Moss Letters

WWII Letters

2 December 1941

Dear folks:

I just wrote you a letter day before yesterday but guess I have time to write another.

Yesterday ushered in something new again—this time being on guard duty.  I went on yesterday at 4:30 PM and was on for twenty-four hours however we only walk during darkness.  I walked two hours then slept four—walked two and slept four.  We slept in the guardhouse in our clothes, thereotically to be ready for call.  My hours were six to eight then midnite until 2 AM.  I was sure tired when I was awakened at twelve, and does that rifle get heavy after two hours.  However, we had nothing to do all day but lay around and read.

The radio work is very interesting and now I know all the code but have one lesson yet to pass before try for speed.  I believe 10 words a minute are required as minimum for the course.

Many of the fellows are pretty glum today just getting the news that our furloughs are going to be short and many had already planned on going home.  The men in the 88th infantry were today sent to Panama.  Berg is in the 87th.  Something seemingly a little unusual happened yesterday and that was all the Japanese boys were taken out of our battery.  Wonder if it relates to the crisis.  They would have a good vantage point in a radio outfit.

Got a letter from Gram today and she’s expecting me down for Christmas.  She didn’t help me any on my bus fare but promised to for the next time; but June and Loyd took care of other expenses.  I never got to see Uncle Will.  They had such short notice she couldn’t get word to him.  In answer to your next questions we have six more weeks of training after this one.  This will probably end about the 1st of February.  I have no idea where we might be sent.

I’ll say the cake was good and it wasn’t broken a bit, in very good shape and so soft and delicious.  The fellows raved about it and agreed you were a superior cook.

Delighted to hear about the game—can imagine the unlimited excitement that went on all day.

This is all I can think about for this time.  Everything going fine.  No rain yet and still getting heavier.

All my love,

Harold Moss Signature

Thought about something else.  Regarding Christmas gifts, I know it would be of little avail to caution you on expenses.  But I’ll give you my list of what I can think of now.

Cheap pocket watch
A camera
Pair of brown civilian shoes (no two tone)
Sweatshirt
Small leather bag for toilet articles
Eversharp
Keycase (for trunk locks)
Stationary folder (for envelopes, stamps, etc.)

Please don’t fill the list but just pick one or two and that will be more than enough to ask for.

14 November 1941

Dear Folks:

I have only a little while in which to compose a letter and so many new things have taken place that don’t know whether I can get it all in properly.

Probably the first thing was our Armistice Day affair.  On the program was a sham battle and firings of guns and many other things.  There were thousands of visitors and I believe many of them were really thrilled to see the sham battle including airplanes, machine guns, smoke screens and all the rest.  Also people were driven around in our little jeep, moms riding over bumps holding on to their bonnets and dads grinning big as pie.  Thousands of ‘civies’ and soldiers were jammed into the bowl to see and hear the commander and chaplain deliver an address.

Today was “gassed”. Not literally but given enough of a demonstration to impress upon us the need of speed and the efficiency of our gas masks.  We were taken into a gas chamber twice in which there was a heavy concentration of tear gas.  The first time we entered had on our mask but the next time ran in without the masks, then hurriedly and perhaps frantically, put them on.  Most of us were crying and felt hot irritations similar to the feeling of soap in one’s eyes.  Of course the effect wore off immediately.  Also were later given smells by means of bombs, of chlorine, Luvs cite, Adams cite, and phosgene.  Very interesting.  Also walked into a very heavy smokescreen so thick in fact we practically had to hold hands to keep together.

Now comes the big event and accounting for the hurriedness of this letter.  I’m leaving for San Diego tonight and will arrive there Saturday at ten, so will have quite a visit with Gram.  By the time you get this I will be back in camp.   You don’t think I’ve gained (weight).  Well I weighed 127 ¼ at Cheyenne and now am over 140, quite a good gain.

Proud to see Dan in the football picture.  Our Thanksgiving is next Thursday the 20th.  About the package, I’ve told you most what I want already but can always use sundry toilet articles such as only Moms can think of.  I feel I’ve slighted you in this letter but I’ll write after I get back from San Diego.

All my love,

Harold Moss Signature

9 November 1941

Dear Folks:

Just returned from church services so have some time before dinner to write to you.  The service was a general one and open to all denominations.  Haven’t found out anything about Episcopal services.  The chapel is quite built with simplicity but dignity, and cost the government twenty five thousand.  Overhead in the back is a balcony and a Hammond electric organ that costs plenty.  Also the regiment has an orchestra that is really good.  The church was well filled and there were a few visitors and fellows with their girlfriends.

Last Friday took quite a little trip and saw a little more of California.  A convoy of thirty trucks went to Taft, in the oil fields, to get cargoes of black top used to surface our drill area.  As the place is one hundred two miles from here rode most of the time.  But got to see some of the big oil fields, and get a glimpse of something outside an army post.  The longer I’m here in camp around so many fellows the more it seems that everything and everyone is military.  It just seems there isn’t enough people to make up a civilian population.

