GROSVENOR HOUSE OFFICERS MESS, LONDON, WW ll

MAJOR GLENN IN “IKE” JACKET, WW ll LONDON

CHAPTER 13. 10/26/45 TO 1/11/46 WEDDINGS, MEDAL, 3RD CHRISTMAS

26 October ‘45 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . Bill and I fought our way through the elements down to the mess. The storm is continuing here at full fury, maybe that is the reason for no mail. The cross channel boats are stopped now so that we didn’t get a Stars & Stripes, and I see where the Queen Mary is sheltering behind some island waiting for the weather to calm down so it can make port. . . . . .

. . . . . I took a copy of my Bronze Star Medal orders over to Tatar at the personnel office, I wanted to make sure it was entered in my personnel record and in my adjusted service rating card. There’s not much use having 5 extra points unless they are officially on the record. . . . . .

. . . . . It is official now that the mess will close with the evening meal Oct. 31st. I don’t know yet where we will eat then, but I imagine we will go back to the Junior Officers Club at 85 Audley Street. I hate to see the Grosvenor House mess close, it was a pleasant place to eat, and they put out good food too. But I’m glad to see any signs that things are folding up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I saw Larry yesterday and he said everything is all set for the wedding, they’re having it at the main altar of the church too, but Mary Jane still isn’t becoming Catholic. . .

27 October ‘45 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . We were supposed to have a “conference” at ten, but it was quite a bit later before Col. Reed was free. He spent about three hours telling us what he had seen on his trip to the U.S. That meeting broke up at 1:30, just when I was figuring I would have to slip out anyway. I hurried home and changed my clothes and had a glass of milk for lunch, and then went to meet Larry at his place, I got there right on time at two.

Al Loeb was there in a car with Mrs. Hawkins and Schlagenhoff. Larry soon came out and we went to the church. It is a beautiful church, seemed fairly new, and was a small size copy of the Canterbury Cathedral main altar inside. Schlagenhoff (Slugger) and I ushered, and all there was to the job was just ushering. I sat up in the front row during the ceremony. Larry’s knees were shaking so much at first that I thought he was going to collapse, but he didn’t. Mary Jane was dressed all in white and her gown had a long trail; with her golden blonde hair she made a very beautiful bride.

After the ceremony we all went to Mary Jane’s apartment for the reception. The apartment is a pretty big one, had two large living rooms. and it was jammed with people. They had a big wedding cake, and an ample supply of gin and V.O. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I left about 4:30 and walked on home; I cleaned up a little and then went on to the mess, where I met Jack Walters. We had supper then caught a taxi down to the Haymarket Theater near Picadilly Circus. We saw Oscar Wilde’s play “Lady Windemere’s Fan”. It was pretty good, and the scenery and costumes were really something, especially the negligee that Lady W. wore in the first scene!

After the show we went to the Senior Officers Club and had a drink. That place is closing Oct. 31st too. There was a dance at the S.O.C. and we watched for a while, I even had a dance. I came on home then and undressed, and started on this letter. . . . . . . .

. . . . . It was a pretty exciting day with the wedding and all. I think the kids have a ten day leave for a honeymoon, and when he gets back Larry will have to move out of town. He’ll probably be around England til next Feb. or March, and then they hope to go back home together. Gosh, I hope we can have our honeymoon soon.

During his talk this morning the Col. mentioned that he was waiting to see how Marty and my orders read, the ones putting us on duty with OOMM-Aberdeen, before starting any action to send us home on T.D. He has started action to get Fred made a courier, so he doesn’t have to wait too long for transportation home (that sounds like an almost human act!). The thing that bothers me about this T.D. business is that I’ll probably have to promise to stay in the army for a while if I get to go home. I’m about ready to do anything to get to see you sooner tho, and if Col. Harvey finds out anything about bringing families over here, well, things might turn out OK for us after all. It seems reasonable that they will let families come over here, by next spring, if not before; trouble is of expecting anything reasonable from the army. . . . . . . . . . . .

29 October ‘45 Monday My darling wife;
I’m real happy tonight with all the mail I got today. . . . . and your cable arrived too. I was glad you thought of cabling back, at least now I think that you are not too discouraged, and you’re damn right, we’ll find a way soon!! The Col. keeps mentioning my “trip home” so maybe I sold a bill of goods there after all. I’m glad you found some silver for Larry & Mary Jane. Guess I forgot to tell you that Larry gave me a nice set of silver cuff links for ushering for him. Now if only we could get a chance to go out formal, with your new dress, and I’ll have to buy a tux to go with my cuff links. . .

31 October ‘45 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . About ten I went out with Col. Reed, we went to the Ordnance Board. He introduced me to the secretary, a full colonel, and the president, an air vice marshall, and then left me there to attend the Board meeting. It was an interesting experience for me, they are all a bunch of high powered experts on various phases of ordnance, and advise the various development agencies. I’ve met most of the members individually at tests and cocktail parties, but this was the first time I attended one of their formal meetings. The Colonel usually attends them, and is a member, ex-officio, of the Board. . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . After we ate supper, Bill and I caught a bus and went to the Halloween party, and what a brawl that was! It was given by four of the secretaries at the Military Attaché office, and most of the officers and civilians were there, along with some outsiders. They have a house, and it was all decorated in approved Halloween style. There was plenty of food, but of course the big attraction, and focal point of the party, was the bar, with adequate supplies of Seagrams V.O. and bourbon. It wasn’t long before everyone was feeling good and happy, me included, and then everyone was sitting on the floor and singing, not good, but loud. Bill and I left about eleven thirty, and since busses had stopped running by then, we had a long walk to the nearest tube station, and went to Marble Arch, and so home. . . . . . . . . . . . .

2 November ‘45 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . Most of morning I read “The Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army (July 1, 1943 to June 30, 1945) to the Secretary of War”. . . . . It is beautifully done up, and from what I’ve read is an excellent summary of the war, tactically and otherwise. . . . . Along with the Smythe report on the Atomic Bomb, it is the most interesting reading I’ve done in a long time. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . I just had a talk with a Naval Bomb Disposal officer that I know; a colonel wants the primers taken out of souvenir cartridge cases, and the army doesn’t have any B.D. here now, so I’m getting the Navy B.D. to do the job. You sure catch some odd jobs to handle!

. . . . . I got your swell letters of Oct. 24 & 25, they slipped in on the last mail delivery of the day, and I’m awful glad they did. I think tho that you have some poor G-2 (intelligence) on this business of coming over here, and it is probably my fault, ‘cause I haven’t explained it clearly, if at all. As far as I know the transportation coming this way is plenty easy, either by air or by boat, if you can get a passport, which is issued by the State Dept. The trouble is the State Dept. will not issue passports to wives of army personnel stationed over here. . . . . I’d like to know Charlie’s source of information about wives being allowed to come to England soon after the first of the year. . . . . Frankly I think he is stating a rumor as fact, so don’t pin your hopes on that. God knows I hope he is right!! . . . . . . . . . . . .

4 November ‘45 Sunday My darling wife;
Hello sweetheart, happy anniversary! A little rapid mental calculation tells me that it is just 40 months now since we became man and wife, and I think it’s about time we started celebrating some of these anniversaries together again, don’t you!! Guess we aren’t as bad off as Marty and his wife tho, I was talking with him today, and he had just four days with his wife, and he has been over here 2 years. . . . . Guess we were lucky to have had as much time together as we did. I’m glad we were married when we were, tho, looking back on it, we were plenty foolish, or maybe foolhardy is a better word, ‘cause we certainly had no assurance that I could support you. We’ve still got a critical period to go through, but now we have some cash to back us up. . . . . . . .

. . . . . I said to Marty “Lets go out to Windsor”, and he said “OK”. . . . . We caught a taxi to Waterloo Station, it’s about an hour train ride, and we got there about 3:30. We walked to the castle and looked around; it is a very big place, and looks like a castle should. You couldn’t get inside tho, so there wasn’t too much to see. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5 November ‘45 Monday My darling wife;
. . . . . I walked to the mess for breakfast, and it was a longer walk than usual, ‘cause today was the day that the mess moved from the Grosvenor House to 85 Audley, which is 4 or 5 blocks farther on. Had a good meal there, two fresh eggs, cereal, toast, coffee, & juice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bill, Marty, and I went down to the mess for lunch, had a beer at the bar, and then went upstairs to eat. They have it arranged so that you are served cafeteria style, like at the Grosvenor mess, but instead of one large dining room, they have the tables scattered through several small rooms. The house is a converted club, but not a very elaborate one, it is quite old, and not too big. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . In the middle of the afternoon Bill, Marty, and I walked over to take a look at the building we are supposed to move into sometime in the near future. .

. . . . . After supper I went back to the office to do some work in the photo lab. . . . . I also printed a picture for Brig. Lickman, one I’d taken of him quite a while ago, and he wanted some more copies. I’m going to Shoeburyness this Wednesday, and wanted to take them with me. . . . . .

. . . . . This is Guy Fawkes day here, and there were a lot of kids out on the streets, all costumed up, sort of like Halloween at home, and you can hear fireworks going off. . . . . . . . . . . .

6 November ‘45 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I spent the first part of the morning conferring with the Colonel. We finally got up a letter and sent it to General Barnes which we figure will get Jean Teas over here post haste (I hope). Nothing new on me going home tho. . . . . . . . (Jean didn’t come)

. . . . . After supper Bill and I caught a taxi down to St. James Theater to see “Wind of Heaven”. It was a good play, some fine acting, and best lighting effects I’ve seen in a play here. The author was a triple threat man, he also directed and played a leading role. . . . . . . . . .

7 November ‘45 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I redid the silver in a little tissue paper so it would look pretty. . . . . I walked over to Mary Jane’s apartment and gave her the present; she seemed to really appreciate it, it is the only silver of her pattern that she has here. Her mother gave her a lot for a wedding present, but that is all in the U.S. . . . They got back from their honeymoon a couple days ago, and Larry went right on to his new post out of town. . . . . . . .

9 November ‘45 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . About 4:30 we all left and went over to General Tindall’s office for the presentation of medals. There was a big crowd, the room was overflowing with people from the M.A. office and outsiders who had been invited in. There were quite a few medals presented; first they lined up Col. Reed, General Van Vorst, Col. Lee, Maj. Rutledge, and a couple others. Col. Reed got the Legion of Merit, and the rest got Bronze Stars. Col. Weedon read the citations, and General Tindall pinned the medals on. Then Bill, Marty, Fred, and I lined up; Col. Weedon read the citations again, and Gen. Tindall went down the line, he would pin the medal on and then step back and offer his hand and congratulations. It was done up pretty nice and made a good ceremony.

After our presentation the General pinned some ribbons on some of the secretaries, which they got for six months service overseas. There was a photographer, and tho he didn’t take a picture when the medal was pinned on me, we had a couple of group pictures of the Ordnance gang which were taken after the ceremony , so I should have them to send on to you after a while. (One group photograph is shown in 1. Prologue)

We got a very nice looking case that the medal came in, and there was a ribbon, and a small buttonhole ornament with a replica of the Bronze Star Medal ribbon. I’ll probably keep the ribbon, and send the medal on to you. The Bronze Star medal isn’t much, they have given out so darn many of them, but it is nice to have some recognition for all the work we did.

General Tindall had one of his cocktail parties after the medal presentations, had the usual surplus of bourbon and V.O. and a darned good ham. We stayed there til about seven, and then a bunch of us went over to the mess, Angus, Walters, Bill, Marty, and a major whose name I forget. We had supper of fried fish, and then went on to Angus’s apartment. He had some champagne that he opened on the occasion, and we made quick work of that. . . . . . . .

13 November ‘45 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I heard some interesting news today; the date on which they are planning to allow families to go to Germany and France is March 1, and I suppose that will hold for England too, tho that’s not certain. That date can be changed, especially since “Ike” isn’t supposed to be in charge here much longer, and the new theater commander may have different ideas on the subject, but that is the closest thing to an official statement of when it will be that I’ve heard. That news has not been published yet that I know of, probably due to the possibility of it being changed, but I got it from a reliable source, so I pass it on as a grade “A” rumor. . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Things are still all indefinite about me coming home on T.D., or getting discharged, aren’t they! I wish I could find out definitely what the various prospects are, but don’t suppose I ever will in this man’s army. If I can get home on T.D. about February, and bring you back with me and then stay for six months to a year, would you like that plan, or would you rather I stick it out and wait for discharge? It would be a good chance for you to see England, and while living here is expensive as the devil, we should be able to live on a major’s salary without dipping into our savings any. One big difficulty of that idea is that we wouldn’t be able to start on our family til later. I think what I will do is jump at the first chance I get to see you, no matter what it is!! . . . .

14 November ‘45 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . As far as what I do here goes, maybe I can give you some idea. I thought I had told you before, but it probably wasn’t clear (as if this will be!). Our main job is following British developments in the field of ordnance, and reporting on interesting items to the States. The field of ordnance is pretty large for just 5 fellows to cover, Bill concentrates on tanks, Marty on rockets, Fred on small arms, the Col. on bombs and overall. My field is artillery, fire control, ballistics, fuses, and (it seems to me) any other odd thing that comes up.

Along with the job we arrange visits for various specialists from the States who come over on specific jobs, and there seems to always be 4 or 5 of them around all the time. . . . . . So there is a job here as long as the British are doing development work and the U.S. is interested in exchanging information. How many men are required? Apparently the Col. doesn’t want it reduced any! . . .

