Letter 403

In the East. Feb 1* 41943

Dear Brother and Sister in Law. =—

I have received your letter today and glad to hear that all is well at home. Same goes for me here, except that my joints are a bit stiff, but that is from the cold. The cold makes live a misery although right now it is a bit milder and lets hope it does not get any colder , that damn Russian Winter , the devil should take it. The winter here has cost us many sacrifices , death, wounded, one longs for home here.

So Alwin and Sepp were on furlough, I was glad to hear that from Mothers letter, because in Sepp’s absence, that part of the front where he serves, was under very heavy Russian attack, and it must be a miracle that he was away on furlough. I knew that part of the front, I seen his Division sign along a road there. We can only hope that we get through all this and God looks over us. So far we have been lucky, in these hard times. You can listen to the Wehrmacht report that says it all. Right now my thoughts go to Heinrich who is fighting in Stalingrad , one has to stop thinking about it all, you know what I mean. Mother will be most worried, right now there is no thought of Furlough , since today, all furlough on the eastern front is cancelled so Alwin and Sepp were lucky. We have no idea how long these restriction will be enforced. How long will this war last, I often think and hope to get out of this war in good health. The Russians do not give up easy, and other countries give him material support. You said that little Marlis is growing, well, if I see home again, I shall be glad to see her and hug her, well that is one of my hopes. Another hope is that you are all well so I send m my greetings ,

Your Brother and Brother in Law and Uncle

Hermann

From: Corp. Hermann Jagel, FP # 46 631 = Army Transport Battalion 993.

To: Mr. Hugo Jagel, Rastatt/ Baden, Hildastr 21

This is what the Wehrmacht Report said for the time Jan 27th - Feb 1* 42

Northeast of Kursk our counter attack of Infantry and Panzer troops under General Breith succeeded . A Russian attack of several Divisions had broken trough our front, and was stopped and dealt with and the enemy retreated with heavy losses. Despite the Blizzard conditions , 46 enemy tanks were destroyed and a score of other weapons were captured by our Grenadiers.

On the Home front: British Bombers tried to attack Munich on the night of Jan, 30-31st but were driven off by our fighters, the enemy lost 4 bombers.