Tuesday · Feb. 2, 1943
A pretty, short name for a jeep.
From a dugout, since before daylight.
Feb 2, 1943.
My Darling Wife
Another day—very much like a Calif. summer day. Since before daylight I have been sitting in a dugout watching the Axis try to find us. The artillery dueling is interesting to watch—but rather nerve wracking. I hope my nerves hold out.
I had my bar of fortified chocolate for lunch and will take my vitamin pills soon.
These German planes are a little leery of …
Pieced together from two scans. The letter is torn here.
… attacking large groups of our troops but they love to attack Jeeps—the dirty rats
There should be some more mail in during the next few days. I hope to get some from you for I haven’t received any for about three weeks. I miss those swell letters and hope they will be coming in soon. I still don’t have your picture so please send another right away
How’s my Linda after two weeks? I have a jeep and as soon as I can get some paint I’m going to name it Virginia or Linda. Virginia seems a little stilted so I made [name it?] Linda—a pretty, short name for a jeep
I love you honey—I’m just reminding you. Those future years are going to be awfully full to make up for this time the war has taken.
I have to close this letter now and make the trip back to the bivouac area.
I keep my fingers crossed every time I’m out of my hole.
Tonight we are supposed to have chili, beans & spaghetti. I’m looking forward to it with relish.
Till tomorrow
All my love
John
About this letter
Written in pencil on a sheet that is now in pieces. Two weeks had passed since his last letter, and he hadn’t had mail from Ginny in three weeks.
“FORTIFIED CHOCOLATE”The D ration: a dense emergency chocolate bar made to resist melting and, by design, not taste too good.
THE JEEPHe considered “Virginia,” Ginny’s full name, but found it “a little stilted.”
READING CLOSELY
“Those future years are going to be awfully full to make up for this time the war has taken.” “I keep my fingers crossed every time I’m out of my hole.”
“The Axis” means the German and Italian forces. “My hole” is his foxhole.
The envelope was scanned with this letter. Its postmark month can’t be read.
He was battalion intelligence officer, so watching the enemy “try to find us” was part of his job.
The Big Picture
Surrender at Stalingrad
On Jan. 31 the German commander at Stalingrad, Friedrich Paulus, surrendered. Hitler had made him a field marshal the day before. The last Germans in the city gave up on Feb. 2. About 91,000 starving, sick and wounded men were taken prisoner.
Stalingrad is generally seen as the turning point of the war in Europe.
In Tunisia the Germans kept pushing. On Jan. 30 and 31 they took Faïd Pass, a key gap in the mountains.
Where he was
Central Tunisia, at the front. He later recalled his 3rd Battalion on a blocking mission in the Ousseltia Valley. On Jan. 28 and 29 the 16th Infantry took over the north end of the valley line from the French.
In this letter. The German planes hunting jeeps were part of the fighting for the valley; on Jan. 31 the 16th’s 2nd Battalion fought its first battle with the Germans nearby.