The finals days of a bloody, calamitous year.

Monday, December 30, 1918:

Things have happened pretty lively around here lately. On Wednesday (Dec. 18), Hap and I took two cars down to Speyer to pick up Signor, Kerr, Kirkpatrick and Rority who were on their way back from Paris where they had received D.S.C. for work in the Argonne. It is about a 90 km run down there along the Rhine practically all the way. A beautiful ride though we did make it in the rain. The big places on the way down are Oppenheim, Worms, Frankenthal, and Ludwigshafen. We wasted no time going down in hopes of having plenty of time on our return with the other four boys to take in the points of interest. We arrived in Speyer at 10:30 A.M. and found the boys right away. 

Speyer, 2010

Speyer is quite an interesting little city with somewhat of a past. In earliest historic times, we are told, Speyer was the capital of the Teutonic tribe Nemeter. Then it became the Roman municipal town of Upper Germania and later from the 6th Century under the tribe of the Franks, as the capital of the surrounding district Charlemagne established in Speyer an Imperial Palatinate for temporary residence. Imperial diets were held in the reign of his son Lewis the Pious, and altogether no less than 49 were held between the years 838 and 1570. In 1030, the Emperor Konrad II, the Salic, founded the Cathedral and designated it as the resting place for himself and his successors. Thus Speyer became the burial town of the German Emperors. In 1111 Speyer was granted imperial freedom, but for nearly 200 years there were long and hard fights with the episcopal power until she was recognized as a direct or free Imperial City, and recognized by the bishops, who from the year 610 had resided within her walls. Until 1689 Speyer was the seat of the Reichskammergericht, the Supreme court in the German Empire. In 1689 the city was burned to the ground as ordered by King Louis XIV of France. It was rebuilt in time and then in the Peace of Lunéville, 1801, Speyer, as well as the whole German province on the left bank of the Rhine, was ceded to France. But after the complete overthrow of Napoleon in 1815, the left bank of the Rhine was recaptured once more from the French, and in 1816 the town of Speyer became a stable part of the newly formed Rhine Province belonging to the Kingdom of Bavaria, then the chief town of the Palatinate, and, somewhat later, once more an episcopal see.

Speyer Cathedral, 2010

The Imperial Cathedral was only half destroyed by the fire of 1689. It was patched up to look like the original in the 19th Century by King Lewis the First of Bavaria.  The old tower-gateway is the only other structure which lived through the fire.

We saw all the places, but didn’t stop to go through the cathedral. We six ate at the Hotel Wittelsbach where we were served an excellent 4 mark dinner by an English speaking waiter. 

Worms Cathedral, 2010

By 1:30 P.M. we were on our way back. In Ludiwigshafen we had a blowout. This threw us off schedule, but we did stop in Worms long enough to go through the Cathedral in which Martin Luther was tried and sentenced to prison. It was a dark and gloomy day so the cathedral didn’t show up very well. It is a big clumsy piece of Romanesque architecture. Had another blowout just out of Worms. It was dark before we had the blooming thing fixed. Near Oppenheim we changed another tire getting into camp about 6 P.M., and hour behind schedule. ‘Twas a nice trip, but I should like to do it over again in nice weather.

December 21 - Johnny, Frase and I went over to Weisbaden and saw the town. It’s a nicer place than Mainz -- a bath center, quite cosmopolitan, very clean and modern. It being a Saturday afternoon we couldn’t get into the stores, but the windows looked very attractive. Hope to go over again later.

December 25 - Ten cars went to Darmstadt this morning to get wounded prisoners and return to Mainz. Darmstadt is in the neutral zone so there are no troops there. The prisoners were mostly English and have some mighty hard stories to tell. In Darmstadt after the revolt of the German army and the signing of the armistice they report a very different attitude on the part of the Germans. However, they are firm and set on revenge. Most of them looked pretty well. The day was cold, rainy with flurries of snow and some snow already on the ground. 

