Tuesday · Jan. 12, 1943
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Hugs and kisses by mail, and 125 francs for a souvenir.
Jan 12, 1943
My Darling Wife
A very busy day is just finished. It is now 8 P.M. and since 8 A.M. I have been on the go constantly. I haven’t shaved for over two days and I don’t look too nice. I need a bath and don’t know where I will get one
For the past few days the wind has been really blowing—about 20–40 miles per hour—and it has been cold with a little rain mixed in. It is now howling through the trees above me.
To climax it all, the tooth next to the one I had taken out and the one above it are giving me a hell of a time. I can’t get completely rid of the gingivitis and I don’t feel too good. Tomorrow I am going to see the dentist—maybe I’ll be minus two more teeth tomorrow night. If so I’m praying they do a good job this time. My teeth have been giving me hell ever since I left home. I scrub them thoroughly at least once each day—sometimes twice and that has always been sufficient.
I got a package today—but still not the right one. It was a package of candy from Madge—mailed when she was in Denver Colorado. They are very good chocolates. Honey. I want that picture of you so bad—and I want lots of other pictures of you and Linda as the weeks go by. It is almost impossible to get good pictures made here …
… but I know you can get them there and I want those pictures more than all other things combined.
I sent in two things to Finance today.
1. Change of address for you from [street address left out] to [street address left out]
2. Change of allotment from $210.00 to $235.00 commencing March 1st. My last allotment for $210.00 commenced Sept 1.—That means you will get your 1st check under the new allotment early in April. As things look now I’ll still be able to send some more money home. There is nothing to spend it on. I am enclosing a copy of the allotment—and after rereading note the failure to put the new address on. I’ll get it changed tomorrow if it has not gone in.
I am also sending in this letter some French money that I want you to keep as souvenir for me.—75 francs = 1 Dollar. I am enclosing 125 francs or almost $2.00
I’ve been hoping for a letter from you today but with no luck—Mañana, maybe. Darling you mean so much to me that those letters are the most precious thing in the world—next to the pictures I want. Sweetheart I love you and here’s a lot of hugs & kisses by mail XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO—Give Linda a few from me
Goodnight my love
Your
John
About this letter
Two large pages written at 8 P.M. in the field, with the wind “howling through the trees above me.”
ENCLOSEDA copy of his pay allotment form and 125 French francs, “almost $2.00,” as a souvenir. Whether the francs survive is unknown.
THE ADDRESSESThe first address was his parents’ house; the second was Ginny’s own place.
READING CLOSELY
“Those letters are the most precious thing in the world—next to the pictures I want.” Ginny’s photograph still hadn’t arrived.
Madge is probably the Madge of “Carl & Madge” in his Dec. 29, 1942 letter.
The dentist visit comes in the next letter.
The Big Picture
A secret meeting
On Jan. 14, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill met in secret at Casablanca, in French Morocco. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin did not come. He said the battle at Stalingrad kept him in Moscow.
For ten days they planned the next stage of the war. Their biggest decision: after North Africa, the Allies would invade Sicily, the island at the toe of Italy’s boot. A landing in France would have to wait.
They also agreed to step up the bombing of Germany.
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.