Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Title
Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents
Description
Discusses mail and cables and reports that problems with cables have been sorted and system should now be running smoothly. Catches up with news from home mentioning they had both had bad colds. Writes about weather at Laghouat believing that it had reached peak. Comments on how they cope with the heat including sleeping arrangements. Mentions that Red Cross have sent large consignment of food and tea situation was greatly improved if only they could get fuel. Ask them to send socks as he only has one pair and footwear. Discusses time taken for clothes parcels to arrive and comments that his were not yet to hand. Mentions asking YMCA rep for more books.
Creator
Date
1942-07-17
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-HE420717
Transcription
Royal Air Force 755052. Sgt. J. D. Hudson
c/o Consul General des Etats Unis
Rue Michelet
Alger. Algerie
Afrique de Nord.
17-7-42
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I was very pleased to receive two letters yesterday, one from you dated June 12th and one from E.W.T.[?] dated May 24th. In his letter, Ernest mentions not having received a reply to his cable (date not stated but presumably sent for my birthday). This cable never arrived in Laghauat. The only cables I received were yours & three from Calverly which I acknowledged in my reply telegram to you dated May 21st & which you have since received. Perhaps you would tell E.W.T. I am writing to him also to explain, & in the meantime send my best wishes etc. I am wondering if some of my cables sent in June have not reached you, because Tony received a telegram today from his mother to say that four of his cables arrived on one day. During the month of June there was a mix up all round but I believe the position has been considerably clarified since & that the cable system is running smoothly once again. In your letter yesterday about three lines were blacked out and it was quite impossible to even surmise the gist of the sentence. You say that June proved to be a very cold month and that you both had been suffering from very bad colds. I do hope you are better now. We heard terrible reports about the effect of the heat in Laghauat, how civilians were evacuated to Medeci[?] for the summer and that the birds dropped dead from the trees on account of the heat. Rumour had it that faces[?] became drawn at the end
[page break]
of the summer and that it was pretty grim generally. Well it has been hot, about 115F in the shade for some days, but I believe the peak has been reached, and everybody is bearing up jolly well. One just does not do anything between midday & three o’clock out of doors. Our room is one of the best ventilated in the camp. Three windows & a large door & five us us occupying the room. Three chaps are sleeping outside at present so that leaves only two inside at night & we have fixed netting over the windows to exclude the flies by day. The Canadian Red X has sent a terrific consignment of food & our tea position is greatly improved if only we could obtain fuel. We have to scrounge any old thing to burn. Please concentrate on socks in your parcels, I have only one pair, also shoes size 7, because my footwear is in a very perilous[?] state. It doesn’t matter much in summer because most people go about barefoot. [indecipherable word] of your parcels are as yet to hand. The times taken [inserted] to arrive [/inserted] do vary considerably but on the average three months is taken, especially for clothes parcels sent via the Red Cross. We put in a request to a Y.M.C.A. representative who visited us recently for a terrific quantity of books. I asked for one on the Man.[sic] & Production of Cotton Textiles, and in the meantime I am trying to polish up in Commercial[?] French. It sounds horribly like “digging in” but believe me I’d drop the lot like hot coals of the day if release came prematurely. Wonder what the circumstances of our homecoming will be? Like you both I am just living for that day. So until then all my thoughts are with you & I send all my love & wishes.
Douglas
c/o Consul General des Etats Unis
Rue Michelet
Alger. Algerie
Afrique de Nord.
17-7-42
My Dear Mother & Dad,
I was very pleased to receive two letters yesterday, one from you dated June 12th and one from E.W.T.[?] dated May 24th. In his letter, Ernest mentions not having received a reply to his cable (date not stated but presumably sent for my birthday). This cable never arrived in Laghauat. The only cables I received were yours & three from Calverly which I acknowledged in my reply telegram to you dated May 21st & which you have since received. Perhaps you would tell E.W.T. I am writing to him also to explain, & in the meantime send my best wishes etc. I am wondering if some of my cables sent in June have not reached you, because Tony received a telegram today from his mother to say that four of his cables arrived on one day. During the month of June there was a mix up all round but I believe the position has been considerably clarified since & that the cable system is running smoothly once again. In your letter yesterday about three lines were blacked out and it was quite impossible to even surmise the gist of the sentence. You say that June proved to be a very cold month and that you both had been suffering from very bad colds. I do hope you are better now. We heard terrible reports about the effect of the heat in Laghauat, how civilians were evacuated to Medeci[?] for the summer and that the birds dropped dead from the trees on account of the heat. Rumour had it that faces[?] became drawn at the end
[page break]
of the summer and that it was pretty grim generally. Well it has been hot, about 115F in the shade for some days, but I believe the peak has been reached, and everybody is bearing up jolly well. One just does not do anything between midday & three o’clock out of doors. Our room is one of the best ventilated in the camp. Three windows & a large door & five us us occupying the room. Three chaps are sleeping outside at present so that leaves only two inside at night & we have fixed netting over the windows to exclude the flies by day. The Canadian Red X has sent a terrific consignment of food & our tea position is greatly improved if only we could obtain fuel. We have to scrounge any old thing to burn. Please concentrate on socks in your parcels, I have only one pair, also shoes size 7, because my footwear is in a very perilous[?] state. It doesn’t matter much in summer because most people go about barefoot. [indecipherable word] of your parcels are as yet to hand. The times taken [inserted] to arrive [/inserted] do vary considerably but on the average three months is taken, especially for clothes parcels sent via the Red Cross. We put in a request to a Y.M.C.A. representative who visited us recently for a terrific quantity of books. I asked for one on the Man.[sic] & Production of Cotton Textiles, and in the meantime I am trying to polish up in Commercial[?] French. It sounds horribly like “digging in” but believe me I’d drop the lot like hot coals of the day if release came prematurely. Wonder what the circumstances of our homecoming will be? Like you both I am just living for that day. So until then all my thoughts are with you & I send all my love & wishes.
Douglas
Collection
Citation
J D Hudson, “Letter from Douglas Hudson to his parents ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22734.
Item Relations
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