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. 93. Saturday - 17th Jan Capt J.H.Massey, 6th Palestinian Coy, The Bluffs, Middle East Forces My own darling Barbara, It seems that my life out here is to become ever funnier, before it becomes better - or before I come home. Another of my battles is now won & on Monday Ben became Captain Ben Arzi. And Salomon goes & Headley goes & I am all by myself. It sounds more Tragic & Terrible than it really is but still it is quite a break. If only because I shall have no more poeple from England in my mess - but I spend so little of my time there, & neither of them are particularly interesting. Ben will be equally as good as Salomon as far as administration & accounts & so on are concerned - probably better - It remains to be seen whether he can or will be of any help in chasing the subalterns around. And Headley, as I have told you is more of an obstruction than a help & is more complacent than my patience can cope with. I am to get another Jewish subaltern from another Coy, but my hopes are not too high that he will be of much use as they will almost certainly send their worst, unless Col. L. controls it & instructs them who to send. In any case, there are bound to be difficulties as the Coy he is coming from is frightfully slack & ragtime. Ben is elated & doing his best to conceal his delight - & he is itching to put up the extra pips but cannot do so until it is confirmed - an annoying formality. Sgt Lareny has now been promoted C.S.M. C.SM. Jack having been in hospital since before Xmas & having become fed up with having no sergeant-major. And so here I am, as I said, all alone , & enjoying the doubtful distinction of being the first

Last edit 12 months ago by shashathree
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of these Coys to become all Jewish, with the exception of the C.O. Salamon & Ben & I went to Tel Aviv on Wednesday for the purpose of celebrating & with the express intention of getting a bit boozed. We had 3 large Gins & Frenches here before we left in order to give ourselves a good start at reasonable prices. We then went to Pilz & stayed there from 7.30 until midnight. The food is really excellent there, & the band frightfully good. We did not dance of course - but just sat there & ate & drank & watched the people & listened to the music & enjoyed it very much, & just got nicely boozy - the way you like me to! Tomorrow we are going in again, together with Headley, for a fairwell party - but this time more quietly. Food at an exGerman place which is very good & reasonably priced, & then to see a film called "Underground" & then a couple of beers & home. And after all this I shall probably not go out again for several weeks. It is a dull & miserable life, & I hate it. But you have no need to feel particularly sorry for me because being away from you is the cause of the whole matter. I suppose I would much prefer it if, during this last year, I had seen the Desert & Crete & Cyprus & Malta & the enemy - & that during the coming months I may see the Caucasus, & Iran & maybe Bulgaria & Turkey - & meet Russians. Provided I could have seen & will see all these places & people - & still return to you whole & unharmed - I suppose

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it would be much more interesting. But if it were like that, you would have to worry constantly about my safety, survival - & I should have much less time to write you letters -& many of your letters would possibly fail to find me. And so we should be missing & worrying about each other even far more that at present & life would be hovering around the limit of what can be endured. It is all a question of missing you & longing for you - which indicates of course just how happy I was & how much I loved you - & just how happy I expect to be again & how much I shall be able to put into effect my love for you again. Time seems to go along quickly, from week to week & weekend to week-end & so on - but it now does feel an age since we parted from each other at Gobowen. It is 16 1/2 months, which is a long time, & a tragic slice out of lives such as ours, at a tragic time too. But it seems so long ago, darling. It is unbearable to have to be away from you, from Maxie - & I never stop thinking so, longing & pining for you. I think, sweetheart, that when I come home, at first I shall want to hold you very tight in my arms, and lay my head on your breasts, & just cry. The relief, the happiness & joy are going to be too great. I do hope we shall be able to find a house, even a temporary one, that we shall not have to hang about for any length of time in rooms or hotels. As we have both, apparently, firmly decided, our house & home is very important, & must be lovely in every way. But if we cannot find quickly what we want, we must find something else

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as early as possible,& look for the other at our leisure, but not too leisurely, & don't settle down in the imperfect one, as we did in Not Lane. The one trouble is that I can picture the really awful sacker which is going to go on after the war, in houses & building materials - unless the Government really & truly step in & control things.

Tuesday, Jan 20th Dearest darling - I had an A.G. dated Dec 18 yesterday, & two PCs today from Dec 21th & Jan 1st. There is no doubt that PCs are much quicker on the average. But you get rather more on an A.G. in spite of your writing on both sides of the PC. Your AG writing gets smaller & smaller but is 100% legible. I wonder are we having a competition because I have been reducing mine too, & squeezed in 29 lines on the last one, but you have beaten me by two.

They were lovely darling, & I contained all kind of bits of news which I wanted to hear.

I am so pleased that the slippers arrived & are alright. But how infuriating that a pair of stockings were pinched. That is really a bit thick, & must be what comes of having to declare the contents on the outside of the parcel.

It is time I sent you another parcel, & I must have a look round & see what I can find.

And on New Year's Eve, you wondered if I was thinking of you! You can imagine how much, my darling. But I enjoyed my last New Year more really- & I believe I never told you

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about it. Rex went out to some party, for which I was not unthankful. And Jack had had to move down to the other mess & was doing Orderly officer. He left me at about 11-0, & the people in the mess were behaving very foolishly & so I slipped off to bed. I undressed, & cleaned my teeth & so on, & got into bed, & mixed myself an enormous whiskey & soda. And when my watch showed midnight, I passed your photo round my back & to the front again, gave it some very large & loving kisses & drank your health. I then lay back & slowly drank my drink, & gazed at you & thought about you - & then put out the light. Rex came in shortly after, & asked me if I was awake, but I played possum. It made me feel very sad, but somehow happy - & I should have much preferred to have done the same this year, but it seemed to be too unsociable. I [must underlined] be home by this time next year. I find it impossible to imagine having to wait even as long as that. Private manoeuvres apart - I feel now that Germany will be finished inside 6 months. That is not a 100% conviction, but I feel it quite strongly. Russia, I am sure, will not now let go, & allow Germany a chance to recover & reform. Therefore Germany's only chance is to counter attack successfully & I do not believe she can do it. Surely then, within 2-3 months we must attack too - & when we do, it will be with overwhelming force & will be very quick

Last edit 12 months ago by shashathree
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