Letters 47 & 48 to 1st Jan 1943

Letter No 47

Aus No34171

LAC Cooney J.F.

No3 Squadron

Middle East

29th Dec ‘42 

Dear Mum,

Still have nothing to do so I’m just writing a page or two to fill in time.

You may have noticed that all the letters from number 40 on have be signed by the one officer. The reason for this is that since the tenth of the month our postal section has not been with us & I have just been writing letter & putting them away so this morning I took them over & got Mr Tumbridge to sign them & I will post them as soon as I can.

I also have an A.I.F. News ready to send to you & inside it you will find a bit about us pinching a ME109 from one of the other squadrons. Our squadron is known far & wide throughout the desert as the biggest gang of thieves & scroungers that ever left Aussie. Nearly everything on wheels in the squadron has been pinched from other units & in “The Crusader”, the 8th Army Weekly, there was a quizz & one of the questions was “what has the greatest lifting power out of helium, hydrogen & Three Squadron & everyone voted that our squadron was easily the best.

The boys have decided that when the war is over & we get back to civil life again they are going to try & get a job at a circus because in the last two months we have pitched our tent in a different place about twenty five times & in a circus they would be just the men required for the job.

There’s only about a page & a half but I’m afraid that’s all there is for to-day so I will close.

Much love to Dad & Betty

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 48

Middle East 

1st Jan ’43

New Years Day

Dear Mum,

At long, long last a little bit of mail has turned up - only one bag. It was all letters & cables & out of this I received numbers21 & 22 from you, a Christmas cable from everyone, letter number 12 from Betty & a letter from a girl in Melb.

We know for a fact that there is fifty bags of  Christmas letters, parcels & papers waiting to be picked up between here & Cairo but the only trouble is that we don’t know which post office they are at & we will have to wait until we are advised where they are. Your letters no’s 18,19 & 20 must be among them, also all our Christmas parcels.

As yet I’ve had no word from Lovelocks but so long as they received my letter they will answer it sooner or later.

There are two letters missing from there that were sent to me c/o the Base Accountant Officer but, knowing the way these Poms work, I can expect them anytime in the next six months.

Regarding the tobacco situation at home, don’t bother about getting me any now because we have been getting issued with two ops a week & , as there are two fellows in our tent that don’t smoke, I have built up quite a supply & we are also issued with ten cigarettes a day so smokes are now the least of my worrys.

Have just returned from the mess & while over there I received two cables, one from Lovelocks Ltd & one from Peggy. I will write to the boss again tomorrow if I have enough time.

Re the dress material I will see what I can do when I go to Alex again. One of the boys used to be a traveller for dress materials so I’ll see if I can get him to give me a hand to choose some. If he is going elsewhere I will see if I can get hold of an A.I.F. nurse to pick some for me. There is always plenty of them in Alex & they are only too willing to help us.

I’ll bet the screams from ACL Moran are loud & numerous because an aircraft hands job is about the worst job in the Air Force & he will find that to re-muster as a mechanic is a lot harder than he expects. I have had a re-muster to a fitter IIA in for about six months & it still has not come through yet, but I’m still hoping that it will be through before long ‘cause its worth an extra 1/8 a day to me.

If I get a chance within the next few days I will drop a few lines to to Miss Wilmot..

Well, Mum, that’s about all for now but I’ll write again shortly.

Much love to Dad & Betty & regards to Leo

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letters 41 to 46 Leading up to Christmas in the Desert

Letter No 41

Middle East 

15th Dec. ’42

Dear Mum,

It’s a few days since I wrote last so I had better try & scratch out a page or two.

Since I wrote to you a few days ago we have been on the road but we still can’t catch up with jerry. At present we are held up because the roads & the desert are heavily mined & until the place is de-loused we will have to wait here. Putting land mines etc in the roads seems to be quite a common trick of the enemy’s as is putting bombs & booby traps in cars & trucks so that when the door is opened or the engine is started the whole thing goes sky high. A nasty trick if I may say so.

I forgot to mention the few bits of excitement we had on the way up, when I wrote to you the other day. At one of the ‘dromes we stopped at on the way up we were camped quite close to the road & about 5.30AM one morning a German Junkers 88 came over * bombed & strafed the road. Because of the noise one of the pilots could not sleep so he put a flying suit over his pyjamas, hopped into a kite, shot down the cause of the noise & then went back to bed again. From the time he got out of bed ’till the time he was back again was exactly eleven minutes.

The next thing that broke the monotony was one afternoon at our last ‘drome we heard the ack-ack going & after we had dived into our trenches we looked up & saw another going over the ‘drome at about 300 feet. In a matter of seconds he stopped four shells from a Bofor gun, once in the nose, once in th petrol tank & two in the fuselage, & he burst into flames. The pilot tried to climb but couldn’t make it & he rolled over on his back & crashed about a mile from the ‘drome.

