Darling (eBook)

Love Letters from WWII

Peggy O'Toole Lamb (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2020 | 1. Auflage
350 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-0566-6 (ISBN)

Infos

During WWII, First Lieutenant Frank J. Foster wrote letters to his wife, Catherine, who kept them hidden in a tin box until found in 2015 after her death. In his communication, Frank reveals little about the war for security reasons, rather more about his love and longing for home and family. Having lived in an orphanage, Frank yearned for his family and feared he might not return home. Still, he had a duty to his country and was determined to fight for freedom against the Nazis. 'Darling' is the captivating story of Frank and Patton's Third Army as they push the Nazis back to the Rhineland in a crushing defeat.

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In 1942 at the beginning of the United States entry into WWII, Frank enlisted in the army and soon rose to First Lieutenant in Patton's Third Army. After grueling training in the Anti-Aircraft Artillery (A.A.A.) in the Desert Training Center, Frank shipped out to the European Theater of Operations in April 1944. He left his new wife Catherine and their newborn son John after only holding his child for an hour in the hospital. Frank wrote letters to his wife, who kept them hidden in a tin box until found in 2015 after her death. Frank's communication reveals little about the war due to security, rather more about his love and longing for home and family. As an orphan, Frank always wanted a family, and now he feared he might not return to his wife and child. Still, he had a duty to his country and was determined to fight for freedom against the Nazis. Frank's story emerges not only from his letters but from the declassified Third Army's After-Action, the 546th A.A.A. Morning Reports, and Patton's diary detailing what had happened during the battles and campaigns. Frank's letters spared Catherine the gruesome details of war; instead, he shared stories of camaraderie, the beautiful countryside, and his longing for her and his son. Lamb uses the letters to look through Frank's lens and writes as if he is telling the story, expressing feelings of happiness, sadness, frustration, anger, and love. "e;Darling"e; captivates the reader as if the action is happening in the present time, never knowing when it will all end.

Textauszug

Chapter Two

The U.S. Enters the War

The whir of sirens signaled lights out, shades closed. In a small bungalow on the outskirts of Los Angeles, in the darkened bedroom, a mother pinned the diaper to her baby girl’s flesh, and the ensuing cries echoed in the living room where the men gathered around the radio listening to the news. December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

It was early in Frank’s courtship with Catherine. They were visiting her sister Mary, celebrating the baptism of her second child, Mary Nola. The father, Horace, and Frank discussed what would come after the attack. Would Frank be drafted? He was thirty-one, not yet married and no children, whereas Horace and Mary had two children and another one on the way.

Four days later, the United States declared war against the Japanese Empire. Germany immediately declared war on the United States. Within hours President Roosevelt signed the declaration of war against Germany, fully committing the country on two fronts: the Pacific theater and the European theater. Less than a week later, Uncle Sam required every healthy man from 18 to 64 years of age to register with the Selective Service to serve his country for the duration of the war, plus six months. 

Frank registered and was conscripted into the army in early 1942 and sent to Camp Callan, La Jolla for a thirteen-week training in Coastal Artillery with emphasis on long-range weapons. Gun positioning took more than eye-hand skill and brute strength. It took brains. Frank had a keen eye for shooting varmints and rattlesnakes, having lived in the desert, a sharp mind for numbers, and a competitive spirit. After a series of tests, the army yanked Frank from the rank of private and sent him to officer school in Richmond, Virginia, where he further trained for combat duty as an officer. 

Before leaving, he was sorely in need of seeing Catherine.

Dear Kitty,

August 24, 1942

Just a short note to tell you that I am trying to get a weekend pass, and if I do, I will be in Los Angeles early in the evening Saturday. Hold both thumbs. I won’t know till Friday whether I will get it. It was sure good seeing you again, and I haven’t gotten over it yet. Love, Frank 

Frank and Catherine 1942, Palm Springs

It hadn’t been that long ago since Frank caught Catherine peeking through the rectory kitchen curtains to watch him standing outside. He’d noticed her around the church grounds and wondered why a beautiful young girl was working at the Catholic rectory here in the forgotten desert? She questioned what this handsome man in boots, freshly pressed pants, and a sweater vest could be doing coming by the rectory every Sunday afternoon?

At twenty-one, Catherine had left her Los Angeles home for Palm Springs to help her ailing Aunt Mary Agnes, who was the housekeeper at the rectory of the Church of Solitude Catholic Church. Mary Agnes hailed from New York, having had work at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Irish priests at St. Patrick’s had a priest friend in the desert and thought it would do Mary Agnes some good to get out of the cold, so they sent her to the warmer climate due to her crippling arthritis. Her hands could barely hold the pans taken from the oven, so Catherine took over the hard work allowing Mary Agnes to stay on as housekeeper, even if just in name. 

