Letter No. 13
Middle East
10.10.42
Dear Mum,
It is only a few days since I wrote last but your parcel & Betty’s arrived last night so I am just penning a few lines to let you know they arrived alright.
As soon as I started to open your parcel I knew you had put some powder in it because the inside of the paper was covered with it. Hence we had “Johnson’s Baby Powder” with everything. It even found its way into the sultanas. Needless to say everything was eaten & after all that powder doesn’t taste too bad. Next time you send a parcel you needn't bother about sending any tinned fruit because we can always get as much as we want from the canteen. As for the soup cubes, we have soup for tea every night & if we want to we can take a tin full back to the tent & warm it up on the primus for supper. You can fill any spare space in future with chocolates, lollies or tinned milk. Betty’s parcel arrived quite alright & was not knocked about at all.
We had a shower of rain yesterday & this was the first rain we had seen since we left Ceylon. It only rained for about 15 mins & then it was just as hot as ever.
A few days ago I saw a picture of some of our planes in the Egyptian Mail & in front of the planes was yours truly. If I can get one of the papers I will send it home. You probably won’t be able to recognise me but you can take my word for it. Take note of the noble looking beard.
If you have any newspapers at home will you make a parcel of them & send them over because reading matter is very scarce & the only home news we get is in the A.I.F. news. Most important of all send the Sunday Sun & Truth so that I can get all the scandal of the week.. As yet I have had no word from Aunty Lizzie but I suppose the letters will get here eventually.
If you ever go up to Miss Wilmots give her my address so that she can drop me a line because letters from home are always welcome. She may even send me a Christmas cake or something. Cakes are just as welcome as letters.
I was telling one of the mates the other day that you came from Maryborough & he said that you would probably know his Granmother, Mrs Bofill as she had lived at Dunally for about fifty years. He also knew the Ravens who had the general store in Maryborough for about the same time.
Every night we have a musical session in the tent with two jazz trumpets & a guitar. It helps pass the time away & relive the monotony of going to bed as soon as it gets dark.
I told Rex Palmer that Betty was engaged & he asked me to send his congratulations to her.
I am afraid that is about all for now & I will write again in a weeks time.
Give my love to Dad & Betty.
Lovingly Yours
Frank
Letter No. 14
Middle East
12.10.42
Dear Mum,
It’s only a couple of days since I wrote last but your letters no’s 8 & 9 arrived a few minutes ago so I am answering them while I have a bit of time to myself.
These letters arrived in record time & if the parcels are on board the same ship I will be celebrating my birthday about a month too soon. One of the other lads in the tent is celebrating his birthday in about a weeks time so I may eat the cake then & hope that I get one from Aunty Lizzie in time for mine.
We have always got a case of beer (4 dozen) for next weeks party so it should be a good show & a rather wet one.
There is still a chance that letters number 1,2 & 4 will arrive because I sent them home with one of the lads that we relieved in the hope that they would get there sooner, but I have heard that most of the lads going home were searched & all mail taken off them.
I don’t like being away from home for my 21st any more than you do but we will celebrate it when I come home as well as having a bit of a party out here. I can’t say that I like that crack about doing some good hard work & I may be home before my 22nd because our term overseas is from twelve to eighteen months & as I have done nearly seven of it all ready I hope to be home a long, long time before I’m twenty two.
From what you say it look as though my letter did quite a bit of travelling after it got home. I hope letters no 1 & 2 arrive OK because there were about 32 pages in them all about from the time we left Aussie to our arrival in Libya.
I suppose that by now Bert Ritchie has received my letter because I wrote to him on the twelfth
of July. I have also written to George Buxton, Bill Alfonso, Nuggett Byrnes, Fred Lowe & a dozen or so girls in Wagga & Sydney.
I can just imagine how Mills would feel being shoved up into N.T. somewhere in amongst the sand & flys. It will give hime some idea of what it is like over here.
The weather is getting a little better now & with a shower of rain now & again some of the boys have started wearing shirts with their shorts but I think it will be a long while before it gets cold enough for me to do that.
Tell Betty to be sure & send me her new address in Castlereigh St because there may be someone going home that I can give a message to.
Last (CENSORED) as usual was picture night again & this time we saw Ruth Hussey & Melvyn Douglas in “Our Wife” a rather good show. So far I haven’t struck a show that I saw at home although they were all in Sydney before I left there.
All the boys are looking forward to a big party that the squadron is going to put on as soon as we get our 200th enemy kite.
So far we have 199 confirmed & the pilots are going all out to try to get the honours for the kite that will start the party going.
At the rate we are getting them now it should only be a day or so before we all get drunk.
That’s about all for the present & I will write in a week or so.
Give my love to Dad & Betty & regards to Leo
Lovingly Yours.
Frank
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