1944 - Page 29 of 37 - WW II Love Story, Letters from Buddy

1944 September 4 “Actually all any of us are doing is waiting for the end”

9/4/44: The Allies liberate Brussels and Antwerp.

9/4/44 Corsica

Angel:

What a sour life. Actually all any of us are doing is waiting for the end. An Air Force is predominately a planning and policy directing agency, and our future is yet too hazy to start any sensible planning. Knowing me as you do, you can realize that I am not happy sitting here drawing my pay and trying to amuse myself by study and a few trips now and then. It is not a case of laying down on the job. There is little work to do, but I know if I do it, it will merely lay in the files until no longer pertinent.

We are certainly far removed from the war in this section. Things which used to be very important look small to people up here. Personally I feel it is much more important to get sun goggles for gunners than for WAC secretaries, civilian friends, and headquarters clerks. But who am I to question the needs of the mighty. In this theater, or this AF actually, there are entirely too many cases of people who do nothing getting gravy, and those who fight not even having anything to put the gravy on. I am trying not to become bitter, but it is hard. Even in combat units, a brown nose is worth five well executed missions.

I miss you no end. I guess I’m pretty well settled as an old married man. The French liaison officers had a tea for several of us. During the afternoon, a damn cute blonde (18 years old) informed me out of a clear blue sky that she loved me. I looked a little amazed, so she tried it in 2 other languages. What to do. So ye old wolfe spends the next half hour giving her a fatherly bawling out for running around sticking her neck out that way. It was really quite funny. You can imagine what a “thrill” it is to be continually tossed at by 18-14 year old brats because I look so young.

One of the French officers, although only 22, is quite a character. He escaped to England in 41 and returned in 42 with a portable radio (all by parachute) and spent 1 ½ years reporting Jerry movements. He then came out again and has been working this end of it. He has received no medals or promotion for such splendid and dangerous work.

Write.

Love, Kitten, Cy

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1944 September 6 John Shaw–“We have been doing very good with the people here”

9/6/44 France

From John Shaw to Nena Shaw

Hi Honey:

Only a few days since I wrote to you last as I have time will do so again. Have not received any mail for the past few days but suppose it is on the way. By the way did you ever get that $50 I sent you in July and $40 in Aug. You have not mentioned it in any of the mail I have received, so would like to know. We have not been paid for Aug. as yet so have not sent any more home.

We have been doing very good with the people here.* They have brought out coffee they have been saving for 5 years, in celebration and it sure is good–more like back home than what we have been getting.

Say, how about sending that camera I had down at Crowder with all the film you can get. I think by the time it gets here there will be a lot of pictures I will be able to take and if it should not get here it would not be too much lost. If you do send it better put it in a wooden box so it won’t be smashed.

Well there is no news so will quit for now. Remember I love you.

Yours John.

*Author’s note: At this time, John’s battalion was camped at about 30 miles northwest of Paris. “We spent three days at Evecquemont helping the townspeople celebrate both the liberation of Paris and the memory of the French dead of the First World War. We made a provisional trucking company which made a trip to Belgium to transport infantrymen in their pursuit of the fast-retreating Germans. Some of the more reckless officers and enlisted men violated orders and visited Paris, fraternized with the liberated Parisians, and forever bragged about it. C’est la guerre!” Source: “92^nd Chemical Mortars” by Lt. Col. Ronald L. Martin, Cml.C.

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1944 September 7 Winter is just around the corner

9/7/44 Corsica 11 P.M.

Hi Honey:

What a war. But as Kris, one of the majors here in radar would say, it is the best one we have, so we’d better be content with it.

My schedule (pronounced shedhule by the British) is really screwed up today. I went to a party last night. Although I only had one drink of gin and juice and three of coffee, the rest of the gang weren’t quite so fortunate. So by the time I got everybody home and all set, I got 15 minutes sleep before breakfast. I put in the morning at the office and put in the afternoon in the flea sack. Now I’m not sleepy.

I came up here after supper and have spent about 2 hours working on my Everitt. Honey, I am really rusty. But the old brain is just as good as it ever was, and with effort I can dooed it.

Tom Logan, one of the finer people over here, who used to work for Automatic Electric in Chi is an EE, came in for about an hour’s boreass. We had quite an interesting discussion on how screwed up the gov’t is.

The boss, Old Dud Hale hisself, just walked in. He seemed more than impressed with the technical nature of the problem I was working on. Little things like that don’t hurt. He stated in the mess a couple of days ago (Tom gave me the dope) that he was more than satisfied with my work. That I didn’t piddle with things that weren’t mine and that I didn’t ask any questions, just got the poop, seemed to be the big points. I shall remember that and produce more of same. He is a screwball, but in spite of what a lot of lesser satellites say, he carries a terrific load. The communications end is always misunderstood, and I should not be too happy having his job, keeping a bunch of generals happy with the amount of men and equipment we have available. It is continual compromise.

