Part of The KB41 Collection On This Day Series
This is the First Herbert Tank letter of 1944, a short letter updating his family back home in Kiel at the beginning of the new year. This letter like many from the Herbert series sadly don't have their Feldpost envelopes. This is the start of this years Hebert letters and sadly the last year of known letters, there will be some honourable mentions of unknown dated letters towards the end of the series but 1944 does contain many letters. As each we learn about them as we research and translate them. 1944 will see Herbert fight through Russia in what was some of the fiercest fighting seen through the whole war. So stay tuned for what Herbert writes, Here we share the first in Early January.
The Feldpost reads as:
Russl. 2.1.44
Ihr Lieben!
Am 31.12.43 erhielt ich die Weihnachts-
päckchen No. 23 u 24, sowie den Brief vom
15.12., vielen Dank. Die Bilder habe ich ver-
gessen im letzten Brief mit einzulegen. Ich
schicke sie jetzt mit.
Ins neue Jahr bin ich ziemlich solide
hineingekommen um 7 Uhr hatten
wir unseren Schnaps schon aus und waren
noch total nüchtern. Da haben wir uns
ins Bett gelegt. Wie war es bei Euch?
Sonst ist hier noch alles beim Alten. Mir
geht es gut, was ich auch von Euch hoffe.
In den nächsten Tagen fährt A. Petersen
in Urlaub. Er wird dann auch noch mal
bei Euch einschauen. Dann wird er Euch
ja alles genau berichten können. Wie es
hier ist.
Es grüßt Euch,
Euer Herbert
The Feldpost translated in English reads as:
Russia 2.1.44
Dear friends!
On 31.12.43 I received the Christmas parcels no.
No. 23 and 24, as well as the letter of
15.12., thank you very much. I forgot to include the photos
in the last letter. I send them along now.
I had a pretty solid start to the new year,
at 7 o clock we already finished our schnapps and were
still totally sober. That's when we went
into bed. How was it with you?
Everything else is still the same here.
I'm fine, which I hope you are too.
In the next few days A. Petersen
is going on holiday. He will also
visit you again. Then he will
report everything in detail. What it's like
it is here.
Greetings to you,
Yours Herbert
Herbert starts this addressing his family with the "Weihnachts-päckchen" (Christmas Packages) which he received on the 31st of December1943. Parcels 23 and 24 and letter his family wrote on the 15th December 1943. This showing the delays in postage from home to the Russian front. Sadly mentioned just after this are photographs that Hebert took and wrote in the previous letter to which he meant to include that Herbert includes in this letter. Sadly like the other times photographs are mentioned, they are not included with the collection of letters. As previously suggested in other posts of letters containing photographs are expected to be added to a family photo album, showing Herbert's service, which sadly is lost to time.
Herbert then writes how he started the new year. A good start Herbert writes as by 7 o'clock they finished their schnapps and were all said to be totally sober to which after they drank it all they then went to sleep in their beds. Herbert asking how their new years back home was.
Herbert then writing that everything is still the same and that he is fine, hoping his family at home in Kiel is also well. Herbert details that in the next few days "A. Peterson is going on holiday". This suggested to be a mutual friend who is also a kamerad of Herbert, who will visit the family when he is on leave. To which they will detail everything of what their conditions are like and what their experience in Russland is like.
Herbert concluding this brief letter by greeting his family, despite it being a small letter it is a letter none the less to update his family of this period where if there was no war, the family would be together seeing the new year in. Sadly the family cannot do this and instead the celebrate apart, with Herbert drinking with his Kameraden somewhere on the Eastern Front in Russland. Letting his family know he is safe and well still, signing off "Euer Herbert", Yours Herbert