Monday · Feb. 8, 1943
OH Happy Day.
Mail at last, and her picture.
Feb 8, 1943
My Darling Wife—you honey.
Last night as I was eating that chow I had been waiting all afternoon for, word came that mail had come in. Confidentially I dumped my chow—mostly beans—and ran to mail orderly. OH Happy Day. Guess what I got.
Your letters of Oct 28, 29, & Jan 2, 5, 6 & 8 and a letter from Kitty of Jan 5th—but that is nothing. I got what I wanted more than anything else—and is it swell! Your airmail of Oct 29th had your picture in it and are you the honey. You said the picture wasn’t too good but I think it’s damn good. If it were any better you would be in the movies.
In your letter of Oct 29th you told me about your trouble but in the last letters you said you were O.K. Take care of yourself honey or it may come back and become chronic and that would be hell.
Your letter of Jan 2nd was especially good—a real long one. You had just finished a strenuous New Years day working at Dad’s. You also stated you had received my letters of Dec 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.—how’s that for letter writing—one a day!
I surely enjoyed your description of the things Linda says—she must be quite a little girl. I miss the opportunity to be with her and play with her.
Jan 5th you wrote another nice long letter. How does Linda look with her new permanent? How about a snapshot—I’m not sure that the 5% tax will be on members of the armed forces. We don’t get copies of the laws so I can’t tell what will happen. It may be that we will be …
… exempted. At least those serving overseas.
The question of buying a car is a more serious problem. I’m not so sure that I recommend committing ourselves until we find out how things come out. However, I leave everything in your hands—use your best judgment.
I’ve gone over the allotment situation many times so will not repeat. My letter of about Jan 1st [went?] over the subject. As to the travel pay be sure to write in about it. There may be an argument about it because after Sept 1st you cannot get travel pay for dependents except once. If they contend that is the case, you write in and tell them that the trip was completed, all except a few miles, in August.
The letter of Jan 6th was the best yet 5 pages on both sides. So Karl & Margie are expecting. …
Don’t let that worry you any—we will have ours in due time—and in the old fashioned way.
You were wrong as to my location; at the time you wrote I was west, now east of that place—and we’re now in those hills you wrote about. I hope you aren’t working too much. Dad will have his troubles—but he needn’t try to work my wife to death.
Your letter of Jan 8th acknowledged my Xmas telegrams—better late than never.
Well I must get to work. It’s 9 A.M. and all I’ve done this morning is read your letters and answer them. I’ll give you a kiss via picture—give Linda a few hugs for me.
All my love
Your
John
About this letter
Four pages in pencil, written at 9 A.M. the morning after the mail came in.
ANSWERING BY DATEHe works through her letters in order: Oct. 28 and 29, then Jan. 2, 5, 6 and 8. The October letters took more than three months.
WHERE HE ISGinny had guessed his location. He says she was wrong: he had been west of the place she named and was now east of it, “in those hills you wrote about.”
READING CLOSELY
“If it were any better you would be in the movies.” About the photograph of Ginny that came in her Oct. 29 airmail letter.
“Working at Dad’s”: which father is not clear. His Dec. 19, 1942 letter also mentions “working for Dad.”
A permanent was a permanent wave, a curling treatment; Linda was two.
The Big Picture
Two Axis armies
By February the Allies faced two Axis armies in Tunisia. Gen. Hans-Jürgen von Arnim’s Fifth Panzer Army (panzer means armored) held the north. Rommel’s army, chased across Libya by the British Eighth Army, fell back to the Mareth Line, a row of French forts in southern Tunisia. It got there Feb. 15.
The Allied front ran through the mountains in three sectors: British, French and American. Rommel feared an Allied push through those mountains could cut his army’s supply line from Tunis.
Where he was
Central Tunisia, at the front. He later recalled his 3rd Battalion on a blocking mission in the Ousseltia Valley, where the 16th Infantry held the north end of the line.
In this letter. The “5% tax” was the new Victory Tax, withheld from American paychecks starting Jan. 1, 1943.