Camp McCoy in the Words of My Uncle: 2019-11-03

Saturday, November 9, 2019

POST NINE ( In Memory of WW I & All Veterans ) 22 Jan 1943

101 years since posted in 2019
Veterans Day Weekend
Armistice Day

Division Headquarters ~ Camp McCoy

Jan 22, 1943

Friday night 7:00

Dear Mom & All,

Have had a couple of letters from you but have not received my package you sent. Gee, has it been cold out here. To-day was the best day we have had. Then it was a little hazy overhead. It was quite warm. Wish the sun would shine more. I am getting back in the grind again with a little more pep. My throat feels nearly O.K. It is so hard to go out in that cold air early in the morning with a sore throat. You start to cough and then your throat starts to bleed. {It is hard enough to be away from home when you are feeling great and the weather is beautiful. However, when the weather is cold, dark, gloomy and uncomfortable plus you feel sick physically; the feeling of being homesick becomes stronger I am sure.}

I have told you all my good ranks so why not tell you my bad ones. We had a tough test the other day. I made 78%. Could be better but not too bad. {Knowing my Eagle Scout Uncle and seeing his tremendous high school notebooks done in wonderful writing and drawings, he is NOT happy at all with his grade.} We are having a lot of gas drills. About everyday. Expect to go through the gas chamber next week. The instructor said we could pay attention or not but -- If we didn't know how to put our gas mask on right when in the chamber ,we'd wish to God we had. He said we would be damn sick. I'm not worrying. Feel sure I can make it O.K. I'm trying to do what I should. That's the way to make less mistakes.
Had a letter from Flavilla {sister} to-nite with two pictures. One with David {nephew b. 1938} with the tin hat I bought him. Another of John {nephew b. 1941}. Gee, they were swell. Oh, Ma, please send me a good picture of Helen. The boys like to have a good picture of their sister then show it to the other boys. I think Helen can beat them all. {youngest sister who was quite a character}. Send one of Eugene. Send one of you and Dad. Well, send what you like. Wish I could take some and send them home but all cameras have been ordered off the post or camp. If I ever leave camp I'll have some taken and send them home.
Margaret Dinsmore down to S. D. Warren sent me a letter and the Portland Sunday paper {largest paper for the state of Maine}. Told me to send back news if I wanted any candy, nuts, cookies or the paper every week. She said it would be a few days late but I could read the news. Well, I don't like to ask for anything. If anyone wants to send anything O.K. If not, I'll make out without it.
Some of the boys are headed for trouble unless they do different. The Lt. said he had stood all the shit he was going to take. Boy, it's going hard with some. Guess they'll have to learn the hard way. Let me tell you some nights you go to bed at 9 and go right to sleep. Get up at 6 and wish you had more time to sleep. If you don't sleep a night you feel it the next day. You have to put all you've got into this week.
Have you heard from Helen? You know Helen Ladd. {old girlfriend} The other night I woke up a dozen times. I kept dreaming about about Helen. {his present girlfriend, Pauline, wouldn't like to hear that}.
I hear the mill, S. D. Warren, is running good. Gee, wish Eugene could work on a farm and stay home. Will try and write Eugene and Helen {siblings} Sunday. Tell Helen I'm not getting fat but hard as a rock and will give her old man a pounding if he's not good. {her boyfriend, Joe}. Was that doll, The Army Nurse, the one Helen Ladd's mother told you to get?
Guess I will close now and write later. Keep your chin up, Mother. I'm O.K. Tell Dad I'm thinking about him and try to keep up his health. Everything is going to be O.K. So long. Helen and Eugene be good.
With Love,
Charlie
P.S. Hard to write laying on the bed with just a piece of card board to write on. Hope you can read.

^^Jan 21 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk and reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad

^^Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Royal Navy, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet. Admiral of the Fleet Andrew Browne Cunningham, 1st Viscount Cunningham of Hyndhope, KT, GCB, OM, DSO & Two Bars was a senior officer of the Royal Navy during the Second World War. He was widely known by his nickname, "ABC".

Admiral Sir Cunningham

^^Jan 22 Allied Joint Chiefs of Staff determine invasion of Sicily for July 10^th. ^^Jan 23 British 8th army marches into Tripoli and the Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured

This post was published on the weekend of Nov 11, 2019

*Source 1

https://www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-battles-2361453

*Source 2

https://americasbesthistory.com/timeline2ndworldwar1943.html for major battles

**Source 3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1943_in_the_United_States

^^Source 4

https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1943

##Source 5

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/us-home-front-during-world-war-ii

Sunday, November 3, 2019

POST EIGHT ( I Can't Come Home Because of My Hair) 18 Jan 1943

Jan 18, 1943

Monday Evening

Dear Mom,

I sent you a letter yesterday but know you still will be happy to have another. I came back from chow about quarter to six and a fellow came up with a package. It was a pair of stockings you made. Thanks a lot. I'll tell you how they fit in the next letter. {His mother, my maternal grandmother, was constantly making items. She loved to knit. As a teenager back in the mid 1970's, I would take a box of mittens she had made around my neighborhood to sale during the winter months. This would help supplement her income and get nice warm mittens on the hands of the children.} No other mail to-night. Just a minute here is another. It's from S.D. Warren Co. It's a mill paper about 10 to 12 pages, a little larger than this paper. They have just started it. All the boys in the service send in a report and their names. This group at the Main Office in the mill puts it together with the local mill news and makes up a paper. Then sends it to the boys who wish it. I have read it and think it's great. I'm going to send in for it. I learned about the boys that have been gone from the mill for a long time. When it gets under way it sure will carry a lot of cheer. News you couldn't get any other way. {My Uncle Charlie Knight would receive this S.D. Warren paper even when he was over in Europe fighting in World War II. It was a great encouragement to him to hear about his friends also serving in the war.}

Gee, it was cold here this morning. Still the sun doesn't shine. A cold hard wind with fine snow that cuts right into your face. Still, you keep your chin up, shoulders back and march straight into it. You do not even lift your hand to your face. One fellow froze his ear this morning.

One more thing before I close. The Army couldn't send me home now. That is not for 4 or 5 weeks. You should see my haircut. Gee, the Indians that roamed around Horse Beef never could have done a more complete job scalping me. Just a little hair, right on top about 1/2 inch long. Oh dear, Mother, you know how I used to keep my hair. It's gone. I get up in the morning scratch my head, run my fingers back and my hair is combed for the day.

Good bye and Good night Ma and All

Charlie

S.D. Warren postcard where Uncle Charlie
worked before and after the war.

^^Jan 16 1st US air raid on Ambon in today’s Indonesia. It is known for a brutal POW camp operated by the Japanese during WWII. The prisoners on Ambon and Hainan were subjected to some of the most brutal treatment experienced by POWs anywhere during World War II. Over three-quarters of the Australian prisoners there died in captivity.
^^German 2nd SS-Panzer division evacuates Charkow
^^Red Army recaptures Pitomnik airport at Stalingrad
^^Jan 17 Tin Can Drive Day in the US, salvage collected for the war effort

^^Jan 18 US rations bread & metal – banning presliced bread reduce bakery demand for metal parts
^^Jan 19 Joint Chiefs of Staff decide on invasion in Sicily. The (JCS or CCS) was the supreme military staff for the United States and Great Britain during World War II. It set all the major policy decisions for the two nations, subject to the approvals of Prime Minister Winston Churchill and President Franklin D Roosevelt.