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
Letter No 31
Middle East
23rd Nov ’42
Dear Boop,
It got too dark last night to write to you so I had to leave it until this morning. The letters I received from you were No’s 3 & 9 No. 3 was written on the 11th of July & has been at the R.A.F. Base Accountant Officer since it arrived over here. I also received a letter, written by Auntie Lizzie on the 24th June, from the same source.
The proof of your photo arrived here without fading very much at all but I left it out for a while & it soon lost it’s colour. You look as fat in the face as I am but the necklace shows up quite well. All the boys in the tent said that you have all the good looks in our family.
If I get a chance to go out to Alex on leave I may be able to get a few things to help you fill your hope chest but since I heard about your engagement I have not been able to get away from the squadron & so have not been able to get anything. I still have the parcel of jewellery for you but I will hang on to it until our postal orderly is going down to the advance P.O. & then he can post it for me. Hope you have received the jacket I sent you last month.
I have mentioned this fact before but I will mention it again, & that is if you get married before I come home there is going to be an argument because I missed your 21st birthday & your engagement parties & I don’t feel like missing your wedding breakfast.
Don’t worry about me doing any flying over here because, firstly, our aircraft are single-seaters & secondly I have no inclination to leave the ground in this part of the world even though I do hate the desert.
From what I read in the papers Aussie seems to be going to the pack. Picture prices are high, beer is far too scarce & now you tell me that lifts in buildings are cut out for the duration. A bloke could do a lot worse than stop over here, where pictures are free (if the dogs don’t see us), beer is plentiful & anything else we want is obtainable, for a while at least.
It is bitterly cold over here today & only one of the boys got out of bed for breakfast & if it doesn’t warm up I’ll stop here over dinner time too.
We had our social evening again last night so I cut the cake. The Scotsman said that Mum must have come from Scotland because her cooking was as good as “yon Scots lasses”.
We have cleaned up 4 fruit cakes since the mail arrived at dinner time yesterday.
Well, Boop, that’s about all for now but will write to Mum tomorrow re the trip over.
Give my love to Mum & Dad & regards to Leo.
PS. ‘Scuse writing but Tons of Love
I lying in bed & that Frank
makes it a bit hard
F.
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