16 November ‘45 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . After supper I walked up to Oxford St. and caught a bus down to Haymarket St. near Picadilly Circus. I went to see “Road to Utopia”; there was a queue waiting to get in, and I joined it, but got in right away by means of being a “single”. It was the usual good and funny Hope, Crosby, Lamour “Road” picture, and I got some good laughs out of it. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . I had a look at some of those magical orders that direct you to go home and be separated from the service, but my name wasn’t on them, damn it!! They were Fred’s, and he should get away about the first of December. What a difference a few points can make, he has 86. . . . . . I wish they’d hurry up and lower the point score for officers, ‘cause it appears now that once you have the critical score they can’t hold you for more than two months if you don’t want to stay longer. . . . . . . I’m glad to see Fred get home, but I can’t help being a little jealous ‘cause he’s only been overseas a year and a half. He gets all his points from being in the service since before Pearl Harbor. . . . . . . . . . . . .

19 November ‘45 Monday My darling wife;
I’m getting a late start on this letter ‘cause now it is Tuesday morning and I’m at the office. I’m afraid I wasn’t in any condition to do any writing last night, a result of trying to do a little drinking with the Navy. . . . . .

. . . . . At ten Lt. Smith of the Navy called, and I went downstairs to meet him. I took along some cartridge cases that a friend of the Col. wanted deactivated, the primers in them had to be fired, and we were taking them along so the British bomb disposal men could do it for us. Smitty had his jeep and there were two British officers and another Navy officer along too, so we had a jeep full. We drove down to Tunbridge Wells, about 30 miles south east of London, where we went to the HQ of a bomb disposal outfit. We talked with them for a while, and then went to the local pub to “drink our lunch”; I must have had five beers before we ate. We had a good meal too, tho by that time probably anything would have tasted good. After lunch we went back to the HQ, and then on to their mess with one of the British officers. There we had several gin drinks, then Smitty and the other Navy officer and I headed back to London. We got to the mess about six; I stayed there just a few minutes, ’cause by that time I had gotten good and sick. I walked on home, via the office where I found your letter waiting for me. I got home about seven and went to bed and to sleep. So it wasn’t a very satisfactory day, too darned much to drink! . . . . . . . . . .

20 November ‘45 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I read my Stars and Stripes and was disappointed when I read the story about the new point scores to come into effect Dec. 1, ‘cause it didn’t help me out one bit. I thought when they dropped the score for officers it would surely drop to 70, dropping it to 73 doesn’t help at all. I hope since they dropped it such a small amount that it means there will be another drop soon; surely the next one will include me! . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . I got copies of the orders transferring me to Ordnance Overseas Maintenance & Modification detachment at Aberdeen, on detached service at Office of the Military Attaché, London. It doesn’t change things any for me. . . . . . . .

. . . . . A cable was sent to Washington requesting an air priority for Marty to go to the States on T.D. for 30 days. Marty has well over the critical score, and he is using that advantage to bargain with the Colonel, so he’ll probably get home almost right away. The reason he wants to stay in the army at all is that some preliminary arrangements have been made for him to go to Cal Tech next fall and study for his Ph.D., on army pay. So he isn’t too anxious to get out now. Boy, if I only had a position like his!! I think I’d just take the discharge tho, to heck with fooling around with the army!. . .

. . . . . Fred is due to leave tomorrow to catch the Queen Mary home. . . . .

21 November ‘45 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . The Colonel came in and said it was time to get going. I went downstairs and soon the rest of the party arrived. We had two cars full, a Brigadier General, two Colonels, two Majors, and one half-Colonel. I navigated the General’s car, and the Colonel went in the other one, ‘cause we were the only two who knew the way and it was too foggy to have one car follow the other. It was so foggy by then that it was almost impossible to find the way, but we got to the plant in SE London about 2:30. We spent about a half hour looking at some equipment. The firm does some experimental work for the army, but their chief business now is making cigarette packaging machinery. As a sidelight we saw one of those machines, and boy what a Rube Goldberg affair that is, does practically everything except part your hair.

When we came out of the shop it was pitch black out; I thought we had been inside longer, but my watch said a little after three, and I swear it was dark as midnight out. We started back to Grosvenor Square, and it was pretty slow going ‘cause visibility was practically zero. We made it OK, and didn’t once get off the correct route. Saw a pretty good smash up on the way; as we passed it looked like two streetcar trains had accordioned a car between them. . .

22 November ‘45 Thursday Thanksgiving My darling wife;
Happy Thanksgiving darling! I trust that you are well stuffed with turkey, cranberries, and all the rest by this time. I am, or rather, I was earlier today, but that was long ago so I am almost hungry again now. Sure wish I could have been with you today, and every other day too, but these holidays are somehow a little worse.

Remember our first Thanksgiving together? We hadn’t known each other very long then, and as I remember it, I was kinda scared of going up to Sacramento to visit at your house, but I’m glad that I went! When was the Ball, the night before, or Thanksgiving night? Anyway it was a darned nice visit, and the only Thanksgiving we’ve been together. Anyway we can be about as sure of being together next year as you can be sure of anything! . . .

. . . . . I awoke with the alarm about nine, and it was so dark out that I thought the clock must be wrong, but it wasn’t, it was just the fog that was still around darkening the day. It didn’t last much longer tho, it changed to rain about ten, and was a lot brighter, tho slightly damper. . .

. . . . . Bill and Jim went to the services at the Catholic Church, and it started at ten, so they had to get ready earlier. I finally got cleaned up and dressed, and then caught a bus down to Westminster Abbey. I got there a little late, before the services started, but “ticket holders are requested to be seated by 10:45”, so being late I didn’t get a very good seat, but I did get in OK. It was a good service, (Ambassador) Winant read the Presidential Thanksgiving proclamation and the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered the sermon. They had some good choir singing and organ music. . .

. . . . . I walked up to the mess, it had stopped raining by then and was comparatively clear. I got to the mess about 12:30, met Bill, Marty, and Blakeney there. I had a couple glasses of sherry with them, and we finally went upstairs to eat. Had turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and so forth, all the trimmings! And I really stuffed myself. . .

. . . . . After dinner Bill and I walked down to the Leicester Sq. area to see a movie; we saw “Love Letters”. It was a darned good show, some good acting, I thought. I like most of the movies I see tho, guess I’m just not very critical of them. It was a very long show too; they had just the one feature, but they had a newsreel, a propaganda short, two cartoons, and a long English “short” picture. That last is worth a comment, I’ve never seen anything so boring and dragged out before, and I hope never again. It was called “It’s Time for Tea”, and started out giving data on how the “tea” habit developed in England, and then went on to show how tea is grown and prepared. When that had gone on for twenty minutes (seemed longer) and you thought the damned thing must end soon, they did a quick switch with a cube of sugar and started to show how the sugar was grown and prepared. We were just about getting set for a discourse on dairy farming, but they didn’t bring that up, must have been an oversight! . .

. . . . . Darling I sure wish I could go crawl in beside you and cuddle with you and catch up on some loving, then I would be really thankful! I miss you so very much darling, with all my heart. I want you and only you, and want you so much that it hurts. Goodnight my darling wife, I love you. I adore you. I love you!! All my love and kisses, Glenn

23 November ‘45 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . The nurse took one look at my immunization register, and a wild gleam came into her eyes as she said “Oh, you need this, and this, and this, and an influenza shot too”!! I held out for just one shot at a time tho, and so we settled on typhoid. And now I wish I’d tried one of the others! I’ll get around to taking the others later. . .

24 November ‘45 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . About ten, when Marty was out of the office, the Embassy signals office called for him and said the cable he had been waiting for had come in, which was the one authorizing his T.D. in the States. It seemed like an ideal spot for a practical joke, so I went over to the signals office and picked up the cable, and had the gal there type me up another one saying that the T.D. was disapproved. I took the fake cable back and had one of the secretaries deliver it to Marty. His jaw fell about two inches when he read it, and then I gave him the real one. With the cable he was able to get orders cut, and an air priority, so he’ll probably be on his way home within a couple of days for 30 days T.D. and 20 days leave. . .


. . . . . Bill and I are sort of jealous to see him go first, ‘cause we’ve both been over here longer, but then Bill is R.A., and I don’t have enough points, so neither of us is in Marty’s bargaining position. . .

29 November ‘45 Thursday My darling wife;
. . . . . Bill stopped at a British post office and got some air mail stamps; I’ve heard of people using that & they say it is fast, 4 or 5 days, so I’ll experiment, starting with this letter. It is expensive, 1/3 ($0.25), but worth it if it breaks the APO blockade. . .

4 December ‘45 Tuesday My darling wife;
Happy anniversary darling; lets see if I can figure out which one it is, and that is getting to be higher mathematics now, must be 41. Only trouble with that is the proportion of time spent with you to the time spent away from you is getting worse all the time, and I want to be back with you so we can celebrate some of these days together, and build up a little on the credit side of the ledger!

. . . . . At lunch I sat with a couple of officers who almost made me sick with their English accents and eating with fork in the left hand; I expected to see handkerchiefs tucked up their left coat sleeves, but didn’t. I suppose we can’t help but pick up some British words and habits, but these guys who go all out for copying the English sound so damned affected, and I don’t like it . . .

. . . . . I got a car to take me down to the station hospital. I got my typhus shot, and found out I don’t need a tetanus shot, so the only thing left to bring me up to date is the influenza shot. I’ll get around to taking that one of these days. My arm is a little sore now, but not too bad, guess I’ll live
.
. . . . . After supper we came on home, here I took off my coat and blouse and sat down to read the newspapers and listen to the radio. We had today’s Stars & Stripes, which came this evening, an European edition of the Herald Tribune, and a British newspaper. Then I read a couple of Runyan short stories. . .

6 December ‘45 Thursday My darling;
. . . . . About eight I put my blouse back on and donned my overcoat and walked over to the Hawkins apartment. Bobbie was there, and her younger sister, and a gal friend. I gave Bobbie the wedding present, and then had a drink with them, and talked for a while. Bobbie’s parents came in before I left. Bobbie’s dad got back from the U.S. last weekend; They were afraid he wasn’t going to get back in time for the wedding. . .

. . . . . It is kind of exciting to be in on so many weddings (all of 2) lately. I’m afraid that all that happened at our wedding passed me by ‘cause I was so excited and scared. That seems like a long time ago now. This life over here seems like another life, separate from our time together, and confidentially I don’t like it one bit!! . . .

8 December ‘45 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . I dressed in my best bib and tucker, or rather, blouse and pinks, complete with ribbons, and buttons shined (a little). . . . . . At ten I walked to Al’s apartment, he lives at the Park West which is across the street from my apartment. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, except the flowers hadn’t arrived at the bride’s place yet, so Al was tearing his hair about that. About 10:30 Slugger, Al, and I left his apartment; had a big seven passenger Embassy car with driver. We went to the florist first, and they assured us that the flowers had been delivered by then, so we went on to the church.

It was a clear day with just a little haze, but bitterly cold. It was below freezing last night, and it wasn’t much above that at eleven in the morning. There wasn’t anywhere near as large a crowd as I had expected, but Slugger and I got them “ushed”, and then after the bride and her dad went down the aisle, we took a seat up in the front row. It was a nuptial mass, and was a very elaborate and impressive ceremony. It was the first time I’ve been to a mass, and I didn’t know what was going on half the time. The marriage ceremony took place first, then they went off into another room where a civil ceremony was performed, then came back and the mass continued. It took an hour before the service was over, and I sat there shivering the whole time.

Bobbie, like most women on their wedding day, looked very nice, she had a long white dress with white veil. The bridegroom wore O.D.! Larry was best man, and Bobbie’s younger sister Kay was maid of honor. It was a very nice wedding. After the picture snapping on the church steps we went to the Hawkins apartment for the reception. There was a big crowd at the reception; we ate and drank a very innocuous tasting punch, but it must have been loaded with dynamite, ‘cause it sure hit me. The ambassador was there, and I talked with him a while. He was telling that he had missed out on that fun ‘cause his daughter had eloped, and then informed him by telegram of the marriage.

It was a very good party, and it wasn’t long before the punch took effect. I walked home about three and got a little on the sick side, and after I threw up some of the liquor, and got the room to stand still, i went to bed and to sleep. My alarm went off at five, and Bill came in about the same time, so with their combined efforts I got up. I still wasn’t feeling so good, but after drinking some tomato juice I felt better.

I dressed, and then about six Bill and I left for the play; we had tickets for “The First Gentleman” at the Savoy Theater. It was about the prince regent before Queen Victoria’s time in the 1820’s, and had some darned good acting. Reading Strachey’s “Queen Victoria” recently, I knew more about the story too.

We caught a bus back to the apartment. I was feeling almost whole by then, but hungry. We had a lamb roast, and we cooked that, and had baked potatoes, soup, and applesauce, prepared from the dehydrated stuff you sent. It was very good too, and went well with the lamb. . .

10 December ‘45 Monday My darling wife;
. . . . . The Colonel cut loose with some Christmas rations of liquor today, we each got three bottles. I got one wine, one rye, and one bourbon. So that should set us up pretty good for holiday “spirits”. . .

. . . . . We were talking about overseas bars today, and I asked the Colonel why he didn’t put his on. He said, yes he could wear 4 chevrons and 4 bars now, and I countered with “don’t forget you have to knock a couple of those off for time spent in the States”, which is true, he has spent about a year of the last four at home! Maybe not that much, but seven months that I know of. About the same time Bill and I hit him up about a trip back home, but without much result, he said something to the effect that after Marty got back then one of us could go.

