WW2, 8 US Soldiers, 8 Letters Home                   Part One Letters 1--3 Letter from Horace Evers  2 May ; 1945 Dearest Mom and Lou, A year ago today I was sweating out shells on Anzio Beachhead ; today I am sitting in Hitler’s luxuriously furnished apartment in Munich writing a few lines home. ; What a contrast. ; A still greater contrast is that between his quarters here and the living hell of DACHAU Concentration Camp only 10 miles from here. ; I had the misfortune of seeing the camp yesterday and I still find it hard to believe what my eyes told me.- A railroad runs alongside the camp and as we walked toward the box cars on the track I thought of some of the stories I previously had read about DACHAU and was glad of the chance to see for myself just to prove once and for all that what I had heard was propaganda. ; But no it wasn’t propaganda at all ; if anything ; some of the truth had been held back. In two years of combat you can imagine I have seen a lot of death, furious deaths mostly. But nothing has ever stirred me as much as this. The first box car I came to had about 30 what were once humans in it. ; All were just bone with a layer of skin over them. Most of the eyes were open and had an undescribable look about them. They had that beaten "what did I do to deserve this" look. Twenty to thirty other box cars were the same. Bodies on top of each other ; no telling how many. No identification as far as I could see. ; And then into the camp itself. ; Filthy barracks suitable for about 200 persons held 1500. 160,000 persons were originally in the camp and 32,000 were alive (or almost alive) when we arrived.- There is a gas chamber and furnace room in one barracks.; Two rooms were full of bodies waiting to be cremated. ; In one room they were all nude -in the other they had prison clothes on ; As filthy as dirt itself. How can people do things like that? I never believed they could until now. Well enough for now- Miss you all very much. Your son, Horace Letter from George Hynes Amberley Stalion, Australia Jan. 26, 1941 Dearest Folks, We are taking off tomorrow morning on a secret mission. I hope to be able to bring my ship through so that I can be of some help in saving the lives of my friends. If I get through you won’t get this, for this will be mailed after I’ve gone.Please don’t let my going change your life too much. I know that I’m the only son. Remember that I did try to make a success of myself and make you two feel proud of me. About my ship- It’s really beautiful. My name is painted on the left hand side of the cowling. My ... chief has taught me plenty on how to take care of it. I thought I knew something about air planes before I came here, but I really found out how dumb I was. My foot locker will be home before this will, so if you haven’t opened it before this gets there go ahead and dispose of the clothing in any way you see fit. Only one thing- I want Dad to have my camera.  Mother, please take it easy. You and Dad deserve so much. You two really made me appreciate a good home- If everyone had the swell parents and good home that I have had there would be nothing like this happening. Pray for me and God bless you. Your loving son,George Jr.  Letter from Bill Chapin May 15, 1945 16th Fd. Hos. U.S. Army Linz, Austria My Darling, I hope, and feel almost sure, that I shall get home before this letter does, but thought I’d better write anyway in case of any delay. Right now there are a few of us here in a hospital waiting for hospital airplanes to evacuate us to England. Probably right now you are worried about my condition after reading about the atrocities in Stalags. You may rest assured that I am not suffering from malnutrition, and don’t look like the pictures you’ve seen. We had them too, but they were not Americans. I don’t know if any of my letters from prison reached you. After I was wounded the Germans amputated my right foot. Again I assure you that it was necessary, because it was practically off anyway. After you get over the initial shock you will come to realize that it is of very little consequence with the artificial limbs they give you now. There are plenty of us like that, (four in our little group) and our morale is very very high, I assure you. We baffle the doctors and they have a difficult time keeping us from crutching all over town here. I read, here, of a P.38 pilot, (P.W.) now playing major league baseball with a wooden leg, so judge for yourself. I shall have to have another operation on the leg when I get home, but that is normal. Naturally I have enough to tell you to fill a book, and want to be with you when I do it, so I’ll only give you the barest details here. In short, it was dammed rough, but as you can see by the way they treated there political prisoners & civilian prisoners it could have been a thousand times worse. I expect it’s been just as bad for you, what with worrying, but it’s all over now. I was shot down in lower Yugoslavia over a disgustingly easy target. (I volunteered for the mission, in fact argued to get on it, it was no easy!). Then I took part in the German evacuation from Greece through Yugoslavia, considerably harassed by partisans, our fighters and bombers. Finally arrived at a P.O.W. camp at Krems, Austria, on the Danube, about 70 kilometers from Vienna. Most of the Americans there were 8th A.F. enlisted men, some with 2 years PW service. We were liberated by the Red Army after the capitulation, on May 10th. The Jerries didn’t lay down their weapons. One of my greatest moments was waking up one morning and watching Soviet artillery roll up to the camp. The Jerries had withdrawn under fire the night before. I think we were the last Americans to be liberated in Europe, about 140 of us. A greater moment will be when I see you again, my darling, and it won’t be long. So cheer up and don’t worry about me. I’m alive and very much kicking. Love, Bill CLICK HERE TO GO TO LETTERS 4--8 Page By Gracie All Rights Reserved © Click Here for a "Patriotic Medley"