• The wait for Sicily- May – August 1943 – Hinckley & Harris Family History

William Russell Hinckley – The wait for Sicily

5-21-43 After a late breakfast Cozy West and I packed a few rations and made an extensive tour and search of the surrounding country . very interesting, spoke to a Frenchman and his family who lived in a cave. More swimming in the afternoon.

5-22-43 Went after water with Pop all the boys have sunburns. Cozy, Egg Ike and I went after water. Went all over heck. Lost in an Arab village. Some ride.

5-23-43 West Miller and I after swimming went after water. Walked home and re examined Jerry’s positions. Tried to find a motor cycle.

5-24-43 Chow has been poor. Swimming swell. Sunburns bad. Simmons and I went after a cycle. Finally found one. Boy more work and fun. We rode all over.

5-25-43 Simmons and i took of up the peninsula, met Miller and gang. Traveled 200 miles picked up 3 more cycles. Pulled one out of the ocean. Really took of when the throttle stuck.

5-26-43 We are working 5-22 sets. Wind blew hard all day. English using 6 inch guns. Blew several of the tents over. Filled our beds with sand. Worked on motorcycle all day.

5-27-43 worked on my totercycle (yes he spelled it that way) all morning. Miller and I went up by the D. F. Homer for some cycle parts. Had chain trouble and a flat tire. Received a few rations and a letter from Helen. Our planes and British navy have pantaaanterila hell day and night. Lots of target practice with Jerry guns and ammo. Also “very flares”

5-28-43 Pancakes for breakfast. Egg and i raided the kitchen last night. Worked on my cycle all morning. Surver says turn them in. I hid mine. Hope to make one trip to Tunis on it. Miller got his hid too. Had a swim. And cleaned up. Wrote some letters.

5-29-43 Miller and I took of in our cycles. Have to smuggle gas and oil to them. Went up to the end of the C. Bon Penninsula. Traded cigarettes for a qt of arifican zombie. Worked part shift and had Egg double for me while we went to City La Des Mines. Nice bar and café. Stayed all night at a Spanish boys home. Got back to camp in time for brreakfast. Quite a time. 5-30-43 Egg and Cozy found my cycle with a group of negroes on it. It was stolen. Miller McHenry and I went to the mines. Drunk and stayed all night.

5-31-43 took a lot of food and stuff over to the Spanish boys. Had quite a party. Five of us had trouble with the cycle. But we made it in time to find out we move soon.

6-1-43 Late getting back to camp. Slept al morning went swimming and cleaned up. Had my leg dressed. Move to Ops I tomorrow. Repacked my stuff. Ike is sleeping with us. A couple dead bodies washed onto the beach. 6-2-43 Moving again back to the 82nd. Brought the motorcycle. Cozy and I had a flat with the weapons carrier. A poor camp site, dirty as heck.

6-3-43 Chow is fair. Wind blows continuously. Loose red clay for soil. Egg has a bad eye. My leg is better. We are repairing and recleaning 522 equipment. 30 fellows left this morning. We go next. Invasion sure as hell. We may have made cpl. Today. Our fingers are crossed. Simmons and the 3rd wing are disaagreeing. Wish we would get some mail. Went swimming with gates. Bought P.X. rations. Officers have a life of royalty. We have a speaker in our tent.

6-4-43 A miserable day and camp. Windy and dirty all day. Painted untill 3. we are invasion bound. Cozy and I went swimming at lest their is something to do. Our beds are constantly full of dirty bugs etc.

6-5-43 wind finally laid down. Still working to finish crateing our 522 sets. Had a lovely letter from Helen. “God Bless Her” paid today.

6-6-43 Had my leg redressed. Not much better. Painting barracks bags. Cleaned up and wrote a few letters. Grego, cozy and I went to the city of the mines. Took my clothes to an Arab to have them cleaned.

6-7-43 After walking 10 miles, we reached camp just after Jerry came over. Mess 110’s. Some damage mostly strafing. We retaliated with A100 bombers. Slept most of the day. A nice warm day.

6-8-43 worked waterproffing 522 sets. 53 B-17’s went over. 45 B-25’s. Also others. Amounting to better than 200 planes that we saw. Jerry is catching hell. Rumored invasion any day. Looks it to. Wrote a couple of letters and went swimming. Nice big back breakers. 6-9-43 Gold bricked all day. Slept and wrote letters. Spent a bit of time over to the medics with my leg. Saw two destroyers. Not more than 300 yds of the beach. Our planes gave Jerry hell again. Today caught gfilling my mattress cover with straw. Cost me 10 F. 6-10-43 still tinkering around 522 sets to keep our of general duty. Wrote several letters. Egg made some good coffee in the evening. At last i think my leg is getting better. Over 250 bombers gave Pantelliria hell.

