When in Paris I looked up my trunk and found it swarming with moths and everything completely ruined.

Grant sends a newsy letter to his mom...

Bretzenheim, Germany
Feb. 17, 1919

Mother dear:-

The permissionaires returned to their post last Friday evening after a very enjoyable ride from Paris up here.  We were fortunate enough to get seats in a second class compartment as far as Strasbourg where we laid over for a day and a half to see is French the town and rest up.  Strasbourg is a very attractive city indeed with many points of interest for the tourist.  Everything is French there now – the German population having been sent back to their own soil.  To be sure, one hears German being spoken on every side but those who speak German there now are of French blood and can also speak French.  Everybody seems to be very happy.  The French have made an extra effort to furnish reconquered Alsace Lorraine with all necessities and luxuries which she herself knows. Strasbourg, being the capital, is very well supplied with fresh stocks in foods and clothing and selling them at very reasonable prices.  The cathedral of Strasbourg is, of course, the chief point of interest for all tourists.  And the chief point of interest within the Cathedral is the Astronomical clock started in 1838 and completed in 1842.  It’s really a remarkable thing.  The enclosed card will give you an idea of how the clock looks and if you can make out the description on the reverse side you will know much more about the clock than I can tell you.  We just missed seeing the clock perform at 12 o’clock but were there for 12:15.  At 12 the whole blooming thing goes into action.  It’s like a three-ringed circus.  One can’t take it all in in one performance.  The cathedral itself is beautiful.  I don’t know much about architectural criticism but I do know when I like stained glass.  The windows are magnificent.  But I’m not going to waste this perfectly good stationery by an unintelligent discussion of art.

Strasbourg Cathedral

As I say, we reached Mainz last Friday evening very glad indeed to be back with the boys in our comfortable barracks and very tired of traveling.  You will all hear a great deal more about this permission of ours when we are together again because the whole experience was one succession of thrills.  So when I speak of “that permission” please remember that I refer to our first leave under American Army rules and regulations.

There was much mail awaiting us in camp.  I drew 19 letters, three of which were from you dated Jan. 3, 15 and 23 respectively.  They were a fine collection, Mother, and made me feel very good indeed.  Will take them upon more in detail in just a few minutes.

Yesterday, Sunday, we moved from our comfortable quarters in Mainz and are now located about two miles from that city in a small place called Bretzenheim.  We are living in the school house.  While our new home is not as attractive as the old we are quite comfortable and have no grounds for complaint.  We have plenty of heat which is the big item just now.  The artificial lighting facilities are poor (being kerosene lamps) but three months ago we would have considered ourselves very fortunate to have been quartered in such a spacious place with so little routine to pester us.  The cause for our having to leave the barracks was the arrival of many French combatant troops.  Today is the Armistice Day and rumors of more war are flying thick and fast.  The roads have been choked for a week with troops “marching up” and one gathers for inference that the French are “all set” for immediate action if necessary.  Personally, I think that that it would be a very good thing for these Germans if the Allies were to blow up a few of their towns.  But of course they won’t because it will not be necessary.  As soon as they see we are all set and eager they will cease their pig headed haggling over the armistice terms and peace proposals.  If we do have to go to war again it will be to the complete destruction of Germany in a very short while.

Allan "Happy" Ahlers and Grant Willard at Verdun, 1917

You ask if Allan Ahlers [1894-1962] is still with us.  Yes, old Hap is very much here and is a very lively member indeed.  Full of “pep” and fund and good common sense.  Being the only two representatives from Minnesota in our outfit we are together a great deal of the time.  He is sitting here beside me as I write, reading an old New York Times.  He begs me to convey to you the impression that he is quite well and very anxious to get home.  There must be a mistake about his family not hearing from him for so long.  I’m quite sure he writes regularly.  Hap did excellent work at the front and I think it would be a great shame if he does not receive a citation of some sort.  Citations have been awarded for far less.

