Letter No.28
Middle East
17.11.42
Dear Mum,
I’ve just got a few minutes to spare so I will try & scratch out a few pages to let you know that I am still alright.
I have been trying to send you a cable for the last week but our postal section has not caught up with us yet & until they arrive I will have to let it wait. I only hope that when they arrive here they bring the rest of my parcels with them because at the rate we travel our meals are far from what we have been used to & a cake etc would be very handy.
Shortly after I wrote to you last I had to pack up again & get on the move. This time we passed through many enemy ‘dromes & on each were signs of the marvellous work of our bombers because everywhere were remains of every aircraft that the huns did not get a chance to put into service again.
Along the roads were hundreds of enemy trucks & tanks that had been bombed & set on fire, also hundreds & hundreds of pounds worth of stores & ammunition. It’s doubtful if he will be able to replace all he left behind him in his hurried retreat. At least I hope he can’t because the sooner we get rid of him in this section the better we’ll like it & the more chance we’ll have of getting home before our time is up.
We had our first taste of the rain & cold weather a few days ago & we had to wear our overalls & woollen clothing. We didn’t have a turn dug around our tent & consequently the water poured unto it until it was about an inch & a half deep but we all have camp stretchers & it didn’t worry us much.
When the cold weather started we also started getting our rum ration & believe me issue rum has got a kick like a mule I had about a teaspoon full of it & I found I had no inclination to drink any more of it so now the rest of the tent share my issue & it seems to me that they enjoy it.
Unfortunately the canteen was out of beer when Stork & I had our birthdays & we could not put on a case of beer each as expected of us. Stork’s birthday was on the 9th & so when we settle down again we will be forced to do the honours & it should be a rather good party.
This desert must be getting the best of me because in my beard this time I have several grey hairs. Incidentally th beard is coming along very well. I had to shave my last one off when we had our 200th kite celebrations & as that is a little more than three weeks ago I now have fairly good mop.
Can’t think of anything else for now but I will write again when I have a chance whenever that will be.
Give my love to Dad & Betty
Lovingly Yours
Frank XXX
Letter No 29
Middle East
21st Nov ’42
Dear Mum,
At long last we have stopped our race up the desert, at least , for a day or so & we have been able to put up our tent again so now I will have a chance to catch up with a bit of my letter-writing. Not that there us much to write again about but I will try & scratch out a page or so. You may wonder why I used the green envelope but there is a truck going into Alex in a couple of hours time & I won’t have time to get this censored before it leaves.
We have quite a social gathering in our tent each night now because three or four Scotsmen from the Bofor Gun crew come down & have a yarn with us. About 9.30 we make a cup of tea & biscuits. The savoury biscuits consist of hard army ration biscuits with margarine & cheese. I don’t think you will read anything about us in the social column for quite a while because we are not expecting to throw a big party for some time yet.
The squadron got a great write-up in the A.I.F. news last week. It started off with mention of our two-hundredth kite & then went on with the squadrons history since had been over here. It was a full page write-up & was headed “No 3 Squadron is number 1 destroyer in the Desert”. If I can get a copy of the A.I.F. news & will post it to you.
When Norm Dunn rang up did you give him Rex Palmer’s address as c/o R.A.F. Base Accountant Officer, because last week Rex receive a letter addressed as such. It had been written several months earlier so I am still hoping to receive the letters that Aunty Lizzie posted to me.
When I wrote to you last I forgot to mention that while we were coming up we passed dozens of trucks full of prisoners. They seemed so anxious to be taken prisoner that they were driving their own trucks. In one convoy we counted 12 trucks full of prisoners & the only guard they had was two military policemen, one in front of the first truck & one behind the last. They were all rather happy & were giving us the “V” for victory sign.
One of the boys in the tent, Stork by name, can read German & any letters we find we bring them back to the tent & he translates them. He found a book of unit orders & read about everything that happened to the Jerry soldiers when they did not behave themselves in Greece.
Well, Mum, that’s about all for now but will write again shortly.
