Letters Home - 2Lt Arthur S.C. Shanafelt

Excerpts From V-Mail Letters Home
28 February 1945 - 14 May 1945

2Lt Arthur S.C. Shanafelt
Co-Pilot 360th Bomb Squadron

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - February 28, 1945
. . . England is O.K. and I like it as good as possible. It’s tough but I like it O.K. and so far I’ve done fine getting myself back. Hope I get home soon but at the rate I’m going it will take me over a year to finish. I have a pass coming up soon and am anxious to see London. As a whole England is beautiful considering what she has gone through. There’s nothing to say. I can’t tell you about my raids or where I went.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 4, 1945
Excuse this paper and stuff but you see I am flying and it’s all my radio operator has. The Navigator is getting some stick time in case he ever has to help me he can. I am down here in his compartment writing on his table. We went to London on pass. I saw Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and many wonderful things but I’ll just go back to dear old Texas and love it. . . .there seems to little I can say. . . Certainly is getting lonesome however I really don’t have time to get homesick. I think of you real often but just haven’t time to write often as yet. If you knew or I could tell you what I’m doing you would understand and I’m dead tired at night. I have written Mother most every night but I know she’s worrying terribly about me and I don’t want her to. I’ve got so damn much to write about I don’t know where to start. I would like to tell you all about what I’m doing, how many missions, where I’ve been, etc. but I can’t. If I could you would realize just how busy I am and have been.

Letter to future In-Laws - March 4, 1945
I am fairly adjusted to this life now but it was hard at first. Believe me, I was scared my first mission but now it’s different. I’ll certainly be glad when it’s all over and all the fellows get home to a normal life again. This week my crew went on pass to London. I saw many interesting things and enjoyed my visit very much. Texas is the place though and I’m very anxious to get back. However, I do admire these people and they are very nice to us.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 6, 1945
. . . Of course I may come back to you without a scratch but it’s no secret that there is a possibility I may not come back. Please go and see my Mother when you can. . . Don’t worry your sweet little head over me.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 9, 1945
I’m wondering if you will like me when and if I get home. I know I’m getting a little different each day but I’ll do my best not to. Tomorrow is going to be a big day and I must close. Guess you think I never write much but there is nothing to tell.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 10, 1945
I’m wondering if you’ve been receiving any of my mail. I haven’t heard from anyone since I got all those letters (16 of them) about two weeks ago and my moral is very low about the mail situation. Otherwise, I am very happy and feel good. Guess you’ve been reading about what we’ve been doing. Wish this thing would end and I could see you but there’s a very meager chance of that now. I will probably wind up in the pacific somewhere. That’s what I mean about plans. Things are so indefinite. . .

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 16, 1945
I’ll do my best to come back . . . There is no doubt but what the Lord is on my side. . . . I’m usually tired after fighting the ‘ole B-17 Girl’ all day but I’ll manage to write more often some how. . . . . The fellows here are fussing at me saying I write you too much...

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 18, 1945
. . . It’s getting cold again. . . I’ve bought me a swell battle jacket. . .

