A new Troop - Sunday 26th December 1943

2/Lt Williams RK

‘B’Sqn. 61^st Recce

Regt

Home Forces

 

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                I’m terribly sorry I was unable to write you for Xmas.  Actually it was extremely annoying to say the least.  I got back from leave at about midnight and was out commanding a new troop by dawn the following morning.  We were out until Xmas Eve.  It got to such a state that we didn’t expect to get back for Xmas even.

            I managed to get a postcard off to mother and, apart from the letter card I sent you, that was the only correspondence I could manage.

            Needless to say I’ve no pay yet – and don’t look like getting any until December 30^th.  I’ve cashed everything on sight including National Savings Certificates on which I’ve managed to keep going – if half-heartedly.

            Spent the whole of the Xmas hols. trying to get dry, warm & clean again after the scheme.

            At the moment I’m up to my eyes in work, having just taken over a new troop, and have been working all hours, even over Xmas.

            If I can find some brown paper I’ll send this book along with this.  I think you’ll like it.

            Will write you again in a few days and send some shekels

                                                                                                            love

                                                                                                                        Dicker

© Chotie Darling

 

26th December 1943 – the battle cruiser Scharnhorst is sunk, with almost 2,000 German sailors, during a fierce battle off the North Cape of Norway in the Arctic Barents Sea.  

 

28^th December 1943 – victory of the Allied 8^th Army at Ortona, on the Italian Adriatic coast, after fierce street fighting. The Canadian Army played a critical role.  

 

30th December 1943 – beginning of the second Battle of Arakan as the Allies start an advance towards the East Coast of Burma (Myanmar).  (See Second Battle of Arakan and Withdrawal from Maungdaw.)

 

During 1943 Allied merchant shipping lost 588 ships, equalling 3,042,371 gross tons (less than half the losses of 1942) to U-boats world-wide. 242 U-boats were sunk in 1943 (compared to only 35 in 1941 and 87 in 1942).  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

“By the end of December 1943 the ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ was virtually won and the seas were clear enough for supplies to move freely across the Atlantic.”  (Extract from  ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980. See also German 'U' boats withdrawn.)