Our Scotch friends were responsible for the aircraft’s sudden descent & everyone was cheering as it crashed & blew to pieces.

One thing about this place is that we never have a dull moment, there’s always something like that happening to break the monotony

Stork & I have to make a box for his piano accordion. We reefed a few sheets of metal of the mainplanes of a jerry ME109 & cut, shaped & riveted it & so far it looks pretty good. I can imagine the tales Stork will tell about how he cut a plane to pieces to make an accordion box.

There is about 40 bags of mail waiting for us at one of the post offices. I am hoping that there are a few parcels for me ‘cause the parcel from Aunty Lizzie has not turned up yet.

No more for now but I will write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo.

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 42 

Middle East 

18th Dec. ’42

Dear Mum,

It’s time to scratch out a few more lines again but what there is to write about I don’t know. We have moved up a bit further the last couple of days, but we are still camped by the roadside & waiting until the army clears the way for us. We have crossed the border & are now in Tripolitania & all ready for a bit of leave in Tripoli - when we get that far. 

I am now convinced that anyone who swims all year round is absolutely mad because yesterday, with the thermometer at a rather low level, we all went for a swim & nearly froze to death. This swim was more of a necessity than a pleasure because, owing to the shortness of water, I have not had a bath for a couple of weeks & I was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable.

We are now getting the newspapers delivered to us in quite a novel manner whilst we are on the move. One of the transport planes flies over the road at about 20 feet & drops them like pamphlets. Papers are delivered to all camps in the same manner.

It’s funny to see our squadron in road convoy these days. Naturally, we don’t move at a great speed & we are often held up for an hour or so to let an army supply column go through. As soon as we stop the mob get off the trucks & in a few minutes a game of two-up is in progress, much to the English officers disgust. I have been keeping out of it ‘cause I’ll be needing all my cash in case we get a bit of leave shortly.

I’m afraid that’s all I can scratch up at the moment but I will  write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo.

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 43

Middle East

20th Dec ’42

Dear Mum,

We are still camped by the roadside & on an hours stand-by to move up to our next ‘drome so I may have time to pound out a page or two before we start rolling again. If you could see the way we have travelled for the last thousand miles you would no doubt be surprised that we can still walk. The truck has a canvas cover over the back of it - we ride on top of the canvas & so every time we go over a bump, & these roads are made up of a series of pot-holes & bumps, the truck sways like mad & nearly deposits us on the road.

The canteen truck arrived back from Alex this morning after being away for over two & a half weeks & so I reduced the Cooney fortune by about twenty-five bob. Supplies were much higher in price this time because the Aust. Canteen Services has gone up to Palestine & we had to get everything from that gang of thieves the Naafi. To make matters worse the wogs in Alex. pinched about 25pounds worth of supplies & this money had to be made up.

Last Christmas the boys received a fair sort of a hamper from the Aust Comforts Fund but this year we only received our ordinary monthly issue. The reason for this is that the A.C.F. is also in Palestine.

It’s only a few days to Xmas & the parcels from the Daily Telegraph, that you mentioned in one of your letters some months ago don’t look like turning up. It will be a bad show if the second largest Aussie unit over here doesn’t receive any of these parcels.

When we were on the retreat about six months ago, one of the lads from the transport section arrived at El Daba just as a Naafi bull store was blown up & in the wreckage he found a pup so he put it in the truck & looked after it. Well, yesterday, Naafi, as the pup was christened, gave birth to five pups & ever since they have been the topic of conversation.In a few weeks I suppose we will be kept awake with the blessing things howling.

The weather has been a bit colder this last few days & from all accounts it is going to get a lot colder before the winter is over, but I have plenty of woollen clothing to put on so I’m not worrying about it very much.

Well, Mum that’s about all for now but I will write again at our next stopping place.

Give my regards to Leo & all at Cremorne & my love to Dad & Betty.

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 44

Middle East 

23.12.42

Dear Mum,

Just a few lines for you to read in your spare time - if any.

The squadron has been mentioned on the B.B.C. a couple of times in the last three days. We first struck the limelight when “we were flown to a forward landing ground & although the place was heavily mined, the squadron was hammering the enemy’s retreating army”. So runs the news. The second mention was in today’s news when they said, that “ No 3 Squadron, the famous fighter squadron in the Middle East destroyed seven & damaged five enemy aircraft.” The C.O. also received special mention when he landed in the desert, two miles from an enemy ‘drome & picked up one of our pilots who had been shot down. They had to leave their parachutes & one sat on the others knee because the planes only have one seat in them & even at this they are rather cramped.