You speak of Herbert Wilcox’s not having civilian clothes and asking about mine.  Have recently written Dot telling her she may expect me in a barrel for when in Paris the other day I looked up my trunk and found it swarming with moths and everything in the trunk completely ruined.  They must have been hungry moths to have eaten such clothes as I had stored in my trunk.

The Literary Digests have come intermittently.  It doesn’t seem as though I have received them all but maybe I have.  There was a Jan. 18 issue waiting for me when I returned from permission.  I like the paper very much indeed.  Their articles cover a large field and strike me as being very broad-minded and fair.  “Letters from the Front” are often very funny.  It’s interesting what some fellows have the nerve to write home.  I wonder how much you people believe in some of these letters home.

I’m sorry to have kept Dad waiting so long on his proposition.  But when his first letter came we were in the thick of it in the Argonne and it was awfully hard to plan for the future.  It’s hard now but I can pain some beautiful pictures of the future I would like.  And I have painted them.  The more I think of Dad’s proposition the better I like it.  If there aren’t too many pro-Germans out there to deal with I’m sure I would like the work and am sure I can make Dot happy.

Listen – our service paper has just come out to the section and 647 is not included in the list of those sections who will be the first to leave Europe for America.  Why, I can’t say.  They claim they are sending the sections back according to length of time they have served over here.  75% of our personnel was over here before America declared war but we do not appear on the list.  The Allentown men seem to be getting the preference.  If this order is followed out according to plans we will not be home before July – in the last outfit to leave this side.  Even so I would gain nothing by getting discharged over here, were such a thing possible, because it is a long job getting discharge papers through, passports and transportation.  I have decided to stick with the section and get my discharge over there when the time comes.  All applications for discharge over here are being turned down anyway except for those going to the Red Cross or those who live over here or can show business connections to keep them over here.

With a great deal of love,

Grant.

With a heart full of love

Grant Willard expressed his feelings and observations with such eloquence and maturity that it's easy to forget that he was only in his mid-20s when writing them. He was a 20-something with all the needs, desires, passions and energy characteristic of that age. That included the need to blow off steam and have fun.

In these two letters home, Grant describes his leave in the south of France with some comrades. It was his third "permission" spent on the French Riviera since the fall of 1917.  What better place to have some fun? Warm sunshine and beaches. So taken with the Côte d'Azur was he that he suggests his parents should travel to France after the war.

Convois Autos.,

S.S.U. 647,

Par B.C.M.

France

Menton, France

February 5, 1919

Dear little Mother:-

Am on another permission on the Mediterranean, this time in Menton near the Italian border.  The weather is glorious and we are having a pretty good time – though not as good as in the old volunteer days.

Our trip down from Germany was most trying.  The weather was cold and disagreeable and the crowds between Mainz and Paris were terrific.  From Strasbourg to Paris (17 hours) we stood every minute of the way.  I slept to the floor of the passage way once during the night but there was quite a crowd of Alpine Chasseurs on board and they mistook me for the Alps.  There was nothing to do but to stand.  We spent one night in Paris taking the [Train] Rapid for Menton on the following evening.  The Rapid is a first class train intended only for officers and civilians but our knowing a few ropes helped us get aboard without difficulty.  We spent a comfortable night in a warm compartment but at Marseilles we were caught by American MPs and thrown off the train.  The next a.m. at 4 o’clock we were put onto a 3rd class train and reached Menton about noon of the 31st of January.  The government furnishes us with very nice hotels down here and now that we are here we are very comfortable.  For the first two days we did nothing but sleep.  Since then we have been to the border, Monte Carlo and Nice as usual.  We were in Nice yesterday and had an excellent time.  Many nice people whom we met down here a year and a half ago are still down here and they remembered us in spite of the change of uniform.  We danced and played around the Riviera in general and were well received in spite of our uniforms.

