Chotie Darling

Getting fat - Sunday 28th March 1943

Chotie at home on leave in her ATS uniform

Home address

 Sunday

 Chotie Darling,

            Received your card & letter yesterday.  Regret to say I couldn’t make Parkstone for a 24 hr, as I can’t get a pass that far.

            I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do about this leave as I’m working up ‘til seven or eight every night, and even if you could get up to Woking, I wouldn’t be able to see you.

            Hope you have a lazy time on your leave – try not to exert yourself too much ….  At least there’s no reveille – but no cups of tea in bed!

            I’ve managed to get home for a few hours so took this opportunity of writing a few lines.  As you’ve probably heard Diller is home for a week – prior to enlistment I suppose.

            When I get to Sandhurst I get 48 every month so will be able to travel far enough to see you, always presuming you get posted to the South somewhere.  Try to.

            I’ve passed out the first three weeks – ie the hard graft, and get it much cushier for the next six – nearly all theory.  I shall probably get fat or something – then you won’t love me any more….

                                    Must close here Darling

                                                    All my love

                                                                Dicker

© Chotie Darling

 

By the spring of 1943 the Soviet Army had air superiority over the Luftwaffe for the first time (due to the toll on German planes in the Mediterranean and fighting Allied bombers in Germany).  The Axis powers had 2,700, 000 men fighting on the eastern front while the Red Army more than doubled this with many more tanks, vehicles and armaments. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

1^st April 1943 – President Roosevelt freezes wages, salaries and prices to stem inflation in the US where meat, fats, canned goods and cheese are now rationed.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Rather indelicate tales - Sunday 14th March 1943

5731671 P/CDT Williams RK

30.0 Tp ‘A’ Sqdn.

No1. Pre-OCTU R.A.C.

Alma Barracks, Blackdown, Hants

 

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            As Sunday has again occurred I find I have a few minutes, to write to you.

            It seems ages since I heard from you – but I expect you’re in the same position as I am – one of a temporary scarcity of spare time.

            I’ve managed to settle down here, as much as is possible anyhow, but find myself pretty rushed off my feet and expect to be the same for the rest of my stay here.

            The compensations, such as they are, consist of such luxuries as hot water, showers, marvellous food, and plenty of clothing exchanges.

            There’s a whole harem of ATS here – they do all the admin. Duties, office work, driving, etc.  They never seem to do any parades, apart from one Church Parade per month.  Pretty cushy.

            (I must make an apology here for using this paper, but I’m fed up with using poky little writing-pads.)

            I rather fancy that this letter will read like a young novel. However, I resume.

            The instructors here are all Guards N.C.Os.  Coldstream, Grens*, Irish, Welsh
etc and aren’t too bad on the whole. We get a helluva lot of square-bashing, much too much for me, anyhow, as I reckon I’ve had enough after nearly three years in this racket.

            I expect you’re getting interested in the leave problem – and what a problem!  I only wish I could get mine, but I’m afraid I’ve missed it and certainly won’t get any until after this nine weeks.

            The real job starts at Sandhurst, but there you get a batman and are allowed a collar and tie(!) even though still a cadet – but that’s a long time yet.

            I can get week-end passes from here – provided I’m not on duty, but it’s a lousy journey and the fare would be well over a quid.  On top of this there’s the fact that you need every available moment to blanco** and keep your notes up to date.  What a tale of woe! – anyway that’s about enough of my troubles.

            I suppose you’re quite the old soldier by now.  You won’t, however, be able to give me any old buck as I know the ropes.

            You should get a better time when you get on a site somewhere – the initial training is always the stiffest, and the most boring.

            Needless to say, I don’t get any time to read here, and I gather it’s the same with you.

            Happily, I’m with quite a bright crowd – an actor (ham), medical student, couple of school-marms, buyer from Lewis’ Leicester, art student and several other buckshees.

            I met LISBY here; do you know him?  Rather fat, blond, used to work at Bank in Broadstone and ARP at Municipal Buildings.  Went to Poole Grammar.  He’s a pre cadet for the Tank Corps. (I seem to be rambling on, all to no purpose).

            Heard Ruth Naylor*** (waltz-song from Bohème) on Naafi Radio this morning.  Pretty wonderful.

            I miss my friend Alex**** from the 43^rd.  Like Eric we had much in common, particularly opera.  I promised to write, but then no one ever does.

            The ham here knows lots of people we knew on the London stage, and every night-club in Mayfair.  He knows enough about such people as Daphne du Maurier, Michael Redgrave, Noel Coward, etc to blackmail them a hundred times*****. Comes out with some rather indelicate tales after lights-out.  (I’m thinking about taking this letter up with a publisher).

