大象传媒

Here is a letter my dad sent to his aunt and her family on 22nd April 1945. He was 18 years old and had never been away from home before. The letter was found amongst Auntie Dot's posessions after she died recently.

Dear Aunty Dot, Pat, Albert and Eric

I received your letter this morning so I have decided to write back strait away while I have got a bit of time on my hands.

Out here we get 1 day off every 5 or 6 days and all the rest of the time we are either on guards or putting barb wire up or washing pots and pans and peeling spuds in the cook house.

I seem to be painting a pretty gloomy picture of the Army Life out here but it isn鈥檛 really too bad, really. Every afternoon we can go down to the sea swimming and well, we do have a smashing time.

You鈥檒l hardly be able to recognise me when I come home by now I am as brown as a berry.

They have issued us with clothes made of thin cloth which they call K.D. and they are just the job. We have 2 K.D. Short Trousers and 2 K.D. Long Trousers.

I bet you wouldn鈥檛 half have laughed if you could have seen us all going to church yesterday morning dressed in K.D. shirts and shorts. We all looked like a set of school kids going to school.

Although Summer has only just started out here the thermometer reaches about 85o during the day but it is a lot cooler up here than it is in Egypt.

Tell Pat that I haven鈥檛 seen any dolls yet, out here, but I鈥檒l get her one as soon as I see one. In a couple of weeks time I shall be going on leave to a leave camp in Beirut for about 9 days and I might be able to get one there.

Well I shall have to close now as I am just about running out of words so cherio and all my love to you all.

Fred.

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