Our white American bread almost created a panic in this town.

Grant gives his family his first impressions of Germany and the Germans.

Convois Autos.,
S.S.U. 647,
Par B.C.M.,
France.

Saturday – Dec. 7, 1918

Dearest Family:-

My last letter to you was written from St. Avold in Lorraine. Since then we have made four moves. I am now writing you from Germany proper. We expect to move north again tomorrow. From St. Avold we moved north to Saarbrücken in Prussia. From Saarbrücken we moved south and east to a place called Bitch in Lorrain again. Here we were attached to the 33rd Army Corps of the 10th French Army of occupation. With them we moved north into Germany again – to a place called Deux-Ponts (or Zweibrücken if you have a German map). Then we moved northwest to Ottweiler where we are now. Tomorrow we expect to follow our army still further north probably stopping in St. Wendel for a day or two. We are headed toward Mayence [Mainz] on the Rhine where we expect to be in a week or so. Mayence is one of the French bridge-heads mentioned in the armistice, if you will remember. The troops of occupation take the territory within a radius of 30 kilos of these bridge-heads – Mayence, Coblenz and Cologne as stated in the armistice. We may even cross the Rhine. Who knows?

Now of course you want to know all about conditions in Germany and our experiences here. I was never so surprised in my life as I was at the conditions in Germany. Since the day we crossed the old battle line just south of Château Salins we have experienced one surprise after another. At St. Avold, as I told you, we staged our Thanksgiving dinner. Or course, we furnished most of the food ourselves because we had already bought it in Nancy – not because the Germans couldn’t have furnished it or even better. In Saarbrücken (Germany proper) I went with Luykx, who speaks German, to a restaurant and ate steak that melted in our mouths together with German-fried spuds and vegetables and wine all for 8 marks a piece. (One mark up here is worth from 65 to 70 centimes now about 14¢) In other words our meal cost us about one dollar and fifteen cents which is cheaper than we could have bought the same meal for in France and the steak was far better.

Another surprise came when the young German kids started swarming around our kitchen eating bread with sugar on it between meals. White sugar and plenty of it!! Their bread is not white like ours but a dark brown, darker even than the French war bread. Our white American bread almost created a panic in this town. Old women climbed all over one another just to take a look at it. The foods which they seem to be shortest of are white flour, butter, grease of all kinds, eggs and chocolate. They go crazy over chocolate.

All that we have seen in print about the German people wearing paper clothing is a lot of bunk. Their cloth is as good as ours and as plentiful as far as I can see. I haven’t priced any but there is plenty of good looking material on the roll on display in show windows. Leather apparently is expensive. The majority of shoes for the common people are made of imitation leather with wooden soles but in many ways they are more practical for this weather than leather soled shoes.

Of course, our reception into Germany was not of the warmest. But that could only be expected. They regard us as invaders not occupiers. But they are watched very closely and as far as we have seen have been very decent. They are afraid of us. They get off the sidewalks when they see us coming. Perhaps it’s because we all carry guns on our hips. We are nowhere near gruff and brutish enough with them. But I can’t picture any of our men cutting the hands and feet off a few of these German kids (and I never saw so many dirty kids in my life) and beating the women. Even the French are too lenient. But we are not brutes enough by nature to duplicate German atrocities. 

Grant in Germany

During our stay on German soil we haven’t seen one German automobile which would indicate lack of gasoline. The roads around here have seen no motor traffic which has left them in perfect condition. The country is beautiful though the weather just now is very disagreeably wet.

I can’t tell you any more about when I’ll be coming home. I don’t yet understand why we have been sent up in here. There is nothing for us to do but odds and ends of things. The experience is worth something though I dislike the Germans the more I see of them. Germany, on the whole, is much more like America than France is but the people are certainly not to be depended upon. They are very treacherous in a gross way.

There are exceptions. I am writing you from a café in this town run by an old lady who lived four years in St. Louis, Mo. She is very nice to us, turning over her place for us to eat and loaf in. She likes America and Americans and can’t understand what this scrap is all about. I imagine there are many more like her in Germany. They don’t know nor will they believe that Germany was beaten in this war. To them this occupation is merely a step in the formality of assuring permanent peace. They rely much on President Wilson.

Now I must write Dot.

The same old love,

Grant.