Letter 421

Hohensalza June 5th 1940

My dear Golden Treasure!

You might be surprised to read that I wrote this letter at 2 AM because I am the Pvt on Duty so I am sitting here all day and night, listen to the Radio. The news? That was a coup, Paris is ours. You can not imagine the mood and the shouts here . The Group had just sat down to Lunch when I gave them the news, the place erupted in cheers. The battery Commander came later and gave the Battery a free afternoon, all were happy, except me. For myself and Comrade Auer it did not count, we had to stay by the phone. But I was rewarded at noon with a special gift, I took a parcel to Staff Sgt Maurer and on my return I was given a parcel that had come from my Goldy wife. I opened it and I found that I what I had longed for, the fresh cherries , that was the best gift you could have made me. Many thanks again, and my greatest joy is, that you do look after your husband. It only took 2 days for the parcel to get here and all were good apart from 2 or 3. You said you are waiting for mail from me, I have send 3 letters one after another , so when this here letter arrives, the others must be there too. I see you had been to see Dorschen, and Adolf was so far lucky, when you go next time, give my Greetings and ask Adolf whether he likes to march to London . My dear Wife, this Sunday the whole Battery crew is going to the cinema. They will show all the weekly news and many of our Artillery guns too. That will be interesting. There are not many of us left now here, every day another few go to the front. It looks they don’t want our Telephone crews yet. There is us and a few drivers that is all left here. We might be even making room for new recruits and go to another place in Hohensalza. Meanwhile we just sit it out here, let me know if Herbst is still holding the fort in the Kaiserhof Hotel. You must do me a favor and give my Greetings to all we know, I have not the time to write to all of them, I enclose a photo for you , taken not by a professional photographer but he tries his best. On the photo you see me in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial uniform .If you go up to Mother in the Karl Ludwig Str, you can tell her, I will send one to her too.

I will close now and hope we see each other soon, if only on furlough. Greetings and Kisses to you

From your beloved Arnold.

From: Arnold Groß, 1* BatteryArtillery Reserve Hohensalza, Warthegau

To: Mrs Lony Groß, Wiesbaden, Bahnhofstr 24