Address as before
Thursday
My Darling Chotie,
Many thanks for letter received yesterday. I'm just about kicking myself at the moment, having done a very stupid thing last night.
I wrote you a letter before going to the library and put it in one of the books I was taking back - and left it in there! The point is that I didn't realise it until the library had shut, and the wretched place doesn't open again till tomorrow night (it's open every other day), so I can't get it till then.
However, thinking as much of my Chotie as I do, I have started another at the earliest.
I had a letter and a very welcome half-sovereign from Brinner telling me of your meeting - of which I was very pleased to hear - and also of course, telling me he was on leave. We seem to strike it very unlucky as regards getting our leave together. It would be much more fun for him if he could get his leave with us - it must be pretty dull for him by himself.
As usual there’s no news worth mentioning. Anything which may have been of interest I have to leave out. It's rather a blow to the indifferent letter-writer like myself. However as always I’m making the best of a bad job (?).
If ever you get in touch with that Rat du Rose, shake him up, will you? He hasn't yet raised the requisite energy to write me - and after the effort I made on his behalf! The whole affair sickens me.
We have had nothing but rain, rain, rain for days on end. The only thing that has kept me among the living is the glorious sunset which has become a nightly feature. Really lovely.
Have read little lately owing to the Army's demands on my spare time. Just Stephen McKenna’s “While of Sound Mind” and Osbert Sitwell's first prose work "Triple Fugue". The former I can recommend, but the latter I found only good in parts, I recommend it for those parts. (It consists of four or five short (?) stories.
Saw the ‘Ghost of Frankenstein*' last week. Rather poor I thought. Hope to see 'Reap the Wild Winds' tonight, which I just missed while on the course. May also see 'The Young Mr Pitt’, if I get the time. ‘Song of the Islands' is on next week I believe. The boys will be queuing up to see Grable** in a grass-skirt...
Well, I must close here, Darling and see if I can get the 2.30 post.
all my love, precious
Dicker
PS. Je t’adore encore au tout mon Coeur
PPS. Badge*** enclosed (keep it clean!)
*'Ghost of Frankenstein', 'Reap the Wild Winds', 'The Young Mr Pitt’ and ‘Song of the Islands' were all films on circulation in 1942.
**Betty Grable, the star of “Song of the Islands” (a musical set in a Pacific island paradise), was an American actress and musical star said to have the most beautiful legs in Hollywood.
***The Reconnaissance Corps badge featured an upwards-pointing spear flanked by two lightning bolts.
© Chotie Darling
31st October 1942 – the brave seizure of an Enigma machine and keys from a sinking German submarine in the Eastern Mediterranean enables code-breakers at Bletchley Park to decipher the German Naval code ‘Shark M4’ by mid-December. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)
2nd November 1942 – the Allies’ break-out at El Alamein in Operation Supercharge. Forces attacking in Operation Supercharge included the 50th (Northumbrian) Division, who Dick was to fight with in NW Europe.
4th November 1942 – German Army forced to retreat at El Alamein. (From WW2-net Timelines.)
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