At one of our temporary stopping places during the last few days I went over to a heavy ack-ack post & one of the crews gave me quite a bit of dope on the range-finder. This was very interesting indeed.

We are now sorry that Stork bought his piano accordion because he always traps us into listening to him practice. When he first bought it he used to practice after breakfast & in a few minutes he would find himself alone so now he waits until we are in bed & it’s too cold to visit one of the other tents.

The last couple of nights we have been entertaining several Free French fellows from New Caledonia. They were in Sydney for three months before they sailed & one of them has a “friend girl” at the Regal Milk Bar at Bondi. They came over on the boat with some of the squadrons reinforcements about 20 months ago & they reckon that the Aussies are good fellows. One of them plays the piano accordion very well & we have been spared the agony of listening to Stork.

The last few days I have been learning the arts & crafts of crib., & I now spend most of the day playing same & either reefing ackers off my opponents or vice versa - usually the latter because the others have been longer at the game.

We received news that the Daily Telegraph parcels are about a thousand miles away but there is no available transport for them, however, one of the squadrons in the wing Are the possessors of a serviceable, captured Heinkle, a good jerry weight-lifter, & with a little persuasion they may go down & get them for us.

That’s the lot for now but I will write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo.

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 45

Middle East

25th Dec ’42

Dear Mum,

Here it is Christmas Day, my first away from home & spent in a place as bad as could be imagined - the backblocks of Tripolitania. I’ll now try & give you some idea of how we will spend Xmas Day in the desert as it is only morning it will probably be incomplete, but, unfortunately, I think I can just about forecast the happenings of the day.

The temperature this morning was between thirty-five & forty degrees (note: this is fahrenheit) & we nearly froze.

On this festive day we are in the advance flight, that is we are a lot further up & making a new ‘drome while the rest of the squadron Are back at base & today they will be feasting on turkey & being issued with two bottles of beer per man while we will probably have to exist on what the cooks can dig up. It’s a long time since we have had any fresh meat & whilst travelling along yesterday two of the boys in a German jeep spotted a gazelle & gave chase forthwith finally laying the animal by the heels. As soon as we camped the cooks skinned & cleaned the unfortunate animal & made him into a venison broth & this we had for tea. After tea the hunters got into the jeep again & went out looking for some more game & added two more to their score. They went out again this morning & got another six so we should have a good tea.

The cooks just about pulled the ration trucks to pieces last night trying to find something to put on for Xmas dinner & at tea-time they had a sign up which read “We shall have a Xmas pudding so lets have your spare backers & any mixed peel or fruits. The fruit & peel were not forthcoming but they raked up quite a few ackers & about 2pounds will be going into the pudding. One fellow even parted with an Aussie two-bob  that he had treasured for years & the “Doc” is giving a bottle of brandy to the cooks to make a brandy sauce so things could be worse.

News has just come in that a truck has arrived from base with a few good things for Christmas dinner so it may be better than we expected. I can’t go over & see what there is on the truck because there is our officer checking the goods off  & at present I am supposed to be out on the prairie making the new ‘drome so I had better stop where I am.

I had better stop now but I will write again this afternoon or tomorrow & let you know how the dinner goes off.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo.

Lovingly Yours

Frank

                                                3 Squadron Christmas/New Year card 1942-3

Letter No 46

Middle East

27.12.42

Dear Mum,

When I wrote to you on Xmas Day I said I would write again that afternoon or yesterday but on Xmas afternoon I had to do a bit of work because I didn’t go up in the morning & yesterday we all cut out camel weed & finish making the ‘drome, so to-day is the first chance I have had to get hold of pen & paper.

Well, our Christmas dinner was a roaring success & far beyond our wildest expectations. To start with we were given two bottles of beer, a cake of chocolate, a pkt of cigarettes & a pkt of dates. This was a gift from the squadron. 

The cooks were done up in white aprons & hats, the first time we have ever seen them dressed thus, & we started off with creme of asparagus soup, then a leg of turkey, two slices of pressed ham, roast spuds & other vegetables. Then came the pudding & brandy sauce & believe me, it was good. So good, in fact, that the boys have decided to buy the cooks a case of beer as soon as we get to civilisation again. The boys were all too full to eat any more after their first helping of pudding &, as there was a lot over, Bo & I, being about the two best eaters in the flight, proceeded to polish off the remaining pudding but after a few slices we had given up. I struck quite a few pilasters in the pudding but this wasn’t the reason that we kept eating it.

I took quite a few photos of the mess on this festive day & as soon as I can get them developed I will send them to you together with a few more that I will get re-printed.

That’s about all for now but I’ll write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 40 - Travelling through Libya

Dear Mum,

Just a few more lines to let you know how things are going over here. 

