Letter from Harry Massey to Barbara Massey

Capt. J. H. Massey 6th Palestinian Company The Buffs M.E.F

Letter. No. 20. 1st March 41.

My own sweet darlingIt is a day short of two weeks since I last wrote to you. It is infuriating, & very wicked of me, but I can promise you, that during all that time, I have literally worked from 8 in the morning, until 11 & 12 at night, & have been busy & occupied the whole time, except for v quick meals. Last night was the one & only exception, when I went to see The Citadel" - & you know I have been dying to see it ever since it was released. And then after that I was straight away on duty, until 3 in the morning. And this morning was the one exception to the 8.0 am rule - when, being Sunday, my batman just left me alone until 9-30. He said I worked too hard - & in addition am [??] - & that he had decided to take the matter into his own hands.

I will e xplain & tell you all about this company, which causes the rush of work, as I go along. I have wanted to cable every day, but my darling, inexplicable, naughty ducky - I still do not know your address, - & after five months! I am feeling incredibly sentimental & in love with you , & really want to write just about that & about you - but I am sure you would prefer to hear allmy news - because you know already how much I am in love with you. So I will keep myself in check until the end of the letter & it is an effort, even in a later, my lovely sweetheart - & tell you what has been going on. Always bearing in mind the censorship of course.

The last time I wrote to you, I was just on my way up to this place we are now at, to have a look at our work, & to make arrangements for our arrival. The King David Hotel, Jerusalem, by the way, was quite the most expensive night I have ever had. But, it was an experience, & now I shaall not need to do it again. I had a room with a bath, because I wanted to, & I had a bath at night & again in the moring - I had hors d'oevres, & a steak & potatoes & peas, half a bottle of St Julian, & coffee, for dinner I had 1 bottle of soda water, which I drank with some of the whiskey out of my flask while I was writing to you in my room - I had a coffee & rolls

2 for breakfast. The whole lot was + 10% - & believe it or not, the bill was £2-4-0. I had a nasty argument with the man, such as you must have had with the black beatle in the Exchange Hotel, Liverpool - & left fuming. And that memory gives a terrific pull at my heart & whole body, but I must go on. But wasn't that a lovely two days? I could just sit & think for hours about that time only.

Well - I continued on my journey, & managed to arrive back in camp the same night. There, it was a question of going on with & finishing the training & preparing to move, all at the same time. And then there was the move itself. And then having arrived here, everything had to be sorted out, & within 36 hours, we had to step straight into full duties. And ever since then, it has been a question of straightening things out, & naturally, altering everything to the way I wanted it. You see, this company is far more than a company in the normal way. It is a completely self supporting & self administered unit - under higher command, of course - & much more akin to a battalion. I am the Commanding Officer, therefore responsible & answerable for everything. In the ordinary way, a battalion has, at least, the numbers of a well trained staff - but with me, everybody is new. A Bn has an Adjutant & I have none. It has a Regimental Sergeant Major, a seasoned experienced man - & I have a Company Sergeant Major, who was a ssergeant until three months ago. It has an Orderly Room Sergeant, who has been at it for years, & who knows the clerical side indside out - & I have a Jewish Corporal, who was in business three months ago. At Bt has a Company Quartermaster Sergeant, who was a sergeant in a horse regiment until lately. I told you in my last letter that my second in command, Behrems, had arrived: he is completely useless & hopeless & I am in the process of getting rid of him. And my schlaterns are inexperienced. So you see it all comes onto me. And God knows the Army is not my job. But, by dint of working like a horse, I find that I can manage extremely well - & now things are beginning to function, &

3. I hope I shall be able to sit back a little: watch everything going on. So darling, I am now the C.O. Remarkable, isn't it? My officers all call me "Sir." I have them marched in & dress them down, & they march out again. The Sergeants jump about when I appear, & as for the men - they quiver & shake & become so nervous, they drop things & can hardly speak!! But, of course its really not as bad as that, & I think the Company is in quite a good way. I am on very good terms with the officers - the sergeants are good chaps - & I gather that the men like me & feel that they are being fairly treated & well looked after. But the man Behrems is the fly in the oitment. When I wrote you before, I had only known him about a day - & he seemed to be alright. But he is a British Jew - & goes out of his way to show he is not a Jew. His initial is M - & he always signs himself Martin, in full - I presume in case people might thing his name was Moses. His wife, I am told, never appears without an enormous cross round her neck. And he makes a point of going to the English Church Service every Sunday - & making a great fuss about what time it is at, before he goes.

