine fettle to swing right into the game.

I read in our Army paper, Stars & Stripes, that the govt. is still talking about a form of manpower draft that might affect the status of some now deferred or on the 47 list. That’s one thing I don’t have to worry about and I’m glad of that. I guess Farnie Hughes can start worrying again.

Well, I still haven’t seen anything of Paris yet. I could navigate it too, only my clothes are locked up. Too bad!

I saw a show today and went down to the Red Cross rooms & played Bingo for about an hour tonite.

We get good food here. We have hot cereal, bacon & eggs for b’fast, meat & veg. for dinner & also supper. I’ve learned to love hot cereals such as farina, oatmeal & cream of wheat, for breakfast. I learned to like it out on the line this winter. Sometimes before dawn they can venture up pretty close to the front & bring hot chow. Boy, when you’ve been awake in the snow most of the nite and can wrap yourself around some hot oatmeal & hot coffee it really hits the spot. So hot

cereals have become very dear to me and I believe I’ll continue to like them after the war. Another thing I like is the Army pancake. I haven’t run across an army cook yet who made anything but good ones. I can eat em with syrup by the ton. We always eat well unless we’re cut off from our kitchen (which is usually back a ways) but those periods don’t usually last long. The Jerries surely don’t eat like we do on the line. I tried to eat some Jerry sardines we captured and they were terrible. Unfit for human consumption, says I, which explains why the Krauts can eat em.

Speaking of these Heinies, there isn’t anything “super” about the race that I’ve seen. Back in the hospital at the front, the only wounded that were bellerin’ & bawlin’ were the wounded Jerries. You seldom hear a squawk out of one of our guys. Boy, we’ve really got the medics over here. If I ever need a doc after the war I’ll be partial to the one who served overseas. They have some mighty good ones. And enough can’t be said for the Army nurses, especially the gals up in the evacuation hospitals at the front. Those girls have really got the guts and they make a soldier feel like he’s a king. And some of em is rale purty too!

Speaking of food and admitting that I get plenty to eat, Mom, I’m still going to put in an order for a cocoanut cake when I get back, and I’m going to eat 10 slices of it without stopping! Also some home made fudge. We get Hershey bars etc occasionally but that kind of chocolate has a sort of waxy taste to me.

It’s about time for lights out so this will have to end for now. I hope you all are well. Don’t worry about me, honies, as I’m fine and this war will end before long and I’ll probably get a chance to come home before the Army completes my free world tour by giving me free board & a trip to China.

I’m thinking of you and loving you all the time. Your prayers have been answered Mom, so have faith. I have. So take it easy and before long we’ll all be sitting around the fire together.

Love always

David Jr.

Pvt. W.D. Johnson 34945847
Detachment of Patients
4314 US Army Hospital Plant
APO 887 c/o Postmaster
New York N.Y.

Jan 5, 1945
Sunday PM.

Dearest Mother & Dad:

Today has been a nice day. I went to church this morning and had communion. The Protestant services here are, of course, nondenominational, and they turned out to be very dignified and impressive. The chaplain preached a fine sermon from II Timothy using that passage which says that building up the physical body is important but godliness cures all things. It was a good lesson. The fellows here seem receptive to religion more so than at any place I’ve been in the Army. That is understandable, tho. The fellows here have been through a lot and most of them have done (mislabeled) a lot of thinking while things happened thick and fast out there. Tennyson was right, (and you were too Mother) when he said “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of “. I know that all prayers in my behalf were answered on a certain day a few weeks ago. Nothing else but that could have performed the miracle. And they have been answered right along for everything to have gone as well with me. as it has. So I know “whence cometh my strength”. I have certainly seen the light on things spiritual since I have been over here and if God wills that I survive this war, there are a lot of departments in my life in which I can do a lot better that I have in the past.

I hope all goes well with you all, and I’m hoping that some of your mail will catch up with me as soon as I get out of here and get back to my outfit.

Just as soon as I get a permanent mailing address again I’ll let you hear from me.

Take care of yourselves and remember me to all the folks

Love always

David Jr.

Pvt. W.D Johnson   34945847
Detachment of Patients
4314 US Army Hospital Plant
APO 887 c/o Postmaster
New York,  N.Y.

Jan 10, 1945
France

Dearest Mother & Dad:

I just wanted to let you all know I was awarded a purple heart medal today and have already mailed it to Louise – so you all will see it in the near future, I hope. It could get lost in transit, but it would surely get lost if I tried to keep up with it.

I should be back in my outfit in a few days. I feel perfectly okay and am anxious now to get out of the hospital altho the rest was much needed and has done me a lot of good, But there is such a thing as too much loafing and after that it begins to pall. I’ve reached that point and am ready to get out and do something again.

I’ve read several books & magazines lately and I can especially recommend “Our Town”, a play by Thornton Wilder. It pretty well analyzes my thoughts in recent months so you can read it & see what I’ve been thinking. I also recommended it to Louise.

I really have enjoyed reading since I’ve seen here resting. It is a wonderful relaxation that we are not inclined to miss until the opportunity passes – like we do about so many of the good things of life! But not any more, I hope.

Not having heard from you all in a long time, I have no recent news of Macey. Did you pass my advice on to him? Now that you know I’ve been in combat, I can make it more emphatic. If he can make himself useful and essential on that side of the pond, tell him to do so by all means. This is no place for anybody who has any other excuse for not being here, and I still think that two out of three brothers is enough of a batting average for one family. I surely hope he doesn’t get mixed up in this.

We don’t pick up much news around here. We can’t get out and see anything so I’ve spent most of my time reading. It is a handicap, too, on letter writing, specially since I haven’t had any letters for so long & don’t know what’s happening at home.

You all save all your “Life” Magazines and after the war I may be able to see some things in the pictures that I actually saw. I’m not in any pictures but just thought I’d enjoy seeing them later.

I hope all is well with you all. I think of you all the time and wish I could be sitting in the living room next to Louise with my arm around her waist, and Julie buzzing around while we all talked about politics or the weather or something. I have such vivid and pleasant recollections of my Cramer Ave home! You all pray for peace and have faith and we’ll be doing that soon.

Love always

David Jr.