June 28, 1944

Dear Folks: I don’t see how a place can get so cold and yet not freeze. I’m afraid as often as the temperature makes a pass at the freezing point, that some of these days it isn’t going to level off in time and going flowing on down. Greater love hath no man than he that gives his shoes to his friend and runs out barefoot into the mud. We were sleeping peacefully in our hut and didn’t hear of it until morning. It seems one of the men in another hut woke up and vaguely remembered hearing a siren. He roused the other occupants and donned the nearest shoes and dashed out to a trench. The shoes he wore weren’t his so another man slogged out in barefeet. The man that went out unshod also jumped out of bed into an open drawer. The hay crop here seems to be red clover. They stack it and use side-delivery rakes, tractor bucks and stacker. The stacker looks like a stationary hay loader powered by a tractor & belt. Just got a letter from Jo saying they got a 3/4 ton truck but didn’t say what make, Yours truly
                                                            John