13 August, 1943

No letter today. The next letter was written on 16 August.

Here's a time line for the 438th, from 6 June through 7 November, 1943, quoting from The Route of the Question Mark. (Click on "The Route of the Question Mark" tab above for more information.) The photographs from 1942 to sometime in 1943 are on the preceding "no letter" days.

1942
6 June              438th Coast Artillery Battalion, Antiaircraft Artillery (Mobile) is activated at
                        Camp Edwards, Wellfleet, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

22 June            A cadre arrives from the 67th Coast Artillery stationed at Paterson, NJ.
                        Headquarters Battery now consists of twenty-one men.

1 October         All the fillers have arrived and the training begins.

14 November    Departure for Fort Jackson, SC by train, arriving three days later.

1943
23 January       Another train ride: we leave to take part in the Louisiana maneuvers.

28 March         We leave Louisiana to take part in the Tennessee maneuvers.

14 May             We are redesignated the 438th Antiaircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons
                        Battalion (Mobile).

19 May             No rest. Maneuver happy, we take off for South Carolina to demonstrate how
                       well we can defend an airport against an attack by an air-borne division.

27 May             We leave South Carolina for Camp Edwards, where we spend the next five                        months.