Letters from World War II : J.H. Massey

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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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There the track became rocky & rough. The rains in winter are so heavy that everything is washed down except the rocks & stones & so this track was equal to a very rough river bed, & also climbing steeply up at the same time. It was amazing how the little car managed about ten miles of this, but it did.

The country was really lovely - wild & rocky & hilly & some trees & when we reached the top, a terrific view of the plain below & the sea beyond. The day was very hot, & very blue & very clear. We passed numerous Arabs, with donkeys & camels on their way to market -& they said ' Saida". I answered the same. Ben, who counts Arabic among his languages, went into more complicated forms of greetings. The greeting business among the Arabs is a highly complicated affair - & it depends on many things: who speaks first - & then there is a definite answer to each particular form of greeting, the Arabs are very pleasant & friendly & it is really amazing that a British & a Jewish officer can go freely together in these parts - when 3 & 4 years ago, it would have meant certain death, to go alone & unprotected. But they are incredibly evil looking, even if they are by no means as evil as they look & indescribably dirty & squalid & lazy. We passed through numerous villages, some quite big ones, such as Beth Nahala, Q'lya, Niidim & Kharhata - all of which can be found on the map & yet this awful track. The Jews would have had a spanking great installed road through there long ago & electric light &

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water & drains & everything else. But I suppose that a hell of a good argument can be raised against such progress, when you have a look round the world today.

We ate our lunch on the side of a hill & thoroughly enjoyed it - & I decided that there must be more days like this. The disappointing part now, is that when we arrived back in camp, about 3.0 pm. I found that a special job had been pushed onto us, & so we cannot now carry out the training tomorrow & Wednesday, which was the idea, but must wait a few days.

Sargeant Major Jack arrived back from S.Africa yesterday, & very pleased with himself & for good reason. He had had five weeks actual leave with his wife & kids. The lucky devil. I'm a bit sorry he is back in a way, he is so blasted thick & I have to be super careful that he has grasped a thing - whereas Kiley is extremely quick in the uptake. And moreover, Kiley is very much better suited to train up my Jewish Sargeant Major elect. I shall have to see what I can do to arrange things.

I wrote a note to Rex last night, asking him to come down & stay a weekend with me. This morning I decided I could not face it & tore it up. It would mean being continuously with him for two whole days, having to talk a spate of nonsense & not be able to write to you at all. We are an odd pair, aren't we darling, with out likes & dislikes & not being able to be bothered. Though really, I think I am taking a step in the right

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direction, by eliminating the silly people & those who are not worth shile. But after the war, we really must make more of an efffort to find some friends who we really like - apart from the tiny circle of yours & mine & ours. I have now finished my Christmas Airgraphs & not counting Wm North people & customers. I have sent three to Bradford people - Gordon, Bill & Miss Anita. And I just would not know who to send any more to! Certainly not those silly Holdsworths, or any of the Emileys or Pullmans & God forbid Sydney Snell, Bluing - what a bunch.

Frank Macaskie's belated letter arrived today- three weeks from Cairo. He said how delighted he had been to see me, as I was the only person he had met out here with whom he had anything in common. That was very kind of him, & I do feel just hte same about him. I hope to goodness he will be careful on his new job, which is highly dangerous - because as I have said before, I am counting on him as a friend of ours when this war ends. But my trouble seems to be that it takes me so long to really get to know a person for that person to get to know me. You remember at Oswestry. I liked Frank but could make very little of him. And all the way to the M.E. Rod was my chief friend & not until the three of us were together in Cairo, did I realise that

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Frank was worth a million Rexs! The trouble is really that it is almost impossible to know a person until he or she has been tested & tried out in some way. In civil life there is seldom time & practically never an opporunity. With the three of us in Cairo & afterwards for those weeks at the I.B.D., Frank & I just carried on in our fixed purposes of getting in touch with our wives as soon as possible & writing as much as possible & seeing as much of the country as possible & generally ordering our lives. Whereas Rex just degenerated - made passes at the first girls to look at him, was idle in sightseeing, slept on his bed in the afternoon & talked a hell of a lot of nonsense & neglected Marjorie. And during this time Frank & I drew closer together & formed a solid friendship & realised that the others ideas & ideals were bored on solid ground. And here we are very close & firm friends. But how can you reproduce all that in civil life?

Maybe the answer is to have more acquaintances, & to be less intolerant. We shall work it all out when we begin again - & it is not a matter about which it is necessary to plan ahead.

But I can promise you that you will like Frank very much indeed. And I hope he will be careful. No letters or anything again today darling. Goodnight sweetest dear XXXXX H.

Tuesday Oct 28th And 11.0 pm - so I will just finish this on the other side of the page & post it in the morning.

