Sunday · March 14, 1943
The lucky guy.
Rain, air mail envelopes, and a windfall for Lt. McBride.
March 14, 1943
My Darling Wife.
Well, I have time to write so here goes. The rain is with us as usual. The sun is now coming out (2 hrs later) Maybe it will dry up for a change.
Yesterday when I was at the A.P.O. I got some air mail envelopes—16. Now I’ll be able to air-mail my letters for a while more. Yesterday I mailed a letter containing a money order for $90= and hope you get it. I’ll keep repeating that I sent it for a few more days so you can watch for it.
Lt. McBride, received 6 months extra pay (it [was] found he had been entitled to more pay each month) amounting to almost $500= for January. As a result he made $250= without turning a hand—merely by the change in value of the franc. He’s sending home $900= the lucky guy. He won some more at poker. Mine is regular—and I know what I’ve got each month. Next month I’ll probably send $150= home—$50= pay, & $100 extra uniform allowance. After that I won’t have much coming to me because you will start getting $235= in April.
Despite increased costs of living we will still be able to save quite a bit.
—Next day—
It’s cold this morning—but no rain. We just had breakfast—5 hot cakes with syrup—Welch’s Cherry Jam, coffee. It was very good.
Right now it looks as though all I’ll have time for is to finish this letter and get it to the mail clerk.
Goodbye—now, honey. See you tomorrow if I can write. I love you as always—Give the princess my kiss.
All my love
Your
John
About this letter
Two pages, started March 14 and finished the next morning.
THE FRANCThe exchange rate for French North African francs had been changed early in 1943, so francs paid out earlier were suddenly worth more in dollars.
THE ALLOTMENTOfficers could have part of their pay sent straight home. Ginny’s $235 a month would start in April.
READING CLOSELY
“Mine is regular—and I know what I’ve got each month.” Starting in April, Ginny would get $235 a month directly.
A.P.O. is the Army Post Office.
Lt. McBride appears in his 1942 letters from Algeria.
The Big Picture
The eve of Gafsa
He finished this letter on the morning of March 15. Two days later the 1st Division moved on Gafsa.
That same day, March 15, German troops retook Kharkov in Russia, the last big German victory on the Eastern Front.
Where he was
Central Tunisia, finishing the letter on March 15, two days before the attack on Gafsa.
In this letter. “See you tomorrow if I can write”: his next surviving letter is dated March 18, after Gafsa fell.