Cold War US Army in Germany ARCHIVE of Sweetheart letters

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/30/2019

Cold War US Army in Germany ARCHIVE to Sweetheart. P.O.W., Liberated Camps, etc. Large group of love letters from the Cold War. Written by US Army Private Thomas L. McManus to his sweetheart, Eleanor V Young in Massachusetts. 29 letters in total, and there is also a photograph, most likely of the woman being written to. The letters are sent air mail and postmarked US Army or Fort Dix. He wrote these letters while stationed in Germany. Letters are from 1955 and 1955. Great content! January 5, 1955: Written on 273rd Infantry Regiment Fort Dix, NJ letterhead. "Today I received my order and I'm supposed to be going to Fort Cambell Kentucky, 11th Airborne Division for paratrooper training on the 11th of January." January 12, 1955: "I've been able to get out of airborne training and I'm now in a holdout barrack waiting for my new orders. It was quite an ordeal I went through to get out of the "hooked" up outfit but thank God I'm not wandering around these hills of Kentucky, dragging a parachute behind me….I've a good chance of getting home. The only thing that will hold me up is my new orders…" February 3, 1955: "I've finally received my orders and they are for Austria. What's in store for me there I don't know but I may get some skiing in." March 15, 1955: On Company "C" 826th Tank Battalion 19th Armor Group letterhead. "Hammelburg is a small town at the bottom of a mountain, we are at the cap of the mountain. The town is 85% communist 15% NAZI. The troopers when on pass usually keep away from there because the people of the town have a dislike for us. They would slug us any time they get the chance. -___ have been rolled, cup up, beaten, etc. You have to go down there in groups of 5 or 6 and they will leave you alone…..UP here you can see the Russian border and if you have a pair of binoculars you can see their maneuvers. Every time these tanks are on maneuvers we are put on an alert…. March 24, 1955: "I had to go on a night problem in a tank, as a machine gunner. This will, I hope, be the last time I'll be a gunner on the rolling coffins…."I have your picture above my heart all the time, but if you have a boyfriend that you love very much, with me being so fray away, you tease me so." March 25 1955: "We sailed Friday 24 and are supposed to arrive in 6 days…I think 80% of the troops are from the South and 75% of them at this moment are seasick…..The ship itself is a tub, paint peeling everywhere not much room anywhere. The cots are four high and there are about 400 men to a compartment. IF she cracks in half or if theres a fire, we wouldn't have a chance of getting out of here." March 28, 1955: "I don't want you to stay up late nights and miss your train, but again I don't want you to sit back and relax when you could be writing to me, I like your letters too much. The perfume you scent the letters with has me all shook up, keep using it!" April 1, 1955: "The first division is going back to the States in a few months. It will be quite an operation with about 40,000 men 8,000 cars and all their equipment moving across…."May 7, 1955: "Well Germany is finally on her own again. It doesn't effect us much as for as our duties go but we'll probably have to stop thumbing out noses at the police…" August 24, 1955 discusses a having a battlefield illumination and describes it: "They illuminated an area of about 38,000 years in diameter and everything cut loose. The largest weapon here is a 280MM cannon and the smallest is a 45 cal pistol." October 17, 1955: ON Headquarter & Headquarters Company 4th Armor Group letterhead. " The 25th of this month this outfit is off to Belsen Germany in the British Sector. We will return to Frankfurt the 24th of December as it stand now…. Nov. 15, 1955: " Well here I am in Belson Hohne finally settled down….This area was quite a place during the second world war. No one knows to this day how many thousands of people were cremated here. The concentration camp held 100,000 prisoners. The are where the firing squads and hangmen did their work is right outside the concentration camp which is about half a mile from here. The ovens and gas chambers are a stones throw." Dec. 9th 1955: "Sunday morning at 0645 the last group of troops is supposed to arrive. There will be about 250 of them who are here to take their firing tests on each the ranges." + "This weekend I'm going to try to get away to Hamburg. It's quite a city and I'd like to visit it again before we go back." December 13, 1955: "The city [Hamburg] was mobbed with shoppers for the three days and the city itself looked pretty nice with all the shops lit up and th e stores all shaped up. "December 15,1955: Very sweet Christmas Card! April 24, 1956: " We have a short timer's cane which the shortest short time carry's around with him till the day he leaves. When he leaves he gives it to the next shortest short timer after a short ceremony in which he carves his initials on the cane."May 6, 1956: "Saturday morning I go to Grafenwohr for five or six days with Captain Lawrence, where we will act as umpires during the 826th tank battalion's tests. I've probably told you about this umpire's deal where you go around day and night watching the tanks and infantry go through their maneuvers…" July 15, 1956: Inside the letter was a matchbook and tiny photo of the guy. "I've received my order from seventh army to return to the States. I leave Frankfurt the 24th and go to Bremerhaven, where the USNS Taylor will take me and three thousand others to Brooklyn Army Terminal. I then go to Fort Dix to the 1264 SU and stay till I'm discharged." He had nice legible handwriting, easy to read. The covers are worn and torn open, but the letters themselves are nice and clean. Great treasures inside about the US Army at the start of the Cold War! There is even more content among all these pages!

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