Give my love to Dad & Betty & regards to Leo.
Lovingly Yours
Frank .
Letter No. 30
Aust. No 34171
LAC Cooney JF
No 3 Squadron
R.A.A.F.
Middle East
22.11.42
Dear Mum,
Mail day again today. The squadron received 42 bags of letters, papers & parcels, out of this I received three letters from you, two from Betty, two from Aunty Lizzie, one from Bert, one from Peggy & a cable from Mrs Rees. I also received the birthday cake & Leo’s parcel. Your letters were Nos.15, 16 & 17.
I had just about given up hope of getting the parcels but they arrived over here at the same time as the last one only they were not sorted when the advance began, hence the late arrival.
The plate will come in very handy because my enamel plate is just about wrecked through the hiding it has taken in the past two weeks. The cake carried very well indeed considering the number of times it has been handled since it came off the boat. It had a dent in one side of the tin but the cake was not touched.
If it had been damaged on the way over I don’t think you expected me to say so, for fear I would not get another one but it was really in good order & when the other members of our social circle come down tonight we will run through the ceremony of cutting the cake, & let these burly Scotsmen taste a bit of Aussie cooking, seeing as how they are always talking about the good cooking of the Scots lasses. Worst luck there is no beer.
I didn’t receive any word from Mrs Nicholson but there must be some more mail somewhere because your letter No 14 is still missing & may turn up in a few days.
I suppose my allotment money is building up in the same way as my pay book. I now have about 20pounds in the book & if we stay up in the ‘blue’ for very much longer I will be able to send home a fairly big lump sum, it will all be handy when I come home.
In the letter I receive from Bert he told me that he had seen the newsreel of the squadron but he could not see me. I think the part in which I did my “acting” was cut out because there were certain marks on certain things that would not get through the censor.
Regarding the face washers, they will be very handy because, at present, the water situation is not nearly as good as it was at our last camp. We have to have a bath in about an inch of water & at present we are using a bit of a towel for a washer.
I’ll bet Berry Moodie is pleased with being posted to Keith Truscott’s squadron. I don’t think I told you before, but, while I was at Uranquinty for those few days I met Berry (Flt/Lt now) in Wagga one night & he told me that he wished he was an ACI so that he could come away with us. He was sick of training “rookies”.
One of the boys in the tent received a parcel by today’s mail & in it was a jar of peanut butter so I knocked off writing a few minutes ago & had a few biscuits (army type) with “margy” & peanut butter. Next parcel you send would you include some marmite etc, if they are obtainable, because these things are alright to spread on biscuits.
Have not received the papers you mentioned in one of your letter, as yet, but papers take last place in the sorting so they may turn up shortly.
Bad luck your not receiving my letters no’s 1 & 2 & I don’t think they will turn up now so to-morrow or the next day I will get the diary to work & tell you as much as I can about our trip over.
Everybody seems to like the photo of me with a mo except Betty. Aunty Lizzie said that she liked the “mo” & that he felt hat suited me better than the forage cap. Also wanted a copy of the photo.
I received the long letter that you said Aunty Lizzie sent me. It consisted of five & a half pages of Aunty’s hand &, as you can imagine, it could have easily fitted into 1 1/2 pages. Still it was very nice of her to drop me a line & also the birthday cake she mentioned although it has not arrived yet.
You mentioned in one of your other letters that Laurie Michaels was driving trucks for the Yanks. I’ll bet he’s thrilled with his job.
I think Mr Mac was working in a munitions factory before I left home &, as you say, I’ll bet it’s for the pocket rather than patriotic reasons that he’s doing it.
You did the right thing regarding the bracelet I sent to Betty N. & it’s a damn sight better for Bet to have it than someone at the dead letter office. Don’t take any notion of the note inside because I wrote it before I knew how things were.
It’s a bit too late to answer Betty’s letters tonight but will do so to-morrow.
Give my love to Dad & Betty & thank Mrs Rees very much for the cable. Also my regards to all at Cremorne.
Lovingly Yours
Frank X X X
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