July 30, 1943
July 30, 1943No. 49Bizerte, Algeria Dear Folksies, The mail finally caught up with us and the whole outfit is now reunited. All, incidentally, hale and hearty. Roy and our gang officially rejoined yesterday, but I had been with the Col. on the night of July 25th, one gang arrived the following A.M. and then […]
July 23, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 23, 1943… On July 21, I went in from the Lake after lunch and went up to the 56th. I talked with Col. Winans first and then with Major Rippey, who informed me that the Capt. had left about half-hour before – having talked himself out. They […]
July 21, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 21, 1943… Coming into the harbor at Bizerte on the A.M. of the 20th, with the Captain running the ship, we scraped our propellers somewhere on the side of the channel, thus taking a chunk out of one of the propeller blades. Then the Captain turned […]
July 20, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 20, 1943… Got back after midnight July 16, and stayed in the outer harbor until morn, coming in around 8 A.M. Again we loaded up after the many hours it took to clean out our tank deck – what a time they had shoveling out the sand and the […]
July 17, 1943
July 17, 1943No. 48 Bizerte, Algeria (His parents think he is still in Casablanca) Dear Folksies, Yesterday I finally managed to get some mail from you, tho’ with the mail situation still messed up, I see that I’m missing one of Mom’s letters and some of Dad’s. All were certainly most welcome, as that […]
July 16, 1943
July 16, 1943No. 47 Bizerte, Algeria (His parents think he is still in Casablanca) Dear Folksies, Unfortunately there isn’t much that I can say at the present time, but nevertheless I wanted to get a brief note off to you to tell you that I’m still fine, never felt better. In fact, the only things […]
July 15, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 15, 1943… We got back finally late on the night of the 11th, the commander of the convoy having wandered around and taken longer than he should have — and we had to anchor out in the outer harbor, going in early on the morning of my birthday. The […]
July 12, 1943
July 12, 1943(René’s 28th birthday) No. 46 Bizerte, Algeria (His parents think he is still in Casablanca) Dear Folksies, Well, today it’s my birthday, and, in normal times I would be up there at Lake Tahoe with you celebrating it. I had at least hoped that I would be with Lois. But no, luck was […]
July 10, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 10, 1943… On the night of the July 8th and all during the day and night of the 9th, the weather was fierce — the water was rough and there was a 40- to 60-mile-an-hour gale blowing the whole time. I decided to spend most of my time on my […]
July 7, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 7, 1943… On the 7th, as we were completely loaded we had orders to go to the outer harbor and anchor, so I went up early to the 56th and found that three of our boys could come back to the ship, so I brought them back with me. […]
July 6, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 6, 1943… We had several air-raid alarms, generally one or even two a night, and some during the daytime, but nothing happened until the early morning of the July 6th. “General-Quarters” sounded around 4 A.M. and it wasn’t long before all hell broke loose. We were in at the […]
July 5, 1943
René’s journal entry for July 5, 1943… After the pontoons on our ship were hoisted on the sides, it became obvious that the ship I was on was really the experimental ship, for they started building a “flight-deck” for Piper-cub planes. They had to build this forward of the cabins and wheel house and […]
July 4, 1943
July 4, 1943No. 45 Bizerte, Algeria(His parents still think he is in Casablanca) Dear Folksies, Today being the 4th, I can remember “when” — when we were all much younger and everyone participated in the 4th of July games and contests on the lawn of the Feather River Inn — and then in the […]