Chotie Darling

First letter from France - Wednesday 14th June 1944

As before

Wednesday evening

Chotie Darling,

                                    Have a few minutes to spare so here goes.

            Firstly everything is fine – I’m in the pink and very happy here.

            The countryside is beautiful – very much like the Cotswolds – very homely and the same grey stone.

            At present I’m staying the night in the grounds of an estate – a titled Frenchman, I can’t give his name.  He’s very charming – wears plus fours and boots.  I’ve just been talking to him.  (I’m desperately tired not having slept since Sunday, and I’m going asleep on the job.)

            We’ll come here after the war - it’s lovely.  Is that a date?  I must close here as I just can’t write any more.  All my love, Chotie Darling

                                                            Dicker

© Chotie Darling

 

15^th June 1944 – the Battle of Saipan begins Operation Forager, the Allies’ Marianas Campaign to retake Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands and Palau in the western Pacific from the Japanese.  20,000 men had been landed on Saipan by nightfall and the US Fifth Fleet, the largest in the world, faced almost all the Japanese warships in the Pacific.

The US Fourteenth Air Force, based in China, begins a series of heavy raids on the home islands of Japan.

The RAF launched heavy attacks (600 bombers) against Le Havre and Boulogne on the north coast of France.

(From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012 and WorldWar-2.net).

 

VIII Corps of Dempsey’s Second Army was activated on 15th June

and included the now re-united 61st Reconnaissance Regiment with the 11th Armoured Division.

Parties - Saturday 10th June 1944

Same Address

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I hardly know what to write about as I’ve had no mail for some time now – which cuts out that particular source of inspiration.

            I’m enclosing my remaining coupons – for what they’re worth.  If you’re pushed to find a use for them you might send Diller some (par Mary, if ever you should write….) and she could forward any surplus to Brinner.

            Weather here hasn’t been up to much for some time now – expect it’s the same with you, which has finally eliminated any further chance of swimming.

            Had a lot of parties lately – out every night since D day, but now, I steadfastly refuse to smoke whilst drinking which enable me to stay perfectly sober however much I take.  I drove the party back last night in a jeep.  I shall never know how I made it as about seven people in the back were trying to push me out.  Damn funny.

            Hope you’re “still” being a good little girl no C.B. and no ‘Roll me over’* episodes.  One of these fine days I’ll meet someone from your Battery and learn the real truth about you.

            The invasion show seems to be going OK though it’s early yet.  Anyhow that’s a subject I’d prefer to leave alone.

            Hope you got that book safely.  I should really have registered it but I hadn’t time.

            We had Gertrude Lawrence* at our camp last week – quite a good show.

            Been playing pontoon all the afternoon – lost steadily, and again early this evening.

            Heard anything of Eve lately?  Let me know any news won’t you?  I shall get about a hundred letters all at once pretty soon, I suppose.

            Must close here for dinner(?)

            All my love, Chotie Darling – hope to see you before very long.

                                                                        Dicker

 

*'Roll me over in the clover' was a very popular saucy song in 1944. 

** Gertrude Lawrence, a famous English musical comedy actress, had recently arrived back in Britain from the US and performed for the troops just before D day. She was also one of the first to entertain the Allied troops in France.

© Chotie Darling

Me again - Tuesday 6th June 1944

As usual

Tuesday 6^th June

Chotie Darling,

                                                I managed to get hold of a copy of ‘Me-again’ so I’m enclosing it with this letter.  Hope you enjoy it.

            Weather here has brightened up after a serious relapse of some five days or so which were pretty miserable.

            I’m up to my neck in this wretched audit board at the moment adding up masses & masses of figures, which never was my strong point as well you know.  They say things are sent to try us – and they’re not far wrong.

            I’ve also had to bust a couple of sergeants this morning for absence – and that’s not a very pleasant job either.

            Hope you got the cheque OK – I expect to get some mail before very long, so I’ll have to wait.

            Must close here, Darling, as I’m really rather busy as you can well imagine*.

                                    All my love, Chotie

                                                                                    Dicker

*Dick realised Chotie would know about the invasion by the time she received his letter

© Chotie Darling

Walking in the Woods - Monday 5th June 1944

As usual

Monday June 5^th

Chotie Darling,

                                    I’m afraid I can’t acknowledge receipt of any of your letters for the simple reason that I haven’t had any.  I can, however, still write to you – what little news there is to write.

            We’re still having quite a good time here*, all things considered, though there’s very little to do and time is apt to hang rather heavily at times.  Unfortunately the library here is practically non-existent, some fifty volumes only and these are almost always out.

            I seem to spend most of my spare time walking in the woods.  And what delightful woods they are!  Not the finicky little trees one meets too often, but massive oaks, quite the largest I’ve ever seen, their great boles casting grotesque shadows even at noon.  I expect to meet Rosalind and Touchstone or even the melancholy Jacques walking up the path towards me….**

            And these woods are full of wildlife.  Yesterday I saw pheasant, partridge, rabbits, squirrels and in the evening a baby fox-cub.

            I found an excellent swimming pool (open-air) some few miles from here, so I usually take the boys there whenever practicable.

            I have read a couple of books lately – Alfred Neumann’s ‘Life of Christina of Sweden’***, and Naomi Jacob’s ‘Me-again’.  The latter I heartily recommend.  I’d read the original ‘Me – a story of other people’ but this later autobiography is even better.  I’ll try to get you a copy and send it to you as soon as possible. ***

            I’m just waiting for an audit board to start – a miserable job this weather as it means sitting in a tent for 48 hrs doing nothing but check invoices, bills etc.

            I was going to see ‘Fanny by Gaslight’ but after reading James Agate’s criticism***** of it I decided to give it a miss.

            Must close here for this audit racket.

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                            Dicker

 

*Dick had moved to the Aldershot area at the end of May.

**characters from Shakespeare’s play ‘As you like it’, which is set in a romanticised version of Shakespeare’s local Forest of Arden in Warwickshire.

***Alfred Neumann was a German writer who became a US citizen after his books were banned by the Third Reich.

****Naomi Jacobs was an English author, actress and broadcaster. Her first memoir was called ‘Me: a chronicle about other people’.  Other volumes including 'Me - again' continued her autobiography.

*****The drama critic for the Sunday times.

© Chotie Darling

We Anchor in Hope - Tuesday 30th May 1944

This letter was stamped with censor number 10199 instead of the 14529 Dick had been using in Nightingale Wood.

As usual

Tuesday 30^th May

Chotie Darling,

                                    Very many thanks for your letter.  Sorry I haven’t been able to write you before this, but I’ve been pretty busy as you can guess.  However, things are much easier now, and I have plenty of spare time.

            I’ve just been to the local baths to get things teed up for the boys this afternoon.  Envious?

            You seem to have enjoyed the ‘Fair’ ‘do’ – even though working under forced labour, as it were.

            The leave question is off I’m afraid – as I can’t get off at all at the moment – ‘we anchor in hope’, as the prophet has it.

            Diller sent me a film book cutting of ‘San Luis Rey’.  Akim Lamiroff is having a crack at Uncle Pio.  I also learned quite by chance that the book won the all nations Pulitzer Prize Novel of 1927, which doesn’t surprise me in the least.  I think Uncle Pio is one of the fullest-drawn characters in modern literature.  It was also filmed in the silent days with Lily Damita, etc*. 

            Haven’t had the time to read much recently – only Rutland Boughton’s ‘Bach’, which I found good if only because he places this extraordinary genius in his proper place in the history of music and avoids eulogising him to excess**.

            I’m afraid I forgot all about giving you the train fare on our last meeting so I’m enclosing a cheque which I hope will cover it OK.  I’m sorry I can’t send cash but I simply haven’t got it.

            Don’t seem to have had a letter for ages – but then I can’t grumble, being such a poor correspondent myself.

            No news from this end, of course.  The old security racket, again.

            Weather here has been really wonderful of late.  I’m beginning to get quite brown again.  I imagine I’ll get brown enough before I’ve finished this Summer.

            Well, Darling, I’d better dry up here.

            Hope you can cash the cheque without too much trouble.

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                            Dicker.

 

* ‘The Bridge of San Luis Rey’ – film made in 1944 starring Lynn Bari, Akim Tamiroff (as Uncle Pio) and Francis Lederer. A rope bridge over a gorge in the Peruvian Andes snaps, sending five people plunging to their deaths. A priest sets out to find out more about the life of each of the victims.  The 1929 film was directed by Charles Brabin and starred Lily Damita and Don Alvarado

*’Bach, The Master’ by the English composer Rutland Boughton, written in 1930.

© Chotie Darling

After this show - Saturday 20th May 1944

Usual address

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just a few lines to thank you for a very happy, though all too brief, 24 hrs.

            I managed to get back with ten minutes to spare and just made the afternoon parade.  I hope you managed to get back without too much trouble – I hate the thought of you scrubbing floors all night*.  What you would do for me, Darling, is a constant source of amazement to me.

            I’ve just finished censoring the mail – a man size job tonight as unfortunately no one else bothered to do yesterday’s for me, with the result that I’ve had two days to do at once.

            I regret to say that the 24hr passes have stopped but there may be a chance of some leave a bit later on – three or four days, I imagine.

            I went to the naffy** and imbibed a little beer earlier this evening with the result that I keep running outside.  Sorry….

            All the other officers (both of them) went to the cinema tonight to see “Bombers Moon” – some punk Yank film, but I just couldn’t have stood it so I stayed here, in my little tent and wrote you, my Darling, which seems infinitely preferable.

            After this show, Chotie, I reckon we’ll take a few months off – sheer rest – and forget all about the wretched life we now lead.  Walking in Provence or somewhere like that.  We could find a little hotel every night … and when we’re married things will be different….

            I intend to come out of this business, darling, if only to take the chance of making you very happy, which is what you deserve.

            I must close here, Precious as I have to write a few lines to mother – not having written for some time.

            Goodnight, my Darling – I love you very, very much.

                                                                        Dicker

RKWilliams

 

*Presumably an ATS punishment for going AWOL (Absent Without Leave).

**Slang for the Navy, Army and Air Force Institute’s canteen and recreation building. Officers weren’t meant to frequent the NAAFI as this was an intrusion on the private lives of the Other Ranks.  The Commissioned Officers had their own ‘mess’, sometimes separated into Junior and Senior, and the senior NCOs had theirs, known as the Sergeants Mess. 

Eric Brewer’s diary reveals he was working in the Sergeants Mess (“not a bad job”) from 22^nd to 30^th May (From Eric Brewer’s Diary by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family).

© Chotie Darling

 

20^th May 1944 – the Allies’ bombing of strategic military targets and infrastructure in northern France and Belgium continues with a record 5,000 bomber raid on railways and airfields. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

23^rd May 1944 – the Allies begin to break out of the Anzio beachhead in Italy and by 25^th May were successful, linking up with Allied forces to the south, who had penetrated the Gustav line near the coast.  However, instead of trapping the German Tenth Army, as planned, they followed US General Mark Clarke’s order to head for Rome.  (See The Drive to Rome)

The Haunch town - Monday 15th May 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

 

Monday 15^th May

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just a few lines to tee up the leave question.  I can get next Friday off from 2 o’clock in the afternoon until the same time Saturday afternoon ie. 24 hrs.  If this is any good to you will you write back at your earliest?  I imagine we could fix up somewhere to stay in the Haunch town*.  If something unexpected should turn up and cancel my pass I’ll write you at the earliest possible time.

            I’m just about up to my eyes in it at the moment, working from ‘first light’ until it’s dark – and writing this by candlelight in my tent.

            No news to tell you of course.  I was going to send you a copy of “San Luis Rey”, but I’ll keep it now and bring it along on Friday.

            Haven’t heard from Brinner yet – though it’s almost certain he’s at a depot somewhere.

            Must close here as I’m falling asleep.

                                                                                    All my love

                                                                                                            Dicker

PS Write instanta!

 

*Salisbury (The Haunch of Venison) 

© Chotie Darling

Catching fish - Tuesday 9th or Wednesday 10th May 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

Wednesday 9^th (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

 

11^th May 1944 – the Allies again attack the Gustav line in Italy in an attempt to capture Monte Cassino.  Finally, on 18^th 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.

Chotie's 'little circle' - Saturday 6th May 1944

Sorry no ink!

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

Dearest Chotie,

                                                Well I’m Orderly* Officer again, Darling so here goes.

            Received your letter this morning – and very welcome it was.  Seems ages since I’d heard from you.

            Was glad to hear you’d managed to get home – if only for a short while, and that your little circle are OK.  I bet you’re excited about your sister Margaret** – ‘fraid I haven’t any reciprocating news re Diller, and as far as I know Brinner isn’t likely to do anything in this particular line.  Though you never know with Brinner.  You’ll notice I’m keeping quiet about myself….

            There’s simply no news from this end at all.  The chances of getting a pass all very thin – too thin to entertain – at present anyhow.

            At the moment I’m engaged in the worst part of this Orderly Officer racket – viz. sitting in the Orderly Room (Tent) all the evening and sleeping there at night – during which time I have to pay the Guard a visit – usually at about three in the morning.  A particularly thankless job.

            I’ve been reading ‘The Bridge of San Luis Rey’ for the umpteenth time.  If you haven’t read it yet, I’ll send it on in my next.

            It’s been very hot here lately though we’ve had a few showers today which have freshened things all round.  I managed to take a party to the local baths (indoor) yesterday and had quite a good swim myself.

            I’ve got a little pub teed up here.  It’s about three to four miles away cross-country – there’s no other way of getting to it, and I try to get out there whenever I get time off.  It’s a very pleasant evening walk and the quality justifies the effort.  I’m still running the Squadron though I’ve got a grip on things now and manage to de-centralise most of the work in true Army fashion.

            There seems no chance of your leave starting again?  I haven’t heard a thing.  I’ve no desire to see ours start again as it only means postponing the attainment of our ultimate goal.

            I hope you’re still being a good girl, Darling.  I’m being very good myself as there exists no opportunity of being anything else….

            I think I’d better go to bed now, Darling as I have to be up with the proverbial lark. 

                                Wish you were here with me ….

                                                    Goodnight Chotie Dear

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*Orderly as a military term means a soldier assigned to attend and perform various tasks for a superior officer.

**Chotie’s elder sister Margaret was expecting her first child.

 © Chotie Darling

  Chotie's 'little circle':

 

 

That night Eric Brewer went absent without leave from midnight to 7.00am.  His service record shows he was caught out and fined three days’ pay, possibly by Dick (RW).

(Eric Brewer's Service Record, copyright of Derek Brewer and family)

 

7^th May 1944 – US Air Force launches a 1,500 bomber raid against Berlin. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

On 8^th May Eisenhower made the decision that D Day would be on 5^th June 1944.  The original target date in May had been shifted because of the need to provide sufficient landing craft.

9^th May 1944 –With the surrender of the remaining 25,000 German and Rumanian troops the Russians capture the Crimean city of Sevastopol, a major port on the Black Sea. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Caruso and Countryside - Monday 1st May 1944

On 1^st May 1994 Dick became a full Lieutenant

(see Recce Mitch’s post in WW2 Talk)

 

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO England

Monday 1^st May

Chotie Darling,

                                    Caught once again for Duty Officer I find the usual consolation in having time and opportunity in writing you.

            I was very sorry I couldn’t make last weekend, but I’m afraid it was just impossible as I was out the whole time.

            I’m still doing Squadron Leader* and finding it a little cushier having got the hang of things now.

            Managed to get out a few nights ago with a friend - a recently joined officer who used to be in the M of I** and has all the scandals re Brendan Bracken and Churchill*** at his finger tips, as it were.  He’s an MA, amongst other things,  with a very keen appreciation of beauty in its many forms, and we spent a very pleasant evening walking cross-country to find an unspoiled pub some four or five miles away.  The countryside has never looked better, I’m sure, the meadows full of rabbits (lots of baby ones) and the woods full of pheasant.

            Heard Caruso’s recording of 'Celeste Äida'**** half an hour ago so I’m on top of the world.  (Also heard the second act of Äida a few nights ago – Eva Turner gave a particularly brilliant performance.  I think she’s still improving.  I heard her ‘Turandot’ when I was in Scotland which is her best, plus  I ‘m now beginning to think she ranks after Cancellia & Ponselle.)

          Came across Bruce Segler’s name in a copy of ‘Frabreo’ the Jewish Club’s Magazine of which the Adjutant has a copy, so I suppose he’s still alive and kicking.  That man had quite a good sense of form apart from a Tchaikovsky mania.  He practically refused to acknowledge the existence of Mozart.

            I’m enclosing a cheque with this letter, which I trust you’ll have no trouble in cashing, and a few coupons.  I would have sent cash, but I just can’t get any here myself.

            Hope to hear from you soon.

                                    All my love, Chotie

                                                                       Dicker

RKWilliams

 

*Senior officers involved in the D Day Assault were taking part in Exercise Thunderclap – Montgomery’s preparation sessions using a huge relief model of the battlefield to work through potential issues and outcomes. (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

**Ministry of Information - the central government department responsible for publicity and propaganda during WW2.

** Brendan Bracken was a close friend and supporter of Churchill. From July 1941 to May 1945 he was Minister of Information.

****Enrico Caruso, the famous Italian tenor who died in 1921. (Listen to Caruso’s recording of 'Celeste Äida' from Giuseppe Verdi’s Egyptian opera.)  Eva Turner was an English soprano most famous for her title role in Turandot, Giacomo Puccini’s opera set in Asia. (Listen to Eva Turner’s recording of ‘In Questa Reggia’ from Turandot.)  Rosa Ponselle was an American operatic soprano.

© Chotie Darling

 

1^st May 1944 – Commonwealth Prime Ministers meet in London at the ‘Imperial Conference’. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Squadron Leader - 27th April 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO

England

 

Thursday

Chotie Darling,

                                                Just a few brief lines to let you know I can’t make Sunday.  It’s the devil, but there’s just nothing I can do about it.

            At the moment I’m Squadron Leader, which is no picnic as I haven’t had enough experience of the admin. side to make things easy.

            If by any chance I can make it I’ll send a wire.

            I’m just about up to my neck in work at the moment and will remain that way for some time yet.  The unfortunate part of this job is that I have to censor some fifty to sixty letters every night which takes a surprisingly long time.  Normal letters wouldn’t take long, but these people write an astounding amount of pure drivel, especially the married ones.

            The fox cub* has just been bathed – he’s almost nude now as his baby fluff is coming off and giving place to real fox hair.  He’s still very babyish and finds the greatest difficulty in walking a straight course.

            There’s another subaltern censoring letters on this rickety table and every time he sticks the letter down he rocks the whole auction.

            No news from this end, nothing I can tell you anyhow.

            Brinner’s lost his leave I think, which means he will have to join his unit straight away** – very unpleasant.

            The CO’s just arrived looking a bit bleak***.  I’m trying to look as though I’m censoring mail just to impress him.

            Must close here.

                                                All my love Darling

                                                            Dicker

RKWilliams

 

*see Foxcub letter of 13^th April 1944 (insert as link)

**presumably this is the leave Brinner was due at the end of OCTU before joining his new troop as an officer.

***Lieutenant Colonel Sir William Mount, Bart, TD (grandfather of the former Prime Minister, David Cameron).

© Chotie Darling

 

The Regiment had four squadrons – ‘A’,’B’ and ‘C’ were the fighting squadrons and then there was the HQ squadron for back up, including a mortar section and the anti-tank section.

Each fighting squadron had two troops of armoured cars, two troops in carriers and an assault troop. 

The Armoured Car Troops had twelve men each – an officer (Lieutenant or Captain), a sergeant, a Corporal and Lance Corporal and eight troopers.  The sergeant for Dick Williams’ troop (No 5 Troop, ‘B’ Squadron according to Sandy Handley) was Wheeler and the Corporal was also a Williams.

They travelled in two heavy cars (one carrying the officer) and two light armoured cars (also known as Light Recce Cars or LRCs), which went in front.  Each car had a driver, a commander and a gunner. Sandy Handley was a Bren gunner in one of the light cars.

From Anthony Rampling's account of 61^st Recce (pers comm).

 

Sandy Handley described training in the camp:

“Mainly the next month April to May was spent on reconnaissance routine, vehicle spacing and radio work.  All our four vehicles were netted up by radio to other vehicles of the Squadron, which in turn linked up to our Squadron HQ.  As well as the radio operations we had a machine gun (Bren) and smoke dischargers to know about.  The two heavy Humbers also carried a 37mm cannon.  All three men in each car had to know one another’s tasks, so if any of us came a cropper in action, we would know what to do.  If, say, the driver got knocked out, one or the other would have to take over the driving job.  Heaven forbid it (and I am glad to say it didn’t) ever happened. I hoped not – mainly because I was hopeless at driving, especially in an armoured car with just a small slit visor to look through.”

(From Ex Trooper S Handley’s ‘61 Recce - Memories of Normandy 1944 – 1945’)

(See photos of heavy and light armoured cars 61st Reconnaissance Regiment and The British Reconnaissance Regiment.)

Ghost Stories - Friday 21st April 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

APO.

England.

Friday 21^st April

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for a very welcome letter, and programmes enclosed.

