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
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