We returned to Mainz about 4:30 and hurried into our Xmas clothes. Our dinner was staged at a downtown Cafe and consisted of German barley soup with American bread and German jam for butter; goose or chicken (I had both) with American apple sauce, German potatoes, Brussels sprouts and German cabbage salad; American rice made up into a German cold pudding with German preserved fruits in it; coffee (American) and German cake made with our white flour. We drank French cognac and German champagne. The dinner was excellent, thanks to Sgt. Snader, but we had to break up at 8 P.M. because of the French military laws forbidding German civilian shops to be open after 8 P.M. All civilians must be off the streets at this time.

Limburg, 2010

December 28 - My birthday [Grant's 26th], but I forgot about it until the day was spent. We left Mainz at 8 A.M. for Limburg directly north of here about 80 km and beyond the neutral zone. The day was miserable, cold and wet. The other side of Wiesbaden we struck snow in the hills and chains were necessary. We arrived in Limburg about noon and found we were again to evacuate English prisoners. One of the men I carried had been over here a prisoner for four years and four months. They were the happiest lot I ever saw because they were going back home. Wow! but they had some gruesome tales to tell. In their prison camp we saw a graveyard where 60 Irish prisoners had been starved and then shot because they refused to answer Sir Roger Casement’s call and fight with Germany. We read the names on the crosses above each grave. There is no question but what they are Irish, O’Brien, O’Flanegan, etc. never were German names. It seemed queer to be out of the neutral zone where only German M.P.s guard the streets and conduct traffic.

We reached camp about 11 P.M., after having gotten lost twice, tired, cold and in bad humor. It was a hard trip.

December 29 - At 9 A.M. 20 cars started for Frankfurt on the Main. It was a better day than we have had on our last few convoys-- warm and once or twice the sun actually shone. Frankfurt is a very pretty place, again the other side of the neutral zone. Our load this time was strictly American. The boys had been assembled from various places in Germany by a Swiss major whom they said was very nice and had gone to much trouble in assembling them. Their stores vary somewhat from the others we had listened to in that they had received the best treatment Germany could afford everywhere they had been. We were somewhat astonished when we saw an American boy giving some Union Leader smoking tobacco to some to the German kids who surrounded us the minute we stopped before the hotel in which the boys were staying. When asked about it he remarked, "Oh well, these Germans aren’t so bad after all and they haven’t much tobacco over here." It made us boil all over. Hoodwinked, they were. The Germans had been playing to them and they had fallen for it.

I carried one lad from the 102nd Machine Gun Company who was taken at Seicheprey when we were with them up there. He and Harold Tucker were taken together and had been together up till about 2 weeks ago when in Darmstadt they were separated. Once again I just missed Tucker. He said “Tuck” was looking fine and had been treated like a king.

From Frankfurt the Swiss major led the convoy in a German staff car down through Darmstadt, Bensheim and Weinheim to Mannheim where we left the boys in the charge of a German Red Cross. From here another American section will carry the boys back or down probably to Strasbourg where they will be shipped by train.

Our trip from Darmstadt down to Mannheim was most interesting principally due to the fact that German troops are stationed in both Bensheim and Weinheim. We saw some wounded German soldiers for the first time since we have been on German soil which made a pretty sight for sore eyes. The troops in these towns were very young indeed and didn’t know what to make of our being there.

We left Mannheim at 6:30 arriving in Mainz about 9:15 P.M. -- a good run and excellent day.

Tuesday, December 31:

Slept late and worked on the car. No mail. Miserable weather. Johnny, Frase, Dirk and self went downtown for supper and the evening we spent in the Cafe Paris and playing billiards. Johnny & I beat Frase and Dirk. Very little celebrating in spite of its being New Year’s eve and the Cafes open until 12 P.M. A few French were pretty happy, but as far as we observed everything went along smoothly.

Last night it snowed – real, white snow.

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

Mainz, Germany
December 23, 1918.

