Sunday · Dec. 27, 1942
A home of our own.
Better than a car.
Dec 27, 1942
My Darling Wife
Today is Sunday so we are taking it easy. It is cloudy today and not so pleasant outside—nor inside because we have no heat.
The frozen turkeys from the states are here and we will have our Christmas dinner either tomorrow or Tuesday. I can hardly wait to get at them. However there is no cranberry sauce so it won’t even begin to be like home. I like lots & lots of cranberries as you know.
The dance scheduled for last night was called off so I went to bed early and read a Saturday Evening Post—Sept 19. I’ve read the magazines I received from you from cover …
… to cover and I’m hoping there are replacements on the way.
Darling I’m so blue today. I just wish I were back home with you and Linda. There was a lot of comfort in our little home especially on Sunday. When I sat down to breakfast this morning I thought of what it was like when we were together—and I’ve been wishing all day that I could be living this day with you. It’s all well and good to be one of the boys fighting for Uncle Sam, but it’s a terrific price to pay for the absence from your family.
I’m glad you’re able to save quite a bit. We will need a nest egg after the war. Much as I hate to spoil your dreams, I think that the car is going to be secondary to something else I’ve set my heart on. I’m hoping we will have enough saved up to buy a home of our own. I’m counting on prices to slump drastically soon after the war is over, and if we can pick up something …
… nice very cheap, I would like to do that better than anything else. Then we will have our roots down. If I’m lucky, I might make a promotion to Captain in the next six months and that would bring in another $50.— perhaps more. I think a capt with a child gets an additional $22.00. Next September, I automatically get another increase of 5% of base pay for 9 years service and that would bring in from $8.33 to $10.00 more. That’s all wishful thinking but the more I can get out of the government to make them pay for separating us, the better I’ll feel about it. That’s something that can’t be measured in dollars and cents but I think there is a hell of a lot to it.
If you can still find any clippings from newspapers about our invasion I wish you would send them to me. We would like to …
… know just what you folks have heard.
A clipping received yesterday announced the promotion in combat of our bn commander from Major to Lt. Colonel. Gibb is his name and perhaps you read about it.
There is nothing more to write about today honey so I’ll bring this letter to a close. I love you ever so much, and tell Linda her daddy loves her too.
All my love
Your John
About this letter
A homesick Sunday. John thinks about breakfast at home, then gets practical: promotions, pay raises, and a house.
THE BATTALION COMMANDERThe clipping he mentions announced the combat promotion of the 3rd Battalion’s commander, Gibb, from Major to Lieutenant Colonel.
READING CLOSELY
“It’s all well and good to be one of the boys fighting for Uncle Sam, but it’s a terrific price to pay for the absence from your family.” He did make Captain within six months, after El Guettar in the spring of 1943.
The turkeys for Christmas arrived after Christmas.
“9 years service” counts from his ROTC commission in 1934.
The Big Picture
A hard Christmas
On Christmas Eve, Admiral Darlan was shot dead in Algiers by a Frenchman opposed to Vichy. Darlan had made the deal that brought French forces over to the Allies. On Dec. 27, Gen. Henri Giraud was named to replace him.
The same day Darlan died, Eisenhower called off the attack on Tunis. On Christmas Day the Germans retook Longstop Hill. Mud would stop any new attack in the north for about two months.
The race for Tunis was lost. But Hitler was now sending troops and planes to Tunisia that he needed elsewhere.
Where he was
Near Oran, Algeria, now on the 3rd Battalion staff as intelligence officer (S-2). The 1st Division was still training around Oran while British, American and French troops held a line in the hills west of Tunis, more than 500 miles to the east.
In this letter. “Gibb” is Maj. Frederick W. Gibb, who led the 3rd Battalion ashore at Oran on Nov. 8. By July 1944 he commanded the whole 16th Infantry.