Sunday · Dec. 6, 1942 · 10 P.M.
Dancing made me homesick.
I was wishing you were here.
Dec 6, 1942 · 10 P.M.
Dearest Ginny
Today was Sunday and a day of rest altho I worked in the supply room all morning. The first thing this afternoon we had our baseball game. “I” Company won—4-2. Over $800.00 went into the pockets of “I” Company men and the supporters of the company. I didn’t bet—as usual. At first I got ribbed for not betting or gambling—but I have been consistent in refusing to gamble so they don’t bother me anymore. The only thing I ever do is play for drinks.
This evening the officers of the battalion and regimental staff had a party at the cinema house. About 60 turned out. They had wine, & liquor of every description
The staff had attempted to get 50 nurses but at the last minute were able to get only ten. They had to get them at a field hospital 20 miles away and get them home by 10 P.M.—which they did. The ten girls really got a work out—they danced continuously—and the fellows got pretty high on the wine. I danced a few dances but the floor was sticky so I didn’t enjoy it so much. It would have been much better if they had been able to scare up some corn meal or the like. It was the first time I had seen any American girls in 4 months and it was pleasant to talk with them—between cuts. They were all from New Jersey.
Today we got a candy ration for the week 2 bars of candy. We also got our weekly package of stationary—U.S. Army Letter pack made by Eaton. Each company has to pay for it. However we are now getting a …
… cigarette ration of 1 pkg per day—issued free by the army. However I’ve been smoking nearly 2 packs per day lately and I’ve getting low.—so those smokes you are sending will come in handy.
I just thought that I hadn’t described our camp. We are located on slightly rolling ground—much like [Monrovia?] and those cities—We are in a slightly wooded area amidst a lot of brush. All around us are fields in wheat, and a few garden patches with beets, onions etc. Right next to us is a small orange grove. The whole battalion is quartered in the woods, with all of us sleeping in pup tents on the ground. The officers all sleep in one little cleared area with a fireplace in the center which is used to heat water—the fire is a mixture of gasoline with dirt—because of shortage of wood.
There is a well nearby and the engineers pump water into a huge canvas vat & [sterilizes?] it. The water is hauled in cans to camp. The officers have a mess—table, chairs, covered by mosquito netting—pretty nice.
My pup tent is plenty full. I have a barracks bag full of blankets, extra underwear & clothes I don’t need just now. I have a whole basket full of knic-knacs—soap, hair tonic, tooth paste, shaving cream, canned rations etc. Then my rifle and full field equipment is here. I have my Valla-pack hanging from a tree outside with my raincoat wrapped around it. I keep most of my clean clothing in it and they keep pretty nice.
I don’t know why I’m so chatty tonight. I guess its because dancing tonight made me homesick, and I was wishing you were here. Since you aren’t here …
… all I can do is to make you feel like you were here by describing things to you
Tonight at the cinema I had an unusual experience. Before the nurses came I used the ladies W.C. (W.C. Dames) Instead of a toilet they have a porcelain device with two places to put your feet on. Then you are supposed to squat. There is a flush tank which flushes all around the place you stand on. Awful isn’t it. Yesterday while driving we noticed some arab women squatting right alongside the road. They don’t pull their dresses up—maybe they do when they’re through. I hope so. It apparently is the custom over here.
The movie was called off today and we get that later in the week—so we still have something to look forward to. Mail is still reported to be coming in in large quantities. Let’s hope so
Transcribed exactly as he wrote it in 1942.
I’m hoping I’ll get a letter soon to answer a few questions.
1. Did you get the [travel?] allowance yet.
2. ″ ″ get the $175.00 money orders
3. ″ ″ get the increased allotment. If so did you pick up that $35.00 for September.
4. Have you paid off anything on the Pac Mutual Loan.
5. How are our finances?
6. Did you subscribe to the Newspress for me? I haven’t received any copies yet.—nor of any magazines—
New question: How do you like your new house by now? I hope you aren’t too lonesome there by yourself
Well I have written too much for 6¢ and 2 hours have gone by while writing this.
Goodnight sweetheart
All my love.
Your John
About this letter
Four weeks after the landings, John’s battalion is camped in the woods in North Africa, sleeping in pup tents beside wheat fields and an orange grove. It is a Sunday, and he writes at 10 at night.
ABOUT THE LETTERDated “Dec 6, 1942, 10 P.M.”; Dec. 6 was a Sunday, which matches “Today was Sunday.” Six pages, complete and signed. The last page is the one scanned as “New Scan” without a number.
BEFORE YOU READHe describes local customs and people the way many American soldiers did in 1942, and one passage about a French squat toilet is frank. His words are kept exactly as he wrote them.
READING CLOSELY
“Since you aren’t here all I can do is to make you feel like you were here by describing things to you.” After an officers’ dance, the first time he had seen American girls in four months, he wrote six pages describing camp in detail for his wife, Ginny.
Corn meal was sprinkled on dance floors to make them slick. “Between cuts” means between other officers cutting in.
[Monrovia?] would be Monrovia, in the foothills east of Glendale. The Newspress is probably the Glendale News-Press. 6¢ was the airmail rate.
The $175 money orders, the $35 allotment and the Pacific Mutual loan all come up in the Nov. 25 letter.
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 nurses at the officers’ dance came from a field hospital; Army nurses had landed in North Africa within days of the invasion.