Yesterday went thru the long nervous ordeal of inspection.  About eight officers came thru and all of us acted like we had pokers up our backs and rocks in our mouths.  An officer asked a fellow if he shaved the nite before and the poor private answered ‘no’, and the officer retorted ‘no what’, and the private said ‘no blades’.  The officer was demanding a ‘sir’ and not this unexpected reply.  Our platoon didn’t get first but our battery kept the sign.

Last nite and afternoon did nothing in particular, mostly reading.  However did locate Berg after quite a search.  He is in the other end of the camp in the infantry.  He is coming over this afternoon for a visit.

Wish it was possible for you to be here next Tuesday Armistice Day.  Visitors will be given a big show and will eat with us in the mess halls.  Also our big coliseum is being dedicated and the field artillery gunners are going to fire the 75’s.

Next week will have all day Saturday off so hope I can hitchhike to San Diego to see Grandma.  Couldn’t make it this week.  Train service, because of the hills is terribly slow.  It takes nine hours to Los Angeles only 200 miles from here.  Want to see the Golden Gate in San Francisco sometime before I leave too.

After my radio training, I will be assigned to a tactical combat unit which will be my permanent post.  You see, here all of us are trained to set up radio equipment and do not act as a fighter but upon our transfer will become part of a unit that operates exactly as it will in wartime.  Boy it does seem like we are getting closer to it all the time.  The officers and candre continually impress on us the means of protection to ourselves in case we go into the field.  Radiomen operate sometimes near and sometimes far from the front.  Some of the last batch of trainees were sent to Alaska.  We just as well forget all about that though if we can.

Last week got another shot in the arm (tetanus) and those kids really hit a guy.  It lasted only a couple of hours though.  By the way when I was waiting for the shot I weighed myself and weighed one hundred forty.  I had on my pants and shoes but even at that, I’m doing pretty good—and I’m really getting a tan too.  The days are very warm but as soon as the sun goes down it cools off quickly.  Last Friday going to the oil fields it was very hot and had my shirt off most of the time.  It is hard to imagine that it is almost the middle of November.  The grass around our orderly room to mess hall is getting very green and pretty.  Also we are setting out small trees and shrubs.

Haven’t heard from Kate for some time and I’m sure it is she that owes the letter.  Suppose she will write soon.

I’m thinking or trying to think what to tell you to put in the box and will write you about it.    I know one thing right now and that is cookies and homemade candy.

Well better quit now but hope all of you are getting on okay.

All my love,

Harold Moss Signature

2 November 1941

Dear Folks:

I just got off duty a few minutes ago so I’ll have time to write you a good long letter.  Today is Sunday again and a very dull one it seems but I guess most of them are.  Today I was table waiter in the mess hall so work during the eating hours.  I would get it on Sunday.  Have been here two weeks so had a pass last night.  My buddy and I went to Paso Robles about 15 miles from here.  It all turned out very badly.  I was looking for some entertainment but there wasn’t a thing, not even a dance.  Every store and building was crammed to overflowing with soldiers and the only thing to do was go to the show or roller-skate.  And everything seems priced very high.  Hamburgers 15 cents, show 35 cents, and roller-skating 40 cents.  Two fellows with us bought a couple sandwiches for 52 cents.  With so much business it seems things would be cheaper.  Anyway we roller-skated until 10 o’clock then came back to the camp.  Perhaps if I can get into Los Angeles or San Francisco things will be different.  Have written several letters to Grandma and hope to get down if I can get three days off.  Round trip is only eight, eighty-five but I would have so little time with a day and a half that it would be hardly worth the time.  They want me to come down badly.

My actual radio training hasn’t started yet but will soon.  First we must get the basic fundamentals of marching and firing.  Two days ago last week were spent on our very latest and modern rifle range.  We fired our rifles from a distance of two and three hundred yards.  About 100 men can fire at one time.  Two way telephone connections are set up from the firing line to the fellows in the pits that run the targets.  I pulled targets one day—that is, was in a deep concrete trench and raised and lowered the targets and flashed back the score by means of flags and dices.  Boy those bullets whistle overhead; also some bullets hit the dirt in front of the pit and spray dirt all over.  In my firing I made ninety-nine out of a possible one fifty.  Hope to do better next time.

Last week also had our periodic physical exam for lice, etc.  It’s what the boys call a ‘short arm’ inspection.  It was very funny.  We all lined up with just our overcoats and shoes on, and with a cold wind blowing we shivered plenty.  Some fellows lined up, then bent over, and pulled their coats up over their buttocks and had their picture taken.

My buddy and I have decided to try for officer’s training school, after our first six months are up.  I think we have a good chance to make it.

So Bill Emick’s home?  I just got a letter from him about a week and a half ago telling me of his roommate and the course he was taking.  I’m very surprised.  He did say though he was flat broke and couldn’t see how he was going to get there.  I didn’t think he would ever come back to Minatare.  And Wilma with another baby; another surprise.  She must like ‘em.  How is Duane getting along and what about the marriage scandal?