Dearest Family:-

Last night it snowed – real, white snow. But this morning it went in a hurry. One the whole, the weather has been very mild though disagreeable with almost constant rain for the last month. The snow was pretty while it lasted and we wished we could have a bit of it for Christmas. It is very different weather from what we were having a year ago at this time. We haven’t had time to wear over-coats this year so far. Maybe we are growing tougher. Listen to what my diary says for a year ago today: “Flat on my back with a cold, sore throat and indigestion as a result of our St. Nazaire trip last week.” Then on Jan. 13 I wrote: “Three weeks ago when I started to write in this book while in bed I was prevented by the cold. There was a good fire going in a stove at the foot of my bed, but it is impossible to heat the air at a greater radius than 3 ft. and then it passes out a hole in the roof.” This all took place at Sandricourt you will remember. We surely were a blue outfit in those days and there is little to wonder at. How different now! A room to myself practically, plenty of good furniture, a roaring fire making it necessary to keep the window open because of the surplus heat. We should be quite contented and tonight I am feeling quite pert and sassy. This morning’s mail delivery brought your good box of Xmas candies and the picture of Dot. It’s a very good thing that nothing but hard candies was included because the box had caved in on about six sides but there wasn’t a piece of candy missing. I hope you won’t be disappointed when I tell you that the box was immediately opened and promptly pounced upon by a goodly number of husky ruffians. In fact, at the present writing, there is not a piece of candy to be found anywhere in this room. But I’m sure you will be glad when you know how hard it has been for us to get good things to eat up here in Germany. One can buy certain foods from the Germans but not chocolate. One can get some eatables from French commissaries but not chocolate. Our own little cantine supply of chocolate has long since disappeared. There are no American commissaries near here. So you see your gift really did fill a need. The reason I opened it immediately is partly because the temptation was too great to resist and partly because I had profitted by past experience. From now on for several weeks these boxes will be arriving all containing eats. If they are all saved until Xmas everybody over eats and feels rotten for many days. Spread it out is what I say. As far as I know your box is the first to arrive in the section. Thank you ever and ever so much for the candies. They were delicious. This statement is endorsed by J.H. Taylor, Stewart H. Fraser, Allen H. Ahlers, D.J. Luykx, Robt. R. Bodfish, Samuel Wilder and several others who have visited our apartments from time to time throughout the day. All wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. My fat little queen of the Philadelphia queens has also drawn some very choice compliments through her picture which now adorns the wall over my four-poster.

And now I’m going to relate for your perusal a bit of an account of what we are experiencing and talking about in these days of uncertainty.

Day before yesterday Johnny Taylor, Fraser and I took a train to Weisbaden just across the Rhine from here. We had been told that Weisbaden was a very cosmopolitan city, much prettier and up-to-date than Mainz. And so we found it. Very snappy city indeed with many elaborate baths and attractive shops. People speaking very good English hailed us from all sides. Our waiter at the hotel in which we ate dinner greeted us with, “Good afternoon, Gentlemen. What can I do for you?” It rather startled us. Then a very nice lady came over and spoke to us in the hotel. “I hope you boys will excuse me for intruding but I can’t resist the temptation of speaking to you Americans.” This was her salutation. She hailed from San Francisco where she was born and had lived up to about 15 years ago when she took to traveling. She and an aged uncle were caught in Germany at the outbreak of the war. The excitement broke the old man’s health and she was compelled to stay in Weisbaden with him. Soon after America joined the allies he passed away leaving her alone in a hostile country. She was very interesting indeed and we pumped her hard for information in between her own pumps on us. She says that Germany is starving though we outsiders don’t see it. It is only the rich and the more fortunate ones in Germany who are able to acquire the food essentials of life. Some hotels are able to buy, direct from the farmer, their meat, eggs, potatoes, etc., but that it is all done underhanded. A proprietor who is caught buying food elsewhere than from the government is given three years in prison. A farmer who is caught selling his goods other than to the government loses everything he owns. To buy food from the government means to eat nothing but vegetables – no meats nor grease of any kind. (This is all her story, you understand.) The wealthier classes have been able to live fairly well through underhanded work as long as their money held out. But the poorer classes have suffered and are suffering terribly today from lack of food and clothing. She herself, had been very fortunate in being taken in by two German families and by pooling their resources had managed to scrape through. She pays 5 marks for a pound of butter (and very poor butter, she says), 20 marks for a small piece of real beefsteak, about 2 marks for every egg she buys. These are a few of the things mentioned which I remember.

