WWII Diary of Chick Bruns – 70 Years Ago

It was raining again this morning but soon quit. We spent the rest of the day getting things ready to go on our march to Rabat. It is to be a long hike of 55 miles as I’m going to bed early and try to get some rest.

Today is Mrs. Fleshner’s birthday. I didn’t send her a card and I thought of her anyway. The fellows went out on a warmup hike to get ready for the hike to Rabat. we had to sort out ammunition today and take the tracer cartridges out of the clips. Everyone is getting ready for the move to Rabat and everyone knows we are getting close to a battle again. I thought we would go to bed early last night but we stayed up until 11:30am and just shot the breeze. I think I will write a few letters now and then go to bed.

Well we had been here in Africa 3 weeks ago today. It was a beautiful day today. The sun has been shinning all day and it was war all day. We worked all day as usual, as one day is just the same as the next. I had to pass out allot of insect powder and clothes to the men today. We received our ration of tobacco and candy today. We listened to the Victrola and then went to bed.

We got to sleep till about 8:30am this morning and after breakfast we went into Fedala to mass. The church we were in had the back end of it blown out and all that was left was the altar. It seemed funny but the shell had not harmed anything on the altar. After mass we rode around town and them came back to camp. It was a good thing too, as it started to rain. We had a lot of shortages to make up so we had to go right ahead and work. At night we sat around the fire and talked. I didn’t feel very good so I went to bed about 7:30pm

It is still raining a little now and then. We had a equipment inspection today to get us ready for the move to Rabat. If the rain still keeps up it will keep us in our tents today. Most of the fellows have been working unloading gas and oil for the air planes. Here it is 7:30 and we are listening to the Army Navy game back home. It must be about 1:30pm back home. It is still raining a little now and then so I guess I will crawl in my fart sack and get some sleep. Good Night.

It started raining during the night and is still raining today.  In fact it kept us in our tents most of the day so we played a little cards to pass the time away.  We sat around the fire of the evening and went to bed early.

Today is Thanksgiving but the only thing we have to be thankful for is that we’re still alive.  We thought we would get a lot to eat today but the breakfast was smaller than most of the other breakfasts. The dinner was good though.  We had roast beef, sweet potatoes, candy and Cigarette.  We were suppose to get white bread but none has shown up so far.    We worked all afternoon and for supper we had cold meat and a French made jelly roll.  the rolls were sure good.  Here we are just getting enough to eat and the people back home are enjoying turkey or chicken.   oh what I would give for some chicken.  Tonight we are going to play records again.