Letter Home 10-01-1944

Here is the first of many letters home my grandfather sent to my grandmother. At first, these will be basically in the order that I pull them out of the box and transcribe them. after a while I will collect them on a new site in order.

Sunday 1800
10-01-44

Hello Darling,

Last night I could not write, because we had no lights. Something went wrong with the generator. I hope it is fixed by now. We will know in a half hour or so when it gets dark. They don’t start it up till then. Just in case though I am going to write at least a little before it is too dark.
Harry got back from leave today. He arrived while I was a way on a mission. We were dive bombing a strip of the Japs. To me the place looked deserted, but we all laid our eggs anyway. Hope we did some good.
Harry got some bad news when he opened his mail. He had about 20 letters, and the first one he opened informed him that his brother had been killed over in France. He feels pretty bad about it. He evidently thought quite a bit of him.
He brought back one qt. of gin, and one bottle of beer, so we just drank the beer. It sure tasted good. He is going to contribute the gin to the party tonight. It is almost sure there will be a party, because Capt. Blair (our C.O.) was made Major today. No doubt he will want to celebrate.
I also got about 10 letters from you too. Junior had picked them up, and put them in Harry’s foot locker, but he never told us about it. We were pleasantly surprised when he opened the foot locker. Then in the mail today I got a deck of cards from you, and a package of flat fifties cigarettes. Thank you darling very much.
I keep forgetting to do this, but one of your letters reminded me today. Would you send me a mixed box honey? You can forget about film now too by the way, since my camera was stolen.
I wish I could do something to cheer Harry up, but in a case like that there isn’t anything can be done I guess. Just let time be the healer. He did not eat anything at supper. Loaded his plate, and when he started to eat he simply lost his appetite, and just drank some coffee.
Hey – we have lights! They just came on. Kind looks, or feels rather, as if this pen is running dry. We don’t have any ink either. The only tent I know of that has some is Nixon’s. I guess I will soon have to visit him. Right now in fact!
There we are a little better now. It looks like I was right about the party. Word is just going around that it is starting, and Harry is saying lets go. Twould not surprise me if he felt like getting tight tonight.
I love you sweetheart. Always & all ways. Take good care of you for me won’t you? I love you.

Love

George