Letters from War – No peace for the holidays as the Battle of the Bulge raged, December 1944-January 1945

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

In this letter, published in the West Schuylkill Press-Herald on February 2, 1945 – a full month after it was written – Irvin Schwartz reflected on a holiday season spent amid the largest and deadliest battle in American history. Schwartz, an anti-tank gunner in the 26th Infantry Regiment, 1st Army Division, played an integral role in the Battle of Dom Bütgenbach.

Schwartz’s unit was rushed into the Battle of the Bulge on December 17, 1944, one day after a massive German assault tore into American forces in the Ardennes Forest on the border of Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Schwartz and his comrades in…