About Letter 55

It's New Year’s Day 1944. Bill is catching up on his sleep after an overnight bivouac. The men hike 10 miles and then spend the night in slit trenches with no fire. Supper consists of “half frozen K-rations.” The next morning, after a breakfast of more K-rations, Bill stays behind to help fill the trenches while the rest of the company crosses the Deschutes River in assault boats and takes a hill with overhead machine gun fire. Bill closes his letter with a sketch of him sound asleep in his bunk entitled, “Me-welcoming in the New Year.”