Letter No. 93

AUST. No 34171 

LAC Cooney, JF 

No. 3 Squadron 

R.A.A.F. 

ABROAD

27^th May ’43    

 Dear Mum,

                  Just a short note because there is very little to write about.

I went into town yesterday to see if I could get anything to send home & I met with a little luck I managed to get a couple of lengths of material for Betty. One length is a white silk & should make up into a tennis frock or play suit. The other length is a dark floral material. I thought it would suit you alright but all he had left was enough to make a short sleeved dress for Betty so I got it too. The shopkeeper said that he would be going down to Tripoli in a few days to see if he could get some more so I will go up later on & see if he has had any luck.

                  One of the boys who came over here quite recently said that washing blue was hard to get at home so I will put a couple of packets in the parcel. I also got a hundred razor blades for Dad & a couple of hundred cigarettes.

                  We are now getting an issue of two bottles of beer from the Naafi each week. It’s not much but it’s better than we have had in the last six months.

                  Well, Mum, I warned you early in the piece that this letter was going to be rather short & I’m afraid I will have to close now & get back on the spine again.

                  Much love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo

 

                                                                                          Lovingly Yours

                                                                                                            Frank

                                                                             Letter No. 92

AUST. No 34171 

LAC Cooney, JF 

No. 3 Squadron 

R.A.A.F. 

ABROAD

24^th May ’43    

Dear Mum,

                  I had hopes of getting up to Tunis again but the day after I wrote to you last we had to pack up & move back about 350 miles. We are now settled down again & tomorrow or the next day our kites are going to start flying again so that the new pilots can get in a bit of training so my hopes of getting a rest are pretty slim.

                  Our canteen truck arrived back from Algiers shortly after I wrote to you last but unfortunately they didn’t get as many supplies as they expected, but what they got was very nice. We were issued with five bottles of beer each, ten Cadbury chocolates, 100 Craven A’s & 50 Three Five cigarettes. Tunisia is a duty free country hence we were able to get Craven A’s for fourpence for ten. I suppose they area shilling or more at home now. If you can get them. The five bottles of beer cost six shillings. We got four bottles of Canadian & one Scotch.

                  After I wrote to you last I went & saw the adjutant & he gave me the rest of the day off to go up to Sousse & see Rex’s grave. Rex was buried in a special part of the civil cemetery which is set aside for British troops. When I got there I saw that the grave was nice & tidy & there were fresh flowers on it. I was told that each British grave is adopted by two children from the Sousse school & every second day they go down & attend to it.

                  There has been no reply back from the War Graves Commission regarding my enquiry about Elliott’s grave at Derna so I have asked the squadron padre to see what he can do about it.

It’s hard to come back to the desert again after being in such good country, as we were in at Kariouan, for a while.

I meant to tell you before that when we were up at the battlefield near Enfidaville I was poking around on the back of a truck when I found a dozen one pound tins of Marmite so now we have plenty to spread on our biscuits & bread. These tins of Marmite are British issue & must have been amongst supplies which were captured by Jerry at some time or other.

                  No more now but I will write again soon.

                                    Much love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo

 

                                                                                          Lovingly Yours

                                                                                                            Frank

 

                                                                                              Letter No. 91

AUST. No 34171 

LAC Cooney, JF 

No. 3 Squadron 

R.A.A.F. 

ABROAD

19^th May ‘43

                   Dear Mum,

                                    Well, Mum, I finished the job on my kite yesterday afternoon & covered it up & I’m hoping that it stays as it is for the next few weeks ‘cause I feel as though I have earned a bit of a spell. Whether I will get it or not is something else again.

                  In my last letter I got as far as telling you about our trip to the battlefield, that was on the …th.

The next day Ivan & Tubby, two of the boys out of my tent, & myself, had nothing to do so we got dressed & buzzed off to Tunis again. Shortly after we arrived there we met up with a few New Zealanders & they gave us a German jeep because they were going back to the Delta the following day & they could not take the car with them. We drove around the town for a while & then decided to have a good look at the battlefield at Tarcruma.

We had only gone about 60 miles when the buggy broke down & as we knew absolutely nothing about the engine we decided to leave it on the side of the road & try to hitch-hike back to camp. We were between Tarcruma & Pont du Fars when we met the C.O. out on the scrounge & he said it would be alright with him if we went back to Tunis & came back to camp on the canteen truck in a couple of days. That was quite OK with us so Ivan & I went on to Du Fars & Tubby went back to camp with the boss.

                  I’ve hitch-hiked on a lot of different trucks since I’ve been over here but what we did at Du Fars topped the lot. We were sitting at the cross-roads trying to thumb a ride for about an hour & didn’t even look like getting a ride when we saw a train coming along the line so we decided to try & thumb a ride on it so Ivan & I walked over to the line & started thumbing. The driver grabbed the brakes & pulled up right in the middle of the crossing. We hopped aboard & off we went to Tunis, arriving there about half past four.

