Has letter 25 come yet? and are all the others to hand? I am receiving the newspapers O.K. a bundle arrived 2 days ago. They are the only ones we get now; the one-time issue ones never seem to catch up with us nowadays.
I don't want any woollies, thanks; at least, not yet. I'll write later if I want them; I have a khaki pullover and a sweater to go at as it is, and also some long shooting stockings.
I can't see to write any longer, so I'll close down now.
We are now about 15 miles from where the main operation took place earlier this week.
1st Leicestershire Regt.
B.L.A.
Letter 38. 8 Sept. 44.
Sun. 17 Sept. This morning after breakfast I dismantled my shack and got my gear packed together, because we were moving (by truck) today. Everything was packed up by 9.15. but I left out my washing, which wasn't yet dry, because it was such a lovely day. We then waited for the transport to arrive, which it did at 11.30. At 12 o'clock we got on board and moved to the cross roads just outside our farm; this was the forming-up point. We started at 12.45, and journeyed until 7 o'clock in the evening, covering in that time about 60 miles. It was a gloriously sunny
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day, and I sat in the front of my troop-carrier; it was like going for a drive round Warwickshire. We travelled in a generally N.E. direction, and the journey ended (after some jolly good views) about 6 miles east of a place called D-, well-known to Canadians. We ran into our village at about 7 o'clock in the evening, and were allotted a farm with outbuildings round a courtyard, My platoon was put in a barn; and there was just enough light for me to find myself a niche. Once again I installed myself in the wood-shed. The shed this time is open; but it has a corrugated-iron roof and the wood is stacked each side of me to form walls, My batman put some straw on the ground and my sleeping-bag on top of that, and I made a table for myself from a saw-horse with an old door on top covered with a groundsheet. A log on its end forms a chair, so I am very comfortable. The only drawback is the rats - I felt one scamper over my feet last night.
It was dark when I went to bed, so I had to undress by torchlight.
As usual, to get away from the noise, I chose my abode outside the farmyard instead of inside.
Mon. 18 Sept. This morning, breakfast (spam) was brought round to me, and after breakfast we had weapon cleaning. At 10.30 we went for a route-march, and as the sea is only about 2 miles north of us, we went to look at it. The countryside here is very open, like the fens; you can pick out villages round about by the clumps of trees. When we reached the cliffs, while the platoon halted and had a smoke I skirted a German minefield - wired in and marked 'Achtung Minen' - and stood on the
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cliff-edge looking down into the sea.
There were about 3 weapon pits there, all of them ramshackle and falling in, a sort of mortar, Which I presumed to be a flame-thrower; and the minefield; and that was all there was of the Atlantic Wall. I suppose they were relying on the cliffs to stop any invasion here.
The cliffs were of chalk and about 150-200 ft high; and the sea looked very green.
This afternoon we went to an open bit of country to fire our weapons. I fired 5 magazines through my Sten to ensure that it and they were in working order; I then fired about 20 rounds through the Luger that I am giving you, to ensure that it is in good order, It works spiffingly, except that the second (spare) magazine has been allowed to rust and jams slightly, but I shall get that put right and/or collect some more magazines. On its proper magazine it was firing perfectly.
On our return I cleaned and thoroughly oiled the Sten and Luger, and shall keep them cleaned for the next 3 or 4 days - they always sweat after firing. I shall then oil the Luger and put it away with its one good magazine and the 64 rounds of ammunition I have collected for it, until I can give it to you as a trophy of war!
I had an egg (boiled) for tea tonight.
After cleaning the weapons, I started on this letter; and so that is all the news for today.
As you see we didn't move today;
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I don't mind, I'm quite comfortable here.
The days close in so early now that it's getting too dark to write now (7.30.p.m.) so I'll close down.
1st Leicestershire Regt.
B.L.A.
Letter 39. 20th. Sept. 44.
I have just received the bundle of papers of the 10th, thanks; as we still haven't moved the mail is catching us up again.
