June 9, 1944

Well, Mom, at the moment I am having a quiet rest that I don’t want, in fact, I feel very much like a caged tiger. It really is awful when you are as fit as a fiddle, but you can’t persuade the M.O. As I told you in an earlier letter, I ran high temperatures for about six days. Because of this I was forced to spend seventeen days in hospital and eight days in the Conv. Camp. The latter could have been a very nice spot under different circumstances. It really is a lovely spot, bright blue sea surrounded on three sides by mountains. The days are bright and sunny and the water is quite the warmest I have ever experienced. On top of all this, we have had a free movie every night. These pictures are usually the latest and, on the whole, excellent entertainment. Now, there you have all the good features and now on to the bad.

Firstly, I have had no mail of any description for six weeks. This of course is my chief reason for discontent and the cause of much worry. Imagine junior could be a month old by now. The gloomy side of the picture, and one I don’t like to think about, is that Kay has had a difficult confinement and is ill, though I know nothing about it. So you see, Mom, it is very trying to remain idle here when I know all this information is waiting for me back at the regiment.

The other cause of my discontent is equally trying. I know the regiment has been in action and that casualties have been suffered. The trouble is I have no idea how many or who they are. I saw two of the boys in the 15th Com. Hospital, one minus a leg and the other an arm. I must admit it gave me a grizzly feeling, because I have known these lads for almost four years. Then too, when you have belonged to a regiment for nearly five years, you eat your heart out to see them go off to battle without you. I shouldn’t complain really because those two lines, the Gustave and the Hitler were no cinch and here I am very much alive and well. I expect the news of the opening of the second front in Europe made big news back home.