That isn’t too much help. Seems like something is bound to happen so that we will be together about March, but it is this damned indefiniteness that is so hard to take. If only we could get a definite date, I think it would be a lot easier. We have felt for so long that something would soon happen, and nothing has, and we are still planning on “three months more”, which if you remember is what I thought was possible on VE Day! It all adds up to a severe distrust of rumors and indefinite promises, so even if I feel that March is about the date, I’d like someone with authority to tell me “March 15 you’ll leave for home”, or something definite like that. Then I could start marking the days off, and feel that something is being accomplished, instead of just approaching another date when it will be “three months more”.

I’m not too discouraged now, ‘cause I honestly believe the time is approaching when we will be together again. . . .

. . . . . I was sure glad to get your letters, and as you said, if a letter can do so much, think of what a real visit would do for us. . .

12 December ‘45 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I decided to go see a show, but Bill didn’t want to, so I left him at the mess. I walked down to Picadilly St. and caught a bus on to Leicester Square, got there a little before seven. There was a long “queue” for “Wonder Man”, but I got in it and waited. Wherever you get a line of people in that area you find a lot of street entertainers or beggars plying their trade. First there was a couple with a player piano on a wheelbarrow like contraption who played a while and then passed the hat along the queue. While they were still “working”, another small group formed up in the background, and when the duo carted their piano off to another spot, they took over. And so it goes. . .

13 December ‘45 Thursday My darling wife;
. . . . . Bill and I got to the mess about 8:45, a little early for us, but we ran into the Colonel coming out as we went in. He greeted us with a cheery “good afternoon”; we pretty much feel that if he doesn’t like it he can send us home! . . .

. . . . . On the way home we stopped by the Odeon Theater at Marble Arch; they are having the “Royal World’s Premier” of Caesar & Cleopatra there tonight. It is a British movie with Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains and has set a record over here for time and money spent making it. There was a big crowd out front watching the celebrities arrive, and traffic was all snarled up around that corner. We couldn’t see anything tho, so we came on home. . .

. . . . . I wish I could get some news on when I’ll get home. I miss you so very much darling, it has been such a long time, and I’m sick of this life over here, have been for a long time. It would probably be great to be here if I weren’t married to you, but as it is all I want is to be with you, and nothing is any fun when I’m alone. But don’t for a second get the impression I’m sorry we are married, nothing could be farther from the truth. That year with you gave me a glimpse of what heaven life can be, and I’m sure it can be even better in the future. We were always under such a strain when we were together ‘cause we never knew what the army was going to do with us next. It’ll probably be somewhat the same when I’m out of the army, with job and family and all to worry about, but at least then we can be free from the feeling that tomorrow may bring orders separating us. We’re going to have so much fun together sweetheart, and we can’t ever let anything spoil it! . . .

15 December ‘45 Saturday My darling wife;
I’m sitting here this afternoon dressed like a full fledged civilian, and it feels good too. I got out my blue suit and put it on, and it fits pretty good yet. About all that is needed is to move the buttons of the coat about an inch so I can button it, guess I must have put on some weight lately, even tho the scales say not, or maybe some of my weight has shifted to my stomach. . .

. . . . . After Bill called I got dressed, in uniform again, and went down to the International Sports Club to meet him. We went to watch the Colonel play squash. He is darn good at the game, but his opponent, who was formerly British and U.S. women’s squash champion, ran him ragged and beat him with ease. . .

19 December ‘45 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . Bill has had a couple of letters from George Drury. He is on terminal leave now and is married. He said that Saint was married too, and that Steve Rousch is out of the army. Guess all those battle stars those boys picked up with First Army really paid off. . .

22 December ‘45 Saturday My darling wife;
It is Sunday PM, so I’m getting a late start on our visit again. Let’s get on with “my day” for yesterday, and it was one of the best days I’ve had in years!! I haven’t felt so good in a long time, and the reason was all a little article in the Stars & Stripes, Friday’s, saying that officers with 70 points are eligible for discharge Jan. 1!!!! That’s the second best Christmas present that I could possibly have, and I suppose that you have heard about it too, so this should be a happy Christmas for us. It hardly seems possible, even tho we have been waiting so long, and have been expecting it any month; anyway, my morale went up several hundred percent. So now our target date is March, and we can hope that the Colonel will release me sooner, so far he has been very non committal on that.

Gosh, I’m happy darling! I’m sure these next two months will go fast, and it will be no time at all before we’re together again, and it will be Mr. Burke. Of course it is still just a newspaper story, but I don’t see how we can miss, and I’m feeling so good I wont even consider anything going wrong, it just can’t!! I’m even being optimistic and hoping that since he’ll have to let me go March 1, that the Colonel will release me sooner; I don’t think that I’ll bank too much on that tho!! Don’t mind me if I rave on and on about this subject, it’s just that it is all that I can think of. . .

. . . . . At the PX I also bought the S&S and that story caught my eye right away, and I began to glow and got a big grin on my face. I went back to the office, Bill was there, the Frankfurt plane had been weathered out. Then I told the Colonel about the story, all he said tho was “have you applied for discharge yet?”. . .

. . . . . I went to see the doc and he looked at my throat and said it was all OK, so I guess the sulfa worked after all. . .

23 December ‘45 Sunday My darling wife;
Hello sweetheart, how’s about sitting on my lap, and let’s have our visit!! That may be a little hard to do tonight, but at least we know now that it won’t be too much longer before we can have our visits in person again! My excitement over that hasn’t worn off even a little bit, I’m still walking on air!! Now I’m anxious to see if I can’t leave a lot before the sixty days that they can hold me, I hope so! Maybe we can do our skiing in Calif. in February instead of in Switzerland. But all I’m really counting on now is being home in March, and nothing had better go wrong with that!! . . .

. . . . . Bill and Col. Langdon awoke me with their noise when they left at some ungodly hour this morning to catch the boat-train to Frankfurt, but I didn’t stay awake long. . . . . . . . . . . . . . About 4:30 I decided it would be a good idea to go out and get some fresh air, so I went for a walk. I had to take a little water mixed with my fresh air, but it wasn’t raining very hard, and I felt a lot better by time I got back. I had worked up an appetite too, so I cooked some supper. The maid had gotten us a very nice beef roast Saturday, and I had to cook it anyway, or it would spoil, but it was more of a size for six instead of one! I peeled some potatoes and carrots and roasted them along with the meat. Had coffee and fruit cake to round out the meal. . . . . .
. . . . . We’ll have to start making some plans, now that we have some idea when I’ll be home, gosh I feel good about that. It has been so awful long since I’ve been with you, do you think we can find someone who can introduce us, someone to say “Glenn, I’d like you to meet your wife”!! I love you so very much darling, and want to be with you every minute. Goodnight my darling adorable wife, I love you!! All my love and kisses, Glenn

24 December 45 ‘45 Monday My darling wife;
. . . . . On the way back from the mess I ran into Nick Harvey and talked with him for a few minutes. He just got back from the States yesterday, and from what I gathered from him, nothing is definite about bringing wives over here, he seemed disgusted about the way they are running things in Washington. . .

. . . . . I keep remembering now our Christmas eve together, the only one so far. It was a lot of fun, like everything I do with you. I can’t remember now who that fellow was who came over, all I remember about him is that he was in my class at Aberdeen and was a “high ranking” 1st Lt. He left early tho, and then we went to the midnight service at the church across the street. That was a “white Christmas” too, wasn’t it? We had a lot of fun in Havre de Grace, even tho there wasn’t much to do except play gin rummy. I love you so much darling, all I ask is to be with you, and it looks at last like it won’t be long before we are back together again. I can hardly believe it! It’ll seem a lot more real to me too when I have the orders in hand, guess til then I’ll be a little pessimistic, but only from three years experience with the army. . .

. . . . . Hello again darling, it’s 3 AM now and I should be in bed, but I thought I’d add a line or two to this. After I signed off above I cleaned up some and fixed myself a couple of cheese sandwiches, and then dressed and went over to Larry and Mary Jane’s apartment. Al & Bobbie were there, and Slugger, and Mr. & Mrs. Hawkins, and Bobbie’s sister, and Mary Jane’s roommate, and two medical corps officers. Larry quick like fed me about three fingers of straight bourbon, and before I had finished that Al put a cup of Tom & Jerry in my other hand, and I had finished those before I noticed that hardly anyone else was drinking, except Slugger. Most of them were going to take communion at the service tonight, and that was the reason for the abstinence. Mr. & Mrs. Hawkins and the two medical officers left soon after I got there. We sat and sang carols and played records until about eleven and then left for the church.

It was only a short walk so I wondered about leaving so early for a midnight service, but when we got to the church I saw the reason; there was a long line, and it got much longer while we were waiting. As it was we got good seats, and if we had been much later we wouldn’t have gotten seats at all. It was a beautiful night out, clear skies, and a moon just coming up, and not very cold at all.

We started moving in about 11:40 and we got seats where we could see what was going on. The church was St. James, where both Larry and Al were married. The mass was all a mystery to me, but they had a very good choir, and most of the service was sung. It was a long service, started at twelve and lasted til almost 1:30. It was a very pretty and impressive service, and that church is really nice looking inside. It looks like it was built of marble, and not old at all, compared with some of the others around here anyway. It looks clean and bright, while Westminster Abbey and St. Pauls are dull and gray.

After the service we walked up to Al & Bobbie’s apartment; there we had more Tom & Jerries, and then had pancakes, bacon, and coffee. Now I’m going to go put the body to bed, I hope I dream of you, I miss you and want you so very much darling. Soon we’ll be together again tho, and can make up for some of this time we’ve been apart! . . .

25 December ‘45 Tuesday My darling wife;
Merry Christmas darling. My day started out right this morning ‘cause when I got up and went to pick up the paper I found instead your telegram and your Dec. 18 commercial air mail letter! They were a pleasant surprise, and that letter is about a week later than any other that I’ve had. Looks like you got the news about the point lowering a lot sooner than I did, since you knew about it on Wednesday, and I didn’t find out til Saturday. I’m still walking on air, and probably will be for quite a while. . .

. . . . . About 1:30 I walked down to the mess, I met Slugger there and we ate, had a good turkey dinner with all the trimmings. After we ate we had a couple of drinks at the bar, it was open all afternoon. Then a little before four I caught a bus down to the hospital and paid Angus a visit. He still has about ten days in the hospital, but they are moving him tomorrow to a hospital way out of town ‘cause that one is closing. . .

29 December ‘45 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . I got to the party about eight and had a very interesting time there. The Red Cross gal is an American citizen, but has been in Europe most of her life, and I guess her accent is Polish. Her mother is Polish and her father is U.S. , but taught at a university in Poland. Her mother and father were there, and most of the guests were Polish exiles. I had quite a long talk with a former Polish consulate general, and he was very emphatic in his opinion that soon England and the U.S. would have to fight Russia. They would hear nothing that was good about Russia. It was interesting to get their point of view, even tho I just can’t believe what he was preaching was true. . .

30 December ‘45 Sunday My darling wife;
I’m a little late, ‘cause it is now Monday, but I ought to be up to date pretty soon. . .

. . . . . Nick Harvey had asked me to drive down to Salisbury with him, and I had said “yes, if it is a nice day”. Well, about 9:30 my phone rang, awakening me, and it was Nick. The sun was shining bright, so we decided to go on. He hadn’t had breakfast yet, so I invited him to come up and have breakfast with me. I got up and turned on the stove and started fixing coffee and pancakes. Nick came pretty soon, and I fried up some bacon and pancakes and had toast and coffee to go with them. Nick went to get the car and I shaved and dressed.

We left about eleven, it was a little foggy and hazy in London, but the sun was shining and as soon as we got out into the country it was bright and the skies were blue, it was pretty cold tho. . . . . . When we were gong through Andover Nick decided to stop and see some friends; they had a very nice home, and we were invited in. The fellow is an Air Vice Marshall, and his wife and their daughter were there. We had a very nice visit with them, they brought out some sherry, and when we would finish a glass they would say “now how about the other half”. I had three “halves” that way.

We left there and went on to Stonehenge, got out and looked at the rocks, and then went on to Salisbury, saw the Cathedral first. It is a very beautiful place, large, and well kept up. It was started in 1220, so is ancient too. It was beautifully designed, with simple lines for a Cathedral. We got there as a service was ending and heard the choir singing, and when the service was over we had a look around. One of the men took great pleasure in escorting us and pointing out all the points of interest. I learned such facts as: there is a window for each day of the year, a column for each hour of the year, and an entrance for each moon of the year. I didn’t bring up the question of what they did on leap years!

From the Cathedral we went on to deliver the packages that General Peabody had sent over with Nick. He used to be Military Attaché here up til about a year ago, and now is chief of M.A.s in Washington. The family we went to see was a British Major General, his wife, her sister, his daughter, and three pekes. They had a big old home, part of it as old as the Cathedral, I was told. We had “tea” with them and another nice visit.

We left about 6:30 to come back to London; it was dark by then and soon we started running into fog. It was in patches tho, or we never would have gotten back to London. We would sail along nicely for a while, and then we would suddenly hit a wall of fog, and have to inch along til we got through it. And the closer we got to London, the more often we’d hit fog, and the denser it would be. Anyway, we got back about ten and went to my apartment and had a drink and thawed out in front of the fire for a while. Then we took the car to the garage and walked on to the Nurses Club for a snack. Then I walked home; the fog had really settled down in earnest, and even with street lighting you couldn’t see but about five feet in front of you. It was a real London fog, a pea souper!. . .

