Monday, 16 October [1944] Littlecote
We set up our offices this morning and settled down to do a little work. Feel more like we are in the army again. Our chow has improved but chicken is on the menu again. We have regularly scheduled classes which everyone is required to attend. I dislike this program very much.
The only class of any real interest to me, is the French class. I expect to be in France, one day soon.
Tuesday, 17 October [1944] Littlecote
A very uneventful day, a little office work. The usual M/R and sick book, nothing new. I wrote a few letters between classes. I haven’t received any mail as yet but neither has anyone else. We were originally scheduled to go to France so our mail, may have been sent there by mistake.
Lt. Arenstein and I don’t get along too well lately.1David Arenstein (1920-1997), was born in Richmond Virginia, and was a first lieutenant in the B Battery of the 549th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Unit of the 87th Division in the U.S. Army. Arenstein was trained as a lawyer and was, on occasion, called on by the Army to prosecute crimes committed by GIs. On January 9th, 1945, Arenstein was called in to prepare a defense for a D Battery soldier accused of raping a Belgian girl. Arenstein kept a diary, very similar to that of Vernon Goetz, which can be found at https://joanpone.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/david-arenstein-book-with-spreads.pdf. I’m not a yes man and he is stubborn as hell.
Wednesday, 18 October [1944] Littlecote
Discovered today that our first batch of mail was sent to France. It has been nearly a month now since we have received any mail. It has rained part of each day since our arrival in England. We are getting used to it now, usually don’t even wear a raincoat, usually get wet too. We are impatient to get moving again. We want to get our Battery back together again and head for France. I sat up for a while last night and played pinochle, was rather lucky.
