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Sapper G H Line 1989781 723 A W Coy. R.E. C.M.F |
Letters Home 1943 |
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The following is a series of extracts from "aerograms" written by George Henry Line to his parents at their home in Thornton Heath, South London from 1943 until 1945 during which time he served in North Africa, Sicily and eastern Italy with the 8th Army. The postal service between the front and and the UK was, needless to say, haphazardous and often letters would arrive for him in batches of up to three from the same person - either his father, wife or brother Charles who was serving in North Africa throughout the period of the Italian campaign. All letters written during the period of hostilities were subject to censorship and could not contain details of location or any information which might be useful to the enemy at the time of writing. However from a personal diary kept during 1943 it is possible to approximately relate location to some specific letters. |
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Above: a typical "aerogram" or "airgraph" - an early form of photocopy reduced in size from the original to cut down weight and measuring 13cm x 11cm
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The War
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His Diary
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The Letters
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26th April - Tunisia. British tanks take Longstop Hill
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In hospital with dysentery at Geneyfer, North Africa
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.....well, the war seems to be drawing to a close out here, perhaps it will not be long before it is all over....
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2nd May - Tunisia. Germans have recaptured Hill 609 and are beseiged
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Discharged from hospital
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9th May - Britain. A JU88 fitted with the Liechstenstein radar is secretly flown to Scotland by a British agent
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no entry |
....have you any tips about keeping cool and how to stop flies?....
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12th May - Tunisia. General von Arnim signs official surrender of axis forces in Tunisia. General Alexander tells Churchill " we are masters of the North African shore"
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Went to Suez and Port Tearfik |
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| 21st May | no entry |
....I see in the papers that cigarettes and tobacco are dearer now. We get it
very cheap out here and of course we get a free issue as well so I suppose we are lucky in
some ways.....
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| 25th May | no entry |
..........I had an aerograph from Sheila (his daughter) while they
were at Ilminster. Sheila writes very well these days (she was 11 years old), she
must be growing up now to a big girl...
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| 28th May | 3 Years in Army |
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| 31st May - A DC3 is attacked over the Bay of Biscay by three Bf110 night-fighters in the belief that Churchill is on board. | no entry |
....the news is pretty good these days, seems to be our turn now for a change............
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| 15th June - Allied convoys in support of the invasion of Sicily prepare to sail from USA and Scotland | no entry |
....they will not let us say anything about where we are even though the
fighting is finished out here.......just lately we have been getting two days off free
every week, not too bad, eh, Dad.
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28th June - Germany. Heinrich Himmler at Peenemunde to witness first launch of A-4 Rocket (V2). It crashes close-by. |
no entry |
........I hope Aunt Maude enjoyed her stay in London, what does she say about the bomb damage? Well, we seem to be getting our own back these days and things seem to be going well......
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| 6th July - Russia. General Model leads German attacks to the north of Kursk and makes some headway. | Jankers - 3 days confined to barracks (no reason given but could have been for arriving back late to El Qassasin from Fayed on leave) |
.....the news is still pretty good these days, everything sems to point to a
proper old bust up in the near future, well I hope it wil be the finish to this war......
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16th July - Churchill and Roosevelt call on the Italians to surrender and urge a rebellion against dictator Mussolini |
Charlie`s birthday |
.....I am not allowed to say what part of the world I am in but I have certainly travelled a few miles and seen many strange things since I left England.......Charlie (his brother) is still using up Italian notepaper, must have a lot of it......
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29th July - The British government announces that all women below the age of 50 should register for work |
My birthday |
....sorry I have not been able to write for a little while. Well Dad, I am now in Sicily, very glad to leave Egypt behind and I feel somehow a bit nearer home. It is not bad country here, more like England but still very warm and the mosquitoes worse than in Egypt. We are having a very open air sort of life here just now.........
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| 3rd August - In Sicily the British begin preparations for the attacks on Catania | no entry | ....we get plenty of biscuits these days. I have quite a job getting them
down. They are so hard but what I do now is I keep a packet for the following day and
overnight they just soften up a bit. They are very filling - good job they are. Not like
the old army biscuits, you know the 4in x 4in x 3/4in things................
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8th August - US forces on Sicily push the Germans out of Sant` Agata. The British take Bronte and Acireale.
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Arrived at Catania |
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August 24th - US takes New Georgia |
no entry |
...Malaria seems to be one of the big troubles over here and we take special tablets to keep it off, the only thing is these tablets are inclined to upset you a bit `till you get used to them. I suppose Sicily is all in the news at home just now......I am wondering how much more of the World I am going to see before reaching England again........
