A Boy in France

A Boy in France
He was young, tired and half sick. But for a few minutes he forgot the misery of foxhole life while he reread a crumpled letter from home.
Status
Original Publication Date	March 31, 1945
Salinger.org Rating

He was young, tired and half sick. But for a few minutes he forgot the misery of foxhole life while he reread a crumpled letter from home.

A sad story about a young man preparing for the night on the front lines in France. He reads a letter which says “Dear Babe” from a young girl named Matilda so we can assume it’s about Babe Gladwaller.

The boy raised his dirty, stinking, tired upper body, and from a sitting position, without looking at anything, he got to his feet. Groggily he bent over, picked up and put on his helmet. He walked unsteadily back to the blanket truck, and from a stack of muddy blanket rolls he pulled out his own. Carrying the slight, unwarm bundle under his left arm, he began to walk along the bushy perimeter of the field. He passed by Hurkin, who was sweatily digging a foxhole, and neither he nor Hurkin glanced with any interest at the other.

Trivia

The letter is dated July 5, 1944, during the Battle of Normandy. American forces lost nearly 1,500 soldiers that day.