            I’ve already broken the sad news about that wretched photograph*, and I’m enclosing it with this if only to get rid of it.

            You seem to be seeing quite a number of concerts – just one of those things which completely pass me by here.  Glad to see it was the old L.P.O.** who gave them.  They’re exceptionally good and very courageous as they’ve been fighting financial troubles ever since I’ve first heard of them.  There’s a very interesting book been written of their story – I believe by one of the ‘cellists, though the author and title eludes me for the moment. 

            I expect Benno*** was in good form – he’s playing better than ever these days.  I personally would place him among the first five pianists in the world, today.  He plays Rachmaninoff to perfection – certainly better than Sergei**** himself.  The last time I heard any of the Leonard overtures was in Folkestone some four or five months ago – in fact apart from leaves, I’ve heard very little music at all since.

            As regards leave, I expect I could get next Sunday (30^th?) off, when I could perhaps meet you in the neighbourhood of the ‘Haunch of Venison’*****.

            Isn’t there any chance of your getting your full leave?  That of course would be the ideal thing as I could meet you practically every evening.  We must try next weekend however, if nothing better offers.

            Having quite a peaceful time here, though I’m working pretty long hours.  The main advantage nowadays is that it’s not so cold when you get up in the morning. 

            Haven’t read much lately – only James’ ‘Ghost Stories of an Antiquary’† which I’ve read in bed in the middle of a wood – quite the right atmosphere.  Also Graham Greene’s ‘Brighton Rock’ and ‘Ministry of Fear’.  I think the opening chapters of his ‘England made me’ are some of the best stuff I’ve read in years.  I think in fact the only thing to beat them, is Gabriel Chevalier’s ‘Clochermerle’.  But as usual, I digress.

            They’ve got some beer in the bar now (mess) so life is all rosy once again.

            Have you heard from Eve yet?  Let me know all news of the dear little thing, won’t you?

            There was a film show in camp last night – Jane Eyre††, but as I wasn’t in the mood (I should say the Brontë  mood).  I went for a long walk among the hills and found some pukka Queen Anne Cottages, which more than made up for it.

                                                All my love Chotie

                                                                                    Dicker

RKWilliams

 

*see photograph on banner above. 

**The London Philharmonic Orchestra gave concerts all over the country during World War 2, depleted by the call-up and using instruments donated by the public following the destruction of its base (the Queen’s Hall) during the London Blitz in 1941.

***Benjamin Britten?? – the composer, conductor and pianist had returned to Britain as a conscientious objector in 1943.

****Sergei Rachmaninoff – Russian composer, pianist and conductor who lived in the US and Europe from 1918.

*****The Haunch of Venison at 1 Minster Street, Salisbury is an ancient inn dating from the 14^th Century.

†M.R.James’ first collection of ghost stories.

††The 1943 film of Charlotte Brontë’s masterpiece, ‘Jane Eyre’, starred Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine.

© Chotie Darling

 

22^nd April 1944 – the Allies’ Western New Guinea campaign begins with amphibious landings on the northern coast of Japanese held New Guinea.  Although these were successful, fighting continued in Western New Guinea until the end of the war in the Pacific.

 

23^rd April 1944 – the harbour installations at Bristol (where Chotie was stationed) were again  targeted by the Luftwaffe as part of Operation Steinbock.  117 planes were sent but they missed their target - no bombs fell on the city, instead being scattered over Wessex; presumably with the Düppel anti-radar foil used to confuse the Allied radar defences.  (See The Baby Blitz, Bombing in the Bristol Area and Last venture over Bristol.)

 

25^th April 1944 – Luftwaffe commences a series of night attacks on Allied shipping concentrated at Portsmouth and Plymouth. (From Chronology of World War II.)

 

27^th April 1944 – Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for the D Day landings using the west coast of Devon near Slapton Ley, resulted in tragedy when German E-boats attacked.  The operation was also marred by casualties from ‘friendly fire’. In all 946 were killed - mainly American Army troops preparing for the Normandy landings on Utah beach. (See Exercise Tiger.)

Cycling home - Monday 16th April 1944

61^st Recce Regt RAC

AP.O.

England

 

Monday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I’m afraid I haven’t written you for some time, due to divers reasons – partly due to pressure of work and partly due to the fact that I took the opportunity of having a day off yesterday to go home for the day.

            To say I had the day off is a slight exaggeration as I was working up till midday – and not trusting to buses & trains, owing to the state that these things are in, I decided to cycle*.  When I was half way home it started to rain and I rode the remainder in a torrential downpour.  However it cleared during the brief time I was at home and I cycled back in comparative peace.  It took me four hours each way, so I only had some three hours at home.

            I’ve given my greatcoat to Brinner as I won’t need it any more – coupled with some pretty sound advice on how to ‘go on’ when commissioned.  He’ll gladly accept the coat – though not the advice, I fancy.

            No more news from this end – things are going as per routine.

            I managed to buy a pair of fleece-lined boots – knee-high black ones.  Cost me a fortune but they’re the only thing.  I don’t fancy lacing up army boots and anklets on a cold morning, a thing that has always offended my sense of having things cushy.

            Have just heard Schubert’s 8^th (unfinished), the best thing that has happened to me for weeks.

            At long last they’ve got some beer in the mess (?) so tonight I intend to imbibe a little.  I shall have to break myself in gently as I haven’t even smelled the stuff for over a week.

            Went to the flicks with Geoff** last Sat.  We both thought that ‘The Lodger’ was on and went gaily in, to find that it was on next week.  What we saw in actual fact was ‘Bees in Paradise’….***  Geoff said it was the best leg-show he’s seen in years, but apart from that, it stank.  I bitterly endorsed his words.

            Are you reading Captain Foulenough’s résumé of his life story in ‘Beach-Comber’s Column in the Express?****  I never miss it.  I’m trying to get a grip on two films at the moment ‘Heart of a Nation’ and ‘Le Jour se lève’, (Gabin)*****.  Both seem out of the question, though I could have seen the former at the ‘Academy’ when I stopped in Town on returning from Scotland.

            Well, Darling, how are you these days?  Cheering up with the Spring I expect.  As I am.  The countryside around here is beginning to look lovely now, though it’s still a little early.  There is also an abundance of thatched cottages in this area.  I’d just love to get to work on one or two of them, as the whole place is almost completely unspoiled.

            It’s really a very pleasant spot, and I’ve always gone for primroses….

            Must close here to relieve the Adjutant ‘cos he wants his dindin – the rat.

                                                All my love

                                                            Chotie

                                                                                    Dicker

P.S. No signs of leave?

P.P.S.  The photo I had taken is absolutely shocking.  I’m sending it on…

RKWilliams

 

*Some 40 miles between Nightingale Wood and Pagham!

**Presumably Geoff Winzer.

***’The Lodger’ is a 1944 horror film about Jack the Ripper while ’Bees in Paradise’ is a musical comedy with ‘scantily clad warrior women’.

****Captain Foulenough was a character in the entertaining ‘Beachcomber’ column. (See Beachcomber.)

*****’The Heart of a Nation’ is a French drama film made in France in 1940, which escaped the Nazis be released as a dubbed version in 1943 in New York.  ‘Le Jour se lève’ (Daybreak) is a French poetic realism film made in 1939 and starring Jean Gabin.

© Chotie Darling

 

17th April 1944 – the British Royal Navy and Bomber Command begin intensive mining of the approaches to the English Channel to protect the D-Day invasion fleet. (From Chronology of World War II .)

18^th April 1944 – in Exercise Smash), practice for the landings on D Day, is the largest live ammunition exercise of the war.   Staged at Studland in Dorset (not far from Chotie’s home in Poole) Eisenhower, Churchill and Montgomery watched from Fort Henry.  The exercise showed the vulnerability of the floating Duplex Drive Valentine tanks – some are still wrecks in the bay.

19th April 1944 – Ichi-Gō offensive by Japanese aiming to eliminate the airfields used by the US Army’s Fourteenth Air Force.  Advancing in north-east China they reached Honan province where the local peasants, starved and looted by their own troops, turned on the fleeing Nationalist Army. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The Allied Fleet begins their attacks on Japanese bases on Sumatra in Operation Cockpit.

 

 

The Foxcub - Thursday 13th April 1944

2/Lt RK Williams

            61^st Recce Regt

NB!                             A.P.O.

            England

 

Thursday 13^th April

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just the few odd lines to let you know I’m still alive at any rate.  Having quite a good time here, despite poor living accommodation and even worse food.  Weather is excellent, pukka spring – including cuckoos, damn them.

            As regards leave of any sort, I’m afraid it’s out of the question – however I will try to get down to your place sometime during your leave, and you should be able to get here, somehow.  I’m afraid I can’t give you anything more definite as, for all I know, I may easily be out on a scheme throughout your leave.

            I’m very tied up here as regards communications – no telephones or telegrams.  Luckily I’m able to censor my own letters, but unfortunately have to censor some forty or fifty letters every evening, which takes time.

            We’ll manage to meet somehow, never fear.

            My neighbouring subaltern came across a fox cub the other day and we’ve kept it ever since.*  We procured a very wee kitten from the Quartermaster (they always have hundreds of kittens) and they live together very happy.

He, (the foxcub) is very small and covered in light down, with a very funny little face.  He keeps on going “TWEEK!, TWEEK!”.  ‘Formidable!’, as the French say. 

“That’s all for now, Kiddies – The Zoo man will be back again, etc, etc”….

Have managed to do a little sun-bathing so far, but not eno’ to worry about.

            I’ve just managed to get rid of a Sergeantt from my troop, who’s been giving me a headache for months – a very poor type.

            Must close here for dinner (?).  (So called)

                                                            All my love, Chotie

                                                                        Dicker

RKWilliams

*The fox became the Regiment’s mascot accompanying them as far as the Ardennes.  Trooper Ernie Brobbin of ‘A’ squadron gives an account of finding the foxcub in ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’  by Ron Howard (Brewin Books 2004):

          “One particular morning as dawn was breaking, another chap and I were on motor transport guard when we heard a ‘baby’ crying and went to investigate.  The ‘baby’ turned out to be an abandoned fox cub.  The poor thing was crying after it had been left on its own.

            Neither of us had come across a fox before, as we came from mining areas.  We picked it up, took it back to camp, fed it on milk, and then made it a cage from saplings.

            The cub prospered and eventually we decided to take it with us as a troop mascot.”

The cub was adopted by Lt. Compton Bishop who kept it in his armoured car and took it to France.  (See painting by Sandy Handley of the fox on a lead with 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment. The original painting is held by the Tank Museum at Bovington, Dorset.)

© Chotie Darling

 

A letter from Trooper Eric Brewer from about this time is stamped no 14529: Lt. Dick Williams’ censor number but the stamp is overwritten ‘Truman’ (possibly Lieutenant Philip Benson Truman who earned the Military Cross at Amay-sur-Seulles later that summer). 

 

Address same as usual

Sunday eight o’clock

Dear Mum Dad and all ….

“Have been doing training and expect to be doing it all next week; plenty to do and little time to do it”….

“Had some white bread for tea today; first piece for three years and isn’t there a difference between it and the present day bread… Also are receiving pears and peaches so the war must be as good as won”…

Eric Brewer went home on leave to Grays, Essex in April, returning just before 25^th April 1944.

 

14^th April 1944 – the SS Fort Stikine, a freighter loaded with mixed cargo including 1,400 tons of explosive, catches fire and explodes in Bombay (now Mumbai) docks.  She takes with her 13 other ships. Approximately 750 people are killed, many more wounded and extensive further damage sustained to cargo and shipping. (See Bombay Explosion.)

 

Primroses - Saturday 8th April 1944

 

2/Lt Richard Williams

NB.  ->               61^st Recce Regt

Home Forces

 

Saturday 7^th (sic)

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for letter.

            I must begin this with an apology for having omitted to congratulate you on your successful action*.  In actual fact I had already guessed that it was your crowd who did it, as heard about it even before I got your letter.

            Ref. leave.  At the moment all leave is cancelled and I don’t entertain much hope of getting away.  However you could meet me in Soton, at any rate, for a few evenings.  Failing this I could come over to P’stone I expect.  At the moment I don’t know how things stand.  We’ll simply have to wait and see.

            We’re under canvas at the moment – I have a tent of my own, luckily, as I preferred to erect my own bivouacs rather than sleep four or five in one.  The liability side shows shocking food, etc, but there are some lovely clusters of primroses in the woods to help the assets.

            Having quite a good time here though there’s no beer for miles round.  Must close here as there’s no more note paper – Junior’s pinched the last.

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

    RKWilliams 

 

*Presumably the defence of Bristol against the 'Baby Blitz' raid of 27^th March 1944. 

**Southampton, a major port on the south coast.

***Parkstone, Poole – where Chotie’s family lived.

****Ronnie Jury

© Chotie Darling

Spring woodland flowers (primroses in centre surrounded by dog violets, wood anemones in background). Copyright Martin Warren.

Eric Postles’ troop (10 Troop, B Squadron) had managed to secure leave:

“We moved by rail to Romsey, then into tented camps at Nightingale Woods on the Romsey-Southampton road.  Special permission was given for our troop to go on leave before the area was sealed at midnight.  While on leave I first met Gladys Dandy, my future wife, who was the guest solo singer at Burscough Methodist Chapel on 10 April 1944.” (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

Eric remembers his troop was the last to go on leave – the special permission had been obtained by Colonel Mount - and he arrived home unexpectedly.  Once back in Nightingale Wood there were a couple of exercises in preparation for D Day, one of them finishing up on Bournemouth beach*.  (Eric Postles pers.comm.)

*the other was possibly Exercise Fabius II, the rehearsal for Assault Force "G" (elements of the British 50 Infantry Division and attached units, which were to assault Gold Beach).  This took place between 23rd April and 7th May.  The force marshalled in areas C and B, embarked from Southampton and Lymington, and landed on Hayling Island between Chichester and Portsmouth.

Eric Postles wearing Reconnaissance badge

 

10^th April 1944 – Soviet forces capture Odessa, an important Ukrainian city and port on the Black Sea.  The Germans escaped by sea.

Mixed Batteries - Saturday 1st April 1944

2/Lt Williams RK

61^st Recce Regt

RAC

Home Forces

 

Saturday 1^st April

Chotie Darling,

                                    Just received your letters and enclosed, for which very many thanks, Darling.

            Arrived back safely from Scotland on Wednesday last and have been up to my eyes in work ever since.  Things are pretty hectic at the moment.

            You’re quite right about the sopranos – I’m quite enamoured with several – Maria Cancellia, Rosa Poncelle* etc, though unfortunately they’re still in Italy I believe.

            I shall be able to see you on your leave – at least I hope so.  Prepare for an FFI – you naughty girl.

            I had to go to Leicester yesterday to take some vehicles there and managed to see Diller for some few minutes.  Unhappily it took me nearly an hour to find her, and I was pretty pushed for time.  However, I chased around on a motor bike and eventually found her.  Brinner spent last weekend there on a 48 from OCTU and had quite a good time I believe.

            I’ve just had a break for lunch.  I had a pretty cushy time in Scotland.  There was a singular lack of any show of organisation with the result that they didn’t really know we were there for three days or so.  I had one day in Glasgow on the weekend.  No much of a town – yet the Scots refer to it as the ‘Second City of the Empire’.

            There was every amenity to be found locally – skating, swimming, golf etc, so I didn’t need to travel abroad.  The only snag with the whole place was that all the pubs shut at 8.30 in the evening and very few opened at all on Sundays.  We could drink in the mess until 11.30 though, so things were not too bad.

            (I’m just going to fight for the coffee – Got it…)

            The Lieutenant I went to Glasgow with was once in a mixed AA Battery** – gave me all the dope.  He said he had to chuck it as every time he choked off*** some poor girl she burst into tears, which used to shake him.  He was a bit crazy anyhow.

            Geoff Winzer’s sorting out kit and holding a young auction sale this afternoon so I’m going round to buy it all up (perhaps..)

            You evaded my reference to baritones – I think you’ve got a couple teed up somewhere in Bath.

            Incidentally Eric and I always used to drink at the ‘Christopher’ which is just opposite the Abbey.  It used to be quite a place.  That was where, on one memorable occassion I called for two pints and we found we had only got sevenpence between us.  Happy days ….

            And please, Chotie, no more presents.  You really can’t do it.

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                            Dicker

 

*Probably Rosa Ponselle, an American soprano

**The mixed (male and female) anti-aircraft batteries had a quite scandalous reputation in some quarters. The women serving alongside men had much more freedom to socialise with the opposite sex than other military units for women.  (See also The History of the ATS.)

***’choke off’ - bring the relationship to an end

 

****The Christopher's Inn is now a backpackers’ hostel.

 

 © Chotie Darling

Were these the women who defended Bristol?

 

 

1^st April 1944 – Salween offensive by China attacking the Japanese army in Yunnan Province which lies on the NE border of Burma (Myanmar).  They eventually reached Burma on 22^nd January 1945. (From World War II database.) 

The US Air Force accidentally bomb Schaffhausen in northernmost Switzerland and offer $1million in reparations. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

3rd April 1944 – Germany’s huge battleship, the Tirpitz, is attacked and damaged in Operation Tungsten, a bombing raid by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm in Alten Fjord in Norway. (From Chronology of World War II http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1944/apr44/f03apr44.htm.)

With Hungary now occupied by the German army the US Army Air Force and the RAF bomb the capital Budapest.

 

4th April 1944 – De Gaulle becomes head of the Free French forces in place of Giraud (from Chronology of World War II). 

The US Army Air Force bombs Bucharest, the capital of Romania (from WW2-net Timelines).

 

5^th April 1944 – Siegfried Lederer, a Jewish inmate of the concentration camp and killing centre at Auschwitz-Birkenau escapes to Czechoslovakia.  Two days later Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzel also escape successfully.  They write a report, providing some of the first reliable eyewitness accounts of the camp, which is published worldwide from Switzerland in June 1944. (See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

Britain closes the telephone service to Ireland (a neutral country in World War 2) and stops newspaper distribution to there and Gibraltar.  (From Chronology of World War II.)

 

6^th April 1944 – the Japanese lay siege to Kohima, about 60 miles north of Imphal, a supply depot at the summit of a pass offering the Japanese their best route from Burma into India. The hill-station was bravely defended by a small force of Indian and British troops.  Although the siege was relieved by 15^th April, fierce fighting at Kohima continued until the end of May when the starving Japanese withdrew. The 2^nd Division Memorial at Kohima bears the famous epitaph

"When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say, 
For Their Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today".

 

Ayr - Friday 24th March 1944

Ayrshire

Scotland

Friday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Have just received your letter of the 19^th inst. which has been forwarded up from the unit.

            I was very pleased to see that Eric had replied to your letter and that I now have Eric’s address once again.  No excuse now, eh?

            Having a very pleasant time here doing absolutely nothing, as there seems no organisation of any sort here, and nobody worries about you.

            I’m in a very cushy mess of practically every Regiment in the Army, though I’ve only met one bloke I knew before.

            I took the afternoon off and walked to Irvine* some three miles along golden sands** in glorious sunshine.  (I omitted to say that I had some three hours sleep in the afternoon on the beach.)  I then had a beer or two in Irvine and bussed back.

            Went skating on Tuesday and a dance in Ayr last night so I thought I’d have things a little quieter this evening, as I spent this morning up to my neck in the sea.***

            I’ll enclose some coupons in this letter.  If I remember that is.  What are they worth to you?

            All the pubs up here close at 8.30 pm except one in Ayr.  Unfortunately the barmaid there became much too friendly for my liking so I stay clear now.  She was a very charming little thing but obviously didn’t know her own mind.  So now I have to drink in the mess – very unsatisfactory. 

            How are you behaving these days?  Being a good girl I hope.  Write and tell me all about him won’t you?  If he’s under forty I’ll be jealous, and if he’s over forty I’ll spank you.

            Must close here, Baby

                                                            All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*Irvine is a town in North Ayrshire on the west coast of Scotland. A couple of Combined Operations WW2 camps were situated to the south of Irvine – HMS Dundonald trained all three services in signalling procedures to and from landing craft and the use of navigational aids to assist small landing craft find their way to designated landing places on hostile beaches.  HMS Dinosaur focused on tank landing craft training. (From Combined Operations WW2 website .)

**Barassie beach

© Copyright Ian Mockford.

*** “For the landings to be successful and for breakout from the bridgehead on the French coast to be achieved the men of all three services not only had to be equipped they also had to be trained.  It was to be training like no other, rigorous, realistic and relentless and much of it took place in Scotland.”  (From The Scots at War Trust.) 

© Chotie Darling

 

26th March 1944 – 10,000 German troops and French militia attack the 465 Maquisards gathered on the Plateau des Glières  in Haute Savoie. The Maquis retreat and disperse although one third, unable to escape, are killed.

 

The 'Baby Blitz' on Bristol.

On the night of 27^th March 1944 139 Luftwaffe planes flew to attack the harbour installations and fighter airfields at Bristol with high explosive bombs and phosphorous oil incendiaries. Chotie’s heavy artillery anti-aircraft battery was part of the port’s ground defences. 

