In early October 1944, after 14 months of training, Franklin learned that his 7th Division would finally be deployed into combat. During this time, the military censors apparently did not allow them to date any of their letters and all other forms of communication were cut off. Franklin seemed careful to only write about topics that were mundane enough to avoid scrutiny. In doing so, he was able to secretly inform his family of when he would be leaving.
October 1944 (undated)
Dear Dad,
Those pictures of the lake were excellent. Of all the "scenery pictures" that you send to me, I like best those taken at the lake. Have always wished that we lived there "year-round."
So Lawrence Bean, Horace Candee, and Walter Roberts have been drafted!! Didn't they at one time think they'd be deferred permanently?
Yes, it was certainly unfortunate that the hurricane did so much damage. Some of those trees were just recovering from the last storm.
The European War, temporarily(?), has slowed considerably. It will be evidently a while yet. People, somehow, just never seem to think much about the Pacific. Here there are two wars – one against a dozen deadly diseases – and the other the Japs. And one is hardly better than the other.
Received a very nice letter from Dave. Perhaps he showed it to you. One part of it was rather clever -- but then he always writes a good letter, anyway. The description of his fight at McFernans was quite amusing. Be sure to tell him how much I liked it.
It's strange how you recall things that occurred many years ago -- and have long since forgotten. When we first obtained the services of Dr. Anderson, I remember him asking me where I was going to college. Didn't know much about such things at the time -- but had recently heard a football game; so I told him maybe to "Army".
~~~
I wonder just what the "reaction" of the men will be when this is over? Men who at 19 and 20 have already "seen the world" – and men who have served for five years. Many articles, by numerous people, have been written stating to the effect that war will not change "your man" – I wonder.
Thank you for your many swell letters.
Much love, Franklin
By underlining certain letters in this message, he spells out the date that his division was to be shipped out: “Oct Tenth.”
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| Letter and envelope with censor's approval and hand-written notes by his father |
Dear Dad,
Those pictures of the lake were excellent. Of all the "scenery pictures" that you send to me, I like best those taken at the lake. Have always wished that we lived there "year-round."
So Lawrence Bean, Horace Candee, and Walter Roberts have been drafted!! Didn't they at one time think they'd be deferred permanently?
Yes, it was certainly unfortunate that the hurricane did so much damage. Some of those trees were just recovering from the last storm.
The European War, temporarily(?), has slowed considerably. It will be evidently a while yet. People, somehow, just never seem to think much about the Pacific. Here there are two wars – one against a dozen deadly diseases – and the other the Japs. And one is hardly better than the other.
Received a very nice letter from Dave. Perhaps he showed it to you. One part of it was rather clever -- but then he always writes a good letter, anyway. The description of his fight at McFernans was quite amusing. Be sure to tell him how much I liked it.
It's strange how you recall things that occurred many years ago -- and have long since forgotten. When we first obtained the services of Dr. Anderson, I remember him asking me where I was going to college. Didn't know much about such things at the time -- but had recently heard a football game; so I told him maybe to "Army".
~~~
I wonder just what the "reaction" of the men will be when this is over? Men who at 19 and 20 have already "seen the world" – and men who have served for five years. Many articles, by numerous people, have been written stating to the effect that war will not change "your man" – I wonder.
Thank you for your many swell letters.
Much love, Franklin
By underlining certain letters in this message, he spells out the date that his division was to be shipped out: “Oct Tenth.”
I'm really surprised the censors didn't catch that! Do you know if underlining the letters was something that had been previously agreed on or did Uncle Franklin just know Papa would notice it?
ReplyDelete-Gin
Hi Gin, I had that same question but was not able to find out any more information! It seems like the underlined letters would have been pretty obvious to the censors unless they only spent a few seconds scanning each document. I do recall that Gam was especially good at finding clues like that. I also wondered what the consequences would have been if he had been caught, as it was critical that the enemy did not discover their plans. – Bob
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