Hello, Darling: WWII Letters of Charlie & Magdalene Plott

In 2022 I posted a memorial item by Bill Plott about our mutual friend Joe Moudry. Bill has published several sports history books, but he has recently edited a collection of letters written mostly by his father Charles Jackson Plott, Jr. [10 November 1916-20 August 1991] to his mother Hattie Magdalene Osborn Plott [9 August 1917-29 November 2010] while his father was on combat duty in Italy during World War II. For many years the couple owned Plott's Grocery, which dated to the 1920's, and Charles' brother Herman owned Plott's Seafood, opened in the 1930s. Both became well-known businesses in Opelika.

I leave it for Bill to tell the rest of the story.

Bill Plott of Montevallo, author of several sports books, has published his parents' World War II correspondence, written while his father was in combat during the lengthy Italian campaign. The books is Hello Darling, the World War II Letters of Charlie and Magdalene Plott, 1943-1945

He says:

I grew up in Opelika, Alabama. I was only a few months old when Daddy entered basic training at Fort McClellan in Anniston. I have no recollection of him at all until the fall of 1945 when he returned home after discharge. Although I later lived in Anniston for several years, working as a reporter for the Anniston Star, I had no idea of his service at McClellan until I started working on the book.

We were fortunate to have about 90 hand-written letters, most of them sent from Italy as Charlie marched from post-landing at Anzio to Rome after the surrender of German forces in 1945. Only a few letters written by my mother are in the collection because he had no way of retaining them in combat conditions. In fact, in one letter he said he did not even take a toothbrush when he was going into combat because he wanted to travel as light as possible.

Included with his letters were numerous black and white snapshots. Many show him and his fellow soldiers in the Red Bull 35th Infantry Division. About 30 of the photos, with many soldiers identified by name, are included in the book. Also included are a number of contemporary documents such as his Motor Pool pass, discharge papers, etc.

It is not particularly exciting reading, but there were a couple of interesting moments. In April of 1945 his platoon was suddenly overrun and taken prisoner by retreating Germans. He was one of only two men who were not captured. Daddy said he avoided capture when an Italian woman hid him on the roof of her house. The POW status of the company ended quickly as the Germans were on the run. One of his best friends, Corporal Charles Anthony of Butler, Pennsylvania, was apparently killed in the incident. 

On July 4, 1945, Daddy, who was a jeep driver, was awakened at 5:30 a.m. His jeep joined a convoy of five cars that made a surreptitious crossing of the Italian border into neutral Switzerland. There they picked up members of the Italian royal family and returned them home from exile. The jeep that he drove contained the crown jewels of Italy. The story was picked up by the U.S. military's Stars and Stripes newspaper and widely published over time.

Although most of the letters lack such drama, they offer a good slice-of-life picture of the daily lives of a young married couple with a small child, separated for almost two years by war. The were indeed part of the Greatest Generation. I believed their story needed to be preserved for family members and future generations.

The Plott family was well known in Opelika for decades for two businesses, Plott's Grocery and Plott's Seafood. Consequently, the book is of possible interest to Opelika and Lee County historians as well as World War II buffs and descendants of soldiers who served in the 35th Infantry Division.

As we live in a time when younger generations are not as interested in having a lot of non-digital possessions, I was concerned with the ultimate future of these treasures. Arrangements are being made for all of the letters and photographs to be archived at the East Alabama Historical Museum in Opelika. The book is available as a hardback, paperback and eBook on Amazon. 

For those who may be interested, my other books include Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons, 1920-1962 and The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951. Both were published by McFarland and are also available online. 

"These are some Fascists that we rounded up around the French border. The man with the white hat is a Duke. The American soldier is Sgt. Moore. Myself, Colburn and Gaffey on a road block. The day after the German armies in Italy surrendered."

Pvt. Charlie Plott