This was the first bombing raid on the city since 1942 and the Luftwaffe had not been able to carry out daytime photographic reconnaissance over the city since then. Poor target marking by the Germans as well as the defences of Bristol (fighter aircraft, ground defences and the successful deployment of decoy areas) contributed to the failure of the raid, despite the dropping of Düppel anti-radar foil to confuse the ATS radar operators. (This 'chaff' of small strips of aluminium foil was similar to the 'Window' technique developed by the Telecommunications Radar Establishment in Dorset.  Both techniques were not used for about a year after their invention because they would be too easy for the enemy to copy.)  

No bombs fell on Bristol and 13 German planes were lost – the Luftwaffe only had 287 bombers available for operations over Britain at the time.  The attack was part of Operation Steinbock, bombing English cities in retaliation for the increasing number of Allied raids on German towns.  (From Bristol during World War 2 and Bombing in the Bristol Area. See also Freedom from Attack.)

 

28^th March 1944 – Russian troops advancing in the Ukraine enter Romanian territory near Nikolayev (Russian) / Mykolayiv (Ukrainian) on the Black Sea.

 

29^th March 1944 – the advancing Japanese in India cut the Imphal-Kohima supply road and lay siege to Imphal, the state capital of Manipur, near the centre of India’s border with Burma.  The siege continues until 22^nd June - the Japanese withdrew from India in early July 1944.  The Battles of Imphal and Kohima were the turning points of the Burma Campaign.

 

30th March 1944 – a RAF raid on Nuremberg with 795 bombers loses 96 aircraft, the highest loss in one night throughout the war.

Forgiveness - Saturday 18th March 1944

2/Lt RK Williams

61^st Recce Regt RAC

Whittlesford

Cambs

 

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your very prompt letter, which I received just before I left home.  By the time you get this letter I hope to be in Scotland (where I hope to meet Lady Macbeth…).  As I’ll only be there for a week I’ve put my usual address.

            Never having been there before I expect to have quite a good time.  At any rate it will be a change from this wretched place, where just about everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

            I read your letter in bed on Friday morning.  It was very welcome, Darling.

            I can’t pretend I wasn’t hurt by your actions – although I did try to make light of it.  As far as I’m concerned, everything you do should be of your own free choice.  I make no attempt whatsoever to exercise any ‘hold’ over you*.

            I think I know, as well as most, the state you can get into, in the services.  It is in this state, of being so completely fed-up that you don’t give a damn what happens, that these things happen.  God knows, I’m no moralist, but I do possess some slight knowledge of physiology, and because of this I urge you at least be careful.

            You don’t need to ask me to forgive you, Chotie.  I shall always be prepared to forgive you anything – except leaving me entirely.

            I wasn’t worried about your actions in themselves – I just thought you must have had enough of me.

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.     Got that baritone** teed-up yet….?

 

*Oh dear – this sounds like Chotie has strayed again.  Was it the handsome officer in the Bristol photographs or someone else?  George Bainbridge perhaps?  And who’s the baritone**?

© Chotie Darling

 

19^th March 1944 – Hungary is occupied by the German Army following the arrest in Germany of the Hungarian Regent, Miklos Horthy, who had been secretly negotiating with the British and US.  The SS begin rounding up Hungarian Jews and sending them to the Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

 

24th March 1944 – ‘the Great Escape’ of 76 Allied airmen from Stalag Luft III near Sagan in SE Germany (now Żagań in Poland). 73 are later recaptured and 50 executed.  Stalag Luft III was also the location of the ‘wooden horse’ escape of three airmen on 29^th October 1943.

Orde Wingate, the Commander of the Chindits, when his plane crashes in the jungle.

In the Ardeatine Caves, near Rome, Germany executes 336 Italians in reprisal for partisan killing of 35 German soldiers the previous day.

Bomber Command carries out a thousand plane raid against Berlin, the heaviest raid of the war and the end of the Battle of Berlin.  RAF and USAAF bombers were now to be diverted to supporting Operation Overlord despite the reluctance of their commanders who were at last beginning to see success with the Pointblank Strategy.  By the end of March the Luftwaffe were losing over 2,000 planes per month to their fighters.  The loss of experienced pilots also lowered the air threat to the Allies’ invasion of Normandy.  (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition)

End of significant Japanese resistance on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.  (From Chronology of World War II and WW2-net Timelines.)

Bawdsey Manor - Sunday 5th March 1944

61^st Recce Regt

RAC

Whittlesford

Cambs.

 

Sunday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I’ve got this evening free, so I thought I’d drop you another line or two.  My leave at the moment, still holds good, so if you’ll let me know finally that yours is OK and what time you expect to arrive home in your next letter I’ll get things teed up this end.

            I’ve been very busy lately, spending most of the time away from the camp, which has both its advantages and disadvantages.  It provides a change of scenery which is always welcome, especially when it’s sunny, tho’ on the other hand you never get a chance to get organised.

            You’re a very naughty girl for not having written to me for such a long time.  However, I expect you’re pretty busy yourself, or you would have written.

            There’s no news to tell you.  I get so little time off that I don’t get a chance to do much .

            Incidentally, you’d better send your next letter to Pagham as I’ll be home on Wednesday mid-day.  I expect this will cross with one from you anyhow.

            I spent three very happy days on a stud farm in Cambridgeshire*.  It was the home of Sir Cuthbert Quilter who is President of the Suffolk Horse Breeding Society.  Ten years ago he farmed 22,000 acres but he’s practically penniless now I believe.

            I met a bloke, a civilian of fifty or thereabouts, who used to live in Herne Bay and knows most of the people we knew there.  He actually lived in the same house.  The next time I see him I’ll get things teed up and get my feet right under the table.

            Must close here for dinner.

            Don’t forget to write to Pagham to let me know all the dope.

                                                                        love

                                                                                    Dicker

*probably Bawdsey Manor, where Sir Cuthbert Quilter had bred Suffolk Punch horses but which was acquired by the Government in 1936.  It became the top-secret research establishment where Robert Watson-Watt (who had set up the first radar research station at nearby Orford Ness in 1935), and then A.P. Rowe, developed Britain’s radar defences. The outbreak of war and proximity to Germany moved them first to Dundee and then, on 5^th May 1940, to Worth Matravers in Dorset as the Telecommunications Research Establishment.  See ‘The Missing Winter’.  (From ‘The Bruneval Raid – stealing Hitler’s radar’ by George Millar, Cassell 1974)

© Chotie Darling

 

5^th March 1944 – Operation Thursday was part of the 2^nd Chindit Expedition involving flying in 9,000 men (with mules, equipment and supplies) to northern Burma, near Indaw, and landing them behind the Japanese enemy lines.

 

6^th March 1944 - The RAF’s Bomber Command begins a large-scale offensive over Northern France in preparation for D Day and the USA Air Force again attacks Berlin. (From WW2-net Timelines)

 

7^th March 1944 – Japan advances to India with nearly 100,000 men in Operation U-Go until stopped by the Allies at Kohima and Imphal in the mountainous borderlands of North-eastern India. (See Defence of Imphal and Kohima.)

 

On 7^th March Chotie’s Service & Casualty form records that she ‘Acted Voluntary Blood Donor’.

 

Dick was on leave in Pagham from 8th March and seems to have met up with Chotie.

 

10th March 1944 – Merrill’s Marauders attack Myitkina on the Ayeyarwady River in north Burma (now Myanmar), a critical point on the planned supply route to China known as the Ledo Road.  However, the city was not finally captured from the Japanese until 3^rd August 1944 and most supplies continued to be flown over the eastern end of the Himalayan Mountains (known as ‘The Hump’).

 

13th March 1944 – British Forces in the Arakan, Burma (Myanmar) take Razabil, a critical position between the Maya mountains and the sea, known as the ‘Golden Fortress’. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

15th March 1944 – heaviest raid of the war on Stuttgart with 863 RAF bombers dropping 3,000 tons.  Stuttgart had significant industrial infrastructure (Daimler and Porsche factories).

Soviet forces advancing from the Ukraine reach the Bug River, a tributary of the River Vistula that formed the division between German and Russian forces following the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the traditional division between Catholic and Orthodox Polish Christians.  (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

New Zealand and Indian Divisions with the US Fifth Army in Italy are engaged in the unsuccessful third attack on Monte Cassino and withdrawn after 23^rd March.

In France the Conseil National de la Resistance publishes its programme  for the future of France after the war as a social democracy with a planned economy.

Pouishnoff and Leicester - Wednesday 23rd February 1944

61^st Recce Regt

Whittlesford

Cambs.

Wednesday 23^rd

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for your two letters which I’ve just picked up on rejoining the unit, which is still here at Whittlesford.

            My leave is still OK for March 8^th so don’t forget to get things teed-up, will you?

            Had a very nice time at Brum doing practically nothing ‘cept eat & sleep.

            Went over to Leicester on Sat & again on Sun. last and met Diller & Mary.  Had quite a good time despite all Leicester’s efforts to stop us – cinemas closed, nowhere to eat, etc.

            It was a particularly good concert I went to on Friday night last.  Leff Pouishnoff was in brilliant form – playing and conducting Tchaikovsky’s No 1 Concerto in devastating fashion.  He’s very theatrical, of course, quite unlike Schnabel, for instance.  I get so few chances to see these boys, nowadays, that perhaps tend to eulogise rather than criticize.  However, it’s not such a bad fault.

            I’m afraid I can’t write much as it is the usual practice for adjutants to put people coming back from courses straight on to Duty Officer and my adj. cannot see his way clear to make any alteration in this unwritten law.

            Must close here, Darling to see the boys’ meals.

            All my love, Darling,

                                    Dicker

Will try to write you again tomorrow.

© Chotie Darling

 

24th February 1944 – General Frank Merrill and 2,750 volunteers from the US Army (known as Merrill’s Marauders) begin their mission of long range jungle warfare with the Japanese, penetrating deep into enemy territory in northern Burma (Myanmar).

 

26th February 1944 – last of three ‘Great Raids’ by the Soviet Air Force bombing Helsinki, the capital of Finland.  Finland had resisted Soviet occupation in the Winter War of 1939/40. Hostilities resumed in June 1941 and Finland turned to Germany for defence against the Soviet Union, although it retained its state of an independent democracy.  British and Commonwealth Allied forces declared war on Finland in December 1941 (but not the US).

 

29^th February 1944 – US forces under General MacArthur attack the Admiralty Islands, north of Papua New Guinea.  After a month of fighting the Japanese abandon their base to the south at Madong on the New Guinea coast.

Germany launches another major attack at Anzio but the tide is turning at the beach-head because of the Allies ‘inexhaustible’ supplies of artillery and ammunition.

The Russian General Vatutin, commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, is ambushed by Ukrainian nationalists and left mortally wounded. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

Eric Postles remembers March 1944:

"We moved to Whittlesford and were allowed to use the American entertainment facilities at Duxford airfield where we saw James Cagney and other stars.  The regiment was re-equipped with new vehicles and weapons.  We took the old vehicles to Feltham Ordnance Depot in London.  We collected the new vehicles from Castle Donnington grounds and ran them in via Gloucester area (a number of the squadron lived locally). 

When in Cambridge I was put on a charge by the Military Police for allegedly having my hand in my greatcoat pocket.  When I was brought before our Commanding officer, Colonel Sir William Mount, a military policeman said the Provost Martial had ordered a tightening of discipline in the Division.  The CO said “It does not apply to my regiment” and dismissed the case." (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

Sir William had more important things to worry about.  Training was now "the full Monty treatment" as his regiment began to prepare for Overlord.  Montgomery had “carefully meshed experienced veterans from the Eighth Army with the keen, green formations that had been training and languishing for so long in England”. 

50^th Northumbrian Division had been brought home from the Mediterranean with 7^th Armoured and 51^st Highland Divisions and there were already rumours among the 50^th that “they would be used on the battlefield for tasks in which the rate of attrition would be high.  Curiously enough this did not seem greatly to dismay them.”  However, training with British 7th Armoured Division on the flatlands of East Anglia may not have been the best preparation for Normandy’s bocage - the heavy hedgerows and rolling small fields which were to provide deadly cover for German defence and ambush.” (From ‘Overlord’ by Max Hastings, Macmillan 2016 edition) 

 

2^nd March 1944 – Bombing raids begin on targets in Yugoslavia from the Foggia airfields near Ortona in Italy.  The Allies were now supporting Tito’s communist resistance forces, flying in supplies from Bari in southern Italy.

4th March 1944 – the US Air Force’s first attack on Berlin with 730 bombers and 644 fighter aircraft flying by night.

Birmingham Officers Club - Thursday 17th February 1944

Birmingham

Thursday

Chotie Darling

                                    As you will see from above I’m in Brum at the moment on a week’s course on Armoured Cars - very cushy, there being no exam at the end, and the hours are only from nine to four thirty.

            I have some unpleasant news as regards leave.  The whole Squadron has had leave postphoned one week which makes mine up to the 8^th March instead of the 1^st.  Can you change yours?  Let me know won’t you.

            I hope to go to Leicester this weekend to see Diller as our leaves won’t now coincide.

            I’m staying at ‘The Georgian House’ which is an Officers Club – very comfortable indeed, and right in the centre of things.

            This letter is rather sketchy as I’m writing it during a lecture on the Lubrication System.

            I’ve just been out to get a Theatre Ticket for tomorrow night – London Symphony Orchestra in a programme which includes my favourite overture – Tchaikovsky’s Fantasie ‘Romeo & Juliet’.  Pouishnoff is the soloist and conductor.

            Must close here as the lecturer is beginning to get a grip.

            Don’t forget to write!

Address now

            61^st Recce Regt RAC

                        Whittlesford

                                    Cambridgeshire

                                                                                    love

                                                                                    Dicker

*Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Overture-Fantasy 'Romeo and Juliet' is an orchestral work based on Shakespeare’s play.

© Chotie Darling

 

17th February 1944 – surrounded German troops on the Dnepr river had attempted to break out in the Battle of the Korsun-Cherkassy Pocket but 20,000 were ruthlessly killed by the Red Army, even when trying to surrender. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

The US Navy attack the Japanese Naval and air base at Truk in the Pacific Caroline Islands (west of the Marshall Islands), making it nearly useless for the rest of the war.

18th February 1944 - Operation Jericho, a precision bombing raid on Amiens prison by the RAF’s 2^nd Tactical Air Force, frees 258 prisoners including many belonging to the French resistance. However, more than 100 prisoners were killed by the bombing and two-thirds of the escapees were re-captured. (See BBC WW2 Timeline.)

19th February 1944 – Operation Argument (better known as ‘Big Week’) begins with an RAF bombing raid on Leipzig.  The Operation, designed to lure the Luftwaffe into a decisive battle, launched a series of attacks on the German aircraft industry, led by the USA Air Force, who could now defend their long-range bombers with Mustang fighter planes. Until 26^th February they bombed the factories and air fields relentlessly by day and the RAF followed up, bombing the cities by night. (See BBC Big Week Fact File.)

20^th February 1944 – a Norwegian Resistance commando, Knut Haukelid, succeeds in sinking the SF Hydro ferry carrying heavy water from the Telemark production plant.  This might have been used by Germany to develope nuclear bombs. Following Operation Gunnerside and subsequent heavy bombing by the US Air Force, the plant was being closed down and remaining stocks moved to Germany.

 

22^nd February 1944 – US Air Force planes controversially bomb Nijmegen in Holland. (See WW2 Talk Forum.)

Hitler leaves his headquarters at the Wolfsschanze in East Prussia, which is now within range of the Soviet Air Force and moves to the Berghof, his Alpine retreat in Bavaria.

Oranges - Thursday 10th February 1944

2/Lt RKWilliams

Royal Armd. Corps

Brandon

Suffolk

Chotie Darling,

                                    Sorry I haven’t written before this, but haven’t really had time.

            I was inoculated yesterday morning and owing to a severe shortage of officers in the Squadron I’ve had to remain on duty all the time.  I was out on the range yesterday and got pretty cold, as a consequence of which I went to bed feeling a little pallid.  On crawling out of bed this morning I found I couldn’t stand, so I promptly crawled back again.  However, I got up for lunch and am feeling a lot better now, though I still ache all over.

            Hope you managed to stay in bed after your jab, nothing's more miserable than having to stay on duty.

            I’m going on a week’s course at Birmingham on the 15^th, luckily it won’t affect my leave.  It’s a very cushy course as students (?) stay at the Officers Club and all the instructors are civilians.  Pity Eric doesn’t still live there.  I received three oranges today – there’s an issue of three per officer in the mess.  However, like the good little boy I am, I’m sending them home to mother.

            I had a day in Cambridge last week – a lovely town.  Unfortunately it’s full of Yanks and there’s a beer shortage.  Notwithstanding these two major calamities I managed to have quite a good time.

            Apart from this one excursion I haven’t been out at all.  Unless you get at least 24 hrs off it’s not worth going anywhere.  Cambridge is the only place worth going to and that’s some forty miles or so.

            Just had a letter from Brinner.  He’s now started on Machine Gun (Vickers) which is the last phase of his training.  I also wrote to Diller to get her to change her leave, so that we’ll be home together.

            Would you let me know what time you’ll be arriving home so that I can make arrangements from this end.  (That is of course if you can get 72 hrs).

            Must close here, Darling as my arm’s giving me merry Hell.

                                                All my love

                                                            Dicker

 © Chotie Darling

This letter was written to Private B. E. Chalkley in ‘A’ Troop O.F.C. ATS, 462 Hy(M) Bty RA, Markham Camp, Easton-in-Gordano, Bristol so Chotie seems to have moved from ‘B’ Troop but in the same battery.

On 10^th February she had another visit to the dentist in Bristol.

 

Dick's unit moved to Whittlesford, Cambridgeshire some time before 17th February...

 

15^th February 1944 – Allies bomb the famous monastery of Monte Cassino and begin their second major assault to capture the defensive stronghold. The rubble actually gave the Germans better cover then the building would have.  Although the fighting was brutal the attacks failed and were broken off on 18^th February.

Heavy bombing raid by the RAF on Berlin involving 891 aircraft. (From Wikipedia.)

16th February 1944 - fighting continues with increased ferocity at Anzio - Allied casualties are high but the Germans lost over 5,000 men. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

Brandon Park - Sunday 30th January 1944

61^ST RECONNAISSANCE REGIMENT

Brandon

Suffolk

Sunday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Have just read orders and find that the security ban as regards this address has now been lifted, so I can now tell you where I am and what the place is like.

            We’re in a Nissen hut camp built on an estate, around a vast Georgian House, formerly the property of Dorothy Paget*, the racehorse owner.

            The officers are billeted in the house which is very comfortable.  We use the large square library as an ante-room.  The only snag is that the mess is on the Regimental level which means that the Colonel*, etc are all here.  Not so good.

            Brandon is quite a picturesque little place, standing on the Little Ouse, but hopelessly dead as regards entertainment of any sort.  There’s only one reasonable pub.

            I went into Ely yesterday afternoon, and went over the Cathedral.  This was quite interesting but the town itself is very drab – almost as dirty as Dover or Poole.  The nearest towns of any size are Cambridge and Norwich both of which are some considerable distance from here.  I get a day off on Wednesday however, so I may manage to get there then.  I should find plenty to interest me as I’ve haven’t yet been to either.                      

            I see now that my leave falls due on March 1st so if you could get a couple of days at home, I could come down to Parkstone.  Let me know, won’t you.

            I believe Brinner is on leave at the moment, though I’m not sure. 

I don’t know whether you’re still at home or not so I’ll send this to your army address.  Must close here for lunch.  Don’t forget the leave question.

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

P.S.  I regret to say that I won’t be able to visit Eric now but could meet him in Town, sometime.

           

*Dorothy Paget was a famous and eccentric racehorse owner, daughter of the 1^st Baron Queenborough who lived at Brandon Park. The house is now a care home, surrounded by a country park.

**Colonel Sir William Mount, David Cameron’s grandfather.

© Chotie Darling

 

31st January 1944 – Haute Savoie in the French Alps is placed under siege as Maquisards of the French resistance gather on the Plateau des Glières to collect supplies parachuted in by the Allies. Anyone carrying arms or assisting the Maquis can be summarily executed.

 

Eric Postles writes under February 1944:

“The regiment left 61 Division to become the Recce Regiment for 50^th Northumbrian Division which had returned from action in Africa and Sicily to take part in the invasion of Europe.  The divisional sign was 2 red Ts on a black background.  We joined them at Brandon on the Norfolk/Suffolk border.  We were inspected along with 151 The Durham Light Infantry Brigade by the Divisional Commander General Graham and by General Montgomery.  We were also inspected by King George VI, and then by General Eisenhower wearing an immaculate midnight blue uniform.”  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

3^rd February 1944 – America completes invasion of the Marshall Islands.  This group of atolls in the North Pacific Ocean, between New Guinea and Hawaii, had been held by Japan since the end of WW1 when it was ceded by Germany. In the Battle of Kwajalein Atoll the US Navy, learning from the carnage in the Gilbert Islands, destroyed Japanese aircraft and airstrips before landing the invasive force in heavily armoured Amtracs on 31st January. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

4th February 1944 – German forces advance on the british sector of the Anzio beach-head, driving a huge flock of sheep in front of them through the minefields.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

5^th February 1944 – Operation Ha-Go, a Japanese counter-attack on the Allies advancing in the Arakan in Burma (Myanmar) results in the 'Battle of the Admin Box'.  Casualties were heavy but the Allies eventually held their position and the Japanese had to withdraw.

