In “The Clock,” (1945) Robert Walker is a GI about to ship out overseas from New York City when he meets Judy Garland, courts her and marries her–all within 24 hours. It’s a charming and poignant film. Garland is radiant.

In the film still, Walker wears the shoulder patch of a solider in a Tank Destroyer Battalion.

This bundle of letters belongs to a soldier who served in the 703rd Tank Destroyer Battalion. They begin in the fall of 1941 and end in the winter of 1945.

The battalion fought in Normandy, across France, into the Rhineland, in the Battle of the Bulge and finally in Bavaria, where they helped to liberate the Dachau concentration camp, which my students and I have visited.

This soldier, who was awarded a Silver Star, was from Arroyo Grande.

A Tank Destroyer from the 703rd TD Battalion in the Battle of the Bulge.

Somehow I’ve got to get up the nerve to start organizing them, reading them and writing about them while following the unit through Europe so I know where he is in his war.

I am suitably intimidated.