61st Recce Regt RAC
APO
England
Wednesday 9th (sic) May
Chotie Darling,
Many thanks for your letter, which I didn’t receive until yesterday as the mail is pretty slow getting here. It did get here however, and that’s the main thing.
The Adjutant kindly condescended to give me the afternoon and evening off on Sunday last so I rushed out of camp helter-skelter and promptly hitch-hiked home. It was a lovely day – very cold in the morning but coming out beautifully sunny later in the day. On the whole I was very lucky and managed to make it in a few hours. They were very surprised to see me, likewise Michael, who, naughty dog, had eaten a rabbit and a starling that morning! I regret to say I slept most of the time there.
How nice for Eric & Eve to have a baby son! I feel almost envious – almost …. I must write him now, and tell him I think he’s awfully clever.
As regards leave. We all hope to get a day pass sometime during the next week, so just as soon as I know definitely when it will be, I’ll send a wire and just see if we can manage to meet at the ‘Haunch’* station.
I’d forgotten all about ‘Love went a–Riding’** though I remember it well eno’ now. I know I enjoyed it for its disparity from the common run of novels.
Hope you came out of your inspection all right. Sounded awful.
I’ve managed to get rid of this Squadron Leader racket which I’ve had now for some ten days or so.
Once again I find myself duty officer, which accounts for this letter, having been rushing about madly all day for the C.O.*** He’s quite cheerful tonight as he caught a fish in the local river, having been vainly trying for the past three weeks. He bore it proudly into the mess at dinner as much as to say to all and sundry: “Look what a clever C.O. you’ve got!” That stroke of luck should save us all from his usual bleak look for the next 48 hours.
You seem to be doing nothing but dance these days. What a life! Hope you’re being a good little girl.
Glad to hear you got the cheque OK, but you don’t mention your ability to cash it. Is it all right? Barclay’s are the best people.
Must close here, Darling, to turn out the b_____ guard.
Love & kisses, precious
Dicker
*The Haunch of Venison in Salisbury. Co-incidentally the small bar there is said to have been used by Churchill and Eisenhower during the planning of the D-Day landings.
**A novel by Richard S. Blaker (the title is from a poem by Mary E. Coleridge).
***Lt-Col Sir William Mount Bart, TD (the former Prime Minister's maternal grandfather). The local river was probably the Test, an important salmon river.
© Chotie Darling
11th May 1944 – the Allies again attack the Gustav line in Italy in an attempt to capture Monte Cassino. Finally, on 18th May, after ferocious fighting, the Germans retreat from the stronghold and a troop of Polish cavalry erect the Polish flag on the summit. The Battle of Monte Cassino had lasted for four months and left 74,000 casualties. (See Monte Cassino Society.)
Chinese Nationalist forces cross the Salween River into Burma but are badly compromised by Japanese decoding of their communications.
12th May 1944 – the US Army Air Force begins attacking German synthetic oil plants (petrol, oil and lubricants produced from coal by IG Farben IG Farben) successfully halving oil production by the end of June 1944 (from ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition).
13th May – the Japanese U-gō campaign front retreats from Kohima in India.
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