9/ Battle School
Sept 4, 1942
Dearest Sweetheart:
Your Darling husband still lives, but boy oh boy, he certainly died a thousand times to-day. Never before & never again do I believe that I shall feel so low, so absolutely played out as I was to-day. No mercy shown at all, it’s double, double, double from the time you come on parade until you come off & their’s an instructor at your elbow all the time. If you slow or lag in the least bit you get howled at; hurry, hurry, hurry; I actually believe I’ll wake up one of these mornings yelling that; & I’ve more than once heard an instructor tell anybody that dares to fall out of line that he has no guts, that your not out until you’re absolutely out cold & flat on your face & I’ve honestly thought many times in the last 4 days, as most have, that to go out cold could certainly be a mercy.
All this may seem very terrible to you but it seems much worse to us right here, but without a doubt it goes to show us that the Canadian troops are really a long way from being in first class condition & that we have a long way to go, but by heaven when we get back to our units things are going to crack. As far as being trained & knowing the use of weapons they’re O.K., but as far as running I could run with the best of them, then I come here to find that I’m still a novice as far as conditioning goes. I kind of pity them when I think of what they’re going to go through when I get back. Hurry, hurry, hurry.
2 weeks & 2 days to go. I count the hours now. How thankful, & I realize it more every day & thank God for it, that you are away back in Canada & shall never know the tortures of war. I know that because we’re going to win this war come hell or high water. Now that the Americans are here & they sure are, thousands of them & they’re really training too, we will win, but not without a terrible struggle & a lot of sacrifice. In a month or a year we’re going over to take a crack at the enemy & we’re not going to stop until he’s finished once & for all. And when this blasted war is over we shall learn to play & love again. How I miss you Sweet.
Love to my Lovely & Lonely Darlings,
Arnold
END
(Ntr: stationary reads: Station, Portsmouth Town, Telephone, Portsmouth 744-1, Telegrams, “Queens Southsea”. QUEENS HOTEL, SOUTHSEA
Sept 7, 1942
Hello Sweetheart:
Well! One week finished & a day gone on the second week & my, how easy it was to-day in comparison with the days of last week. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have to work hard. It just means that today when we finished we could sit up & say that we were able to take in most of the things that happened instead of being too tired to do so. A few hard days to come though. I think, what was a great help was we had Sunday off, so Saturday night a few of us went on a short trip & stayed over night arriving back 10PM Sunday night. Went to a dance Sat night but we re back in the hotel by 10.30. Dances all over by 10. By now, of course, I’m used to the blackout, but its still very strange that everything closes up so tight so early. Slept until noon, had brunch, & then went for a stroll out around the town & found many interesting spots at which to gape, spots that I’ve read a lot about in “British History”, but never really expected to see. Many of the things I see, both in real life & stationary, are still to me just as if they had jumped out of a story book.
When I see & walk in some of the forests over here I can quite see how easily stories of “Robin Hood” & “Knights of the Round Table” could be true. The trees are so large, so green with foliage & yet so clean that you can drive trucks through the thicket. So hard to describe. With all this flowery explanation Sweetheart, I’d give my right arm to be with You & Barbara. Oh, for the days when you & I were free & happy, just contented to be together.
You know Sweet, foolish as it seems to You, I really believe & always shall that, that kiss you used to give me when I came home from work each day, was the real ground work of what makes love tick. Oh to have it now, just that soft caress of your beautiful lips in all their radiant beauty. To have even as a memory is heaven, but to have them in reality again would be divine.
Take good care of yourself & Barbara; so much depends on you both. Love, your devoted husband,
Arnold
P.S. Sept 10. Just got envelopes. Write again this noon. Everything still going along O.K. Course half over now. Yours Truly still loves you Darling. Sweet dream Darling even if this is 7am in the morning.
END
Sept 11, 1942
My Lovely Darling:
Your eyes are like the starlight,
Your lips are full of bliss
And all I want from you Dear
Is just a heavenly kiss.
