A letter from somewhere in Germany written by Sergeant John D. Wittkop to his parents, Mr and Mrs Dewey Wittkop of Dundee gives a vivid account of recent action in Germany.

"To start this letter I am going to tell about the night of the great Roer River offensive. We knew it was coming off because of all the things they had moved in behind us. From my gun position (he is with the anti-aircraft) I could get a very good view of the whole town of Julich and the top of the famous citadel there.

Quite a few days before the push, I sat in my gun position and watched the artillery shoot at the town and finally knock it down. It was a German observation point. Our crew was living at an ordnance post at the time and from there we could see Germans back off the main line of defense riding to and from Julich on bicycles.

The night of the push was to start, there were correspondents from both England and America and very little sleep for anyone, particularly after the artillery barrage started, the concussions shaking our house. We could see the shells burstin and we expected German planes -- they never came during the night.

When it got light six came over that area to take pictures of our troops and to strafe them. One was shot down by or ack-ack and landed about 300 yards from my gun. The pilot was killed in the crash. The next day, I went down to the river and from my position and across some foot bridges built by the engineers. It was all that vehicles could do to get through. Every building was in ruins and soon after the whole town was in our hands. The next day we watched P-47s strafe and bomb them."

Sergeant Wittkop, a Dundee high school graduate left for service February 22, 1943 and for overseas in January, 1944. He was with the First Army through France, Belgium, Holland and into Germany and was then transferred to the Ninth Army. He has sent numerous souvenirs home, some in a Consolidated Paper Company container which had gone across full of war material.