Letter No. 85

AUST. No 34171 

LAC Cooney, JF 

No. 3 Squadron 

R.A.A.F. 

MIDDLE EAST

26^rd April ‘43

Dear Mum,

                                    I thought that I would be in XXXX by now but I managed to get well all of a sudden so missed a journey of about four thousand miles. There was a good chance that I wouldn’t have been able to get back to the squadron for a couple of months & in all probability I would not have been able to see Tunis. As it is now I should be back with the boys in about another week & by then Tunis should be in our hands.

At the present time I am at No.7 Convalescent Depot & as soon as I am Ok again I will be going back to the squadron. The Con Depot is about 20 miles from Tripoli & is situated in what used to be some Iti or Jerry garages. Our sleeping areas are buildings about 120 ft long, 40 ft wide & they hold about a hundred double decker beds. The worst thing of all is these beds. As the place was only opened recently they have not been able to get any mattresses yet  & hence we have to sleep with only one blanket underneath us. The frame of the beds are made of iron piping & between this there is a lattice frame with holes about four inch square in it, so you can see that it is pretty hard on the spine. To make matters worse we have just come from hospital & up there we had soft mattresses, sheets & pillows on our beds.

                  The tucker is good as we get plenty of fresh meat & vegetables but the trouble is that I never seem to be able to get enough to eat at each meal. These Englishmen seem to be able to exist on a darn sight less than it takes to satisfy my constitution. We get very little compared with what I was used to at the squadron.

 We have to get out of bed her at the unearthly hour of 6.30am & then have to shave before breakfast at 7.30. After breakfast we have a general parade which is something definitely new to me as I have only been on one parade since I got off the boat nearly twelve months ago.

 After roll call, fatigues are detailed but, as a rule, these are very easy & can be finished in an hour or so & from then till lunch time – or tiffin time as it is called here, we’re free.

 Out of about fifteen hundred men in the camp I think I am the only Australian & I think I have been asked about a hundred times what unit I’m with.

 Well, Mum, that’s all for now but I will write again soon. 

                Much love to all at home

                                                       Lovingly Yours,

                                                                            Frank

 

 

 Letter No. 84

AUST. No 34171 

LAC Cooney, JF 

No. 3 Squadron 

R.A.A.F. 

MIDDLE EAST

20^rd April ‘43

                 Dear Mum,

                   Just a few more lines to let you know how things are going over here. I am now out of bed & have been transferred to the tents at the back of the hospital & in a day or so I am going to be evacuated by hospital ship to Alex (Alexandria) & so it looks as if I will be away from the squadron for quite a while.

 I still have rather acute pains in the stomach & now the doctors seem to think that they will have something to do with the muscles I strained some months ago but I don’t think it is.

 I went over to the cookhouse to-day to get the dinner & while I was there I had a good look around. Everything is spotlessly clean & nothing was smashed up by the Huns before they left.

 In the middle of the room is a large fuel stove & everything else is operated by steam – the whole place looks like the cookhouse of some modern hotel. The tucker is extremely good & we get fresh meat & eggs nearly every day.

The barber’s shop which, by the way, is located in the morgue is run by two Italian prisoners, & like all the prisoners that I have seen in the last couple of weeks they don’t seemto worry how long they stay on this side of the line.

 Well, Mum, that’s all for now but I will write again soon.

                 Much love to Dad & Betty

                                                       Lovingly Yours

                                                                         Frank

                                                                     Letter No. 83

AUST. No 34171 

LAC Cooney, JF 

No. 3 Squadron 

R.A.A.F. 

MIDDLE EAST

16^rd April ‘43

               

Dear Mum,

                                     It’s over a week since I wrote to you last but to-day is the first time that I have felt like writing & so I thought I had better scratch out a fe lines in case you started worrying about me.

