In war news at this time on November 6th Franklin Delano Roosevelt won a fourth term as U.S. president and the aircraft carrier USS Lexington was heavily damaged by kamikaze attacks. On November 9th General Patton’s troops and tanks crossed the Moselle River and threatened Metz. On November 10th V-2 rockets continued to hit Britain, at the rate of about eight a day. On November 12th after numerous bombings while anchored in a fjord at Tromsø, Norway, the German battleship Tirpitz was sunk and on the 17th the Germans gave up Tirana, Albania which was liberated by local partisans.
Battery referred to in this letter is a unit of artillery, mortars, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface to surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles etc, so grouped to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems.
As usual
19th November 1944
My darling Janie,
Herewith the usual weekly or rather bi-weekly Sunday letter, no, even that doesn’t make sense.
Nothing special in the news. My First Officer leased from one of the Batteries is a grand bloke and will be good to experiment on as he’s looking forward to it.
Some of John’s fellow soldiers
While I think of it sweetheart you have made no mention of my request to put forward my name so that I can join the Old Tauntonians properly.
I hope you haven’t forgotten but if so please get in touch with Mr.Williams at Taunton School and have matters put in hand so that I shall receive the magazines and so on. I said when I left that I wouldn’t join until I had achieved something and perhaps in a small way I have now. Anyway I now have a small boy and an incipient Tauntonian so fill in the forms will you sweetheart- life member or something.
Taunton School, Taunton, attended by John and later by Anthony
You know sweetheart I’m doing an awful lot of talking this evening and very little writing and now it’s nearly 10pm and this is all I’ve done. But as there is just no news it makes it a bit difficult.
Oh yes, there is! Funny how one forgets the obvious. I’ve had a fireplace built at one end of this tent and it looks topping. It also has a wooden mantelpiece. The lad who made it wanted to paint it but I like the plain brick much better. We burn logs on it and really it makes all the difference in comfort and in appearance it’s super. I have bought a bedside rug from the Officers’ Shop and use it as a hearth rug. A camp chair, together with a reading lamp the electrician made, sets off a very homely picture. As Tom said “I wonder how my wife thinks I live with all this stuff in the papers these days when in point of fact I’ve never been so comfortable since war was declared!” The older a campaigner I get, the more trouble I take to make things comfortable for all of us.
Don’t however imagine for a single moment that that forward troops can do all the things I do. For them it’s really tough and now they have stopped sweating to shiver up in the mountains. I think that undoubtedly these are the toughest fighting conditions in the world and the way they are shoving on is magnificent. All this time I’ve been overseas I’ve never been far from trouble and yet never in any danger. I’ll show you all of it on a map one day sweet. Goodness you are going to find me a terrible bore after this war. You know the sort pf thing: “When I was in Burma…”
Isn’t the European war going well? This looks like the real thing if it is it will make all the difference to my repatriation. I’m not worrying about this month’s leave. It will only interfere with me getting home for good which is now more important.
Oh, to be with you again sweet, to live in our home with you and Anthony. At first I’m sure it will feel too good to be true. Those walks together or going to the beach or to the movies or to someone else’s house or even a dance (I can see I shan’t be able to get away with anything now) and then always back to our own fireside, to those intimate little fireside meals, tea and supper by reading lamp and firelight and perhaps the radio.
Till those beautiful days are with me again, all my love is yours and our Anthony’s my sweetheart.
Take care of your dear selves and I’ll soon be with you again.
All your own,
Johnnie xxxxxx
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