            Had letters from home yesterday – no news.  Brinner’s on a course somewhere.  Diller is still expecting to do something.  Expecting is as far as it will get.

            How’s everyone at Parkstone?  Give them all my best wishes when you write
won’t you?

            Well, Darling, I must close here as its nearly lights-out and they’re pretty mustard on that sort of thing.

            Hope I can see you before very long.  I can’t tell you how much I miss you, Chotie, that would be quite impossible, but I do think about you and love you very, very, much.

            Perhaps, this wretched show will end sooner than either of us imagine and we can be together again.  I’m much more interested in that than any b----- commission.

                                                God bless you, Chotie

                                                            always yours

                                                                        Dicker

*Grenadier Guards

**Blanco was a cleaning compound used on the cotton of army uniforms.

***Ruth Naylor was an Australian soprano, famous for her appearance in Puccini’s opera La Bohème.

****Alex Johnston

****Practising male homosexuality was illegal in Britain at this time. Daphne du Maurier’s bisexuality has not been confirmed. She was Dick’s favourite writer and married to his former Commanding Officer in the Air Landing, Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning.

© Chotie Darling 

 

16th March 1943 – the largest convoy battle of the war begins in the Atlantic when three wolfpacks of 38 submarines attack a convoy of c.100 Allied merchant ships (Convoys HX229 and SC122).  22 merchant ships and one U-boat were sunk.  More than 300 seamen lost their lives.

19^th March 1943 – Montgomery's British 8^th Army attacks the Mareth line, held by German and Italian defenders in southern Tunisia, winning the battle by 26^th March.  The initial attack by the 50th Northumbrian Division (later to be attached to 61st Recce) was a disaster but by 26th March the Germans were forced to withdraw.

 

22nd March 1943 – the newly built gas chamber IV is opened at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland, followed by the opening of a gas chamber in Auschwitz II-Birkenau on 31st March and gas chamber V on the 4th April. Approximately one million people were killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp - mainly Jews (approximately 90%) but also more than 70,000 Poles and about 20,000 Gypsies. (See Auschwitz-Birkenau and WW2-net Timelines.)

The Free French air fighter squadron, later known as the Normandie-Nieman group, go into action on the Eastern front in support of the Red Army.

 

24th March 1943 – the Chindits are ordered to return to India having lost about one third of the original force in Burma. (See Operation Longcloth.)

Best Battle Dress - Monday 8th March 1943

 

5731671 P/Cdt Williams R

30-0 Tp ‘A’ Sqdn

No1. Pre-OCTU R.A.C.

Alma Barracks, Blackdown, Hants

My Darling,

                        I have at last found a spare moment to drop you a line.  I arrived here on Thursday last and this is the first chance I’ve had of doing anything for myself.

            I’m here for a minimum of 9 weeks – probably longer before going to Sandhurst* – that is of course if I pass this.

            The old spit & polish here is murder, have to change to best B.D.* for every meal…..However, that’s enough of this.

            Have you heard of Eric & Eve yet?  I suppose they’re well & truly hitched by now….poor old Eric.

            Seems ages since I saw you, Chotie.  Don’t suppose I’ll be able to see you for some time either.  I’ll get leave after this course and another half way thro’ OCTU I hope….

            I haven’t had any pay for weeks – don’t know when I’ll get any either.  I’ve been living on capital (?) since I’ve been here.

            I’m afraid I won’t be able to write very much for the first few weeks – at least that’s what we were told by the C.O.  The general idea is to rush you off your feet for some time, until things quieten down a bit.

            At Sandhurst we get our own billets & batman.  Some life.

            Well, Darling, there’s really nothing to write about – I’d much sooner hear how you’re getting used to Army life.  I expect you’re just starting to get browned-off by now.

            I must close here as I’ve tons of work to do.  We’re on parade from 6 am to 7.30 pm. Murder.

                                                Bye bye, Chotie Darling

                                                            Always yours

                                                                        Dicker

                                                                                    xxxx

P.S. Please get address right as there’s a helluva lot of delays.

*Then the Royal Military College Sandhurst Royal Military College Sandhurst used as the Royal Armoured Corps OCTU for the latter part of WW2.

*B.D. – battle dress.

© Chotie Darling
Eve and Eric (Kessler?)'s wedding on 6th March 1943

 

9^th March 1943 – Rommel, the German Commander known as ‘the Desert Fox’, leaves Africa with jaundice and exhaustion and never returns. 

