Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Reports arrival of Valentines day cable and his reply as well as other letters received, some via Germany, probably included in German prisoner of war mail. Catches up with home news and reminisces. Reports arrival of letters from other people. Glad parents were able to dispatch parcel of cigarettes which he awaits eagerly. Writes that cigarette shortage was now over and mentions dogs in who have come into camp. Comments on weather.
Creator
Date
1942-02-14
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Two 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-HE420214
Transcription
Royal Air Force. 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson
c/o. Consul Général des États Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
14-2-42
My Dear Mother & Dad,
Today is St.Valentines Day and my thoughts are very much with you when your cable arrived dated Feb. 13th reading as follows:- “Our Valentine brings all love and thoughts parcel cigarettes despatched to-day both well eagerly await letters” and I am sending the following telegram reply with this letter this afternoon:- “Delighted cable thirteenth love thoughts reciprocated await parcel latest letter received dated January fourteenth writing always.” Yesterday a letter arrived from you dated November 19th which had come via Germany. This is the second letter which has come this way, the previous one took about eight weeks longer than the usual route and I attribute it to carelessness in our postal authorities who I imagine included these letters with the German P.ofW mail. Yes I remembered on Nov. 21st that it was nineteen years since Mother first took me to school. As she remarks we have travelled many roads together, rough and smooth, and memory does single out the smooth and happy ones. Just at present we are tackling another rough but, on our own this time, but the smooth will appear to be even smoother when we reach the crest of the uphill fight. You will remember in the days of the two-stroke that many times the hills proved difficult, but we always managed to reach the top. To draw what is perhaps an unusual comparison – what the little two-stroke could do I know that we can – our
[page break]
difficulties will be overcome one happy day. On [deleted] January [/deleted] [inserted] February [/inserted] 10th I received three letters from you dated Jan. 7th. 12th & 14th and one from Auntie Maud Hudson – via ordinary mail – enclosing a Christmas card, dated Nov. 3rd. Your letters were numbered 3, 5 & 6. I received letter No.1. on Feb 6th. I answered most of the points in those letters when I last wrote to you three or four days ago. From your telegram received today I was very pleased to note that you had been able to despatch a parcel of cigarettes. I presume this is in reply to a request of mine doubtless made in one of the letters received in the last batch of eight, and I expect that it is coming by Air Mail. I do thank you and I am waiting eagerly for it to arrive. Fortunately our recent shortage of cigarettes has been alleviated and we have got back to the one packet a day basis. I do not know whether this will continue. Talking about our dogs Raf & Wimpy, another bitch who wandered into the camp some time ago has just given birth to five of the ugliest pups I have ever seen. Quite a number of other dogs come and go and consequently we are overrun. I consider the original two sufficient and am in favour of suppressing the remainder. I am writing this letter out of doors. The sun is quite hot shining from a cloudless sky but a very cool wind blows making it too dangerous to sunbathe. My face and hands are very tanned but my body gone pale yellow as a result of last year’s sun. The difference between day and night temperatures at this time of the year is very great. I must say good-bye again until I write my next letter. The phrase is getting old but it still rings as true as ever when I say all my love thoughts and best wishes to you both.
[underlined] Douglas {/underlined].
c/o. Consul Général des États Unis.
Rue Michelet.
Alger. Algérie.
Afrique du Nord.
14-2-42
My Dear Mother & Dad,
Today is St.Valentines Day and my thoughts are very much with you when your cable arrived dated Feb. 13th reading as follows:- “Our Valentine brings all love and thoughts parcel cigarettes despatched to-day both well eagerly await letters” and I am sending the following telegram reply with this letter this afternoon:- “Delighted cable thirteenth love thoughts reciprocated await parcel latest letter received dated January fourteenth writing always.” Yesterday a letter arrived from you dated November 19th which had come via Germany. This is the second letter which has come this way, the previous one took about eight weeks longer than the usual route and I attribute it to carelessness in our postal authorities who I imagine included these letters with the German P.ofW mail. Yes I remembered on Nov. 21st that it was nineteen years since Mother first took me to school. As she remarks we have travelled many roads together, rough and smooth, and memory does single out the smooth and happy ones. Just at present we are tackling another rough but, on our own this time, but the smooth will appear to be even smoother when we reach the crest of the uphill fight. You will remember in the days of the two-stroke that many times the hills proved difficult, but we always managed to reach the top. To draw what is perhaps an unusual comparison – what the little two-stroke could do I know that we can – our
[page break]
difficulties will be overcome one happy day. On [deleted] January [/deleted] [inserted] February [/inserted] 10th I received three letters from you dated Jan. 7th. 12th & 14th and one from Auntie Maud Hudson – via ordinary mail – enclosing a Christmas card, dated Nov. 3rd. Your letters were numbered 3, 5 & 6. I received letter No.1. on Feb 6th. I answered most of the points in those letters when I last wrote to you three or four days ago. From your telegram received today I was very pleased to note that you had been able to despatch a parcel of cigarettes. I presume this is in reply to a request of mine doubtless made in one of the letters received in the last batch of eight, and I expect that it is coming by Air Mail. I do thank you and I am waiting eagerly for it to arrive. Fortunately our recent shortage of cigarettes has been alleviated and we have got back to the one packet a day basis. I do not know whether this will continue. Talking about our dogs Raf & Wimpy, another bitch who wandered into the camp some time ago has just given birth to five of the ugliest pups I have ever seen. Quite a number of other dogs come and go and consequently we are overrun. I consider the original two sufficient and am in favour of suppressing the remainder. I am writing this letter out of doors. The sun is quite hot shining from a cloudless sky but a very cool wind blows making it too dangerous to sunbathe. My face and hands are very tanned but my body gone pale yellow as a result of last year’s sun. The difference between day and night temperatures at this time of the year is very great. I must say good-bye again until I write my next letter. The phrase is getting old but it still rings as true as ever when I say all my love thoughts and best wishes to you both.
[underlined] Douglas {/underlined].
Collection
Citation
James Douglas Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 22, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22614.
Item Relations
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