Aug. 13, 1945
France
Dear honey;
How are my darlings tonight?
I didn’t write last night. I went with Dan and Kaplan to hear an orchestra and see a show afterwards at one of the shows on the post.
I haven’t received any mail for three days now. We may not get any for quite a while.
That last shot I told you about didn’t bother me a bit. I was glad it wasn’t like the first one.
We had to go through a gas chamber today to test our gas masks. They use tear gas for that.
I was just down and had a shower. It was pretty cold, but it feels good. It wouldn’t be so bad if they could keep the tank up on the hill here full. It would warm up a little during the day then. They have to shut the water off part of the time during the day to pump up the tank.
Well I wish they would make up their minds one way or another on this war so we would know what to look forward to. It can’t last very long even if the Japs don’t surrender but it will cost a lot more lives. They shouldn’t be shown any kind of consideration though. We don’t owe them anything but they owe us plenty and they should be made to pay for it.
If we could believe a lot of the things that are in the papers it would be alright, but one minute they build your hopes up and the next they tear them down. After a while you take all that you read with a grain of salt.
I guess I’d better close for now honey. I want to write the folks a few lines. Goodnight darling. Lots of love for my darlings.
Your loving husband
Clarence
P.S. I love you darling.
***********
Note: At this point the company was preparing to sail to the South Pacific, but all that changed the following day when Japan surrendered.
Celebrating the end of the war - (I believe are) Bill Folk, Clarence McIlrath, Tony Pizzolanti, Frank Cereska, and Dan Byrne in Marseille, France