Letter 47

Ukraine July 16th 1941

Dear Parents and Granddad !

Time for me to write to you again and tell you, please not to worry so much about me. I can not write a long letter, of course, we have a rest today, but there is plenty of other things to do. At 5 PM we have an inspection of the guns of the Battery . We are camping in a tent 3 of us in each tent, every day there is a

thunderstorm, and the rain is the biggest obstacle for our advance. Most motorized vehicles get stuck, there and then the horse drawn too. Only tracked vehicles manage to carry on. Yesterday we were lucky, our gun got stuck, a tracked prime mover , from the 210 mm Mortar helped to pull us out of the mire, and we tacked behind with the horses doing nothing. The front is 50 Kilometers ahead of us, and we have to keep moving, getting stuck brings enemy fighter bombers , who are our main enemies. Yesterday 18 Bombers crossed over but none attacked us. We already had a few Comrades killed by the Bombers. Right now my main concern how to get enough to eat. We catch livestock in the fields at times from Chicken coops we get eggs we get stiff in the bones from sleeping on wet ground each night. If only this Russian war gets d done with, then against England they surely will not take Horse Artillery over. Are there any Prisoners at home now working on farms? Make sure you get one of these Bolchiviks and teach him how to work. The Village people here live a poor life, there was a big famine, now they can have | cow per house. Every where we see tractors in the rain and doing nothing. Send Parcels soon

Heinrich.

From: Pvt Heinrich Bredemeier, FP # 10331 Art Regt 117

To: Family H.Bredemeier , Rehren A.O.# 12. Near Rinteln Weser