Link to Family Tree to understand family relationships.
Today we have a third letter from Harry – clearly he was catching up on correspondence. Apparently he had used up or no longer has access to the Fort Warren stationery he used for the letters posted on August 16 and 17. It is interesting to see what he writes to different members of his family about the same experience.
August 17, 1943
Beloved Sister,
Many thanks for your letter of July 23rd.
Excuse my writing in pencil, the reason for which is the fact that I am operating under actual field conditions now. That means that a lot of accommodations (with which we were overspoiled at Ft. Warren) have been cut out – the only thing for me to do here is to go to the post movie or to San Bernardino. There are no tables to write letters no, no ink – just sand. Sand is everywhere: in and around my tent, as far as the eye can see, in my meals, in coffee, and in my mouth every morning.
This post is a Desert Training Center; the name of it and of certain places here, such as Mecca, Sahara, Gobi, and Indio, will give you an idea of the heat and other things.
Before I came here I stayed in Indio for a couple of days, at a small replacement camp. Well, when we arrived there at midnight the thermometer read 125°. The following morning I woke up sweating; I started sweating just rolling my eyes – such an effort! In addition to the heat P-38 type mosquitoes bothered me all the time. You may not know it but there are two kinds of things that make me feel like running amok, namely heat & mosquitoes and flies buzzing around me. You can imagine what a combination of those things would arouse in me. The two days in Indio were miserable ones, indeed. I like it here in S.B. much better in as far as the nights are nice and cool and there are only flies and ants pestering me – no P-38’s!
We drive around in convoys getting used to heat and lukewarm drinking water. Burrrr.
Well, I am certainly glad that you and Tillie finally understand each other. Say, on your visiting tours did you ever look up the Fulda’s? If you didn’t, maybe you can do it now. I’ve been thinking about something to send them. Any suggestions? How is Paul getting along in regards to his health? Give my regards to the Travis’s, a.s.o.
I hope I get my three-day pass pretty soon so that I can see you before I go across (rumors are going around to that effect). When I’m over there you’ll be receiving V-mail; isn’t that just too, too wonderful and exciting?
While I was in Indio, I decided to drink a Tom Collins (the heat, you know) and went to one of the two drinking spots of that town – the Hawaiian Club. They soaked my half a dollar & forgot to put the gin in. That’s what I get for drinking.
Well, that’s all.
Your loving soldier
HarryP.S. What do sheets look like and what is a pillow?
P.P.S. I don’t think I sent you any of the popular songs yet. Here they are.
We saw an example of and learned about V-Mail in the February 3 and March 14 posts.
Harry uses the acronym “a.s.o.” for “and so on” which I hadn’t seen before. It is reminiscent of the German “u.s.w” which means the same thing. I wonder whether he was giving a subtle wink to his sister of their shared past. Helene mentioned the Fuldas in several of her letters and we have a photo of her with the patriarch of the family in the February 18 post. They had provided financial assistance in the unsuccessful attempt to bring Helene and Vitali to the U.S. in 1941.
Harry isn’t referring to real mosquitoes in his letters, but to fighter planes. He confused the names of two different brands of planes: the American Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the British de Haviland DH.98 Mosquito. The link takes you to a video of the two planes flying together. The Smithsonian has a video about the design of the P-38.
It appears that Harry was stationed at Camp Young, which according to the BLM Desert Training Center brochure was quite close to Mecca.