 This much of our talk was intensely interesting and we all liked her very much and marveled at what she had been through. She talks very little German, dislikes the people very much especially the women. She says they are a bigoted, selfish, unpatriotic race of square-heads. She served for two years with the German Red Cross to save her skin.

 But the last part of our talk destroyed completely my first good impressions. I think that in her argument as to what ought to take place now that it is all over can be seen Germany’s last hope – a hope on which she is placing everything – President Wilson. Not that President Wilson isn’t a capable man to handle the situation but that this lady’s argument is typical of the line of talk with which every German is going to try to hood-wink the world now that she has been beaten. Briefly stated the argument was something like this: the common people, the majority, of Germany were deceived and misled into the war by the Jünkers class. The German working man, the merchant, the foreign trader, the banker, etc. are not to blame. Therefore, Germany did not start the war. It was the Jünker class grasping for world power – not the Kaiser but the Jünker class. The German people were led to follow them through deceit. It is all over now. Germany is determined to rid itself of this Jünker pest, the blame for the whole thing. The guiltless people have been bled of everything they own and robbed of their dear ones. They admit their defeat and tremendous suffering. “Now that it is all over feed us, trade with us, give us a chance to build up a misled and maltreated Germany.” This is their cry now. Don’t you see? They are playing for sympathy!! They want sympathy from the nations which they have done everything in their power to destroy. They want our trade. They want to send merchants to our shores to peddle their “made in Germany” goods. They want to send men who have proved themselves to be German Secret Service Agents first and merchants during their spare moments. How can they have the audacity to think for a minute that we are ever going to believe them again. Sympathize with them? No! Not for a minute – Jünker or peasant. Feed them? Never!! Not unless it is absolutely proven that they haven’t the power to live without aid. Trade with them? Allow them to immigrate and mix with us? NO!! A thousand times NO!!!! Not until they have proven that they have the brains to warrant our having anything to do with them. It may be possible for them to prove and it may not. In either case it is not up to us to give them the chance. They’ve got to prove themselves worthy first and earn a chance. Keep them on their own soil. Let them fight it out among themselves. Don’t let them spread their poison. Quarantine them, segregate them – anything to keep them away from healthy civilized people. In five or ten years time of wrangling among themselves the fittest may have survived and have been able to clean out the worst of the disease. If they claim immunity at the end of this period let them be officially examined and passed upon by a competent board of international doctors and if found to be reasonably sane and pure let the nations try them out. If at the end of this period any of them have the fact to think they are fit to mix with civilized people then in our time to give them a chance and not until then.

 This, dear people, is why I’m afraid it is a mistake for America to play any important part in the Peace Conference. We are too kind-hearted and lenient. We are going to listen to the pleading of the German working people “who have been misled” and sympathize with them. Why? Because we haven’t been in the war long enough. Read your casualty list totals and ask yourself who should rightfully determine the testing of a nation such as Germany. America doesn’t know, it can’t know, it may never know. So let us block our ears to German pleadings and modestly withdraw in favor of those nations who are far better equipped to solve the problem than we are or ever will be.

 Oh, I tell you, we have it out hot and heavy here practically every night. Some of the fellows who can talk a bit of the language are apt to go down town and listen to this German propaganda. I tell you, it’s poison. We oughtn’t to be allowed to speak to a German. It’s hard sometimes but it’s for the good of the whole. Even this American lady had been so poisoned that her reasoning was unbalanced. Good American and all that but she had listened to people whom she had first admitted to be “bigoted, selfish and unpatriotic.” Raus mit!

