The letter amongst others was given to me along with her wedding dress by my mother some time ago. It is only now that I have felt strong enough to look at them.
Owing to the lifting of censorship I think this is the most interesting of them.
Transcript:
July 3rd
My Own Dearest Doddy,
Hello! my Precious love, here I am again just as I promised last night, but first Darling, being as this letter will reach you after the Air letter which I wrote last night, I hope it finds you still in the same good health & spirits. Dearest, it sure does me good to read in your letters Babby that you are keeping fit & well, going on Okey Dokey at work & most important of all being a brave little Gal for me & keeping a smile on your face, oh! I understand just how hard it is at times Sweet.
Well Darling we now have permission to relate some of our experiences since arriving in North Africa & so my sweetheart I shall endeavour to concentrate & cram into this letter what I could quite easily fill a book with & so without more ado I'll get cracking with my experiences or as they say in the RAF, 'line shooting', now my Precious for a start after a most enjoyable trip on a boat which I can't tell you the same of, we arrived at Mers el Kebir, a port of the North African coast near Oran, it was getting dark when we entered the harbour & was really dark when we finally docked, anyhow we were all up extra early the next morning anxious to see what kind of joint we had arrived in, so early in fact that I was on deck when the dawn broke. I must confess that I have never seen a more beautiful sight in my life, it was a glorious panorama of colour & it looked so very romantic with huge mountains towering in the background just as one would imagine Africa, however after bags of panicking around collecting kits etc, we finally disembarked in the afternoon & then came the rude awakening & the dispensing of all "romance" for as we left the docks miriad smells assailed our nostrils & they were not pleasant smells either, coupled with the fact that we were also marching laden with kit, boy! was it hot, Phew! I'll say, anyhow we marched & marched not knowing how far or how long it was going on, we were quite lighthearted when we started out, but believe me Darling I personally was getting more weary every minute. After what seemed an age, we finally got to Oran & a halt was called . Well I amongst many others was far too weary to remove my pack, so we just lay down on the floor or any other convenient spot, it was dark by that time & the night was hot & sultry, but we'de gone past caring, we were hungry & dry, but thats where the people of Oran turned out trumps, when they realized we were English & Yanks they cheered long & loud, brought us water, wine & oranges which we eargerly accepted, it really put new life into us as did the hour's rest we had. Unfortunately we still had to go ahead, so off we went but most of our vitality had been sapped & consequently the duration of our walk got shorter each time, we just fell out & rested which was heaven to us, but it was agony to get up & start off again.
Well Precious I stuck it till that last quarter of a mile & then my poor feet & legs just wouldn't carry me another step & so I had to pack in & Stan also a physical wreck plonked down beside me. Our Officer then told us that the name of the place we were going to was La Senia Airport, well we just lay on the roadside for an hour or more when I spied lights coming along the road, somehow we managed to clamber up & get in the centre of the road & the lights turned out to be a "Jeep" & he gave us a lift to the Airport gates. Well we made enquiries as to the whereabouts of the rest of the boys but quite naturally no one know a thing so Stan & I saw a vague outline of a building so we crawled towards it & not having the energy left for anything we both went into the building & dropped down on the floor & just slept not knowing where & caring less where we lay.
Well we awoke the next morning complete physical wrecks, every bone in my body aching & so stiff that I couldn't move, but despite the seriousness of the situation, we both had to grin, for apart from every other discomfort Stan had been bitten by mosquitoes during the night & his one eye was completely closed. Gee! we both felt ready for the undertaker, anyhow where we slept turned out....
