June 7, 1944, letter from Samuel J. Alben to "Mom and Davis"

Citation

Alben, Samuel J., “June 7, 1944, letter from Samuel J. Alben to "Mom and Davis",” Madison Historical, accessed December 10, 2025, https://madison-historical.siue.edu/archive/items/show/2432.

Rights

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Description

A two-page letter from Samuel J. Alben to "Mom and Dad Davis" written on June 7, 1944, discussing his disappointment at not being in the invasion. He talks about his short time in Naples in Italy and how they never had a bit of trouble. When he wrote this letter, he was en route to home. Note that this letter is a product of its time. It contains a racially offensive slur.

Transcription

Page 1 Samuel J. Alben RM2/c U.S.S Mervine "c" Div Fleet Postmaster New York, New York. Thurs. June 7, 1944 Dear Mom and Dad Davis, Well I finally got around to writing the letter I owe you, I do hope by now you haven't given me up for desertion. I guess you received the card I sent from Norfolk. This leaves me well and in the best of health, and getting along swell, I hope for the same from there of all. I'm sure I can say the same about Curley and the other kids. I haven't seen Gene since we were home together the last time, which has been about two months now. I'm sure he is alright. We've just got the biggest disappointment in our naval career, yes we missed out on the big invasion. I guess by now you folks have heard all about it and think we are in on it, well from the length of time we were around the states and the manuvers we went through I thought sure we'd be in on it. I am a little sore about the whole thing, for all the boys were all planning on marking up number three invasion up for the squadron, maybe they will let us in on the next one. We took a small outfit up to Naples, Italy this time, just another one of our routine runs, we were there for two days. I got to go ashore for a few hours, but I had some business for the U.S.A. to take care of, so I didn't have much time to look around, but from what I saw, you could tell the place had taken quite a few bombings. Outside of this the place is really beautiful, I wish you could of seen it, I would like to describe it to you but I really wouldn't know where to begin. We never had a bit of trouble, even if they did plan on it, we did go through some dangerous waters, we went through what we call "torpedo junction" that is where the "Beatty" got sunk. I guess we are lucky, for the convoy in front of us and the one following both were attacked. Our convoy was a small one, but it was a very important one. I believe those boys are the ones who took over Rome.
page 2 We are enroute for home right now, I guess we will be in by the fourteenth of this month, I wont get to mail this until we get in, so you will know that we are in when you get this letter, for I will mail it the first night in. I guess Nora wrote you about Gene and I, the last few days were were home, about getting out in the yard and cleaning it up, planting grass and flowers, boy we sure did get a kick out of it, but I beleive we drank more beer than we did anything else. By the time we get back this time, the grass ought to be a foot high and plenty of flowers to pick. We have some beautiful weather on this trip, sunshine and nice smooth water all the way, if you could see the crew right now, you'd swear they were all niggers, for all of us have a nice tan or burn, I myself am just getting over a sunburn, I was burned from head to my toes, boy was I in misery for a couple of days. It was so darn hot we had to sleep top-side at nights. I imagine the weather around there has warmed up pretty nice by now, gee just think "summer-time" everyone's fancy, the right time of the year for all kinds of swell things like outings, fishing, riding and all sorts of wonderful things, be sure and stow some of it away for us when we get back. Well I really can't think of anything else to say for now, so I'll have to drop anchor here and sign off. With love "your son" Sam Alben P.S. You'll have to excuse the errors in typing for this typewriter hit the deck and isn't working very well. Hope to hear from you soon. God bless you

In Collection

Alben-Davis Letters

Subjects

government
Alton
World War II

Creator

Alben, Samuel J.

Contributor

Admire, Genna

Date

June 7, 1944

Language

English

Type

Miscellaneous Document

Format

Letter
jpg

Original Format

Typewritten letter on paper

Coverage

1940s
Alton, Illinois

Identifier

AlbensDavis-D-006

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