May 10, 1944 "Tore the Whole Seat Out" (Post #49)

"28 DAYS before Omaha Beach"

                                                                                                             England

                                                                  May 10, 1944

Dear Mother,
     Have three letters from you so will see if I can answer them at the same time making up a letter. I'm still well, just had a good haircut ha ha guess I'll try to take a bath if I can find the hot water then to bed.
     One thing the weather is much better here and the living conditions are far better. One other fellow and I have a room together.
     Yes, Mom, you send that card, I'll sign it then you can get something for the new baby from me. Oh heck you hope for a boy, Joe a girl so I'll be different--I want one of each how's that?  (My Aunt Helen will have the baby on August 18, 1944, but I'm not going to tell you if it was a boy or a girl or if there were twins. I'll tell you later.) Boy these three letters are long.
     Never mind about the flooring, remember Mr. Stevens' front room is finished with small pieces the same way. One thing it will be finished and as you wrote the bath room can be pasted later as you'll have to put in a window.
     Gee, you sure are having a late spring and you should see those southern boys shiver when I tell them it's snowing in April. All they say is damn the cold, ha ha.
     As for that picture and picture frame of me you do what you like. If you want it on the table of course the new frame is the best. Get whatever one enlarged you like.
     You did alright with that pen but as for me anything will do so long as it's a letter. I sure appreciate you writing so much. Guess I receive as much mail from home as anyone else in the battery if not more. I know it takes up a lot of your time.
     So Eugene made sixteen shillings and a sixpence for one hour and twenty minutes work. (Worth in 1944 about $4.00 or $3.00 an hour. Thirty cents an hour was the minimum wage in 1944 or worth $4.17 in 2017 )  I say old chap not bad that's bloody good money and the lad had a smashing good time doing it. Ha ha just a little new line of talk. If that's the way things were going with Dot I guess brother made a wise move.
     So Roy Morton was home. Seems funny how things happens and he was there. I was reading about it in the papers someplace.
     I wrote you about that note, did you get it? It's so hard to keep mail straight as it gets all mixed up on the way and we never know if the others has received all their mail or not.
     I just came to that poem you wrote in here, or should I say prayer.
     Glad to hear that Eugene has the car insured as it is a big protection. Let him use it when he likes or should I say when he can. You bet your life he's a swell kid. (Uncle Charlie is 28 and his brother is 20. So to him, Eugene is a kid or should say if in England a lad.)
     Mom, guess I'll have to close  for now. You should see the sewing job I did on a pair of fatigues. I tore the whole seat out but have the hole closed now, ha ha more of an old maid than ever. Good night, Mom dear, also all the others.
                                                          Lots of Love
                                                              Charles

Note: Aunt Helen had a boy Joseph Borek Jr. She will have five more, Robert, Stephen, Richard, Donald, and Thomas. Six sons over a 21 year period.

As I read my uncle's letter, I thought about the Diary of a Soldier that describes what these soldiers were doing that they couldn't write about in their letters they were sending home to Mom. It might explain how his fatigues were torn.

[I want to give a big thank you to Kraig Rice for sending me excepts from the book below.]

Diary Of A Soldier Alfred Whitehead II

{DISCLAIMER: IT IS WELL KNOWN ALFRED WHITEHEAD UNFORNATELY ENHANCED HIS ACIEVEMENTS IN HIS DIARY AND WILL FINALLY DESERT AND GO TO PARIS TO BECOME INVOLVED IN THE BLACK MARKET.

HOWEVER, WE DO KNOW HE WON A SILVER STAR AND THE INFORMATION BELOW LINES UP WITH WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE 2ND INFANTRY DIVISION AT THIS TIME.}

He was in Headquarters Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 38th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division during World War Two.

(Excerpts from chapter 3)
     In mid-April, we left Ireland....as we moved by rail once more to Belfast, where we embarked on a short sea voyage to an area in South Wales. There we were scattered to various billets in small seaside and inland towns. 

     Life in Wales was much the same as in Northern Ireland, except that the weather was warm and pleasant, with slow, drifting clouds and balmy air. Some passes were issued for London and all points in Great Britain, but most passes were local affairs. 

     In Wales, I took commando training. Our instructors had been trained by the British, and wore a black and white skull and cross bones patch on their left sleeve, which we were awarded also on graduation. We learned all the fine technical points of close-in, dirty, hand-to-hand killing. The fighting was simulated as close to the real thing as possible.  As rough as we were, and as dangerous as the training was, I could see that we would need it all in the days ahead.

2nd Infantry Division Ranger Skull Patch