New Year’s Eve ‘45 Monday My darling wife;
Just a few more hours to go and this year will be over, and ‘46 will be with us, a new year and a better year, ‘cause we will be together through most of it. So lets drink a toast now to ‘45, it could have been, but it wasn’t! It was a year lost to me, one meaningless ‘cause we weren’t together. The only value that I can see in it is that it brought us closer together, while keeping us apart. A lot happened in ‘45, the end of two wars, that led us to where we are now, only two months apart. But there were 365 wasted days and nights, and those are hard to forget and ignore. However, I’m sure that all this time apart will fade into nothing when we are together again. And we can take up where we left off so long ago, wiser, but just as much in love. Darling I’ve missed you so much, and all this time the only thing that has mattered to me is that we are man and wife, and that some day we will be together again.

Well, now that day is rapidly approaching, after all, what is two months, when you compare it with thirty, or thirty one, as it will be by then, thirty one, plus, months and days and nights that are gone and will never return, but will leave us wiser in the knowledge of how much our love and being together means to us. What did Omar Kyhan say, “The moving finger writes, and having writ, moves on. And all your piety nor wit can lure it back to cancel half a line, nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.” But what is left unsaid is that the moving finger leaves a blazing message that is indelible in our hearts and will serve as a reminder later that life together is heaven, and apart it is hell!! Well, two months more of hell, and we will be together again, and that promise of things to come, and a definite date will carry us on wings that will make the time fly. .

. . . . . This afternoon I had a message from Larry; I called him at Al Loeb’s and then went to see him. We had a couple of drinks with Al & Bobbie, and then came to my apt. and had another one. Larry is leaving tomorrow to catch a boat for stateside! So the next time I see him will be at home, and maybe you’ll be along with me when we call on him and Mary Jane. She’s going back about the middle of Feb.

After Larry left I took a bath and then sat down to start this letter. About all I’ve left out of “my day” is my talk with Col. Reed. I got a chance to talk with him today, and I’ll be here til March 1, as I suspected. He wants me to stay in the army for a while, gave me quite a talk on it. So I said let’s wait and see. He is going to write, or cable, for me to return to the U.S. about March 1 on a duty status instead of for discharge, and then when I get there I can see what they have to offer. It wouldn’t be a bad deal to stay in the army in the States for a while, at a major’s pay. So I think I’ll string along and see what happens. I’ll get home just as soon as I would anyway, and then when I get there I’d probably get 30 days TD at home for “rest and recuperation”, which wouldn’t count against my accumulated leave, and then if they can offer me some interesting job, I might take that. I haven’t been too hot about staying in the army, and I still am not, but this deal sounds like it might have some possibilities. For one thing, this major’s pay isn’t hay, and we can be socking it away while we look around. Most important, of course, I will be with you. . . .

If I get some interesting job with research and development I’ll get a chance to make contacts with the heads of various EE firms who are doing work for the Ord. Dept., firms like RCA, GE, and Western Electric, all top firms in the EE game. But most important, I’ll be in the drivers seat all the way, and I won’t sign anything that would keep me from being Mr. Burke if things go wrong anywhere. I don’t think that I’ve been sold a bill of goods anywhere. . . . . . So tell me what you think about it. . .

. . . . . Good morning darling, happy New Year! I’ve just been rereading what I wrote last night, and it makes me think that those drinks Al was serving up must have been pretty potent. He put in a jigger of sweet vermouth, a jigger of sherry, and one of rye. But I guess what I wrote was still sensible. Don’t get the impression that I’d like to go into the regular army, that wouldn’t be such a bad deal if I could get a captaincy out of it, but according to the latest dope, the best I could get is 1st Lt. But staying on temporarily as a major is another matter. . .

. . . . . Larry wanted me to come over to his place last night, but I had already told Gasink that I’d go with him to the dance at the English Speaking Union, so I couldn’t back out at that late date. After I signed off above I got dressed, and about seven Gasink came by here. We had a drink and then walked down to the mess and ate. About 8:30 we went to the E.S.U.; it was a very nice dance, with everyone not in uniform wearing evening dress. There was a big crowd, about 500, and there wasn’t near enough room for all of them.

It made me feel practically ancient to see some of those kids about 17 looking so young and rosy cheeked. I can remember that I didn’t think I was so young at that age tho. I danced every dance, except when I was queuing up at the bar for Manhattans. There was a big surplus of girls, and what's more they weren’t backwards at all about cutting in. I had a lot of fun, tho I got pretty tired toward the end, I must be getting old.

Gasink and I left about 1:30, the dance was going on til 2:30. We walked home, he dropped off at his hotel on the way, and I went right to bed. And that was “my day”, sure wish that I could have spent it with you, but those days will come soon!! I’ll sign off now and get this mailed. ‘Bye now my dearest darling wife. I love you and miss you so very much. I adore you. I love you!!! All my love and kisses, Glenn

5 January ‘46 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . Bill and I had an early supper, and then caught a taxi down to the theater. We had tickets to see “Follow the Girls”. I don’t think I’ve laughed more at any musical comedy over here than at that one, it was really good. The best thing about it was Arthur Askey, I about split my sides at his type of humor. The musical is one that ran in the U.S. for a long time, rewritten a little to suit English audiences. . .

8 January ‘46 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . A little before six I went over to meet Pierre Guelff, the navy Lt. from my home town. I took Bill and Gasink along to eat with us. We picked up Pierre and caught a bus down to Picadilly Circus and walked on to the Shanghai Restaurant; we had a good meal there. After we ate we caught a taxi to the Cumberland Hotel at Marble Arch, where Pierre lives, and went up to his room for a drink. We talked there til about nine, then Bill and I came on home. Pierre is going to marry an English girl next summer, one he met in Paris, where he was stationed up til about a month ago. Funny part about it is that I know the girl, she used to work in the office below mine; she worked for Ordnance in Paris too. Pierre was born in Paris, and came to the U.S. when he was about 2. He speaks French, and has relatives in Paris, so he had some interesting tales to tell about his stay there. . .

10 January ‘46 Thursday My darling wife;
. . . . . Now let’s get on with “my day”, most of which I spent arguing with the Colonel, and at this point I’m about ready to give up and apply for discharge at the earliest possible moment, and forget about staying in the army in the States for a while. . . . . . . A new questionnaire has come out now whereby we have to indicate our preference for one of five categories as to length of time we want to stay on active duty . They are: l, stay in for indefinite period; ll, stay in til June ‘47; lll, stay in til Dec. ‘46; lV, stay in til some date more than 60 days later, date to be arranged between officer and his C.O.; and V, relief from active duty as soon as possible. We’re supposed to choose one of those categories right away!

It would be easy enough, except for this pending deal of a job in the States, and that complicates matters. If I sign on for any length of time past March 1, I waive any right to discharge because of points til the end of the period for which I’ve signed up, and that doesn’t appeal to me at all. So I sure wish I had your answer on how you feel about this business.

I’d also like to have some good assurance that I’d be sent home as planned on March 1. And that’s what I was talking with the Col. about. He swears up and down that he’ll get me off then. He said that all he had to do was tell Col. Harvey to write the orders, and I could go. That sounded a little screwy to me, but I didn’t know for sure, so I let it go for then. . .

About twelve I went down to the mess with Bill and Gasink, we had a beer at the bar. While we were there Harvey came in and I had another beer with him and talked with him for a while. He wasn’t sure about the answer to my question, but said he’d look up my status, so I said I’d be over to see him later. . . . I went to the M.A. office to see Harvey; he said he couldn’t issue orders on me without some authorization from the States, which was as I suspected.

From Harvey’s office I went back to see Col. Reed, and told him what I found out. He said to wait til closer to March 1 and he’d cable about it, but I wanted him to start right away. He objected to that ‘cause he thought they’d want to bring me home right away, which would be plenty OK with me, but he wants me to stay til March 1. Some people came in to see him about then, so it’s still stalemated as far as I’m concerned. So you see why I’m feeling like just checking category V and getting out as soon as I can.

I really think that he is doing what he thinks is best in urging me to stay in the army for a while longer, and also trying to sell Regular Army (tho his example is by no means a sales talk to me!). But he seems to think that I’m good material, and also being in the army the next year or so would be a good idea. I agree with him somewhat on the latter point; as far as I can see from this great distance, things seem to be pretty much in a turmoil at home as far as labor is concerned, and it wouldn’t be bad to have a chance to look for a job, while being secure with a major’s pay. Anyway I still feel left up in the air. It would help a lot if I knew your attitude on this business, but then you should only be getting my letters on it by now. . .

. . . . . I’ve been debating with myself whether or not to call you, but I guess I’ll let it go for tonight, and see what develops tomorrow, if anything. Oh me, what a problem, but it’ll work out OK, I’m sure of it! . . . . . . . . (A transatlantic phone call was not lightly undertaken in those days by my depression raised generation. Betty & I did not have any while I was in London)

. . . . . Hope I didn’t confuse or alarm you about this business of today. Things are still under control, and I intend to see that they stay that way! . . .

11 January ‘46 Friday My darling wife;
Hello sweetheart, here I am again for our visit, and I’m in a lot better mood tonight, tho I haven’t settled anything yet. Guess I was a little overexcited yesterday, anyway I think I’ll let things ride for a while and see what happens. That’ll give me time to hear from you; meanwhile I’ll hang onto that paper, and not sign anything til I get more definite information. . .

. . . . . I walked down to the mess, only in the rain it was closer to swimming than walking. I was soaked by time I got there, wherever my raincoat didn’t protect me anyway. . . . . . . (Umbrellas must have been too unmilitary, since no one used them)

. . . . . I tried to get a car to take me to the Ordnance Board meeting, but none was available, so I went outside and hailed a taxi. The meeting was fairly interesting this morning, more so than usual; it got out about 11:30. The car I had ordered came on time and took me back. . .

. . . . . My car came about two and I left the office again for Cheshunt, that’s a suburb about 10 or 15 miles NE of here. I stayed about an hour and a half talking to a Group Captain there. That’s a small arms place, so I was doing some of Fred’s work, which was dumped on me when he left. Wonder who will do it, and the rest of my work, when I leave? . . .

. . . . . Jan. is almost half over, and it won’t be long before we are having these visits in person, and I’m sure glad, only I’d like to have a personal visit tonight!! . . . . . . . . . .

LARRY & MARY JANE HENRY WEDDING, LONDON, WW ll

STONEHENGE, WW ll ENGLAND

CHAPTER 14. 1/15/46 TO 3/22/46 UN ORG., STAY IN?, GO HOME!

15 January ‘46 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I was glad to find your Jan. 8 letter here waiting for me when I got home. Your reaction to the idea of staying in the army a little longer was pretty much as I suspected, but I was very glad to get it confirmed! As I’ve said, I think there are some interesting possibilities there, so I guess I’ll play along and see what happens. But I also think I’ll forestall signing up for any longer until I get back and see what kind of a job they have for me. I can probably wait to do that ‘cause they have always been pretty lax with us administratively. . . . . . . . . . .

16 January ‘46 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . About 10:30 I walked down to the Reindeer Club to pick up some cleaning; the club is closing down next week, so I’ll have to find a new cleaners. I think it was the last officers club to stay open too, don’t know what they will do now with officers on leave, probably billet them at one of the GI clubs. . . . . . . .

. . . . . At 5:30 I walked to the mess with Bill, we ate right away, and then walked to the St. James Theater to see our pantomime. Pantomimes are pretty much strictly an English custom, tho that play your club brought to Sac’to for the kids sounds like much the same thing. They have five or six pantomimes running now, they start before Christmas and run for a couple months. The one we saw was “The Glass Slipper”, the story of Cinderella. It was pretty good, tho aimed at the kids in the audience, and there were sure a lot of them. I am glad I went, but I’d rather have spent the time and money on another type of show. I got a kick out of two old gals who were sitting behind us, they were commenting on the show, didn’t think the gal who played Cinderella was properly chosen, that she was too much on the upholstered side, and they were lamenting the fact that the show wasn’t up to prewar standards. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17 January ‘46 Thursday My darling wife;
. . . . . I’m afraid you aren’t going to like my excuse for being late, but I had a very interesting evening last night, and I think it was perfectly OK. . . . . .

. . . . . I worked til about 5:30 and then Bill and I came home to clean up. We stepped out in “sassity” last night. Bill knows the England representative of 20th Century Fox, and he and his daughter had asked Bill to go on a party. Mr. Harley had also invited Mr. Walker, former postmaster general, and alternate delegate to the UNO (United Nations Organization), and they needed a young man to escort Mr. Walker’s daughter, so Bill got me to go along in that capacity.

At 7:30 we went to Mr. Harley’s apartment. We had a drink there with him and his daughter; she was a nice looking gal, tho a little on the heavy side, and about 5’10” tall, not counting the high heels she was wearing. From there we went to Claridges Hotel and picked up another member of the party, Tony something or other; he is the Washington representative of 20th Century, and the original Mr. 5 by 5. Then we went up to Mr. Walker’s suite and met him and his daughter. He is a fairly elderly man, but was very nice. She was a nice looking gal, but it was more in her clothes and manner than features, which were just ordinary. She had been married, but her husband was killed in the Bulge. I’d guess her age at about 25.

We went down to the lounge and had cocktails. That hotel is where the top delegates to UNO are staying, and there were celebrities all over the place. Eleanor (Roosevelt) is staying there, but I didn’t see her.