50th (Northumbrian) Division - Wednesday 26th January 1944

On 24^th January 1944 the 61^st Reconnaissance Regiment

joined the 50th (Northumberland) Division,

part of XXX (30) Corps.

The Regiment moved to East Anglia to join their new unit.

 

Don Aiken recalls:

“They (the 61^st Recce) had been doing duty in Northern Ireland for the previous part of the war, but had now been split from their Division (the 61st. Infantry Div.) to become the Reconnaissance Regiment for the 50th Infantry Division.

The 50th (Northumberland) Division was recently returned from North Africa and were renowned as 'The Desert Rats'. The sign (or flash) which was worn on the side of the shoulder was TT, which represented Tyne and Tees.”

(Republished from the People's War website by kind permission of Don Aiken)

 

“The 50^th (Northumbrian) Division was back in England for the Normandy invasion, and had no reconnaissance regiment.  After the Commanding Officer (Lt.Colonel Sir William Mount) had made a number of swift trips to London we found ourselves chosen to fill the vacancy.  So in January 1944, we motored from our coast-guarding duties in Kent to join our new division in Norfolk.

            Only those who have experienced it can know the inferiority an unblooded regiment feels when surrounded by battle-scarred heroes.  But the 50^th Division made us so welcome, and refrained so carefully from flinging their blood and sand into our eyes, that we soon felt at home in what must have been the happiest of divisions in spite of all its casualties.”

(From ‘A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ by Lieutenant-Colonel P.H.A.Brownrigg D.S.O.)

 

 

50th (Northumbrian) Division, having served in the British Expeditionary Force in 1940,  first fought in the Desert War at Gazala where the 50^th Recce unit was lost to Rommel’s attack.  The Division was part of Montgomery’s Operation Supercharge at El Alamein and fought in Tunisia, on the Mareth Line and Sicily, landing on the south east coast with Operation Husky.  In September 1943 some men from 50^th Division, separated from their units, took part in the Salerno Mutiny. 

At the Washington Trident Conference in May 1943 the Americans had insisted that seven divisions should be withdrawn from Italy by the end of November to take part in the invasion of Normandy.  The 50th was one of the Divisions chosen by Montgomery for this task and were rested and re-grouped in Sicily before returning to England in October 1943. On 19^th January 1944 they were given a new Commander, Major-General D.A.H. Graham.  It seems 61^st Recce joined them soon after this.

 

 

Dick’s TT shoulder flashes – the Tyne Tees insignia of the 50^th (Northumbrian) Division.

 

25th January  1944 - Himmler addresses German Generals and Admirals at Posen in Poland, sharing with them information on the 'race struggle' to eliminate the Jews carried out by his SS troops.

 

61st Recce Regt, RAC

Home Forces

Wednesday

Chotie Darling,

                                                            Received your letter today for which many thanks.  ‘Fraid I can’t write much as I’m rather pushed for time at the moment.

            Nothing much to write about as I haven’t been out for weeks, except once, when I bought a new hat*.  Cost a devil of a lot.  Prices seem to be rocketing upwards.

            Hope you’re enjoying yourself on leave.  I’m afraid I won’t be able to get down to see you.  Next time perhaps.  I should get leave on approx March 5th so you may be able to get a few days then.

            Have met Brian Cooke** again – the mad Irish man I was at OCTU with.

            Still haven’t had any pay – I suppose now it will be Feb the 1st, in which case I’ll get three months pay some £40 or so.  Unhappily I owe about £20 of this.

            Must close here, Darling, will write again as soon as I get time.

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                                Dicker

*This seems to be a code Chotie and Dicker used to indicate that Dick’s unit had moved. 

**Brian Cooke, the Irish pianist and ‘ham’ (actor)

© Chotie Darling

 

27th January 1944 – lifting of the siege of Leningrad (St Petersburg) after 28 months and the deaths of more than 600,000 citizens from cold, starvation, disease and shelling by the German forces.

 

29th January 1944 – first of a series of heavy bombing raids on Frankfurt am Main by the RAF and US Air Force, up to 22^nd March.  The bombing of Frankfurt during World War 2 destroyed the largest Medieval city centre in Germany and killed 5,500 residents.

Lt. Col. Sir William Mount. (Bart) T.D. - Thursday 20th January 1944

Address as before

 Thursday

 Chotie Darling,

                                    Just a few more lines about nothing at all.

                                    They have a film show here every week – an army unit brings round the projector, etc and the show is held in a hall in the Castle.  I managed to sit through the first hour or so but couldn’t stick it any longer than that.  So accordingly I repaired to the pub and had the place to myself entirely, luckily.

            The place is usually cram full with RAF personnel and a contingent from the local Waaffery.  They’re an awful crowd.  Drunk most of the time and very childish.

            Can’t remember the film – I only saw about half of it.

            Just finished Graham Greene’s ‘England made me’ – very good.  Had a long letter from Monica this morning – full of woe as usual, complaining bitterly that I never answer her letters or something like that.  I only wrote a month ago – at Xmas.  In any case I gather that her husband’s the most jealous brute who resents her receiving any letters.  He’s the sort who write every day – poor fellow.

            I still haven’t had any pay but have borrowed 20 quid from the Squadron Leader to pay clothing and mess bills, etc.  He’s an extraordinary sort of man – a young Captain*, Oxford and peacetime Sandhurst – very clever.  An Historian, I believe.  The only one with any real aesthetic appreciation among the whole bunch.

            I never seem to get to bed these days – it’s past midnight now.  That’s the advantage of a small mess – you can monopolise the radio and fire after about eleven or so.  I usually stay down ‘till the early hours as I don’t get up until nearly eight in the morning, and I’m better off with less sleep, these days at any rate.

            More Beethoven – unusual at this time of night – or morning.  From Calais 2 which is very powerful here.

            I’ve had a REME** Lieutenant sleeping with me – (not literally) for the past few days.  He left this morning.  Only spoke about three words to me the whole time.  A Scotsman.  Now I have my room to myself again which means I spread my kit over the whole place.  Awful shambles.  I must need a wife, I’m thinking.

            Well, Darling I must get off to bed.  It’s 1-30 and the fire’s nearly out and the Beethoven’s finished.

            There’s going to be a terrific party on Sunday.  The Colonel’s inviting all the officers in the Regt.  I’m told that when Lt. Col. Sir William Mount. (Bart) T.D.*** throws a party – it’s some party.

            Must close here, Darling,

                                    all my love

                                                Dicker

 

*Captain Frank Harding of ‘B’ Squadron?  He published “War Echoes over Thirty Years” in 1970 including a number of poems about 61^st Recce.  (See ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Ron Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

**REME = Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers

*** Territorial Decoration – for long service in the Territorial Army.

© Chotie Darling

 

21^st January 1944 – resumption of German air raids on London in the ‘Little Blitz’. Operation Steinbock, launched in retaliation for the Allied raids on German cities and for propaganda purposes targeted South-East England, particularly London as well as ports including Bristol (where Chotie was stationed), Cardiff and Hull.  The ‘Little Blitz’ continued until May and killed over 1,500 people.

22nd January 1944 – the Allies’ US Fifth Army land 36,000 men on the Tyrrhenian coast between Rome and Monte Cassino in Operation Shingle.  Initially successful, Anzio became one of the bloodiest WW2 battles in Western Europe.  The Germans counter-attacked and the Allies were then pinned down on the beachhead, under fire from German artillery, until the Gustav line was broken in May.  By then almost 10,000 men, Germans and Allies, had been killed.   (See Anzio landings.)

 

Preparing for the Worst - 18th January 1944

2/Lieut RKWilliams

61^st Recce Regt

Royal Armd. Corps*

Home Forces

PS  New form of address

Tuesday Eve.

Chotie Darling,

                                    I just had to write you this evening – if only to preserve my sanity.

            Spent the whole evening at the local with Jeff and two of his WAAFS, though I’ve only succeeded in getting morbid – not even slightly happy.  On the surface both of them appear quite normal, even respectable – at least so I had previously thought, but tonight settled things for them most definitely.  Talk about a couple of bitches.  Both appear to sleep with anyone on sight provided they get a free evening.  Even I was pretty disgusted, so I came back to write you and hear a little Beethoven.

            Well, I still haven’t had any pay.  At the moment there’s a chaotic service between the Orderly Room and the Regiment Paymaster.  Having filled in a fresh Joining Certificate I found out yesterday that although the Orderly Room sent it off by express post the Regiment Paymaster hasn’t had it.

            A certain Colonel phoned yesterday long distance and wanted to know what had happened to it.  One of these fine days they’ll sort things out.  Mother sent me a cheque a few days ago, and once more I’m bust.

            How are things with you?  Haven’t heard from you for ages.  Expect this will cross with one from you.  Write and tell me how things are going on. 

            And don’t forget Eric’s address! Or even Eve’s… I think it’s 3, St John’s Hill, but I don’t really remember.  I’d like nothing better than the four of us to get together in some pub, preferably Queen Anne, just to annoy Eric…

            Well, I hope you’re being a good girl….or at least as good as you usually are.  You’ll get merry Hell from me if you aren’t….looking back into the murky past we are pretty bad aren’t we?  Or don’t you think so?

            Everyone here’s got a terrific shake on owing to an impending inspection by the Colonel*.  People having children all round.  Not literally…  All except yours truly, who doesn’t give a damn one way or another.

            Well, Darling, this is a pretty meagre letter.  I’ll try to do better in a couple of days’ time.

            It’s absolute hell doing the same old routine grind and never seeing you.  Let’s hope we can meet again soon – then prepare for the worst**.

                                                Goodnight, Chotie

                                                                        Darling

                                                                                                Dicker

 

*See Royal Armoured Corps 1^st January 1944 on Chotie Darling website.

**Colonel Sir William Mount

***presumably a reference to the imminent Allied invasion of Western Europe - perhaps Dick already knew his regiment would see action?

© Chotie Darling

 

20^th January 1944 – 729 RAF aircraft again target Berlin on 20th, continuing the intensive Battle of Berlin Air Campaign.  On 27^th January 530 aircraft were deployed, on 28^th 677 aircraft and on the 30^th 534 aircraft (from Wikipedia).

The Russians re-capture the ancient city of Novgorod between Moscow and Leningrad (St Petersburg). Novgorod is now a World Heritage Site despite extensive damage during the war.

 

 

The Castle - Monday 10th January 1944

 2/Lt Williams RK

61^st Recce Regt

Home Forces

 

Monday Eve

Chotie Darling,

                                    Have a few hours to myself , so here goes.

                                    After my having been commissioned for some nine weeks, the adjutant has suddenly discovered that the Joining Certificate (which is the authority for issue of pay) was never sent off by the Orderly Room!  However, I have duly completed another which has now been sent off, and I can optimistically hope to see some solid cash within the next week or so.  I am now obliged to remain in the mess where I can get my beer on tick, but have to smoke cigarettes as they don’t stock tobacco.

            I don’t believe I’ve told you about the billets (?) we live in here.  All other ranks live in a castle, which overlooks some 20-30 miles of low-lying country*.  The Officers mess is a country house some 600 yds from the castle.  It’s quite large – some 6 or 7 bedrooms, and reasonably comfortable.  At the moment I have a room to myself owing to the temporary absence of my artist companion on a course.

            I came across a Chianti bottle on a scheme and this now takes pride of place on my table.  It’s green glass and holds a horse-chestnut twig which I trust will flower (?) in the spring.

            Have you found time to read that Claude Houghton yet?  Let me know what you think of it – if you think it’s lousy, say so…

            My drinking companion is on leave at the moment.  His name is Winzer and is known affectionately (?) as the ‘Duke’ by his troop.  His WAAF** (from the local waffery) consequently becomes ‘The Duchess’, or sometimes Mrs Simpson***, when the wags are feeling a little bitter.

            He’s quite a sound bloke on the whole but tends to drink himself to death – his gin bill over the Xmas week amounting to £15.  At least he’s not so completely dead as the remainder here.  They all try to give the impression that they’re God Almighty as regards music and the arts.  However, when ‘Junior’ (the artist) and I turned up we managed to shake them considerably.  They appear to be jumped-up bank clerks, etc. just spreading their wings a little.

            (I have to pause here for a wretched mess meeting – the mess is bankrupt at the moment.)

            Well we soon wound up the mess meeting.  The net result was that messing has been increased by 6d per member and a monthly mess subscription of one day’s pay has to be paid.  This will involve an extra 25 shillings per month as far as I’m concerned.

            I had a stroke of luck an hour or so ago.  Going through some old papers I came across a Post Office book with a quid balance so I repaired to the pub immediately after dinner, for a beer or four.

            Met the Duchess there, with a couple of Dutch Officers who it appears are both Barons.  Trust her to get a grip as soon as Jeff’s away.

            Don’t forget to give me all the dope on Eric’s present position, will you?  If I can get his next leave taped, I’ll make the effort to go up and see him - & Eve…When’s the baby expected, or has it come already?

            As for leave, as far as I’m concerned, I can’t get away for another eight weeks at least.  Perhaps only seven – though I could get a 48 any time now.  The only snag with this is that it’s such a devil of a way to travel.  However, we might well manage something in the next month or so – I could certainly do with a little relaxation – if you know what I mean.

            There’s going to be a colossal inspection by the Colonel on January 22^nd and everyone’s getting keyed up with plenty of gimping and you know what.

            I’m out patrolling at 3 o’clock tomorrow morning for a couple of hours.  Luckily there’s a full moon which makes things very much easier.  It’s a pity you’re not here – I could take you round….

            Well, Darling there doesn’t appear to be any news to tell you.  I had a ten-page epistle from Chunky but haven’t found time to reply yet.  Here’s hoping.  I should like to spend a day with him in town, but you never seem to get round to these things.

            I have to sleep in the castle tonight in an oak-beamed room with stone floor & walls.  Very romantic but bloody cold.  Why aren’t you here?  I reckon we could keep warm, at least….

            Must close here ‘Chotie’ to get some sleep in before this wretched patrol.

                                    All my love, Darling

                                                            be Good….

                                                                        Dicker

 

*Lympne Castle, overlooking Romney Marsh in SE Kent.

**WAAF = Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

***King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry Mrs Simpson, a divorcee.  They became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

© Chotie Darling 

The troops in the Castle were living a rather different life. 

Anthony Rampling remembers being served burnt rice pudding:

‘Everybody got up leaving leaving their rice pudding…the duty Officer caught me leaving mine and put me on a charge - a 252.   Later I was marched into the Officer in Command room (Major Johnson) – halt, salute.  “Why didn’t you eat your rice pudding?” “It was burnt Sir, everybody left it.” “Case dismissed.” Like a scene from Dads’ Army.’

 

10th January 1944 - Fascist Ministers responsible for Mussolini’s downfall are sentenced to death by firing squad by the Axis powers in northern Italy.  They include Mussolini’s son-in-law, the diarist Count Ciano.(See WW2-net Timelines.) 

Russia proposes moving the Polish border west to the 'Curzon line' proposed after World War 1. The Allies eventually agreed to this at the Yalta conference. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

14^th January 1944 – Soviet ‘Shock Troops’, secretly brought in to the Soviet bridgehead at Leningrad, attack the German encirclement to break the city’s siege. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

15^th January 1944 – the Australian Army takes Sio on the north coast of New Guinea’s Huon Peninsula, marking the culmination of the Huon Peninsula campaign. Since the landings at Lae in September 1943 the Allies had advanced north fighting the Japanese for possession of the coast guarding the straits that connect the Bismarck and Solomon Seas, between New Guinea and New Britain.

16th January 1944 – Dwight D Eisenhower of the US, having led Operation Torch and the Allied invasion of Italy, becomes Commander–in-Chief of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Britain in preparation for Operation Overlord.

17^th January 1944 – Beginning of the Battle of Monte Cassino, one of the most important battles of World War 2 and probably the largest land battle in Europe. The mountains of Monte Cassino defended the Allies only remaining route to Rome and were a linchpin in the German’s Winter Line.  The Allies took four months and four major assaults to capture the high ground of Monte Cassino and a quarter of a million soldiers were left dead or wounded.  Initial failed attempts to cross the Garilgliano and Rapido rivers on 19^th January resulted in 2,000 casualties but succeeded in diverting German attention from the Anzio landings.

 

 

Improvisation - Sunday 2nd January 1944

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 16^th 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 61^st 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 21^st 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.

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.) 

In the Field - Friday 17th December 1943

Letter written on Friday 17th December 1943

In the field

Friday

Chotie Darling,

                                    I got back from leave last night to find I was on a long scheme at 5 o’clock this morning.  I’m endeavoring to write this during a lull in the battle (?).

I’m very much afraid that I won’t be able to send you anything in time for Xmas.

I’ve just met Chunky (we’re both on the same side!) and he doesn’t get back until Xmas Eve.  I’ve no idea how long we’ll last but don’t suppose we’ll get back much before then. 

Went up to Purley on leave and stayed with Gramp for a couple of days.  Everyone’s got brand new babies – awful!  I’m beginning to think I’ll have one soon…

My God, it's COLD!  My fingers are just about freezing not to mention my poor bottom. 

I’ll try to write you again in the next few days.  Let me know if Eric’s home, won’t you?

                                                All my love, precious

                                                            Dicker

P.S.  Did you get 7 days or 14?

*In December 1943 61^st Division (reinforced, for the exercise by the 31^st Tank Brigade) played the defending force in Exercise Vulcan; a four-day training exercise aimed at improving the attacking process of the 43^rd Wessex Infantry Division (Dick’s former Recce unit).

© Chotie Darling

Eric Postles remembers December 1943 with 61^st Recce:

“We had a 3 day exercise with 59 Division just before Christmas that was notable for incessant rain.  Once I had a 48 hour pass to Ashford staying in the Salvation Army hostel.  Lympne Castle was cold and we slept on the floor which was not a very good way of spending Christmas day.”   (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

 

19th December 1943 - evacuation of Tyneham Valley in Purbeck to extend Lulworth’s tank gunnery range in practice for Operation Overlord.  The beautiful Dorset village is still occupied by the army.

20^th December 1943 – Allied air attacks begin on the V1 flying bomb ramps in France – the V1 was not used against Britain until June 1944.

In Front of the Fire - Friday 10th December 1943

“St Margarets”

Pagham

Friday

Chotie Darling,

                                                I’m sitting in front of the fire at home, writing this on nine days leave!  I’d just come back from a five days exercise, when I was told I’d been given a new troop (I only had the previous troop as a temporary measure) and that they were all going on leave the following morning so I’d better go with them.

            I spent the first day in London and I’m going up again for a few days tomorrow – so that I can get this business of ‘seeing the relatives’ over for once and all.

            Had quite a good time on the exercise, as I was not actively engaged – only umpiring, and on a motor bike,which gave me plenty of scope in getting about.  Had half an hour or so in Herne bay and saw Monica and baby.  She’s been under the doctor for treatment of some sort as she’s getting so fat.  The baby looks all right to me, but then I’m no judge of that sort of thing.  Her elder brother has just got married in Scotland so the whole family’s married now.  Didn’t see anyone else I knew as I had so little time there, though most of them are away anyhow.

            Spent one evening in Canterbury and had a little crawl by myself visiting the ‘Falstaff’, ‘Fleur-de-lis’ ‘Country’, ‘Shakespeare’ and ‘Three Carpenters’ , the five best known there.

            Spent one night on a AA Site and slept on a sofa in the Recreation Hut.  I don’t know whether it was mixed or not – if it was I was taking the helluva chance….these A/A women**….

            Hope to see a couple of lunch-time concerts at the National Gallery – only missed one this week by a few minutes.  Have heard a couple of Beethoven Symphonies this week which isn’t too bad.

            It must seem ages since I wrote you last.  Unfortunately I went on exercise with only about an hour’s notice which wasn’t even time to get a motorcycle or riding kit.  I borrowed breeches for this show and wore them the whole five days.  Either they were cut for a very thin bloke or they’d shrunk or something but they cut my legs to ribbons. Murder!

            How are you these days? – cold I expect…If it were not for the fact that I’m sitting in front of a fire I should probably have written half a page – or less.

            (Interlude for hot chocolate and cake….)

 

                ↑                     

            Space to denote passage of time.

Do you remember the Green Child’s  head on the mantelpiece – the one Diller got in Belgium?  Dad’s latest trick is to put a cigarette in its mouth.  Looks horrible!

            Incidentally I’ll send you some shekels for Xmas – it’s no use me trying to get anything – so that you can do some shopping or a show or something in Bristol.  I’ve had to give up coupons for the other ranks’ kit I’ve kept – 18 for 2 pairs of boots! etc so at the moment I don’t know how much I’m worth.  I will send some eventually. 

            I’m enclosing a book which I’ve been trying to get for the past year or more.  Tell me what you think of it.

                                    I’d better close here.

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                                        Dicker

 

* 'The Falstaff' and 'The Shakespeare' are still open, ‘the Country’ was probably 'The County Hotel' and is now the Abode Hotel , the ‘Three Carpenters was probably the 'Three Compasses' and is now the the Lady Luck and and the 'Fleur de Lis' is closed.

