July 28, 1943
Dear Iz and Silvia,
This is hell! I’m not being dramatic either. I don’t know exactly how many of our men alone are in the hospital already, but there are quite a few. We’re allowed into town every night, but we’re so damn tired by evening that most of us don’t even bother asking for passes. Did you ever sleep in a tent with thousands of ants? Did you ever standstill for what seemed like hour feeling the sweat trickle over your face and in your eyes ‘till you couldn’t see anymore? Did you ever march until you couldn’t stand up anymore? We have ambulances following us on all our marches. That’s, they follow us as far as automobiles can go. They can’t go through forests, over foot wide log bridges with a dried- up river beneath. Have you ever walked through a forest with 300 other men without being able to see more than 5 or 6 at one time? Did your face even get red and stingy from leaves and branches banging against it? Sweating, sweating, sweat- ing - your field pack gaining ten pounds every ten feet. Have you ever crawled over a field with your face in the dirt and flat as a pancake. It’s impossible to crawl that way, but we have to do it. That’s only a little bit, Iz, there’s a lot more that could be said. This army is no picnic. Yester- day we got back to our tents
July 29, 1943
206
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