Richard Lee Holt Sr. letter to his wife Minneford Francis Holt, January 30, 1944

Somewhere in Italy Sunday evening January 30 My Dearest One Well another day has come and gone and no mail. This is the 5th day without any I know it isnt your fault Honey because when I do get your letters they are always only two or three days apart. I sure hope it gets to coming more regular. It is sure hard to write every day unless I get some mail to kind of know what to say. To-dayhas been another very nice day. There has been a kind of a fog in the air but has been pretty warm. I havent done very much today, infact I have done nothing but sit around and look wise. Tonight I have a shift of guard to pull from 3 untill 6 in the morning. We have to keep apretty close guard up here in the front lines. There is alwaya a possiabilityof a german patrol comming through our lin es, and they coluld do quiet a little damage. Theynever have but you can never tell when they might try. Fireing has been pretty slow yesterday and today. I dont know of a ny important missions for tonight yet. Honey I cant think of anything to write now maby when I get up at three in the morning I can finish this so long for now. Three AM Jan 31st Well here I am again, and all is quiet on the Itallian front tonight. There has ent a gun fired since I came on duty. This war is a funny thing some times there will be all day and night with out a shot being fired then all of them will open up at once. The other day after a very hard and bloody battle they called a truce for three hours so bothe sides could care for their dead and wonded. That seems a funny way to carry on a way but I guess it is Ok. We hear of many peculiar things that happen in the front lines some of them it is pretty hard to believe if you dident almost actually see them happen. We have seen very little air activity the past few days. I don't know where all the Germain air power is that they used to brag about so much. I saw in the Stars and Stripes today where they lost 25 or 30 planes in the invasion the other day. We werent in on the invasion but we arent to awfully far from where it happened. So far things are sitll progressing as per scheduel, it seems that they have every thing all planed out this time and dont meet with very many reverses. Sweetheart I wish I was able to tell you more of what we are doing over here but that is impossiable. Even if the Battery censor dident say anything it, I am agraid the base censor would, and then somebody would have to do some explaining to do. Honey your letters to me arent censored so write whatever you want to in them. Of course some of the things that you want to write may be personal but if they dont like it they dont have to read them, Anyhow you can always send those kind of leter by air mail. Honey this road to Rome has been a long one, you have probably read some articles in some of the papers and Magizaines about it. They all stick pretty much to how it actually is. Yoou have seen picture of battlefields in the movies, well this place where we are now is a typical movie battlefield except for the fact that it is no make believe. There is lots of trucks and cars strewn along the roads, lots of dead animals, and I have seen a few dead soldiers. I dont like to talk about it, maby when this is over and we are sitting around by ourselves some even- ing a lot of it will come back to me and I will tell you about it then. But for now I had much rather not say any more about it. Well my sweet I am all run down so will close for this time This leaves me Ok and I hope it finds you and the youngsters the same. Give my love to all the folks and keep heaps for yourself. Your Always Loving Hubby Le