Tuesday · Dec. 15, 1942
Try living in a pup tent.
Rain, mud, and his daughter’s picture on the shelf.
Dec. 15, 1942
My Darling Wife
Another day—and it rained all day. I called the company but no mail had come in for me. Tomorrow the company moves to the big city nearby and I will rejoin it there unless transferred to Bn Hdqts before then. At present I am training with the Cannon company and the work is very interesting.
Tonight we are again in our little room behind the bar. drinking a sweet red wine. I like the dry wine but they are out of it. Last night we finished about 2 gals of wine—but I only had a little of it.
The magazines which you sent were swell and I have had a lot of enjoyment out of reading the short stories
I’m sitting here looking at Linda’s picture—and I feel so very proud. She is a darling if there ever was one. When I was with the company she had her place on a shelf in the tent and received due admiration from all concerned. Most of the fellows respect me a lot more when they see her—they never had thought I was that good. Hah!
I’m trying to promote a pinochle game here, but so far have not had much success. Maybe they’ll break down soon, when they finish their letter writing.
If you ever want to know [what it is like?] …
… try living in a pup tent—with a [Val-a-pack?], two barracks bags full of stuff and a sleeping bag. You can’t sit up or stand up. When you get outside you step in the mud. Water gets in no matter what you do to keep it out. It’s really something. While I don’t mind it too much, it’s so much more pleasant to live in doors with plenty of room. What I wouldn’t give to be at home in a nice apt.—with no mud right alongside my bed.
I have so many questions I would like to ask about home, but I expect most of them will be answered when I get your letters. I hope they get here soon so I will know what the score is.
I’m running out of gab tonight—with nothing much of interest that I am permitted to write about. I love you darling and miss you terribly.
Goodnight sweetheart
All my love
Your John
About this letter
Still on detail with the Cannon Company, John describes a pup tent in the rainy season, and admits he is running out of things he’s allowed to write about.
THE CANNON COMPANYEach infantry regiment had a Cannon Company with short-barreled howitzers. He was learning its tactics so he could teach his own company.
READING CLOSELY
“I’m sitting here looking at Linda’s picture—and I feel so very proud. She is a darling if there ever was one.” His daughter, Linda, was two. Her photo sat on a shelf in his tent, where it “received due admiration from all concerned.”
[Val-a-pack?] is probably a Val-A-Pak, a folding garment bag.
He was still expecting a transfer to battalion headquarters. It came Dec. 19.
The Big Picture
All eyes on Stalingrad
In Russia, Soviet armies had trapped nearly 300,000 German and Romanian soldiers at Stalingrad on Nov. 23. On Dec. 12 German tanks set out to rescue them. By Dec. 19 they were about 30 miles away, and they got no closer.
In Libya, the British Eighth Army was chasing Rommel’s army west after its victory at El Alamein. In Tunisia, both sides waited out the rain in the hills west of Tunis.
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 Cannon Company was the regiment’s own small artillery unit, with short-barreled howitzers that moved with the infantry.