German-Army horse-drawn carts. My platoon was in reserve, and except for an interchange of shells whistling overhead during lunch the whole area has been quiet. A few German fighters were greeted with A.A. fire this evening, and I think one was brought down. The farm area has had a pretty good blasting in the past, and has been further 'dilapidated' to make loopholes, etc. Actually it is just as quiet here as at the R.H.U. We have all built dugouts and have roofed them against air-bursting bombs, so it will be quite snug if they try 'mortaring' us, because we just dive underground.
We may get some fresh meat tomorrow because the butcher killed 3 'Stray' goats in the :farm buildings today and skinned them.
By the Way, only one parcel will arrive and not two. Owing to this posting I could not get into the Centre of Civilization to get another copy of the extensible reproduction - the one I like best; you will see what I mean if it arrives safely.
I hope to get a bit or sleep tonight, and have been cleaning my Sten and revolver so that they will work when I want them. If you could get one, I should like an open-necked shirt or two 15 1/2" (with collars attached). We don't wear ties etc. because they are too conspicuous; and I have also muddied my pips. I have just thought too of the £40 odd I still owe for those shares. I will pay it by cheque when I can get it arranged, but you have to much on your
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hands here to get everything done at once. By the way, is the screed for Currey all right?
Could you send me some envelopes?
I'll now close down as there is nothing else to say.
Letter 5. 12th Parachute Bn.
B. W. E. F.
7.July 44.
I haven't yet received any letters from you since I was at Westgate on the course; but I suppose that is because of my changes of address. This letter is a day later than I had originally intended owing to lack of time.
Wed. 5 July 44. Today at about 10 o'clock we moved from one defensive area to another, and my platoon moved forward. It was only 300 - 400 yds from our last area, up the road and through an orchard, and then down to a farm. Some of my platoon are in the farm, and some are along the boundary of a nearby orchard; the H.Q. is in a nearby garden With high walls like the orchard walls at Eastwell; but gaps have been breached in them so that you can move to and fro easily. The farm has been battered by shellfire in the past, and in some of the nearby fields There are cattle killed by shells, with their legs sticking out at awkward angles; they stink frightfully, in fact the whole place is bad enough to put you off your food. I am writing this sitting in a dugout with overhead cover.
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against shrapnel. The dugout is lined with straw, which harbours myriads of mosquitoes. We are given anti-bite cream; but most of the mosquitoes seem to like it. Today I just missed a sniper - as I dived into a trench, the sergeant behind me said a sniper's bullet shot into one of the sandbags just after me. We have now cut out the brushwood in the whole ditch to make a covered way without having to keep to the exposed ground. During the after-noon I rested, and had to stay awake all night, being forward.
Thurs. 6 July_44. This morning another platoon of our company 'relieved' us, and we went to the rest area. Here I slept a bit and ate. In the evening some Jerry deserters came in to us. There were about a dozen of them, and they were Poles and Russians. On their arm was a shield with POA above it. I asked one of them (they spoke German) what it meant, and he said it was 'Russian Army of Liberation'. He didn't say what it was they were liberating They a11 stank frightfully, and had brought their rations with them They were marched off to Brigade. Tonight I was up all night again because we put out wire in front of our positions.
Fri. 7 July. Today we went back to the forward position again, This morning we had to attack an M.G. but as he spotted us first it fizzled out. I had to crawl up certain hedges and secure a hedgerow junction with 4 other men, so that German reinforcements couldn't come up the ditches, I had to crawl past a calf (dead) crawling with maggots: We got to the hedgerow junction without opposition, but as I said the whole attack then petered out. This
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afternoon they have been mortaring us a bit, but we are safe enough in these dugouts, though some landed fairly close. I have just collected my chocolate ration to munch in here for a bit.
Tomorrow the other platoon takes over for bit.
I have just been reading today's 'Daily Mail' - flown over; the first I have seen for ages As I said, if this lot is withdrawn for re-equipping I might get back to the peace and quiet of an R.H.U. for a bit; and when I get home I feel I'll never set foot out of the front door again for months, but I'll just sit by the fire, and read, and eat omelets! It's now 8.30. p.m., so I'll close down and have some tinned tea!
12th Parachute Regiment
B.W.E.F.
9 July 44
Letter 6. 9 o'clock p.m.
I'll go straight on with the diary from where I left off:-
Sat 8 July 44. Yesterday two of our chaps got killed or wounded in the course of the day, and so last night we had to try to get them in. They were only about 40 yards from a machine-gun position, and about 80 yards from us. The platoon was stood to for the operation, and 3 parties of us went out - one party of a Bren gunner and his mate and a Sten gunner, and 2
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parties of the same and 2 stretcher-bearers and stretchers. We got to where the two wounded people should have been, and found they were not there: probably collected in by the Germans. Some nit-wit then kicked a tin, and suddenly German machine-guns opened up from about 4 directions and they threw grenades all around them. Luckily they were using tracer and were on fixed lines, so if you saw where the bullets were going you could choose your route to avoid them. We had done what we set out to do i.e. collect the bodies (but they weren't there) and we were not to attack the guns, so we retired as gracefully as circumstances allowed, i.e. like the wind down a clear channel between lines of tracer along the road, with rat-tat-tats and grenade bursts filling the air. Just outside our own posts the lines crossed, so we dived to earth and crawled like worms underneath them to just outside our barricades across the lane.
