Physical Description: .30 Linear Feet(3 folders)
Language of Material: English, German.
Scope and Contents
This series contains 102 correspondence from Sgt. Bernard F. Roberts, USA to his wife Cecile, who was living in Belgium.
Folder 1:
The first letter is written in German and has no author or date. The letter loosely translated describes a soldier who was
waiting for German paratroopers. He was not sleeping well, and it was cold. At some point, he was able to sleep and slept
the whole day. They continue waiting, but the paratroopers do not show up. He wrote a little about the war and what he wanted
to do when it was over. The last paragraph says they have been waiting for the paratroopers for three days and three nights,
and they still have not shown up. He wrote that he must wait there to fight the Wehrmacht. He ends by saying that the news/tidings
are good though. It is possible that Bernard Roberts wrote this letter because the writer of the letter refers to wanting
to see his Cecile, but he cannot get to Brussels, and there is a slight mixture of English in the German as well as the misuse
of some of the German words.
He mainly wrote about his visits with his wife, who was his fiancé at the time. Closer to the end of the war he started writing
more descriptively about experiences he had during the Allied march to victory. He wrote about German civilians and he even
met some Belgian soldiers on their way home after being held prisoner by the Germans. He wrote about his experiences talking
to forced laborers and their interactions with the German civilians. He started writing more about his experiences after the
war was over, describing multiple interactions with German civilians. He wrote about the possibility of him having to go serve
in the struggle against Japan. He wrote about the process for him to receive leave to be with his wife in Belgium.
Folder 2:
He wrote about moving around with his unit through Germany as an occupational force. He wrote about the process his wife was
going to have to go through in order to enter the United States. He wrote about the German civilians believing the United
States and Russia would engage in war soon and he could not understand why. He felt that the Hitler propaganda was still in
the hearts of the German citizenry and it was going to take a long time to "reeducate" the German nation. He wrote about his
travels around Europe and describe different cities and landscapes. He wrote about a delay in letters from the United States
because they were moving around so much in Europe and his mail had to go to every place he had been so it could be forwarded
to the next location.
Folder 3:
The third folder is largely correspondence pertaining to his journey back to the United States. He stayed in Creil, France
for a short duration. He then made his way to Le Havre, France. After leaving Le Havre, he arrived in New York and sent his
wife a telegram to notify her. The rest of the letters are from Massachusetts. One of the letters from the US is in German,
which further supports the theory that Bernard wrote the first letter in the collection because this letter shows he had the
basic ability to write in German. The letter dated 11 December, 1945 is typed as are the remaining letters.