Tues. 19 Sept. This morning there was a drill parade for the troops; as I wasn't on it I cleaned my Sten and revolver and Luger, After the drill there was a
company route-march. We went to exactly the same area near the sea as I went to yesterday, only we didn't go down to the cliff edge. At 3 o'clock I went to D-, the nearest town. There was not much in the town itself - many of the shops were closed and others had only trash; but I went to the town church, which was full of stone carving, and also onto the beach and promenade, which figured in the news a year or two ago. Here the beach was about 3/4 mile long, and was flanked with chalk cliffs on either side, which could overlook the whole promenade. There were gun positions curved out of the cliff-face, and the whole promenade was barbwired and mined and covered with trenches.
There were also some pill-boxes with tremendously thick walls and roofs. Some
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of the mines used on the promenade were captured British ones. All the roads leading from the promenade had been blocked by concrete barricades 6 foot high, with barbed wire for another 2 feet on top. On the town side of the barricades was a fire-step for the defenders' use. The result was that the whole space between the cliffs was literally an Atlantic Wall - either the buildings and hotels themselves, or concrete barricades joining them together.
The casino, which, you may remember, was one of the strong-points, was a heap of concrete and rubble. All the defences were dilapidated and badly camouflaged, and there was a good deal of damage done to both buildings and pillboxes; it may have been done by the Germans before they left.
Just outside the town too, there were some tremendously thick pillboxes.
One of them at a road junction had been painted with windows and curtains etc. to look like a house.
I got back from the town at about 7 o'clock and ate, and shortly afterwards went to bed.
Wed. 20th Sept. This morning was spent chiefly on administrative jobs, so as to get ready for the next hop forwards: dubbining boots, sharpening spades, washing clothes, and cleaning weapons.
This afternoon nothing is happening, so I am sitting in the sun outside my wood-shed writing this. By the way, we got a portion of all that money we captured, as prize-money. I got 2000 francs i.e. £10; I am sending you one of the four
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500 franc notes I received, as a souvenir; it is worth £2.10.0. in English money.
It's now 2.40.p.m. so I'll stop writing for a bit.
It's 6.30.p.m. now, so I'll close down, it's early to bed, too, in preparation for a long journey and early start tomorrow. The rest of the afternoon has been spent in repacking my kit and getting things arranged so that there is not much to do in the early hours of tomorrow.
By the way, for breakfast this morning and yesterday I had spam, fried egg, and mushrooms, but in spite of this I'm always hungry, and have been ever since
I came to France!
I'll close down now and finish tidying up before it gets dark.
1st Leicestershire Regt.
B.L.A.
Letter 40. 22 Sept. 44.
Thurs. 21 Sept. This morning we got up at 2.0 a.m. and had breakfast at 5.0. a.m. before making an early start for our journey. As the barns in our farm had electric light installed, getting up was simplified; the breakfast also was good, including as it did porridge, and sausage and beans, and two slices of bread instead of one. At 4 o'clock we moved out to get onto the trucks, and at 4.30. we started.
It was still dark, and the drivers merely had to follow the red light of the truck in front as you couldn't see the road and countryside. I sat in the front of my
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lorry, and also had a map, so that made the journey very much more interesting, especially as it lasted 12 hours. I can't give you the route, of course; but we passed through A- at 8.30 after a slow journey, the first hour of which was in the dark. A- had a lovely church, especially the west front; but it and half of the town had been laid waste by German bombing in 1940, and acres were rough grass and weeds over ruins. Half an hour later we passed through a village, St. R-, which also had a church with a finely-carved west front; it was so much more extensive than the size of the village required that I think it must have been a monastery, especially as it was surrounded by a 12 foot high stone wall. I hoped that our journeys would take us past 1346 and 1415 (see Green's 'Short Hy', but we went too far east; 8 miles in the case of 1346 and 15 miles in the case of 1415. however, when we passed the appropriate places I craned my neck in their direction, hoping to catch a glimpse of the sites, but all I saw was a ploughing team against a background of mist, ploughing a desolate hedgeless wold.
At about midday we ran into A-.