Up to date I have been very careful as to what I mentioned regarding our advance up the desert but today the Adjutant told us that we could describe any of the towns we had seen as long as we didn’t 

mention any of the ‘dromes we had camped on so here goes.

We left from somewhere near Alexandria early last month &, as traffic on the road was very heavy, we only travelled a little over sixty miles & camped by the roadside that night at El Alamein. As it was the fifth of November we had quite a fireworks display to celebrate the day. They started off with tracer bullets & very pistols & about 3am the next morning we were given some more fireworks in the shape of German bombs.

The next day there was less on the road & we made better time & passed through El Daba, Fuka & Sidi Hanaish. These places only consist of  a couple of wrecked buildings & a bit of wrecked war material. Mesa MaMatruk was wrecked but there was tons of stores & petrol on the outskirts of the town that had been discarded by the enemy.

At Mersa we left the main road & took to the “road” through the desert. This “road” consists of an extremely rough track through the open prairie & we bounced over this for several days & so missed Halfway Pass & Bardia but I had seen these places a few months earlier so I didn’t miss much.

We struck the main road again about fifty miles east of Tobruk & then went into town. It was a very bad day so I could not take many photos but I saw stacks of sunken ships. I also saw dozens of South African natives that had been prisoners in th town & they were relieved when our forces went through. They had been drinking Italian Cognac solidly for two days & they were either staggering or laying in very queer positions all over the town but no doubt they were happy.

We stopped for a while & had a look through Tobruk Cemetery & some of the boys took photos of the cemetery & the grave of Cpl Edmonton VC.

The next town worthy of note was Derna & like all the other towns it had been bombed & shelled & not much of it was in good order. It was here that I bought the tapestry etc that I posted to you a few days ago.

From Derna we went on & down Barce Pass , through Barce township, down Tocra Pass & on to Benghazi. This part of the country was the best we have seen since leaving home & theItalians had been doing quite a bit of farming round there. Torcra Pass & on to Benghazi. This part of the country was the best we have seen since leaving home & the Italians had been doing quite a bit of farming around there. Tocra Pass was one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. The Pass wound its way down through green mountains & in the distance was the Mediterranean Sea.

We all wanted to see Benghazi & so the officer in charge of our convoy took the wrong turning on the outskirts of the town & led us through the city. In peace times it had been the most beautiful city in North Africa but there was now only the shells of buildings remaining in the middle of the bombing & shelling & it stands out for miles. In the harbour was a tanker that had been set on fire & it was pouring out billows of black smoke . From Benghazi we went on to Agedabia & then on through worse desert than we were in before the push & up to where we are now.

We still have hopes of being in Tripoli by Christmas or very soon after & then we should be able to get out of the desert for a bit of leave.

So much for our trip up. I will write again in a few days.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo & all at Cremorne

Lovingly Yours

Frank

WWII artists sketch of the road down the Derna Pass

Letters 38 & 39 On the move through the desert

Letter No 38

Middle East 

7th Dec ’42

Dear Mum,

There is very little to report for the last two days but I’m sending you this short note to let you know that I sent your parcel yesterday afternoon. Please send a telegram as soon as it arrives.

Went into town again yesterday. There were no trucks going from our ‘drome so we had to walk several miles along the road before we could thumb a ride. On the way home we were dropped about 7 miles from camp & had to walk home & as rain had been falling during the afternoon the road was like a mud flat. It was pitch dark & by the time we arrived at camp our shoes were wet through & our trousers were covered with mud. - our hike” took us over three hours & we were all done-in when we finally got to bed. 

While I was in town I bought pipes for myself & the rest of the boys in the tent. These are as much a necessity as they are a pleasure because the other day Ivan was lighting a cigarette & his beard caught on fire. With a pipe we can keep the fire away from the bush. I’d hate to lose this beard after all the cultivation I have put into it.

We were having a look around the town when Stork spotted a piano accordion & he thought he would like to own it, so he bought it for 10 quid. Ashe has never played one of them before the proverb that “ music hath charm” is definitely out when Stork starts to make noises come out of it. Still he knows a bit about music & with a little tuition from one of our corporals he should be able to knock out a few tunes for our Christmas party.

That’s all I can write for the present but will write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 39

Middle East 

10th Dec ’42

Dear Mum,

Have been on the move ever since I wrote to you last & this is just a short note to let you know that I’m still alright. For the first couple of day travelling we passed through country that reminded us all very much of home. It was very hilly & the valleys were all green & ploughed, along the road was lines of Australian gum trees & the surrounding hills we all green after the recent rains. I was just about ready to take back all I had said about this part of the world when we came to a part of the desert that is as bad or worse than what we had just left.

