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)