Lt. Reichard’s WWII Diary – January 21, 1943 by Alison Harder (01/21/09).
Introduction by Will Seippel, CEO – WorthPoint.com Lt. Reichard began writing a diary on January 1, 1943. In February, he bought a camera and began taking some photos. For the next three years, he wrote almost every day. When I started reading his diary, I thought it should be shared and that perhaps WorthPoint’s community of collectors, people like me who are intrigued by the past, might find the diary as fascinating as I did. (To read Will Seippel’s entire introduction, click here)
January 21, 1943 Diary Page (click to enlarge)
Transcript of diary entry January 21, 1943
Thursday, January 21, 1943
Gowen Fieid, Boise, Idaho
This morning I over slept again. One of the boys had borrowed my clock and forgot to pull out the trip on the alarm so he didn’t get up when he was supposed to and when I finally woke up at eight he was still asleep. I image he got in hot water. I got dressed and went over to the mess hall for breakfast then to the office. Capt. Johnson came over around ten and we straighted the situation in a few minutes. We got the authority to cancel all previous requisitions and send in a complete new shortage list. I don’t care for it much because it means we wont see the stuff until we get to the P.E. I’d like to get it ready here and take it with us. That’s out. Sanders came in late last night and ______ came in this evening around four. He called up and I went in town. Well it seems he got things pretty well straightened out down there. It cost me five dollars for nineteen pillow cases we were short.
Helen had some news I did not like much. It seems Dorothy is pretty serious and is under the impression that I intend to marry her when this is all over. That’s bad. I can’t figure any way to break the news without hurting her feelings. Helen tried it but didn’t succeed.
• The Combined Chiefs of Staff issued the Casablanca Directive. Its principal aim was to weld RAF and USAAF strategic bomber forces into one mighty air arm able to crush the German industrial, military and economic system. It was also decided to defer the cross-channel invasion until 1944. (http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/rafhistorytimeline1943.cfm)
• Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress in New York, received a telegram from prisoners in the Warsaw Ghetto. They pleaded for aid and said, in part, that they were “poised at the brink of . . . annihilation” and that they “live with the awareness that in the most terrible days of our history you did not come to our aid.” (http://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/russian-army-repels-hitlers-forces13.htm)
• Six teachers and 38 students, most under the age of 7, were killed when the Luftwaffe destroyed the Catford Central School for Girls during a bombing raid on London. (http://history.howstuffworks.com/world-war-ii/russian-army-repels-hitlers-forces14.htm)
• The Russians claimed the capture of the Caucasian railway town of Voroshilovskiy and said that 500,000 Germans had been killed and 200,000 captured in the previous two months of fighting. (http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/war-in-europe/eastern-europe/eastern-europe-index-1943.htm)
• A naval base and naval auxiliary air facility were established at Corrinto, Nicaragua. (http://www.blountweb.com/blountcountymilitary/wars/ww2/timelines/1943_ww2.htm)
• The submarine chaser SC-709 was grounded and sunk off Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. (http://www.blountweb.com/blountcountymilitary/wars/ww2/timelines/1943_ww2.htm)
• Maj. Gen. Alexander M. Patch, U.S. Army, had recently assumed command of the U.S. forces stationed on Guadalcanal. Patch relieved Maj. Gen. Alexander A. Vandegrift, U.S. Marine Corps, who had been in command since the initial occupation of positions on the island by the Marines in early August 1942. The Marines had been operating jointly with army troops in this area for several months during which time most of the Marines, who made the original landing on Guadalcanal, were replaced by army personnel. (http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/comms/1943-01.html)
Production Credits:
Diary photos: Claudia Forbes
Video production: Alison Harder
Narration: Mountain VIsta H.S. Theater Department
Jeremy Goldson, Department Chair; Sean McGill – voice of Lt. Reichard
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