Have been playing cards quite a bit lately & tI have swelled the Cooney fortune by a couple of quid. No doubt that the position will be reversed if we continue to play.

When we arrived here I received a cable, that had been sent by Aunty Molly on the 17th of last month, to say that the parcel had arrived etc. etc. I’m glad to know that it is alright. I also received a letter from Col. Elliott’s brother. You will remember I mentioned him in one of my letters some time ago as knowing the Spurways. The letter must have been chasing me for some time because it was written on the 17th of last month & he was stationed somewhere near Alex.

At one of our camps on the way up we were close to a Senoussi village & we watched the women making “bread”. First of all they lit a fire in a clay oven shaped like a dome & with a hole in the top. When the fire had been reduced to coals they made the “bread” in flat slabs & stuck them on the side of the oven & put a lid on it. In about five minutes it was cooked.  - very effective.

That’s all for now will write again in a couple of days.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo.

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 38

Dear Mum,

When I sent you the air graph a couple of days ago I said I would write again that afternoon but a game of cards started up in the tent &, being the first game for a couple of months, I joined in & let the letter-writing go. Yesterday I had a bit of work to do & so to-day is the first chance I have had to drop you these few lines.

Last night we had open air pictures again & I saw Clark Gable, Franchot Tone & Joan Crawford in “Love on the Run” - an excellent show. It’s marvellous that we are able to get pictures at all through this campaign we could not help but notice the marvellous organisation of the whole show. Supplies of all sorts are flown up & when we move to a new ‘drome we find food, water, petrol for the trucks & aircraft & anything else we are liable to need waiting for us.

Since we started to move up we have not been able to get any fresh meat & we have had bully beef in a hundred & one different ways, & I have come to like it. At one ‘drome we found an its food store & we got some of their tinned ham ration & several cases of asparagus. When we get asparagus with our bully beef it goes down alright.

By the way how’s the car going now. From what I hear petrol is rationed rather heavily so I suppose the old gas waggon is up on chocks. It would break Dad’s heart to see the way we use petrol over here. I use as much a week in my motor bike as Dad would get a month for the bus. Then we do all our washing in gas & use a couple of gallons a day to boil water for tea & our baths.

If you know any kids around the district that collect stamps let me know because I can get hold of plenty of German & Italian stamps & I’ll send them if anyone wants them.

One of the boys opened a box of common soap a couple of days ago & in it was the name & address of a girl in Melb. so we all took up our pens & dropped her a few lines.

I haven’t sent the parcel yet but will probably send it this afternoon. In case the air graph does not arrive I’ll tell you again what was in the parcel. The mat & the cushion covers I bought & the table centre & the bangle were thrown in for good measure & you can do what you like with them. The ring is for Bert Ritchie & Dad can give it to him if he happens to see him at the Junction.

Rumor has it around the camp that if we send home clothes they are opened by the customs in your presence & you will lose some of your ration tickets. Get Betty to find out definitely if this is true or not. If it is not true send me a cable saying “Rumor not true” & I’ll know whether to send things or not.

That’s all for now but will write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo.

Lovingly Yours 

Frank   xxxx

Letter No 36 An Airgraph 3/12/42

This little letter was written on an air graph - essentially a photo was taken of the letter written on a special form, then the 'letters' were sent as microfilm & processed in Australia before being put in envelopes & sent to the family. It is only 10cm x 13cm so the writing is minuscule. for more info go to wikipedia

Letter No 36

Middle East

3rd Dec 1942

Dear Mum,

I was in the middle of packing you a parcel when I was given this air graph form & as it has to be into orderly room by this afternoon I  have left the packing until later.

There’s not much that I want to tell you except that I’m still quite alright & that I don’t want you to worry about me because I’ll be home again before you know it.

The parcel I’m packing consists of a few tapestry souvenir articles namely 2 cushion covers & a mat. I have no idea what colour the new lounge suite is so I hope these things suit it alright. If they don’t suit it you can give them to Betty & she may be able tomato use of them when she sets up the little home at “Northbridge”. In the letter I had from Bert Ritchie he asked me to get hold of a ring for him so I included it with the others.

Before I run out of writing space I had better wish Dad, Betty & yourself a Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year because that, after all is why we were issued with these forms. Also give my best wishes to all at Cremorne & Melb because we are only issued with one of these forms each & I have no other means of getting in touch with them before Christmas.

Will write again this afternoon Lovingly Yours     Frank  xx.

Letters 34 & 35, On the importance of a bed in the desert

Letter No 34

Middle East

30th Nov ’42

Dear Mum,

I’m going to give the pen & paper a hiding again & pound out a page or two. The will make 13 letters for the month so I don’t want any more complaints about the shortness of mail.

