10/26/43 Mission:
In Italy, XII Air Support Command and RAF DAF fighters and fighter-bombers attack gun emplacements and road junctions in the battle area along the E coast and in the center of Italy, also destroying many vehicles and parked aircraft in the Ancona area, where railroad facilities are also hit; a schooner at Porto Civitanova is left smoking; medium bombers of the NATBF bomb Terracina and an ammunition dump.
10/26/43 V-Mail, Italy
Hi Toughy:
Hey, Babe, hows about coming up and looking at my etchings tonight? So far, I have letters 1, and 4, which gives me hope, knowing that I have 2 and 3 on the way. Don’t start a new series every month as that would confuse me.
Jerry just dropped a flare through the rain. Vance and Jax and Burt are reading while we listen to the rain and the radio. I’ve been working on the equation covering why we get hit by flak. After five days, I come out that 1=1, which proves I didn’t make any mistakes, but didn’t use the correct approach either.
I wish I was on the staff Jimmy is Chief of. Next to Norm, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather work for.
Hey, you. No more cracks about me not writing Tom last year. I only wrote him 3 times, to his zero. And I still don’t see why Baldy can’t answer my letters. I’ve written about four. Got another letter from Obie today. Give him a buzz and tell him how darn swell it is of him to keep writing. I know darn well he has as little time to write as anyone.
The various field desk strategists are giving 10:1 that Germany will collapse by Dec. 1 Yeah! The same guys said Jerry was out of ammunition on Cap Bon, and yet shot us up to minutes before the armistice and had plenty of ammo then. The only guy who can safely lay bets ain’t talking—Herr Hitler. From the activity of the Huns in Flak alley, I’m not taking these optimistic views too seriously.
I see the baseball hero Zeke Bonura* has been awarded the fourth highest gong, the Legion of Merit—for organizing baseball teams in North Africa. Isn’t that sweet!
Lots of love, Cy.
*See: http://www.baseballinwartime.com/player_biographies/bonura_zeke.htm