Air Letter No 3
6thOct ‘44
Dear Mum,
It’s ages since I wrote last & your letters have been arriving regularly but I’ve been so fed up with this place of late that I just couldn’t get enough interest in things to write.
Up until a couple of weeks ago we had hopes of being home by Xmas or Easter at the latest but we had a visit from Group Captain Graham & he told us a few facts about this new replacement scheme. He said we should all be replaced by twenty (repeat 20) months. The way he said it one would think he expected us to throw our hats in the air but seeing as how we have already been overseas for more than thirty months we weren’t in the least impressed & told him so. It’s all right for him I suppose as he only left about two months ago & came over by way of America, England, France etc, & now living in Rome. Who wouldn’t be happy with the scheme if they were in his place?
Moan No. 2. The weather. For the last 2 ½ weeks it has hardly stopped raining for more than a couple of hours at a stretch & during that whole time I have been filled up with a beautiful cold & walking around in 8 to 10 inches of mud doesn’t improve things much at all. To top things off properly, last night it snowed. Not very much but enough to make it darned cold.
One thing we have got to look forward to & that is that this winter we will be in billets & not in tents. We are just waiting until an archbishop or some such person says it’s all right for us to move into a big convent a few miles down the road. The sooner we move in the better we will be pleased.
Our friend the Group Captain didn’t bring all bad news. He told us that very shortly we will be getting Aussie blue battle dress.
I haven’t been able to get away to Florence as yet but hope to be able to do so in the next few weeks.
A couple of the boys out of the tent were up there & they said it’s not a bad place at all.
Quite a few papers arrived here a couple of days ago but no parcels – it’s just about time some arrived.
By the way the last Bodimead’s cake you sent me was so burnt that I had to throw it away. So next time you go up there have a few words with them.
I’m expecting to hear that you have received my last parcel of tobacco for Dad. I have about a thousand Yank smokes to send now so if Dad doesn’t want them you can put them away for when I come home – sometime in the next 20 months.
Can’t think of anything else to moan about so will close. I won’t say I’ll write soon cause I have no idea when I’ll feel like it again.
Much love to Dad, Bet, Leo & Graham.
Lovingly Yours
Frank
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