Dan Wilson and the other P-38 14th Fighter Group pilots were issued tents in Italy, not nearly warm enough to get through the winter. They collected rocks from rickety stone fences and hired a local man to put together a stone hut. The pilots worked on it when not on a combat mission.
Belly tank crates and old tent canvas were turned into roofs. Various crates became doors, widows frames, and furniture. The hut even had a brick floor, a stove, running water, and an electric light.
“An enterprising squadron welder made heating stoves from parts of 55 gallon drums,” Dick Tomlinson wrote to me in December 1990. “Since we had no kerosene or heating oil, we burned 100 octane aviation gas in them. This was very volatile and accidents happened; on 30 Nov. 1944 when we were moving into our house, I became badly burned when the gas exploded as I was lighting the stove. I was the first, but not the last, casualty of the heating stoves. I was out of circulation for about three weeks as a result.”
See more about Danny Wilson’s months in combat in What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter’s Quest for Answers.
This part of the book helped to show how that generation found solutions rather than just sit and complain.
You’re right about that, GP!
I remember the stone hut!
I’d forgotten how wet it was in Italy during that winter!
This simple bit of information about how these innovative pilots, including your Uncle Dan, created a patchwork shelter during wartime is impressive. Thank you for sharing this excerpt! 🙂
I like how you put it, a patchwork shelter.
I love that phrase from Nancy as well! Patchwork shelter, indeed. Thank you, Joy – and Nancy. 😉