5731671 OTC Williams RK
77 Tp HAC Sqdn
100 (Sandhurst) OCTU
RHC RMC
Camberley, Surrey
My Darling Chotie,
I’m very sorry I haven’t been able to write before but have only just got back from a wireless scheme and am also squadron Leader into the bargain.
You always seem to be on the move*, which is a good thing as you see a little more of the country than I did for the first year or so.
Just had a letter from Brinner – passed his WOSB easily – the same one that I went on at Betchworth Surrey. He’ll probably go the (sic) Wrotham pre-OCTU, where Johnny went.
I get a long(?) week-end in a fortnight’s time which is when Diller gets her leave so I may manage to see her then.
Had a good time on the scheme although we worked until eleven every night. Our particular group consisted of four cadets, 2 cars and 2 ATS. They were very good, doing nearly all the cooking and egg-scrounging from the farms. We slept in the hay-loft of a barn and they slept in the farmhouse itself. Quite fun.
We do nothing but wireless schemes all the next fortnight which are pretty cushy physically but pretty bloody mentally.
I’m trying to write this on my knee – murder, isn’t it?
I can still see my old tree from our new room. It’s just beginning to turn brown… As one of our Canucks** said “I guess that means the fall”…
Haven’t read anything for ages – or seen a flick for that matter. ‘Spect you still manage to find time for a little quiet reading. Wish I could.
No news of any kind – nothing seems to happen these days, except in Berlin.
Will close here as there’s simply nothing to write about.
All my love, precious
Dicker
*Chotie’s unit moved to Portishead, on the coast west of Bristol, in late August/early September.
**Canuck – slang for Canadian.
© Chotie Darling
23rd August 1943 – the Soviet Red Army recaptures Kharkov in the western Ukraine, after a fierce German defence.
23rd August 1943 – heaviest raid on Berlin to date with 717 RAF bombers to test the defences around Berlin. The city was covered in a blanket of smoke from the fires and thousands were killed. Further bombing was carried out on 31st August (600 bombers) although the main ‘Battle of Berlin’ bombing campaign did not follow until November 1943.
25th August 1943 – Germans first use the HenschelHs293, radar-controlled and rocket propelled glider bombs, in the Bay of Biscay.
28th August 1943 – King Boris III of Bulgaria dies suddenly in mysterious circumstances having angered Hitler by his refusal to deport the 50,000 Bulgarian Jews Bulgarian Jews (although Jews were deported from Bulgarian-occupied territories in Macedonia, Thrace and Serbia) and to declare war on the Soviet Union.
28th August 1943 – the Danish government resigns, having refused Germany’s demands to impose the death penalty on saboteurs. Martial law is imposed and Denmark becomes de facto ruled by Germany. The Danes succeeded in scuttling most of the large ships in their Navy before they fell into German hands.
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