6-11-43 slept to late to get breakfast. Saw a show last night. Valley of the sun. First one for 3 months. Pantilliria fell today at 4 PM taken entirely by air. Had pie and Jerry coffee for a night cap. Took our trailer tops away but have a nice pup tent with an electric light.

6-12-43 Valdez, tom, Dick and a few others were put n the alert. We are laying around keeping out of details, swimming and eating. Weather is ideal.

cleaned my rifle. Read an awfull lot. My mail is coming in loud and clear. Wind has started to blow again. We have quite a few evening snacks.
the wind is going great guns. Dust 3 inches deep in our beds. Lord it’s awfull. Officers get everything nice. Cozy has the GI’s. Went swimming. Breakers are wonderfull. Damn those rumors from home-I love Helen!
failed to make Tunis because of a shipping alert. Heard from home. Andy is near Tunis. But I’ll never get to see him now. My leg is better. Think we will leave tomorrow.
all our stuff in one bag, our beds rulled and were of to the airport to wait for transports. Off again, out over the Med. And straight down the coast to Oran. I tinkered with the ships radio. No air sickness after landing we put uup in Brks, ate and saw the show “tortilla flats”.
Went to La Sinia, drew kakies and slept. Went to Oran in the evening. Six servings of ice cream set us back $2.10. Went to the red cross and walked around the twon. Saw show “tin pan alley” Drew rations.
Chow is fair. At least we get to set down when we eat. Put on our suntans and went to Oran. Drank a little French beer, walked the St’s wishing we knew more French. Hired a taxi went to a French cinema. Saw “nice girl” had ice cream several times. Ate a 4 course meal for 88 F. Each. Finally wound up dancing at the red cross and going to their theatre.
went over to La sinia. Got a hair cut, a shave and a mustache trim for 9 F. Walked the streets of the city. Met 3 cute french girls. Ate at a new place. Had good steak and eggs. Shot a few craps and went to bed.
hitch-hiked to the city Bel Abbes. Home of the French foreign legion, their musuem and monuments are beautifull. All the women of Tunis Oran etc certainly have a striking beauty of their own. Prostetutes are terrible here. Soldiers line up for blocks. We walked our heads of. P.’s got us a ride back.
Zujus went back to Algiers. We took of again. This time to Oran. Walked the St.s drank french beer, ate ice cream. Shopped for soveniers. All the stuff a soldier does on pass. Went to a French theatre and saw “Eagle Sqdn” ate supper back at La Sinia. Met Earl F. Charles, browns and a bunch of the boys we came over with. Shot the bull till mid-night.
on a shipping alert again. Looks like our ship is going to sail without us. Walked over to the test flight line. Saw Eddie Brown. Went to Oran and saw the Picture lady of the year.
Went to the Taffarinie and did a bit of work on 522 sets in P-51’s. Met a boy from Rigby by name of Ray Chase. Back in Oran in afternoon. Saw show “Gold Rush Mazie”.
Drew new clothes. Sent a leter home with a Ferry command boy. Also bought a watch and a supposedly alligator band from south America. Back to Oran for more sight seeing. Fruit such as cherries, peaches, plums etc or sold by Conor St. Vendors.
made a couple of trips into Oran. Saw two pictures and a stage band. Ran out of Franc. Met two French girls. Only ones we have been able to talk to. Made a date for the red cross dance the next night.

Sold some G.I. stuff. Drank Bochi vino. Took a good shower and took of for Oran. Between S. P. and M. P. patrols we bucked the chow line. And after wards went to the R.C. no gals. Just as well. We didn’t have a ticket. Met Paulette on the St. she had worked until 8. she likes Helens pictures. Came back to camp and washed our dirty mess kits. This is certainly a vacation.

Went into Oran and saw show “between us girls”.. cozy and I are in Oran and went to meet our first African theatre dates. We were “stood up” brought a kilo of cherries for 40 F. saw musical and show “Navy blues”.

Went over to the new La Senia Red Cross Club. Wrote Helen and Mom went into Oran and saw show “Bullets for O’Hara” bought two green cantelopue for $1.16. boy wat suckers.

Spent the entire day at the Post Red Cross. Checkers, chess, monopoly, ping pong and reading were the main amusements. Cozart certainly taught bill how to play checkers. Mosquitoes are bad at nights. Bill and I had a good heart to heart talk.

A year ago I was with Helen. If only you could turn back time. Another day spent at the Red Cross. Rest of the boys went into Oran to see the show. Hear we leave for Tunis Friday by truck.

