Sunday · Nov. 29, 1942
Must have been rumor.
A cold, a rainy camp, and still no mail.
Nov. 29. 1942 · Sun–P.M.
My Darling Wife.
That mail we were supposed to get yesterday must have been rumor. At any rate we don’t have any letters or pkges. Yesterday, we moved away from that nice place in the winery. We have moved into a smaller area and are all out of doors. It rained our first night. I had already caught a cold yesterday so I didn’t feel so good then or now.
We have been working all day setting up camp. Tomorrow there will be still more work to do before we satisfy the medics. To top it all off, my company commander is being relieved. Why, I don’t know. If anyone is subject to censure for ability, it is the [officer?] or officers relieving him.
There is little to report of interest. Further, I have no decent place to write on, and I feel like the devil with this head cold. Therefore I’ll close this short note, and hope to get mail tomorrow. Lots of love from me to you honey.—and to Linda
Your John
About this letter
A short one, written on a Sunday evening. The camp has just moved out of a winery into the open, it rained the first night, and the mail he was promised still hasn’t come.
ABOUT THE DATEHe wrote “Nov. 29. 1942, Sun–P.M.” Nov. 29 was a Sunday, so the date and day agree. This letter also answers the “mail boat” rumor in the Nov. 22 letter.
HIS COMPANY COMMANDERThe commander of I Company was being relieved, and John clearly didn’t think he deserved it. The new commander shows up in the next letter.
READING CLOSELY
“That mail we were supposed to get yesterday must have been rumor.” A week earlier he wrote that the mail boat would be in “next week.” It wasn’t.
“Pkges” is packages. “The medics” were the battalion medical staff who had to approve the new camp.
A line runs through “letters.” It may be a crossed-out word or just a long t-cross.
The Big Picture
The race for Tunis stalls
The Germans won the race to Tunisia. By the end of November about 15,000 German troops and 100 tanks were there. The Allies got within about 12 miles of Tunis before they were stopped.
In early December German tanks struck back at Tebourba, west of Tunis, and pushed the Allies back. Then the winter rains turned the roads to mud.
At home, rationing (limits on how much of something each family could buy) was spreading: coffee from Nov. 29, gasoline nationwide from Dec. 1.
Where he was
In camp outside Oran, Algeria, with I Company, 3rd Battalion, 16th Infantry. The fighting in Algeria was over; the 1st Division stayed behind to guard the area and train while other Allied troops raced east into Tunisia.
In this letter. The winery they moved out of was typical: the Oran area was wine country, and the troops were billeted in farm buildings until camps were built.