Letter 108

Eastern Front May 1* 1942

Dear Beloved at home.

May has arrived, the trees are getting green..... We are all singing and our Army Variety staged a show for us last night in

Debalzewo and a band from the Navy in Hamburg played the tunes . Everyone was in a holiday mood . We listening to the Music, all of sudden the window panes flew around our ears, a Soviet Bomber had shed its load nearby. Well, it was nothing to get exited about anyway, so we were fed some German Culture in Russia too. No one complained anyway. I just got back and found that a Comrade had brought a bunch of mail for me. Thank you very much, a letter dated April 14 was among them and I answer it now. Your question is whether we will have a prolonged rest now, and I can only answer, once we are the Idiots, we will stay as the Idiots here, we participated in the battles from Minute 1 in June 41 and we are selected again to continue the advance and chase the Russians to the East, That was the order of the day by our Führer and we hope to get through that again. The 111" Infantry Division is well feared by the Russians and our Regt is part of that Division. That’s why the Russians have not staged a major attack in this sector. We have heard rumors that many Divisions will be released some for Furlough, others to go back to their home base to get a taste of Germany again. Many men are sick too, but I am confident that my time will come, for now the war in Russia is conducted during my active Army Service. I already had some furlough , my Comrades had none yet, and in the coming weeks we will be getting new Horses. We did not get any in the winter. We also did a lot of Infantry training and build a defense line around the town. I can not help it when you get no mail from me, we do get yours of course, did you get the 100 Marks I mailed for March? , Dear Mother, I am glad that you kept the Flower Garden so nice and you repainted the kitchen too. I also had enough to eat, I kept a few things for harder times, . I am glad that the tractor works so well in the deep plowed fields I suppose the chains help a lot in a muddy ground. But let the horses do some work too. Is the Gras Cutter repaired now? Dear Father, at times please run the engines on my Motorcycle for a minute or so, and no rust accumulates. The Gas tap turn to the Ift for the Reserve Gas to get to the Carborettor. Well, I will close now, and Dear Mother, your parcels all arrive do not worry so much and not on open post cards anyway.

Heinrich.

Heinrich Bredemeier FP # 10331 = Art Regt 117 and was

Division Artillery for the 11th Inf. Division

To: Family Heinrich Bredemeier , in Rehren A.O. # 12 near Rinteln