‘All That Was Left of the Place Was a Huge Pile of Stone and Debris’

February 26, 2012 Leave a Comment

Location of Eboli, Italy

Dated Nov. 24, 1943; apparently combined with another letter in an envelope postmarked Dec. 31.

Dear Folks,

I am well, happy and safe and I hope you all are the same.

I received four letters today, two from you all and one from Vince and one from Gene.

In one of your letters you said my cousins lived in Eboli. I rode all through that town about a month and a half ago. All that was left of the place was a huge pile of stone and debris, but the people were living there anyway. If I had known then that they lived there, I undoubtedly would have seen them. However, I might drop down that way in the future sometime and see them.

Send some air mail envelopes with the paper I asked for previously.

Love & Kisses,

Babe

PDF: ‘All that was left of the place was a huge pile of stone and debris’

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‘I’ll Bet Italy Is a Nice Place When It Doesn’t Rain’

February 25, 2012 Leave a Comment

Dated Nov. 23, 1943; postmarked Dec. 2.

Dear Folks,

I am well, happy and safe and I hope you all are the same.

I received two packages today, one from you and one from Aunt Mary. I don’t know what made you put the olives in, but they sure do taste good. As a matter of fact, I was hoping you’d put one can in every package. Those caramels are good, too, and I like the way you are keeping me supplied with cigarettes and gum. Aunt Mary’s package had the hard sausage and caramels and candy bars and gum in it. That was treat, too.

I’ll bet Italy is a nice place when it doesn’t rain. Right now, we are slopping around in mud up to our knees. It’s that thick, gooey, slushy stuff that you pick up more of every time you take a step. All we do here all day long is building fires to dry the mud off of our feet. The reason it takes all day to dry our feet is because we have to plow through the stuff continually to get enough wood to keep the fire going. Then again, it’s a long, muddy walk to the kitchen from here. Read more of this post

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His Fellow Radio Operator, a Package from Home and the Silly Army

February 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

From the U.S. Army publication "Naples-Foggia: The U.S. Army Campaigns of World War II." The caption on this National Archives photo says only "waging war against mud."

Dated Nov. 21, 1943; postmarked Nov. 25

Dear Mom and Pop,

I am well, happy and safe and I hope you all are the same.

I received two packages yesterday, one with the can of olives it it and another with the caramels and mirror. I could have eaten five cans of those olives, they were so good. As for the caramels, you couldn’t have sent anything I would have liked better. I was getting low on cigarettes too, but I have plenty now.

By the way, I haven’t received any letter from Mr. Morgan yet, so if I don’t receive it in the near future, I will write to him anyway.

We had all our dirty clothes washed yesterday by a couple of women who lived here. Now they are sewing our blankets for us and making them into sleep bags. They do a pretty good job on them too. This afternoon, they are due to bring some potatoes, onions, peppers and lard so we can cook in between meals. Read more of this post

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‘A Little Yankee Ingenuity the Papers Are Always Talking About’

February 22, 2012 Leave a Comment

The address book ("Compliments of the American Red Cross") that was among Babe's personal effects. This is likely not the one he asked to have sent.Dated Nov. 15, 1943; postmarked Nov. 22.

Dear Folks,

I am well, happy and safe and I hope you all are the same.

Just about everyone around here has received at least one package except me, so I guess I’ll have one within the next few days and I hope it has candy in it.

By the way, in the next package you send, enclose one good address book and a lot of pictures of everybody including, of course, one from Vince. I need the address book because I lost the one I had and in doing so, lost all communication with the outside world.

Say, do you know if anyone from Kisco in the army, navy or marines is on this side of the Mediterranean besides me? If there are, I might meet up with some of them if I knew where to look.

Furthermore, you never told me where my cousins live, but that could be because you haven’t received my letter yet. Read more of this post

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Putting in His Order for a Package of Stuff; Living High off the Natives

February 21, 2012 Leave a Comment

Dated Nov. 11, 1943; postmarked Nov. 14. There is a “parcel post” stamp from Mount Kisco, N.Y., on the letter itself, not the envelope, dated Dec. 11.

Dear Mom and Pop,

I am well, happy and safe and I hope you all are the same.

I still haven’t received any packages yet or letters from Mr. Morgan. While I think of it, you can send me another package or two. You can send me about three pads of writing paper just like the kind I am writing on now. Send about a dozen pencils, a couple of bottles of ink, about a dozen pair of the heaviest woolen socks you could find, and I mean heavy; about a dozen handkerchiefs; 4 or 5 big Hershey or Nestle bars, either with or without; a fair sized box of tea leaves, not tea balls, but tea leaves; a couple of pounds of cookies all double with cream between the cookies; also a bottle of blackberry jelly. Read more of this post

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