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If you are a former Prisoner of War or a next of kin of a POW, we invite you to sign and leave your email address so others that come may find you. Please mention camp, compound, barracks and room numbers if possible.
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September 22, 1944 - Here he tries to establish a code with his son so he knows how many missions he has completed out of the required 30), and he is a little irritated that customers keep coming in and disturbing his attempt to write this letter to his son. He has mailed a package to him which includes a diary, two bars of soap, powder, sweater and muffler. He tells his son he hopes he uses the diary to jot down things so he can share them with his children in the future (and it just so happens that 7 years later on this day his second child was born...me!) I really wish I knew what happened to that diary, as we never saw it! We never saw any of his WWII memorabilia...did he not save it or was it lost?? Unfortunately, we will never know. |
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September 28, 1944 - He heard the radio announcer
in London saying that he had just seen many bombers flying over on their way to
Germany and wonders if his son is in one of those planes. (From what I can
tell his Bomb Group flew that day, so it is a good possibility that he was
flying that day.) His golf game is slipping lately, but he is still playing,
even in the rain and he thinks his golf buddy plays better in the rain! He tells
his son when he gets back he will order him a gray flannel suit like the one he
has and loves. Everybody is OK at home and he tells his son to "keep
on keeping on" (a favorite phrase that my Dad always added to his
letters to us when we were away at college, now I know where it came from!). |
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October 1, 1944 - Here he tells his son that the dry cleaning business is very busy almost as busy as the Christmas season business, And the local farmers have had their third straight year of good crops. He describes bales of cotton lined up on the streets and the high prices the farmers are getting for their peanuts - $160.00 per ton. They have found a new cook and her name is Georgia. He is from Americus, Georgia originally and takes this as a good sign, after all she is named after "God's country". He comments on what a good cook she is but worries that people are changing jobs so frequently that she wont stay long. ( I am happy to report that Georgia worked for them for the remainder of their lives - 35 years and I can testify to the fact that she was a wonderful cook. My sweet grandmother was a very spoiled Southern lady and never even learned how to cook until she was in her 70's and decided it would be fun to learn how to cook. I can also testify that she was not a bad cook, having learned so late in life, she was pretty good at certain things, her specialty was homemade mayonnaise.) |
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October 9, 1944 - He has started numbering his letters and this one is number 25. Here he writes of a local boy that has been injured in Italy, while trying to avoid machine gun fire, he stepped on a mine. He passes on some good news, that the boy's father says he can distinguish light from dark in one eye (limited vision did eventually return to one eye). He tells his son that he and Capt. Pappas should write the boy and gives him the address of the hospital in the states where he is receiving treatment. He had a great golf game thanks to a pre-war golf ball a friend had given him. He remarks it is getting cooler and soon he will have to start the furnace up for the gals (his wife and mother-in-law). The good news is the High School football player that joined the Navy was sent home because of poor eyesight, so the prospects for the football team have greatly improved with his return. |
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October 24, 1944 - Letter # 35 to his son. Business is
good for everyone, but the labor shortage is a problem for all. Peanut
farmers are now getting $170.00 per ton. He read where soap was going to be in
short supply in the spring so he ordered soap from everyone he could, figuring
not all would be able to deliver. He was wrong, he has enough soap to last
15 months now!! Cigarettes and breakfast bacon are hard to get now.
He says as long as the food is going to feed the boys in the Army he is willing
to do without, and he doesn't mean maybe! He is planning on having his
friends over for a game of dominos later that night, and he is in need of a bath
and clean clothes. His parting words," Be a good boy and I'm counting
on you!!". |
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October 29, 1944 - Letter # 39 to his son. Business is booming and the cash register is running hot, he had to stop and oil it to cool it off. They are having problems with keeping employees working. They received three letters from their son and are glad he is progressing with his missions and if good luck holds out he will be coming home soon. (Well, we know it doesn't hold out much longer and he will not be home for a long time.) The Braswell boy with the poor eyesight that the Navy sent home is the local Football hero and must be the whole team! There is a small baby boom going on among the local girls at home. The weather is beautiful, they are having a wonderful fall and it is a great day to play golf. His mother-in-law (Mother Dear) is going to New Orleans to help her other daughter (Aunt Mary Lou) who is expecting a baby and can't find a servant to help her. He is enjoying the new cedar bed, he had made for himself recently, and feels 100% better. He complains that his wife has asked him to bring home a coca-cola and he will have to put up a $5.00 deposit on the bottle!! He ends with the remarks that he is praying real hard for his son both day and night and thinking of him all the time and pulling real hard for him and he doesn't mean maybe!