You may not agree with what I have said but if I can’t convince you when I return I feel confident that the course of events will bear me out.

 Latest rumor from Paris – we will probably be mustered out in about 6 months’ time. Not before. Our chances of being dischanged on this side are very slim. France wants to get us out of here and I don’t blame her.

 With a great deal of love,

 Your son
Grant.

Grant the Isolationist

Friday, December 20, 1918:

Ottweiler, 2010

We left Ottweiler for [Bad] Kreuznach on Friday, Dec. 13, just a week ago. Nothing of importance happened there. We continued to make the old lady’s Cafe our headquarters. We found a billiard table in the Kaiserhof and most our time was spent in playing billiards, cards and writing letters. Our mail truck found us there and has been able to follow us pretty well since.

Bad Kreuznach is a nice city. It’s one of the water and mud bath centers of Germany. It’s now being used for a French headquarters town and there was some discussion among the higher French officers when they found us in the town. It is an unwritten law in the French army that no foreign troops shall be stationed in a headquarter’s town. Our French captain was quite severely reprimanded by his colonel for ordering us into the town. We lived in barracks and were very happy for the three days we were there. 

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

We ran onto a Cafe in town run by a lady who had lived 22 years in England. She had four children while there and her husband was a loyal citizen of England though he had never taken out his naturalization papers. He laughed at the idea of war and postponed taking out his papers from day to day. War came. He was interned; their oldest son, 18 years of age, was conscripted into the English army and she was given the preference of internment with her remaining three children or a return to Germany. She took the latter. She holds no grudge against England, is very glad England won the war and is very anxious to return. She doesn’t like the French very well, however. She made the statement one night as we were sitting around our beers that she wished the Americans would come to Kreuznach instead of the French. A Frenchman was sitting at our table who could understand English well enough to get her meaning. It didn’t make much of a hit with them. It spread around like wild fire among the French. Then the Petit Parisien published an account of the American occupation of Coblenz [Koblenz] in which it was stated that the Americans, both officers and men, were saluting German officers and that German policemen were not saluting the Americans. If this is true it’s atrocious and very sad. At any rate it made the French wild. We had several very warm discussions in the Cafes after this. We passed out many a cigarette during these periods. Since then the French have left us pretty much to ourselves. They don’t want us up here and the fact that we are merely being endured & tolerated is very evident. 

The Germans are placing heavy odds on Pres. Wilson & his peace policy. They rely on him to make things easier for them. If Pres. Wilson does not see the situation while he is over here and does not take the hint to get out and leave the spoils to Italy, France & England there is bound to be trouble. No American, not even Pres. Wilson, who hasn’t lived over here since 1870 can appreciate the situation. France & England know what is best for Germany and will see that she is properly dealt with. Let us Americans, who have played our part and reaped our benefits, modestly retire and merely applaud our allies. This is our part.

We left Kreuznach on Tuesday, Dec. 17, and are now most comfortably situated in a big caserne in Mainz on a hill overlooking the Rhine. The weather has been so miserable that we haven’t had much opportunity of getting out and around. We have the whole first floor of one of the buildings to ourselves. Our rooms are well equipped with electricity, furniture and stoves. There is plenty of coke in the cellar. There are two tiled wash rooms on this floor. Johnny, Fraser, Luykx and myself are living together in a room nicely calcimined and lace curtained. We have real beds to sleep on and altogether are very happy. We even have a dining room arranged like a cafeteria.