** Chotie was an AA (Anti-Aircraft) woman in the ATS - they were also known as Ack-Ack Girls.) The situation of the Ack-Ack Girls, often posted alongside men in mixed batteries, and some initial disciplinary issues, led to a loose reputation that may have been ill-founded (although some male officers might have taken advantage of their command).  American troops stationed in the UK referred to them as Co-ed Gun Girls.

© Chotie Darling

 

15th December 1943 – the first war crimes trial against Nazi defendants took place in Kharkov (Kharkiv) in the Ukraine. 15,000 bodies had been found in the nearby ravine of Drobytsky Yar following a massacre of Kharkov’s Jewish population two years earlier. The Soviet military tribunal found the three Germans and one Soviet collaborator guilty and they were quickly executed.

The Allies finally recognise Tito’s Communist Popular Liberation Committee, which had led resistance to the Nazis in Yugoslavia since 1942, as the future Yugoslavian government.  

The Battle of Arewe begins the Allies Campaign on New Britain, an island to the north-east of New Guinea.  This diverted Japanese troops from a major Allied landing on the SW tip of the island on 26^th December.  Rabaul, at the eastern tip of the New Britain, was Japan’s main military and naval base in the South Pacific and MacArthur’s campaign aimed to surround and disable the Japanese forces there. 

Chocolate Biscuits - Sunday 28th November

2/Lt R K Williams

‘B’ Sqdn. 61^st Recce Regt

Recce Corps, Home Forces

 

Sunday 28^th

Chotie Darling,

                                                I’m now back again and settled down after the scheme, which lasted for its original duration much to everyone’s disgust.

            On the whole I had quite a happy time, as I either stayed at, or passed through, several old haunts well known to the family in the old Morris Cowley* days, and coupled with the opportunity so often missed of worming my way into a vast number of period farmhouses and the like.

            The weather was excellent, cold but dry and as we stayed in one little village for three days without doing anything of military importance, we managed to get sufficiently well organised to hold ABCA** periods and run a football tournament.  I evaded these two popular pastimes however, and mooched about a local farm until the daughter of the house asked me in for coffee and CHOCOLATE Biscuits!  Her undoubted charms left me cold, but I took a lively interest in the biscuits.  Lovely old house, with a massive oak beam over the fireplace marked 1600.

    The major*** came back yesterday.  He appeared quite a good type – reads Balzac, so I’m well in.

    Nothing much happens here.  I’ve just finished a 48 hr spell of Duty Officer, rather a cushy appointment.

    I get another 24 hr next Wednesday so I may go up to ……….. (word inked out).  There’s nothing to do here, or locally, but the snag is the fare.  It will be the second day I’ve had off in three weeks, which isn’t so good, to my way of thinking.

    Many thanks for your letter, Darling, most welcome at the conclusion of an exercise.  Glad to hear you’ve got, or rather you’re getting, a rise****.  I bet you’re getting more than me after all.  After I’ve paid income tax, messing***** etc, I get the equivalent of Lance Corporal’s pay….

            Must close here for dinner.

                                    All my love precious

                                                                    Dicker.                     

*presumably the family car from his childhood at Orpington in Kent.

**Army Bureau of Current Affairs – an organisation set up to educate and raise morale among British servicemen in World War 2 (see Wikipedia).

***possibly the Regimental second-in-command, who was a Major, or maybe the Major commanding ‘B’ Squadron. (See Reconnaissance Organisation December 1943 and Reconnaissance.)  Dick was one of 23 to 30 subalterns in the Regiment – commissioned officers below the rank of captain, generally comprising first and second (junior) lieutenants. Dick, as a newly commissioned officer, was a second lieutenant.

****due to her new qualification as Operator Fire Control?

*****Commissioned Officers were required to eat in the Officers’ Mess and pay a subscription fee for supplies and upkeep. They would also be expected to wear formal attire for evenings in the mess.

© Chotie Darling

 

 

2^nd December 1943 – A German Air raid on the Adriatic port of Bari, near the southernmost tip of Italy, hits a US ship secretly carrying mustard gas. Many civilians are poisoned by the gas and over a thousand Allied servicemen perished.  Fires from oil pipleines and ammunition explosions put the port out of action until February.  The Allies try to keep the ship’s cargo secret, since it might provoke the use of chemical weapons in the war. The incident was only fully exposed in 1967.

The Allied 5^th Army in Italy again attacks at Monte Camino and manages to take the peaks of La Difensa and Camino.  After heavy fighting the Germans pull back from the Bernhardt line to the Gustav line and Monte Cassino, protecting the main route to Rome.  On the Adriatic side of Italy the the Canadian 1^st Division lead the Allied 8^th Army across the River Moro and towards Ortona, suffering terrible losses from the German defenses.

In Britain a shortage of coalminers leads to the Ministry of Labour and National Service, led by Ernest Bevin, taking one in 10 conscripts to work in the mines. The ‘Bevin Boys’ service to the war effort was not fully recognised until1995.

 

4^th December 1943 – Leipzig, a city in eastern Germany, is bombed by the RAF causing an intense firestorm.  More than 1,800 people are killed.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

At the second Cairo conference Churchill and Roosevelt discuss Turkey’s neutrality with President İnönü.  However, Turkey did not join the war, on the side of the Allies, until February 1945. Exhausted after the conference Churchill collapsed from pneumonia on a visit to Eisenhower in Tunis and came close to death.

 

On 8th December 1943 Tommy Flower’s ‘Colossus’, the world’s first programmable electronic computer, was unveiled at the General Post Office Engineering Department (later BT) at Dollis Hill.  It was installed at Bletchley Park codebreaking centre in January 1944 and provided unprecedented detail on German defences, crucial for the planning of the D Day landings.

 

Dicks's Registration and Discharge Card on 9th December 1943

 

 

Copy of Record -  Registration and Discharge Card

 

0.Registration Number                                     S/O Strength on Transfer

  26282522.                                               a7B Jou-1. Part.1. dated 3.4.43         

1.Surname        WILLIAMS           3. Army Number             5   731   671

2. Christian Names    Richard Kelner          

 100 (Sandhurst) OCTU RAC. 903   

4. Regiment or Corps          DORSET R.136

                                     PRE.OCTU.9005.

5. Nature of Engagement      TA(W)

6. Date of Joining (Army Class) or Date of Enlistment (Others)    21-6-40

7. Date of Birth            28-7-21

8.Nationality or Dual Nationality              E

9.Religion                      CE.

10.Industry Group        O                    

11.Occupational Classification  900 

12.Cause of becoming Non-effective    Discharged under para. 390 (xbii) K.R. 1940 having been Appointed to a commission.                                                12.(a)Date    30/10/43                                                    

13.Single or Married                 S                                              

14.Home Town and County (U.K.) or  Country (abroad)

Weymouth, Dorset   

Orpington. Kent.   

19.Location        H                                  X Date Rejoined from Reserve

Wt. 10832/164            2,000,000  5/41          M.&H., LTD.             T.51_229         43Regt A.F.  8.  102

 

A.Rank                  Pre  B.Service Trade     (M) 2.9.42  Trade tested 2 9/40.qual  Div Mach GpD ClII                             Physical Training Inst. Spec Qual (SG2        Div. Mech. GpD. Cl.II C. Medical Category           A1

                

Part II Order        133/42        124/42

 

Part II Order	Postings	Offr’s Inits
79/12/42	Posted 1st Air Landing Coy. (Recce Corps) 21.4.42	WR
52/42  1st.A.L 43 Recce 78/42	Posted to 43rd Recce Regt Wef. 13.7.42.
43rd Recce 38/43	Home Details 13 2/43
43rd Recce 47/43	P.att. No 1 Pre-OCTU. RAC wef.
	4.3.42. Authority:- WOhr. 43/Trng/3250
	(AGIE) df-23.10.42 & WOUM BM ZP/9304/
41/43	AGIE df-23.2.43 Posted 162 OCTU. 15/5/43

Entry Date  0 OCT 1941   

29 APR 1942

Dates on which Amendment Slips were sent to Central Card Index

             4/K 267 84)                   K96200  10)  (12) N.12691

             22/5/43                        30.8.43. 11)     9.Dec.43

                       

The Lost Wallet - Thursday 18th November 1943

2/Lt Williams RK

‘B’ Squadron 61^st Recce Regt

Recce Corps

Home Forces

 

Thursday

Chotie Darling

                                    Many thanks for letter.  I would have replied before this, but managed to get a 24 hour from midday yesterday to noon today.  Both Diller and Brinner were home so we had quite a reunion at the ‘Beach’.

            Unhappily going back I had the most horrible experience – the worst experience that any man can have.  I lost my wallet!

            Not only did it have £6 in it but also my ticket.  I was stranded on Brighton Station with some 5 shillings in all!  There was no Railway  Transport Officer there so I went in desperation to the YMCA* where the manageress lent me a quid.  Awfully good of her, as I had no security to offer her.  However, I managed to get back OK, if late.

            I’ve just written to Bognor & Brighton Stations but don’t expect to hear anything.  Don’t say anything about it or mother will go frantic.

            On top of this I’m going on a scheme for a week and am afraid I won’t get a chance to write you.

            I’m well settled down now and am quite enjoying myself, though I shall be glad when I get this next week over.

            How are things with you?  Glad to hear you arrived back without trouble, and hope you got the groundsheet O.K.

            Met that old friend of mine from the 43^rd, Don Johnston** (the one who would repeatedly play the ‘Warsaw’).  Hadn’t seen him for ages.

            Have you heard of Eric lately?  You might ask Eve to prod him a little about writing me.  That is if you still correspond.

            There’s a Lieutenant here, a burly West Country farmer, who buys anything on sight.  Last week he bought a grand piano and a herd of Friesian cows!  Quite a lad.

            I’ve bought a new hat, though I didn’t pay much for it!  Twenty shillings is about my mark….

            No real news to tell you.  Things here are very cushy until a scheme comes along – then everyone starts flapping.

            I’m thinking about starting to buy some period furniture as you’ll never get any after this show.  Period stuff is still reasonable, anyhow.

            Must close here – write you next week.                                         

                                                All my love, Darling

                                                                                Dicker

P.S.  Don’t bother to write for the next few days as I won’t get it for a week.

 

*Young Men’s Christian Association

**See Chapter 7 43rd Reconnaissance - the beginning of the end.

 

© Chotie Darling

 

18th November 1943 - beginning of the RAF’s bombing campaign 'the Battle of Berlin' (not to be confused with the Soviet battle of Berlin in April and May 1945). In 16 raids thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands made homeless. By the last raid, at the end of March 1944, more than 500 RAF planes had been lost. (From WW2-net Timelines and Wikipedia.)

 

20th November 1943 – beginning of Operation Galvanic, the US bid to capture the Gilbert and Marshall Islands from the Japanese. These strategically important islands lie to the west of central Pacific, between Hawaii and the Solomon Islands.  The successful but brutal 3 day Battle of Tarawa Atoll reulted in nearly 5,000 Japanese and Korean dead and more than 1,000 Americans, with 3,000 US casualties.  Tarawa land area is approximately 12 square miles.

 

22^nd November 1943 – opening of the Cairo summit between Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek of the republic of China to plan for post-war Asia.  The Soviet Union was not at war with Japan and did not attend.  Roosevelt took an anti-Imperialist stance and agreed with Chiang Kai-Shek that Indochina would not be returned to France.

 

25th November 1943 – US air forces based in China bomb the Japanese island of Formosa, now known as Taiwan. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

26th November 1943 – sinking of HMT (His Majesty’s Troop Ship) Rohna, off the Algerian coast, by a radio-controlled glide bomb from a German Heinkel plane. The Rohna was carrying more than 2,000 troops, mainly American. 1,138 men were lost – the largest loss of US troops at sea in a single incident and kept secret until 1967. (See Rohna Memories.)

The Security Angel - Thursday 11th November 1943

PS       Sorry its pencil but I left my only good pen at home.

2/Lt Williams RK

61^st Recce Regt

Recce Corps

Home Forces

Thursday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Well I’ve arrived here and am just beginning to settle down, though rushed off my feet at the moment.  I hope you also arrived back safely and without incurring 7 days CB*.

            Things are, as far as I can see, pretty cushy at the moment owing to the fact that most Senior officers are away, on courses, etc.

            Did you leave your groundsheet at Pagham?  We looked everywhere but couldn’t find it.  Let me know if you did and I’ll write them to send it on to you.

            Weather couldn’t be better here – plenty of sun and wind.

            I’m umpiring a stunt for three days soon on a motorcycle which should prove interesting, if the weather holds.  It’s a lot easier than being involved in the wretched thing yourself.

            ‘Fraid this letter’s rather sketchy but the security angel cuts out everything worth writing – almost….

            I didn’t thank you Chotie for a very happy leave – I hate to think of what it would have been like just by myself.  Brinner, unfortunately couldn’t get his leave with me.  He goes home next weekend I believe so he’ll see Diller anyhow.

            Must close here as I’m a bit pushed.

                                                            All my love Chotie

                                                                Dicker

*CB – Military abbreviation for ‘confined to barracks’ also known as ‘jankers’ (slang). It involved being put on a charge and subjected to a variety of punishments for a minor disciplinary offence.

© Chotie Darling

 

Dick had joined the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment

as a 2nd Lieutenant in ‘B’ Squadron.

In 1943 61^st Division in Kent had been relegated to coast guarding duties for the Home Forces* and he was stationed at Lympne Castle, near Folkestone.  The 13^th century castle is set high on a hill overlooking the Romney Marshes. 

East of Lympne lay ‘Hellfire Corner’ – the area around Dover in reach of the German cross-channel guns from Calais and Boulogne, which had been firing on the port since August 1940.

 

17th November 1943 – Oswald Mosley, founder of the far right British Union of Fascists, is released from prison on health grounds to considerable protest.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

Band and Banners - Tuesday 26th October 1943

 

Tuesday

Chotie Darling,

                                                Just received your letter and am replying instanta.  Very pleased to hear you can manage some leave, if only three days.

            I suggest you come down to Pagham – I’ll pay your fare, and we can renew our former brief acquaintenship (sic) with the ‘Lamb', ‘Bear’* & ‘Beach’.

            Things are so quiet for Mother & Dad that I think I should stay home as I don’t know how long my leave will be.  The point is that I may be posted and recalled from leave after a week or so at home.

            If I can float a loan from someone I’ll enclose some shekels in this letter.

            Glad to hear you had a happy time in Whitby**, you certainly get about a bit.  My only travel consists of going out on schemes etc, when you’re usually wet, cold and generally miserable and certainly not in the mood to appreciate the beauty of the west country.

            However, I have seen enough to convince me that the people who say ‘See England first’ do know what they’re talking about.

            Can you let me know probable time of arrival at Pagham? – and I’ll get the band and banners out.

            Will close here, Darling for dinner – it’s a Band night.

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

*Pubs in Pagham.

** See Chotie in Yorkshire.

© Chotie Darling

 

30th October 1943 – the United States 5th Army breaks through the Barbara line, Germany’s defensive position across Italy, at Mondragone on the Tyrrhenian Coast. The British 8^th Army attacked across the Trignov River near the Adriatic Coast on 2^nd November 1943.  (From Chronology of World War II and WW2-net Timelines.)

Mucking about now - Saturday 23rd October

As before

Saturday

Chotie Darling,

                                    Many thanks for letter.  I didn’t get it until yesterday as we were out on exercise for a week.

            Firstly, as regards leave I definitely get it on the 30^th inst. Though I don’t know, as yet, for how long.  It’s almost sure to be 9 days but you know the army.

            I’ve received my final reports and have only a week of mucking about now.   I’ve also got my clothing coupons…I bet that made you wince!.  Thousands of ‘em. 

            Anyhow let me know whether you can manage anything as regards leave won’t you?  Brinner may be home on the 5^th before he goes to OCTU but nothing definite as yet.

            Had glorious time on exercise in the Cotswolds.  Went to Cheltenham and Gloucester, etc.

            Can’t write anymore now as dinner’s up

                                                                                                Love

                                                                                                            Dicker

P.T.O.

Do your damdest to get leave, Chotie.   

© Chotie Darling

 

24^th October 1943 – The Soviet Army takes Melitopol, near the Sea of Azov in the Ukraine, breaking the Wotan line (part of the Germans’ hastily constructed defensive position from Smolensk along the Dnepr River to the Black Sea).  By 1^st December the entire line had been broken and the German 17^th Army were isolated on the Crimean Peninsula. Only the German’s Panther line in the north between Lake Peipus (now between Estonia and Russia) and the Baltic Sea along the Narva River remained intact.

Chotie in Yorkshire - Saturday 9th October 1943

 Same Address

Saturday

Chotie,

                        Many thanks for letter – expect by now you’re in Yorks* enjoying yourself as usual …  I’m sending this to your original address and hope it will be forwarded.  Never having been (or ever wanted to go) to Yorkshire I can’t offer any comment but it will make a change at any rate.

            Glad to hear your cold is better – you’d better get those woollies on.

            Aren’t you getting highbrow?  Chopin and Greig!  Unhappily I don’t get any time to hear these delightful people – or even read about them, & I presume even less time after I’m commissioned.  For Chopin you couldn’t do better than Leff Pouishnoff – who plays “Frick’s” stuff better than he ever played it himself and considerably better than Soloman or Cortot**!

            Talking about weddings I have to attend one on Nov 1^st at Pagham.  It's Tony Smith’s of Church Farm which I expect you remember well.  I’ve managed to avoid all previous weddings like the plague but this one’s definitely got me.  We pass out on the same day – he’s a cadet here.  Any suggestion for a wedding present?  Awful isn’t it.  And poor pal entangled …Ces pauvres jeunes gens***….

            Last I heard of Diller she was going on a wireless course to the Isle of Man!  and six months at that.  Also thinks she’ll lose her leave but welcomes any change.

            Mary I believe is applying for transfer to Bournemouth.  Incidentally I get my leave on the 30^th inst, but have this wedding to go to on the 1^st Nov.  Can you manage anything?  Let me know won’t you?

            Must close here for lunch – will write again on the weekend,

                                                                                                                        love

                                                                                                                        Dicker

 

*Chotie seems to be in Yorkshire now (she was staying in Whitby), perhaps on training.  There was a Ack-Ack gun site at Whitby on Saltwick Bay - the ATS had to climb the famous 199 steps in full battledress to get to the East Cliff from their lodgings in town. (From Jane Ritchie and Elizabeth Trattles stories in 'Girls in Khaki' by Barbara Green, The History Press 2012 and Joyce Stott's account on the People's War website).  Nan, Chotie's best friend in the ATS, came from Yorkshire so it's also possible she was on holiday with her. (See also Chotie goes to Bristol.)

Nan from Yorkshire

**See previous letter for Leff Pouishnoff. Solomon Cutner was a British pianist known professionally as ‘Solomon’. Alfred Cortot was a Franco-Swiss pianist renowned for his interpretations of Chopin and Schumann. Cortot supported the German occupation in France.

***French for “These poor young people”.

 © Chotie Darling

 

10^th October 1943 – Franco, the Spanish dictator orders the Blue Division to return home. These were some 18,000 Spanish volunteers fighting with Germany against communism on the eastern front. Most returned but about 3,000 stayed to fight with Germany as the Blue Legion.  (From WW2-net Timelines and Wikipedia.) 

 

 

The Gentle Sex - Tuesday 28th September

 

Same Address

Tuesday 

My Darling,

                        Many thanks for your letter.  Was very glad to hear that you enjoyed your leave and were lucky enough to get the same time as Mary*. 

            Still, I expect you’re glad to be back …..I was home myself this weekend but felt so wretchedly ill, I did not really enjoy it.  I started on a pint at the Beach on Saturday and hadn’t the heart to finish it.

            Been very busy lately on schemes and will be on them nearly all the next month.  They’re not too bad in the summer but it’s getting just a wee bit nippy these days.  On top of this I’m Troop Sgt. for the week which all means added work.

            Found time to read D.L.Murray’s ‘Tale of Three Cities’ which I’ve always meant to read, and enjoyed immensely.  Have read virtually nothing else.  Saw ‘Gentle Sex’ and Col. Blimp** during past few weeks – I believe I told you.  Enjoyed Blimp but found Howard’s influence on ‘Gentle Sex’ just a little too much.  He always was hammy.

            Sorry to hear about your indisposition – hope it’s better by now.

            Everyone seems to be having a competition as to who can produce the most offspring.  News from HB < Herne Bay***.  Gives lurid details of further progress in this direction.  There are times when I think the world’s gone mad.  They’re no sooner married than the poor girl’s tied down for life, and in most cases before she’s even started to live!  I hope there’s enough money in circulation after this war to feed them all.

            Had a letter from Brinner with yours.  Full of his customary appalling language.  He’s met a soprano of ‘Tosca’**** fame.  It won’t last long.  Apparently the Austrian refugee affaire has closed down for good this time.

            I’d send you some denarii if I had any – but at the moment I’m bankrupt.

            Did you hear the Beethoven on Sunday pm?  Pouishnoff*****.

            I must close here for dinner – not that I shall eat any, but I have to attend anyhow.