We went on to Ciro’s for supper dancing. That’s a private club, the English equivalent to our night clubs, and about the best one. Ambrose and his orchestra play there, alternating with a rhumba orchestra. We had supper, and then Bill and I danced with the gals, while the 20th Century men got Mr. Walker between them and talked business. Seems Mr. Walker owns an independent chain of movie houses in the U.S., and 20th Century had something to sell.

I had a little trouble with the rhumba orchestra, but otherwise it was OK. I got the rhumbas and tangos, in my own nonconformist style, but the sambas and what not threw me. We stayed there til a little after twelve, and then we dropped Mr. Walker, Hallie (his daugh-ter), & Tony at Claridges and went to Mr. Harley’s apt. building. Bill and I walked home from there, we got in about one and I went right to bed and to sleep. I had a good time, it was interesting meeting a man like Mr. Walker, I’ve wanted to see Ciro’s, and doing it at the expense of 20th Century was all right with me too! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18 January ‘46 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . I ate breakfast and at 9:15 went outside and found my car waiting for me, so I headed out for Ft. Halstead, it is about an hour’s drive SE of here. I went there to sit in on the interrogation of a Hungarian engineer who had done some work on a new type of gun for the Germans. We’re trying to find out as much about the gun as we can. I got there a little early, and had “tea” with the Colonel in charge of the interrogation, and then the rest of the people showed up, all but the interpreter. The Hungarian spoke German tho, and so did one of the British officers, so they carried on the interrogation in German until the interpreter arrived. The meeting broke up about 12 for the morning, and I waited in the Colonel’s office until one, and went with him to the canteen for lunch. The British usually treat us pretty good when we visit one of their establishments, for instance the others, British, were left on their own to get lunch, while I was taken by the top boy to the private dining room.

We had lunch, and then about two the interrogation started up again. It lasted until 4:30, or rather, I left then and it was still going on. . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . After I ate I walked on home through the snow! It must have started snowing while I was eating; I’ve seen snow here once before this winter, but this is the first time it has stayed on the ground, it doesn’t seem to be very thick out now. . . . . . . .
. . . . . I don’t remember the figures on last year’s financial report, but it looks like we’ve got a pretty fair nest egg accumulated to help get us started. And it’ll probably come in plenty handy too! . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Boy, house prices must really be inflated now! Seems like you should be able to have a house built for less money than to buy one! Or I suppose cost of building has skyrocketed too. We’ll find a place to live tho. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . Can’t say I’ve had too much turkey, and I’ve had none cooked the way your Mom can do it, so it wouldn’t hurt my feelings at all to have a turkey dinner.

. . . . . I think that I’ll hie myself off to bed, sure wish that you were waiting there for me! But it won’t be long now! After sleeping alone for so long I’ll probably push you out of bed while I’m sleeping, or maybe it will be vice versa. I’m willing to take a chance on that tho, are you?. . . . .
All my love and kisses, Glenn

20 January ‘46 Sunday My darling wife;
. . . . . I had heard that some of the more valuable paintings had been brought back to the National Gallery lately, so I convinced Bill we ought to see that. About three we caught a cab and went down there, it is right on Trafalgar Square. I don’t know anything about paintings, but they had a lot of Rembrants, some El Greco, etc. It is a pretty large place, we stayed there til 5:30 and still didn’t get through all the rooms.

We caught a bus back to the apartment; here we fixed a snack, had roast beef sandwich & bacon sandwich & a glass of sherry. We had to hurry ‘cause we were going to Albert Hall for a concert at seven. We caught a taxi down there, got our tickets and were seated just before the program started. The program was conducted by Vic Oliver, who is better known as a comedian, and Churchill’s ex-son-in-law, but he seemed to be a capable conductor too. The program had some Wagner & Bizet, dances of all nations, Shubert’s 8th, and ended up on March Slav. It was pretty good. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Albert Hall, and they’ve been having good programs there all the time. I’d like to get down again before I leave, some time when Beecham is conducting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23 January ‘46 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . Don’t know where I’ll go for morning coffee when the Nurses Club closes Feb. 3; it was always handy for snacks at night too. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . I saw where there was a Chopin piano recital at Wigmore Hall tonight, and I wanted to see that place. I tried to get Bill to go with me, but he didn’t want to, so I went by myself, didn’t have any trouble getting in, the hall wasn’t anywhere near full. It is a small place, not suitable for anything more than recitals. The pianist was Polish, and to my untrained ears he was darned good, and the crowd seemed to think so too, ‘cause he was called back for four encores. He played Polonaise, but not the one that is so well known, and some ballads, and I don’t know what else. It was very good, and most of the time it looked like he had ten fingers on each hand, they were moving so fast they were just a blur. . . . . . . . . . . . .
(The pianist wasn’t named in the letter, but he was Malczynski. Betty and I attended his recitals in Sacramento when he toured there several years during the 1950’s)

24 January ‘46 Thursday My darling wife;
. . . . . Bill and I caught a bus to the Baker Street station, and then took a train from there. We got out to Wembley Park for the ice hockey game about 6:40. . . . . . . . . . . . .

I was surprised by the modern and large building; it is the Empire Pool and Sports Arena, an all around place that can be used for ice skating, boxing, etc., sort of like Madison Square I guess, tho I’ve never seen that. Right next to that building is the Wembley stadium for greyhound racing, rugby, etc., so it’s pretty much a sports center.

The teams were a couple of Canadian service teams; they put on a good show and were evenly matched. . . . . . Hockey is a good game to watch. . . . . . .

26 January ‘45 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . About 10:40 I walked to the Curzon Cinema, which is just a block or so from Charles Street. There was a long line of soldiers waiting to get in to hear Eleanor’s talk, but as soon as the doors opened everyone got in OK, and there were even vacant seats. I met Bill in front of the theater and we went in. General Thiele, commanding general in London now, introduced Mrs. Roosevelt, and she gave us a talk on the UNO.

She was dressed solidly in black, and the stage lighting was bad, all from overhead, so it was very difficult for me to see her from my seat in the officers box in the back. She gave a pretty good speech, tho her speaking voice is terrible, mostly about what the UNO was trying to do, and it’s procedures, and her part as a delegate to the conference. I got a lot more out of listening to Mr. Walker last week, but that was a private conversation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Slugger and I took a bus down to Leicester Square and went to see “Saratoga Trunk”. We got down there about 3:30, and there was a line more than a block long waiting to get in, but we got in about fifteen minutes later. Had the usual bunch of sidewalk entertainers and panhandlers “working” the line. I thought the picture was very good, way above ordinary. Ingrid Bergman was perfect, and beautiful. I don’t care much for Gary Cooper as an actor; he was OK in that part tho. . .

. . . . . I noticed something that struck me funny in the Time. In the Miscellany column it said that some collector of accident statistics had announced that the bedroom had replaced the bathroom as the room where the most accidents occur. I wonder how they meant that? . . . . . . . .

. . . . . It’s too bad that you’re the last one of your gang to get your husband back, but March is coming, and then we will start making up for a lot of lost time. . . . . I’ve been feeling more often that I should quit this fooling around and take my discharge. The Col. keeps mentioning my March 1 departure, and I don’t think he’ll attempt to hold me up. I haven’t said any more to him about starting action, but I intend to soon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

28 January ‘46 Monday My darling wife;
. . . . . About 5:45 I went to the mess by myself, Bill went to supper with the Walkers tonight. By the way, he said I am invited to a cocktail party Frank Walker is giving this Friday. That should prove to be very interesting, I might even get to meet Eleanor! . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29 January ‘46 Tuesday My darling wife;
The wind is howling & it’s raining out, but it is nice and warm in here, and so am I, for about the first time today. I was chilled through and through most of the time and it took a hot bath & your swell letters of Jan. 9, 12, 13, & 14 to get me warm again! . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . At 8:30 I went downstairs to meet the colonels to leave on our trip. Only Col. Reed showed up and we left right away. . . . . We drove out to the Isle of Sheppy, on the south lip of the mouth of the Thames. . . We picked up a British major on the way and took him with us out to the tests. . . . It was a test on an AA gun; we stayed out at the gun for a while, then went to the officers mess and had coffee and thawed out. Then back to the gun, the tests started, but everything went wrong, and at twelve when it should have been over, it was barely started.

Col. Reed decided to leave anyway, to make a meeting this afternoon, so he left with the car after seeing that the major and I had been able to scrounge rides back. . . . . After we ate, we went back to the gun and spent til about four there, and still things weren’t right, and the tests will have to be repeated. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . January is about gone now, and as you say, Feb. only has 28 days, so March is almost here! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30 January ‘46 Wednesday My darling wife;
. . . . . The Colonel called me in and we had another round about this going home business. He wanted me to go make one of the choices of volunteering, and I said I wouldn’t volunteer for anything except discharge until I at least had orders “in hand” sending me home. I wanted him to start cabling on that now, and he didn’t want to for a couple weeks more, and as far as I can see it is still a stalemate. I can’t quite see why he won’t cable now, and I told him that, but he went into a lot of mumbo jumbo which didn’t answer anything as far as I can see. At this point I’m almost decided on applying for discharge, only I think I’ll consider it a while longer. . . . . . .

1 February ‘46 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . I’m at the office now, and it’s a little after lunch time. I got back from lunch just in time, ‘cause soon after I got in the building, the bottom dropped out of the sky and it poured with hail for about five minutes. I’ve never seen it come down like that here. In no time the streets were covered, and still it came down; it has practically all melted away by now tho.

. . . . . Later, almost five now, and it has been a busy afternoon for me. Lots of news, for one thing I signed up my volunteer sheet, only what I volunteered for was Category V, discharge as soon as possible. I’ve had that in my mind for a couple days now, and I feel a lot better about the whole situation. Maybe I’m missing out on a good deal, but at least I ought to get some definite idea of what is going to happen, and we can start making plans. I took my signed statement over to Col. Harvey’s office and left it there, but Nick was away, so I don’t know yet what action he’ll take. So I’m almost a free man!!

I think I would have gone through with the deal to return to the U.S. on duty status if the Colonel had played ball with me, but I didn’t like the way he was fooling around and saying “lets wait”; I’d probably still be waiting March 1!! Anyway, the decision is made now, and I gather from your letters that it will be OK with you. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Before I went over to Col. Harvey’s office I saw Colonel Reed and told him what I was going to do. He took it OK, and seemed to realize that there was nothing he could do about it. So now maybe I can get to work with a vengeance and clean up what I want to do before I leave. I’d like to get a good summary on the status of the projects in my field, that’s the least I can do before I leave!! . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Hello again, it is now Saturday morning, so I’d better get this finished and in the mail. I’ve been doing this letter by leaps and bounds, but it’s been a good day for news, and there seems to be a lot to tell. I don’t know what they’ll do with my “immediate discharge” request, but I suppose they’ll cable OOMM in Aberdeen and request authority to send me to a separation center. That way I guess I’ll go right to Camp Beale from here. I want to see Nick and see what he is going to do, I may cable you after I see him.

But to go on with “my day”, about 5:30 we locked up here and walked home. I took a quick bath, and then dressed. Then Bill and I left for Claridges, we caught a taxi and got there a little after 6:30. The cocktail party was held in the “third ballroom”, which is a nice room and not too large. We were among the first arrivals, but not quite the first. We stayed there til about 8:30 and were about the last to leave, so we saw everybody who came! It wasn’t as large a party as I had expected it would be, but it was still interesting. I met Mrs. Roosevelt, Senators Connally and Townsend, General Ridgeway, & the judge who has been proposed by the U.S. for a seat on the UNO court. Mr. Walker was there too.

Those were the main ones, there weren’t any “foreign” big shots as I had expected, but I hear that the Russian delegation gave a big party at the same time, and so probably took a lot of the people away from Walker’s party. I didn’t get to talk very long to Eleanor, but I did with Connally and Townsend. Connally is an interesting person, looks like the typical old politician from the south, almost like the character in the Joe Palloka comic strip, long white hair, etc. It was quite an experience!

We left about 8:30 and caught a taxi back to the apartment. I fixed up a cheese sandwich and had a glass of milk, and then went to bed. I got the bed to stop spinning after a while, and went to sleep. And that was “my day”, and an interesting one it was!

I feel better all the time about requesting relief from active duty. We’ll have terminal leave to look around for a job, and while we won’t get as much money, we’ll be able to get by, and will be our own boss!! So I’ll say ‘bye for now sweetheart. I love you. I adore you. I’m sure looking forward to March!!! So long til tonight my dearest darling wife. I love you!
All my love and kisses, Glenn

2 February ‘46 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . at the mess I ran into Col. Nick Harvey, we talked for a while, and then went upstairs and ate lunch. After lunch I went by the office and picked up a copy of the orders putting me at the Ordnance Overseas Maintenance & Modification Detachment, Aberdeen, so we’d know who to write to, and then I went over to Nick’s office. He wrote up a letter enclosing my choice of category (immediate discharge), and saying that I was eligible for discharge. He asked for either orders, or authority to issue orders sending me to the separation center nearest Sacramento. I asked him about sending a cable on it, but he said they always get such things mixed up and snafued with cables. Anyway, the letter should get action, especially ‘cause I took it and paid 2/6 to send it via British civilian air mail. . . . . . . . From Nick’s office I went back to my office and showed Col. Reed the letter so not to be doing anything behind his back, then I took it to the post office and mailed it.

