A letter from Cy’s brother in law to Cy’s sister. John had been in France about two weeks. On the date of this letter, the Allies captured the port of Cherbourg, west of the Normandy landing beaches.
6/30/44 France
From: John Shaw
To: Nena Shaw
Hi Honey:
Well at last I received a couple of letters from you. Also Chuck’s. It always helps to hear that all is going O.K. there and a little news of what is going on it seems like a lot longer since I was there also since you mentioned in one of the letters it was only one year since I was at Custer it does seem a lot longer.
The people here seem very friendly. What I have seen at least a few of us were out visiting some of the farms close by the other night and they brought out cider and insisted on us drinking more than we wanted for it tasted more like vinegar but jerry has taken all the good wine or most of it at least so it was the best they could offer and had some kick. It is tough trying to talk to them but some of the fellows can speak a little French and we are helped out by a book that has a few words & pronunciations in it. So by looking up a word at a time we managed to talk some.
Be sure and keep that bottle tucked away for it won’t be long before I will be there to help you open it up and celebrate. Well we’ll quit for now.
Remember I love you. Yours, John