Wednesday · Dec. 16, 1942
An English class at the bar.
Ooh la la.
Dec 16, 1942
Dearest Ginny
Another day—and you’re still my darling wife but I can’t let myself get in a rut.
Today we had an interesting day of training and I learned quite a bit about the subject I’m studying.
This evening I went to another American movie “The Mystery of Marie Roget”—a Universal picture. We enjoyed it a lot—as we would enjoy any American film—in English.
After the show, the officer I went with and I stopped off at the bar we usually go to [here?]. No one was there tonight for some reason or other. We consumed a bottle of wine, but while doing so conducted …
… an English class for the Frenchwoman who runs the place her three daughters, 24-17 & 5, and her nephew aged 6. It was lots of fun and they seemed to learn a little. The older girl—aged 24—is very pretty. She admits she’s pretty dumb—and just says “empty”—her head won’t permit her to learn. The five & six year olds can count to 100 already and they soak up everything. We gave them a course in rank in the American army, and I think they understand most of the terms and can speak some of them now. The damn French [speak?] up their nose—i.e. their accent has a lot of nasal tones that we don’t use.
Linda’s picture is in my writing pad—and while writing down words, I got her picture out. One of the girls understands English and I told her …
… she was my daughter. All of them became visibly excited and talked a lot upon seeing the pictures. The older girl, thru her sister, said she wasn’t my daughter, she was a doll—which they demonstrated by bringing out a pretty doll. Don’t tell Linda about that or she will get a swelled head.
The wine has me a little unsteady here on my [pup tent?]; so I better get to sleep and sleep it off. I sure wish you were here with me honey—I probably wouldn’t get as much sleep—but ooh la la—but better yet if I were [already?] home. The news is good today—maybe the war will be over soon. Let’s hope so. Goodnight darling—I love you, I love you, I love you—how I wish I could really hold you in my arms and love you.
All my love
Your John
About this letter
After a movie, John and another officer teach English and American Army ranks to a French family, and show off his daughter’s picture. Then the wine catches up with him.
THE WINEHe finished this letter just as the wine hit him. The next day he wrote: “It’s the first time I’ve taken too much so I learned my limitations.”
READING CLOSELY
“She wasn’t my daughter, she was a doll … Don’t tell Linda about that or she will get a swelled head.” The French family had just seen the photo of his two-year-old daughter, Linda.
“The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1942) is a Universal picture based on Edgar Allan Poe’s story.
He wrote “sister,” crossed it out, and wrote “daughter.”
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.