Our WWII Soldier Is Liberated From The Germans!

37234941                                 Cpl. John F. Jambrosic

Hopital de la Pitie

Boulevard de hospital

Paris, France

August 26, 1944

My Darling Mark

         Hello Sweetheart!

How is everything in K.C.? I’m still in a Gay Paree hospital – but no more a prisoner of the Jerries. The Yanks are in now. There’s some pretty cute French nurses around here & I can’t speak French! We’ve been having champagne since the Jerries left. They couldn’t evacuate all of us and I was lucky enough to be left behind.

I can get around now with crutches or a chair!

The French people are really treating us royally. They can’t seem to do enough for us. They’re really grateful.

I wrote the folks a letter – I got to write two letters this time. I guess it won’t be long before we’ll be able to write regularly!

How is your Mother & Sisters & Dee Dee? Tell them all I said hello!

How are you honey?  Well I hope.

I miss you like hell honey & still love you more every day!! Maybe it won’t be too long before we’re together again honey! Then we can make up for what we’ve missed. Looks as if I’ll have to close for now. Write Soon.

All my Love Always,   Johnny

Hope you can read this!!

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In a way, Johnny was very lucky. First, that he wasn't killed and that he was taken to Paris for medical treatment after he was injured; and second, that he was there only 4-5 weeks before Paris was liberated; and third, that his injuries were just severe enough that the Germans couldn't take him with them when they fled Paris to escape the Allies.  If things had been any different, I would not be here today!

Sometimes at family get-togethers (and after a few drinks), Johnny would tell the story of when he was liberated from the Germans at the hospital in Paris. 

While he was a prisoner of the Germans, the cute French nurse he referred to in the letter would make a bee-line straight to his bunk, walking right past all the other soldiers till she got to him.   

He claimed he never noticed until one of the other soldiers said “Just look!  She’s gonna go right back to Jambrosic!”  And she sure did!  She apparently had a crush on the handsome American soldier. 

When the Allies were liberating Paris, the French nurse was going to take Johnny home with her, if he could walk.  He said if he could have walked and gone home with her, he probably would have stayed in France (despite his declarations of undying love for Mark in the letters). When his tank was hit, his left thigh was split wide open, and even with crutches there was no way he could walk across the hospital, let alone walk to the nurse’s home.  So, she had to leave him there.  In the end, it turned out to be a good thing, because the Germans didn’t take him either.  He was rescued by the Allies and shipped back to England.  

Otherwise, I’d be writing this in French! Non?

I found this article on the internet.  The liberation of Paris took place on August 25, the day before Johnny wrote this jubilant letter!

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25 August 1944

On Aug. 25, 1944, Allied and French Resistance forces entered Paris and drove out the last significant Nazi opposition, liberating the city after four years of Nazi occupation. “On all sides the liberating French and Americans were greeted by hungry Parisians, mad with joy, who had fought alone against the German oppressors since they were called to arms last Saturday,” reported The Associated Press in an article printed in The New York Times.

Read the full article here:

http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/aug-25-1944-paris-is-liberated-after-4-year-nazi-occupation/