Yesterday I spent all day on the most important thing in this war - my bed. Since I came over here beds have been quite a hobby with all of us. I started sleeping on the hard ground, but this was definitely no good at all, then I got the seat out of a truck but there was about 8 inches of me hanging over the ends & this was uncomfortable, hence its short life. Next came the bed made from the ridge pole of a tent & a sheet of canvas. This lasted until I went into town again & then bought a folding, wooden camp stretcher. This was about the most comfortable I had & it got such a lot of use that one day the legs caved in & for the past few weeks it has been held up with all sorts of tins & boxes to save me sleeping on the floor. When I went on the trip I mentioned in my last letter I came across a jerry folding, iron, hospital bed. The canvas had been burned out of it but I brought it back to camp with me & yesterday I pulled the remains of the canvas off my bed & stitched it on the new frame. Now I can bask my spine most comfortably.

Received another comforts parcel from the A.C.F. this morning. It contained tobacco, cigs, chewing gum, shaving soap, handkerchief & a pair of sox. Our Christmas parcel will be up some time next month - I hope.

Our Scotch friends have gone further up now & I suppose it will be a long time before we see them again. They came down to our tent overnight for about a week & if I was with them for another fortnight I think I could just about fathom out what they were saying.

We have the wireless going each night now. It is an aircraft radio & we have to have earphones running from it. The tent looks like the electricity dept. with the number of wires we have trailing all over the floor. We lay in bed & listen to the English session on the German Radio & we often have a good laugh at them. They try & tell us that the German forces are holding the British at a town we passed through about a week or more ago. They also sink the British fleet in the Med. about three times a week & shoot down about 70 planes a day.

That’s about all from this letter but will write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo.

Lovingly Yours

Frank

Letter No 35

Middle East

1.12.42

Dear Mum,

I was right in the middle of doing a few modifications on the beaut new bed when your letter No 14 arrived so I left it to scratch out these few lines. I also received a letter from Aunty Molly & one from a girl in Tas.

Re George Briss I suppose you have dropped him a few lines by now so be sure to let me know if you hear anything from him. I won’t bother about writing to him at that address but I’ll wait until I hear from you.

I had a letter from Bert Ritchie in the last lot of mail but he told me that he tried to get away from the W.J. however your story may be the correct one. If you hear anything from him let me know from time to time.

Glad you like the copies of the A.I.F. News. Our squadron, being the only Aussie fighter in this part of the world, we strike the headlines quite often as you will see from the copy I sent you a few days ago.

I’ve no idea what I’m going to write to Aunty Molly about because, I suppose she reads all the letters I send to you. I will just have to write & thank her for the canteen order.

We have a new mascot in the tent at present - it is “Abdul” the tortise (sic). This beast measures about 11/2 x 1 3/4 inches & we drilled a hole in his shell & tied him to the centre ridge pole with a piece of wire & now he ambles round the tent & make a nuisance of himself.

My camera hasn’t been working lately due to the shortness of films but while the canteen truck was in Alex. I got one of the lads to get me twenty films so now I will be able to put it back into commission again,

I’m afraid that’s all for now but will write again when some news pops up.

Give my love to Dad & Betty

Lovingly yours.

Frank

Letter No. 33 Rewrite of Letters No. 1 & 2

Letter No 32

Middle East

24.11.42

Dear Mum,

This is the letter I promised you a couple of days ago, describing our trip over. Naturally I won’t be able to mention the names of ports but I think you will be able to work out our trip alright. I’ve had the diary out & from what I have dotted down this is going to be rather long. I suppose there is no need to say so but after you have read it send it down to Melb & let Aunty Lizzie read it. So here goes

I wrote to you from the city from which we sailed so I’ll let that slide & get on with the more important details.

First of all we went on board a boat that the boys christened the Altmark II. This boat was very dirty & we did not relish the idea of going to sea in it. About one & a half hours after we were on board they cast off & we thought we were on our way butter trip was only from the inner to the outer harbour.

Naturally I wasn’t sick on my first trip on an ocean going liner. Tugs had to start & stop this ship because rumour had it that the chief engineer had misplaced the main piston. Hardly the thing to go putting to sea with the main piston running around the engine room is it?

We were issued with hammocks , & believe me, they are good to sleep in. The trouble was that we were four decks down & the heat was terrific. The food was terrible & on the second day leave was granted so we all toddled off to town & got stuck into a real good fees. We had to be back on board by 6.30 & so we spent the rest of the evening playing cards.

The next day I was lucky enough to get into the anti-submarine gun crew & so I spent most of the day learning how everything on the gun worked. All this was useless because a couple of days later we transhipped to another boat.

