Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Catches up with letters received, with all mail up to 36 apart from two had arrived. Thanks them for birthday telegrams and hopes it will not need to be repeated next year. Discusses better weather in England and in poor weather in Algeria. Mentions flies and writing about them in French. Writes he received English pipe and cigarette tobacco from the Red Cross but had not received any parcels from them. Mentions a sweep that hey were running and that he is sending enlargements. Catches up with family gossip.
Creator
Date
1941-05-27
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Tow page handwritten letter
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EHudsonJDHudsonP-HE410527
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson
c/o Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
27-5-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I was very pleased to receive your letters Nos. 32 & 35 dated April 2nd & 13th, yesterday. This means that all your letters up to No. 36 inclusive, have arrived, with the only exception of No 11 which I now am beginning to give up all hope of ever receiving. Nevertheless I consider this as jolly good delivery considering the many difficulties. In my last letter I acknowledged all the telegrams I was so pleased to receive for my birthday. One from you and one each from Uncle Jim, Hell Cote and Horsforth. I thank you one and all for remembering. Let us hope it will not be necessary to send telegrams next year, that we may be together again. What a time we should have. I am glad to hear from your most recent letters that spring has at last reached you after the many months of snow & bad weather. I hope you will be able to spend happy hours in your garden during the coming summer months. For the past week the weather here has been most unpleasant. There has been almost a continual haze overhead due to the sand, with ridiculously oppressive bad weather, and a hot south wind laden with sand increasing to gale force and causing sand storms in the evenings. Visibility during one of these gusts is reduced to a few yards. Last night it came in much cooler and today had been most pleasant with blue sky a few white clouds and only a
[page break]
gentle breeze. Consequently we have had all windows open with a result that the flies are everywhere. They are crawling up my legs and arms over the table and buzzing round my face like an air attack. Talking about flies I did a little French composition on “Flies” which was well received by my instructor and gave me mild fame for a day or two. I called it the war against flies and likened them to raiding aircraft etc. I suppose one gets these unusual mild inspirations once in a while in there spats. We have received some English pipe and cigarette tobacco today from the Red Cross. The cigarette tobacco requires rolling. But I have not received your State Express Cigs or Mrs. Clayton’s book. I am awaiting all these, together with the parcel of soap and socks you despatched about a month ago [deleted] from [/deleted] via the Red Cross. We are running a Sweep on the Derby, four cigarettes entry, and 800 for the winner, with proportions for the 2nd & 3rd. I had four entries & strangely enough drew two horses. Unfortunately, we do not know if the race has been run or is about to be run. We could not get any radio news. I am sending an enlargement of the original small photo I sent to you some time ago of our “crew”. This was taken in January. Hope Dad will get in a little billiards practice now that one (a table I [indecipherable word] has been installed in the watch-room. Pity you won’t develop the Bridge. It’s a good game for wintry evenings. Well dear Mother & Dad my space is nearly all used up again so I must say goodbye until next letter. I was so delighted to learn from your last cable that seven more of my letters had arrived. Do hope this will continue. As ever I send you both all my love, thoughts and best wishes.
Douglas.
c/o Consul Général des Etats Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
27-5-41
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I was very pleased to receive your letters Nos. 32 & 35 dated April 2nd & 13th, yesterday. This means that all your letters up to No. 36 inclusive, have arrived, with the only exception of No 11 which I now am beginning to give up all hope of ever receiving. Nevertheless I consider this as jolly good delivery considering the many difficulties. In my last letter I acknowledged all the telegrams I was so pleased to receive for my birthday. One from you and one each from Uncle Jim, Hell Cote and Horsforth. I thank you one and all for remembering. Let us hope it will not be necessary to send telegrams next year, that we may be together again. What a time we should have. I am glad to hear from your most recent letters that spring has at last reached you after the many months of snow & bad weather. I hope you will be able to spend happy hours in your garden during the coming summer months. For the past week the weather here has been most unpleasant. There has been almost a continual haze overhead due to the sand, with ridiculously oppressive bad weather, and a hot south wind laden with sand increasing to gale force and causing sand storms in the evenings. Visibility during one of these gusts is reduced to a few yards. Last night it came in much cooler and today had been most pleasant with blue sky a few white clouds and only a
[page break]
gentle breeze. Consequently we have had all windows open with a result that the flies are everywhere. They are crawling up my legs and arms over the table and buzzing round my face like an air attack. Talking about flies I did a little French composition on “Flies” which was well received by my instructor and gave me mild fame for a day or two. I called it the war against flies and likened them to raiding aircraft etc. I suppose one gets these unusual mild inspirations once in a while in there spats. We have received some English pipe and cigarette tobacco today from the Red Cross. The cigarette tobacco requires rolling. But I have not received your State Express Cigs or Mrs. Clayton’s book. I am awaiting all these, together with the parcel of soap and socks you despatched about a month ago [deleted] from [/deleted] via the Red Cross. We are running a Sweep on the Derby, four cigarettes entry, and 800 for the winner, with proportions for the 2nd & 3rd. I had four entries & strangely enough drew two horses. Unfortunately, we do not know if the race has been run or is about to be run. We could not get any radio news. I am sending an enlargement of the original small photo I sent to you some time ago of our “crew”. This was taken in January. Hope Dad will get in a little billiards practice now that one (a table I [indecipherable word] has been installed in the watch-room. Pity you won’t develop the Bridge. It’s a good game for wintry evenings. Well dear Mother & Dad my space is nearly all used up again so I must say goodbye until next letter. I was so delighted to learn from your last cable that seven more of my letters had arrived. Do hope this will continue. As ever I send you both all my love, thoughts and best wishes.
Douglas.
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 20, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22524.
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