September 14th 1943
My Dearest Iris
As I sit in this sweltering heat, praying for some kind of breeze, I pray also for you. I hope that this letter reaches you in good health. I know that I’d promised to write every day while I’m away, but post here is sporadic and we can go days without word from anyone. Thank you for the photo you sent with the last letter, I look at it every chance I get. Not that I could forget your beautiful red hair and green eyes, your wonderful smile.
I only have to close my eyes and you are here. I ache to be home again with you, sweetheart, the two of us walking along Brighton Pier, eating ice creams on the beach. Keep up the good work that you and the other girls are doing in the ATS, I’ve told the lads here what you’ve been doing and we all appreciate it.
I may not be able to write for a while, but I love you always.
Your Darling Tom
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Written for the August 2010 edition of the Embrace Love Letter by C.L.Kerr
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Editor, Embrace Books
Hi,
This was really sweet. Love to know where Tom was stationed, what service he was is. Gosh, set two days after the Germans rescued Mussolini: allied forces tamping at the bit.
!943 probably one of the busiest years for allied forces. At the Casablanca Conference in January the Combined Chiefs agreed on an ambitious operation, called ANAKIM, to be launched in the fall of 1943 to retake Burma and reopen the supply line to China, not all went according to plan.
Re beach walking: Not sure about Brighton, but do remember mum saying the beaches on the East Coast, (she was stationed Norfolk and Beverly in Yorkshire) were off-limits: barbed wired and God knows what else! Guessing Tom was meaning when hegot back from wherever after the war.
best
F
I believe he did mean before the war started, yes. Not wishing to give too much away, but as I recall, the writer based this exchange on letters sent by one of her own relatives during the war.