Letter
No 59
27th Jan ‘43
Dear Mum,
I haven’t finished answering all my mail yet but
this is just a short note to let you know the events of the last few days.
One of our trucks returned a couple of days ago
after being away at Alex. For a little over two weeks. They went down to Alex.
To pick up our Xmas parcels from the A.C.F. These parcels were very good &
they contained a cake, a pudding, ½ pd block of chocolate, pkt of mixed fruits,
pkt of lollies, 4 pkts of chewing gum, 4 ozs of tobacco & papers, 20
cigarettes, a large tube of shaving cream, stick of shaving soap, tube of
toothpaste & brush, razor blades, writing pad & envelopes & a
hanky. There was a card inside the parcel with the name & address of the
donor. He was Mr E. Old from Bendigo.
There was no sign of the Daily Tele parcels so it
looks as if we will not get them after all.
While the truck was in Alex. the driver bought me a
copy of the “Libyan Log”. This book was written by a war correspondent & it
is all about the air war in the desert from July ’41 to July ’42. I will send
it home when I return one of the tins.
I will have to shave tomorrow because I am going
into Tripoli on leave the day after. This shave will be the first I have had
since the 30th of October. I will get a few photos of the beard
before I cut it off & will send them home as soon as I can get the films
developed. At present I have no idea when that will be.
From what I hear Tripoli is not much of a place
because food is very scarce & very few shops are open so there is nothing
to buy. Anyhow, I will write & tell you about it later on.
The country we are now in is much better than the
desert. The roads are lined with Aussie blue gums & the whole countryside
has been under the plough. Yesterday a few of us went for a walk around &
at one farm we found a strawberry patch about fifty yard square. We ate as many
as we could & then filled a three gallon tin with them & brought them
back to the tent. That night we had strawberries & cream for supper. The
cream came with a tin of fruit in our A.C.F. parcels, that’s something I left
out of the list.
For the last week we have been living like kings
because everyone in the tent received at least five or six parcels & so we
have had any amount of good food. The cooks went out one day & came back
with a fuel stove & now they are putting on tucker that it was impossible
to cook on an open fire. The first day we had hot scones for dinner & since
then we have had potato pie, pasties & today they are making fruit cake for
tea.
Well, Mum, that’s about all I can scratch out at
present so will close.
Much love to Dad & Betty & my regards to
Leo
Lovingly
Yours
Frank
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