WWII Diary of Chick Bruns – 70 Years Ago

Dear Mother & Dad;
The fighting in North Africa is already a few weeks in the past, but life here hasn’t changed much for us. The sun still hot. The day still long, and the bugs, mosquitoes and etc, etc, still bite just as hard.
It’s the style mount to sport a Jerry Helmet on the radiator of your truck or jeep. Those helm was are a squarish box-like affair that make our round 10 pots look alike stream lined bonnets. It’s a sight to see a G.I. Truck rolled down the road, a cloud of African dust railing behind, and a helmet, a Nazi scalp, leading the way. Most of our trucks have funny names for their trucks such as, “Hitler’s nightmare”, hell on wheels, Hitler’s hearse, Etc. Etc.
Those newspaper stories about all the prisoners they took in Tunisia didn’t lie. Nor did the stories of how they clog the roads. You should have seen the long column of German and a tie in trucks loaded down with prisoners going back to the prison camps. It’s also true that many of them were happy and singing, and look happy that they were going there. For them the war was over.
You would be surprised at the amount of equipment that the German and Italians left behind. They have some very funny looking machines but what I mean they are rugged. And some of their guns, wow! They have a 88mm gun that can shoot right through our medium tanks on a slant, and the armor there is pretty heavy. One day I was out blowing up 88 and mortar duds, and what I mean some of their high explosive shells have a good kick to them. One time we didn’t put a very long fuse on some mortars and the 88’s and as we were running away from them, Wam! Wam! — we had they hit the dirt right now. It was none too soon as shrapnel came flying all around us. We learned one thing right there are never put a short fuse on an 88. I took quite a few pictures while I was up there, but when I send them home I’m afraid that the sensors will cut a bunch of them out I hope not because I have good selection of pictures, and souvenirs.
Now that the shooting is over for a while for the ground troops in North Africa the censors are kind enough to let a few restrictions go by. At least I can tell you where will I landed. We landed at the Fedala-Casablanca. From there we went to Rabat. Rabat is where I saw of those roman ruins. We were there at Christmastime, and I enjoyed my Christmas and New Year’s Eve very much, but I would have rather been at home. From Rabat we went up about 30 miles to port Lyautey. Next we moved over to Oran. When things started getting hot up in Tunisia, we moved in the back door, in the first Germans we saw a work either dead once or prisoners. That’s about as much as I can saying but it’s a lot more and then I thought the sensor would let you say.
Well all finished the letter in ink. I wish I was a pretty writer like “Gee”. I received the swellist letter from Rita yesterday. I fell like I was on top of the world. She said you treated heard just like your own daughter while she was home. I have received three letters from her and the last two weeks, and that’s more than I had in six months, ha ha. She must be getting on the ball now and writing to me. Listen mother and dad one of these days I’m going to be a little slow in writing you again. So if you don’t hear from me don’t worry. All right when I can. I cut off the bottom part of my a typewritten letter as it wouldn’t pass the sensor anyway. I am including a few pictures put them with than rest of my collection. Dad can take the other part of a letter up to the store if you want to. Well mother and dad goodbye and please don’t worry about me as I will always be OK. Never mind the pictures and put them in a little package they will be about a month late.
Love, your son “Chick”