 

13^th and 14^th March 1943 – ‘liquidation’ of the the Krakow Ghetto in Poland. Polish Jews had been persecuted since Hitler’s invasion of Poland at the beginning of the war. In March 1941 all of the city’s Jews were forced to leave or crammed into the Ghetto area. From 30^th May 1942 Jews were systematically deported from the Ghetto to surrounding concentration camps. During the Krakow Ghetto massacre those able to work were deported to the Plaszow slave  labour camp; c.2,000 Jews (mainly children, the old and the ill) were shot in the streets and approximately 3,000 others were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where most were murdered in the gas chambers.  (See Krakow Timeline and History of the Krakow Ghetto.)

 13th March 1943 – an assassination attempt against Hitler led by Major-General Henning von Treskow fails when the bomb in Hitler’s plane fails to detonate.  A second attempt on 21st March also failed when Hitler left the building before the suicide bomber, Colonel Fresher von Gersdoff, could successfully detonate his explosives. Staff of Army Group Centre, on the Eastern Front, were behind both attempts.

14th March 1943 – the German Army in Russia retakes Kharkov in the Ukraine and almost surrounds the over-extended Soviet Army on that front.

 

Pre-OCTU

Chotie Darling

 

Dedicated to the memory of my mother and all those who hold the
forever young of war in their hearts.

 

Part 3        Lieutenant Williams   

 

Chapter 8            OCTU

 

On 4th March 1943

Dick was permanently attached to No 1 Pre OCTU* RAC**

30.0 Troop ‘A’ Squadron No 1

and stationed at Alma Barracks, Blackdown, near Aldershot in Hampshire

 

Copy of Record from Service & Casualty Form

*O.C.T.U. = Officer Cadet training Unit

**R.A.C. = Royal Armoured Corps

Dick was missing out on Exercise Spartan, the first Home Forces exercise for invasion of Europe. It's codename implied the severity of it's nature, with cookhouses withdrawn for two or more days at a time and instructions that on no account was anyone to buy food or accept gifts of food from the civilian population.  The 43rd represented part of the Allied invasion forces - in 'Record of a Reconnaissance Regiment - History of the 43rd', edited by Jeremy Taylor, he writes "Exercise 'Spartan' will remain in the minds of those present as an aptly named endurance test ...." - while Dick's future colleagues in the 61st Infantry Division formed part of the German forces in occupation of Eastern England.

Eric Postles recalls:

“This exercise, the biggest ever held in Britain involved British and Canadian forces and was scheduled to last 2 weeks.  Our start line was at Princes Risborough and involved fording the River Thames.  The troop officer’s carrier got stuck in the water and towed out but was a non-runner.  My carrier was detailed to tow it and in the early morning we pulled into a farm off the main Whitney-Oxford Road.  We stayed there helping the farmer in return for milk and eggs and the villagers also brought us food.  The REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers) recovery truck found us and they also decided to stay until the exercise ended.  When we ran out of money we sold a new officer’s (Lt. Winzer*) blankets, which were in the carrier, to buy beer at a nearby pub.  He didn’t know who was responsible until we told him in Normandy. He was later killed.  We re-joined the squadron at Woburn Abbey.”

“Men were still returning to Colchester for days afterwards, some having been taken prisoner and had to clear rubble at Southampton docks.” 

* The officer, Lt. Geoff Winzer, later became a close friend of Dick’s.  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

The 145 (Berkshire Yeomanry) Fd Regiment Royal Artillery War Diary records that the “61^st Infantry Division were on the move in Bucks and Berks” from 3^rd to  6^th March but by 10^th March had been “badly knocked up by the enemy” in Exercise Spartan. “Isolated units, including the whole of the Regiment withdrawn to Woburn area, where remnants of 61 Division come under command 49 Division” (from World War 2 Talk Forum.)

 

5^th March 1943 – the first Allied raid of the Battle of the Ruhr, on Essen in Germany. Pathfinder planes deployed the new oboe radar detection to locate targets. The Battle ended on 30^th July 1943 having finally stopped steel production at the Krupp armaments factory in Essen and delayed tank production for the eastern front summer offensives.

6th March 1943 - Rommel launches another offensive from the Mareth line but the British had successfully decoded his messages and Montgomery was ready with an ambush.  The Germans suffered heavy losses.

7th March 1943 – a new North Atlantic wolfpack of German ‘U’ boat submarines is formed and codename ‘Raubgraf’ (Robber Baron). One four day period in the middle of March saw 27 merchant vessels sunk by German U-boats. (From WW2-net Timelines .)