In November 1940 a new Chapter began for Dick as he was posted to the 70th Battalion of the Bath & Dorsets. The 70th or Young Soldiers’ Battalion was formed at about this time to take volunteers too young to be conscripted – the 18 and 19 year olds. Dick had joined up in the summer, shortly before his eighteenth birthday.
Dick’s unit had also moved to ‘marvelous’ Chippenham, he’d collected a prisoner from Birmingham during a raid on the city and managed to drop the role of PT Instructor to return to normal duties and try to get recommended for a commission.
He’d last seen Chotie on 27th October but leave was becoming more difficult. There was still plenty of ‘action’ over Poole with a German fighter plane crashing not far from Chotie’s home in Parkstone on 14th November and several people killed by parachute mines. German bombers raiding inland tried to jettison any remaining bombs on coastal settlements or defences, before returning over the Channel. These included a UXB (a high explosive bomb carrying a delaying fuse) successfully dismantled in Poole on the 17th.
Wiltshire seems to have been quieter - except for fights among the young soldiers, which Dick and his new friend Corporal McCracken occasionally sorted out:
Sunday 17th November 1940
Chippenham
Wilts
My Darlingest Chotie,
I'm writing again as I promised to do yesterday.
We had quite a merry little time last night, with the Sergeant Major*. He's turned out a lot better since I got my second stripe. I later learnt that he got it for me! What a life. I don't know whether I'm coming or going lately.
Pete has settled down here and is doing very well, thank you.
Everyone here has taken a sudden dislike to the NCOs. L/Corp. Shingles who is my second-in-command was bashed on the head with a rifle last night when he was asleep. He was laid out flat. I was going to put the platoon on charge but this would stop me going out tonight so I let it go, as I don't think much of Shingles anyway.
I'm writing this stretched out full-length on my kit. Pete is scrounging my cleaning stuff to do his buttons with.
You'd like Clp. McCracken. Blond hair, blue eyes, everything in fact. He's rather hot on Rugger. He was made up a full corp, soon after me.
We had a pretty good church parade this morning. The O.C. was missing but everyone else was there. The preacher (bless his little heart) got quite mad and said “ And the next time we pray, you get down and kneel properly.” Mac & I had slept on our slacks all night to get a crease for the parade, and we didn't see kneeling on them. Having no soul, I don't see what difference it makes anyway.
If only I was nearer home, I could see you every Sunday as we now get off from 12 noon until 10:30 p.m. That is of course unless I was on duty of some sort.
There's been scores of fights this weekend as usual as everyone who can get out gets completely and hopelessly tight. They come in looking for trouble and we have to get them to bed somehow even if it means knocking them out, which is often done. They always seem to get up in the morning as right as rain.
Well, Darling, there's no more to tell you, except of course I still adore you and always will,
Your devoted
Dicker
qui t’aime pour la vie.**
* Can this be Sergeant Major Gurd?
** “who loves you for life.”
© Chotie Darling, 2010
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