. . . . . I don’t know just when to start expecting my orders, so keep your fingers crossed and I will too. I’ll cable you when the orders arrive, and by then I should be able to give you the ETA (estimated time of arrival). I asked for the orders to include about three days T.D. in Washington en route to the separation center. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

8 February ‘46 Friday My darling wife;
. . . . . Col Jeffords and I left after breakfast, we picked up a British Lt. Col. on the way and drove on down to Teddington, on the outskirts of London. We went to a fire control (equipment for aiming artillery and setting fuse times, etc.) design place there, spent the morning looking at equipment and talking, and then had lunch. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I came back to the office and found it deserted except for the secretaries. Col. Reed wasn’t back from his trip, and Durrenberger hadn’t been in all day. I started writing up my notes for today, and pretty soon Bill called - from the hospital! He had stopped at the dispensary this morning, and they had spirited him off to the hospital, which is now in Stockbridge, about 100 miles from London. He wasn’t too ill, I guess, but had swollen lymph glands, and needed some immediate work on his teeth. He wanted me to make a few phone calls for him, so I did.

I also called Mary Jane Henry and talked with her for a while. She said Larry had been to meet her family in Washington, and had gone on to Denver. She’s busy getting ready to leave too, is going around the 20th of this month. She’s going back as a G.I. bride! Her contract here hasn’t expired, so to avoid paying passage, she can go as a G.I. bride; so not all the gals going that way are English and French! They are two darn nice kids, and will be well worth keeping in contact with. I made a tentative date to have supper with her before she leaves.

. . . . . It’s past nine now, so I think I’ll put my cold to bed with a hot toddy, and maybe I’ll be real lucky and dream of you there. It won’t be long before we won’t have to rely on pen and paper and dreams for our visits, thank God!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10 February ‘46 Sunday My darling wife;
. . . . .We had gotten some good steak, and since Bill is in the hospital, and there was too much for one, I called Al & Bobbie yesterday afternoon and invited them over for supper. I baked some potatoes and fried the steak and opened a can of peas; with coffee, that made the meal. Bobbie and Al came over about five, while I was still cooking; I had a drink with them, and finished fixing supper. Then we ate, and it was good too, the steak was nice and rare and tender, and there was a lot of it. We had some sherry with the meal, and coffee afterwards.

After we ate we sat and talked for a while. Al expects to go home about April; he has been eligible for discharge for a long time, but is in no hurry to go home, which is understandable since his wife is with him, and she can’t leave for a little while yet. She’ll probably go back as a G.I. bride too, same as Mary Jane Henry. Al thinks that he will go out to Cal to take graduate work in teaching, under the G.I. bill. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

11 February ‘46 Monday My darling wife;
. . . . . After supper I stopped by the office and picked up some stuff and then came on home. I was very happy to find your swell letters of Feb. 3, 4, 5, & 6 here waiting for me. Gosh, that last one was just last Wednesday, 5 days ago, and it’s been only 4 days since it was postmarked. . . . . . . . Your letters were scattered all over the front hall, where they had been shoved through the slot in the door. I had planned to go on to a show tonight, but with all those letters to read, I decided not to go. I took off my blouse and sat down to read the letters. I’m glad the cable got to you finally, it sure didn’t make the usual good time. I like the response it got too; yes, I was happy after I made that decision, and I still am, and I think it’ll be best all around. I wish I had decided earlier!! One thing tho, you say that was the decision you favored, but I don’t remember you ever saying so. Please darling, whenever I ask your opinion on anything, whether it is shall we go to a show tonight, or should we stay in the army a while, tell me what you think, and not what you think I want you to think!! Slight scolding over. But I really mean that, in the long run we’ll feel much better if we say what we think in all matters, large and small. Don’t you agree? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12 February ‘46 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I sure hope you don’t ever meet Col. Reed, you’d probably be jailed for manslaughter soon after that. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . It was time to leave, so I took my bag and went to meet Col. Jeffords, our car came, and we went on to Paddington railroad station. We met three British officers there, and came on with them, got off at Worcester and a car waiting there brought us on here. The “mess” is an old country home, very large and roomy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . I am at a British mess at Earls Croombe, a few miles from Malvern, and have spent the evening drinking beer and playing darts and shove ha’penny and smack ass. That last one is new to me, one man bends over, then one of the others smacks him across the posterior, and he guesses who hit him. Sounds like a good game to play with your superior officers, and usually after Col. Jeffords would get an especially good smack, he would point his finger at me, I got caught more times that way! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13 February ‘46 Wednesday My darling wife;
Gosh, these days seem to be flying by, but non too fast to suit me, not near fast enough! Anyway, the month is almost half over, and soon it will be time for me to start thinking about packing and getting ready to leave. I’ve done a lot of thinking about that, but not much else.

I’m at Earls Croombe near Malvern again tonight, at the British army officers mess. This is quite a place, an old country home that was taken over by the army. It dates back a good long way, and was used by the Judge Jefferies as a headquarters back in Cromwell’s days, or so I’ve been told. There’s a big stone wheel about 5 feet high running in a circular stone trough out in the yard. It was used to make apple cyder (note my British spelling) a long time ago. The house has large rooms and elaborate paneling. It’s a good thing it isn’t too cold now, ‘cause the heating system seems to consist of the usual small fireplace in each room, and, as usual in British messes, the fires aren’t lit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Soon after breakfast we started our “tour of inspection”. We went by car up to Malvern, talked with some officers, and then did a tour around the establishment looking at equipment. We interrupted that for a good lunch in the cafeteria, and then continued with the inspection tour. Then we went by car back to Earls Croombe, saw some more stuff, and then about five went back to the house. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

15 February ‘46 Friday My darling wife;
I’ve got to leave in a few minutes, but guess I can get a start on this first. It’s 6:45 now and I’m home and at the writing desk, and at 7:30 I’m supposed to pick Mary Jane up to take her to supper. I told Larry I’d call on her occasionally, but all I’ve done is telephone her a couple of times, so maybe this dinner will make up for that. She is leaving for the U.S. next Monday or Tuesday.

This has been a pretty busy day for me. It started off right when your Feb. 10 letter slipped through the mail slot before I left for work, I was sure glad to get it, and it made the usual good time. Most of the rest of the day I’ve been trying to get a cable off on my orders, and meeting with no little opposition, at least it seemed that way to me. About eleven I called Nick Harvey and told him I figured I’d be through with my work in another week, and asked him to request orders via cable. He said that we hadn’t given them time to act on the letter, but I said that was beside the point, and I wanted him to cable anyway. So he finally agreed that if I’d draft up the cable, he’d send it, providing General Tindall approved. By the way, Nick has been pretty decent through all this, and is just trying to do his job as he thinks best, so don’t get mad at him. On my way to lunch I stopped by the M.A. office and picked up the file copy of the letter requesting my orders, and then after lunch I drafted up the cable.

Col. Reed came back from his trip, and I showed him the draft; seems to me he wasn’t very helpful, he adopted the attitude “you took things into your own hands when you wrote the letter, now don’t expect any help from me”. I finally told him, in effect, that I wasn’t asking him to send the cable, but was showing it to him so he would know what was going on, I figured Gen. Tindall would be likely to consult him on it anyway.

I took the cable over to Nick & we went over it together, and he took it in to the General, only he wasn’t in. So I had to leave it with Nick, and he will show it to the General, and let me know what happens. Hope I’m enough in the General’s good graces that he sends it. The other request for orders via letter may come through any day, but I’d sure like to have this double check, and it should produce results pretty soon. . . . . Nick hadn’t called me when I left the office this evening, so I guess I’ll find out tomorrow morning, til then I’ve got my fingers crossed.

. . . . . So we went round and round today, at least I did. Besides all that I got a haircut and shampoo, wrote a first draft on one of my two final big reports, and arranged a blind date for Julie Harley. Remember, she is the daughter of the 20th Century man. She is a singer of sorts and had tickets for a show tonight, and then reservations at Ciro's, where she is to audition with Ambrose’s orchestra. Her escort had broken the date at the last minute, and she had called Bill
to see if he could go. I arranged her a date with a Lt. Col. that I know, he is 6’1” so should be just barely tall enough for her stocking footed 5’10”. Incidentally, I called Bill today and he was still feeling bad, and won’t be out of the hospital til at least next week. . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . But now I’m late, and have to run. I’ll be back later tho, so don’t go ‘way. ‘Bye now darling, I love you and want you so very much. I love you. I love you. I love you!!!
Later. Here I am again and it is after eleven.. . . . . . . About 7:10 I finished dressing and walked over to Mary Jane’s place, I had a drink there and then we caught a taxi down to Prunier's Restaurant. We had supper, and a very good one too, I had oysters on the half shell, and then scallops. Mary Jane is supposed to leave Monday to go to a “staging area” for G.I. brides; she doesn’t know just which ship she’ll be on. . . . . Larry had gotten back to Denver, he called her the other night, he has a job and is starting work March 1. Mary Jane wasn’t sure just what job it was, but he had written about one that was deputy court clerk, which would give him a good chance to get back up on his law, and make some valuable contacts too. He took promotion to major on starting terminal leave; said it cost him $67 in the difference between mustering out pay and increased pay for terminal leave, but was worth it to have “major” on his political record. He should go far in politics, except maybe he is too honest and straight forward. . . . . After supper we walked and finally got a taxi back to her place; we talked for a while, and I had another drink, and then I came on home. . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Now I’ll go to bed; sure wish you could come cuddle next to me darling! I miss you so very much, and have that feeling too that it’s wonderful that we’ll be together soon, but am especially lonesome for you this moment! Goodnight my dearest darling wife. I love you with all my heart. I adore you. I love you. I love you. I love you. All my love and kisses, Glenn
P.S. Good morning darling, thought I’d hold this and give you the verdict on the cable. It went yesterday afternoon!! . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16 February ‘46 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . then I dressed to go to the Hawkins’ for dinner; I walked over, it’s just 10 or 15 minutes from here, and rang the doorbell as I heard a clock striking seven. How’s that for being punctual for a 7 o’clock date? I was the first one there too; Al & Bobbie came right after I did tho. We went in the front room and had a drink and talked. The guests kept coming in after that, there were 12 or 14 there, Mr. & Mrs. Hawkins, Al & Bobbie, Bobbie’s little sister, a couple couples from the Embassy, and then Mary Jane and her roommate, Natalie, were the last to arrive about eight. We ate, buffet style, they had some good ham and pineapple, salad, scalloped potatoes, and then cake for dessert.

After we ate there was some talk, ribbing Mary Jane about what she’s going to have to go through as a G.I. bride, but mostly the Embassy people talking U.N.O. They’re the people that have to do most of the spade work for the conference committees, and advise the delegates, etc. Then someone started playing the piano & the rest of the evening was spent around it singing & drinking. Mrs. Hawkins was showing me some of the antiques she had picked up, she had some nice stuff, and all useful pieces too. The party broke up about 11:45, I walked home and went right to bed; the room started spinning a little, but soon settled down and I went to sleep. . .

. . . . . I may have to go out on a trip with Smitty Tuesday. This move business has made a lot of people in the various M.A. offices conscious of “souvenir” ammunition, explosives, etc., that they have around, and want to get rid of, so I’m trying to get Smitty (my Navy Lt. friend) to take it along to the British Bomb Disposal people. Don’t know it I can stand another lunch drinking with those British B.D. officers tho!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18 February ‘46 Monday My darling wife;
Oh boy, look how those numbers after “Feb.” are getting larger, it won’t be long now before I’ll be on my way to you and home. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . At the office I added some names to my list for the cocktail party, and then called some of them. That’s the one Col. Reed is giving for me; it was supposed to be this Friday, but I called Gen. Tindall first one, and he said it conflicted with some big do the Soviet Embassy was giving, so we changed it to Monday, the 25th.

I spent most of the morning on the telephone, but managed to get some work done besides. I’m still held up on my “last” big report, waiting for papers I requested from the British. I got the other one signed and off, and Col. Reed was nice enough to say it was an “excellent report”. . .

. . . . . During the afternoon I went over to the Air Attaché office and picked up some munitions for disposal, an odd selection of smoke grenades, incendiary bombs, etc. . . . . . . . . .

19 February ‘46 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . I took along the “munitions” I had picked up yesterday to leave with the bomb disposal people. Maybe I should have kept one of them, a German signal pistol with a bunch of signal cartridges; that would have been fine for July 4th, to celebrate our wedding anniversary. But I’m afraid I couldn’t bring the cartridges with me, and even if I could, I wouldn’t want to fire them for fear that one of them would blow up the pistol, and me.

We rode in Smitty’s jeep, or should I say, flew in Smitty’s jeep. . . . . . At Seven Oaks we picked up a British Bomb Disposal officer, and then went on to Tunbridge Wells. There we picked up another B.D. officer, and went to the Swan Hotel (pub) in town. We started drinking, but I nursed along on beers, and so only had to have three half pints. The wife of one of the B.D. boys came along, and we all had lunch. After lunch there was one more drink, which I sidestepped. Then Smitty & I went on with one of the B.D. officers, the one whose wife wasn’t there, to his home near the pub. His wife was home and we talked for a while and had a look through the house, which they had just bought and were trying to fix up. Then we had tea. His two daughters, ages 9 & 11, came home from school, and after “Uncle Bill” Smith had seen them he and I started back for London. . .

. . . . . Smitty is a very nice guy, easy to get along with. He’s going back to a job coaching football at a college in Georgia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Gosh, I’ll be glad when we don’t have to “converse” by this very inadequate pen & paper! Even tho now the mail situation is as good or better than it has ever been, it is difficult to try and decide anything by mail, and not very satisfactory to hold a letter in your arms!! . . .