Ambulances parked in Mainz

An unfortunate state of affairs has taken place in the board of sergeants. McCrackin came back from the officers’ training school and announces his intention of refusing every commission offer which may come to him. He wants to stay with the section. This makes four sergeants, one paid & official and three acting. Too many -- and what is to be our status? Who is to be top? What are our duties to be? Snader would keep his job regardless of whether he was called “sarg.” or “General” so he is out of the discussion. Swain and I are not stuck on our jobs, and both would be glad to give up his respective tasks. Which one shall it be? It can’t very well be both because it really takes three to run the section. If I get out, that leaves Swain with McCrackin and the two don’t fit. If Jack gets out that leaves me with McCrackin and there’s sure to be a fight. McCrackin and I don’t agree at all. The gang is anxious to see us all stay because McCrackin is not very popular (he’s a pupil of Lt. Anderson) with them. The Lieutenant doesn’t like Mac and would like things to proceed as before, but he doesn’t know what to do with Mac. A queer situation and a rather embarrassing one.

I don’t ever want to see another uniform.

Grant Willard's father, William D. Willard (1867-1952), went into business with his father in Mankato in the 1880s, first as manager of the Mankato Linseed Oil, and then vice president of the Mankato Knitting mills. Around 1901 he entered the banking business when he became cashier of the First National Bank. He remained as a cashier until 1924 when he was appointed vice president. He was vice president until 1940 and until his death was a director of the bank.

W.D. proposed that Grant take a position at the First National Bank after his return from duty. His eldest son seemed open to this idea, but for whatever reason it did not come to pass. Whether due to pressure from his future wife, Dorothy, or a desire to make his own mark on the world, or something else, Grant eventually turned down his dad's proposal to go into "the family business." He became a securities salesman, a profession that would prove to be problematic during the Great Depression.

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

Bad-Kreuznach, Germany,

December 16, 1918

Dearest Dad:-

Yours of November 22 with enclosures has been duly received. I will try to write you an answer to your proposition though I feel as helpless and foreign now in regard to such propositions as I did when you first mentioned the matter in a letter received several months ago. I don’t believe you can imagine just how far away from old ways of thinking and living I have been these past two years. It’s just like a man being suddenly awakened in the early morning and being rushed off to a foreign land away from home, friends – everything with which he was beginning to become familiar – and having to start all over again under entirely different circumstances, when he has finally waked and washed out his eyes.

I have read your letters and the enclosed clippings and have tried to understand them as I used to but this new life has so occupied every minute of my time that, frankly, I don’t believe the “doings” of significance on your side of the water have sunk very deeply nor have they left much of an impression on my mind. So don’t you see, Daddie, it’s awfully hard for me to make a decision, in these matters which is going to effect my whole future life as well as Dot’s? The same thing holds true from your point of view. You have changed, your business has changed, all America has changed – no doubt. In view of all these changes you don’t know that I am the you want any more than I know that I’m the man for the job. From what you told me in your letter and from what I already knew of your business I had rather come into your Bank and Trust Co. than anything else, I know of. I’m ready to leave this country tonight and start working with you tomorrow, but the government says “nichts.” The only thing I don’t like about the whole proposition is the coming in and coming up as your son. If I can’t do it on my own worth and value to the institution I had rather not do it at all. I suppose I shall have to be taken in as your son because I have not left sufficient record to make me eligible without you but will the rest of it be left to me? You understand, don’t you, Dad? I’m not casting you off. It’s not lack of appreciation for what you have done for me but rather the appreciation, itself. I don’t want to be pulled along. I’ve gone through almost two years of ambulance driving on this side and haven’t been towed yet. No more do I want to be towed through life in the future.

I like your proposition for several reasons. 1st, because I like the business and, from what I know now, would like to make it mine. 2nd, because I had rather be a big toad in a little pond than a small toad in a lake or an ocean. 3rd, because by staying with Wells-Dickey I can’t see a bigger future than you offer me. I like the Wells-Dickey firm very much indeed – I like their business and I like their personnel. However, I don’t like being a salesman nor a buyer (I would prefer the latter of the two) and I can’t see where else I would be led if I stayed with them unless it would be in further preparation for some such opportunity as you have already offered me.

