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They Censored Dad’s Letters!

In 1942 and 1943 my father was a supply officer in the Western Desert. My mother received occasional letters from him at irregular intervals. On one memorable day, to our great excitement, there were two letters specially written to my brother aged 5 and to me aged 6. We were so excited when we saw our names on the envelopes. My father had obviously tried to write about things he thought we would be interested in. My letter was all about camels and palm trees and how hot it was. I was thrilled to be able, with my mother’s help, to read about where he was. My brother’s letter was a great disappointment. We learned afterwards that my father had thought that planes and tanks would interest a boy but the censor had obviously decided that the information might help the enemy. The letter on its blue paper had a great rectangle cut out of the page. Between ‘Dear Dick’ and ‘Love Daddy’ there was just a great hole. My brother was heartbroken. My mother found it very difficult to explain the concept of censorship to a five year old.

This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer Lis Edwards on behalf of Mrs M Blower and has been added to the site with her permission. Mrs Blower fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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