Dearest Letty: The World War II Love Letters of Sgt. Leland Duvall

SIX - To the Elbe River

S I X TotheElbeRiver With the first stirrings of spring in Western Europe in , the worst of the war was over, except for the German soldier.The catastrophic ending of the Battle of the Bulge sapped the last remaining ability and will of German soldiers to wage offensive war. For them, the only remaining questions were how much they could slow the Allied advance to Berlin and the collapse of the Third Reich, and at what cost. The Fifth Armored Division moved out from its moorings in the Netherlands the last week of February and returned to the Roer River, the scene of so much savage fighting since October.This time it had to dislodge the Germans from their fortifications and drive to the Rhine River and ultimately to the Elbe River, forty-five miles west of the capital. Better weather, drier ground, and the enfeebled German air force restored the armored division’s great strengths: speed and firepower.The Germans fought ferociously in defense of the homeland at first, and the Allied advance the last week of February and the first week of March had to be measured in yards, but when the Rhineland defenses collapsed, it was a race to the Rhine and then to the Elbe. It was reminiscent of the sprint across Normandy and Brittany in August, except this time surrender flags met them everywhere. Duvall would recall that Germans seemed to look for opportunities to surrender.While his unit was patrolling a section of the Elbe in April, one of his men found himself in a stable, with a houseful of Germans in a distillery stable next door. Duvall jumped in a scout car with a -millimeter gun and raced 3-DUVALL_final_pages:Layout 1 9/16/11 10:33 AM Page 219 down the road to the stable. He pointed the gun at the door and all the Germans came out with their hands up. One of them had a sporting Mauser, which the relieved GI took and gave to Duvall for saving him. The troops of the Eighty-Fifth Cavalry returned to their reconnaissance roles, roaming far ahead of the armor, infantry, and artillery and securing bridgeheads. Duvall’s platoon was the first to move out from Holland on February . It was ordered, along with a tank battalion and an infantry battalion, to cross the Roer, traverse the cabbage fields of the Rhineland, and capture five towns, which they did in less than seven hours on February . His A Troop reached the Rhine on March , secured the bridge, and then streaked northeast toward the Elbe. It captured two bridges on the Weser-Elbe Canal, interrupted the German demolition of a bridge over the Oker River by cutting the wires for the last charges, and then sped to the Elbe. On April , Duvall’s combat command made a fighting run of sixty-three miles in thirteen and a half hours. They reached the Elbe the third week of April and cleared out the remaining pockets of Germans. Duvall’s company raided a large oil dump at the river and captured  soldiers and their officers. The Elbe was as far as the Americans were to go. The mopping up east of the river and the first occupation of Berlin were to be left to the Russians. Duvall’s letters to Letty Jones recount none of the action in which he was involved but betray the exuberance that he and the other GIs felt about the approaching end of the war. In repose behind the final fighting, he found typewriters—he always typed with his forefingers—and the letters flowed in torrents. [Munchen-Gladbach, Germany] March ,  My Dearest Letty: For days I have not had a chance to write, and this is not exactly a golden opportunity. The guys have picked up an accordion, guitar and a lot of other noisemakers and are having a jam session. Also, the artillery is rattling the windows so that they seem ready to fall out. So, you see,  Dearest Letty h 3-DUVALL_final_pages:Layout 1 9/16/11 10:33 AM Page 220 if you want a letter you will have to wait a couple of days until things quiet down some. But some of our mail caught up with us today, and among the letters was your picture. Now, that picture was the kind I wanted. Exactly. It is you, as I think of you, and as...