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October 31, 1944 - Letter # 41 to his son. Business is booming and he is totally overloaded with work. They received one letter from their son today and six of them yesterday. He comments that the mail is really messed up, but he is always looking for mail from his boy. He has received a letter from his congressman, whom he had asked for assistance in getting the approval for a piece of machinery he needed. (The government had to verify that it was an absolute necessity and approve it before he could purchase it, because the war effort was first and foremost as far as production of machinery goes.) The congressman's office was successful in getting him the approval necessary to purchase the machine, but he is having second thoughts about purchasing it now. He ends by saying he must go see what the neighbors had for supper and reminding his son to thank God for all his many blessings. |
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His mother tells him she has just gotten off 2 boxes to him for Christmas, (we all know he will never see them) and is working on 2 boxes for other hometown boys in the service. One is for Lt. Pappas who is in the same Bomb Group as Dad and she says she knows this box can never repay their appreciation for all the little things he has done for Dad. She has asked Mr. Jaxon to take a picture of Lt. Pappas' father to add to his box and is waiting on it before sending. She tells him about the future group of new Mothers and Fathers in their hometown. She tells him about George Ferrell's (a relative) visit. He has just returned from flying his missions and she comments that he looks grand...not nervous like the boys from the South Pacific. George told her how he would make a mission and then come back and go out on a date afterward. She is worried that Dad is in the Pathfinder group, but she isn't quite sure. She has written some of his crew's mothers but haven't heard back from them yet (she will later when they are MIA). She mentions that Barbara Sue Molnar's husband is a prisoner of war (Dad would later meet him for the first time at Stalag Luft I and Dad was able to tell Mr. Molnar all about his new son, that Dad had seen on his last leave home and that Mr. Molnar had never seen). Another boy from Eufaula is a POW in Slovakia and she hopes both boys can be liberated soon. Aunt Esther called her and said that she had received a letter supposedly from Dad, but she was sure that he had gotten Mr. Churchill to write it for him. Aunt Esther said she thought Dad was pretty smart to get Mr. Churchill as busy as he is to write the letter for him. Then his mother tells him she is so proud of him earning his Air Medal and she shall cherish it very much. She says she realizes he has a big job to do and like him they try to put on a good front. She says all they can do is pray and trust. It's hard on them too. Next she dispenses some motherly advise about his future plans, encouraging him to continue his education after the war, perhaps as a journalist, since she thinks he has a talent for writing. (He didn't continue his education or study journalism, but it's funny - his son (our brother) is the Vice President of Associated Press and was the youngest person ever elected to sit on their Board of Directors.... Reading these letters was the first we had ever learned of Daddy's interest or talent in this area!) Finally, she tells him his name is up for the whole church to pray for this week. |
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George Ferrell came for dinner. They had chicken, English peas, snap beans, dressing, rice & gravy, hot rolls, pear salad, chocolate ice cream and cup cakes. She tells him they are receiving his letters in about 10 days. They have a very good cook right now but you never know how long you can keep one (again, this is Georgia, who worked for them for the remainder of their lives). She asks if he has a bottom gunner on his ship and says she hopes to goodness that her letters are not censored, and tells him that his are all marked "Censored" but not a single one has been opened. (She has evidently learned from George Ferrell that the radar planes do not have a ball turret gunner because that is where the radar is.) She believes that he is on one of these radar planes and is worried about it and it turns out she was right as he was flying in a radar equipped plane when he was shot down and taken as a prisoner of war. (It appears in later letters that he denied this to her, probably to keep her from worrying.) |
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| The radio says a lot of bombers have been going down lately and she is kind of in the dumps, worrying that it must be pretty rugged on her son. She reminds him that his heavenly father is by his side guiding and watching over his every movement. She promises him that if he lives close to him (his heavenly father) that he will take care of him. They haven't heard from him and everyone else is worried because they are not hearing anything this week also. Her friend Mrs. White told her she would make a cake for her to send him (again, my grandmother didn't learn to cook until she was in her 70's). |