20 February ‘46 Wednesday My darling wife;
We got an answer back on our cable to Washington re my orders, but it didn’t help matters much. It just said that the Adjutant General had been requested on Feb. 14 to issue orders returning me to the U.S., with 3 days T.D. in Washington. So I still have to wait for the AG to send orders, and I don’t know how they are sending them. At any rate we know they got the letter, and have taken action on it, so the orders hadn’t ought to be long coming, they should be in any day now, but I guess we’re to have the “army suspense” right up to the end. .

23 February ‘46 Saturday My darling wife;
. . . . . After lunch Bill came in, back from the hospital, and we talked a while. Then I went over to the Embassy with Knowles (Col. Reed’s male secretary), we had gathered a lot of classified files to burn, and took them to burn in the big furnace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . Bill and I walked down to the mess; we had a beer and then ate supper, grilled steak, no less. After we ate we went back to the bar where we ran into Rutledge. We had a couple beers with him, and then decided to go pub crawling. So we headed for the Knightsbridge area and went to about three pubs there, drinking beer and playing darts. They closed at eleven and we went to Rut’s place and had a glass of cognac. Finally Bill and I came on home about twelve. That was a fine way for him to spend his first night out of the hospital. . . . .

25 February ‘46 Monday My darling wife;
. . . . . I was ready about 5:15 and caught a taxi down to the Dorchester Hotel and went up to Col. Reed’s room. I got there before any of the guests, but soon after I arrived they started coming, and before long the place was jam-packed. Not all the people came who said they would, and it’s a good thing ‘cause I don’t know where we would have put them. Most of the people were British army & navy men that I’ve done business with here, but there were others too: Smitty came, Al & Bobbie, Rutledge, & several others from the M.A. office. The secretaries from our office were there too. The party was supposed to be from 5:30 - 7, but it was 7:45 before they all left, at least that was the time I was able to get away. I went to the mess with Rut and Bill, got there just before they stopped serving. We ate supper, and then Bill & I walked on home. I was in no condition to write then, I undressed and went to bed and to sleep. Guess the party was a sucess, there was enough liquor consumed to make it one anyway. . . . . . . . .

28 February ‘46 Thursday My darling wife;
The cable on my orders finally came today, authorizing the M.A. to issue orders on me. . . . . . However, the cable was SNAFU enough they’re going to have to cable back for clarification. There was something in it saying to include in the orders the date that I revert to inactive status, which we can’t know here since it depends on when I get home and go through the separation center. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to clear things up so I can get my orders issued, but at least something is happening!

I’m burned up at this latest delay, the army can do nothing right, even when it takes them so darned long to do it. That other cable said that on Feb. 14 the AG had been requested to issue orders, and here two weeks later we get a SNAFU cable! Some business!!

There’s no sense worrying about it, but I’m so anxious to leave that these delays infuriate me! Guess I’ll wait til I have a better idea when I’ll leave before I cable you, tho I suppose you must be looking for a cable from me long before this . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . I miss you so very much darling, guess that a few days longer of separation won’t mean much after we are together again, but right now they loom up big and important! ‘Bye now my dearest darling wife. I adore you. I love you!!! . . . . . . . . . . All my love and kisses, Glenn

5 March ‘46 Tuesday My darling wife;
. . . . . Later, the cable just came in, and so I’ll have my orders tomorrow! Now I’ll have to get busy arranging myself some transportation, sure hope there is no hold up!! I hope this is all the red tape I run into, but that’s expecting a little too much from the army. . . . . . . .

6 March ‘46 Wednesday My darling wife;
It looks like I’m almost off!! (At last!). Anyway, I’m all packed and will leave tomorrow afternoon, or Friday morning for Southampton, there to catch a shuttle boat on the 8th to Le Havre, & from Le Havre I head stateside. Sounds simple, doesn’t it, and I hope things run as smoothly as that sounds, but there is a lot of room for delays to enter in.

Let’s see if I can figure out how long it’ll take, 8th to Le Havre, and if I’m lucky one to four days there, say the 12th. Ten days to two weeks on the water brings us up to the 26th; three days in Washington (including making train reservations), and four days to Calif. brings us to the 33rd of March. If I’m to get home this month it looks like we may have to stretch the calendar a little. So let’s say if I’m lucky I’ll be home by the first, if not it’ll be a little later. I’m so happy about finally getting started that I can’t worry about just when I’ll arrive, but believe me it’ll be as soon as I can manage it!!

But now let’s see if I can remember all that happened today, should be a lot to tell ‘cause I’ve kept pretty busy. . . . . . . I fixed myself some toast and coffee for breakfast and walked down to the office. I stopped by Al’s office on the way, but he wasn’t in. I went on and checked to see that the personnel guy was working on my orders. After a couple tries of calling transportation and not finding anyone in I walked over there.

The guy at transportation wasn’t much help, in fact I feel that I ought to go back and tell him what I think of him for misleading me. It was a British civilian, the captain in charge of the office was out on leave. Anyway, he told me the boat from Southampton on the 12th was full up, and the earliest boat was the one on the 20th. He also painted a bad picture on Le Havre, said I couldn’t get on a shuttle boat to there til about next Monday, and then there would be a long wait in Le Havre, and I would do best to wait for the boat on the 20th. I didn’t feel at all like doing that tho, things could go wrong so I won’t get away from Le Havre til after the 20th, but at least I would be making an attempt to get started and maybe get away much sooner. So I left there pretty discouraged.

I went back to the office and asked Nick Harvey it I couldn’t ride the plane to Paris as the OMA courier, and then get down to Le Havre by train. He said he’d put me on as courier any time I wanted. I had that possibility of getting to Le Havre without waiting for the shuttle boat, but it turned out I won’t have to go that roundabout way. . . . . . .

After lunch I called Al and found him in this time. He called transportation for me and couldn’t get me on the 12th boat, guess it really is full. He had two alternatives tho, one to go to Southampton and wait in case there were any cancellations, and the other to go down and take the shuttle to Le Havre on the 8th. The latter sounded best to me; I called the port to make sure I could get on the shuttle, and the Lt. there said just present the body and I’d get on OK. He said too that the wait at Le Havre hadn’t ought to be very long; they telephone ahead and tell them the number of men coming, and then Le Havre tries to work them into the boats leaving.

I cleaned some stuff out of my desk and came on home. Here I went through some of my stuff, sorting it for packing; then I took a bath and dressed again. I walked back down to the office, got there a little before six. Oh yes, sometime during the afternoon I went to the bank and closed out my account. At the office I checked on my orders; they are all written and signed, but hadn’t been mimeographed yet, so I’ll have to get them in the morning.

From the office I went on to the mess, had a beer, and then ate. After supper I came on home and started packing my bags. I got that pretty well organized by ten or so, and got about everything in my footlocker, suitcase, and flight bag; all three are jam packed full tho!!

After that I gave Al & Bobbie a call, and went over to see them, they live just a half block from here. I took over some Calif. Monthlys they wanted to see ‘cause Al plans to go there.

Now it is 11:15, and I think I’ll hit the sack pretty soon. Tomorrow should be a busy day, I’ve got a million things I should do. I’ll send you a cable tomorrow too, and soon I’ll be able to call, if phones aren’t on strike when I hit the States. Gosh, it is swell that I’ll be starting soon; I haven’t really believed that I’d be going til today, and then it finally hit me and has got me all excited. . .

7 & 8 March ‘46 Thurs. & Fri. My darling wife;
I’m on the train heading for Southampton, at least it is going to “head” in a very few minutes. So I’m finally started on my way home! I wish I knew now just how long it’s going to take me to get there, but I don’t. I gave you my best estimate in Wednesday’s letter, about April first. That isn’t exactly “early March”, but there’s nothing I can do about that now, except try to get home as soon as I can, which I intend to do. We knew that the “early March” date was subject to delays by army red tape, and as is usual in these cases, the army came through. That’s all water under the bridge tho, main thing now is I’m on my way. I’ll cable you again when I know more exactly when I’ll get home, if there are cable facilities in Le Havre.

We are starting now, which you’ll probably discover before long in my handwriting. They are getting somewhat back to “peace time” here, a porter just came along saying go to the diner if you want breakfast, and there haven’t been diner cars for a long time.

Let’s see if I can remember all that happened yesterday, I can remember last night all right, and have a headache to remind me!! I got up a little before eight yesterday morning and went to the mess. Got down there a couple minutes before nine, and was rewarded for the effort by a good meal, two fresh eggs, half grapefruit, orange juice, toast, & coffee. After I ate I went on to the office, then I really got busy. I wasn’t sure then when I’d leave, yesterday afternoon, or this morning, so I was trying to get through by the afternoon so I could leave if I wanted to.

I got a car and went to the apt. and got my footlocker and took it down to American Express & sent it that way. It was a needless expense, I guess, but was the easiest way to get rid of it, and probably the fastest and safest way to send it. It would undoubtedly take the army three months, and then likely as not it’d never arrive. This way it goes fast and is insured.

From there I went to Grosvenor Square, sent your cable, got my food ration card renewed (for Bill), and then called on Pierre Guelff to say goodbye. I went back to the office and it was noon so I went down to the mess with Bill and Terry Cauley. After lunch I went to the finance office where I collected for my rent up til the 7th, and turned in some of my cash for a Treasury check made out to me. Guess that's a good safe way, and easily negotiable too.

After that I went to transportation and got my rail warrant for today. Then I stopped at the florist and got two corsages for the gal sectys. at the office, went back to the office and presented the flowers. Then I cleaned up a lot of minor points, signed out, and got a copy of my last pay voucher. I had picked up my orders in the morning.

I went through the building saying goodbye to everyone. The General was very nice, and when I left said he was going to miss our tennis games. By time I had made the rounds it was time to leave, so I said goodbye to the Colonel “with tears in my eyes” (oh yes!).

I went down to the mess with Bill & Terry & Angus & Chuck Allen & Ellenberger. We had a couple drinks and then ate, and then went back to the bar and threw a few more down. I got home under my own steam and went to bed.

This AM the car came for me a little before eight and the driver took me to Waterloo station. A porter took my bags and put them in the compartment with me, so I haven’t had to handle them yet. I have a suitcase, flight bag, and hand bag, all jammed full. It is bright and sunny, but cold. Nice of it to clear up so I’d leave with a good impression of London weather. We are due in Southampton at 10:30, and then I go to the camp. Guess that’s all the news, oh yes, I got a letter from Merv, telling me I could stay with them in Washington. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I’ll sign off for this time. I’m awful glad that I’m on my way to you darling, it has been an eternity, this time we have been apart. I love you with all of me. ‘Bye now dearest. I love you. I adore you. I love you!! All my love and kisses, Glenn

8 & 9 March ‘46 Fri. & Sat. My darling wife;
I don’t know how I’ll be able to send this, but it will probably go army airmail from Le Havre, shouldn’t take more than three weeks ‘cause it should go right out on a ship. Hmmm, maybe I should apply a few stamps to myself!!

I am now aboard the S.S. Benjamin Huntington. We sail to Le Havre at 4 AM tomorrow. This is a Liberty ship, and I’m in a small cabin with five other officers. Now let’s continue with “my day” from when I left off this morning on the train. I got that letter posted as British civilian air mail, so it should get to you fairly fast.

The train got into Southampton about 10:30. I toted my bags over to the RTO office, and nearly broke my arms in the process. Sure hope I don’t have to do much more carrying of them! I waited at the RTO for a half hour and then went up to the processing center at the U.S. port area. I got bucked from the first place I tried to another one, and then they called a third place which was the right one. I went down there with some of the officers who were going to lunch; it was about a mile, so the jeep came in handy in toting my baggage.

I had heard that Carlton was a post Ordnance officer around here somewhere, so I looked in the phone book and got his location. After lunch I stopped in and talked with him for a while. He was in the R.O.T.C. class that Locke & French were in (6 months before me). He’s a major too now, and tho he went on duty before I did, and came overseas about the same time, he has only 64 points, and can’t go home til spring (thank God for my battle star and bronze star medal)

I went then to the office handling casual shipments. An officer there called a jeep for me, and told me to come down to the ship. I got aboard OK, and grabbed a bunk, and then looked around a while. It didn’t take long to load the ship, between four and five hundred men, one Red Cross gal, two stowaways being returned to Le Havre, and I don’t know what else.

I had just settled down for a little bunk fatigue when the transportation corps officer aboard came along and told me I was senior officer aboard, and so I was Commander of Troops. That was something new to me, so I said OK, what do I do? I picked out three officers, an adjutant, a mess officer, and a MP officer & we went up to the TC captain’s room & he outlined the duties. The boys I picked out do all the work, or rather the sgts. they pick out in turn will. All I have to do is be “responsible”, and eat with the master of the ship in the crew mess, which is no hardship! The officers down here had “C” rations tonight, and I had roast pork, etc.

I had supper with the crew at five, and then came downstairs, or should I say “below” or some such nautical term, and started on this. This business of “Troop Commander” came as a surprise to me, I hadn’t even imagined I’d be senior officer aboard a ship, but I kind of like the idea, and am hopeful I’ll get the same deal on the ship to the U.S., someone else does all the work, and I eat the good food!

They say that all these Liberty ships have been taken off troop transport duty, so since they are the slow kind, that means the ocean trip should be only nine or ten days, once I get off.

My adjutant here is an Ordnance captain, an old fellow with lots of ribbons from the first war. It makes me feel embarrassed whenever I get around a guy like that, and am senior to him. It seems almost disrespectful to have him call me “sir”. Oh well, you run into a lot of funny situations in the army. . . . .

