Tuesday, 4 January, 1944

 2364226
Sergt. S. Bristow,
Headquarters
15 L of C Signals
Cen Med Forces   

                                                                                                                98.
4 Jan 44

My Very Own Darling,

Your letter written on Christmas Day arrived this morning, much to my delight.  Pleased to hear that you managed to keep sober throughout the festivities and that on the whole you managed to have a good time, everything being considered.  It was nice of the comedian to remember you and invite you along to his show on Christmas Day.  Was it the first time you had been back-stage at a theatre?  It is quite an experience isn’t it?  The Christmas that I am most looking forward to, however, is the one we have together for the first time after the war.

You were just as lucky as me as far as mail was concerned.  It was good as a Christmas Box to get a letter from you on Christmas Day.  I am pleased you felt the same way.

The weather here continues to be cold and the chilly atmosphere is made even worse by the fact that in our billets and offices the floors are all stone, and on top of that there’s not one fireplace in the whole building.  What wouldn’t I give for a ton of Grimethorpe coal at the moment!  Still, I suppose we must be thankful for small mercies.  We are better off than the poor blighters further up.  We have at least a roof to keep off the rain and snow, which is a lot more than some of them can say.

I hear that some people in England are grumbling that we are not getting on very fast out here.  They wouldn’t grumble if they saw and experienced life in some of the country that we are fighting in at the moment.  An army can’t make spectacular advances such as the Russians are making, in hills and mountains such as surround the 5^th and 8^th Armies at the moment.

Life here is still very boring, although I had a trip into town a couple of days ago and that went a long way to relieving the boredom.  I managed to get into the local town to see my first Italian opera.  The company were playing the “Barber of Seville” by Rossini and I went along and had five bobsworth.  It was well worth it too, the singing being excellent and the orchestra all that could be desired.

It is on such outings as this that I always wish that you could be by my side.  I don’t know whether this type of thing is at all in your line, but the experience of going to an Italian Opera is something worth having.

The Russians continue to do very well, don’t they, and it would almost appear that we are beginning to soften up the French defences ready for the long-awaited push.  How I hope that it won’t be very much longer, Darling.  I should simply hate to think that the war would still be dragging on when this year comes to a close.

There is so much that you and I could be doing if we were together, isn’t there?  I often wonder if we shall ever be able to make up for all the time we are losing whilst this damned war is dragging on.  I know we shall have a jolly good try, though, shan’t we?

I am anxiously looking forward to the day when the government decides to publish its plans for demobilisation so that it will give us both an idea if and when I am likely to shake myself free from this so-called organisation and, besides getting back to really interesting work, be able to get cracking on all the plans that you and I have made during the long days that we have been apart.

I can see the bottom of the page rapidly drawing nearer, Darling, and so I had better say “Goodnight” once more.  A year ago tonight it took my from 10 o’clock until 2 a.m. next morning to say that one word to you.  We thought it was our last night together.  Remember? And then next morning .......

It was a great adventure, wasn’t it?  All my love, Darling.  Always yours   Stan  xxxxx

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