All My Love, Forever
Letters Home from a World War II Citizen Soldier
by
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LETTER WRITTEN ABOARD HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH
#22 -- May 30, 1943 9 p.m.-Mid-Atlantic time [Aboard the HMS Queen Elizabeth]
Dearest Irma and David,
I hope you are not worrying too much about me since not hearing from me for some time. Much has happened since I last wrote to you. I hardly know where to begin.
First, I am hoping you receive this letter as it may take a few weeks for you to hear from me through other sources. I am trusting this letter with a Scottish boy of the British gun crew to mail this as soon as he gets back in New York. He told two of us today that he would do this for us.
I wrote you letter #21 last Monday night and left it at the office with a Father's Day card and an envelope of post cards of Fort Sill and a post card folder of Fort Sill. As we were in line to leave Tuesday morning, they returned them to me and said they came in too late. I dropped them in a mailbox on board ship but doubt if you get them for some time.
I received the picture of you and David just before I left. I was so glad to get it. It is really good and means so much to me. I look at it everyday, and you should hear the compliments I get about it.
After receiving this letter you will probably see through a lot of things I said and things I couldn't say in my previous letters. I have known for quite some time that this was coming but I didn't want you to know it until you had to. We got up at 3 a.m. last Tuesday morning and left before daylight. We went by train to Jersey City, across the bay on ferry to New York and then aboard our ship. This letter is strictly off the record. Our ship is the Queen Elizabeth, flying the British flag. It is the largest and fastest ship in the world. It wasn't completed until after the war broke out and never made its maiden voyage as a passenger ship. It has been used entirely as a war transport. It is 60 some feet longer than the Normandie and Queen Mary, which are about the same size. It is much wider and has much larger capacity (85,000 tons) then either of the other two. By the way, I saw both the Normandie and the Queen Mary in New York harbor. (We left 2 p.m. Thursday, May 27)
There were about 350 of us field artillery boys and about same number of infantry boys came aboard last Tuesday. We were first on ship and were on a day before the ship started loading. Here is the reason: We in field artillery were selected as advance guard while the infantry were put on KP and put in the bottom of the ship. We are quartered in the top just under the crews quarters. Now here is the dope, as advance guard we have to man the ships guns. We work with a crew of British and American boys. We have one or two experienced men on each gun. We have three shifts and have to stand watch four hours, then are off eight hours. However, the shift I am on, was on watch 12 hours out of 24 yesterday but have had it easier today. We get one of those 12 hours watches every third day. We now only get two meals a day. Yesterday we came off our watch late, missed breakfast and had to go 24 hours on one meal. We do have it good compared to most. We have permanent quarters while others on board have to share their bunks (sleep 12 hours then stand on deck 12 hours). We get special privileges at chow, at canteen, etc., own showers and toilets.
We are now halfway across and haven't seen a thing since first evening when we passed an American convoy. We are not in a convoy but traveling by ourselves as this ship is too fast for a convoy. This ship can even out run a sub, it travels 28-31 knots, and subs travel 10-12 knots. We had airplane and blimp escorts the first day but have been on our own since then. There are 23,000 aboard including a few civilians, American nurses, a few British girls equivalent to American WAAC's (forget what they call them), Australian soldiers, air force and officers; Canadian soldiers, air force and officers, all kinds of British military personnel, even to some Highlanders in skirts.
We expect to arrive in Scotland Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. This ship makes the trip in 4 ½ to 6 days. I forgot to say we pulled out Thursday, 2 p.m.
May 31, 1943
Just a few more lines before we have to go on watch at 4 p.m. We stood watch this morning from 4 to 8 a.m. and have been sleeping all day except while the boys were firing the guns in drill this morning.
We have just picked up our first RAF patrol plane so for the rest of the way in we will have an airplane escort. We expect to reach our destination up a river in Scotland between 9 and 11 a.m. Wednesday morning. Then go by ferry to the trains and by train probably to Great Britain.