                                                            love & kisses

                                                                                    Dicker

 

This letter was addressed to:

 W/242328 Pte Chalkley BE.

 ‘B’ Tp. ATS OF.C. 462 Hy (M) AA Bty RA

Markham, Easton in Gordano

Bristol

 

Maybe Chotie was back at Markham Camp when Dick sent her the postcard addressed to Portishead on 7^th September, or maybe she’d moved the short distance to Easton-in-Gordano since then.

 

*Chotie’s best friend Mary Dakin, who later married Geoffrey Thomas, gentleman.

**’Gentle Sex’ - a romantic comedy film about the ATS, directed and narrated by Leslie Howard, who had been killed in June 1943 and narrated by Leslie Howard. ’The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’ - a comedy film derived from the satirical Colonel Blimp comic strip.

***Monica, Dick’s ex-girlfriend and Diller’s best friend, lived at Herne Bay.

****Giacomo Puccini’s opera ‘Tosca’ - the lead soprano has the eponymous title role, so Brinner’s new girl was presumably quite a singer.

*****Leff Pouishnoff, a Ukrainian pianist and composer.

© Chotie Darling

 

 

28^th September 1943 – Chotie visited the dentist at Bristol.

 Copy of Record

Dental Treatment Card – 28/9/43         Bristol

 

28^th September 1943 – two years after the shooting of nearly 34,000 Jews at the Babi Yar ravine near Kiev a number of the concentration camp prisoners now tasked with covering up evidence of the massacres there manage to escape.  By the autumn of 1943 at least 100,000 Jews, Roma and Communists had been murdered by the Nazis at Babi Yar.

 

29^th September 1943 – Marshal Badoglio, the new Italian leader meets General Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allies Expeditionary Force to sign the armistice agreement aboard HMS Nelson in Valetta Harbour, Malta. (From Chronology of World War II.)

 

After Exercise Link in mid-September 1943 61st Division, including 61^st Recce, was relegated to a static role in home defence (Lower Establishment status – Higher Establishment Divisions were intended for employment overseas and combat.)  The Division was also a training formation and was intended to find suitable replacements for fighting formations:  “when the 61^st Division was relegated to Home Forces…we had to draft many of our best men away”. (Lt-Colonel P.H.A. Brownrigg’s account of ’A Reconnaissance Regiment in the B.L.A.’ in ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’  by Ron Howard, Brewin Books 2004)

By October the 61^st Division had been assigned to anti-invasion duties in Kent.

Eric Postles writes:

“The regiment was responsible for patrolling the coast from New Romney to Battle.  Our squadron was stationed in Lympne Castle next to an RAF airfield.  We did day and night mobile patrols into Folkestone and Romney.  On a clear day you could see France from the castle tower and at night flashes from the German guns shelling the Dover area.  One night we watched as a night fighter shot down a German bomber in flames.  Our fighter planes took off and returned from France very low over the castle often returning damaged and sometimes with their rockets hanging down from the wings.  On our patrols we reported to the coastguards and coastal gun sites.  We often got a welcome cup of tea.”  (Extract from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

 

1^st October 1943 – the Allies enter Naples. Much of the city had been wrecked by the Germans, including its historic aqueducts, in revenge for the Neapolitan resistance begun on 27^th September.

Britain’s 8^th Army on the Adriatic coast of Italy seizes the Foggia plain with its airfields vital for bombing southern Germany, Austria and the Ploesti oilfields.

1st October 1943 – the Germans begin to round up Jews in Denmark. However, their plans have been revealed in advance by a German naval attaché, Ferdinand Duckwitz, and most of the 7,500 Danish Jews were helped into hiding and then ferried to safety in Sweden by Danish citizens and the Resistance. 470 Danish Jews were deported to the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechoslovakia but relatively few Danish Jews (120) died during the Holocaust for a German occupied country. (From United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

 

2^nd October 1943 – heavy RAF raid on Munich, deep inside Germany. Germany’s third largest city was an important industrial centre and suffered 71 bombing attacks during the war. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

3^rd October 1943 – the Battle of Termoli commences the Allies’ attack on the Volturno line. This was a German defensive position stretching across Italy from Termoli on the Adriatic coast to the mouth of the Volturno River, north of Naples, on the Tyrrhenian Sea. The line was breached by the British 8^th Army at Termoli on 6^th October and the US 5^th Army crossing the Volturno a week later. The Germans retreated back to the Barbara line. Both lines had been established to delay the Allied advance to the main German defensive position (known as ‘the Winter line’) protecting the access route to Rome at Cassino.

4th October 1943 – Corsica is liberated when the last of the Germans are evacuated from Bastia.

 

6th October 1943 – at a conference with high ranking Reich officials at Posen in Poland, Heinrich Himmler is frank about the Jewish ‘Final Solution’ for the first time, admitting that women and children as well as men were being killed so that “this people disappear from this earth”.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

Related articles

 

The Devil's punchbowl - Tuesday 14th? September 1943

Same address….

Tuesday

My Darling,

                        Many thanks for letter just received – and for programme enclosed.  I had hoped I could have written to you during the week but have been on schemes almost continually.

                        It’s now about seven in the evening and I’m all packed for another three day show after dinner.  We’re going down as far as Hindhead which is wonderful country, and luckily I’m driving all the time.  The road runs south from Aldershot, over the Hog’s Back and down to the ‘Devil’s punchbowl’, a famous venue for motorists pre-war and one of Surrey’s best known beauty spots.  We’re going right through the night and are all swearing on fine weather.

                        Mother enclosed a letter from Brinner in her last.  He’s now a Cadet at Wrotham which is only a few miles from Sevenoaks, Eric’s place.  (Incidentally, I’ve never heard from him despite you’re saying he’d written.  Also, no cracks about my repaying – if I had a letter from him I’d reply straight away, but I definitely wrote last …) 

            I managed to see Diller last week-end – she went back on Sunday. I gather she likes the life but would prefer to be in anything but the Pay Corps.

            I don’t get any leave for another three weeks, I’m afraid and then only a weekend.

            Theoretically I should pass out in six weeks’ time – but things are going very badly as regards Recce Corps.  They’re over staffed as it is which has the annoying habit of making them very difficult to please.  They cheerfully accept about five in every fifty and the unhappy remainder have to go all through an Infantry OCTU, which takes nearly another five months.  The only consolation I’ve got is that I should go to Wrotham, for some weeks anyhow.

            Hope you enjoyed the concert under Sargent**, whom I think is still the best conductor in the country.  ‘Fraid I never get a chance to see anything these days.

            As you remark, the news is good, but as usual is inclined to be taken far too optimistically.  We still have the hardest fighting to do.

            Must close here for dinner, as I’ve got to get my carrier started which takes me anything up to an hour….

                        Here’s to the Devil and his punchbowl.

                                                                        love & kisses

                                                                                    Dicker

*Hindhead Common and the Devil’s Punch Bowl are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty protected by the National Trust.

** Malcolm Sargeant, famous English conductor.

© Chotie Darling

 

15th September 1943 – Australian and US troops capture the Japanese base of Lae, on the east coast of New Guinea, north of Port Moresby.

16^th September 1943 – the Danish resistance underground, Dansk Frihedsrådet, sets up the Freedom Council as a shadow administration.

 

18th September 1943 - German forces from Salerno withdraw towards the line of the River Volturno, north of Naples.  American forces at Salerno had suffered 3,500 casualties and the British (on the exposed left flank) 5,500.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

20 September 1943 - the ‘Jewish Affairs Commission’, headed by Dieter Wisliceny, arrives in Athens. In Thessaloniki the Commission had been responsible for the deportation of over 46,000 Jews, mainly to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Athenian Jews, previously under Italian Occupation, were now threatened with a similar fate. However, two thirds escaped - many with the help of Archbishop Damaskeno and other Christians who hid them and produced false baptism certificates. Even the Chief of Police in Athens, Angelos Evert, issued Jews with false ID to protect them.

60 to 70,000 Greek Jews perished in the Holocaust – more than 80% of the Jewish Greek population. (See United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.)

 

22nd September 1943 – six British midget submarines succeed in attacking the Tirpitz (see also St Nazaire and Brighton) in a Norwegian fiord, putting the battleship out of action until March 1944. 

 22nd September 1943 – Soviet forces begin to cross the heavily defended Dnepr river in central Ukraine, suffering heavy losses but ultimately succeeding in advancing their front line.

 

On 23rd September Mussolini proclaims his return to power with the re-establishment of a fascist government, the Repubblica Sociale Italiana in northern Italy. All Italians carrying arms in German occupied areas face the death penalty.

 

24th September 1943 – 5,000 Italian soldiers of the Aqui Division are massacred on the Greek Ionian island of Cephalonia when they eventually surrender to the Germans.  In all, more than 10,000 Italian soldiers who chose to resist the Germans died in Greece.

 

25^th September 1943 – the British 8^th Army and the US 5^th Army join up a front line across Italy.

25th September 1943 – the Soviets re-take Smolensk, 200 miles west of Moscow in Russia. 

 

27th September 1943 – in a popular uprising the people of Naples successfully drive the Germans out of the city before the Allied liberation on 1^st October. (From Chronology of World War II.)

A Young Novel - 1st and 2nd September 1943

 

Same address

Wednesday (nearly Thursday)

My Darling Chotie,

                                                            It’s a long time since I’ve written to you at this time of night, but I find myself with two others operating a wireless for three days and nights and this being the first I thought it would give me a golden opportunity to send you a young novel – so here goes.

            The remainder of the troop are out on a three days exercise and we are maintaining contact with them the whole time.  The system, as it stands sounds quite fun but unfortunately we are not allowed to sleep as those on the exercise aren’t able to.

            This little discrepancy is, however, compensated by the fact that I get a weekend on Saturday, so things aren’t really too bad.  Diller will be home I believe so she’ll have a glorious chance to moan to her hearts content, an opportunity I know she won’t be slow to seize.

Came back from 48hr scheme yesterday, just about all in.  This wireless* is murder, it’s not only the mental tiredness you get, but also chronic headaches owing to the headphones which have to be worn continually.  I’ll spend the week-end in bed – lonely and cold ….

            We’ve managed to scrounge some cocoa and milk, also a shave, so we have hopes of something hot soon.

            Weather here is typical autumn – lots of mist and rain and last night a beautiful sunset, one of the best I’ve ever seen.  The trees – hundreds of them here are just beginning to turn – though it’s early yet.  It will be lovely by the time I leave – always presuming I don’t leave prematurely …

            We have a pretty sound wireless officer, one of the pleasant slavedriver type who works all hours from morn ’til night and expects the whole troop to do the same…Luckily he likes his pint and consequently we always find ourselves some hundred yards from the Duke of Wellington for lunch and he always stands the troop a pint apiece.  God knows how much it must cost him.

            I was talking to the publican who says that the present Duke (who lives in the neighbouring estate – Stratfield Saye) is quite a pleasant bloke – Captain in the Commandos in Sicily and always goes to the pub when on leave to play darts with the farmers.  Apparently he’s about 30**.

            Did I tell you that Dad went up to Purley*** to see all the relations?  It’s the first time he’s seen his father for about five years!  Awful isn’t it?  Apparently things have changed quite a bit.  Gramp now looks his years – he’s about 78, which he never has done before and has slowed up considerably.  Cyril (Dad’s brother) took him on a trip which included all the most dubious of London’s night clubs.

            They all expect me to go up (after Brian going, of course) but I still prefer to go home, or if possible come down to see you.  (I still owe you about a dozen spankings…****)

            However, he did see them, they were all very pleased, and that’s that – for another five years anyhow.

            Incidentally is there anything I can get you for your Birthday? I haven’t had a chance to get out for ages, and you can’t do anything on schemes.  Let me know – and if there’s no chance of my getting it, I’ll send you some shekels*****.

            The ATS are a better crowd than I thought, despite their being mostly Generals’ daughters.  The one I had (not literally….) yesterday did all the cooking for us – and did it very well – probably because they were scared of letting us do it, as they have to eat it as well.  I managed to get her a room in a farmhouse and she managed to get me half-a-dozen eggs so we had quite a happy time.  She comes from Kent of course – Pett’s Wood – about a mile from Orpington†.  We had several common friends.  I should say friends in common – there’s a subtle difference….

            I still haven’t had an FFI†† – you really must organise another meeting…See what you can do.  I always get atrociously rude this time of night – at the moment I’m thinking awful things.  I couldn’t even tell you… 

            That’s enough of this – I’d better do some wireless for an hour or two.

 

            Well, I’ve done some morse – over an hour in fact and have just been relieved.  Still feel the same.  Good thing I’m not in the Bristol area.

            Read Deeping’s ‘Two Black Sheep’ on the scheme and also “Fanny by Gaslight” again (Michael Sadleir) which I’ve always thought an awful lot of.  It’s the finest picture of Victorian England of the last ten years and heaven knows there have been enough books on that subject!  I’m sure Fanny would get the same hold on you as she has on me.

            Won ten bob on a little side bet last night.  Bill said it was Tchaikovsky’s ‘Casse Noisette’††† and I said it was ‘Eugen Onegin’ and Eugen Onegin it was.  Just as easy as that.  Wish money was always so procurable as that 10 bob.

            It’s now nearly 2 oclock and we’ve got the water on the boil for some luscious cocoa!  Jeez!  

            My two colleagues have just started to take an interest in things – now that there’s a chance of a hot drink!  One is that madman I told you about from Corfe Castle – incidentally his name’s Peter Collins (happy memories?) who still intends to live on Round Island after the war††††.  A genuine hermit’s life with just his wife.  Notice I say just!  This is where I should say “what more could a man want”… (after his pipe of course…Never mind Darling – you come second …)

            The other one’s an Oxford law student, pretty nearly broke.  Tennis champ of north of England.  Quite a good type.

            I’ve just had my COCOA(!) and, it’s good.  I’ve got a lovely warm feeling in my tummy which I definitely didn’t have before.

            Well, Chotie Darling I must close here as I have to go on the set again.  I’ll let you know how things went on the weekend and enumerate some of Diller’s moans.

                                    All my love, precious.

                                                Always thinking of you.

                                                                        Dicker

 

P.S.  You should read Napolean’s letters to Marie Louise and Josephine.  They’re good….

 

*Wireless – “not enough emphasis can be put on the importance of communication in battle situations”…Wireless operators needed high quality training “to pick up weak signals against a background of atmospherics and interference” known as ‘slush’. (From ‘Phantom at War’ by Andy & Sue Parlour, Cerberus 2003)

**The Duke of Wellington’s estate at Stratfield Saye near Basingstoke in Hampshire.   The 6th Duke of Wellington, Captain of No 2 Commando, was killed in action at Salerno on 16^th September 1943.  

***Purley, near Croydon, South London.

****Possibly referring to Chotie’s involvement with her officer at the Bristol camp earlier that year??

*****slang for cash. Chotie’s 20^th birthday was on 6^th September 1943.

†Dick was born in Orpington in Kent and spent his childhood there.

††the 'Free from Infection' inspection for venereal disease (presumably being used by Dick as a euphemism here).

†††Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘The Nutcracker’ and not his opera ‘Eugene Onegin’.

††††an island in Poole Harbour.

Peter Collins was the name of one of Chotie’s early admirers:

“Peter Collins, the boss’s son, home from Blundell’s, a posh school in Devon, also took a fancy to me and given the chance, we would canoodle in the store room.  His mother was very kind to me and I was invited to stay at their lovely house in Talbot Woods for a weekend.  Peter had won a scholarship to Blundell’s for his brilliant piano playing and taught me about classical music - a love that has stayed with me all my life.” (From ‘Chotie’s Story’. See also F.W.Collins.)

© Chotie Darling

 

3^rd September 1943 – the Italian government, under Marshal Badoglio, signs a secret armistice with the Allies at Cassibile in Sicily.  In Operation Baytown, British and Canadian forces crossed the Messina Straits unopposed, landing at Reggio de Calabrio (the tip of Italy’s toe) in an unsuccessful attempt to draw German forces away from the main landing areas further north.

 

 

Wireless Schemes - c.Saturday 21st August 1943

5731671 OTC Williams RK

77 Tp HAC Sqdn

100 (Sandhurst) OCTU

RHC    RMC       

Camberley, Surrey

My Darling Chotie,

                                                                                    I’m very sorry I haven’t been able to write before but have only just got back from a wireless scheme and am also squadron Leader into the bargain.

            You always seem to be on the move*, which is a good thing as you see a little more of the country than I did for the first year or so.

            Just had a letter from Brinner – passed his WOSB easily – the same one that I went on at Betchworth Surrey.  He’ll probably go the (sic) Wrotham pre-OCTU, where Johnny went.

            I get a long(?) week-end in a fortnight’s time which is when Diller gets her leave so I may manage to see her then.

            Had a good time on the scheme although we worked until eleven every night.  Our particular group consisted of four cadets, 2 cars and 2 ATS.  They were very good, doing nearly all the cooking and egg-scrounging from the farms.  We slept in the hay-loft of a barn and they slept in the farmhouse itself.  Quite fun.

            We do nothing but wireless schemes all the next fortnight which are pretty cushy physically but pretty bloody mentally.

            I’m trying to write this on my knee – murder, isn’t it?

            I can still see my old tree from our new room.  It’s just beginning to turn brown… As one of our Canucks** said “I guess that means the fall”…

            Haven’t read anything for ages – or seen a flick for that matter.  ‘Spect you still manage to find time for a little quiet reading.  Wish I could.

            No news of any kind – nothing seems to happen these days, except in Berlin.

            Will close here as there’s simply nothing to write about.

                                                            All my love, precious

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*Chotie’s unit moved to Portishead, on the coast west of Bristol, in late August/early September. 

**Canuck – slang for Canadian.

© Chotie Darling

 

23^rd August 1943 – the Soviet Red Army recaptures Kharkov in the western Ukraine, after a fierce German defence.

23rd August 1943 – heaviest raid on Berlin to date with 717 RAF bombers to test the defences around Berlin.  The city was covered in a blanket of smoke from the fires and thousands were killed. Further bombing was carried out on 31st August (600 bombers) although the main ‘Battle of Berlin’ bombing campaign did not follow until November 1943.

 

25th August 1943 – Germans first use the HenschelHs293, radar-controlled and rocket propelled glider bombs, in the Bay of Biscay.

 

28th August 1943 – King Boris III of Bulgaria dies suddenly in mysterious circumstances having angered Hitler by his refusal to deport the 50,000 Bulgarian Jews Bulgarian Jews (although Jews were deported from Bulgarian-occupied territories in Macedonia, Thrace and Serbia) and to declare war on the Soviet Union.

28^th August 1943 – the Danish government resigns, having refused Germany’s demands to impose the death penalty on saboteurs.  Martial law is imposed and Denmark becomes de facto ruled by Germany.  The Danes succeeded in scuttling most of the large ships in their Navy before they fell into German hands.

Quelques fleurs! - Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th August 1943

Same Address! (almost)

77 Tp HAC* Squadron

100 OCTU RHC

RMC Camberley

Surrey

Chotie Darling,

                                    Sorry I just haven’t been able to write before but just tumbled into bed at night without having had a moment to spare.

            I must begin by thanking you very much, Darling, for a very happy week-end.  It was a pity it wasn’t longer – but we must always hope for better things rather than dwell on the imperfections of the moment.

            However, enough of this twaddle.

            (Just having an argument with Chunky about Elizabeth** as a girl’s name.  He says it’s his favourite name.  Actually I believe it is.)

            I’m now on wireless which is just about killing me…I’m getting fed up with this place – especially after seeing you.  It’s all so useless.

            I’m beginning to feel that I’ll be damn glad when this show’s over.  How about you?  Then maybe we can get down to things as they should be got down to.

            I’ve still forgot to post that letter home.  You’re as bad as I am….

            I seem to be writing to no purpose tonight.  Think I’d better leave this until tomorrow and see if I’m feeling in a better frame of mind then.

 

Thursday Eve

            Received your letter this afternoon.  Many thanks, Darling.  Glad to hear you had a safe, if premature, arrival.

            Moved again today to another part of the building and am now in HAC Squadron as you will see from address overleaf.

            Am now working literally all day as I have morse to do which has to be done in spare time (?).  Have to do 12 words per minute to pass out which takes at least an hour a day for me to achieve - if ever.

            Am still with Brian and Chunky and things are on a sane basis once again.

            I’ve had my week-end cancelled – the whole troop have in fact – which has annoyed me intensely.  Good thing it wasn’t last week.

            Haven’t heard from Brinner – ‘spose he’s on Selection Board or somewhere.

            Must close here, Darling as I have tons of work to do.

                                                Bye,bye,precious

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

 

PS Can’t see you for at least 12 months – cos I’ve shaved my tache off!!

 

*HAC stood for ‘Honourable Artillery Company’, one of the oldest military organisations in the world, having been established by charter under Henry VIII in 1537.  In World War the HAC Infantry Battalion became the Officer Cadet Training Unit for the Reconnaissance Corps at Sandhurst.

**A Chalkley family name (her mother’s name, Chotie’s middle name, my middle name, etc.). If Chotie and Dick had a daughter they were going to call her Elizabeth.