The whole day we had been going through bare arable land like the fens, only it wasn't flat. When we got to A- it made us wonder how the last war was fought - you could be observed for miles over the coverless landscape; I suppose they had to keep below ground level, in trenches, the whole time. Both before and after A- I saw a well-kept British cemetery of the last war; many of the houses of the inhabitants seemed to be Army huts of the last war too. We didn't go through
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the town centre, but skirted round the edge; this place too had been bombed by the Germans in 1940.
We next went round the outskirts of D-, and just outside the town on this side we stopped for lunch for an hour from 1.30 to 2.30. I was by now dying for something to eat, after that early breakfast; it was bread and cheese, biscuits, butter and jam; and tea. We then continued the journey, and at about 3 o'clock crossed a boundary-line into the districts inhabited by those who were lodged in the Masonic Hall.
The change in the countryside and roads at once became more noticeable. The country is more tree'd, and is divided up into small patches as though smallholders rather then large farmers worked the land. The roads changed for the worse; instead of having the whole road with a proper tarmac surface, the road was in 3 strips. The 2 outside strips were dirt tracks, and the centre one was selts, so that only one vehicle could be on the good part at once; or if vehicles passed, each would have only the inside wheels on the selts. It was actually far more comfortable to ride on the unmetalled part; it was less bumpy than the selts.
At 4 o'clock we turned into our village (and farm) for the night. The people at our farm were extremely kind, and as well as letting us use their wireless (which they had hidden from the Germans), they gave us sofas and rugs to make up beds from.
A meal was eventually cooked up, and after the 9 o'clock news I went to bed on my sofa in the farm-house. We had travelled 114 miles during the day.
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Fri. 22 Sept. Up again at 5 o'clock and in the trucks by 6.30. We started at 7 o'clock, and once again skirted (instead of going through) the town of T-. The further north We come, the more friendly the inhabitants seem to be; probably because they haven't suffered from the invasion the same as the French in Normandy have. At any rate, although less demonstrative they seem more sincere; and the children do not badger you for chocolates and 'cigarettes pour papa'.
At midday we passed through a city.
Before this I strained my eyes over 7 miles of country to see another place, of importance about 130 years ago; but owing to intervening ground and the distance I could see nothing.
We passed through the heart of the City, where people waved and children set up a scream (? Cheer), and fruit was chucked at the vehicles; I got a tomato.
The place seemed untouched by the war, in the shops were tons of clothes, furs, shoes, peaches, tomatoes, fruit, and grapes; and no-one seemed to be worrying about whipping them up while the going was good. There were also a lot of modern buildings, especially on the outskirts. The only bomb-damage I saw was that to some barracks on the eastern fringe of the town, We then passed through some gorgeous woodland.
The roads here were a vast improvement on the earlier ones. They were double-stripped like the Fosse Way, and the tramway and footpaths ran down the centre grass-strip; and the whole lot was covered with a mass of trees and shrubs,
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so that you couldn't see any other traffic except that on your own strip.
From this place onwards the country flattened considerably; for most of the way to our village an electric railway ran alongside the road. At 5 o'clock we stopped in our village - an unnamed cluster of houses on my map. We are billeted in a cross between a storage warehouse and a dance-hall, behind a pub; at any rate it has both a bar, and piles of furniture, straw, pig-swill, etc., inside. We are now waiting for the meal to be served up - it will be late because the burner is broken. Its now 1/4 to 8 p.m., and I'm writing this in the parlour of the pub attached to our sleeping-hall.
I received mamma's letter and papers of Sept. 10th and Daddy's of 16th, thanks.
The mail briskens a bit as more ports are got. It's not my watch strap that has broken; it is the bar of the watch-case, which has come adrift from the case itself at one end, so that it cannot be worn on the wrist.
Next door there is an absolute Babel round the counter: French, English, and Flemish, all being spoken at once, and the wireless, blaring away against them all.
I'll close down now; it's 10 to 9 and I shall censor a few letters and prepare for bed.
We covered 95 miles today, so that's almost 210 in 2 days.
In this region I have seen several ploughing teams of oxen and horses fastened to the same plough. One team consisted of 2 cows
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