There is another thing, too, which has bothered me somewhat and which I must tell you. Dot has been born and raised on the outskirts of a big city. She would prefer living in a bigger city than Mankato. She wants me to locate definitely in the east. But I’m willing to gamble on our being able to make her happy in Mankato. You probably ran up against the same proposition once yourself, didn’t you Dad? You won out and I think I can. I’m more than willing to make the attempt.

Is my answer to your proposition definite enough for the time being? I am writing Mr. Wells tonight telling him approximately what I have told you. Your two letters have made me feel better than I have felt in the last two years because they have meant that there is still a place for me back home and will be no matter how long we are held over here. 

Your draft for 250 francs of Nov. 6 and of Nov. 22 for 300 francs have been very gratefully received. I will send them into Morgan & Harjes and Cie to be held for me there. Please thank Rob and Beatrice and Geo. and Julie Baldwin for me until I have time to write them.

Castles on the Rhine, 2010

I wish I could give you some definite information regarding our status over here. Our plans are only made for the day ahead. Tomorrow we move to Mayence or Mainz on the Rhine. That’s exactly all I can tell you. Rumors have come that one load of S.S.U. men will return to the States in March and another in June. If I had my say we would all leave tonight. We are useless as an organization up here with the French. They don’t need us nor do they want us. They are enduring us, I think, merely as a favor in view of our services with the French armies. I think every American should have been kept out of this occupation business and let the countries who really know how to handle this situation fix things up. We Americans don’t understand what it’s all about. We can’t begin to know the German as do the French and English. I’m afraid we would make an awful mess of this thing if we were left to settle the whole thing. We have helped whip a world pest. This is our only direct benefit from the war. Therefore what right have we got over here now. The French are beginning to resent our being here at this time and will resent it more the longer we stay over here and the more we butt into what is rightfully theirs. I know you can’t understand this but I think you could if you were in my position.

Our Xmas dinner will probably be eaten somewhere along the Rhine. I shall be thinking of you all then as I am now – as I have never thought before. I surely do want to get out of this country. And, Dad, even if I can get discharged over here I don’t believe I shall want to tarry on the way home. I should like to travel over here when there is no sign of war and the effects of war. That can’t be done now nor for many years to come. I don’t ever want to see another uniform.

Good night.

With love,
Grant.

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.

These Prussians surely are menacing...

Tuesday, December 3, 1918:

Zweibrücken, 2010

Up at 6 o’clock. Cars loaded & running at 9 A.M. It sure is a lot of work with six men’s baggage extra, four cars on detached service, and much food to pack. Every car is loaded with about 700 pounds in behind. By 11 A.M. McEnness was ready with a new motor and we started out. I took the lead & Risley the rear. More hills to climb, but we all got to Zweibrücken about 1 P.M. We are billeted in the caserne [barracks] here. The quarters are wonderful--about 5 men in a room each one equipped with a stove and plenty of coal. We will stay here for some time so we unloaded everything. I don’t like these German towns. The people are too cold & ugly looking.


Wednesday, December 4:

We all worked on our cars this A.M. An order came about noon for us to move to Ottweiler this afternoon. We aren’t very sore at this Army. Move, move, move! ! ! We decided to break the order and move tomorrow morning instead.


Thursday, December 5:

Ottweiler, 2010

Pulled this A.M. at 8:15. Reached Ottweiler by noon -- every car, even the truck and kitchen. Our barracks are poor, 16 men being quartered in two rooms over a cafe on the main street and the rest of us in a theatre about a block away. Our cars are parked in the town square. We have been warned to guard everything we own as we have stationed an armed guard over the cars and kitchen night & day. This is not as good a town as Zweibrücken and these Prussians surely are menacing. They are nicer to us however than they are to the French. I’m afraid we are too easy on them and receive them too much on our own level.

Almost burned the truck up in starting it. Was never so scared in my life.

SSU 647 had a few trying days as the rolling terrain of eastern France and western Germany proved to be a match for men and machinery.

