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Show LOCAL SOLDIER ON SUNKEN SHIP, GETS PURPLE HEART SSgt. Calvin G. Clyde has been awarded the Purple Heart in recognition rec-ognition of injury received on Christmas Eve when the transport he was on was torpedoed and sunk in the English channel. In a recent letter to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ed Clyde, Calvin gives a brief summary of the sinking sink-ing of the ship, which was not generally known until recently. He states : "I was on the Belgian troopship Leopoldville, which was torpedoed and sunk ifi the English Channel on Dec. 24, 1944. When the torpedo torpe-do hit the ship at 5:50 p. m., it was three to four miles from Cher-bourge Cher-bourge harbor. We watched the lights along the shore as the ship slowly listed to the port side and sank. The Leopoldville slid beneath the icy Channel waters at approximate approxi-mate 8:20 p. m. I was at the stern at this time, helping get some wounded men back to a large minesweeper which was coming alongside. When the ship went under we had to abandon the wound (men injured in the explosion ex-plosion of the torpedo.) I found myself struggling in the debris-filled debris-filled water with several hundred others. By the grace of God, my life was spared (in a way which I'll tell you later.) I pushed my way through the wreckage to a (Continued on Page Twelve) German, improve my piano play- ing, and perhaps take a college extension course. I'll wait and see just how much time I actually have. "It's late now so I'll get to bed. I pray you are all well. Thanks again for the swell radio. "All my love, Calvin." 1 not escaped the fury of bomb and shell. The damage in Aachen, for example, was so terrible that it made it look like we had been using firecrackers down in Lori-ent. Lori-ent. Some cities have practically ceased to exist. Even here in Cob-lenz Cob-lenz there are still hundreds of bodies buried in the wreckage. We still have a lot of cleaning up to do in and around the house. So I'll be pretty busy for a while yet. Then we will have a lot of time on our hands. I have a number num-ber of prospective projects in mind to keep me busy. I want to learn Local Soldier On Sunk Ship; Gets Purple Heart (Continued from Page One) life raft and dragged myself on board. About twenty minutes later lat-er I was picked up by a little Diesel Die-sel powered Coast Guard Cutter. Ey midnight of Christmas Eve, 1944, I was safe in a warm hospital hospi-tal bed in Cherbourge. My only injury was a scraped skin and effects ef-fects of exposure. I was out of the hospital in two days. Many were not lucky. There were 2200 men aboard the ship. There were 765 men lost that black night 248 killed and 517 listed as missing miss-ing because their bodies were never nev-er found. "Part of Dick Mathew's outfit was in (and below) the compartment compart-ment that was struck by the tor-pedoe. tor-pedoe. Not many of them got out alive to the deck because the explosion ex-plosion blew out the stairway. I was in the compartment just forward for-ward of the one that was hit. "Sloan was one of the men killed. kill-ed. Another good friend, Miller, was missing along with many others oth-ers from our company." Also, in the same letter Calvin Cal-vin tells in a very interesting manner man-ner of the German country today and of what he intends to do during dur-ing his stay there. Many people, we believe, enjoy reading just such letters written by the boys in couutries throughout the world. Other parts of his letter read: May 25, 1945 Coblenz, Germany "This has been one of the most eventful and interesting weeks of my life. I can't tell you much about the trip except that it was very enjoyable; that I saw a lot of new country (three more nations, in fact) and I saw some famous and historical places. "The biggest news I can give you is that our division has been committed as a part of the Army of Occupation. So I will be here a long time probably a year or more. But I don't mind it; it's better bet-ter than a trip to the Pacific. As for my actual duties here, I am v not allowed to tell them. However, I won't be working too hard once we are settled. "Coblenz has been badly damaged dam-aged by bombs and shellfire. The section of town that we live in is not too badly hit, though. We are living in what were formerly large (and I might say "swanky") German Ger-man apartment houses. All of our platoon lives in one building (37 men), and there are empty rooms still. After calling dugouts and tents "home," we really feel like we are kings here. I have a soft bed all to myself. I have a room with Sgt. Dysart. We have a nice little stove, bathroom with running run-ning water just across the hall, and the electricity will be on In a day or two and best of all, I have a piano in our livingroom down the hall. It's certainly wonderful! Searching in the attic I found a stack of piano and organ music. There were several pieces I had played before. My fingers felt like baseball bats when first I tried to play but after an hour's practice I was pleasantly surprised to see how quickly the old touch came back. "The little radio came the day before we left Lorient. It plays-very plays-very well. We are too far from the station to get programs during dur-ing the day, but at night the reception re-ception is fine. I think that soon there will be stations operating around here then we can listen to the radio in the daytime, too. "Justice has been done in this war more than in the last one. Germany has taken most damage this time. Even small villages have |