So just remember Darling
That your loved one thinks of you,
And when the war is over
He’ll be coming back to you.
This I say with all my heart
I know I can endure;
My only hope is when we meet
Our love may still be pure.
These words are just flowing from me Darling, just exactly how I feel for you, I could keep on writing like this forever & still be sure of you. Your letter of Aug 3 & Cigarettes (the 2nd lot) reached me to-day, but it was the way you wrote the letter, and what was in it that really touched me.
My sweet Darling, how did I ever deserve such a marvelous girl as you for my wife. You are so sweet, so pretty, so demure, so simple in your tastes & you try so hard to understand your wayward husband & do things to make him happy. A little on the jealous side is my beautiful wife for when going to a dance she hates to have her hubby even look sideways at another girl let alone dance with one. Well Sweetheart! I don’t know that I blame you, because I know that if I found any man fooling around with my wife I’d stop nothing short of murder & even that would be too good for him. (Or you???)
Oh Darling! That letter of yours really did sound so lonely & pathetic, just like a little girl who had lost her mummy & was so lonely that she didn’t know where to turn. I know that may only have been a lonely moment & the moral low when you tried to express just how you felt, but Darling that little poem I composed at the first is exactly how I feel, now & forever. I think & dream of you continually & often pray that the damn war will be over soon & that you & I mat be together again soon. Sweetheart, just love me, trust me, as I trust you fully, & your trust shall never be mislaid. Keep well, keep faith, keep hope,
Our mutual Love,
Arnold
END
14/ Sept 23, 1942
Dear Annilea:
Just what to talk about, outside yourself, I don’t know as for some reason or other I just haven’t felt like writing letters the last couple of days & its certainly not due to my health because at the present moment I never felt better & the weather is beautiful considering this is fall & England.
Night scheme last night putting one platoon stalking another & its surprising the amount of fun & the kick the boys got out of it if its done the right way & the Officers & NCO’s show a little bit of get up & go themselves.
Well! The boys have at last what I call a real dog for a mascot, a beautiful collie, practically a pup yet who followed them back from their last scheme, I missed that one, & much to the Sgt-Majors delight, he discovered that Mike liked to jump fences & at the present poor Mike’s played out for just as soon as the boys found it out nothing would do but each one had to be showed that Mike could really do it.
We had a mess dinner Monday night, Scheme last night, Lecture Thurs night & night scheme Saturday night so you can see for yourself that we aren’t having all the time in the world to ourselves, nevertheless, work or no work I get awfully lonesome at time for You & Barbara & Canada and all it implies & at the present moment I feel very much that way. I feel that I’d love to have you here & be planning to go some place for the evening. But what I really want is not somewhere to go, but somebody here to talk to, somebody who understands me & will put me in a light hearted humor. Just a touch of homesickness Darling, but I’d give so much to be with you right now, to hold you close in my arms & tell you how much I love you, how much I adore you, how much you really mean to me. Take good care of Barbara dear,
Your devoted husband,
Arnold
P.S. I’m so far back in my correspondence to Mother etc.
END
Sept 26, 1942
Dear Annilea:
Was on my first Court-martial yesterday, started me well, three of them, & the president did not bring a stenograph along and so I, the junior member of the court (3 officers) acted as such. Started writing at 10.30 & with half hour off for dinner didn’t finish until 5.30. Have you ever tried to keep up with a person talking & get it all down & be able to decipher it afterwards? My arm almost fell off at times, but all in all I got some great experience.
Battle School finished Darling, & I’m now feeling fit & fine, the best condition I’ve been in since I arrived. Well! Our new Col. is certainly changing things around & everybody has to be on their toes, especially us, as we’re having a couple of inspections the first of the week.
