2/Lt R K Williams
‘B’ Sqdn. 61st Recce Regt
Recce Corps, Home Forces
Sunday 28th
Chotie Darling,
I’m now back again and settled down after the scheme, which lasted for its original duration much to everyone’s disgust.
On the whole I had quite a happy time, as I either stayed at, or passed through, several old haunts well known to the family in the old Morris Cowley* days, and coupled with the opportunity so often missed of worming my way into a vast number of period farmhouses and the like.
The weather was excellent, cold but dry and as we stayed in one little village for three days without doing anything of military importance, we managed to get sufficiently well organised to hold ABCA** periods and run a football tournament. I evaded these two popular pastimes however, and mooched about a local farm until the daughter of the house asked me in for coffee and CHOCOLATE Biscuits! Her undoubted charms left me cold, but I took a lively interest in the biscuits. Lovely old house, with a massive oak beam over the fireplace marked 1600.
The major*** came back yesterday. He appeared quite a good type – reads Balzac, so I’m well in.
Nothing much happens here. I’ve just finished a 48 hr spell of Duty Officer, rather a cushy appointment.
I get another 24 hr next Wednesday so I may go up to ……….. (word inked out). There’s nothing to do here, or locally, but the snag is the fare. It will be the second day I’ve had off in three weeks, which isn’t so good, to my way of thinking.
Many thanks for your letter, Darling, most welcome at the conclusion of an exercise. Glad to hear you’ve got, or rather you’re getting, a rise****. I bet you’re getting more than me after all. After I’ve paid income tax, messing***** etc, I get the equivalent of Lance Corporal’s pay….
Must close here for dinner.
All my love precious
Dicker.
*presumably the family car from his childhood at Orpington in Kent.
**Army Bureau of Current Affairs – an organisation set up to educate and raise morale among British servicemen in World War 2 (see Wikipedia).
***possibly the Regimental second-in-command, who was a Major, or maybe the Major commanding ‘B’ Squadron. (See Reconnaissance Organisation December 1943 and Reconnaissance.) Dick was one of 23 to 30 subalterns in the Regiment – commissioned officers below the rank of captain, generally comprising first and second (junior) lieutenants. Dick, as a newly commissioned officer, was a second lieutenant.
****due to her new qualification as Operator Fire Control?
*****Commissioned Officers were required to eat in the Officers’ Mess and pay a subscription fee for supplies and upkeep. They would also be expected to wear formal attire for evenings in the mess.
© Chotie Darling
2nd December 1943 – A German Air raid on the Adriatic port of Bari, near the southernmost tip of Italy, hits a US ship secretly carrying mustard gas. Many civilians are poisoned by the gas and over a thousand Allied servicemen perished. Fires from oil pipleines and ammunition explosions put the port out of action until February. The Allies try to keep the ship’s cargo secret, since it might provoke the use of chemical weapons in the war. The incident was only fully exposed in 1967.
The Allied 5th Army in Italy again attacks at Monte Camino and manages to take the peaks of La Difensa and Camino. After heavy fighting the Germans pull back from the Bernhardt line to the Gustav line and Monte Cassino, protecting the main route to Rome. On the Adriatic side of Italy the the Canadian 1st Division lead the Allied 8th Army across the River Moro and towards Ortona, suffering terrible losses from the German defenses.
In Britain a shortage of coalminers leads to the Ministry of Labour and National Service, led by Ernest Bevin, taking one in 10 conscripts to work in the mines. The ‘Bevin Boys’ service to the war effort was not fully recognised until1995.
4th December 1943 – Leipzig, a city in eastern Germany, is bombed by the RAF causing an intense firestorm. More than 1,800 people are killed. (From WW2-net Timelines.)
At the second Cairo conference Churchill and Roosevelt discuss Turkey’s neutrality with President İnönü. However, Turkey did not join the war, on the side of the Allies, until February 1945. Exhausted after the conference Churchill collapsed from pneumonia on a visit to Eisenhower in Tunis and came close to death.
On 8th December 1943 Tommy Flower’s ‘Colossus’, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, was unveiled at the General Post Office Engineering Department (later BT) at Dollis Hill. It was installed at Bletchley Park codebreaking centre in January 1944 and provided unprecedented detail on German defences, crucial for the planning of the D Day landings.
Dicks's Registration and Discharge Card on 9th December 1943
Copy of Record - Registration and Discharge Card
0.Registration Number S/O Strength on Transfer
26282522. a7B Jou-1. Part.1. dated 3.4.43
1.Surname WILLIAMS 3. Army Number 5 731 671
2. Christian Names Richard Kelner
100 (Sandhurst) OCTU RAC. 903
4. Regiment or Corps DORSET R.136
PRE.OCTU.9005.
5. Nature of Engagement TA(W)
6. Date of Joining (Army Class) or Date of Enlistment (Others) 21-6-40
7. Date of Birth 28-7-21
8.Nationality or Dual Nationality E
9.Religion CE.
10.Industry Group O
11.Occupational Classification 900
12.Cause of becoming Non-effective Discharged under para. 390 (xbii) K.R. 1940 having been Appointed to a commission. 12.(a)Date 30/10/43
13.Single or Married S
14.Home Town and County (U.K.) or Country (abroad)
Weymouth, Dorset
Orpington. Kent.
19.Location H X Date Rejoined from Reserve
Wt. 10832/164 2,000,000 5/41 M.&H., LTD. T.51_229 43Regt A.F. 8. 102
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A.Rank Pre B.Service Trade (M) 2.9.42 Trade tested 2 9/40.qual Div Mach GpD ClII Physical Training Inst. Spec Qual (SG2 Div. Mech. GpD. Cl.II C. Medical Category A1 |
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Part II Order 133/42 124/42 |
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Part II Order |
Postings |
Offr’s Inits |
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79/12/42 |
Posted 1st Air Landing Coy. (Recce Corps) 21.4.42 |
WR |
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52/42 1st.A.L 43 Recce 78/42 |
Posted to 43rd Recce Regt Wef. 13.7.42. |
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43rd Recce 38/43 |
Home Details 13 2/43 |
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43rd Recce 47/43 |
P.att. No 1 Pre-OCTU. RAC wef. |
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4.3.42. Authority:- WOhr. 43/Trng/3250 |
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(AGIE) df-23.10.42 & WOUM BM ZP/9304/ |
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41/43 |
AGIE df-23.2.43 Posted 162 OCTU. 15/5/43 |
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Entry Date 0 OCT 1941
29 APR 1942
Dates on which Amendment Slips were sent to Central Card Index
4/K 267 84) K96200 10) (12) N.12691
22/5/43 30.8.43. 11) 9.Dec.43
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