Stan and Grace

2364226 Sergt S. Bristow Unit Headquarters 15 L of C Signals B.N.A.F May 27 th 1943     My Very Own Darling, I bet you have been calling me some nasty names for keeping you waiting for such a long time for a letter, but my conscience is clear, Darling!!   There are two reasons, a) as you see above, I have changed my address* & b) I am afraid I have to confess that I have been ill for the last two or three days.   Yes, for once, the Army Post Office is NOT to blame! The change of address has turned out very well.   Now I have a nice little bed in a camp on the cliff top near a coastal town, with the lovely blue Med. just about 200 yds away!   What a change from the rather barren country we have been in for the past month.   As I am writing now the door of the hut I sleep in is open & the sun, a great flaming ball, is sinking slowly beyond the sea & turning it into a beautiful golden colour.   In a tree nearby a night...

G.H.N. (Selston)                                                                            (27) 27. 5.43     My Own Darling, I was very thrilled to receive letter 22 this morning, enclosed in which was the band from the cap of a member of Rommels once famous “Africakorps”.   I was pleased that it had come through alright and you will be pleased to hear that it arrived.   All the boys on my ward were very interested in it and it had to be passed round twice for them to have a good look at it.   I will certainly take it for John and Janet to see, at the first opportunity. Your letter had...

Nurses Home General Hospital,                                                                          (26) Nottingham 26.5.43      My Very Own Darling, Once again I write to you from Selston.   I am only five weeks overdue and as it is Sister’s week-end I suppose I shall be here another four days.   A nurse was sent out to relieve me but the “powers that be” are still hanging on to me.   Ah well - they cannot keep me here for ever, can they? Enclosed you will find the buttercup that Kit and Joyce have pressed for me to send.   I really dare not do any other but send it after they have ...

Selston                    (25) Sunday, 23 rd My Precious Darling, Whenever I start writing your letters I feel lonely and sentimental and I realise how much I am still missing you and how much Darling – I love you. Not that I only feel this way when I write to you – I often feel like it and wonder how you are. At the end of each day – before I go to sleep I think “Well – that is one more day gone & one more day nearer to our meeting and being together for always”.   Dreadful isn’t it to wish ones time away but until you come home my Dear, the time cannot go quickly enough. It is now almost fifteen weeks since the last short stay which we had together.   It has been more like fifteen years! Yes, I suppose I am feeling a little impatient to-night but even as I write and look back upon our success in your part of the world I think that after all – the war may not last much...

  2364226 Sergt S. Bristow                                                                                       (25) Unit Headquarters 9 Corps Signals B.N.A.F. May 21 st 1943     My Very Own Darling, The last three days have been very good ones for they’ve each brought a letter from you.   There is nothing more cheering Darling than to receive a letter from you. I was, however, sorry to hear that your Mother was not well.   I hope she has completely recovered by the time you receive this, my Dear.   I have always told you that ...

Selston                                                                                                   (24) 19. 5.43      My Own Darling, Monday morning I received an ordinary letter from you.   Actually it had arrived Saturday and Kit had posted it on for me.   You had written it on April 21 st . On Tuesday I came back.   I caught the 1.38 p.m. train from Cudworth and arrived in Nottingham at around 3.30 p.m.   I decided to go to the G.H.N. and enquire if there was...

 This is Stan's original log of the distances the unit covered between 4 April and 11 May, 1943.  It is a carbon copy so it it likely that this was information prepared for senior officers rather than just his own interest. La Mohammedia is to the south of Tunis and my 'Atlas of World War II' shows that a battle took place there around 7 May.   Although this seems to be out of date order, in that it finishes on 11 May, this is the document that Stan used in his letter of 16 May when he says that they advanced 473 miles in 37 days "against an enemy fighting every inch". #WWIIlovestory    #worldwar2lovestory   #1940slovestory   #wartimelovestory   #lovestoryinletters    #royalsignalsWWII    #royalsignalsworldwar2    #soldierWWII    #NorthAfricaWWII   #NorthAfricaworldwar2  

Home, Sunday                                                                                                             (23) 16. 5.43        My Own Darling, I am writing this whilst waiting for the dinner to finish cooking.   Yes, I am still at home but am going back on Tuesday.   I was pleased to say that Mother is much better and is coming downstairs today for the first time.   She was hoping to come down yesterday but the doctor came and said not until today. ...

2364226 Segt. S. Bristow                                                                                       (24) Headquarters 9 Corps Signals (Rear) B.N.A.F. Sunday, May 16 th 1943 My Very Own Darling, At last this part of the war is over!   A step in the right direction, my dear, isn’t it?    We were travelling towards Tunis in convoy the other morning when an officer came along & said “It’s all over – Jerries packed in!” and I could not help wishing that those words referred to the whole of the war and not to just the North Africa Campa...

Sgt. Bristow                                                                                             (23) UHQ9 Corps Sigs (Rear) BNAF                                                                               ...

Grimethorpe                                                                                           (22) 8.45 p.m.   Tuesday, 11 th May My Very Own Darling, I received your letter, written on Easter Sunday, this morning Darling, each letter I get from you gives me a new thrill.   I suppose that by now you will have received Air Letter (21) telling you why I am at Grimethorpe.   I am pleased to say that Mother is now much improved.   The doctor comes again to-morrow so he might let her get up. I am also pleased to say th...

2364226                                                                                                            22 Sergt. S. Bristow Headquarters 9 Corps Signals (Rear) B.N.A.F. Tuesday, May 11 th 1943 My Own Darling, Today has been a very trying one.   The sun seems to have been hotter and the flies more numerous and more of a nuisance.   My whole day seems to have been spent in swotting them and at the moment the floor of the office is absolu...

Sergt. S. Bristow                                                                                                21. Headquarters, 9 Corps Signals (Rear) B.N.A.F. Monday, May 10 th , 1943 My Very Own Darling, You (or more correctly the Army Post Office) had me quite worried – no letters from you for 16 days! !   I began to have visions of you being carried away by Florence Nightingale once again – but all my fears (I really hadn’t any serious ones, Dear!) were banished tonight when an air letter (no. 19) and airgrap...

  During March, 1943, the Axis army, led by Italy’s Marshal Messe and Germany’s General von Arnim, had been driven back towards the Tunisian ports of Tunis and Bizerta, where they held off the attacking American, Free French and British forces. Allied troops broke through in early May, and on 7 May, 1943, Tunis fell to the Allies.   Bizerta followed suit on 12 May.   The Allied forces were now in control of these two major ports and had captured around 250,000 prisoners of war.   Those Axis forces not captured retreated to the Cap Bon peninsula. Pont du Fahs, which Grace referred to in her letter, is just above the Zeugitane Mountains, towards the bottom of the map in the cutting below. This is how the position was described by the Bradford Observer on Tuesday, 4 May.   It is interesting to see,  in the left-hand column, a short article on the invention of “instant mash” potato!

Nurses Home, G. H. N.                                                                            (22) 5 p.m.   7. 5. 43    Doncaster My Own Darling, I am writing this letter in the little hut at the Bus Station at Doncaster.   I missed the  4 p.m. bus by four minutes so consequently am having to wait two hours for the next bus home. I really did not expect to go home again before July 1 st – my holidays but Dad rang Matron up last night to see if I could go home for a few days as Mother is not well.   I did not get the message until 9.30 this morning.   I was in the middle of do...