10/20/44: Philippines: MacArthur returns to retake Manilla. See https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/macarthur-returns
PART VII: BACK IN ENGINEERING
10/20/44: CY starts new position as Operations Engineer for the 12TH Air Force.
10/22/44
Hi Honey:
Don’t be surprised at anything that happens, for this is an Italian machine and has a keyboard which is far from standard; The punctuation marks are all over hell, and the numbers are upper-case instead of lower. Then there are such letters as e, e, c, and a [with accents] all of which are part of the Italian alphabet;
I’ll bet the WACS hate this damn thing;
I just got a letter from you, and shall try to answer it. Cookies sound good; Norm will probably enjoy his more than any kid I can think of. He is pretty swell people; Hankies are under control as they can be bought at the PX for less than nothing. You might send me some more T-shirts if you get a chance. They were very nice; Yesterday, I took inventory and found that I was down to two winter uniforms plus my blouse and pinks. I went out to PX and bought 3 pr. of pants and 2 shirts—and am I broke now;
I am back in a perfectly grand hotel, and having lots of fun taking baths, eating off table cloths, etc; I don’t know how long it will last, but it looks like I’m fixed for the winter.
If things work out, I shall take the boss’s job in the very near future as he is going home. So far, I haven’t done much of anything, but I’ve done more in the two days I’ve been here than I did in six months in the last job. I heard last night that my former boss thought I was fooling when I told him I was going to accept this job; Well, he’s out of luck now. I hope I didn’t make him angry, for I truly like him. But he just wasn’t up to what I want for a boss. The present one seems to be well versed in both his Army and his engineering.
My sister has done writ me a letter. This makes the fourth one in twenty-eight years. I shall spend the next week trying to translate it, and then sit down and write an answer.
I bought some size 44 pants to use as material for one of these flying mess boy jackets people are wearing now. If I can find a tailor who can make one, I shall send you a picture. I should look like the doorman at Macy’s basement. The latest gag are these gold bars on the sleeve, one for each six months overseas. Maybe I should buy the little gold bullet I’m authorized to wear as a 1st class gunner in FA (ROTC), and a few other odds and ends;
As you have probably noticed, the semi-colon is where the period is supposed to be. I have trouble remembering it.
Snooks, the travel situation is pretty well fixed, and there isn’t a hell of a lot I can do about it; My policy of not being a BTO has worked out fairly well so far. Everyone else has spent all of their time trying to get to Cairo, France, etc., and yet I have been sent to all of these places without asking for it, and had a private airplane to do it in. (Maybe the trip home will come the same way. I’ve been on orders twice but it naturally fell through. I don’t get excited about anything any more.)
That’s all except, I love you. Cy
10/22/44
From Cy to his sister, Nena Shaw
Sis:
This is an Italian machine, and the keyboard is not standard, so don’t be surprised at anything that comes out.
What in hell is that horrible present you and Marty are so worried about my liking? Both of you are acting like I was going to blow up. I hope it isn’t a ring, for to wear something like that would drive me nuts. Well, I’ll put out a good story in any case.
Yep, it’s hard back there, admittedly. It is damned easy here, for I really haven’t been in combat but a few minutes since about last April. And I can probably say that the war is over for me. While I had my job in the comm section, it was most unsatisfactory, and I asked to be returned to combat twice. But now that I’m here in operational-engineering, things look a little brighter. But Sis, think about this. I know people here who haven’t been home for five and more years; people who have lived for months at Casino with Germans on one side and us on the other, families of five and six, all in different parts of the world and not even knowing whether or not the rest are alive. One thing that the average observant officer has learned here is that it is impossible in America for a situation to exist 1/10th as bad as the normal here. I’ve eaten cooked grass which we would serve to cows (and they would too, normally) and liked it; seen high class families with dirty faces because soap couldn’t be purchased even on the black market. I know an old man in Corsica who has studied law in all of the big schools of the world, and owns all sorts of property—reduced to having to stay home because he only owned one pair of pants. I picked up a woman with a master’s degree from Columbia—walking barefoot down the street to town, saving her shoes until she got to town where it meant something. I know you can’t even conceive of these things, for I couldn’t either before I saw them, but even the lowest American has not to stand these things which are commonplace here;
Well, it sounds pretty ghastly, but these people are making the best of it and laughing just like before the war. Most Americans think them irresponsible, but I know them well and it hurts them like it would us—but they have the will-power not to let it throw them for a loss.
Don’t let the wooden shoes fool you. All shoes in this part of the world are wood, for the army has gotten all the leather for years.