Prepared to leave for the cape. Will go by convoy. Made the most of the Red Cross club. Sort of a last fling at civilization.

Left La Senia at 10 AM got some fresh bread at a supply depot. Made new-ve-can. Four of us went into Relizance. Sort of an invasion but it was fun. Got back to camp at 1:30. hard ground felt good.

Of at 7:30. boy but we are sore. C rations are terrible. Lucky we can buy melons, fruits and vegetables from the natives. Gassed up at Oransville and slept that night 30 K. From Algiers. Slept on ground.

My God but it’s hot. Sign at a petrol dump read “Petrol and water. We’ve got it. You’ll need it” truth if there ever was truth in the army. The mts were even dry and hot and oh Lord the desert. Bought a bunch of egs from an Arab. They were hard boiled. Slept on the trucks floor bed.

I don’t think it will ever cool of. The men all look half sick from the heat. Temps is way above 120’s. Water is scarce and never cool. We are all so sore we can harldy sit. Along move from C-47’s. Egg and I took a bath in an old barrell with the water drawn from an Arab well. Boy it was cold and did it feel good.

Left at 6AM.. Out of a few hills into more desert and dust. We can hardly breath. We eat some F rations we have stolen. Finally we hit the Tunis road. The temp reads 160 in the truck and 123 in the shade. The air caused by the trucks movement is hot like an oven. Finally we hit the cape and take of for a swim in the Mediterannian in nothing flat. Poached two eggs for supper also had chocolate & cashi. Well i am alive what more?

Back at the Cape again. Not much left of the 82nd here. Our boys are all over. Lots of mail. Found out I have been engaged since the 8th of June. Boy do I feel funny. Cozy and I are bunking together. Water was nice swimming in.

Drew mor suntans. Spent the entire day in reading and writing. Cozy went up the cape to help set up a D. F. Homer. At noon some 200 bombers passed over. The ocean is jammed as far as we can see with hundreds of ships. Cozy says he saw hundreds of invasion barges. Something is bound to happen.

Drew bunk fatigue all day. Wrote several letters. Played a little poker. Major told us at 8 PM that at 1 O’Clock tommorrow we begin the sicily invasion. All plans were made know to each and every one of us. Lord its stupendous. But is brilliant as hell. Over 2,000 ships (over ½ of G.B. merchant marine and over 10,000 planes. Cozy and I lay awake untill midnight listening to our planes.

Rest of the world knows about it now. We set up a station to reach Pantelaria. 75 ft. Of Antenna. The 51’s are certainly making history. Went swimming. A C-47 came down the coast about 50 ft. High. All news reports sound good for us. Worked from 11:30 P.M. to 6 AM boy what a night.

ate early breakfast and slept untill noon. Weather is awfully hot. See planes and ships all the time. New reports sound OK. German reports sound awfull. But we know them for what they are. Went swimming.

Had a night mare. Like to have scared Cozy to death. Broke tent pole. Shaved and shacked up in my tent out of the sun. Lord its hot. Water makes nice swimming. Wrote a few letters in the van. We had a time with that crazy “EGG”.

