'Stretcher-bearers': (43) Appendix 1 - Letters Home

Letters Home

Unfortunately, only the letters I wrote home were kept, so they give a one-sided impression. Neither at home, where there was enemy air action, nor at my end could we describe truthfully what was happening, so most letters are bland , but they do give some impression of wartime experiences.

March, 1943 Before going abroad. Letters sent from A.P.O. (Army Post Office) 4660. (Letters written from Netley, Hants.)

9.3.43. Thanks for your letter. Am replying to it today because you may still want to know that we are still messing around here.
There are rumours afloat that we may go some time this week....What I am trying to say is that it will not be unusual if several weeks go by before you hear from me again.

12.3.43....think that this will be the last letter you will receive from me for some time because of all the signs here.
Have not heard from you this week and expect that your letter is held up in this blasted A.P.O. 4660.
Please look out for a parcel of unwanted books plus some rather nice chocolates for you and D inside the leaves of my old Greek lexicon.

Undated. (c. March 18th)
This is just to tell you that we are now on the way.
....Am not allowed to write any date and expect some delay before you receive this... As soon as I can I shall write again, but until then no news is good news.

(We travelled up to Scotland by train and embarked Windsor Castle which sank 23.3.43.)

24.3.43 Letter 4. ... have arrived completely safe and sound in North Africa.
In case previous letters don't reach you, I wrote three on the ship, just to let you know how things were going.
No letters from anyone to date...
Please excuse pencil and this wretched paper, (part of an opened up envelope), but I have only just acquired it and conditions are sub-normal.

28.3.43.
We can buy tangerines, oranges, dates and various other fruits here very cheaply. My French, such as it is, proves invaluable, but I doubt whether I shall ever master the wonders of Arabic. Incidentally, I now grasp fully the meaning of "jiggerumpore" which came in that alphabet we used to learn. D. should remember it. Let me know if you get the meaning.
Note. "Jiggerumpore" was used in a jingoistic naval rhyming alphabet kept in our grandparents' home, near Portsmouth Parish Church, now Portsmouth Cathedral.
"T for torpedo tubes, you know what they're for,
To blow enemy warships to jiggerumpore."
This was an easy way of telling the family what had happened without spreading information to the enemy.

Yesterday, 27th March (23rd birthday), went down to the town and managed to buy a second-hand Greek-French lexicon.

5.4.43. Still no letter from home.

11.4.43. Letter 8. The French is lapsing again because men here are scarcer than lizards. Today we found a couple of tortoises.... it is ten minutes' walk to the nearest tree.

20.4.43. Have received safely today your letters of March 9th, 11th, 14th, 15th, 19th and 22nd. You can imagine how relieved I was to hear from home again and to know that you and D. were well.
The news about the raids (at home) is not good. Am glad that you are using the shelter and not taking risks.

I laughed when you told me that Mrs Harris thought I would have a "lovely time playing games on deck."
We are established here and do not realise , apart from rumours, that a war is on. These rumours are painfully optimistic. My hope is to be back by about 1946, but am quite well and contented, all considered.

30.4.43.
Today we were all issued with tropical kit, including shorts. ... am transformed into a cross between a scoutmaster and a week-end hiker.
Am still trying to get back into a Field Ambulance unit.

28.5.43. On Wednesday I saw the welfare officer and applied for transfer to a Field Ambulance unit. The whole business will take time and may not come off.

4.6.43. Flies are increasing and also the red ants with the black bottoms, but they are quite harmless.

18.6.43 This is just to tell you that I have been posted today to 11 Field Ambulance, B.N.A.F. (British North Africa Forces). I am going alone and shall miss Burrow very much, but this should be my last voluntary posting.

25.6.43. Am sharing a bivouac with a man who has worked in Colney Hatch. He claims to have had a patient discharged as fit by revealing to the authorities that he had been shaved by the patient for five years!

19.7.43. You seem a bit anxious about my health. Well, I've marched 26 miles in the past 20 hours.

1.8.43.
You have done a tremendous job by sending through all the books, but a minor tragedy is that most of them have been lost again, through no fault of mine.
Note. 2 men killed, others wounded and 8 lorries dive-bombed and burnt out, near Catenanuova, Sicily. July c. 25th-30th.

