War Diaries (February 7) (nonfiction)

War Diary entries for February 7.

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Diaries

Petronella Catharina Hauser: February 7, 1945

Even for us, the situation is getting precarious! There are hardly any potatoes anymore, and even the pulses are nearly finished. … Ma is getting thinner and paler by the day. The slices of bread we've been putting off eating are in the bread bin. ... There’s half a loaf for today ... Thursday ... And Friday.

Yesterday, we kept some potatoes aside from the already insufficient afternoon meal. We ate them with a few bits of fried onion mixed in and a cup of soup at five-thirty in the evening, before it got dark. I calculated that each of us could have one more slice of bread. Which we kept until bedtime and had with a cup of ‘tea’, otherwise it would be too long until the next morning! (As if one such a doughy stale slice could keep you going!) We didn’t have anything to top them with, as we had only some cumin cheese left (topping for tomorrow morning). We dunked them in our ‘tea’ and liked it. … !!!!

I have a sore foot: a large blister! Dad can’t get hold of anything anymore; no vegetables, no onions, the potato man isn’t around.

—Petronella Catharina Hauser, a 27-year old teacher from Rotterdam, described in her diary how famine affected daily life. During the last winter of the war, the Hunger Winter, as it was known, the Germans blockaded much of the Netherlands, cutting off food and fuel supplies in response to a Dutch rail strike intended to help the Allies.

• Dutch War Diaries @ NY Times

Kenneth Zill: February 7, 1952

Our patrols over here aren’t too bad. Our company has drawn it about 10 times and only once we’ve seen any Koreans. That was back on Jan. 12th. That day we really seen the Koreans. We were supposed to take a hill with about a squad or so on it, anyway when we got up there, there was a battalion waiting for us. We didn’t retreat from the hill, we got chased off. I was never so scared in all my life as I was that day. Its times like that you really know there’s a God up above you looking after you. Some of the boys weren’t as lucky as I. They got hit. Maybe I shouldn’t tell you this, but all the guys in “E” Company wasn’t going to mention it in their letters home. But Bob Barsantee (in G Company) wrote home and told all about it. He made it sound a lot worse that it really was. So I figured I’d better tell you about it before you hear a lot of wild rumors. The whole thing lasted about 3 hours I guess that we were actually in contact with the enemy. Someday I’ll tell you all the details but right now I‘d just as soon forget about it.

—Kenneth Zill

• Letter from Kenneth Zill @ americanveteranscenter.org

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Petronella Hauser (nonfiction)
• War (nonfiction)
• War Diaries (nonfiction)
• Kenneth Zill (nonfiction)

External links

• Dutch War Diaries @ NY Times
• Letter from Kenneth Zill @ americanveteranscenter.org