15. No Time For Sleep

Wednesday, February 3, 1943
Grease and service truck, good weather.

Thursday, February 4, 1943
Continue work on trucks. Start camouflage net for truck. Drive truck in practice convoy. Many of our men are transferred to different outfits.

Letter written home on Thursday, February 4, 1943 (click to enlarge).

French North Africa

Feb. 4, 1943

Dear Folkes,

Will write you a few lines this evening to let you know I am alright and getting along quite well.

As I told you before, in other letters, I would like to have you buy defense bonds with some of the money I send home and put the rest of it in the bank. I have sent a hundred and forty five ($145) home now and besides that there is the thirty dollar allotment which you are suppose to get every month. Have you been getting it? You should have gotten four $30 checks from the government by now. I have another fifty or sixty dollars to send home the first chance I get. You said you have been writing me about eight letters per month. I have been writing about the same number to you. Altogether last month, I wrote twenty-five letters and received twelve.


Well, guess I may as well close for this time, as there isn't a thing to write about. It may be a few days before I get around to write again.


Love, Howard

Friday, February 5, 1943
We go to pick up troops, fifty mile drive. Leave Oran as a truck driver.

Saturday, February 5, 1943
Load up headquarters company of 34th Division. Start 8 day trip to Tunisia. Start from Telemson.

My first assignment (or "run") as a truck driver: delivering the 34th Division from Telemson, Algeria (also called Tlemcen) to Le Kef, Tunisia. We made stops in cities circled in yellow: Bellabas (Sidi-Bel-Abbes), Orleansville (Ech-Cheliff) and Constantine.

Sunday, February 7, 1943
Start trip, get as far as Bellabas where we spend nite.

Monday, February 8, 1943
Spend nite at Orleansville.

The Algerian city of Orleansville (now known as Ech-Cheliff) as it appears today [courtesy: www.i-cias.com]

Tuesday, February 9, 1943
Bivouac between Rovico and L'araba-Rivet

Thursday, February 11, 1943
Camp at nite on mountain in snow storm near Constantine.

Friday, February 12, 1943
Pulled into pine woods. Inducted in the army one year ago today.

Saturday, February 13, 1943
Pulled out at 3 p.m. Arrive at Le Kef at 5 p.m. 34th Division unloads here.

Modern Le Kef, Tunisia. [photo by Aloui Ammar]

Our present location is western Tunisia/northeastern Algeria. Here are some of the cities which I will get to know well over the next few weeks.

Sunday, February 14, 1943
Pulled into olive grove near Le Kef and camp with English tanks.

Monday, February 15, 1943
Leave late in afternoon and join company near Maktar late in evening.

Tuesday, February 16, 1943
Leave late in afternoon. Haul supplies to Ebbaksour, Tebessa. Get load of ammo. Bring it to company area. Arrive at 10:30 p.m.

Wednesday, February 17, 1943
Unload truck in company area. Prepare to go to front and bring back troops at nite. We break a brake line when we try to move truck. We are in small pine trees. We can't go on this run. We see several enemy planes.

A broken brake line is bad enough. Throw in a couple of Messerschmitt fighters and things go to hell in a handbasket real quick. [(c) HowStuffWorks, Inc.]

Thursday, February 18, 1943
Get truck fixed. Load ammo on and take to nearby dump. Enemy only eight miles away. Schuster takes truck on nite run.

Friday, February 19, 1943
Take retreating troops (16th Infantry) to near Tebessa. My first real trip. I do nearly all the driving. Up all nite.

Saturday, February 20, 1943
Arrive back in camp at 1 p.m. Leave shortly, enemy has our bivouac area surrounded, are within 3 miles of us. Haul medics to place near Tebessa. Arrive there next 7 a.m.

The ancient city of Tebessa, Algeria. [courtesy: www.aeria.phil.uni-erlangen.de]

Sunday, February 21, 1943
No sleep. Meet our company near there [Tebessa] and start out at 10:30 p.m. Haul French troops.

Monday, February 22, 1943
No sleep. Take troops to the front.

Tuesday, February 23, 1943
Arrive back in camp this p.m. Have terrible trip. Road was bombed. I get 30 letters today. First time our mail caught up with us since we started driving trucks. Go to bed, first time in four days.


I wrote home before going to bed for the first time in 96 hours. Notice I was so tired that I dated the postcard 1942 rather than 1943! "Dear Folkes, Haven't written to you for over three weeks. Have been very buisy and couldn't write. I am well. I got 30 letters today. That's the first mail I have had for a month. Love, Howard."