We moved around 8.30am the following morning. That was Good Friday the 3rd of April. This boat was different to the previous one in as much, as it was spotlessly clean, although it was much smaller. As we were the only troops on board we hd plenty of room to move about.

There were six Air Force Officers in charge of our party & these officers had been in the racket only 7 weeks when they took charge of us so you can imagine how they pottered around still mad with the service.

As soon as we started  we started our first “perk pool”. This club had sixteen members & the idea was that if one “perked” he had to dash down to the secretary, dob in 2/- & then clamber back to the railing again before the next eruption.

For the first few hours everything went along OK & everyone was in good spirits but then the sea started to roll about a bit & before tea six two bobs had bounced on the mess table& the club was reduced to ten. The club motto was “pay as you spray”.

By the way, my two bob was still in my pocket & I don’t know whether I begrudged parting with it or not but I was still in the running when we hit Suez.

It was about this time that I received a letter written by Betty when I was at 1ED. It had chased me to Uranquinty, 2 ED, 4 ED & finally on the boat.

The next day we were in the open sea & the boat got up to all sorts of antics. In all my life I had no idea that a ship could roll & toss in so many directions at the one time. It was here that I nearly parted with my two bob.

All I did for the full day was sit on a box of life jackets & try to concentrate on anything but food. There were several others sitting on the box with me so I had something to ease my mind. It was so rough that a good few of the crew were hanging over the rail as well as the members of our party. Four more club members cashed in this day.

The next day, the 5th, they called for a crew to look after the machine guns on th stop deck, & as  there were only a couple of dozen of us that weren’t hoping the boat would sink, I managed to get into the crew. It wasn’t such a good job while we were in the cold climates but when we reached the tropics we had the best time on the boat. We lay back in deck chairs, wearing only a pair of shorts, & got as sunburnt as the black crew. We had meals at different times to the other lads & we always got a bit more than them.

The main manners in which we past the time away while off duty were playing deck quoits or deck tennis, cards, reading, etc. One day the boys challenged the officers, ships crew & NCO’s to a game of deck quoits for a bottle of beer per man & with twelve men a side. The officers lost, much to the boys pleasure. A few days later there was a competition amongst the men. The honours went to Billy “Bubbles” Butters & yours truly. The prize was four bottles of beer, two writing pads & envelopes.

While we were in the colder waters we saw lots of whales & huge tuna &there were about a dozen or so albatross following the ship. When we were nearer the tropics the albatross left us & we saw thousands of brightly coloured flying fish.

About every two days we had an hours lecture by the Medical Officer. These lectures were on tropical diseases & camp life & they were quite interesting.

On the 14th we had our first practice shot with machine guns. Our target was a bunch of balloons tied to a kite on the end of about a 1,000 feet of wire.mAs the boat was rolling & it was my first shot with such a weapon I need not tell you that all th balloons were deflated & put away when we had finished our shooting.

The next day a lot of the gun crew were given needles but as I had had all mine to date I did not get one but it meant that I had to do a double shift on the guns.

About this time we were near the equator & the sunsets were beautiful but all this you hear about the glamorous tropical nights is just so much bunk because when all one has to do is sit back in a deck chair, wearing very little at all, & let the sweat pour out of him, I fail to see when the romance & glamour comes into it. Of course I had no inspiration for romance & that may have had something to do with it.

Very often at night whilst we were in tropical waters the boys would get up on deck & have a real old time community sing-song. Stork & one of the there lads had guitars & there was a banjo & a piano accordion. We spent many a good night in this fashion. On the 19th the boys gave a concert on deck & it went off very well.. It started with songs by a couple of the lads, then banjo, use & guitar solos, a few sketches, a quiz & wound up with community singing. I had one of the programmes to send home but I must have misplaced it.

I spent an afternoon looking over the engines of the ship. I was shown around by the chief engineer & I had a very interesting afternoon.

One of the “passengers” on the boat was Capt. Heath, the former commander of the aircraft carrier “Illustrious”. He gave us a couple of lectures, one was about the life on an aircraft carrier& the other one was about his life in the navy, both which we enjoyed very much indeed.

On the 23rd we caught sight of land for the first time since we left Aussie. We sailed in & dropped anchor a few miles from the harbour entrance. I can’t mention the name of the port here, but it was in the city from which I sent Betty’s necklace. We had no sooner dropped anchor than we were surrounded with dozens of native “bum” boats the owners of which were selling fruit, etc. The prices of the fruit were: pineapples 10 for 2/6, bananas 3 dozen for 1/-, coconuts 2d or 3d each & beautiful mangoes were only 15 for 1/-. For a couple of days “Stork” & I lived on a diet of fruit. It would be nothing for us to cut up 2 dozen bananas & a few pineapples & eat these as an appetiser for dinner.

