A Houston man's mission to transcribe hundreds of love letters from WWII

A Houston man, Darren Tompkins, is currently sifting through a collection of love letters handed down to him from his grandmother sent by his late grandfather Donald Victor Tompkins, who was writing to his future bride while he fought Nazis in World War II for the United States Army. Tompkins saw action at D-Day, raced across France, Belgium, and Germany before ultimately abandoning his vehicle to escape the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge. less A Houston man, Darren Tompkins, is currently sifting through a collection of love letters handed down to him from his grandmother sent by his late grandfather Donald Victor Tompkins, who was writing to his ... more Photo: Darren Tompkins Photo: Darren Tompkins Image 1 of / 59 Caption Close A Houston man's mission to transcribe hundreds of love letters from WWII 1 / 59 Back to Gallery

A Houston man is currently sifting through a collection of love letters handed down to him from his grandmother, letters from his late grandfather Donald Victor Tompkins who was writing to his future bride while he fought Nazis in World War II for the United States Army.

Houstonians may know Darren Tompkins from his role as the founder of the Houston Zombie Walk, the annual party that sees undead Houstonians roaming through Downtown Houston.

He’s now in the middle of one of the biggest projects of his career.

When his grandmother, Bertha, died in 2014 the letters were passed on to Tompkins, who is currently reading all of them, learning new things about his grandparents in each letter. His grandfather wrote hundreds of letters to Bertha, back home in West Virginia, from the first weeks of training to just days before his return to American soil.

Transcribing the letters, he says, is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

The letters are written on anything that Tompkins could get his hands on in the course of war: Victory Mail, postcards, even tissue paper.

The couple was married on December 30, 1945 months after the war officially ended for Tompkins. They settled in Ringold, Georgia soon after.

The older Tompkins was a gunner and radioman in the 801st Tank Destroyer Battalion which was trained at Camp Hood (now known as Fort Hood) in Killeen. The small town farm boy from Ohio was drafted and ready to fight. He didn’t care for farming all that much.

Tompkins saw action at D-Day, raced across France, Belgium, and Germany before ultimately abandoning his vehicle to escape the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge when his M8 armored car ran out of gas. He was so good at marksmanship, Tompkins says, that he replaced his own gunner at D-Day and was a gunner till the end of the war.

The letters that Bertha sent back were lost when they had to destroy their M8 to escape the Nazis at the Battle of the Bulge.

According to his grandson, his final years of service were spent at the Eagle’s Nest, Adolf Hitler’s retreat.

He worked for General Telephone Company from 1946 until 1972 when he retired. He died in July 2006.

At one point the young soldier tells Bertha in a letter that knowing that she is back in the States is his key motivation for fighting on.

Wrote the fiery gunner:

“If I always have you in back of me things won't seem near so hard and if you wait for me, I'll take Germany and Japan all by myself.”

Tompkins says that his grandfather divulges as much as can about his missions to Bertha, within reason.

“Each one starts with a location by country, sometimes by city. Remember that every letter was read by the Army before it got to the recipient, so some have been blacked out,” says Tompkins.

The letters, though, are full of pure romance according to Tompkins.

“I'm not kidding man. Every one I've read so far is a love letter first and foremost,” says Tompkins.

The letters also say a lot about the time they were written.

“Everything is "My Dearest Bertha." They had a lot of hands-off encounters dating. He refers to zoot suits and train riding as a means of long range transportation,” says Tompkins.

His grandfather’s service would later color Tompkins’ life after high school.

“I will say is he was the single greatest influence on my decision to join the Army out of high school,” says Tompkins, who joined the Army in 1992.

Tompkins would like to finish transcribing all the correspondence for a book eventually, but for now he seems to be having too much fun learning new things about his grandparents, who were just kids in love, during one of the most tumultuous times this world ever faced.