Letters To Home - August 4, 1951

Hammelberg, Germany
August 4, 1951

Fifty of us from the 44th Field have been transferred here for a week or ten days to set up Camp Clarke so that the 631st Field Artillery of the 2nd Armored Division can move in. I wasn't in the original group, but one of the guys got in trouble here yesterday and had to be replaced. I was pulled off guard duty at 5 p.m. Thursday evening and delivered here by jeep. The driver took the back roads and got lost, so didn't arrive here until 9:30 p.m.

The country here is even prettier than Wildflecken. The camp is right on top of a high mountain. The nights are chilly. For some reason, there are quite a few mosquitos here; first I've run across in Germany, and they turn nasty at night.

Last night I went into Bad Kissingen on a pass. Pretty little town. All the rich people come here to drink the mineral water. I tried some; bad taste. You can hire a coachman and his coach for six marks, and he will give you a nice tour of the area.

Most of the water I've run across in Germany is bad-tasting. For some reason, you can drink lots of water, but it doesn't seem to help your thirst. We drink mostly Coke while on duty, or else buy a quart of Dutch milk for 15-cents. The milk here seems to be more creamy than that in the States.

It's raining right now. Six of us have one whole building to ourselves, quite aways from the rest of the battery. Sometimes the orderly room doesn't remember us. Yesterday morning, they didn't give us a wake-up call until 7:30.