Clear Lake - Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Patterson, 301 S. 4th street, have received a letter from their daughter-in-law, Mrs. Paul Patterson, San Diego, Cal., written by a Mrs. S. G. Hulxinga, somewhere in Holland, telling of a visit Mrs. Patterson's husband, S/Sgt. Paul Patterson, had made in her home.

She wrote: "It was in the afternoon of Sept. 14 that the first American soldiers directly followed by tanks of the first army after 2 hours of street fighting drove the hated Germans out of our town.

"You can hardly believe how glad, how grateful, how elated with joy we were and perhaps your boys may have thought us a little crazy by shaking their hands again and again and singing, crying and stammering words of thanks in poor English.

"The tanks stayed a few days near our street and one of the tank commanders was you husband. We asked him to come into our house and were very glad to talk with him and to hear something of America and you.

"We need not tell you of our suffering and our want. Bombers destroyed some of our most beautiful cities in 1940. The Germans robbed us of everything that had been dear to us. Our children became underfed, badly clothed and they have had no youth. We are standing now at the graves of thousands f our best men who have been murdered. Now we thank you very, very much for the arrival of your boys and husbands.

"God bless especially you and the many, many women and mothers who have given the dearest they possess for our liberation. We know what great sacrifices your best men have made to fight for the freedom of the whole world. We together hope to be worth this great price and after this terrible war we shall try to make the best of this freedom for all our people in a real democracy.

"We shall pray that He Who is Mighty shall bring back your husband safely to you. God bless and save him for you. Please, Mrs. Patterson, when you write your husband after you received this, ask him, when he gets a chance, to come to us, maybe he will get a few days from the front. We should be glad to see him. One day he came to us but I was not at home. I feel very sorry about this.

"With fine regards, your unknown friends from Holland, Mr. and Mrs. S. G. Hulxinga, Mary, Jo and Dick."

S/Sgt. Patterson entered the service at Peoria, Ill., March 4, 1942, and trained at Scott Field, Ill.; Camp Cook, Cal., and in the desert of southern California. He was then transferred to Camp Forest, Tenn.; Watertown, N. Y., and Camp McCoy, Wis., going overseas in January, 1944. After 6 months in England he was taken by plane to a replacement center in France until Aug. 12 when he went into action and has been at the front near Aachen since. He is a tank commander. The family in Holland sent some snapshots of S/Sgt. Patterson and their children on his tank.

Transcriptions by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2013