August 24, 1944 – Sgt Norman Mohar writes about chasing Nazis up the Rhone Valley
August 24, 2024
August 26, 1944 – The horrors of the Battle of Montelimar
August 26, 2024August 25, 1944 – Dad takes a break from chasing German soldiers to write an optimistic letter home
While Dad and his men were racing up the Rhone Valley chasing the German 19th Army, now 10 days since the southern France D-Day (the 30th Infantry’s 5th D-Day of the war after Morocco, Sicily, Salerno and Anzio Italy), Dad was able to squeeze out some time to write a quick and somewhat optimistic note to his mother.
25 Aug 44
Lt. P. B. Larimore
Hq Co 3rd BN. 30th Inf A.P.O. #3
c/o Postmaster NY NY
Southern France
Dearest Mother;
As you might can tell from my writing I am in quite a hurry but I want to drop you just a line. I’m still feel swell and am seeing quite a bit of France. Before all this is over I expect to see quite a bit more.
On the news sheet that we got yesterday (that was the day before’s news) all of it sure seemed good. But people musn’t get to feeling to gay over it all because all of us here know that there is a lot of fight left in the Jerries yet. But it doesn’t seem that they can last much longer.
Please give every one my love and I will write them all when I can. I would like to have some salamie(sic) please.
All my love
Phil[1]
~~~~~
One of Dad’s men, Staff Sgt. Charles O. Beardslee recorded this in his memoire of August 25, 1944:
We traveled all night and camped on the banks of the Durance River where we guarding a bridge. About 10:00 in the morning someone suggested that it might be a good idea if we took a bath in the river. We hadn’t had a bath since leaving Naples three weeks before.
Since we had about 24 men to take baths we went in about eight at a time. Since I was in the first group I got my soap and towel and undressed on the riverbank. We had almost finished and were about to climb out of the water and dry off when someone discovered that there were two women standing on the bridge watching us.
We were all embarrassed to expose our naked bodies to strange ladies. I’m sure they thought it very funny as we hollered and motioned for them to move on. They finally left and we dashed out and grabbed our towels.
The bath felt good even though we had to put on our dirty clothes.[2]
~~~~~
[1] Handwritten V-Mail – Original Copy. Not Post marked on the outside. Inside, “Memphis, Tenn. De Soto Sta. Oct 2 1944.”
[2] Staff Sergeant Charles O. Beardslee. Dogface Soldiers Memoirs. Southern France: August 25, 1944.
In case you haven’t read or listened to Dad’s book, you can learn more or order it here.
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