Description
Object description
Five well-written ms and ts letters (October 1940 - September 1944, 30pp) to his sister, Mrs Phyllis Dagwell, while serving with the Royal Corps of Signals (RCS) in the UK and North West Europe, including being attached to the 119th Field Regiment RA in Londonderry, Northern Ireland (October 1940 - October 1941) and to the HQ of the 56th Infantry Brigade (21st Army Group) in Normandy (June 1944) and the 50th (Northumbrian) Division (September 1944) in Holland during the Battle of the Nederrijn, giving family news and commenting on life in the army, the poor conditions, his belief that the Germans "will never break the spirit of the British", the Blitz on London notably the East End; the YMCA, the hospitality to the troops of the Irish in Londonderry and the South Africans in Cape Town and Durban, his holiday in Devon (October 1941) - "you wouldn't know that there was a war on"; his optimism that the war will soon be over and stating that "my one ambition is to see the end of this bloody war and get back to peace and civilisation" (October 1941), V-weapons, the erratic mail while on active service, receiving parcels containing cigarettes and newspapers, the press coverage of the D-Day landings, and giving excellent descriptions of landing "on French soil among the initial wave on the morning of 'D' Day" (6 June 1944), notably the preparations for Operation OVERLORD, the tight security, the brilliant organization and briefings, the vast invasion fleet, sailing on an LCT, his sea sickness, the deafening noise and the sheer scale of the allied assault, the bottleneck of vehicles on the beach, German mines and snipers, and how his Brigade landed and secured its objectives according to plan having "the honour of liberating the first French town", and of the rapid advance across France, Belgium and Holland after the breakout from the bridgehead in Normandy (August 1944 - September 1944), notably the overwhelming welcome from the liberated Belgians who were much more pro-Englishness and enthusiastic than the French, the shortage of food and the thriving black market, the wreckage of equipment, documents, loot and dead horses left by the Germans in the Falaise Gap, and anticipating "the last lap", the invasion of Germany.
Content description
Five well-written ms and ts letters (October 1940 - September 1944, 30pp) to his sister, Mrs Phyllis Dagwell, while serving with the Royal Corps of Signals (RCS) in the UK and North West Europe, including being attached to the 119th Field Regiment RA in Londonderry, Northern Ireland (October 1940 - October 1941) and to the HQ of the 56th Infantry Brigade (21st Army Group) in Normandy (June 1944) and the 50th (Northumbrian) Division (September 1944) in Holland during the Battle of the Nederrijn, giving family news and commenting on life in the army, the poor conditions, his belief that the Germans "will never break the spirit of the British", the Blitz on London notably the East End; the YMCA, the hospitality to the troops of the Irish in Londonderry and the South Africans in Cape Town and Durban, his holiday in Devon (October 1941) - "you wouldn't know that there was a war on"; his optimism that the war will soon be over and stating that "my one ambition is to see the end of this bloody war and get back to peace and civilisation" (October 1941), V-weapons, the erratic mail while on active service, receiving parcels containing cigarettes and newspapers, the press coverage of the D-Day landings, and giving excellent descriptions of landing "on French soil among the initial wave on the morning of 'D' Day" (6 June 1944), notably the preparations for Operation OVERLORD, the tight security, the brilliant organization and briefings, the vast invasion fleet, sailing on an LCT, his sea sickness, the deafening noise and the sheer scale of the allied assault, the bottleneck of vehicles on the beach, German mines and snipers, and how his Brigade landed and secured its objectives according to plan having "the honour of liberating the first French town", and of the rapid advance across France, Belgium and Holland after the breakout from the bridgehead in Normandy (August 1944 - September 1944), notably the overwhelming welcome from the liberated Belgians who were much more pro-Englishness and enthusiastic than the French, the shortage of food and the thriving black market, the wreckage of equipment, documents, loot and dead horses left by the Germans in the Falaise Gap, and anticipating "the last lap", the invasion of Germany.
History note
Cataloguer SNR
History note
Catalogue date 2007-02-27