Frank, a devoted Catholic, having been raised by the nuns and priests, visited the rectory most Sunday afternoons with his friend Bert Ripple. The church was Frank’s family. It wasn’t long before Frank asked his pastor, Father Gallagher, about Catherine. Father checked with her aunt before introducing Catherine after dinner one night. The shy girl from behind the curtain accepted Frank’s invitation to go out the following week. The priest called Catherine’s parents and assured them that even though Frank was only half Irish, he was a hardworking man with integrity. 

Well, Frank never did get over Catherine. She occupied his thoughts night and day. He thanked God for the day he met her, an angel that would bring him love and a family. He asked Catherine to marry him before he went off to war, and within a short time, on March 17, 1943, they were married at St. Francis Church in Los Angeles, where Catherine and her three sisters had received all their sacraments. In their photo, Frank stands tall and erect in his formal uniform. He has that little boy look, the crooked smile, and shy eyes, while his face beams, I’m the luckiest guy. Catherine’s Irish beauty radiates through her smile, her high cheekbones touched with pink, her face framed by brown curls. Frank clasps her hand, their fingers intertwined in a bond that will last forever.

***

By the time Frank finished officer training, the U.S. military had recognized the terrible damage the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, was inflicting on the United Kingdom and North Africa. The focus turned away from Coastal Artillery to Anti-Aircraft Artillery. First Lieutenant Frank J. Foster was relocated to Camp Haan in Riverside then on to the Desert Training Center to prepare for battle in the northern Sahara. The War Department had ordered General Patton to locate, create, equip, and command a desert training area to get the troops to fight against the Nazis in North Africa.

Flying with his staff officers over the Mojave Desert covering parts of Arizona, Nevada, and California, Patton scoured the area for signs of human settlements but found only a few crisscrossing roads and a few deserted gas stations. 

“This godforsaken land is perfect,” Patton declared. He established the Desert Training Center stretching from southeastern California to western Arizona, encompassing the Mojave and Sonora Deserts, and touted “the greatest maneuver training area in the U.S. history, eighteen thousand square miles of nothing but a desert designed for Hell.” 

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Frank was no stranger to the desert, having moved to the Coachella Valley in 1931 to join Bert Ripple his good friend from Campion High, a boarding school in Cleveland. After waving good-bye to little Ralph, he lived in the orphanage until high school. Frank impressed the nuns as a responsible young adult caring for the younger boys who also had lost their parents or were left on the roadside to fend for themselves. Frank was quick-as-a-whip smart, and the nuns felt he needed more academic challenges than they could offer him. Fortune smiled upon Frank when the Jesuit priests accepted all responsibility for raising Frank and enrolled him in Campion High School, a boarding school for boys from wealthy and influential families. His high school yearbook praised him: “Frankie is one of our best in sports, especially in basketball. His four-year record at Campion is probably the most clean-slated of anyone, as well as he is full of wit and humor.” 

Excelling was innate in Frank, who had to fight to survive since his early years in the tenements. Being streetwise, he knew how to be chameleon-like and fit in with this elitist group while not changing who he was. Well aware of the other boys’ family backgrounds, he kept his past in the past, never mentioning his difficult childhood, and adapted their style of talk and dress. He already had the intelligence to keep up on his studies and the athleticism, the first to be picked on any team. As with all holidays, Frank had no home to go to, but Frank never let on.

On the evening before everyone left for the Christmas holidays, Frank packed his suitcase. In the morning he donned his best suit, like the other boys, said his good-byes and wished them all a Merry Christmas. He walked to the train station where he bought a ticket and rode the train for as long as he could, often days. Once he knew the dorms would be empty, he took the train back, walked to the dorms, unpacked, and spent Christmas at the rectory with the priests, his only family. 

By the end of high school, Frank earned a full scholarship to the Jesuit college, Marquette, where he enrolled in Dentistry, taking premed and science classes. Once again, he excelled, but he wasn’t satisfied. Like any young man, Frank wanted to break away and explore what was beyond the priests’ protective circle. He was no longer the vulnerable orphan, nor did he ever want to return to that life of not having a family of his own. After two years of college, his buddy, Bert Ripple, lured him to the desert to work with his father in agriculture on date farms and citrus orchards. Life opened up for Frank in the vast desert plains and the rugged mountains. The warm air-filled Frank with hope as he shed his past along with his eastern wardrobe.

After working during the day in the fields and on the date farm in the heat, Frank and Bert, would ride their horses, winding through the brambles, cactus, and thorny greasewood trees, climbing up the steep rocky ravines to the coolness of Mount San Jacinto. From their mountain top advantage point, they looked over the vast desert dreaming of future agriculture on the barren land. There was lots of open space, an oasis with the water below the desert floor. The rich people from Hollywood drove around in their fancy cars, heading to the Salton Sea, with the tops down on their convertibles, scarves...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 24.7.2020
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Historische Romane
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-0566-3 / 1098305663
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-0566-6 / 9781098305666