 © Chotie Darling

 

On 12th August 1943 Dick changed to HAC Squadron

OCTU RHC RMC.

He was still in 77 Troop.

 

12^th August 1943 – heavy RAF attack on Milan. (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

 

15th August 1943 – heavy German bombing raid on Portsmouth where Dick had been stationed from June to September 1941

 

 

17th August 1943 – Patton and his US 7^th Army enter Messina on the north-east tip of Sicily, the critical port for access to Italy.  The island was now in Allied hands.

 17^th August 1943 –Beginning of the Quebec Conference headed by Roosevelt, Churchill and Canada’s Prime Minister Mackenzie King. Agreement is reached that the Allies will invade Europe on a second front through France (Operation Overlord) and that a South-East Asia Command (SEAC) will be established with Lord Louis Mountbatten (Head of Britain's Combined Operations - including Dick’s Airborne unit ) as Supreme Allied Commander.  Major General ‘Vinegar Joe’ Stilwell , the American Army Commander in China and Burma, would be one of his deputies.

17^th August 1943 – in the Schweinfurt-Regensburg daylight mission the US Air Force attacks Luftwaffe production factories deep inside Germany, suffering heavy losses.  The targets were beyond the range of fighter escorts so the Americans had to rely on their heavily fortified ‘Flying Fortress’ bombers.

On 17^th and 18^th August 1943 in Operation Hydra over 1,000 RAF night bombers attack Peenemunde on the Baltic Coast, where the V-2 rocket (the world’s first long range ballistic missile) was in development. V-2 production was subsequently moved to the underground Mittelwerk factory near Nordhausen in central Germany, which used forced labour from Mittelbau-Dora (part of Buchenwald concentration camp). The Luftwaffe Chief of Staff, Hans Jeschonnek, commited suicide on 18^th August, having mistakenly ordered gun defences to fire on German planes when the use of 'window' by RAF Mosquito bombers effectively feinted an attack on Berlin. Hitler had also blamed him for the destruction of Hamburg in July

 18^th August 1943 – advancing Soviet forces north of Kursk liberate Briansk, south-west of Moscow.

19^th August 1943 – in the secret Quebec Agreement Britain, the United States and Canada agree to share atomic energy research, which, in 1945, led to the production of the atomic bomb.

 

Swimming - 31st July 1943

By the end of July 1943 Chotie’s Royal Artillery Anti-Aircraft unit

had moved back to the Bristol area, this time to the north of the city

-      her address was

W/242328 Pte Chalkley

O’s FC ATS ‘B’ Tp

462 Hy (M) RA AA

Cribbs Causeway

Nr Henbury

Bristol.

 

 

 Letter written on Saturday 31st July 1943:

Same Address

Saturday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                Sorry, this will have to be in pencil but Chunky has pinched our only table and chair and is very inauspiciously writing to his wife.

                                    Received your two letters, for which many thanks.  I was surprised to see you are once again in the Bristol area.  If you remember, Eric was convalescent at Westbury for some months.  At any rate you’re a little nearer home, which I suppose is something, if not very much.

            As regards next week-end I’m afraid I won’t be able to get down before Saturday Evening, as our leave doesn’t start until the afternoon, and it’s a fair journey.

            I shall have to leave again on Monday afternoon as we change squadrons on that day and I’ll have about six months accumulation of kit to move to the New Buildings, which are some half mile or so.

            Been swimming all the afternoon at the ‘Blue Pool’, the nearest baths (apart from the college baths) and am now beginning to get brown.  I’m already pretty browned off as they’re chucking out Recce cadets right and left as the corps is already too full.  The trouble is that in most cases they’re not even giving infantry commissions!  So I’ll probably be RtU’d* in the near future.

            These things run in cycles – one minute they’re clamouring for officers and the next they’re full up.

            Read Linklater’s short stories entitled “God likes them plain”, which are very good.  Haven’t had time to read anything else.  Heard from Diller (still browned off) but haven’t heard from Brinner, needless to say.

            Swam in an inter-squadron competition and managed to win my event the net result being we won the whole show easily.  Rather funny really, and that’s the first swimming event I’ve been in.  On the 28^th** too!  Hell of a fluke – the other 3 were U.S.***

            I’ll close here Darling, as I’ve exhausted my mediocre letter-writing talents.

                                                                        All my love, Darling

                                                                        (until Saturday)

                                                                                    Dicker

 

*RTU – Returned to Unit

**Dick’s 22^nd birthday on 28^th July.

***Slang for useless?

© Chotie Darling

 

Dick's future comrades in 61st Reconnaissance Regiment were still in the Chilterns:

“Every Saturday morning we had a 10 mile run/march/route march after which we could go out.  I sometimes went down to London, Tring or Berkhamsted to see a film.  We did troop exercises on the Common and Ashridge Golf Course.”  (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

This photo of B Squadron's Assault Troop, including Anthony Rampling, was taken in August 1943 (Tony is third from the left at the back):

 Eric Brewer joined the Assault Troop soon after this photo was taken and continued to fight in the Assault Troop until December 1944.

 

1^st August 1943 – Japan proclaims an independent State of Burma, led by Ba Maw. He declares war on Britain and United States while Aung San, head of the Burma Defence Army, begins negotiations with the communist and socialist parties. By November 1943 Aung San is making plans with the British to turn his forces against the Japanese occupants. (From Chronology of World War II and Wikipedia.)

1st August 1943 - American bombers attack the Ploesti oilfields of Romania from North Africa in Operation Tidal Wave but suffer devastating losses.  The Germans had broken their codes and were ready for them. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

2^nd August 1943 – more than 300 prisoners escape from the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland  in a break out organised by the Jewish inmates - although two thirds were eventually captured and killed.  The bodies of the thousands who had been gassed or shot at Treblinka were being exhumed from the mass graves and burnt, removing the evidence of genocide.  Deportation of Jews from the ghettos to Treblinka had ceased in May 1943 and the camp was to be dismantled.  All the remaining prisoners in the camp were killed. (From United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and WW2-net Timelines.)

2^nd August 1943 – a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands rams a US Torpedo boat, which catches fire.  The commander, J F Kennedy dives in to rescues his crew from the burning oil.  Abandoning ship after 12 hours clinging to the upturned hull he helps them reach the isolated Plum Pudding Island and then Olasana Island, which has coconuts but no water. On 8^th August they were found and rescued with the assistance of local islanders who were coast watchers and a message written on coconut shell. JFK kept the shell on his desk in the Oval Office when he became President of the Unites States.

 

3^rd August 1943 – the Russians launch Operation Rumyantsev, a vast offensive south of Kursk taking Belgorad on 5^th August.  North of Kursk Soviet forces reclaim Orel, following the German retreat.  (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

5^th August 1943 – US troops at last take the airfield of Munda on New Georgia, in the Solomon Islands, from the Japanese.

6^th August 1943 – American destroyers in the Solomon Islands sink 3 Japanese destroyers carrying 900 troops in a night-time ambush.

6^th August 1943 – German troops pour into Italy as Italian and German government leaders meet near Venice. 

Guido Benetti - Tuesday 20th July 1943

Dick at Pagham?

 

Same Address

Tuesday 20^th July

My Darling Chotie,

                                                I’ve got the afternoon off so here goes.

            Had quite a pleasant leave though very quiet.

            Went over to see Guido at Brighton on Wednesday last, on spec. as he wasn’t expecting me.  He’s got a lovely flat on the front at Hove, beautifully furnished – the dining room in old English oak, nearly black*, and the drawing room in Japanese stuff, similar to Dr Barker’s place at Parkstone.  He’s got about a thousand records of opera of all types.  We played one after the other for about seven hours altogether.

            His niece was there – about seventeen – wearing mauve and old lace, and looking for all the world like Lucrezia Borgia**.  She’s at an art school in Brighton – does dress-designing or something.  She’s been staying with Eva Turner** for the past year and now lives with Guido.

            Had lunch and tea with them and some pukka Italian Vermouth which I hadn’t seen for years.

            I had intended staying the night in Brighton but thought that anything after Guido’s place would savour too much of the anti-climax so caught the next train home.

            Brinner turned up without notice on Saturday afternoon, and stayed for 36 hrs.  He’s at present waiting for OCTU Board.

            Had a letter from Diller with yours.  Fed up as usual as I expect you’ve heard from Mary****.  She’s trying to get a transfer somewhere else I believe.  What a hope!

            Had a swim in the Lagoon***** on Saturday.  Not too bad at all – quite warm.

            How do you like the old homestead!  Sort of Georgian-Renaissance – pseudo-Greek style!  I bought half a doz. photos of the place but unhappily had to get them “artistically – hand-coloured”!

            How’s life in Devon?  Hope the weather improves – it’s hell in the west otherwise.

            When are you coming further East?  I’m on long weekend Friday Eve to Monday night on the weekend of the 7^th August.  If you can manage anything, I could get to Poole OK.

            Let me know, any how,

                        All my love,

                                    Dicker

 

*oak wood goes dark brown and then black with age.

**an infamous beauty (described as having heavy blonde hair which fell past her knees, a beautiful complexion, hazel eyes which changed colour, a full, high bosom, and a natural grace which made her appear to "walk on air"). Her father, Rodrigo, became Pope Alexander VI in 1492 and the notorious family were suspected of many crimes including simony, incest and murder.

***Eva Turner was a famous English soprano of the inter-war years.

****Chotie’s best friend Mary Dakin was also a close friend of Diller, Dick’s sister.

*****Pagham lagoon.

See letters of 3rd September and 25th February for Guido Benetti.

© Chotie Darling

 

22nd July 1942 – the US 7th Army takes Palermo, capital of Sicily while British forces are ‘bogged down’ around Mount Etna.

 

24th July 1943 – the RAF bomb Hamburg in Operation Gomorrah, the beginning of the Battle of Hamburg. More than 700 planes are deployed and this is the first use of the “window” tactic developed following the Bruneval Raid (releasing strips of metal foil to confuse the German radar), reducing Allied plane losses that night to 12.  Raids continued for a week and by 3rd August the intense heavy bombing, and the firestorm of 27^th July (when the heat from the fires generated its own wind, blasting flames through the city), had killed 40-50,000 people.

24th July 1943 – a US air crew crash lands in neutral Sweden and is granted refuge. This precedent is extended to nearly 1,000 Allied air crew during the rest of the war. (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

25th July 1943 – Following a vote by the Italian Fascist Grand Council for the King of Italy, Vittorio Emmanuele III, to take over command of all Italian forces from Mussolini, ‘Il Duce’ is arrested and the fascist regime in Italy ended. Marshal Badoglio is appointed head of Italy.  Although Badoglio promised that the Italians would continue the war German troops seize the Brenner Pass and key installations in northern Italy as a precaution.

 

Eric Postles of 61st Recce remembers July 1943:

“On 28^th July, Harry Parr, who was in 59 Division Recce regiment, was killed on an exercise in Kent when his heavy armoured car turned over and he was crushed by the gun.  I was given leave to attend his funeral in Burscough and a number of members of 59 Recce also attended.  It was one of the biggest attended funerals that I have ever been to – very sad.”   (Extracts from ‘My War Years’ by John Eric Postles ISO used by kind permission of the author.)

 

29^th July 1943 – in Britain Bevin announces that women up to age 50 must register at the Labour Exchange for war work. In 1943 almost 90% of single women and 80% of married women were employed in essential work for the war effort but were paid significantly less than men. (From BBC Women at War and Wikipedia.)

Moonlight - Monday 28th? and Tuesday 29th? June

Address as before

Monday

Darling Chotie,

                                                I’m now sitting by my window attired in only a greatcoat writing this by the moonlight, as I’ve had another insomnia attack.

            Many thanks for your letter which I got this morning.  Always cheers me up to hear from you Chotie Dear.  (At present I’m thinking things quite alien to the nature of a future Officer (perhaps!) and Gentleman).  Must be the moon or sumpin’.

            Arrived back from Battle Camp in Snowdonia on Saturday and spent remainder of weekend in bed recuperating!  Did I need some kip!  Santa Maria – I could have slept for a fortnight…

            Apart from one day – which was really wonderful – it rained incessantly the whole time we were there, including the attack on Snowdon’s lofty peak – during the ascent of which you nearly lost your future husband - …  The trouble was I got lost of course and ended up in the helluva mist about to crawl over a 1000ft precipice. Tork about larf …

            (Please excuse paper – must get that in somewhere).

            Get my leave in three weeks’ time – chance of changing it – nil…

            (Chunky’s just asked me “Am I nuts?”  He’s in a sort of stupor which lasts from when he goes to bed ‘til about 10 am the following morning!)

            How’s life with the ATS?  Diller gets posted somewhere soon I suppose.  She’ll probably make Brighton.  She always liked jam on it…

            Read ‘The postman always rings twice’* (James Cain) and a couple of Naomi Jacobs’ amongst other things.  Don’t get much time these days.

            Won 30-/- on way to Wales at pontoon and lost it coming back.  Spent very little there happily.

            Came third in OCTU Sports mile.  Time of 4m 58s.  Not too bad for an old man.

            (The moon is shining through the old oak tree outside our window – looks lovely…  ‘Spect Montgomery or Alexander thought the same thirty years back!).

            My man woke me on Sunday morn. at 10 with steaming hot coffee….what an Army.  After the Dorsets! 

    How’s Eric and Eve – still in their Eden I suppose.  (That’s pretty horrible…) 

    This greatcoat doesn’t provide an awful lot of warmth over my nakedness.  Wish you were here instead of Chunky.  Bet you could find ways and means to warm me up… (Don’t tell me…).

            Spent an hour in the library with the Britannica this evening.  Very enlightening.  They’ve got everything ‘cept Vogue and Harper’s … even got some works on sailing!  No kid…

            Better leave this now as I’m getting a bit chilly and there’s no Chotie….

 

It’s now Tuesday afternoon which is virtually free so I’ll go on again here.

            I’ve been down to the pool for a swim which was excellent as it’s a lovely afternoon.  Unhappily we have to work again this evening which is rather a blow.  On top of this I’m on fire piquet this evening at 10 o’clock which rather ruins any effort to read or write.  Do you remember this time three long years ago?  Seems ages since I joined this man’s army – much too long in fact.**  Hope you never have to do three years …. Darling, I’d even marry you to spare you that….

            Most of us swim in a state of nudity here much to the delight(?) of the Sandhurst ATS.

            I’ll send this wretched epistle to your home address as I suppose you’ll be on leave by now.  Have a good time, Darling, but don’t stay in bed after noon, will you?

            Can’t think of any more to scrawl so will close here,

                                                                        lots of love Precious

                                                                                                Dicker

P.S.  Best wishes to Rosemary.***

P2S. Go easy on Security, Darling.  ‘Bty’ movement, etc. x

 

*’The postman always rings twice’ was James M.Cain’s first novel, published in 1934.  A violent and sensual crime story it was banned in Canada and Boston but inspired a number of films.

Naomi Jacobs was a romantic novelist very popular at the time.  She was a suffragette and her books tackle a number of progressive issues.

**Dick joined up in June 1940 - see Joining Up. 

***Rosemary was Chotie’s cousin who appeared to be staying with her family in Parkstone. 

© Chotie Darling

 

29^th June 1943 – the RAF bombing of Cologne leaves 4,377 dead.

30^th June 1943 – General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area, launches Operation Cartwheel against Rabaul, Japan’s major forward base in the South Pacific. Instead of capturing Rabaul (on the north tip of New Britain, an island in New Guinea’s Bismarck Archipelago) the combined American, Australian and New Zealand forces established a ring of airfields and naval bases around it, initially landing on New Guinea near Lae and the two islands of Kiriwina and Woodlark.  Cut off from supplies and under continual air attack Rabaul is useless by the end of the year. 

On the same day 10,000 US troops were landed on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands, north-west of Guadalcanal. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

July 1943 – meat rationing in Britain was extended to include sausages.

2nd July 1943 – on New Georgia, an island in the centre of the Solomon Islands, fierce fighting begins in the Battle of Munda as the Americans attempt to take the Japanese base and airfield for Operation Cartwheel.

3^rd July 1943 – the RAF carry out another heavy night raid on Cologne killing hundreds of civilians. The June/July bombings of Cologne killed 4,337 people and destroyed much of the ancient city including the famous cathedral. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 
5^th July 1943 – the Germans launch Operation Citadel, a major offensive on a 200 mile front in a pincer movement around the Russian city of Kursk, south of Moscow.  It was an obvious move since the Russian front line now bulged out around the city.  The Soviets secretly prepared a strong defence so the attackers were heavily outnumbered - the Russians assembled nearly 2 million men and the Germans 780,000.   After major losses on both sides (one of the largest tank battles in history was fought at Prokhorovka, south of Kursk) the Russian counter-offensive brought a decisive Soviet victory by the end of July. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012)

 

9^th July 1943 – Operation Husky commences with the deployment of airborne troops landing in Sicily as the Allies begin fighting on a surprise second front in Europe.  By nightfall on 10th July 2,600 Allied ships had landed 80,000 men - Montgomery's British 8th Army on the SE corner of the island and Patton's US 7th Army on the south coast near Gela.   Dick’s unit of one year earlier, 1st Airlanding Brigade, were to play a critical role in the assault, spearheading the British forces.  However, strong winds blew many of the aircraft off course and of the 1,730 men who set out, 326 were drowned and total losses in taking Syracuse were 605 - a third of the whole brigade.  They also suffered from the terrible incidents of 'friendly fire' associated with the invasion.  50^th Division, who Dick was to fight with in NW Europe, successfully landed on the South East coast of Italy with the British 8^th Army.  Invasion of the island continued with landings and advances by British, US and Canadian troops.   The British took the town of Syracuse on 12th July and the next day British paratroopers and the Durham Light Infantry secured the critical Primasole Bridge, south of Catania.

 

16^th July 1943 – Roosevelt and Churchill issue a statement calling for Italian surrender and the overthrow of Mussolini.

19th July 1943 – Hitler summons Mussolini to a conference on 19^th July to stiffen his resolve in resisting the Allies but news that the US Airforce had bombed Rome arrives during the meeting.  Hitler begins preparations for the German forces to invade Italy.

Registered Letter - Friday 11th June 1943

As before

Friday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                I’m afraid this will have to be a very short effort, as I’m Troop Leader this week and haven’t a moment of my own.

            I’ve been working up till midnight all the week and have all the worry of getting the admin. side done for the trip to Wales*.  We go at 4am Sunday!  Reveille’s at 3!

            I’m enclosing a troop photo we had taken the first day we arrived.

It’s pretty bloody.  If you can’t find me, let me know and I’ll give you the details of where I’m sitting.

            I’m also enclosing a quid which will help things along a little.  I hope ….

            I’ll try to get this letter registered tomorrow afternoon – if I get it off.

            Received your letter today.  Glad to hear you’re getting on as well as can be expected.  Must close here Darling.

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

Will write again just as soon as I can.

*Dick appears to have been at battle camp in Snowdonia for a week from Sunday 13^th to Saturday 19^th June.

 

Group photo with badges covered - possibly the Officer Cadet photo sent in this letter? Dick is third from the left in the front.

 © Chotie Darling

11^th June 1943 – bombardment of Sicily begins in preparation for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Europe from the south.  However, airfields in Greece, Sardinia and northern Italy are also targeted as part of an elaborate deception that included 'Operation Mincemeat'  (the planting of a dead body carrying ‘secret plans’ to convince the Germans that the Allies would invade through Greece and Sardinia).

11^th June 1943 – Heinrich Himmler, the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood, orders the liquidation of all Polish ghettos by decree.  This is extended to the Soviet Union on 21^st June. (From Holocaust Research Project.)

 

17^th June 1943 – Eric Brewer, later of 61^st Recce’s B Squadron and diary recorder of their activities (see this blog and ‘Beaten Paths are Safest’ by Ron Howard, Brewin Books 2004), was enlisted.  Extracts from his letters have also been published on this blog by kind permission of Derek Brewer and his family.

18^th June 1943 – ‘Radar’ (Radio Detection and Ranging) becomes the official term for ‘Radiolocation’.  (From WW2-net Timelines.) 

 

18^th June 1943 – Chotie visited the dentist at 71 MDN for the removal of a loose filling.

 See Dental Treatment Card – 18/6/43         71 MDN

 

20th June 1943 – RAF begin ‘shuttle bombing’ – planes leave England to bomb Germany then reload in North Africa to bomb Italy on return to England.  (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

21st June 1943 – Jean Moulin and other key members of the Conseil National de la Résistance captured at Lyons, leading to many arrests in the French underground networks.

21st June 1943 - beginning of Operation Animals, an organised campaign of sabotage in Greece to deceive the Germans that they intend to invade there.

 

Brian and Chunky - Tuesday 1st? June

 

5731671 Officer Cadet Williams RK

77 Troop ‘B’ Sqdn

100 (Sandhurst) Octu RAC

R.M.C. Camberley

Surrey

Tuesday

Thanks very much for your letter and photo*.  It’s quite good don’t you think?  I’ve got a God awful photo of my troop taken the first day we had here.  (Actually I haven’t yet got one – it’s on the way).  We had one taken at Blackdown and that was so horrible that everyone refused to buy one.  I paid for mine and am still hoping to get my money back…. 

