Monday, 27 March, 1944 - Stan's Letter

2364226
Sergt. S. Bristow
Headquarters                                                                                128.
15 L of C Signals
Cen Med Forces

27 Mar 44    

My Very Own Darling,

The Army Post Office rose to unprecedented heights yesterday by delivering an air letter to me five days after you had posted it.  It was, to use an Americanism, a new all time high!  That’s the quickest I have ever received a letter from you since I left England.  It is grand to get letters so quickly, isn’t it?  Your letters are always interesting, but they are even better when the news is “fresh”.

So you were beginning to get worried because my letters were a little overdue, were you?  It does seem unnecessary, doesn’t it, but I am just the same when I think that one of your letters is a bit late in arriving.  Don’t worry, Darling, I am keeping myself out of harm's way.  I shall take very good care that I come back to you “as good as new”, don’t you fret.

I had one of my rare outings yesterday afternoon, when I went to visit some of our men who are stationed about 50 miles away.  It was a warmish, sunny afternoon and the country looked quite spring like.  The cherry trees are all in bloom and they give some welcome colour to the countryside.  This journey is the furthest I have been for quite some months.  What little I have seen of the countryside around here hasn’t thrilled me particularly.  One thing I did like, however, was the marvellously straight road we travelled on.  It was a good surface and stretched for miles like a long straight ribbon right up into the hills.  One could really go places on roads like this if one had a nice high-powered car.

We finished up with a visit to the pictures in the town, when I saw for the second time Noel Coward’s “In Which We Serve” and enjoyed it every bit as much as the first time I saw it.

It was 9 p.m. when I got back to the Mess and so I was just in time to hear Churchill’s speech.  It was a rather long winded effort which lacked his usual fire, but he did cover some very important points.  If the plans that he outlined really do materialise, the country will have progressed quite some way towards the Utopia we always dream about but never really expect to achieve.

As far as you and I are concerned, I think that (after demobilisation) the most important point was the question of houses.  I have spent many hours wondering what people like you and I will do about a house after the war.  It will no doubt be a hell of a job.  These pre-fabricated houses seem to be the answer to our prayer, purely of course as a temporary measure to tide us over the period of transformation of the country from war to peace.  What are your views, Darling?  Churchill painted quite a rosy picture of houses with all sorts of conveniences.  Let’s hope they actually materialise.

I am afraid that the gentleman who prophesied that the Hun-war would last for only another two months was, to say the least, a super-optimist.  How I wish his words would come true, Darling.   

As each day passes my desires to be with you once more and to be able to take you into my arms and hold you close, feeling all those queer little thrilling sensations I always feel when I am with you, grow strong.

You mention that week-end we spent together in Nottingham in your last letter.  Despite the fact that it had a rather uncertain start (yes!  A whole hour I stood there!!) it was one of the most enjoyable week-ends I have had.  I think that moment on the seat in the Castle grounds was really the birth of that marvellous thing which is our love for each other.  I think it was really our first “serious” discussion wasn’t it??  Those days are a long way off now, but their memory is still as fresh as ever, Darling; and why shouldn’t they be, for I think about them every day that crawls slowly by.

If our happiness in the future equals the happiness we have found in each other in the past (and I see no reason why it should not) then we shall have no grumbles, Dear, shall we?

No more room, Angel, so it’s “Goodnight” again.  Pleasant dreams.  All my love for always.  Your Stan  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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