P.S. I’m in Le Havre now and it’s 4 PM Saturday. I’m still on the Benj. Huntington, am due to debark at 4:30. From here I go to Camp Herbert Taryington, near Le Havre, and await shipment. I get “processed” there too. Hasn’t much happened since I closed above, I went to bed about seven and slept til seven this AM, I awoke about 2:30 and stayed up for an hour or so. We left on time last night, and had a smooth fast crossing, no roll, no pitch, but it was cold as hell on deck. I’ll write again, or cable if I can, when I find out how long I’ll be in Le Havre. ‘Bye now darling, I love you. G

9 & 10 March ‘46 Sat. & Sun. My darling wife;
Hello darling, I am in Camp Home Run in Le Havre this Sunday night, and things look promising, I may get out of here in a day or two, I hope! It seems like a pretty business like place, not at all like Camp Herbert Tareyton where I went yesterday.

By time I got off the boat and up to Tareyton via G.I. truck it was seven. We were directed to a tent area for billets. We drew blankets and dropped our baggage and then walked to the mess for supper. It was after the usual supper hours, so the mess sgt. fixed us some scrambled eggs, I had about four. The rest of the boys really went for them ‘cause they had been eating “C” rations while I ate at the captain’s table with the crew. After supper there wasn’t much to do, we tried to check in, but they told us to come back in the morning.

I went to bed early, it wasn’t too bad in there ‘cause we had a good fire going, but I awoke about two feeling darned cold. I got up and looked at the fire & it was almost out. I put on some more coal, but think I only succeeded in smothering it entirely. I put my jacket on over my P.J.s and went back to bed and slept some more. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

After we ate we checked in, and found we had been directed to the wrong camp and should have gone to Camp Home Run in the first place. Before we checked farther tho we had been told that “yes, this is the right place”, and that it would probably be eight to ten days before we got out! . . . . at one a couple of big semi’s brought about a hundred of us over here.

They seemed to know what’s what at this camp, and we were started on processing right away. There isn’t much to the processing, filling out customs declarations for the baggage, etc., I haven’t finished it all, but can do it tomorrow morning, all except the medical, which comes after ship assignment. They seem to be shipping people out of here fast, a nurse I sat next to at supper came in yesterday and is due to leave tomorrow, and I’ve heard of other cases where they go out just as fast. Hope that I am as lucky.

I’m in a nice room in a permanent building tonight, so it should be a lot warmer than last night. I had a shower this afternoon before supper so I feel nice and clean. I sat in the lounge and read for a couple hours after supper, so it is already 8:30. Now I’ll say goodnight my dearest darling wife. I love you. I adore you. I love you!!! All my love and kisses, Glenn

11 March ‘46 Monday My darling wife;
Hello sweetheart, guess I’ll get a start writing this afternoon. This is likely to be my last letter, and there is a chance I’ll be calling you (barring telephone strikes) before you get it. Yep, got my assignment to a ship today, which you already know since I cabled. This camp really works fast, it was about 24 hours from the time I hit it til I was assigned to a ship.

I am supposed to leave from Camp Home Run for the ship at 9:30 in the morning. I don’t know just when we’ll leave, but it shouldn’t take long to load. I also don’t know what kind of ship it is, but it carries a little over 2400 passengers. The rumor is that it is a little larger than a Victory ship, and makes the ocean crossing in about a week, so that should put me in port about the 20th.
It may take me a little while there to disengage myself from the men going straight to the separation center. Then I’ll go to Washington and check in with the Chief of Ordnance. I won’t have much to do there, I’ll pick up the original of my personnel record, and see some of the officers, and then I’ll take off for Sacramento as soon as I can. I think I’ll be traveling on my own from Washington, so I’ll more than likely be able to stop in at Sac’to before I go to the Separation Center at Camp Beale, I hope so anyway.

I see there are a couple Colonels and a Lt. Col. on the same boat as I am, so there’s no chance I’ll be stuck with Commander of Troops, if “stuck” is the right word!! I haven’t been doing much here, just eating and sleeping and resting. The processing didn’t take more than about an hour total time. There is a Red Cross hut near the building where I go get a cup of coffee occasionally. I picked up some PX rations this morning, and got dollars for my pounds. I sent you the cable this afternoon right after my name was posted on the shipping list. I wrote to Mom a little while ago too.

I’ll sign off now, and I’m going to be damn glad to trade these visits for personal ones. ‘Bye now, my dearest. I love you. I love you. I adore You.
All my love and kisses, Glenn

13 March ‘46 Wednesday My darling wife;
Writing here seems to be a little more difficult than I thought. Our hold is the last one towards the stern, and we are right over the propeller, there is a steady jiggle from it, but every time we go over a swell the propeller gets clear of the water and really shakes the table. Anyway, I’m heading in the right direction and will have called you, or telegraphed, depending on the phone strike situation, before you get this.

I don’t know even why I’m writing, unless it is from force of habit, and maybe I can tell you a little about the boat ride while it is fresh in my mind. We left Camp Home Run at 9:30 yesterday morning and were taken to the dock in a truck. All of Le Havre around the dock area is practically flat, probably from a combination of our bombing and German demolition work before they left. The dock was a big floating pontoon type, and the truck drove us right down to the gangplank, which was a break. We waited around on the dock for a while and then they finally let us come aboard. Right behind us the Vulcania was loading up with French G.I. brides, and across the dock a navy transport was ready to be loaded.

We got aboard the Sea Corporal and got our bunks made. The center of the hatch is filled with mess tables, and there is a galley along the forward end. All around the other three sides are compartments with three decker bunks. I am in one with about 15 other field grade officers. There are about 140 officers aboard.

We stayed at the dock until about five, and then cleared the harbor and dropped the pilot by six. I ate supper, and went to bed. It was nice and smooth, and except for the prop shake you would hardly know we were moving. I went to sleep, and slept til about three this morning. Things were really going up, down, and around by then, and have continued that way ever since. I got some more sleep and finally got up about seven.

I had a little breakfast, and walked on the deck for a while, and then went back to the bunk. I got up for lunch, and afterwards went out on the deck. It was a beautiful day out, sun bright and warm, and not much breeze. I stripped to the waist and toasted front and back for a half hour each. A little later I hit the sack again and got up for supper. After that I went up on deck again. That will probably be the routine the whole trip, unless I get sick. I’ve felt all day like the next minute I may have to vomit, but so far have been able to eat a little and hold it down. I haven’t caught any details, and I hope I avoid those.

At noon today we had gone a little over 300 nautical miles from Le Havre at an average rate of 17.2 knots/hour. At that rate a rough calculation says we should get to New York about the 20th. . . . . . . . . . . . .

16 March ‘46 Saturday
Guess this must be Saturday, it’s kind of hard to keep track of the day and date here, when one day is so like the next and the one before. Anyway, it is Saturday morning, and I am at a table in the officers mess again. It is a little calmer now than when I wrote last, tho the prop is still shaking things up some.

Yesterday at noon we were about 1/3 of the way home, had gone a little more than 1000 nautical miles, and had 2000 more to go. At the rate we have been going of approximately 400 nautical miles per day, we should get in next Wednesday some time. It has been cold as the dickens since I wrote before, cold and windy and rainy, had some snow this morning too. In short it hasn’t exactly been a tropical cruise! It is getting me home tho, and the northern route is the fastest!

We had a little delay yesterday morning, we are sailing in “convoy” with the Sea Sturgeon, a ship just like this one. It had engine trouble and we had to turn around and sail east for an hour to get back to it, and then sail at reduced speed beside it for a while to be handy if we were needed. Guess they cleared up the trouble, and we seem to be going full speed now. That lost us about fifty or seventy miles yesterday. Hope we don’t run into any more trouble like that, or engine trouble of our own.

After that first day my stomach seemed to get used to the motion OK, and while once in a while I feel a little uneasy, most of the time I’m OK. They have movies on deck every night, and I saw the one last night. It was cold, but there was a full moon out, and a few clouds, and it was really pretty. . . . . . . . . . .

I’m not so sure just what the procedure will be when we get to New York. I’ll probably have to go through the disposition center, and then I’ll go on to Washington as soon as I can get away. There I’ll look into the ways of getting home, either start getting train reservations, or I’ll look into the possibilities of going by air. I should be home by the first, or at the separation center by then.
19 March ‘46 Tuesday
Darling, we are sailing along pretty nicely now, were about 500 nautical miles east of Boston this noon. The sea is as calm and flat as a pond, but we are only making about 15 knots, the other ship in the “convoy” seems to still be having engine trouble, so we can’t go very fast.

I’ve been spending a lot of my time playing cards lately. Most of the time it has been too darn cold to be out on deck. Played poker Sunday and Monday, played bridge all this morning and til two this afternoon. The poker games are all pretty mild ones, 3 cent limit, where you can’t win or lose more than a couple dollars in a day. I think I’m about even there, lost on Sunday, and then won yesterday. I was pretty rusty on my bridge, but my partner and I came out way on top, mostly on one hand where we set the others five tricks doubled, redoubled, and vulnerable!! Guess that’s all to report on my pastime-ing here. The rest of the time I’ve spent sleeping and loafing.

We had a little excitement Sunday, ran into an ice flow. We headed south as soon as we got into it, but still had to push our way through a lot of it. There for a time all you could see was ice, clear to the horizon! There were a couple of miniature bergs too.

We are due to dock Thursday morning, from the dock we’ll go to the disposition center of the port, and, as I’ve said before, I don’t know when I’ll get away from there to go to Washington. I’ll call or telegraph you when I can.

Thank God the necessity for visiting via letter will soon be over! In all probability this will be the last letter. I may add another note to it before I post it tho. Anyway, ‘bye for now my dearest darling wife, I love you with all of me. It still doesn’t seem real that we will be together soon, and probably won’t until I have you in my arms! I love you darling. I adore you. I love you! All my love and kisses, Glenn
P.S. - 22 March - I’m on the way to Wash. now, guess I’d better see if I can’t mail this soon. It was sure swell talking to you last night, and I can hardly wait til we’re together soon!! I love you darling. G

That’s the end of the letters. Anything I add now will depend on my memory 60 years later, which is not infallible, as I’ve found in reading through the letters. Some letters confirmed clear memories I had of certain events; other letters were as if I had never seen them.

I stayed with Mervin Parker and his wife in Washington. Merv was an EE friend from Cal, and had gone to Washington before I came east in 1942. Betty and I visited Merv when we took a trip there to see the cherry blossoms in ‘43. He was single then, and his apartment was a “flop house” for Cal friends. I remember him giving Betty and me his bed, and everyone else was sleeping on the floor. In ‘46 Merv was married and they were in a new home.

I went by train cross country, and Betty met me at the station in Sacramento. The next day I went to the separation center at Camp Beale. and was soon on terminal leave. I had used no leave time on active duty, so my terminal leave ran from April 1 through July 18, 1946. I must have made it home in March, but just barely!

Betty and I had our long delayed honeymoon in Carmel, and visited my parents in Hermosa Beach. We had thought a trip to Mexico City would be appropriate, but decided it would be better to find employment.

I went to San Francisco and talked with General Electric engineering there. The company had a program designed for returning service men, and accepted me into it. The program gave “rotating” assignments in engineering departments of their many plants for training, and for us to find the right niche in the company. My first assignment was to their plant in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where we went by train in June of ‘46.

With post war shortages, living conditions weren’t the best; we found a room with kitchen privileges, and eventually were able to buy a used Buick sedan. I got along fine at work, but in December we decided to quit the program and return to Sacramento. Our next assignment was to be in upper New York, it was winter, and Betty was pregnant, so we Californians wanted to go home.

In Sacramento I started work in early January of ‘47 as a Junior Electrical Engineer with the State Division of Architecture. By the end of the year I had advanced to Assistant EE and then Associate EE. The pay there was enough we felt we could build a house; we bought a lot in a good area from army savings, designed a floor plan we liked, and had an architect from the office prepare the plans. I started construction by myself, working evenings, weekends, and vacations. With the help of my father, who came up for his vacation, we completed the foundations and up through the sub floor. Then I hired carpenters part time, sub contractors, etc., and continued working on it myself. A construction loan from Betty’s parents was essential until the house was completed to where we could get a commercial loan on it. It took about two and a half years of this part time work before we could move in, but was well worth it because we got the house we wanted at a price we could afford, and happily lived in it for more than fifty years.

We first rented an apartment over a garage, owned by friends of Betty’s parents. We were living there when our first daughter, Kathie, was born in August ‘47. We had just moved into the house when our other daughter, Karen, was born in August ‘50. We have four grandchildren and, so far, five great grandchildren. Happily most of them live in the Sacramento area.

I stayed with the State through several name changes of the State Architect’s office for 30 years of interesting and challenging work and retired in ‘77 as the Supervising EE. Our depression era upbringing made us save and invest so we have had a comfortable retirement, including part of every winter in Mexico, extensive independent foreign travel, and a lot of cruising. Our travels never took us back to England, other than one night at a Heathrow hotel on the way home from Lisbon in ‘75; we took a bus into London and looked over some of my old haunts for a few hours. The Bruton Street pub was still there, but surrounded by new tall buildings.

It wasn’t long after I returned from London that we were counting our anniversaries in years instead of months. In 2002 we celebrated our 60th by taking our two daughters and their husbands on a ten day cruise from San Francisco to Alaska and back. We have had a long and happy life together, and maybe that two years and eight months separation while I was in London helped us to realize how important we are to each other!