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She praises him for being so good about writing to them and tells him he doesn't know how much good it does them on the home front and reminds him that they are sweating it out too. This is his birthday letter, she reminds him that he may be 22 but he is still her baby. She tells him she prays over him always, as she has from the first, that he will be a joy and comforter to those around him, after all friends and the good will of our fellow man mean more than money, etc. She will be thinking about him all day on the 19th and hoping he is enjoying his birthday. She tells him he should be getting about 10 boxes for Xmas from different people in town. She figures he has made about 10 missions since he has the air medal and a cluster. Again, here she is worried that he is a pathfinder and she asks him to send her a sign in his next letter, either saying he does remember the path that lead to the Country Club or he doesn't remember the path that lead to the Club, etc.. They have had their first cold snap and the clothes are pouring in. They have decided to cut out the delivery service and believes their competitor will follow suit. She wishes him many happy returns and hopes his next one will be spent back here with them. She is praying for his safe return each night. |
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V-Mail - Its been two weeks since they received a letter, so she figures the mail is not going through and decides to try V-Mail. Their neighbor received a V-Mail letter from her son today. She tells him that his Dad has written him every day for 4 straight weeks and to be sure and brag on him, etc. She heard someone come in the other door and "whistle his whistle" and her heart did flip-flops. She rushed over and there stood a friend of his "Brer". Their friends the Whites haven't heard from their son in over a month and they have asked the Red Cross to try and get in touch with him. She feels so sorry for them. Brer attaches a note to her letter telling Dad to hold everything down until his gang can get over there and wishes Dad best of luck. |
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Her new found fountain pen has gone bad so she has gone back to pencil, but she is sure he would rather hear from her this way than not at all. She is sick with a terrible cold and feels like "the dickens". They got their first letter from him in over 2 weeks yesterday. The mail is really messed up, the neighbor had one letter that was half burned up. Bob Spann was in a minute ago and it sure did make her homesick for her son. Today the postman brought 6 letters including the one he wrote on the 19th, his birthday. She remarks that from these letters she now knows that he is not a pathfinder (I guess he used the code she had asked him to.) The Whites are hearing from there son regularly again and she feels so much better. She hopes the mail will be better now that the Xmas rush is over because it sure does something to you to get mail from your loved ones. She is glad he liked the book she sent him and will try to send some more. It only cost $.25 and is a copy of a $2.50 or $3.00 book. She will be sending him 2 pairs of woolen socks that his grandmother bought for him. She is saving his letters so he can read between the lines to her when he gets home, because some of his remarks just go completely over her head. She remarks that some of them are clever and she does get them, such as the one about the 16th hole of golf (when the Country Club only had 9 holes). Buck Davis and his crew escaped from their prison and he is on his way home. They are sure he will have a lot to talk about. |
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The letters end here. Dad was shot down on November 26, 1944, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. My grandparents received the news that their only child was "Missing In Action" while they were attending the annual Christmas dance at the Country Club in December 1944. Information traveled much slower then! |
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Letters From Stalag Luft I |
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Kriegsgefangenenlager - Postcards from Stalag Luft I
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Other World War II letters |
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| V-mail from Lt. Harding to his father - before his MIA/POW status | ||||||||||||
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This site created and maintained by
Mary Smith and Barbara Freer,
daughters of Dick Williams, Jr. |