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 21, 1945
. . . We have a big fight on our hands here. Better hit the sack and get some sleep.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 23, 1945
. . . Every day is rough but still it’s that much more done and that much closer to getting home. I’ll be so darn old and worn out when I get home you may not want me.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - March 24, 1945
Didn’t hear from you today but received two letters from Mother which pepped me up. If things keep going like they have (and I hardly see how they can get rougher) and my luck holds out, I’ll be or should be home sometime in June. Of course I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch and I’ll have lots of rough times ahead but I’m praying I get home in June.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - April 11, 1945
Sorry I haven’t written lately but if you’ve been reading the papers you know where I’ve been and how tired I am when I sit down at night. They are working me to death but as long as I get back, I love it and shall continue. Just getting back in one piece and breathing air is the main thing. Haven’t the time to say more. I must hit the sack because it’s rest I really need and must get. May get home soon if I keep going like I have. Hope I do get home quick as I’m tired of this life.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - April 15, 1945
Gosh I’ve been terribly busy and when I got down today I went to sleep and missed chow so you can imagine how hungry I am. No dinner or lunch; gee I’m hungry. I’ve had several good missions but some (most) have been nothing but rough.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - April 16, 1945
Is it the 16th or 15th? [It was Easter Sunday] I didn’t know it was Sunday until I got down this evening. Isn’t that awful? All I do is fly, eat and sleep it seems but I can rest when I finish. . . I’m thankful as long as I always come back. I’m wearing a raunchy hat three fellows have worn through combat now so it is definitely lucky. I have to take a new crew up tomorrow and I’m sweating it out to be truthful. I’m sure we’ll get along O. K.. At least I certainly hope so. Water is scarce over here but you can manage a shower every three or four days if you are lucky. In spite of all I can do it will take me at least four months to get clean again. To top it all off I have contacted athlete’s foot somewhere here and that isn’t good. I’m really a nervous wreck... I have an unlucky number to go. I have as many raids now as my age plus one so if I’m lucky I’ll get home probably sooner than expected. I must close as I have to fly the big one tomorrow.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - April 18, 1945
I’ve been so dead tired, scared or whatever you want to call it, at nights I would write you and not remember what I wrote.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - April 20, 1945
I am lying on my bed with shorts on. Believe it or not I got a real nice hot shower this evening and feel 100% better. I might be able to live with myself now until they turn the water off again.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - April 26, 1945
This morning I got up at nine, took a shower and went to classification. Came home, ate and had a notice to report to the dispensary. Gosh was I ever sweating. I’m O.K. so don’t worry. I came home, wrote you, then Sam (Pilot Samuel W. Smith) and I went to a matinee show. We came home, showered, bitched and went to the club and we each ate half a chicken . We drove to town and mailed our letters and came back and saw another movie.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - April 28, 1945
I really have had plenty of time here lately but just didn’t write because I played hearts, gin rummy and casino with the fellows down at the club. I’ve been saving a fifth of scotch for our last mission but decided I might go down and it would be wasted so we fellows drank it about a month ago.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - May 1, 1945
It’s very cold and damp...I have only a few blankets. . . . Sorry I can’t give you all the poop on my work.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - May 5, 1945
Have you seen the movie ‘Casanova Brown’? Guess it’s old, everyone seems to have seen it but me. I thought it was wonderful. One of my best buddies ‘got it’ a while back over here and I’m going to California to see his wife and some friends when I get home. They have two of the sweetest little children. I feel so sorry for her and only wish there were something I could do. Wish I could get back to Texas and stay for good but that seems rather impossible at the present. Don’t think I was ever so tired of one place in my life.

Letter to fiancé, Beverly - May 14, 1945
You know I’ve always wanted to get fighters. Although you don’t want me to ...and you will most likely win out because I needed two more raids before my request would go through. I am positive I could have done much more over here and any other place in them [a fighter]. I’m built for fighters or something like that. I love speed. Sure I flew the big one and always got my crew back but I’ll tell you this, I was terribly lucky and very grateful I did. I’ve seen them and turn my head just a little and look back and all you could see was smoke and little pieces. Of course I saw fighters go down but it was different. There’s been times and still are that I would like to quit the whole thing and go home and let someone do my fighting but 80% of the time I want to be in the thick of it. I’ve lost an awful lot of friends over here and if the good Lord spared me I can go on fighting and trying to do my part. It’s true I’ve done an awful lot more than lots and lots of fellows but on the other hand I could not hold a light to some. I can’t quit now that’s all and if I must fly the big one by gosh I’ll do my best and be as happy as possible although my heart isn’t in it. Haven’t been doing much but flying our ground personal over the cities we’ve bombed. It was very interesting to them and they deserved to see what we had been bombing. Paris is a beautiful city..if fact, the most beautiful city I’ve seen. Now I can tell you about the V2 bombs. In London on my first pass one hit and knocked me out of bed and all the windows out. They certainly do make a large explosion and your ears ring quite a while afterward.

[courtesy of Shari Shanafelt]