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.... Darling! in prison cells, you see Dear it had been a sort of guardroom belonging to the Drome, We stayed there for a week & then being as our vehicles had arrived we moved out down the coast it was there we got our first sea bathing & it was also there that the snap I've sent you was taken & we had quite good times there too for it was down in the village that we used to get our Champagne. I didn't stay there above a fortnight when we moved to another place beyond Oran called Fleurus where we stayed for 3 months & it was there that we got so comfortably settled down & organized with electric light in the tents & dining tent, liberty runs weekly into Oran where I got most of your souvenirs & also had the photo taken which you've got. From there I went on many journeys including such places as Mostagenem, a very nice place indeed, I also had a very unique experience in going on a journey into Morrocco, a trip never completed on account of rain, talk about tropical downpour. I've never seen such rain, all day long it teemed down, so much so that just before reaching Beni-Saf the whole of the road in front of me was completely washed away & the floods were so bad that I had no alternative but to turn back & make for Camp which I reached quite safely, but it was on that trip that I saw for the first time Oranges & Lemons actually growing Boy! they looked good too, however time went on & came march & I was loaned to an outfit who were moving way up the line so I started on my long journey which was to lead me to quite [unclear] thrills. We passed through such places as Orleansville, [unclear] Gorge, a most beautiful sight with huge mountains towering above us & most of them were actually snowcapped which made them look even more magnificent in the brilliant sunshine, any way we continued on the journey passing Setif, Constantine, Le Khroub, where I learned that in my absence my own crew wer also on the move but I still had to continue my present journey which took me on to Tebessa where I began to see scenes of actual battle, from there we moved on to a notorious spot known as Messerschmitt alley, so named because it was the hunting ground of Hun Kites. It was a marvellous stretch of road almost dead straight for 21 miles offering not a scrap of cover & all convoys just had to run the gauntlet of bombing & machine gunning & it was there that I got my first baptism of fire over there, one morning all was peace & quiet one minute & the next the sky was alive with screaming planes, needless to say when I looked up & saw black crosses on them I lost no time in doing the only thing I could, lie down the side of my truck. Soon the air was filled with flying bullets from Messerschmitts, it didn't last long owing to the appearance of Spitfires but believe me it was warm while it lasted. Luckily no one was hit or hurt & so it was just one of those things.
Well Darling the next day I left that outfit & went back to Tebessa where I rejoined my own outfit, then we got cracking on the road going through places which you must have heard about both on the radio & in the papers, the famous?? Kasserine Pass, Kasserine itself & so on until we got to Sbeitla & was that a battle scarred joint, nothing but desolation & ruins all around & it was a case of stepping warily all around on account of mines. It was from this place that I used to make my trips back to Tebessa for mail, a hell of a trip over terrible roads but it was worth it Darling when there was mail on the end of it & incidentally Dear it was there that the mail was coming through really well. Whilst at Sbeitla I witnessed serveral air battles & then one day when I was going steadily along the road, I heard the familiar pop!pop! of machine gun bullets so I "bailed out" right quick & only just in time for a couple of ....
[page 5 hard to read, continuing with page 6]
....at all, we had a couple of Jerry shells fall uncomfortably close to us but that was all, anyhow the Air Force just plastered him unmercifully with bombs & we knew it was just a matter of time & that time came on May 12th the end of fighting in Africa. Gee! you should have seen the thousands of prisoners we saw anyhow its something to say you've had a ringside seat of the actual fighting. Well my love I hope you've found this interesting, but I'm afraid there I must leave you & sink into obscurity because owing to censorship regulations I am once more "somewhere in North Africa".
Those are the main points Darling. The details I'll be able to "Bind" you with for ages once I get home, but you can see Honey that I've travelled quite a buit up to now, Morrocco, Algeria & Tunisia.
Now Precious, you must excuse the scribble but my own pen, still not repaired, gave out on me altogether & I've had to borrow one to finish off the letter.
I can assure you Darling that up to now I am none the worse for my experiences, "touch wood" on the contrary I'm as fit as ever I've been & certainly looking browner than ever, all that I need now to complete everything is to be once more by your side my Pet & then I'll be really happy. I love you so Precious, but lets hope it wont be so very long now Angel & then Bingo! we'll begin our life anew.
Well Honeybunch I really must close now so be a good little girl & keep looking after yourself for Chick, give my love to Mam, Ray, Dad, I hope that Ray is going on better, cheerybye my Sweet, God Bless & keep you safe & well always, my true & ever loving wife Doddy. All my fondest love from your true & ever loving hubby Chick
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