Now we are resting and trying to nerve up to the return trip

(Interruption – dinner call)

I am now in the writing room of the YMCA – they have grabbed the best buildings all along the Riviera (Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo and Menton) and are doing everything possible for the American soldier.  The YMCA here in Menton was the old Gambling Casino.  It is lavish in decorations, theaters, dancing floors, pool and billiard rooms, etc.  I am writing you from one of the old roulette rooms which is now being used for a reading and writing room.

I inquired around in Marseilles for Bill [Grant's future brother-in-law, William R. Everett (1891-1943)], but couldn’t seem to get on his trail.  Where is he?  I haven’t heard from him since the Armistice.  Am under the impression he must be on his way back or is he going to be held for reconstruction work?  I hope not for Marion’s sake.  Though I tell you frankly that if there wasn’t so much drawing me back home I think I should look around for a good army job to keep me over here a year or so longer.  I haven’t seen half enough of this country yet.  While in Nice the other day we met people from Roumania, Constantinople, St. Petersburg and a retired American admiral (Admiral Day) who had traveled all over.  When we were down here before we met a family from Florence, Italy.  Just listening to these people talk has made me want to travel more.  They know so much more than we Americans who stay in America all our lives.

Willard home in Mankato

But I’m not going to stay over here this trip.  I’m going to aim toward another visit sometime later on.  I wish you would make Dad bring you over here, Mother.  Why have you never come?  It hasn’t been beyond Dad’s power financially certainly because it isn’t an expensive place to spend a summer.  Nowhere near as expensive as in some American summer resort.  Tourists are quite apt to be asked exorbitant prices but one need not pay exorbitant prices.  I think I could conduct a very cheap party over the most interesting parts of France and we could have load of fun.  You and Dad would grow 20 years younger if you would make the trip.  Now it is dinner time and I must quit.

No more rumors about coming home except that it might be most any day, now.  Hope to stop over in Paris on our way back to Germany.

Heaps of love,

Grant.

* * *

Convois Autos.,

S.S.U. 647,

Par B.C.M.

France

Paris – 2/11/19/

Dear Family:-

On our way back from permission.  I wrote you last from Menton on the Mediterranean.  Hope that letter reaches you O.K. because it contains a report of the best part of our leave.  It hasn’t been very satisfactory because traveling conditions have been so poor.  From Menton we took a 3rd class permissionaires' train to Dijon.  From Marseilles on it grew rapidly colder.  The train was now heated.  The cold combined with the hard wooden benches of the 3rd class car made sleeping and comfort impossible.  We were 20 hours on this train.  At Dijon we had to wait 10 hours for our Paris train.  There was not a room in the town to be had so we spent our time in the Red Cross canteen drinking hot coffee and trying to be comfortable.  Our Paris train pulled in at 3 a.m. jammed to the doors with passengers.  We forced our way aboard and stood up for the next 6 hours.  Fortunately our train was a rapid so we reached Paris about on schedule.  But you can imagine that we were pretty well played out and resolved never to take another permission.  After some debating and argument we were allowed to stay in Paris for two days to get rested up for the last leg of our journey.  Paris is crowded and rooms are scarce. Through the kindness of Mr. [Henry] Sleeper of the American Field Service we were able to find beds and have been very comfortable here.  We went to bed at noon of the 9th and never stirred until the noon of the 10th.  I’ll take 2 months at the front in preference to another permission.  Have been too tired to see about getting my baggage over to the Am Express Co.  Our headquarters promises that time will be given all old sections later in which to straighten up all baggage questions.  We were told that our section will be called in within a month and be sent back to the States.  However, General Foch’s recent report to the war council may have some effect on our demobilization.  I should be very much surprised if it didn’t.  Germany is not whipped.  Additional force is necessary.  This does not necessarily mean more fighting, in my estimation, but armies and supplies are going to be essential.  

So you see our job over here is not yet completed and until it is we shall continue to plug away doing our menial share and trying to keep happy.

With a heart full of love,

Grant.