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I went to the dentist today, the first time since last December; the man gave me a very thorough look over. I was very pleased to hear that there was nothing to do at all & he just gave me a scrape & a polish. That's good isn't it darling? & shows that I am looking after myself & carrying out at least one of your instructions to me. And I really think my hair is ok too, in spite of my breeze up a few months ago. And my corporation is certainly not increasing. So here I am - fit, strong, healthy, & goddamn bloody miserable. One's capacity for worry & misery & sheer unhappiness & deathly boredom, passes all understanding. Though boredom is perhaps hardly the word. I can never be bored, when married to you & loved by even at so great a distance; it is more the futile, horrible waste of time. I am so longing for more word from you - but the mails seem to have gone completely wrong again. I am not alone in suffering from no letters & no anything. I am enclosing a magazine cutting of Col Leicester for you to see what he looks like. Not exactly a beauty, but quite a pleasant face, kindly & not one of these silly ban Regular Army ones - not yet the lean, clear cut, brainy type, but with nothing behind it all. You will notice that he was a bit warm and with the arms. The Chief Robbi's features are somewhat hidden.

I cannot write sweetheart - I feel far too unhappy tonight - I just long with all my heart to hold you close & tight in my arms & kiss you & look at your lovely sweetness. I do love you so much Love & a big kiss to Maxie, please & all my love to my own dalring Barbara

XXXXfrom Harry XXXX

Letter No 80. Thursday Oct 30th

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

My own sweet darling Barbara

I am afraid I get very impatient these days when I do not hear from you for some time. It is now 12 days since I last had anything from you at all & I suppose that really is not too bad, as long as it does not go on for many days longer. I can hardly expect your letter opes to arrive like clockwork - but still, I cannot help feeling impatient. Your next letter should contain the snaps of you in a bathing costume. I am dying to have them & also any time now these should be a direct reply from you to my A.G. & b.c. about our plans for reunion. And in any case, I want to hear from you, sweetheart, to know what you & Maxie are doing & that you love me.

Tuesday Nov 4th I'm afraid that this is a far as I have gone since last Thursday. Very bad, I'm afraid darling, but I will finish this tonight & post it in the morning & so keep to my minimum of one letter a week. I still have not heard from you, & I'm afraid to have been having an acute attack of depression & woodeness & simply could not bring myself to write. Also, I have been away two of the four nights. On Friday, I had to go up to Haifa for a Court of Inquiry, to be a witness. I finished at about 3.30 & so called on the Hopkins' to see them & have some tea - I found them out. But the maid gave me a tea - I was just off at 4.30 when Jack came back & insisted that I stay the night & be sent back in the morning in a Navy car. I gladly accepted this, as I felt badly in need of a change of company. I was

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also very anxious to talk to him about you coming out here. It was Nina's night at the Canteen & so we arranged to have dinner at Pross & were joined by Commander Uncle Warburton & another friend of Jack's in the Navy. We picked up Nina at 10.0 & then went on to a couple of Haifas gay spots - both pretty dull & beer at 2/6 a glass. But I must not really blame the places - I would have loved going there with you. I'm not being kind, but I could not & would not dream of enjoying myself at any place without you. Round about 1.0 - by which time I was getting pretty yawny & bored - we landed in at the Commander's flat for drinks. He really is priceless - I think I told you before that he was something to do with films before the war. Anyway - have you ever heard of a girl called Pamela Randall? She has either just arrived as a film star, or is just about to - & while Uncle is her sort of patron and/or discoverer - & apparently her great admirer too. In his room, he has an enormous photo, in colour, of the gorgeous Pamela, in a lacy negligee, a most sexy picture. it's almost like a shrine in the room. And he has photographed the photograph & - postcard size& always carries a copy around with him. Jack tells me he is quite harmless, & is a devoted husband & a devoted father to a young man who has recently won the D.F.C.

I had a serious talk with Jack about you coming out here. I particularly wanted to talk to him, being in the Navy & because he had got his own wife & a baby out here during war - & also he is a very hard headed & sensible sort of person & thinks before he speaks.

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His opinion is that the risk is not great, that he himself would accept it. He pointed out that he allowed his wife & baby to come & whereas they actually came across France. He expected them to come by sea from England, then through the Med. it being before Italy came in. The risk is there, of course, but in his position, he knows all about losses of ships & where they happen & so on & is able to view the thing in its proper perspective. Another piece of advice he had, was that if you have to go & see the War Office, as Nina had to go & see the Admiralty - go & see the highest up possible person straight away & do not mess about with junior people who know nothing & will only try & put you off on account of their own ignorance. But I think that if ever it comes to that, you will have received some specific instructions from me unless, of course, you decide to have an absolute bat at it & crash in & fix the whole thing up yourself. I am going up to Jerusalem this weekend to see Edwin Samuel & his wife & also Shertok probably & I hope to goodness I shall find out something then. I had rather a sickness the other day when I was talking to an Assistant District Commissionaire & he told me that wives were very much discouraged, but were not prevented - but that children were not allowed under any circumstances. He said he knew because he had a wife & child in Australia. Oh dear, what a life, isn't it darling! I am beginning to feel rather discouraged I'm afraid. And I'm also afraid that I'm beginning to think more & more of the risks for you & Max & I might be sent away when you arrive & how difficulties might arise when the war is over, about getting home together, or even roughly at the same time.