November 1943

189th Field Artillery Movements, November 1943. (1)

Dean started November off with a letter, telling Aileen that it was sunshiny again but still cold at night. He was very pleased with his birthday locket and the pictures of Aileen and Dona Lu. He also wished that Aileen was there doing the ironing for him! He’d heard they were rationing brassieres in the states and wondered if there were truth to this. The truth is, the war did cause certain things to be rationed, such as nylon and lace, materials used in bra making, however brassieres themselves were not rationed. (2)

November was a very busy month for the 189th Field Artillery Battalion. However, Dean soon found himself in the hospital. On November 9th, 1943, German bombers strafed Charlie Battery, 189th, and a shell went through Dean’s helmet, badly wounding him and killing several others. The next letter Dean would send would be the Thanksgiving Day menu at the hospital where he was. He was very ready to be turned loose at that time, though it would be another few weeks before he returned to his unit. He wrote again a few days later, on November 28th, specifically to tell Aileen Not to tell Wilma that her husband had stomach ulcers. He was most concerned about Glenn and made a note that if he had to be put on a soft diet, Glenn would not return to the unit. (It is unknown where or what hospital Dean was sent to.)

5th Army Operations for October and November 1943 (3)

November was not a good month overall for the 189th, the unit had a large number of men killed and wounded, and while they had made progress, they would soon come up against the Winter Line fortifications, and begin a months long stalemate.

1) Elizabeth Mesa, 189th Field Artillery Movements, October 1943, 9 July 2024.

2) New York Historical Society, accessed July 11, 2024, https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/protect-our-brassieres-wwiis-war-on-lingerie.

3) 5th Army Operations, n.d., https://history.army.mil/books/wwii/volturno/map30.jpg.