                  We were walking down the street & wondering where we would sleep that night when an old lady came along & started talking to us. She told us that she was born in Sydney & lived in Rose Bay for over forty years. She insisted that we stay with her for the next couple of days as we were the first Australians she had seen since leaving Aussie.

                  She put on a marvelous supper for us & then we went into the lounge room & started talking about home etc.

                  The next day we went with her for a walk around the town & then for a drive to see the ruins at Carthage. This lady must have been all of 75 years old but she skimmed her car through the traffic like a Sydney taxi driver.

                  That night we had a good party & we left the next day about one o’clock & came back to camp.

Nearly all the population of Tunis is French & if all French women are as beautiful as those in Tunis I’m all for getting into France & having a look around.

It’s a pity the shops weren’t open because I could have got you some dress material. There were plenty of shops with windows full of material but, unfortunately they were all shut. They may be open in a week or two, so I might be able to get a bit more leave & see what I can do.

                  Well, Mum, that’s all for now but I will write again as soon as a bit more news crops up.

Much love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo

 

                                                                                          Lovingly Yours

                                                                                                            Frank

 

 

End of the campaign in N. Africa

                                                                                          Letter No. 90

AUST. No 34171

 LAC Cooney, JF 

No. 3 Squadron 

R.A.A.F. 

ABROAD

18^th May ‘43

Dear Mum, 

                                    When I  wrote to you last I said I would write again in a few days but it is six days now since I wrote. The reason for this is that to-day is the first time I have been back at camp for more than a few hours since the 12^th.

As I expected the entire Nth African campaign was finished a few hours after I wrote to you.

As soon as the report came through the whole camp area was lit up with thousands of flares fired from Very (this word a bit hard to decipher) pistols. After about an hour of this some of the South Africans from our neighboring ‘drome put the tails of some kites into holes & fired all the ammo out of the guns.

Everyone in the tents who had a rifle got them out & pumped hundreds of  tracer bullets into the air.

The next morning I was up at four o’clock, had a bite to eat, put on my leave clothes &left at 5 o’clock for Tunis. We went along the main road as far as Enfidaville & then turned off & went around a side track because the main road was heavily mined & several bridges were blown up. We struck the main road again south of Pont du Fars. In du Fars the Free French had about ten thousand Jerries & Iti’s under guard so we stopped to take a few photos.

                  We wandered around amongst the prisoners for over half an hour & talked to a good few Jerries who could speak English. When we asked them what they thought of things on the whole they told us they weren’t sorry they were taken prisoners but the war would be over very soon, & of course, they thought that Germany would win.

They were surprised when they were told that all the fighting in Africa was finished. They couldn’t believe that the British were anywhere between Tripoli & Sfax. So it looks as though they don’t get much news of the war.

We arrived at Tunis at 9.30 & the first place everyone headed for was the pubs because it was the first time we had seen beer in barrels since we left Alex. After a few beers we went to have a look around the town.

As we were the first and only Australians in Tunis our big hats caused quite a stir & as we walked along we could hear people saying that we were American cowboys. Knowing the reputation of the Yanks in this part of the world & rather than be insulted all the time we soon informed the people that we had nothing to do with the Yanks & told them that we were Australians.

All the people were genuinely glad to see us & just after dinner we met a Free French officer & his wife & they insisted that we spend the afternoon with them, so we went out to their home & they dragged out numerous bottles of good wine & we sat there talking & drinking all afternoon & we left just in time to catch the last truck home.

The next day I woke up with an extremely heavy head & about 9.30 with a few of the others I went up to have a look around the battlefield & see what we could find, but we were a bit late & most of the good stuff had gone.

However we had a truck & so we went right into the hills & as we were poking around we spotted four fellows walking about four hundred yards away. Thinking they were after loot too we walked towards them & when we were about fifty yards away we saw that they were not our troops at all but Jerries who had taken to the hills during the mopping up by our troops. We only had a revolver between us but the Jerries were quite docile & we did not have to resort to any violence. As a matter of fact I don’t know who got the biggest scare – us or them.

They told us they had run into the hills a few days ago because they were scared of being killed when they were captured & that they had come out because they were hungry. We had plenty of tucker on the truck so we took them back & told them to help themselves. They were all so pleased & relieved that two of them started to cry.

I thought I was a rather good eater but I have never seen four men put away so much tucker in such a short time. After they had eaten they brought out photos of their wives, families & friends & showed them to us, & the way they acted one would think they were our own troops.

It’s certainly a queer war isn’t it?

On the way out of the battlefield we saw two good looking caravans & the Huns told us that they were Von Arnims private quarters & it was in them that the armistice was signed so we had a look over them. One was his sleeping quarters & consisted of a bedroom & dining room & the other was his office which contained beautiful oak chairs & table, cocktail cabinet & a very nice lounge suite. We handed the Huns over to an M.P. & they would be sent to the P.O.W. cages at Sousse.

Well Mum I got a bit of work to do on my kite but will write again tomorrow & tell you what I have done in the last three days.

Much love to Dad & Betty

                                    Lovingly Yours

                                                      Frank

P.S. Excuse the writing but my hand is still bandaged up

                                                                                                            F./