We stayed outside the harbour for 5 days but on th morning of the sixth day we moved into the harbour to take on fuel & water. All the boys were looking forward to a bit of leave, but unfortunately, this was not granted. The boys took a very poor view of this but did nothing until a few of the officers got dressed up in their glad rags & toddled off to town. This was too much for us so to start the ball rolling about 20 of us got into our togs & dived into the harbour. This set the officers in a panic & they raced around like a lot of schoolgirls. They still wouldn’t give us any leave so the boys got dressed & said “leave r not we’re going ashore” & with that they hailed a launch & 37 of them went into town. If the boat had taken another two I would have been in town too. When the O.C. came back from town & was told what had happened all he said was “My God! What can I do now” & he raced around the decks not knowing what to do. All the boys were back by 10.30pm that night so everything was OK. We sailed again at dawn the next morning & headed for the city from where I sent the cable & Betty’s necklace.

It was while we were on this part of the trip that I started my first letter to you but I did not post it until I arrived over here & then it got lost.

Along this part of the coast we passed hundreds of native dhows (sailing ships). These boats are made in a very peculiar manner but it would take too long to explain it here so I will leave it until I come home.

We sailed into our next port on May 3rd & dropped anchor in the harbour. The next day we packed all our gear & left the boat & went by ferry to the shore where we touched land for the first time in thirty one days. We put our kits on trucks & then marched several miles through the town to a transit camp.

25.11.42 We were all very anxious to go in & have a look around the town & leave was granted as soon as we had sorted out our kit-bags, changed our money into the currency of that country & got dressed in clean clothes. By the time we left the camp it was nearly dark & so we did not se much of the town that night but instead we went & had a look at the Taj Mahal Hotel because the sailors on the boat had told us so much about it. It was a marvellous place but I won’t bother with details now.

The next day we were granted a full days leave & so we had a good chance to see the town. To start our tour we went down to the markets. In these places one could buy anything from a peanut to a motor car. I was surprised at the amount of Aussie tinned foodstuffs on sale in these markets. The trouble was we could hardly move for beggars. They pestered us wherever we went & the number of crippled beggars was amazing. The barbers in this part of the world have their “shop” on the footpath. The “shop” consists of an ordinary box. There were thousands of tinsmiths & vegetable hawkers conducting their business on the footpaths.

We went into a large curio shop & spent several hours looking at brass & ivory curios. If I hadn’t lost most of my money at two-up on th boat I would have been able to send home dozens of little things. As a matter if fact I could have spent 100pounds in the one shop alone.

After we left this shop we went & had a look through the Mosque (temple of the Musolmen.  Everything in this temple was made by hand; from the marble pulpit to the 35 ft rosewood doors. It was a marvellous place, I took several snaps of it. Before we were allowed enter the place we had to take off our shoes & leave them with one of the natives at the door & walk around in our stocking feet. We had to report back to camp at 5.30 & we were told that we were going on board another boat the following morning & then we went back to town again. We spent most of the night at the United Forces Club & got back to the camp about midnight. So much for our first look at a foreign city - very interesting but, literally a bit on the nose.

We went on board our “new” ship next morning & what a filthy ship it was. It was only about half the size of the first ship & instead of having it all to ourselves we were crowded out with hundreds of native troops. We moved from the docks into the harbour where we waited for our convoy & then the boys decided that they would not travel on the boat because white & native troops are not supposed to travel on the same boat, let alone on decks above one another. The boys said that they wanted half the boat to themselves or we would get off & wait for the next one. The result was that a couple of hundred troops were taken ashore & we had our half of the ship.

Even at this the boys weren’t satisfied because the food was awful, the ship was dirty & it was uncomfortable hot, but we had to stick it for a couple of weeks. The boys definitely refused to sleep below deck & we slung our hammocks from the rafters of the shade awnings & it was reasonably cool at night.

There was very little of interest between here & our next port where we stopped for an afternoon & night while coal was taken on board. One of the native troops went down with smallpox & the ship was quarantined.

Then we began the last stage of our journey &, I can tell you, that everyone was glad. The water from here on was calm as a mill-pond & we saw thousands of porpoise & dolphins.

We were given several lectures by Indian officers, on conditions, states, races etc of India. One night about 9 o’clock we passed a hospital ship & what a difference it was to our boat. It was a blaze of lights &, from a distance it looked like one of the Manly ferries & all the Sydney lads felt quite homesick.

Shortly after we were landed in this Godforsaken land & we went into another transit camp where we slept the night & then the next day we went by train to Cairo where we had a few hours leave & then on up the “blue”.

So much for our trip over I hope you can follow it alright.

That’s all for now but will write again shortly.

Give my love to Dad & Betty & regards to Leo

Lovingly Yours

Frank