Wednesday · Jan. 20, 1943
But I’ll never forget yesterday.
Over the mountains, toward the front.
Jan 20, 1943
My Darling Wife
Yesterday we kept going so long I couldn’t get the opportunity to write to you. But I’ll never forget yesterday. From the beautiful agricultural country we went up. The Rim of the World Drive and the scenery at Arrowhead + Big Bear could not compare with it. The principal difference is that we have no Arabs in the U.S. If we did they would cultivate the mountains as well as the valleys. They plow the almost perpendicular slopes of the mountains. At about the [6000?] foot level we came to rolling tableland and it also is cultivated.
We also saw the Arabs construct new roads. They compare favorably with our own …
… so it is astonishing to us to see that it is all done by hand. They do some excellent stone masonry in constructing bridges, underpasses + culverts. The rocks are crushed and carefully laid for a roadbed.
Olive trees are everywhere, and the tangerines are quite numerous as well as grapes. The Arabs apparently have plenty of chickens because they have lots of eggs to sell.
We were up near the snow line last night—and are again today. It was awfully hot at noon [today?], but last night it was bitter cold. My shelterhalf was frozen stiff by the frost when …
… I got up this morning.
We bought about 2 doz eggs yesterday and the same number today. This morning I got up too late for breakfast and have had only dates, boiled eggs, + biscuits to eat, and I won’t get much else until the kitchen truck starts operation this evening. At present I have nothing to do so am getting this letter written.
This morning I saw my first camel, and I have seen several of those walled cities “Arabia” is noted for. The natives in this area don’t speak Spanish, but stick to French and Arabic. It therefore looks as though my meager Spanish is not going to help me at all
I hope to see Gil tomorrow—if I get a chance to see him. They keep us pretty busy—nothing important—but little things to do
How is my little princess behaving? I’ll get the answer to that question in the next letter I get from you—your letters have been swell and make the time I’ve spent away from you shorter. It always seems as though I’ll be seeing you mañana. I hope that mañana gets here soon. I love you both so much and I want to get back home and be a father + husband—and not a soldier. I’ll try to be a hell of a lot better at that job than I am as a soldier—
There is nothing more I can write about so will close.
All my love
Your
John
About this letter
Four pages in pencil, three days after his warning that the letters would stop. He couldn’t say where the battalion was going. He could describe the scenery.
CALIFORNIA COMPARISONSThe Rim of the World Drive, Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear are in the San Bernardino Mountains above Los Angeles, a drive Ginny would have known.
GILEsther’s husband, already at the front. Seeing him meant John had arrived there too.
READING CLOSELY
“I want to get back home and be a father + husband—and not a soldier.” “I’ll try to be a hell of a lot better at that job than I am as a soldier.”
He writes that he couldn’t write Jan. 18 or 19 (“we kept going so long”), yet a letter dated Jan. 19 survives. See that letter for the date puzzle.
A shelter half is one half of a two-man pup tent.
“The little princess” is his daughter Linda.
The Big Picture
The Germans strike first
On Jan. 18 the Germans attacked French troops in the mountains of central Tunisia. The French fought well, but they had few heavy weapons or radios. American units, including part of the 1st Division, were rushed in to help.
On Jan. 23 the British Eighth Army took Tripoli, Libya. Rommel’s army kept retreating west, toward Tunisia.
On Jan. 24 Roosevelt told reporters at Casablanca that the Allies would accept only unconditional surrender. Germany, Italy and Japan would have to give up completely, with no deals.
Where he was
On the road east by truck, through the mountains of Algeria toward Tunisia. Later he gave the route as Algiers, Constantine and Tebessa: about 600 miles.
In this letter. His “6000 foot level” and snow line were the Tell Atlas mountains of eastern Algeria.