Interesting V Mail letter
Hi all, As I mentioned in the other thread ….. I recently bought an unused V-Mail envelope and a printed letter from another. I almost didn’t buy it because to me it looked ‘scanned / copied’ but after reading what transpired with the V-Mail letters, I realised it was just how they did it then ( reducing, then enlarging then printing them ).
Anyway, here is the letter – pretty standard “letter home” sort of stuff ( you can read it if you want ) but obviously doesn’t give anything away – rightly so – as it’s been checked by an army examiner.
The thing that drew me in was who the writer of the letter was – and which unit he was from!! ( and I just LOVE to research stuff!)
As can be seen it was from a Corporal H Prenatt who was with 15 Special Group of the 885th Bomb squadron.
Looking online at the roster list of the squadron, I found at number 555 of 787 men a Cpl Howard Xavier Prenatt Jnr. His service No was 35685476 and his MOS code (whatever that is) was 805. The date of his assignment to the squadron was 24 Dec 1944 and this letter is dated 28 February 1945 so he had about 8 weeks so far with the boys at "work" as the letter says
A bit about the 885th Bomb Squadron.
In October 1944, the AAF assigned heavy bombers to augment the transport of supplies and weapons to partisan groups, and the 885th Bombardment Squadron began flying to distant points in northern Italy and Yugoslavia. After the invasion of southern France, the United States increased its support for the Italian partisans, flying first from North Africa and later from Italy, the 885th Bombardment Squadron dropped tons of supplies to resistance forces in the Po Valley. Until the end of the war, American units continued supplying partisan bands wherever they fought, from remote mountains and valleys to the teeming cities of Belgrade, Zagreb, and Sarajevo. Aircraft of the 885th were typically painted black to be invisible on the night missions flown by the squadron.
15 Special Group
Based out of Italy, the 15th Special Group (Provisional) flew special missions sometimes referred to as Carpetbagger missions to provide aerial supply of weapons and other material to resistance fighters along the peninsula. They were combined organizations of the 2641st Special Group, 859th bomb Squadron, 885th Bomb Squadron, 122nd Bomb Squadron.
Here is a link for more info on 15 Special Group 2641st Special Group
A search on Ancestry.com told me a few more things about our man ..... from details in the 1940 US census, Howard Xavier Prenatt Jnr was born June 5, 1923 in Chicago Illinois.
In 1940, he was 16 years old and lived in Wenner St Cincinnati, Ohio, with his mother Mildred (39) brother David (8) and sister Frances (15).
His surname is a variant spelling of the French Prenat, a derivative of the personal name Pierre, French for Peter.
It also seems that Howard survived the war and lived until 3 Nov, 2004, attaining the ripe old age of 81.... good on him!!
Vale Howard, and thanks for your service!
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