Letter # 33, May 25, 1943

May 25, 1943
9 P.M.
Hello mummy dear,
Here I am again with a few minutes time before lights out so I will start another letter to my sweetie.
We rolled out at 4 A.M. this morning and fifty of us went out to the firing range to fire the 30 cal machine gun. We got there just after daylight and then the fireworks started. Boy those babies are really weapons. We had targets with 21 bulls eyes on each target. Each bulls eye is 1 inch square and we shot from 125 feet. That isn't very far and are fairly easy to hit if we fired one shot at a time but we take a bead on each bull and fire three shots in quick succession without time to right the other two. If you don't hold the gun down it is bound to shift from the recoil and that makes the last two shots go wild. These guns are mounted on tripods and have a system of screws for raising or lowering or swinging the muzzle from side to side. When you get your sights on the bull you can't help but hit the first time because the gun is held steady on the tripod. But when you fire the first shot the trick is to know how to hold the gun and tripod from shifting on the ground. If it shifts even a very little the two shots following will be complete misses. This gun fires so fast, about 450 shots a minute, so three go faster than you can snap your fingers. You can see why it is impossible to sight the last two. I hope you can get a little of the idea from this inadequate description.
I didn't come out so bad. Scored 105 points out of a possible 125. That means that I missed the bulls with 7 shots out of 85. It doesn't sound so bad but about 15 of the boys did better by a few points, so I'm not so very proud of it. The lowest score was 72 and the highest 115. It sure is fun to fire that baby. Wish I could just turn it loose and see how much dirt I could kick up. They have a vicious, stinging crack and by the time I was through I could hardly hear for a while. Just like being on a battlefield with all those guns firing at once.
Well honey it's time for me to get cleaned up and go to bed. I will try to finish this tomorrow night. Night Tootsie, I'll see you in my dreams. I'd much rather see you in the flesh but for now I'll have to be satisfied with dreams. Nighty Nite my old sweet wife.
Weds. night 7:30 P.M.
Hello Honey,
Guess I'm going to have a chance to keep my word and finish this letter tonight. This week has been the easiest I have had since I got in the army. They have decided that basic is over this is like the last week of school. Next week we go into advanced basic, whatever that is. Our company came out 2nd in the division in the tests we had last week and the C.O. was very much pleased so we are having an easy week. I hear we have a parade of the entire division tomorrow morning and are all done for the week. If they stick to that maybe I'll catch up on my letter writing. I may even write one to my wife. Won't that be nice. You know I still love her a lot.
This morning we didn't even have exercises but went to the theater first thing to see some training films. that lasted for nearly two hours and were very interesting. The first 2 films were on scouting and patrolling on the battlefield and were played like a regular show..Hero and his buddies going out on a dangerous mission to secure information of the enemy behind enemy lines. It was all done in proper army style and we are supposed to learn how by watching the picture. I learned more from that picture than I had from the lectures. These films are good educators. Maybe our school systems could take tip from the army. It's like someone has said. "A picture is worth a thousand words."
I have a picture here in my stationery box that is worth several thousand words to me. Don't get worried, it's your picture and you look mighty sweet to me.
While I'm on the subject of pictures, we had all our pictures taken for a division picture book which will be available later on. I'll get one and send it to you when they are ready. The photographer also took orders for pictures if we wanted them so I decided to get some. I ordered one large one for you and a couple smaller ones. You can do as you please with them but I thought maybe our mothers would like them. They probably won't be ready for several weeks so don't expect them too soon.
Getting back to the movie: the third film was another of the actual films of the German army taking Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and France. They are horrible with human suffering and give an idea of what war really means to invaded countries. I or any man would do anything to keep that from happening here in the good old U.S.A. See how these pictures put over the idea they are trying to teach? It is just a part in training us to hate the enemy and not hesitate to destroy him in any way possible.
These pictures are restricted and never will be shown anywhere but in the armed forces, because the dialogue is typical soldier and would never pass the Hayes Office and some of the scenes are too terrible to show the public. Just men turned back to animals of exceptional ferocity. However, they are very interesting and hold me on the edge of the seat all the time.
I was just thinking of how you would act if you could see them. Remember how you hung on to me when we saw "Wilderness Passage". I guess that was the name, and didn't want to look but couldn't keep from it. Well this is the same only worse and not fiction.
After the show we drilled for a couple hours in preparation for the division parade tomorrow and then this afternoon I got out of classes by being detailed, along with Carl Bauman to haul a load of gravel in front of the mess hall. We were all done by 4:30 and then we cleaned up and had our pictures taken.
Well honey, it's 9:15 and the lights will soon go out so I'll quit and continue this another time. I haven't told you much about how much I love you. I do love you and am afraid I will continue to as long as I live. You're a devil but I love it. Gives me a very nice anchor back in civilian life. Night honey. I love you.
your soldier hubby.
Norm