March 15, 1942
Dear Dick: Just a few lines hoping this finds you all in the best of health. I was very glad to hear from you. Hows everyone getting along? You must have had a mild winter. Well we are having some pretty good weather over here at times but it sure gets chilly at nights. Them open fire places ain't much for heat. Do you ever hear much from Bud? I haven't seen anything of him or Phil Fisher? Of course you never know when you are gonna run into someone from home. Most of the boys in the 18th are from Sask., Regina, Indian Head, Cupar, Grenfell. A good bunch of guys.
Well we travel around quite a bit on schemes. Sometimes we move to different billets. We are living in houses right now. We are on the outskirts of a small village. Two picture shows a week, a dance hall, two pubs and canteen. Some place eh? Well I don't bother much about dances. They also have a snooker table so we have a pretty good time but we were out on a scheme yesterday about ten o'clock and a thunder storm came up so it wasn't so good pushing a gun through mud and water to our positions. But we have quite a bit of fun out of them even if it takes a couple of days to get the gun cleaned and equipment. Me and a few of the boys were on the coast for a week. It was quite a change. I thought Canada was cold but that place was plenty breezy. We were on duty for twenty four hours and then off twenty four.
Have you seen much of Sandy?. I hear from him quite often. Some guy eh?. What do you think of this war? I could hear the bombing the time them battle ships left Brest and every now and then we hear firing in that direction. Welll guess I"ll have to sign off. Hoping to hear from you soon and wishing all the best of luck and health. I guess it'll be pretty well summer by the time this reaches you. Remember me to all.
As ever, a friend,
L.J. Goff
I remember hearing a quote once about war sometimes being months of boredom with occasional days of hell, but that's as close as my memory brings me.
ReplyDeleteI guess army life was possibly a bit boring while in England but once they crossed the channel it got way too interesting for some. Dad was one of the lucky ones who lived to tell the story.
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