Letter No 72
26th Feb. ‘43
Dear Mum,
The mail we were all expecting arrived last night
but it was too late to answer them straight away so I’ll do my best to get a few of them answered this morning. I
received N0’s 30 & 31 from you, No 16 from Betty, three from Wagga, one
from Peter & Neta Johnstone, one from Miss Moody & one from Aunty
Emily.
George Brissett certainly seems to have been
travelling around a bit since you saw him last. In case he hasn’t already told
you how the ACI comes in I will tell you. He said that he had been back on a
conversion course, well, when he finished his course he automatically goes back
to an A.C.I & then starts all over again. Can hardly imagine him as a
married man – he must have been full when he popped the question.
Can’t say that I have noticed the absence of
raisins in the cakes – must be as you say, I don’t wait to see what’s in them.
The vegetable garden seems to be causing quite a
lot of strife in the Cooney household because Betty told me that Dad does all
the carrying of water & trimming of the plants etc. & now you tell me
that the credit for all this should be yours.
Re your Taj Mahal, as soon as I can get at my kit
bag I will write to India & see what can be done about it. It was really
beautiful so I will write & get them to send another one even if I have to
send the money but it was insured so I don’t know how I will stand.
We have been living rather royally this last few
days ‘cause the wogs have been coming around with plenty of fresh eggs & so
we have been getting as many as we can & each night we have five or six
omelettes each for supper. I’ll give your frying pans plenty of work when I get
home. Our pan is made from a plate with a piece of tubing riveted on for the
handle.
That’s all for now but will write again soon. Much
love to Dad & Betty.
Lovingly
Yours,
Frank
P.S. Twelve months to-day
since I had to report back to Melb. After final leave.
Letter
No 73
24th Feb. ‘43
Dear Boop,
Your letter No 16 arrived here last night together
with a couple from Mum & a few others. One that I received from Wagga was
from the mother of a girl I used to go out with quite a bit & she told me
that Joan had gone into the church to be a sister so that sort of brings things
to a conclusion as far as I’m concerned. Anyhow I received a beaut photo of her
in the letter & its gone into the collection.
There’s no doubt about the old Brissett. As I told
Mum, he must have had a few aboard when he went home on leave.
You can tell any of the girls at younger set who
want to adopt me as a pen friend that they are quite welcome to do so, if they
like to send the cash for anything they want I will send a price list on application
to the above address.
I wrote to Vivi & Maureen a couple of weeks
ago. Had no idea what to write about so I told them about our trip to
Alexandria to Tripoli.
From all accounts Maureen seems to be a rather kid.
(sic)
Thanks for writing to Aunty
Lizzie with great haste re the cake. Donations of that sort are always very
acceptable. Can’t understand why I haven’t had a letter from Melb.
When I wrote to Mr Hansen I asked him for Fred Lowe’s
address & when he answered my letter he sent Fred’s address but Fred was only
an L.A.C. He must have got his stripes quite recently.
Had a letter from Neta. I suppose you know they
have another son.
That’s all for now but I will let you know any more
news shortly.
Much love to Dad & Mum
& my regards to Leo
Tons
of love
Frank
P.S. I know the writing’s
crook but I’m in bed
F.
Letter
No 74
4th March ‘43
Dear Mum,
Here it is six days since I wrote to you last &
still haven’t anything to write about I seem to be slipping with my letter
writing lately as is everyone else. I think the trouble is that we are pretty
sure that everything will be cleaned up here shortly & we know that they are
going to do something with us but at present nobody seems to know what it will
be & it’s waiting for something to happen that upsets our writing.
Received some more comforts a few days ago
consisting of tobacco, cigs, chewing gum, razor blades sox & a pullover.
Some of the pullovers were beautifully made with fancy stitches & brown
& white fleck wool. They are really much too good to wear around out here.
Our canteen trucks arrived back from Alexandria a
couple of days ago & they have just about sold out their entire stock
already. They didn’t get much of an assortment of goods at all, only fruit, a
little chocolate, biscuits, sugar, gigs, tobacco writing materials & a
couple of other things.
Had nothing to do yesterday morning so one of the other
boys & myself went over to the cooks tent & helped them shell about a
hundred pounds of peas. The cooks are very popular with all the boys in the
flight & they only have to ask for a hand to do something & anyone who
is not working is only too glad to lend a hand. While we were over at the mess
the cooks were getting a pie ready for lunch & they put a jam tart in the
oven for the workers, & for the first time since leaving home I had a nice
jam tart straight from the oven.
Well, Mum that’s all I can think of for now but I
will try & do better next time.
Give my love to Dad & Betty & my regards to
Leo.
Lovingly
Yours,
Frank
It's interesting to read Neil Smith's account of what was happening at the end of the N. Africa campaign in his 3 Squadron memoir at
ReplyDeletehttps://www.3squadron.org.au/indexpages/history3b.htm