9/26/43 Mission:
WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN (Twelfth Air Force): In Italy, fighters, and light and medium bombers of the XII Air Support Command, NATBF, and RAF DAF patrol the battle zone, escort convoys, carry out bombing and strafing sweeps against motor transport in the Benevento-Melfi area and N of Foggia, bomb the Pomigliano landing ground, and hit the town of Sarno and military concentrations to the N. Bad weather prevents XII Bomber Command heavy bomber missions.
9/27/43 Mission:
In Italy, weather almost halts Twelfth Air Force operations; XII Air Support Command fighters strafe Viterbo Airfield and Bracciano seaplane base, bomb a road junction at San Servero, and strafe a locomotive and the train station; other NATAF airplanes hit trucks in the Benevento area.
9/28/43 Mission:
In Italy, weather prevents completion of XII Bomber Command B-17 missions against the Bologna marshalling yard and the Bolzano railroad bridge, except for 1 heavy bomber which bombs Bolzano; tactical aircraft operations are also severely curtailed by weather; fighter-bombers bomb and strafe motor transport in the Benevento-Caserta area. On the ground in Italy, the US Fifth Army is ready for an assault on Naples and Avellino. Caistellamare di Stabia, Nocera, and Sala Consilina are taken.
9/29/43 Mission:
In Italy, XII Bomber Command B-25's and B-26's bomb bridges at or near Piana, Castelvenere, Amorosi, and Cancello Amone; P-38's bomb Ausonia defile and a bridge near San Apollinare; US and RAF tactical aircraft hit the town of San Giorgio del Sannio and roads in the area S of Benevento. On the ground in Italy, the US Fifth Army opens an attack on Avellino during the night of 29/30 Sep. General Dwight D Eisenhower and Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign the Italian surrender document on the battleship HMS Nelson off Malta.
9/29/43
Hi Darling:
I’m out of stamps and only have two V-mail blanks left, so I guess I’ll have to write this way. It probably won’t get there for months.
Some of my yellow little friends in the sub patrol business out of Casablanca have been sent home with “war nerves.” My God, they haven’t even been shot at yet by flak or fighter, and have been living on a regular schedule and living in buildings.
It seems that a good part of war fatigue comes from not having the conveniences of home. Frankly, toilets, table cloths, beds, and four walls scare me. One of my problems of rehabilitation will be learning how to live inside. If I only had you, I would be happier than I’ve ever been in my life. The freedom from the many petty customs of an overly civilized country will be hard to forego after the war. It is rather a shock to me to see grown men, fearless in combat, go to pieces because they don’t have a shiny toilet seat, or sheets, or some other gadget which is really not essential.
After the war, there will probably be a separate air corps. If there is, and I am offered a reasonable rank, I shall probably accept, and do my Master’s degree on government time.
If this does not occur, I shall have several possibilities. In any case, a bachelor’s degree will be the first step. After that, I don’t know. I’m still vitally interested in Radio Engineering, but I have found in the past four years that there are other equally interesting fields. It is a serious temptation to start teaching as a profession. I like that type of work; it would give us a good chance to continue studying indefinitely. By proper budgeting, we would spend the summers traveling or in some inexpensive resort.
There is one other possibility well worth considering. Willy Gaus wants to team up with me on a consulting engineering company. As he puts it, I get more ideas per day than anyone he knows, and 60% of them are good. With his mechanical engineering and my EE [Electrical Engineering], and the way we get along together, we should do well. In any case, if we go back to Purdue, Willy says we can count on a weekly visitor from Indianapolis. He says he’ll sleep on the beer shelf of the ice box.
Well, honey, it seems like tempting fate to think so far ahead in my present profession, but I’m’ sure it won’t make any difference. Right now, I’m working on a bomb-sight which really looks hot. I wish you were here to work on the exposition of same.
I love you, Cy