He is 45, was at Wellington & Sandhurst, & was in the last war. And he is just a silly, useless, objectionable old man. He knows nothing, does not try, is always worrying about his own pay & allowances & affairs & never about the men's. And he has a nasty whiny, overbearing, superfluous manner with the men. And so I decided to put a stop to him. I made out a report about him, which was about as rude & to the point as it could be - & he had to sign it before it went up. And I don't think it will be long now before he is removed. I refuse to feel sorry for him. He was, apparently, a failure in business, & I'm sure he did not join up for patriotic reasons, but only to get a Captains pay, special allowances for living out with his wife who naturally lives hear in Haifa. And then to do as little work as possible. And I think he thought

4. he could get away with it, because since the report went in, he has been trying in his silly way, & snivelling & whining round me. But he is just no use, - he will be lucky to go elsewhere & be a 2 Lieut & a glorified clerk why the hell should I work like a bloody nigger, & have no time to write to you, he floats uselessly about all day - then goes off home to his wife at about 6.0pm. Crikey! Wherever I go, there seems to be another Willie McClellum. but, thank goodness, there is a better system in the army for sending away people like that, than there is in the B.C.R.W.D.A.L d. Its a strange thing, you know - but when I was writing out the report about the man, I was shaking all over, & I could hardly write, & the writing was very bad. I don't know which or what emotion or feeling caused this - but I should like to know I think perhaps it was anger, as much as anything - but it must have been something else as well, because I felt so angry writing the last few paragraphs, but not shaky. Ah well.

But everybody else is more or less pleasant. I have toldyou something about the S.S.M from the Black Watch: he is still a very fine man, but I find him incredibly dull & stupid. But the C.Q.M.S is also regular army & is from the Royal ideas about being an officer. But he is very able - & a very nice chap & most amazing. Of the sergeans - two are from the Cheshire Infantry: they are both lean & lanky & about 40, & very alike at first I kept getting their names wrong. They are very sound & reliable, fine men to have. One is from the Beds & Herts - there is not much to say about him - & the other - from the Buffs - is a

5. grand chap. Their names are, Griffiths, Rowlandson, Carwell & Kiley. Talking of N.C.Os - I often wish I had a C.S.M, Richard Hughes' Wilson - you remember him, he came & had beer at Pattys - he was such a pleasant man & so intelligent. I have just come by a new Jewish officer - name of Moscovitz. He is 35, has a wife & twins. He was at school in England, at Highgate, & then in business - 8 years altogether. I don't know him at all well yet, but so far I like him, he seems a pleasant & intelligent person. He was a BAnk secretary, before coming into the Army. I forgot how much I told you about the other British officers, but in any case I know them better now. The eldest, & junior by rank is Jim Headley, from the Sherwood Forresters. He is 27, single, & in the motor trade in or near Birmingham. He is just a shade Bass, but an extremely pleasant fellow, & very helpful & reliable. And I am quite friendly with him. Also, have a young thing of 22 from the same regiment by name of Thornton. He is really very Bass, & tires like hell to be the other thing. He has been an officer about 5 minutes, & has bought himself an outfit of blue, which he wears every night, even in camp. I'm afraid he gets most of my raspberries, but they will do him a great deal of good - & he may be alright in time. The senior one, Burnett, is in the regular army, but has been in hospital for the last 2 weeks. He is a silly young man, & madly keen on dance music & acting. Nor is he much good as an officer. But since he has been with the Company, he was never well enough to be well ticked off. And so nwo we come to the Company. They are called Palestinians - but that is a political misnomer, which they dislike - & they are all Jews. Mainly for all over Europe, but also from Palestine & from Yemen. They are in many ways, quite different from British, but I am beginning