Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

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Letter written by Harry Massey from the No. 6 Palestine company at the Bluffs to Barbara Massey.

This is a scanned version of the original image in Special Collections and Archives at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt.



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Letter No. 79. Sunday Oct. 26th

Major J.H. Massey 6 Palestinian Coy, The Buffs M.E.F.

My dearest darling Barbar

I do wish I could begin a letter with something exciting or thrilling to tell you. It would be so much better reading for you & would give me so much more pleasure too. But there is nothing at all. I have written five letters so far this month, to the extent of 52 pages & goodness knows what I have written about - I do hope that my letters are still interesting enough. You see here I am now. There is really not one single important thing to tell you about me or about my life - not a single matter which you ought to know & which will make any difference to anything - & yet I shall write from now, 9-0 pm, until I go to bed. I shall probably read odd bits from some of your old letters & look at your photos & in my album & think an awful lot of things about you, past, present, future & talk to Peter a bit, & have a whiskey & smoke some cigarettes - the result will be another evening passed. & several, we shall see how many, pages contributed towards your next letter. I'm not for a moment trying to make my letters to you appear to be a duty, even if they are. I want you to get as much & as many as possible from me - there is nothing else at all which I [wish?] to do. but, darling, they are so much made up of bits & pieces about me & my life - & odds & ends about people & things. And sometimes I wonder, when things are like this, if I would not do just as well to write you one page. - Tell you nothing has happened. I am very well & very lonely & missing you far more than I can possibly tell you in my words - & that I love you desperately & then

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I will think & alway will, that you are the most perfect lovely woman in all the world & love to Max & all my love to you. There would be the whole position in a nutshell. And this month, I shall have expended over 60 pages & a great deal of time, in telling you just those things. Oh darling - I do hope you like my letters. For example, I shall have written about two pages on this theme & by the time I have exhausted it. And I have told you nothing at all - except to give you an insight into the workings of my mind from one other angle & not a particularly illuminating one either. It is perhaps silly to write in this way. You apologise for your letters from time to time & accuse yourself of being trivial or boring me. But I am always. [?] a part from the thrilling & exciting parts, interested with & charmed by your letter & very often amused too. And so I can only hope that my chatter is enough to please you - that my letters never disappoint you.

Now, what shall I chatter about tonight, darling? I think I will tell you some more about Peter & my officers - the one is a constant pleasure to me & the others are a constant irritation.

Peter really affords me with the only wholehearted laughs which I get out here. He is such a pricelsess mixture - because in spite of obeing a very independent & strong minded little bugger, even to the extent of being positively disobedient - he cannot bear to see me

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go off anywhere without him - & I'm quite sure that all his comings & goings are controlled by the necessity of keeping me in the corner of his eye. Often, when I stride off in some direction or other, I have no idea that he is any where about at all - he comes bounding along beside me with a broad grin all over his face, as much as to say 'oh no you don't' - (my mother could give you the expression to perfection). Yesterday morning, I went off on a bicycle to see the M.O. about half a mile away - & as fast as I went, he kept up - really annoying, while there an alarm went for a fire practice, very much like the air raid "all clear". The poor little chap remembers well the air raids of a few months ago & connects at once each alarm with bombs & A.A. fire & flashes - & away he went under a table: I took him outside & he positively streaked for home, me following on the bike. And he has started two new tricks in the morning now - one to wake me up, which he does by rubbing a very cold & wet nose on mine - & the other to be let out. I have sand fly netting all over windows & the other morning he got up on the table & went straight through this like a circus dog. So I had it replaced with fine wire gauze - he tried the same trick the next morning & literally bounced back off it into the room; he was furious & tried again with the same result after which he leapt onto my bed & dashed at me because I was laughing at him. I hope this does not bore you - but he certainly is a card.

As for my officers - Oh God but they bore me &

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irritates me & infuriates me. I suppose most people would do, anyway - but Hahn, Kalk & Arkin are the pink limit. It is a pity about Kalk, because I made him an officer myself - but he was a good steady N.C.O. & did his duty & being a solicitor in S. Africa is well educated. But he seems quite unable to carry a commission & has just become silly & far too pleased with himself. Perhaps he will improve. But, in addition, he is extremely boring & just has not a word to say for himself - just into there trying to look important. Arkin is too darned clumsy & does not seem able to help it. The complete little Jew, & very shy. In addition, he cannot pronounce 'Th' & so talks about "dey told me to come & do de ding anodder day" which is rather infuriating. But Hahn is the queen of them all - he's such a silly looking idiot & so damned wet. And the trouble is, he has now reached the stage where he is downright terrified of me. I have done my best to help the man & be decent & kind to him - & then he goes & does same damn silly thing again & I lose my temper & shout at him & there we are again. He is quite a problem. The trouble with most of these people is that they got their commissions far too easily - & no matter how much I shit on them, they are still very pleased with themselves to be officers - & no amount of rocketing, & extra duties & stopping of leave seems to make them come down to earth.

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I think they are improving a bit, but it is an exceptionally slow process. And it does not prevent them from being foully dull & boring.

Salaman will always be the same - a nice lad & plenty of guts & hard working - but not at all interesting. Jim Headley is a dear, kind, gutless, old graaay & again very dull. Ben, as you know by now, I like very much, proably more than I would most British officers - but it is a bit awkward for him : for me, as he is just one of the subalterns. It will be better when he becomes second i/c & a captain.

It is now 11.- pm. I must begin the week well & go to bed early. I. I have mapped out quite a strenous weeks training - which will entail about 50 miles marching for me & everybody else. I hope my feet will be able to take it. I am also hoping desperately - for a letter or something tomorrow - it has been blank since last Monday.

I do long for you, my darling Barbara XXXXXH.

Monday, Oct. 27th - I have really enjoyed myself today. I had to go & do a recce for a good place to take the Coy for a long march & some good training & a night out in the open. So Ben & I set off in the Austin at 10.30 this morning, with haversack - rations & water bottles full of cold tea. We made off due east, into the hills which you can see run as a backbone right down the centre of Palestine. We left the main road, & went along a field track as far as Ba Nahala , which I have mentioned before from there we began to climb & from

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