In answer to a question, which I didn't answer in one of your letters, I received two shots for typhus in N.J. and received the third here on board.
I have seen a lot of fish (tuna, flying fish, and porpoise) but haven't seen any sharks or whales yet. Some of the boys have seen some whales.
The sea has been very calm most of the way excluding the last twelve hours. It has been pretty rough today and rolls the ship. So far it hasn't bothered me any. Several of the boys have gotten sick, some even when the sea was calm. Our guns and turrets are above all the decks and pretty high up but still you don't notice the ship rolling so much up there as you do down here inside. The weather is very changeable on the ocean and it gets pretty cold and rains part of the time while we are up in the turrets. Again tomorrow we will be on watch 12 hours out of 24.
I hope you can read this, as the conditions are pretty wobbly.
Honey, I am going to close this and get it to the Scotsman.
Later-Take it from me, even the Atlantic is much better back around the USA. It has been a hard afternoon on the boys. I just came in from my watch. The wind has begun blowing pretty hard and the water is really rough. The boys all around me are getting sick but much to my surprise it hasn't bothered me at all yet. The wind is blowing the salt spray up over us just like rain. I drank about a gallon of salt water out there and when I came inside and my face had dried it had salt all over it just like sand.
Our airplane escort has left for tonight but we will pick them up again in the morning.
As I was saying, I'll close this so I can give it to the Scotsman tonight when I go on at midnight so no one knows what is going on.
Honey, I wouldn't be writing this but I thought you would feel better if you knew where I am. This is the only letter I am writing so you can pass the news on to Mother. I'm anxious to hear what the folks think of David.
Please don't worry about me. Try to keep your chin up and keep happy. I'll be thinking of you and David all the time, so keep your fingers crossed and take care of everything until I get back.
Take good care of David and tell him about his daddy. Bye now and God bless you. I love you both.
All my love, Lloyd
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About the Book
This is a compilation of poignant excerpts along with photographs from the 760 letters written during World War II by a soldier from Indiana to his wife and newborn son while he served with a field artillery battalion in the 29th Infantry Division. They begin with a postcard written on the bus while reporting for duty and basic training, and end 34 months later with a last letter written in France while waiting to board a Liberty ship returning to the U.S. Readers are taken along on the trip across the Atlantic aboard the RMS Queen Elizabeth, training in England, the D-Day invasion, the assault on Germany and the war's end. They convey his impatience during the occupation of Germany while he awaited orders that would finally send him home to his wife and the son he had last seen as a sick and weak newborn. He wonders in his letters if the baby that had grown to be a healthy, cheerful little boy would accept this "stranger" as his father? These personal letters are filled with the emotions and feelings of a young man separated from his new family. Yet, they reveal his commitment to do his share in "getting the job done" in the war so he can get back home and start fulfilling all of those hopes and dreams that he and his wife have been writing of during his three-year tour of duty.
About the Author
Dale Lane
He has become the unofficial historian of his family, continuing to research the genealogy that had been prepared by his father during Lloyd's retirement years. Dale is a member of the Indiana Historical Society. Since 1978 he has been an active member of Brigade de la Ouiatenon, a living history group reenacting the lifestyle of the French-Canadian "voyageurs" -- the canoemen of the 18th century fur trade era. Dale and his wife Margi, live in Indianapolis, with their dog, Heidi, and two cats, Ruby and Taz.
David Lane is the oldest son of Lloyd D. Lane. David is the "baby" mentioned in many of his father's letters in this book. He also attended Purdue University and is director of media relations for the American Farm Bureau Federation, in its Washington, D.C. office. Previously, he was a newspaper reporter in Indiana and Illinois, and later served as a spokesman for the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. David and his wife, Joya, live in Manassas, Virginia. He enjoys canoeing, camping, and backpacking sections of the Appalachian Trail. He is taken for daily brisk walks by the family's retired racing greyhound.