Letters from War – “Our Battle for Aachen,” 1944

This is part of our “Letters from War” series documenting the World War II letters of Irvin Schwartz of Pine Grove, PA. The letters were all published in the West Schuylkill Press-Herald between 1943 and 1945. 

Read the previous letter here

A 1944 photograph of Irvin Schwartz

Inside the Siegfried Line

November 4, 1944

Dear Mae:

Our own publication, “The Stars and Stripes,” printed daily in Paris, London, and New York, for members of the armed forces, has officially announced that “Major General Clarence Huebner, commanding officer of the First Infantry Division, led the Allied troops in the Battle for Aachen.” In other words, I had seen “enough” of this first large German city to fall to the Allies.

However, the Press-Herald was read right in the midst of the battle – which was some consolation on my part, while we drove the Nazis back, house for house, and block…