Russia, October 29, 1942

 

My dear sweet darling!

 

To my great delight, I received [this] evening two air army postal service letters at the same time from you. The letters arrived again in good condition, dear darling. You wrote them on the 19th and the 20th of this month. Many thanks for the news. In part, it was again nothing good, but what can one do about it. I feel especially sorry for Fritz, if it is all true, but who knows, if, on the other hand, it is good for his young marriage, which kind of looked pretty bad for him. And one has to keep going again. One thing is for certain, the battle for Stalingrad will cost plenty. Last year one was jealous of them as they still were stationed in France and could go frequently on leave. This year they have been continuously advancing. Grust Kaß was also involved! And Willi Spicke, I don’t exactly remember him. How old is he anyway. He isn’t the sergeant who was promoted to master sergeant (or top kick) first? The fellow (This top kick was also in Flöß that evening.) [1] who was along when we held the farewell evening in the club room in the back by Flöß still writes to me. We are still at the same place and will now probably remain here for the rest of the winter. Dear Margarete, in the end, it is all the same if we keep it this way the entire winter, because life is otherwise so boring and dull. This much is for sure, we are pulled out only [for] this winter. Then we will be reinforced and trained and then we will be ready for a larger deployment next spring. One always has the hope that here everything could be suddenly over. Well, and first we hope that we can go one more time on leave. Dear sweetheart, I am of the opinion that we should get married during the next leave, otherwise we will not keep up with the others. (Well, more in the next letter.) Much love from your ever-loving Gustav. (Best regards to the entire Laft. [?] Community.)

 

Perhaps I will answer the rest of your two letters tomorrow. I do not have any time tonight and I would like to go to sleep.


            Army Postal Service                           [postmarked Oct. 31, 1942]

 

                                    Miss

 

                                                Margarete Otte

                                                            in Wellersen (District Einbeck)

                                    (over Kreiensen)                                                                      (Hannover)

 

 



[1] Inserted between lines in the letter.