I have all the mail you sent.  I got the shirt and the package and the two dollars.  All very much appreciated and thanks so much.  Mail call is the most important time of the day, and everybody jumps when the sergeant yells.

The fellow next to me is a very funny and fastidious fellow and about once a week thinks he must have an enema.  You’d die if you knew his nickname.

Don’t know anything about Berg or the other fellows.  Saw long lines of infantry marching back from a long hike and watched for him but didn’t see anything.  Boy those guys in the infantry take a beating.  They also have bayonet practice and of course they don’t hit the dummy squarely.  A long pole swings around and smacks them.  Also saw them throwing hand grenades and practically flattening out on the ground.

No my laundry is not $1.50 a week, but a buck fifty a month.  There is no limit on the amount we can send.  By the way if you want you can send my slippers and couple pair of shorts and skirts.  I like plenty for Friday inspections.  I will just about have everything then.  We will be issued another suit; a field jacket and two more pairs of shoes so will always have clean clothing.  Last week got up at four thirty to go to the rifle range but effective yesterday we operate on a winter schedule with reveille at six and retreat at four thirty in the afternoon.  To sleep until six seems like a Sunday morning.

Last Tuesday nite went to a show ‘Camel Caravan’ sponsored by Camel cigarettes and saw some darned good entertainment.  My buddy got in without tickets on the pretext of using the library.  Guess tonight I’ll go to the show (14 cents).

I guess this is everything that’s been happening to me.  Did you get the camp paper I sent?  Should get a letter from Kate tomorrow.  My buddy and I are going to buy a cheap camera to take some pictures so I’ll be sending some.  I will get paid the tenth so will send you some money.

Write soon.

Love,

Harold Moss Signature

17 October 1941

Dearest Folks:

Well I’m spending my 3rd day in California and my second here in [Camp] Roberts.  There seems to be so much to write about.  I hardly know where to start.  I’m in the field artillery of the 51st battalion, Battery A training battalion.  The camp is the largest artillery and training center in the United States housing about thirty-five thousand men.  Probably you can imagine the scope of such a camp.  The streets are all numbered and spread out over many miles.  The nights and early mornings are cool but about ten o’clock it gets up around a hundred [degrees].  The surrounding country is dry and hilly but many of the boys have their own little flower gardens by their barracks.  We have a large post exchange, a theatre and a church.  The preacher is from Nebraska.  I’m writing this letter in the recreation hall where several fellows like myself are writing letters.  One guy is playing a hot tune on the piano, some playing ping pong and others reading.  Of course there are many of these buildings all over the camp.  I can’t give you a permanent address where you can write me for a week or two because I may be transferred to a specialist battery.  With my skilled rating I’m given a better opportunity.  I should be transferred in two days.  After arriving yesterday were first given another little physical exam and then another typhoid shot.  Two men keeled over.  Later in the afternoon we were issued gun belts and gas masks.  Boy do I look funny in it.  Our training period will last only 10 weeks instead of the usual thirteen.  They said it was so that we could get Christmas passes, but also I believe to speed up the organization.  We deal with 75mm howitzers and all type of guns in general.  Our training will begin Monday.  Boy you should see the fleet of trucks and jeeps.  Soldiers everywhere.  Just wish you could see it.  Railroads and bus lines both serve the camp.  It is 230 [miles] to Los Angeles and 195 [miles] to San Francisco.  San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles are two small towns nearby.  We are given half fare on tickets.  Possibly I can get down in a weekend.  Don’t know how far it is to San Diego.  I haven’t seen any of the pretty parts of California yet except in a few small towns.  I was so darned sleepy when we went thru LA.  I didn’t see it.

Tomorrow is Saturday and that will mean afternoon off.  Don’t know what I will do.  Probably listen to a football game and think of Nebraska and how far away it is.  Boy I seem a long way from home.  As soon as my training period is over I will again be shipped and possibly I’ll get closer to home.

Officers seem nice and willing to cooperate.  They welcome all kinds of suggestions and provide all kinds of sports.  The rec hall has games and magazines of all kinds.  Our PX is well-stocked and carries all supplies.  Our laundry is taken once a week and for this $1.50 is deducted from our pay.  At present I have four shirts and other equipment but tomorrow will get more equipment so that I will have plenty of clothing and uniforms.  By the way you could send me something and that’s a white shirt.  Forget what I said in the first part of the letter about my address.  I was just told I can receive mail.  So write.  I’ll give my address at last part [of this letter].

I’m enclosing the camp paper and hope you will read it and perhaps get a jist of our camp (and my home).

Well folks goodbye for now but I’ll be looking every day for a letter.  That’s the only [way] we can really reach each other.  I’ll remember you in church Sunday.

Lots of love,

Harold Moss Signature

Address (all of it)
Pvt. Harold G. Moss
Battery A, 51st Bn. FA Tng Bn.
Camp Roberts, California