After last night, I’ve about decided to give up all social life. The Corsican is a peculiar animal indeed. They are to France as the Sicilian is to Northern Italy. Some of the officers have gotten all hepped up about some of the civilians, but I wouldn’t normally be caught at a dog fight with any of them. They are about an equivalent class to a good solid constable in a town of 300 pop.

Just to show how remote the war is, blackout has been out for months, even within a few miles of the front. We are getting four bottles of American beer per week, and you can walk into the PX and buy almost anything you could sensibly need.

Winter is just around the corner, and it is quite chilly. I have had on a jacket most of the day, which is rare for me. I hate to think of another winter in canvas, but I am in better physical shape than I have been for a couple of years, so it shouldn’t be too bad this time. This lack of work has at least given me a chance to do a little swimming, and mental strain has been nil. I think this studying I have been doing has done more to make me quit worrying than any rest camp could. There is something sort of solid and stable about the old engineering problems. They are changeless.

Well, snooks, I’m not sleepy, but I guess I’d better try to get some sleep. I love you more with each passing day. Cy

P.S. Please send Burrington’s Mathematical Tables

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1944 September 8 “I’m busy as hell”

9/8/44: The Germans launch the first V-2 rocket on Britain.

9/8/44: V-Mail, Corsica

Angel:

It sure is pleasant to sit here looking at your picture. In fact, it is so pleasant it makes it difficult to study at times.

I’m gradually grinding through Everitt, but is an effort. I have forgotten some of my math, but my chief difficulty is that I haven’t used it for so long, I am slow and clumsy and make innumerable mistakes. But I am doing it thoroughly, which should result in a solid knowledge.

Everyone over here is waiting for the end of the war, without even any good rumors about what then.

I was quite amazed to receive a letter from Bob Webb. I forwarded it to you.

I haven’t had a letter from you for weeks. Be a good gal.

I love you, Cy

9/8/44 [#2] Corsica

Honey:

Got your two letters today.

The chair is about what I’d like.

You probably strained your arm working. Take it easy.

AWVS sounds ok, but take it easy and don’t tie yourself down.

Please send Sokolnikoff’s Math for Engineers & Physicists. If you can’t get the others in one package, let me know which ones to re-request.

#48 [Bombing mission supporting invasion of southern France] was over very unfriendly territory (at the time) but you can see the address above.

The pajamas were strictly for private consumption—and I do expect to see you (or thru) them.

You’ve probably gotten my letter requesting a monthly statement, so I won’t repeat. Heck, you should have the 500-1000-1000 deal all set by now, with the $320 you’ve already rcv’d & the $500 I just sent after that, take any I send and split it half furniture and half bonds (instead of savings as I once suggested).

The car plate and insurance sounds good.

That’s all for now. I’m busy as hell.

Love you, Cy

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1944 September 10 A driving tour of Corse

9/10/44 Corsica

Honey:

Last night I helped celebrate the anniversary of the first year of liberation of Corsica. This morning I didn’t feel much like working, as you can well imagine. So I drove all around Café Corse [Corsica]. The fresh air (and aspirins) left me in pretty fair shape.

It was an interesting trip. I saw a windmill of a most peculiar type. The vanes were mounted horizontally, and supported on top of the storage tank.

They grow a lot of field corn here, but it is used solely for feeding chickens. As there is a nearly perpetual wind, it grows on the bias, each stalking leaning about 45 degrees.

Cork trees are also common. The cork bark is stripped off to a height of about 2 meters, leaving a smooth inner bark exposed. This stripping makes the trees look like the legs of a poodle which have been sheared halfway up.

Each little town has at least once church. Over here, instead of having real bell towers which are square, these are ersatz as show in sketch. The whole business is made of stone.

The vehicles on the road were all made before 1925, many of them dating back to 1914. The enclosure is a sketch I made of a bright little red number. It was a “Moon.” There are also some old air-cooled “Franklins,” and some “Stanley Steamers.”

We stopped in a little restaurant for lunch. The people were as clean as those back home. Lunch was not bad. We had a salad of greens, tomatoes, onion, & garlic with French dressing. This was followed by some pasta (like dumplings). Then we had some corn on the cob and an omelet with more salad. Dessert consisted of a peach about 4 inches in diameter. Although the outside of the kettles in which they cook was left absolutely black by charcoal & wood fires, the inside was polished copper.

The phone on the wall, although normal in Europe, looks like something from 1900. A French sailor and his wife and little boy were also eating there. Their uniforms are quite colorful. The hats have little red puff balls on them, and their vests are white with ½ inch blue horizontal stripes.

That’s the dope for now. I hope our mail starts coming through again.

Love, Cy

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