Pat my little gal on the fanny once in a while—she used to slap me for it, but liked it. Don’t worry about John—as the fighting now is nothing to what it was in this part of the world. I don’t mean to make light of the splendid work they are doing, but fighting with adequate supplies, hospitalization, etc. is a big improvement over our situation in Africa a couple of years back. And the ability to go to sleep at night and know no one is going to drop anything on you is a help.*
When I moved up here, I had a hell of a time not spitting on the floor, throwing hunks of gristle and radish leaves on the floor, etc. I didn’t realize how primitive I had gotten in the past couple of years; I still have trouble unpacking and putting my things away, for I have lived out of a bag for just over three years now.
I give Marty a lot of things to do, but I feel that that is better than not ever asking her to bother with things. At least she can feel that she has a part in what little I’m doing over here. Altho it seems like I am doing very little, I guess if you added up all the little bull sessions in which my past experience helps someone to make a decision, I probably contribute a little bit. Then I am doing my usual amount of studying, so that I am gradually learning more and more about less and less. The definition of a good army officer is one who learns less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything. That is true, as war has become so complicated, it is impossible for one man to know more than a smattering of the many tools available to a combat commander. I am gradually getting back into the specialized engineering end of it, and I believe I shall do all right in it. But it is a hell of a lot easier to lead troops in combat than it is to sit behind a damned desk and do the really binding planning that goes before an operation. I think I am in a position now to say which is hardest, for I have done both.
That is about all for now. Don’t worry, I shall try to be pleased with the fantastic flumdunny** which is being sent here. Who knows, I might even like it! I’m not much on Christmas myself. I prefer to just buy things as I see them and send them to whoever I think would like them. Prices around here are out of this world, and I am not worried, for I know now that I shall never be content to live in America. I shall get back here and make my purchases when the war has gone away.
Be a good gal, and keep the old lip stiff. As we say over here, “Things are tough all over. Have the chaplain punch your tough-shitsky ticket.”
Love, Cy.
Will write John
*When Cy makes statements like this, it is difficult to tell if he is painting a rosy picture to put his sister at ease so she won’t worry about her husband being in danger, or does he believe that conditions are so much easier for the infantry in France? For example, here is a quote from “Stars & Stripes”, Oct. 21, 1944: “Aachen Captured By Isl Army Fall Of City Opens Road To Cologne SHAEF, Oct. 20—Aachen, the “Cassino” of the Siegfried Line, has fallen. Mud-caked troops of the American 1st Army, climaxing more than six weeks of bitter house-to-house fighting, wiped out late this afternoon the last vestige of enemy resistance within the city. • Occupation of the entire city was completed just ten days after an ultimatum was delivered to the Germans calling for unconditional surrender or a choice of total destruction.” This was information available to the general public as well as troops.
And when he talks about how Americans cannot imagine the hardships that the Europeans endure, surely he was aware, just a few years earlier, many Americans who had enjoyed comfortable lives were left penniless and homeless in the Great Depression.
**I’m pretty sure Cy invented this word.
10/22/44
Marfy:
Just a line before bed. The voltage here is low, and light is not too good.
The last three books (Pierce, Sokolnikoff, and Burrington) arrived this afternoon. Thanks. If I study everything I have here, I shall be a very smart engineer indeed.
I had a chance to attend a concert on a trip ended today, and am enclosing the program for the scrap book. It was not up to the best symphonies in America, but was good. The old maestro put on a show like a cheer-leader at a homecoming. You could see him pull each note out of the musicians. His work served to stress the altos and the percussion section.
The first selection is well known. The second selection’s first movement, “The Pines of Villa Borghese,” is a weird thing which really makes you see the massive pines of the Villa (they are beautiful). The other 3 movements are equally good, but not of the unconstrained type of the first.
The third selection is one of these prim, precise things which almost reminds me of puppets dancing. The chorus was excellent, and it was repeated after much clapping.
4 was mediocre. #5 was sung by the soloist, and was excellent. 6 is well known and was well done.
The new job is panning out damn well this far. As near as I can tell, all I have to do to stay in favor is fly 16 hours monthly. That, as you must realize, will be quite an effort—just like drinking beer. My new boss knows more about engineering than I do—and that is a wholely new & novel experience. I like it. This think is too good. Must be something wrong with it.
Good night, honey. Hard as it is, just realize we can be thankful I am definitely coming home someday, and in one piece. That should be a comforting thought.
Did I tell you I own a piccolo now? I’ll be able to whistle at you on it when I get home. Incidentally, my piccolo has “Le Grand Prix” stamped on it in gold!(?)
Night, Cy
