The Daily Alaska empire., 1945-03-06
(HEE HERMANN TELLS OF WAR IN
 ITALIAN SECTOR

Cpl. Russell (Chee) herlnaiiii' from Somewhere in Italy wlth the Tenth United States Mountain Ski Troops. has written several let ters, all interesting, to his mother Mrs. Mildred Hermann. The 1ol- lowing are excerpts from tne letters:
 Have done many interesting things and seen many mterestiiis places. I have seen bombed out cities and starving people. | an greatly impressed by the devasta- tion of war. This place surely mas taken a beating. I am appalled, at the famine the Italian people are suffering. Men, women ana GILT dren flock around our mess lines and eat what we have lett over they will eat anything. They collect it all in little cans and eat It all mixed together.
 .The children particularly are pathetic. They come around the camp dressed in rags, and beg They know few American words, such as chocolate, soap and cigar cites. They keep themselves clean despite their ragged appearance.
 Cigarettes are. very valuable over here. A pack is worth $4 and the people will sell anything for them.
 You can never realize the devas- tation, of war until you see this mess. We can't ever let this happen again, it's horrible beyond words.
 T met Tom Stewart on the boat and had long chat with him-he is the only other Juneau boy in the division"
 On January 28, he wrote:
 We live with family kids running around the house and still we shoot at Germans and vice versa. have had the privi- lege of sampling some Italian dishes They use chestnut flour Tor cooking-and make little hot cakes out of it. These taste like hell, but I eat them anyhow. !. . They use what little wheat flour they have for macaroni and it tastes very good .. In return for these dishes we give the Italians our dehydrated carrots, which we can't stand and would throw out anyway"
 On February 8, he says:
 Instead of a stove, the Italians do all their cooking over fire place and charcoal burners. . There isn't single modern con- venience. The toilets are par ticularly rugged =. nothing more than hole in marble bench, and believe you me, that marble is cold early in the morning.
 "Mussolini's policy of more chill dren seems to have worked. The place literally swarms with them. Some are pretty cute, but most of them are sad sights. They don't get proper food or clothing Of all the tragedies of war the plight of the children impresses me most. have little sympathy for the older people, as they could have done something about it. The children are blameless and suffer most.
 Don't get the impression that life is all grim here. We have our fun .. I believe American sol- diers could have fun in hell, if sent there
 Be sure and send me some G. cent air mail stamps, as they are very hard to get. Also include few double-edge razor blades just tape a couple to the bottom of every letter. If you send me a package, here are the items to send: razor blades, soap, tooth brush, baking powder, spices (cina- mon etc., cigars and stamps. We use the baking powder and spices to make doughnuts-they don't issue those. =.
 Talk about your mud-slogging infantryman! You should see your only son now! We live in the stuff and am literally coated with it.
 Don't worry about me :. War is greatly overrated!"