Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. HST-FBP_15-03_01 - 1945-07-27

HST-FBP_15-03_01 - 1945-07-27

Transcript Date

Berlin July 27, 1945

Dear Bess:

The British went home Wednesday to get the bad news. I went to Frankfurt and Gen. Eisenhower took me to inspect two American Divisions. We left here in the Sacred Cow at 8:00 A.M. and arrived in Frankfurt 11/2 hrs. later. The General met me at the airport with a guard of honor and after the formalities we drove out in the country to the 3rd Armored Division. We were met by Gen. Hickey, a band and another guard of honor, which I inspected as I had the one at the airport. This one was drawn up on a plowed field with dust shoe top deep. Mr. Byrnes and my staff had to follow me around the outfit and I walked them about 1/2 mile. They had the Missourians all lined up in one spot and I spoke to one or two individually and the rest collectively. They did that all day long. I saw a chaplain in line further down the road after the guard inspection and he turned out to be from Kansas City. The captain in command of the Artillery Battalion was a boy named Bruce from Mexico, Mo. and a friend of Ed Condon's. He was out of the 128th Field Artillery originally. We drove through German village after village inspecting the different outfits and I had a chance to see the country and the people. The people looked very well, the children were well fed healthy and sunburned and the crops were good. Nothing like the terribly depressed situation here in Berlin. Although Frankfurt and Darmstadt were as completely destroyed as Berlin, the people didn't have the whipped, hangdog look.

When we came to the end of the 3rd Ar. Div. Area we were met by a guard of honor from the 84th Inf. Div. Louis Truman is the Chief of Staff, a Colonel, and asst. Div. Commander. The band played the Mo. Waltz while I inspected the Guard and then we went to lunch at Div. Headquarters in a castle. Had fine lunch and then drove slowly down about six miles of soldiers, drawn up on each side of the road. I'd stop every so often and question soldiers and corporals and sgts. I asked one poor private what his name is and where he was from and it scared him so badly he couldn't answer. But I finally coaxed it out of him.

We came back to Frankfurt, stopped a few minutes in Eisenhower's office in the I. G. Farben Bldg - as big as the Pentagon, and then went to the airport where I pinned medals on 3 Englishmen & 1 Canadian. Got aboard and was back here at 7 P.M. It's the best day I've had here.

Kiss Margie & Lots & lots of love to you Harry