SOLON — Charles Lawrence Imhoff was born October 20, 1920, to George and Edith (Machlan) Imhoff in rural Decatur County, Iowa. He grew up on the farm near Leon with his sister Gladys and brothers Harry and Roscoe. He was inducted (at the age of 22) into the U.S. Army on Dec. 21, 1942, until he was honorably discharged Nov. 9, 1945. After basic training and combat infantry training in the United States, he was sent to England where he was assigned to the 18th Infantry Regiment, part of the famed 1st Infantry Division, known to many as “The Big Red One” due to their distinctive shoulder patch.
The 18th and sister regiment the 19th were among the initial invasion forces on June 6, 1944; D-Day. They were sent to a part of Normandy beach identified as “Gold (Omaha Beach), Easy Red.” However, “Easy” was not a forecast of the ease of invading, but rather the military phonetic alphabet for “E.” And Charles and his Company C (it is not clear if he was with the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Battalion) were in the thick of it.
While fighting in Europe, Private First Class (PFC) Charles Imhoff was wounded (earning the Purple Heart) and earned two Bronze Stars (an award for valor). However, like many combat veterans across all wars, he seldom spoke of the war after he returned home.
“My dad was able to pull stories out of him, because he’s a huge history buff and wanted to hear those stories,” said Melissa Ressler, Charles’ granddaughter. In addition to the stories he told, Charles was a prolific writer of letters during his time away. Melissa has turned that collection of notes into a book.
“It’s called Letters From the War. When my grandfather (Charles) passed away we found this huge box of letters that he’d written (from shortly after his induction through his discharge). There were so many letters, I was wondering how do I let my family know what was going on. So, I thought I would just go through those letters and write a book about it.” In addition to his letters home to his family and girlfriend (later wife) Erma, the box also contained letters sent to him. Some stories however, such as how he was wounded (on Thanksgiving Day 1944), were not in the letters, but were passed from father to son.
The letters sat for many years in a large box kept inside a cedar chest at the foot of the bed in her grandparents’ bedroom. A devasting fire in 1977 destroyed the house, but miraculously the cedar chest and invaluable letters inside were unharmed other than smelling of smoke. After Charles died in 2006 Melissa began the lengthy task of making a book.
It took her roughly ten years, writing during the winter months, to bring his story to life. In addition to putting the letters into chronological order and reading through them all, she also did extensive research into the U.S. Army in WW2 in Europe in general, and the D-Day invasion and beyond as it related to the 18th Regiment.
“I found a couple books that described where he was at, where they were at, so I kind of cross-referenced and got some stories from them and incorporated that too.” She discovered Charles was very likely in the areas depicted in the 2001 TV miniseries “Band of Brothers,” which was about Easy Company of the 101st Airborne Division. One area in particular was the scene of battle under adverse weather conditions in the Hürtgen Forest (Sept. 1944 – Feb. 1945), located near the Belgium and German border.
“The conditions they describe in the book are…horrific.” Despite constant drizzle, which led to heavy snowfall and bitter cold, the men, huddled in muddy foxholes, couldn’t light fires at night for warmth; lest they reveal their positions to the Germans. Part of the challenge for Melissa in piecing together Charles’ story, locations, battles, etc. came from the Army’s censors. When a G.I. would write a letter home saying where they were or letting slip any other information deemed to be not for enemy eyes, the censor would black out the word, words, or more. We know the practice today as redacting information. Where actual locations were obliterated, she was able match dates on the letters with dates in her research books. “It was a lot of work, but it was worth it,” she said.
Trying to learn the how and why of Charles’ Bronze Star medals was also a challenge, but somewhat less successful. “I have one story, but I don’t know the reason for the other one.” She tried contacting the government for help in tracking down his service record. However, once again, fire played a pivotal role in telling the story. A 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis destroyed between 16 and 18 million Official Military Personnel Files including those discharged from the Army between Nov. 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960, and Air Force personnel discharged between Sept. 25, 1947, to Jan. 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.). To this day veterans are seeking help reconstructing their records, particularly for dealing with the Veterans Administration in relation to service-connected injury and disability. “Whatever he did, it must’ve been good.”
The book was finally finished in March of this year and Melissa explored ways to have it published, settling on Amazon’s print on demand service, which began in April. The 144-page softcover book is available for online purchase by simply searching Amazon.com for Melissa Ressler and is also available for download to Kindle as well as in print form.
In addition to keeping Charles’ history alive, there was another reason for writing the book. “I wanted to do this for my family too so they would know all the stuff he had to go through to get to where he was at, and maybe give my mom and aunt a little peace of mind as to why he was the way he was. He never wanted to leave the farm and he died on the farm. He only traveled to visit his son in Tulsa, so he’d go to Oklahoma once in a while, but other than that, he never left the farm.”
Letters From the War
November 10, 2022
About the Contributor
Chris Umscheid, Editor
Chris Umscheid is the editor of the Solon Economist.