Chotie Darling,
At long last, I find myself with a little spare time, so will write you to let you know that I am still alive, after all.
First, Darling, I must thank you for sending the Sobranie at Xmas, which you shouldn’t have done, as you can’t really afford to do these things on private’s pay. I certainly enjoyed it though. It always smokes better coming from you….
I’m also enclosing the book* I said I’d send which I hope you’ll find time to read and which I’m sure you’ll enjoy.
It’s the first book I’ve read which bears out a theory I’ve entertained for some years, viz. that however long you live you will always come to regard your childhood as your happiest years. This also served to show my lack of erudition in matters literary as the author quotes from three or four others who bear out this idea. There will always be extenuating circumstances, however, which will give rise to cases contrary to the general rule – Dickens’ is an example – but these cases are isolated I’m sure.
You probably think this is all rot…. – though personally I know I’m right.
I’ve got all my camp kit now and am just starting to get organised. We’ve got some furniture on loan in the mess and I managed to scrounge an old oak circular table for my own personal use. Improvisation is the key note in this army , so I pinched two old bricks from the 16th century cottage to use as book rests. The mixture of matured oak and red brick gives my room a touch of the Tudor… Absolute rot…
I share a room with a new arrival – a bloke I was at OCTU with. He’s a portrait painter – knows everyone from Titian to Augustus John. He’s now assault troop commander**…
I still haven’t received notification that I’ve been credited with pay for November or December and, unless I win at pontoon tonight, I’ll never meet my mess-bill, severely swollen by the untimely advent of Xmas.
Happily I’ve still a few quid in war savings, etc. I keep fighting off ruin – even giving my batman my last five bob on Xmas Day. I hope to become, comparatively, fabulously rich in the next few days, however, with two months’ pay, about £30-£35.
The major we had has now left us – left the army in fact and the Senior Subaltern is acting Squadron Leader – a very happy state of affairs.
I haven’t had time to write either Diller or Brinner yet – expect they’ve written me off by now.
Must close here, Darling, for dinner
All my love
Dicker
*by Claude Houghton
**Ronnie Jury (later Dick’s closest friend in the 61st Recce.)
© Chotie Darling
3rd January 1944 - General Bernard Montgomery (‘Monty’ of El Alamein and the British Eighth Army) had left Italy at the end of December and now took command of the 21st Army Group – British Second Army and First Canadian Army - to prepare for Operation Overlord, the D Day landings. He immediately decided a wider assault front was needed and two more beaches were added to the west (Omaha and Utah, near the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula).
4th January 1944 – the US Army Air Force begin to re-supply resistance groups in France, Italy and the Low Countries in Operation Carpetbagger. (From Chronology of World War II.)
5th January 1944 – end of the Battle of Changde (in SE China’s Hunan province) with the Chinese repelling the Japanese invasion of the city, begun in November 1943.
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