The following letter was written by T/Sgt. Ralph A. Crawford, brother of Mrs. Bill McNabb of Cliffside:

Foggia, Italy   

Dear Bill and Juanita:
     It’s all over over here and now that censorship has been lifted I should be able to write you some news. In my next few letters I will try to cover everything from the time we left Patterson Field until now.
     We were at Camp Killmer for eight days, doing nothing but waiting for the time to pull out for overseas.  Before we had been on the ship a few hours we were told we were going to North Africa. We left New York August 21 and on Sept. 4 we landed at Birzete [Tunisia].  We had a very good time coming over although at night we had blackout and had fire drills and abandon ship drills. I was OK after the first day as far as being sick was concerned. We got along OK until we reached Oran and from there on until we landed the Nazis had us on the run. They were after us from the water and air. I was on deck one night when we got the alert that enemy aircraft was coming and before I could get in the hole they were all over us. They dropped their bombs but failed to hit any of the ships. The U-boats were after us several times but as luck would have it they didn't do us any harm.
     We landed at dark at Birzete on Sept. 4 and moved out of town about a mile from the harbor and set up camp. We were all tired and it didn’t take long to go to sleep. The next day we set up camp and went swimming in the M[editerranean]. Sea and looked the place over. We couldn’t get very far away and had to be careful as there were still some mines and traps around. They had been having a few air raids around there so we dug our fox holes just in case and it was a good thing we did. Just after dark we got the warning that enemy aircraft were coming and in about ten minutes the place was covered with ME-109 and FW88. I have never in all my life seen the fireworks that was thrown at the airplanes and we could follow the tracers and see just how close they were shooting at them. We learned the next day that seven were shot down.
     We stayed at this camp for ten days and did nothing but eat and sleep when we could. We had to stay in the fox holes about half the night for three nights and after that we were not bothered any more as long as we were in Africa. We finally packed up and moved to Tunis about 100 miles and when we got there they sent us right back to Birzete to run a supply depot. In January of ’43 we got word we were going to Italy and the fighting was still going on pretty heavy there. We were on the Liberty ship one week coming to Naples and we stayed in Naples about a week before we came to Foggia. We had one or two raids while we were in Naples. I was able to see quite a bit the week we were there, the town was torn up as all the towns are in Africa and Italy except Rome and the people were starving to death. The Germans carried everything away with them and there was just nothing left for the people to eat.
     We finally arrived at Foggia and moved into a wood house that had been occupied by German officers. It was Feb. 4 I think it was really cold and snow all over the ground. We got set up pretty good the first week and got started to work in a shop that had no top and no sides. We had to build everything as the English and Americans had torn everything down with their bombs. In one raid on Foggia before we got there 10,000 Italians were killed in one raid.  The 8th Army captured the town and airfield.

News clipping and transcription courtesy Don Bailey