(NTR: a second page seemed to be missing here)
END
Ntr: this letter was blue rice paper in a blue envelope with a sticker ‘opened by examiner 6688’
Sept 27, 1942
My Darling:
Enclosed find letter to mother also. This letter sweetheart is going to deal with a few things I would like at Christmas time from a co-operative group of people such as yourself, Mother & Dad, Grandma etc. One fountain pen, black watermans is in great need as you will notice this doesn’t write at its best & from the use its had its a wonder it writes at all. One cigarette lighter would be greatly appreciated as somebody made love to mine at the Battle School & we find it a great necessity. A pair of gloves, lined, but not expensive. Darling, see if mother can’t get some more of that canned chicken of hers & send a can or two along. (I don’t mean store canned chicken.)Peanut I’d love to get the taste of and jars or cans of raspberry jam. Heavy socks are always in demand & also a few handkerchiefs. I hope you don’t take that as a note of command, I just thought you might like to have an idea of a few things I could use around Christmas time.
Oh, Sweetheart! Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could just fold yourself up into a parcel & be mailed over to me. What a Christmas present that would be. How nice it would be to snuggle you up close to me in my bedroll. Just think how heavenly it would be to have your beautiful body next to mine again, to feel it actually grow hot, restless as though unable to contain itself, to feel your tender lips upon mine get red hot, your arms tighten about me, one of my legs held firmly between yours, to find your beautiful legs open wide, to find myself between your lovely thighs, your legs clasping me lightly, something slipping easily into you, your body moving in a beautiful rhythmic movement, trying to come close still, a moment of heavenly bliss as you reach a pinnacle & the complete relaxation & restful sleep.
Oh, that the days would hurry, when we will be together again, just you & 1, holding each other tightly, never to part again. But so we love & have faith that we shall soon be together again.
Love of your devoted husband husband to both,
Arnold
P.S. Do I love you??
(Ntr: Boy, that started slow then ended with a bang, didn’t it? I would never have posted it in a million years but I kept imagining Examiner 6688 as her eyebrows went up (and up) as she read it. Did she show it to a co-worker? Did she get the vapors and collapse to the floor? We all got more than we expected on that one!)
END
#16 Sept 28, 1942
Dear Annilea: Didn’t number letter 15. Hope this finds both my little girls in the pink of health. A heavy for is still over the land here & we’re just sitting around at the present moment 8.30 AM) awaiting word if our inspection by that Distinguished visitor is going to take place or not. (Incidentally, I’m very sorry that my spelling is not up to scratch) Did I never thank you for your beautiful present of a camera? I also always carry with me the snap shots of Barbara & always take great pride in showing off my wife standing in shorts beside a tent. This, incidentally, is the only nice snap shot I have of you. In fact, this is the only snap shot of you standing alone that I have. Do you think in the next six months you could arrange to have a few taken & send same to me to pick one from? I’d send the remainder back if so desired.
Well Sweetheart! The fall in has just sounded so I must speed away.
With all my love to my adorable wife & beautiful daughter,
Arnold
END
(NTR: letterhead is hotel stationary.)
Regent Palace Hotel, Piccadilly Circus, London, W.1.
Telephone: Regent 7000 (40 lines), Telegrams: “Untippable, Piccy, London”, Code: Western Union.
Sept 30, 1942
Dear Annilea:
Certainly different kinds of paper I’ve been writing you on lately, but after all darling its not the paper your reading but the writing on it. Practise & more practise, that’s the order of the day, even though it meant getting out in the teeming rain. We’re going to win that competition or bust.
Haven’t seen a letter for over a week now, hope one arrives soon, because I get so awful lonesome for you. Can’t understand why I should, as you repeatedly tell me that you used to beat me in all card games & that you also used to aggravate me whenever you got the chance. Weren’t you a mean little pig? But I do love you so much Darling & how I used to adore having you put your arms about me & whisper that you loved me also. Your lips, your eyes, your body, every movement, just radiated love & a passion to be held close & loved still more. No greater love hath man, than he really love his own wife,
Arnold
END