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| 4th September - Sicily. General Castellano has signed the Italian surrender and XIII Corps of the 8th Army have landed north of Reggio in Italy and are meeting little resistance
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no entry | ...things are getting settled down very nicely here now and getting back to normal......we get half a day off a week now.... |
| 13th September -Italy. US 82nd Airborne troops dropped on the beaches at Salerno to support pinned down British troops | no entry | ....we are now out of canvas and living in a very posh house with marble
staircases....we get a drop of very good wine....job is to know when you have had
enough......Good bit of news Italy packing in wasn`t it? The people here were
delighted....plenty of wine flowing.....
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| 21st September - Italy. The advance north by the allies gathers pace and meets little opposition | no entry | .....the flies are very trying, probably worse because of the rubbish in the
streets.....very tiring walking about in the heat and half the population asking for fags
and the other half asking for biscuits, still I know a few words of Italian now and manage
to shoo them off.....
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| 27th September - Italy. Foggia is captured by the allies putting US bombers in range of southern Germany | no entry | ....today I gave a pint of blood, felt a bit groggy at the time....I went to
a very good ENSA show here on my half day off, Waldini and his Gypsy Orchestra. I quite
enjoyed it. We had Gracie Fields and the Weston Brothers here as well but did not manage
to see them.......
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| 18th October -Italy. The allies have breached the German line on the Volturno | no entry | ......I
will be sending a few lemons and nuts home shortly, they stopped us from sending fruit for
a while but they have now lifted the ban.......I hear London has been having some more
raids, I hope they are not too disturbing.....
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| 25th October | no entry | ......the mail situation is very bad here again and it is now a fortnight
since I have heard from home....the flies get worse and worse and it is an ordeal to eat
during mid-day. I will always remember Sicily for these pests..........
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| 5th November -Italy. Germans skillfully defend the central sector of the Bernhard Line. | no entry | ....out here we have to take what they call Mepashrine Tablets, one every
night. They are awful yellow things and taste awful...they keep malaria down......
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| 12th November - Leros. The Germans land on the Greek island. 9000 British and Italian troops surrender | Wedding anniversary. Admitted to Canadian hospital with yellow jaundice. |
....I
am seeing more of the inside of hospitals since I have been in the army than any
other time. It is a Canadian hospital and mostly Canadians and Yanks here so I expect I
will come out with an American accent. One thing the food is 100% better than ours, quite
a change to get meat that is not out of a tin.....
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| 16th November - Italy. General Alexander has been told by
General Clark that he must call a halt to the allied advance. Losses have been
considerable.
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Earthquake | |
| 23rd November - Germany. The ME262 jet aircraft is demonstrated to Adolf Hitler. | no entry | ......I am still in hospital but feeling a lot better....The weather is still
warm but plenty of rain. Everything is still green and the flowers are stillout....much
better than what it is up in Italy with snow and mud.........
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| 7th December - Italy. Eighth Army moves to attack Orsogna | no entry | ....There are quite a few Americans in my ward, they seem a pretty decent
lot.....they certainly get some stuff from home, one chap got about 6 parcels, enough
stuff to open a small shop. He gave us all some things each, hanky, soap, razor blades,
fags, chocolates and biscuits..... they all seem to be sergeants in the American army,
only have a few privates and they all get about as much as a Major in the British army...
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| 13th December - Italy. Some British troops have been pulled out of Italy in preparation for D- Day the following year | no entry | .....I am out of hospital and have now left that part of Sicily, I am now in
a convalescent depot for about 2 weeks......we get plenty of oranges and tangerines, about
6 for 1 fag. This seems to be the best way of trading here. ...I have been looking at some
Iti ( army slang for Italian) books showing their wonderful army in action. All
very comical now and to look at them here you would wonder if they could hurt a fly, a
pretty poor lot taken them all round......
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| 26th December - North Cape. Royal Navy sinks the Scharnhorst. It signals the end of the German High Seas Fleet | no entry | ....hope you had a good time Xmas. We had a real good dinner here in the
transit camp, we had pork, chicken, etc and pudding and custard, mince pies, nuts, oranges
and fags. For tea we had iced cake, mince pies, etc.......tomorrow I am on draft and I
will be leaving here. I hope to pick up with the unit again........this place I am now in
is very draughty having a few holes in it and we sleep on stone floors which, of course,
is not the best of places to rest. Last night we had a terrific storm and I woke up about
2 o`clock in the morning with 1/2 in. of water round me. Fortunately I had tied my ground
sheet up over my blankets which kept the water out a bit.......the prices in this place
are soaring and now they even beat the Egyptians, and they are bad enough................
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| 27th December - The initial planningfor D-Day is completed and command structure established
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Left Catania for No 3 Transit Camp |
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| 28 th December
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48 hours at sea | |
| 29th December - Germany. 2300 tons of bombs are dropped on Berlin |
Arrived X Transit camp, Taranto | |