            I’ll send you one of the Sandhurst ones when they arrive.

            I’m writing this during a Gas lecture under pretence of writing notes so I have to keep stopping and pretending to look interested.  I don’t think I’m kidding this bloke, though.

            Well, how do you like Plymouth**?  You appear to have struck it lucky in getting such frequent changes of location.  I always seemed to stick for months in really horrible places.  Brinner had ten mths at Basingstoke and I can’t think of much worse than that.  Mind you move Eastwards next time.  Somewhere about Lilliput*** would be rather handy or even Chi or somewhere like that.

            (It’s a murderous job trying to write on one knee watching the lecturer with one eye and trying to appear reasonably attentive.)

            I get quite a nice time here on Sundays as all O/D’s**** draw cycles to go to church in Camberley.  Needless to say no one goes to church.  For my part, I repair to a certain YOCH I wot of and there drink gallons of tea (no sugar ….), smoke a pipe or two, and read ‘Country Life’ ‘Tatler’ and ‘Field’ until about noon when I lazily mount the crate and trundle back to my present abode at approx... 2mph.  However, we make up for it during the week, especially in PT which consists of pretty bloody runs of about 3-4 miles over obstacle courses in battle order.  Quite fun when you get used to it.  I shall have to use pencil from here as I’ve run out of ink.

            Life here, however, is quite pleasant on the whole though I hope to get transferred to an Infantry OCTU before I finish here.  Recce’s all right but I prefer the old infantry.

            Diller as you know I expect went to Leicester for initial training.  I bet it’s shaking her.  I went to Leicester once from Branksome***** if you remember but wasn’t impressed.  Good huntin’ country.

            Read Rose Macaulay’s ‘And no man’s wit’, also Noel Langley’s 'There’s a porpoise close behind us’ (re-read).

            Plenty of swimming here, nearly every day in fact – I’ve got quite brown (-ed off…)

            I’m supposed to be going home this wk-end for a few hrs.  Only wish I could get to Plymouth but it’s really too much.  I could have made Bristol I think.  However you may move this way soon. 

            I was slung on a charge last week!  Late on parade – but spun the Sqdn Cmdr a yarn and got admonishment – cushy.  I’ll never make it again though, at any rate not with the same bloke – a Grenadier Gds major.  All the officers here are either Grenadier Irish or Welsh Gds.  No Scots or Coldstreams. 

            It’s now Tuesday evening and as I have a few minutes before dinner I’ll round this letter off.  We're on parade again at 9 o’clock for a night march….

            It’s been alternate sun and rain here all today, which is a good thing, for this place gets pretty dusty, also the rain helps to fill the swimming-pool.

            The library here contains the Encyclopedia Britannica and Oxford so I’m quite happy to spend a few weeks there every now and then.

            Our troop officer goes by the name of Brixey – Battle-mad Brixey – who’s really very decent and very cushy.  The Guards Officers here nearly all wear long puttees, the old style, that is with service dress slacks.  Very comic appearance until you get used to it.

            I’m afraid this letter’s rambling on in my usual inimitable style (?) ….

            (I’ve put your photo on my chest, furniture not anatomical – looks very good).

            I’m very lucky in having Brian & Chunky as room-mates as we never seem to fight although we argue incessantly of course.  Chunky being a Londoner hates the country period houses, beer, smoking, in fact all the luxuries of life.  Brian being Irish and a pianist in the bargain is often moody and sometimes says hardly a word all day.  He’s over six feet, about fourteen stone and will make a brilliant soldier.  Plans to stay in the army after this show.

            Chunky’s married but being ultra-modern has no children.  Brian says he’s going to get married on his next leave.  I believe I told you he was a ham before joining-up, and was a Captain in the IRA for two years.  Nice people…..

            Warrant Officers here call us Sir and we call them Sir so everyone’s happy.  Occasionally the Sqdn Cmdr or someone dines with the troop which means about an hour and a half in the mess making conversation over really horrible coffee.  Happily I smoke and get rid of the coffee to Brian who eats like a horse.

            Well, Darling I’ll close here as I’ll have to post this before Dinner and the stunt tonight.

            Hope to see you soon, Chotie Darling

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

PS. Sorry half is in pencil but no-one has any ink at the moment I want it.

 

*See group photo of ATS from Bristol .

**This letter was addressed to:

 W/242328

Pte Chalkley B.E.

ATS OFC ‘B’ Tp,

462 Hy (M) AA Bty RA

c/o GPO.

Millbrook

NR Plymouth

          so Chotie’s unit must have moved to the Plymouth area. Millbrook is actually in Cornwall, on the western side of the Tamar estuary but defences here would have guarded the entrance to the Plymouth docks. Unfortunately there is no date visible on the envelope for this letter so the date is only guessed at in the context of the other letters. If I am right about 1^st June the move seems remarkably prescient since on 14th June Plymouth citizens had  ‘one of their liveliest half-hour’s’ of the war in a heavy raid, which dropped between 70 and 80 high explosive bombs of between 250 and 1,000 kg.  (From Plymouth Data. See also the National Archives.)

According to Phyllis M Rowe and Ivan Rabey on June 14^th “Hundreds of incendiary bombs fell on Saltash” (just north of Millbrook).  “Torpoint suffered the effects of a blast from a direct hit on the Devonport Dockyard and phosphorous bombs fell on Mount Edgcumbe Park” (located on Rame Head near Millbrook).

(From “When Bombs Fell” "When Bombs Fell" contributed by Cornwall Action Community Service on the BBC People’s War website.

'WW2 People's War’ is an online archive of wartime memories contributed by members of the public and gathered by the BBC. The archive can be found at bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar.)

***a little village by the Harbour in Poole.

****Officers of the Day or Officer Developers?

*****Dick was stationed in Branksome from September 1941.  See To Branksome.

 © Chotie Darling

 

3^rd June 1943 – de Gaulle establishes the Comité Français de Libération National as a ‘government in waiting’ (for the liberation of France).

4^th June 1943 – death of General Sikorski, head of the Polish government in exile and several other Polish leaders in a plane crash after take-off from Gibraltar.  Sabotage has been suspected and there are various conspiracy theories. (From WW2-net Timelines.)

 

10^th June 1943 – the Pointblank Directive sets out a co-ordinated approach to Allied bombing in Europe with the Americans flying precision bombing missions by day and the RAF undertaking saturation bombing by night, mainly against German cities. (From Chronology of World War II and WW2-net Timelines.)

At last the Admiralty replace Naval Cipher 3 , which had been decrypted by the Germans in March 1942. Although the Germans were able to read 80% of the messages in Naval Cipher 3 only 10% were decrypted in time to take action.  Still this had had a devastating effect on Atlantic shipping.

Officers and Gentlemen - letter posted Saturday 22nd May 1943

ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE

CAMBERLEY, SURREY

 

My Darling Chotie,

                                                It seems ages since I heard from you and as I expect it’s the same with you – here goes.

            As you will see from above I’m now at Sandhurst, which is quite a place.

            I’ve been so busy the last few days, what with passing out (in more ways than one) at Blackdown and getting settled here, I haven’t had a moment to myself.

            I was very disappointed with your inability to make Pagham, but realise what the hell of a journey Bristol is.  But why didn’t you send a wire or something?  Then I could have come down.  Brinner and Diller were home as you probably know.  We could have got really stewed – actually we did, but that’s another story.  However, we must try again soon.  I shall be able to get a week-end here and there, though I expect to be up to my eyes in work.  I’ve been very lucky here in getting a room with Chunky* and Brian (my mates …. ) and an excellent servant who knows all the tricks of the trade – and then some.

            (Don’t smile at this paper.  It’s all they’ve got here, and needless to say they robbed me …  Never again).  I had a letter from Eric last week!  No kidding.  He “didn’t want our correspondence to collapse” or some rot or other.  The rat.  Doesn’t appear over happy, but then he never does.

            Is Rosemary** still with you?  Lucky Rosemary….  However, all good things come to an end – we’ll be kicked out of this Army before long – I hope.

            I haven’t seen a flick for nearly a month, which cuts out that topic of conversation.

            We’re allowed to wear civvies in the evenings here, also dine in them, but as I’m couponless it doesn’t really interest me.

            So much for Sandhurst.  I expect you know all about Bristol by now - all the pubs anyhow.

            Diller and I found quite a good one in Chichester.  It’s so old it doesn’t have a licence.  It’s got some ancient charter from James I or some other bloke which dates back before shame even.

            You’re lucky in having some relatives in the neighbourhood – I’ve never been near anyone.

            Nothing new at home.  Mother’s been offered Gentians (that little Tea Rooms by the Kings Beach) for £100 and is toying with the idea.  Mike*** presents the only snag.  I’m all for it as we would be able to get buckshee teas on leave.  She always has these vague obsessions as well you know.  She also wants to make out a thousand in our names (Diller, Bryn & myself) to avoid death duties should she be killed by a stray bomb….  Crazy’s right.

            It must be over five months since I saw you last.  Have you changed at all Darling?  Don’t tell me you’re any slimmer ‘cos I’d never believe anything but my own eyes.  I’ve had so many 771’s in the last few days I reckon it would be easier to turn nudist and have done with it.  The old British public would raise horrified eyebrows, though you, I should imagine would remain entirely unruffled.  (We’ve got a wonderful old oak outside our window.  I have to keep stopping to gaze in rapt appreciation …. Must be the artist in me crying out like a voice in the wilderness against some aesthetic repression ….)

            Brinner bought another Gigli**** when he was home.  I won’t comment on it, as he and Solomon are the only two men in this poor world I would never attempt to criticize. 

            Have you read ‘Clochemerle’***** yet?  Don’t ask for it in a bookshop as they would only give you a pretty old fashioned look anyway.

            I spent a day up in town on my way back to Blackdown.  Piccadilly was, as usual, full of the usual who keep stopping you which is all very embarrassing, especially for an innocent little boy like myself, in London Town to see the bright lights.  I told one of them that she should be paying me, if only she knew me, which annoyed her not a little.  I didn’t tell her I existed for Chotie alone.

            Well Darling I must close here.  Hope to see you soon.  I’ll advise you when I can get a weekend.

                        All my love, Precious

                                                Dicker

 

5731671 Officer Cadet Williams R.K.

77 Tp. ‘B’ Sqdn.

100 (Sandhurst) O.C.T.U. R.A.C.

Royal Military College

Camberley

Surrey.

 

*see letter of 18th April 1943.

**Rosemary was Chotie’s young cousin I think

***Mike was the family dog

*** Beniamino Gigli was an Italian tenor singer and Solomon was possibly the pianist Solomon Cutner. See letter of 7th February.

****see letter of 11th April.

 © Chotie Darling

“The eighteenth and nineteenth century British army was never that concerned about training its officers believing that character was the important thing and that the officer being a gentleman already knew how to use weapons and ride a horse. What was important was character.

During World War II the UK was faced with the major problem of having to train many thousands of lower middle class and working class, young men as officers. These young men had the military skills, they were veterans of campaigns in the desert and the jungle. They knew about war but they weren’t gentlemen as defined by the existing Army hierarchy.

The British Army developed a course based to a large part on the competencies related to being a gentleman. They realised of course that attitude and character are almost impossible to assess in terms of competencies so they had to identify the competencies that a gentleman would require and that could be assessed within a Competency Based Training Assessment (CBTA) model.

The competencies identified involved such things as accent, the way one walks, what one reads, and most important, how one eats.”  (From the blog LowCloudCover.)

 

23^rd May 1942 - Beales, the Department store where Chotie worked through 1942, is bombed and burnt out in Bournemouth's worst bombing raid.

24th May 1943 – German ‘U’ boats are withdrawn from the North Atlantic effectively ending the battle of the Atlantic with an Allied victory. The campaign had come close to starving Britain into submission. Now America could build up forces in Britain ready for the invasion of Europe.

 

27^th May 1943 – The first meeting of the Conseil de la Résistance, led by Jean Moulin (de Gaulle’s appointed head of the French Resistance) succeeds in linking up the networks in northern France.

 

29^th May 1943 – in the Aleutian Islands, part of the Alaska territory between the North Pacific and the Bering Sea, the occupation of Attu Island by the Japanese ends with a banzai charge (a form of honourable suicide), killing over 2,300 Japanese with only 28 taken prisoner.  taken prisoner.  The Japanese withdrew from Kiska on 28^th July 1943 but this was only discovered on 15^th August when a large Allied invasion force landed on the island.  (From Chronology of World War II and Wikipedia.)   

29^th May 1943 – major RAF bombing raid on Wuppertal in Germany’s industrial Ruhr area creates a firestorm for the first time causing mass destruction and killing 3,400 people.

30th May 1943 – General de Gaulle lands in Algiers and is welcomed by Giraud, the French Vichy leader and now the Commander-in-Chief of French forces in North Africa.  Suspicions remained between the former Vichy Army (the ‘moustachis’) of 230,000 troops and the 15,000 Free French (or ‘hadjis’) of the French Armée Afrique. (From ‘The Second World War’ by Antony Beevor, published by Weidenfield and Nicolson 2012) 

1^st June 1943 – the British Actor Leslie Howard is killed when his plane is shot down returning from Portugal.  The Luftwaffe may have been targeting the actor for his work supporting the Allies in Spain and Portugal or thought that Churchill on the plane. (P.S. Name-dropping! My father, Commander Victor Stephens, was also scheduled to fly with Howard but he had been drinking too heavily with him the night before, having just joined the Admiralty, and missed the plane. He was left with Leslie Howard’s tie as a sad memento. Dad made no mention of Howard's death or being in Portugal in his diaries but he presumably knew Howard through Laurence Olivier, whose wife Vivien Leigh was Howard's co-star in 'Gone with the Wind'.  In the Fleet Air-Arm Dad was stationed with Olivier and his friend Ralph Richardson, who he later shared a flat with in London.) 

Gunnery - Wednesday 28th April 1943

Wednesday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                Many thanks for letter of a few days ago. I seem to have a couple of hours buckshee so I’ve decided to reply while I have the opportunity.

            Glad to hear you’ve settled down at Bristol – I use Bristol in a rather broad sense – and finding the company of your friends congenial if not that of your male companions*.  Never mind Lulubelle – you’ve always got me to fall back on….

            I’ve managed to get this far without being retarded though I had a shaky time on wireless.  At present I’m doing gunnery which is pretty cushy – I hope.  If I get through this – and all goes well I should get leave on the 8^th May – 4 days only.  Bit naughty isn’t it?  Then its Sandhurst here I come …. (and go!)  But remember I shall have to get through gunnery….

            However that’s enough of this wishful thinking.

            I hope to get home this weekend if all goes well.  The snag here is that if you drop your rifle on parade or anything stupid like that, you lose all your weekends for a month or so.  So far I’ve managed to escape this nightmare.

            Had to give a lecture this morning – and chose ‘Factors in Post-War Economic Planning’ – sounded rather good to me. It went over very well.  Lot of rot, of course, but then you know me ….

            There were three of us here discussing letter-writing in all its aspects.  We have come to the inevitable conclusion that as an art it has definitely degenerated, in fact we have the greatest difficulty in writing anything at all.  All my notes are much behind schedule and leave a lot to be desired.

            Had rather a good tea today.  Went into the mess and had egg & chips – so we just walked out and in again at the other end and had some more egg & chips.  Pretty nippy.

                        Well, Darling I must close here owing to ink rationing,

                                                                        All my love

                                                                                    Dicker

 *Mum told me she developed quite a crush on one of her male ATS officers early in her career. Unfortunately he seemed to be ‘working his way through the ranks’.  Although initially ATS girls had gained a poor reputation for behaviour by 1942 Major Rees Williams wrote in this article on the Gunner Girls: “No mother need be afraid of entrusting her daughter to a gunner unit”.  Not strictly true of all Mixed Batteries perhaps?

I wonder if this photo is of Chotie's officer? It was among her wartime memorabilia.

He is included in this group photo ATS (taken by R.F.Wills of 40 Clarendon Road Bristol - click on the image and it will appear in a separate window) so seems to date from summer 1943. Chotie has ringed her face (end of second row from the back on the right).  The officer is in the third row back, fifth from the right.

This photo of ATS officers from the group above has had others torn out – possibly including the handsome officer above? All the photos were kept by Chotie. 

 

Chotie would also have met Lance Corporal Rosemary Stewart (see Rosemary's comment ) during her time with B troop:

“I am on the group photograph – 1^st left on the second row up. I had lost my copy of that photo so it was marvellous to see it again!

How well I remember Barbara,  – she had the most lovely smile and the most beautiful hair which she had great difficulty in keeping up above collar level as laid down in Kings Regulations!

I was a Lance Corporal in those days, and she was a member of my team. I always remember how she had a pair of eye lash curlers which she always insisted on using before going on parade! None of us aspired to such sophisticated beauty aids.

I also remember that she had a picture of her sister’s wedding on show in the barrack room. Barbara told me all about her family and her work before she joined up, and I remember how much she looked forward to the letters from Dicker.

I was with the battery in Bristol, Plymouth, Hull and a few other places before going off to OCTU.”

 © Chotie Darling  

 

30th April 1943 – a Spanish fisherman discovers a corpse in the sea near Huelva, apparently the body of a drowned English major.  This was Operation Mincemeat -a hoax carefully constructed by British Intelligence with the corpse carrying false letters that suggested the Allies planned to invade southern Europe through Greece and Sardinia but would pretend to invade via Sicily.  The Spanish passed this information to the Germans who strengthened their defences in Greece, Sardinia and Corsica, reducing them in Sicily, even just prior to the Allies’ invasion in July.

 

3^rd May 1942 - Lieutenant General Frank M. Andrews, the Commander of the US Forces in Europe (he had succeeded Eisenhower when Ike was appointed Allied Commander in North Africa in February 1943) and one of the founders of the US Air Force, is killed in an air crash in Iceland. 

 

Naked - Sunday 18th April 1943

Same address 

Sunday

My Darling Chotie,

                                                Many thanks for your letter received a couple of days ago.

            Glad to hear you’re stationed in a fairly decent area* at least better than this horrible place – nothing but military for miles, and you know what they can do when they feel like it.

            I’ve had to spend this weekend here again owing to Church Parade (UB**) and as there’s no travel next week (Easter) I’ll not be able to get home for some time.  I’ve so much work to do, I couldn’t really have spared the time anyhow.  I’ve been writing up notes for hours and hours this week-end – having had no time to get a beer even.  Horrible….

            Sorry to have missed your relatives in such a sorry way, but I see you didn’t lose anything.  Trust you….where your tummy’s concerned anyhow.

            I haven’t read anything or seen any flicks for weeks – my pipe’s my only solace in these hard times.

            I’ve been thinking of going to see the family at Purley – I shall probably go when I’m at Sandhurst.  The happy advantage is that it doesn’t take long to get there and what’s more important, doesn’t cost much.

            I didn’t tell you that I shaved my tache*** off, did I?  It’s been growing again for the last fortnight or so.  This means that I couldn’t see you in my present naked state, anyhow.  Only hope it grows before our next encounter.  I don’t know how it happened
– I just sort of dashed it off.  Shook me, pretty badly.  However I rallied and started again.  It’s coming along very nicely, thank you.

            The blokes here have started tumbling in the barrack room on a couple of mattresses – helluva racket.  Needless to say, I started it.  Initially, I had control over it but now it’s run amok and no-one can do anything about it.  ‘Chunky’ 5ft2 ex chef of the ‘Trocadero’, is pretty good.  ‘Enoch’ is U.S.****

            Well, Darling, I must close here.

                        Hope to see you soon.

                                                            All my love

                                                                        Dicker

PS  Have you heard from Eve lately?  I’d like to know how that rat’s getting on ….

 

*“Our camp at Pill was close to Avonmouth, nearer the sea” (from ‘Chotie’s Story’.) Chotie, brought up not far from the beautiful beaches and Harbour in Poole, hated being away from the sea.

ATS paddling - one of Chotie's photos (1943 or later?)

**UB – utter bore?

***moustache

****U.S. – British slang for useless.

© Chotie Darling 

 

18^th April 1943 – having intercepted Japanese secret communication codes, US fighter planes successfully shoot down the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto, Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet.  (From Chronology of World War II.)

Allied fighter planes from North Africa shoot down 74 Luftwaffe planes in what became known among US troops as the “Palm Sunday turkey shoot”.

 

19^th April 1943 – Waffen SS German troops attempt to storm the Warsaw Ghetto. Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto, with some support from Polish resistance groups, fought against transportation by the Nazis to Treblinka extermination camp. They had been told they were to be resettled in the east and thought they might go to forced labour camps but by 1943 news of the death camps had leaked out. Almost 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto had already been murdered at Treblinka in 1942.  The defenders were initially successful but despite bitter resistance were defeated by 16th May - the SS set fire to the buildings and flooded the sewers where they were hiding. By June the Ghetto had been destroyed and most of the c.70,000 Ghetto residents were killed there or at Treblinka. 

19th April 1943 - Montgomery’s 8th Army attacks the Axis defences near Enfidaville, south of Tunis but suffers heavy losses.  Operation Vulcan with the Allies First Army followed on 22nd April and was able to slowly advance west of Tunis and Bizerte.