15.8.43.
...managed to get five wounded back safely by stretcher, including one German. One of our infantry tried to take his gold watch, but I saw red and put an end to the attempt.

14.11.43.
Many thanks for your letter containing the shaving soap, ink and flannel... the first flannel I have had since landing in North Africa, and its arrival coincides with the legacy of half a petrol tin for use as a washing bowl from someone who had the bad luck to be court-martialled.

25.11.43.
...am now coaching a man of HQ Coy in Latin and also teaching an Italian army officer English.

1944.
1.1.44. At this moment I have 33 books ... and as I can carry only about 15-20 when we move again, please do not send any more for a while.

15.2.44. You did ask if there were any items I would like. Here are two: about half a dozen candles and some boot blacking.
Am very pleased that the marmalade reached you safely.

25.5.44. You mention chess and I wonder whether you have any good gambits to pass on, like the one you used on Longworth ages ago. I can hear again your resonant "Checkmate, I think!"
It was a pity about poor Algy. You may think me sentimental, but I still wear his monocle in the pocket over my heart.
Note. This letter is marked "OPENED BY CENSOR", unlike nearly all the others, that are just stamped "Passed by Censor". I wonder what on earth he made of the remarks about Algy Longworth. He was a character in Sapper's "Bulldog Drummond" and even before the war my sister and I had corresponded as Carl Petersen and Irma, the main crooks in the story.

13.5.44 Last night I found a skylark's nest in a field. About dusk the fields are dotted here and there with fireflies which light up.

30.5.44. Found a Jerry candle which we used in the bivvy, but it spluttered so much that it was not much use.

6.6.44. Many thanks for your latest airmail which took nearly two months to find me. Am glad that most of the oranges arrived safely.

27.6.44. If you could send a bottle of Silvikrin (7/- approx.), it might help to keep my hair on a little longer!

6.7.44. Have made arrangements with a firm in Algiers to send a birthday present to D, a 4 lb. parcel of fruit. However, the whole plan may turn out to be a swindle, so we shall have to wait and see.
Note. It worked.

21.9.44. My latest request is for two books which I was forced to send home when our kit ration was cut down. They are 1) Latin-English dictionary, 2) Aristophanes "Clouds".
Work in Greek is advancing steadily.

30.10.44. The mud has been so deep that it is hard to walk. Am doing my best to counteract trench foot and have some powder now to stave it off.
Have done some rather useful routine work recently. Possibly have slightly more endurance than some here. Expecting better days soon.
Have not had a change of clothing for a month.

6.11.44. ...managed to wash my clothes, drying them in an oven where the civilians had been baking bread!

13.11.44. ...found a hip-bath and had a full wash down ---very necessary because one of or nine is already lousy. Washed one set of underwear and made four handkerchiefs out of a pink pair of lady's knickers, boiled before use.
Have any of those new rocket bombs fallen your way?

13.12.44. Poor old John B----- is suffering from lice again.
Have finished "Teach Yourself Italian" and sent off test papers for marking.

1945.

1.1.45. Seven days' leave. Have seen the operas "La Traviate" and "Barber of Seville" and watched a Rugby match.
Did you go to any more Whist drives?

9.1.45. Audience with the Pope - ordinary man with bad teeth who addressed us in English, Italian and French.
Have sent home a pair of gloves, silk tie and two large nougat bars.

18.5.45.
Was very glad to get your letter of May 12th today, the first to arrive since one dated April 20th and re-forwarded on May 1st.... very relieved to know that you have moved safely to Portsmouth...
At the same time as you were moving we were crossing ... into Austria, which we reached just before Germany officially surrendered. ... No official celebration, but a pretty busy time sorting out hospitals and disarming inhabitants .
Have already been threatened by our acting CO with the "maximum" for speaking to civilians, but now the ridiculous non-fraternisation order has been lifted as regards civilians in Austria, so the position is much better.

The correspondence continued for another 17 months until demobilisation in October, 1946.

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