In February 1945, as Allied forces pushed deeper into western Europe, Corporal Floyd J. Miller of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania wrote a letter home from “somewhere in France.”

Miller had joined the U.S. Army in 1942 and served with an anti-aircraft artillery unit across North Africa, Italy, and France, one of millions of American service members who fought the war from its early campaigns to its final months during the Second World War.

Born in 1920, Miller had been working at Tower Sales in Tower City at the western edge of the Coal Region before the war interrupted his life, sending him far from home and into a global conflict.

His letter, published in the West Schuylkill Herald, offers a grounded, observant view of wartime service in early 1945. He describes his accommodations in a French house with a great cook, failing at using Pennsylvania Dutch to speak to German-speaking French citizens, and even seeing a German ME-262 fighter jet overhead.

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February 16, 1945 

Somewhere in France 

Dear Mr. Price, 

I’m afraid I let you down, so far as my end of the correspondence is concerned. I hope you don’t think I’ve lost interest in the old Alma Mater, for I often think about it.

It’s really the best years of one’s life, isn’t it? I’ve been reminded in December’s “news letter” to write you and stored it in the back of my mind for future reference. You know how those things work out; but now January’s issue came with another, so I decided to wait no longer. 

There isn’t very much of interest that I can say about this country, for you’ve been all thru it the last time. You know what the mud, snow and wind is like and I suppose it’s still the same. We’re in a fairly quiet sector at present, but are all anxious to get moving again.

This sitting in one place too long gets on one’s nerves. We have a lovely set-up though, for we’re fortunate enough to be quartered in a house. We have one room with an old couple and they treat us swell. We spend few hours with them every evening and what a cook the woman is! 

Sure is a treat to sit down to a table with china and silverware and a tablecloth after squatting in the mud with the mess kit. And these home-cooked meals are quite different from what our cooks do for us, no comparison at all.

We’re so close to Germany that the civilians speak German, although this is still part of France, but it was occupied by the Germans for four years and they forbade any French to be spoken or taught in the schools. 

My sprinkling of Pennsylvania Dutch fails me miserably, although I was doing fairly well with French. My two years of that helped a lot. I often wished I’d been a bit more conscientious in my studies, but I suppose everyone regrets not doing a bit more in school, after one gets out. 

I think winter is over here. The snow is all gone and the weather is perfect. It really gives our Air Force a chance to do some accurate work. They’re over Jerry lines continually and I can’t see how they can stand it. I’m certainly glad that things are as onesided as they are. Jerry doesn’t bother us very much.

I’ve seen a few of his new jet-propelled jobs in the last few days, but they’re far out of range. 

I guess they are on reconnaissance flights for they couldn’t possibly do any damage at that height. They are fast, though. I’ll have to sign off now. 

Give my regards to Mrs. Price and the twins. Don’t let anything interrupt the regularity of that “News Letter.” It’s a swell idea. Also, my thanks to the Girl Reserves for the thoughtful Christmas greeting. 

Sincerely, 

Floyd

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Floyd Miller returned to Schuylkill County in the fall of 1945. Like many, he slipped back into civilian life carrying memories of places and people far removed from home. Miller passed away in 1999, and was interred at Tower City’s Greenwood Cemetery.

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Read more about World War II in the Coal Region

Lackawanna County airman recounts bombing his native Sicily during World War 2 | July 1943

Private Harvey L. Adams | Killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944

Podcast – A Pennsylvania soldier in the Battle of the Bulge

Joy and jubilation on a rainy V-E Day in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | May 8, 1945

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