Letter No. 90
18th 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 12th.
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./
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