Children of Sicily Beg for Candy

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Another newspaper clipping, probably from the Holdenville Daily News, which quotes a letter sent home from Sicily by Harmon during the summer of 1943.

"Children of Sicily Beg for Candy And Sugar"--Lt. Buckley
    "I'm now sitting under a shade here in Sicily," Lt. Harmon Buckley, son of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Buckley, began a letter which his wife received in Holdenville Saturday.
    "The people here were certainly glad to see us when we came in. They are poor and most of them have no shoes and very little food," he wrote. "The people of the United States don't realize how lucky they are," he concluded.
    "The small children are the ones that I feel sorry for. They beg for candy and sugar or anything that you will give them. The people all beg for cigarets and sugar. We give them all we can but as soon as the island is taken, they will receive food and clothing."
    Lieutenant Buckley told of the toughest mountains that they had been over, all by foot.
    "All of the cities are built on the highest peak in the sector and, boy, do we have a climb to capture the city."
    The Holdenville boy spoke of how lucky his company was and said that there had been only three killed and 15 wounded.
    "Our casualties are much lower than we had figured on. The Germans are really giving the Italian soldiers a bad deal so that all of the Italians are coming over and surrendering."
    And he scoffed at the idea of the German supermen. "The Germans aren't nearly the soldiers that they have been built up to. These Americans have them all beat in every respect and way."
    Lieutenant Buckley proudly sent his wife and two and one-half month-old son a newspaper clipping cut from an army paper.
    It quoted General Sir Harold R.G. Alexander as saying,
    "Today, after the fighting they have done, the Americans are very fine troops indeed. There is no comparison between the Americans in Sicily now and the Americans six months ago. They are at least one hundred percent better."

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