As you had to stand up to cross this when you climbed over, I lay up just outside while the racket was going on and Verey lights went up, and ten minutes later when all was quiet again, got up and strolled in in one piece; no one taking part had even been scratched. The two stretchers got caught up in the branches on the way back and had to be left. During the night the Germans seemed nervous and opened up several times to no effect. During the day the Brigadier visited us, and at midday we came back to rest again being relieved by another platoon. During the afternoon I slept and looked at maps of Normandy for place-names like Guy, Guise, etc. , but couldn't find any, though I found a lot of other English surnames -
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Tracy, Mandeville, Granville, etc.
Went to bed early.
Sun. 9 July 44. This morning I missed breakfast (only tinned sausage and biscuits anyhow) and got up late, At 2 p.m. we moved another few hundred yards back again to rest, but mortars fired on the area most of this afternoon. Saw last Friday's Daily Mail, but the map on page 1 does not stretch far enough to include where we are if you wanted to check up. Tonight we got some good news, amounting to a period of peace and quiet and rest. Rest of today - sleeping.
I hope you got my tapestries which I sent myself (!) and I hope the sea-water etc, hasn't ruined them. Will you let me know if they arrived in good condition.
I'll try to get one of the maps of Normandy we use, as a souvenir, and send it home; they are not at all bad. The slit trench I am in now has a carpet on the floor! I don't know where it came from - probably the nearby farm.
I suppose these letters out are getting home faster than yours get out here, because the planes going back would be empty. I haven't had any of your mail yet.
No more news,
12th Parachute Regiment
B.W.E.F.
Wed. 12 July. 44.
7.30.p.m.
Letter_7.
I have just received Mamma's letter of 7 July (posted on the 9th, I believe). The reason my letters took so long was probably that my first ones went by sea and my later ones have been going by air, so they should take only a couple of days to get to England now. This unit quite often has its letters coming and going by air. If the baggage has not arrived from Aldershot (i.e. my canvas suit-case and kit bag) write to the O.C. No.101 Reinforcement Group, Rushmoor, Aldershot; he may have been late in sending it, or more probably It has been stolen. If you refer to the parcel I sent
from here, it was not clothes, but oddments of historical interest to Daddy and me (and perhaps Bun). When at Aldershot I was at No. 31 R.H.U., which should help to pin it down. My reference to Bun's tablecloth was not referring to Bun, but was hinting at
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where I am (or was then) as you will see when you get the parcel! I can't write in ink not enough of it. Actually I haven't had hay fever since I came over here. I think It's because the seasons are about a month more advanced here and
the has probably seeded already. I brought some tablets with me in case I got It, but haven't had to use any. Now for the news.
Mon July 10. At about 11 o'clock a.m. we were relieved by another unit, and made our way back to the wood we are in now, about 3 miles back. So there is peace and quiet for a bit. About 3/4 mile from our old position about 4 Jerry planes dived out of the sky towards us, and machine gunned a farm by the road ,just opposite one of my sections. They are the first planes we had seen apparently they only venture out when cloud is low. They used cannons against the farm and set up quite a dust from the stonework. Just beyond the farm we turned right into a field and ate lunch; then continued our march through a slight drizzle. We crossed the - and -- -, and turned left down a path into this wood, where again we split up to our cave-dwellings. The one I am in is grand - about 31/2 feet deep, with shelves, and lined
with leaves; at one end are packing-cases for cupboards, and it is roofed with timber and earth, like a long barrow. During the first evening we were here a stray shell happened to land in the wood , and caused a good swish, bang, and smoke; but It has been absolutely quiet since, except for our own guns, which occasionally set up a sharp din
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around us.
Tuesday 11 July. Got up at 8 o'clock and we spent most of the morning on weapon inspections, kit inspections, etc.
During the afternoon we went to the mobile baths of the local division. They were only showers, but nice and hot. They were fixed up in the barns of a farm, and river water is pumped into circular canvas tanks and then heated and fed to the showers.
While we were there about 8 German planes flew over and round, but soon lost formation in trying to avoid the A.A. fire, which covered the sky with black puff's. I have regained contact with my pack and valise, which had been kept back when we went forward, and got a change of clothes. In the evening, tried making. the mosquitoes 'dummel' by burning a length of rope in my dug-out and letting the fumes get Into the nooks and crannies.
It was moderately successful, but in the last week my hands, wrists, and face,have become covered with bites. I have tried a kind of cream, paraffin, and fumigating, and the paraffin is the best even though it does rot your bones! The trouble is the more you scratch them the more they tickle. Thank goodness they're not malarial.
Wed.12 July. This morning I set to washing my clothes - my batman was on haircutting, being a barber in civil life; he gave me a haircut last night. I had quite a lot of washing to do, because I had. what had accumulated before I was posted here, while I was still at the R.H.U. I put it to dry under the hedge just behind my cabin (!) that now
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makes me with all my kit (moderately) clean again. This afternoon I pottered about, turned the washing - pulled the socks in the approved manner - read a Penguin of 'War Poetry', and yesterday's newspaper; which had come over by air. The sun had been shining this afternoon, and it has been quite hot. This evening I gathered in the washing, and am now writing this.
I had a fried egg for breakfast; one of the officers bought some from a French woman. While we have been here, too, we have seen our first BREAD - it tastes like ambrosia after a fortnight of dry-as-dust biscuits. It is white bread, but not French; we are not allowed French bread because it is one of the few scarce things in these parts, so this bread must have been made in England or in a Field Bakery.
Could Bun make me a flag of our coat of arms as soon as possible to fly over my dug-out, so that people can find me without having to search? If you can buy small lengths of blue, white, red, and yellow flannel, and slap them one on top of the other after cutting them out, it should not take too long. It would be useful if it could be double-sided so that it can be seen from both angles, front and rear, to look something like this:-
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