Saturday, November 30, 1918:

             We rolled out of St. Avold as the clock was striking 9 this morning. Beautiful day and a beautiful trip. The roads up in this country are superb. Someone suggested it was because there are so few motor vehicles used in Germany on account of lack of gasoline. It is true that we have seen no motor vehicle of any kind so far. We pulled into our barrack in Sarrebrücken [sic] as the clock was striking eleven this morning. We are living in what used to be a hospital. The tags on the beds give the names and nationalities of their former occupants. Several Americans’ names appear on the beds together with all of our allies. The place is clean with running water on every floor. We are on the third. S.S.U. 627 is also here. Just as we got nicely settled and had our cars unloaded ready for action we received orders to move tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. for Bitche back in Lorraine to report to the H.Q. of the 33^rd Colonial Army in Sarrebrücken on detached service. Corp. Carey stayed in charge of Burt, Wilder, Bushore and Taylor, G.

             I’m completely tired out this evening. This sergeant’s job sure is a thankless drudgery.

Sunday, December 1:

             Up this morning at 4 o’clock trying to get things ready for a 7 o’clock start. Everything was set alright except the camionette which needed a new timer roller and refused to work. The convoy pulled out on time. Woodie and I stayed back with Risley on the camionette. We pulled out at 9 a.m. and after losing ourselves several times finally struck the right road and traveled like sin to catch up. Soon ran on to Andie who had to fix someone up and we three started on together -- me & Woodie in the lead and Risley behind. Next we ran on to Kirk and Kerr. Kirk had motor trouble & Kerr had stopped to help him out. We are all loaded very heavily because of the four cars we left behind and the road while smooth is very hilly.

Zweibrücken Castle (2010)

             Fraser was next to drop out, but I kept on going to rejoin the convoy as I had the order in my pocket. Then our trouble began. We struck the mountains. Break bands burned out as well as speed bands. McEnness smashed his transmission drums by using his reverse for breaking purposes. We pulled in to Bitche shortly after noon with about half our cars. Our barracks are good and our General & Medicine Chef are splendid. We leave here for Zweibrücken or Deux Ponts day after tomorrow morning with the 33^rd Army Corps. The rest of the cars except McEnness pulled in in time for dinner. Risley took the truck and towed Mac in this afternoon. We will have to send to Nancy for a new motor for him.

             Very tired, but had to start this p.m. with 6 cars for Sarrebrücken with patients. Back up over those mountains!! Took Ahlers, Astlett, Bodfish, Stender, Luykx with me. Our loads consisted of 15 couchés and 5 assis. On the top of the last hill Hap burned out his low speed. We put his patients in a house together with mine. I returned to camp for another car, Hap stayed on his, the other four cars proceeded to Sarrebrücken. It was dark. I had no lights. On my return trip I burned out my brake and my low speed was about shot so I had to send out two cars instead of one -- Johnnie and Titchner. Risley came along to tow Hap in. I rode with Johnnie back as far as Hap, loaded the patients in the two fresh cars, sent them on their way and towed Hap back to camp with the Packard. Some day! ! ! !

Monday, December 2:

             Horn Snader and Dunlap left in the camionette this a.m. about 4:30 for Nancy & Belleville for rations taking with them McEnness’s motor. Jack Swain left in his ambulance with Kerr, Signor, Kirk and Rority (these four boys are going in to Paris to receive D.S.C.s for their work in the Argonne) for Nancy about 6:30 a.m. The rest of us worked on our cars getting everything ready for a 9 o’clock start tomorrow. Stender and I will stay back with Risley & McEnness to put the new motor in McEnness car.

             Took the truck this noon with Waldock & the courrier and went to Sarrebrücken for essence. Almost burned the truck up in starting it. Was never so scared in my life. Poured essence in the cylinder heads and the whole motor caught on fire. Burned my hands & face in putting it out. Got back about 3 p.m. after having burned out the foot brake on the Packard. Jack 7 Horn came back from Nancy late this evening with food & spare parts.