Wrote several letters and slept during forenoon. Cozy-Cling and Clair went over to the city of the mines. We had canned chicken for dinner. Hell, wish we would get some mail. Praise the Lord and let us live by the Med while in Africa.
Egg gets our butts in a sling, so of we go to the city of the mines to help the French celebrate Bastille Day. French and English play soccer with the french winning. Egg won the high jump. Another yank the broad jump. Afterwards came free food and champagne. Also a French dance. Second dance i have been to in Africa. Stayed with Mike at the hospital.
Slept until 10:30. went down to the café for breakfast. Came back to camp and took a number of various articles to Mike and his family. Of course i had to stay to dinner. French cooks, servants and maids, a nine course meal and lots of wines. Had a swell time. Got back at 1:30.
Had to open up at 4 o’clock this morning. Certainly was sleepy. Got two letters back from censor. Lee T. And Helens. First i have ever had back. Water was certainly nice swimming. Ate an egg snack and took of for bed.
Opened up again at 4 O’clock. Did manage to write three letters. Sis says the family is pleased about Helen and I. We are Sicily bound any day. I’ll be glad to leave Africa . An Arab the major and I went round and round over some eggs. The Arab and I won. Cost the major 25F. Egg gave me an extra blanket. Water is OK.
Had pancakes for breakfast. Read and slept most of the fore noon. Worked for Egg so he and Cozy could go swimming. Made a checker board. Had 4 letters from mail call. Heard from Andy. He is not near tunis. Must be Oran or Algers.
Hot biscuits for breakfast. Wrote five letters. Had an inspection. Major says we will be in Sicily within the week. Had two letters today. God knos I miss Helen. If I could only see her. One kiss would be worth a million dollars. I am so damn proud of her. Swimming was great. Had a Egg snack after dark.
Read and Slept in the fore noon. Finished my checker set. Closed the van on the last shift in Africa. Tore down and are ready for Sicily. Swimming was heavenly. 20 ft. Breakers. Glad to get out of here. I’ve had enough of N. Africa.
Initiated new checker board by loosing 5 straight games to Cozart. Read most of the forenoon. Smooth water today. Gathered sea shells to send to sis. Was given convoy list. Egg and I are driving a van. Was bitten by a “Scorpin”. Talk about a sting. Had it checked in a couple hours. Had a night snack and got a sleeping drug from the Dr.
Usually day. Dealt with arabs for eggs, melons, etc. Went swimming. Raided a few O.F. Homers for food supplies. Leave for Sicily July 24th.
Sent some sea shells home to sis. Wrote a few letters took my last swim on the Cape Bon Gathered more shells to send back to Helen and Billie Dot. To late to get them censored. Made final preparations for moving.
Up at 5:30. on the road by 7. egg and I drove one van. We ate sandwiches, eggs, grapes, peanut butter, C rations, etc. Finally we made Bizerte. Boy it certainly caught hell back in april. We drove out to a stageing area. We are all ready for Sicily. The French are working their Jerry and Iti prisoners. Bizerte Harbor is crammed with vessels of all sizes and shapes, navy had a ballon barage up to protect against air raides. Thousands of soldiers in this staging area.
Had a late breakfast and shot the bull in the morning. After chow went into Bizerte red cross to hear an Eng’s orchestra and see the show “Come live with me”. Both were swell. Miller and I picked up a few souviners. Bizerte is blown all to hell. No civiliians there at all. Was Sgt of the Guard unitll 1:30. made a small kitchen raid.
Heard of the end of “Benito” in Italy. There is much talk about it and also about the reactions of the people in the states. Did a bit of laundry and wrote a few letters sending some sea shells home. At 11:30 PM went to the mess shackk for hello and whipped cream. Boys started a crap game. Lasted untill 4:30 AM. I am $16.00 richer.
Of to the docks. Drove through Bizerte where we saw hundreds of Italian prisoners being marched from the docks to camps. They were from Sicily and were the gosh awfullest looking bunch i have ever seen. I have never seen it this hot. Flys are terrible bad. Put my rain coat on my bed and lay naked. Rain coat stopped presperation from wetting my blankets. Went to docks. Saw many types and sizes of boats. Hundreds of men and equipment are puring into these boats. Large search lights are always keeping watch over the harbor.
Slept fairly late. Had flapjcaaks and coffee. Went after water. Got a good chance to see Bizerte harbor. Docks, vessels, etc. All of my outfit but a few of us are loaded. A lot of nurses went this morning. Clancy came in. Stole chow from his outfit. Listened to Sally. She is pretty quiet.
More flapjacks and coffee. Read most of the morning. Played checkers in the afternoon. Radio reception was good. Salyy says she will broadcast to us as long as she can. Which will be untill we hit Berlin. I hear the German broadcasts and think “Five more years”
Played quite a bit of poker to pass away the time. Got lucky and won $45.00. nights here are beautiful. Lots of stars, bright noon etc. Ships are coming and going all the time. Rest of our outfit is in sicily. God the flies re awfull.
Went swimming down to the docks. Had a nice diving board. Played more poker. Won $14.00. play quite a bit of checkers. Had fresh meat for supper. Think we will leave soon. Wrote sis a birthday letter also wrote Helen.
August 1 its hot and dry. Lots of flies and bugs and little water. Had a false shipping alert. My bed on the ground is unusally soft for some reason. Maybe my back is getting use to it by now. We are messing with 99th F.S.. an all colored outfit. Even the pilots. Played them a softball game. Did they bet us. We saw a plane lit up by a dozen search lights. The plane glowed as if it were covered with phosperes.
Drove to the docks and loaded. Took all day to load. Shot the bull with the sailors. Invested $5.00 in a crap game and won $75.00. we are aboard U.S.S. L.S.T.#391. Hull 421 to we soldiers. Slept on bottom deck in barracks bags. Really pulled a nice raid on some kitchen supplies.
After spending all night at Dock we said goodbye to Africa and joined our convoy at noon sharp. Bizerte Harbor has sunken ships all over it. Left for Sicily at 12 PM. Sun sank 1 hour after we passed Cape Bon. Passed a convoy at sea. Slept on top deck. We have a small boat but sea is smooth and beautifull.

END OF WAIT FOR SICILY