Apr 19, 2015

Thu, Apr 19, 1945: the hell knocked out of it

[language warning] “Well Son, I finally made it. I am now in ‘Der Fatherland.’ I knew I should have taken more interest in that year of College German we took....
“We arrived in Le Havre France not too long ago and from there went to a camp called 'Lucky Strik'  We then came through Belgium and now here in Germany.  We came through Aachen and brother they really knocked the living hell out of that time for that matter about every town over here has had the hell knocked out of it.  We have been in action here in Germany, have been fixing the guns at the Krauts.”

--Letter from Everett “Sammy” Samuelson, Germany, to my father, Boulder, Colo., April 19, 1945.  “Lucky Strike” was one of the “cigarette camps” established by allied forces near Le Havre in northwestern France, across the channel from England.  Aachen is a German town near Belgium and the Netherlands.   Samuelson was my father’s classmate and a member of his pep club and singing quartet at Southwestern College.  He was an army corporal, leading a mobile gun team in the field artillery. 

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