 After I left the squadron I went to No. 21 M.R.S. (Medical Research Station) & after considerable discussion on the part of  the doctors it was decided that I had a sub-acute appendix & for the present at least there is no need for an operation & so I will be in possession of that part of my anatomy for a bit longer at any rate –  sub-acute or otherwise.

                   I was at the M.R.S. for four days & during that time I was fed or rather starved, with a light diet which consisted mainly of fruit & jelly. 

After four days the unit had to move up & so I was taken by ambulance to Gabes & dropped at an air evac centre & from there I went by ambulance plane to Tripoli & then by another ambulance to the 48^th General Hospital just outside the town & I was put into bed & I’m still there.

 I’m not fussy how long I stay here either because I can put up with a lot of this sort of life as we sleep in beds with clean sheets on them, we wear pyjamas – quite a novelty in these parts - & we are looked after by some extremely pretty nurses so you can see that I am in good hands.

The hospital was previously an Italian civilian convalescent home & has accommodation for about a thousand beds. All the cleaning up in the building is done by Italian prisoners & they walk around the place as happy as can be as they seem extremely happy to be out of the war.

 For the first three days I had absolutely nothing to eat at all but now am on a light diet & to-morrow I hope to be out of bed on full diet ‘cause the lack of tucker is no good to me at all.

 Before I left the squadron I gave instructions for them to hold on to my mail which was due in the last week so I will have some reading to do when I get back to camp & also a parcel or two – I hope.

Well Mum, I have a few more letters to catch up with so I will close. Excuse the pencil but I can’t use the pen in bed.

     Much love to Dad & Betty & my regards to Leo

 

                                                                                          Lovingly Yours

 

                                                                                                            Frank

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter No 78

 AUST. No 34171 

 LAC Cooney, JF 

 No. 3 Squadron R.A.A.F. 

MIDDLE EAST 

16th March ‘43 

 Dear Mum, 

         Some of the mail we have been expecting arrived here today but it was rather late stuff. I received No. 38 from you & the previous one was No. 31 that means there is still 6 to come to fill in the gap. 

We are expecting them here tomorrow or the next day. 

 Seeing as how there is several letters missing I am a bit out of touch with regards to George Buxton’s final leave etc. but will probably hear all about it soon. 

 Just received three bundles of papers but no more letters yet. 

 I told you some time ago that I had received s letter from Miss Moody & she told me that John was doing Jack Fennell’s job and making a good fist of it. In Mr Hanson’s letter he said that he was looking forward to the day when we will all be back at work again, so it looks as if my job is still OK there. 

 I haven’t written to Aunty Lizzie for over six weeks so I better write when I finish this or she will be giving me away. Haven’t had a letter from her either since the 22nd November so it looks as if I may be in the bad books already. 

 As you say, Vernon must be rather high up in the force now, probably a Wing Commander because last time I saw him he had his Squadron Leader bands up. Ask Dad to ask Morrie what his rank is. 

 There’s still no sign of the parcels that you mentioned in your last letters but I’m hoping to see them shortly. Not much chance of losing them unless a postal official feels a bit hungry and picks on mine to satisfy his hunger. 

 To-day has been a great day for a lot of us because all those who went for a re-muster about eight months ago received notification that they had passed. Yours truly is now a Fitter II A on Group One pay rate of 13/1 per day & 2/- deferred extra. Our pay is back-dated from the 25th of Nov & that means I have nearly £10 back money to collect. I can’t allot any more to you but each time my book builds up a bit I will send it home in a lump sum. 

 Am enclosing another copy of our new “paper” which we received yesterday evening. 

 I have been working for the last week or so making crib boards for the cooks. These boards are made out of Perspex – unbreakable glass out of kites- and when polished up they look good. I had a bit of material over so to-day I started to make a small trinket box for Betty & a few other little things in the way of pendants for you & Bet. I will post them when I finish them off. 

 No more now but will write again in a couple of days if more mail comes in. Much love to Dad & Betty             

                            Lovingly Yours,

                                                 Frank