Description
Object description
11 ms letters and a field postcard (31pp, plus envelopes), with ts transcriptions and explanatory notes (12pp), written while serving with the Anti-Tank Platoon of 'S' Company, 2/6th South Staffordshire Regiment, firstly in Folkestone, Kent (1943?), and then with the British Liberation Army (BLA) (July - October 1944) in France, and then with 129th Infantry Brigade HQ (43rd (Wessex) Division) (October 1944 – July 1945) in Holland and then in Germany from March 1945, written to a friend, Alfred Eric Morris, working as a railwayman at Aston Locomotive Depot, Birmingham, and godfather to Allen's son Tony, with details of his movements, thanking Eric for presents and cigarettes, explaining how to steer their new lorries, records he'd listened to, asking him to keep an eye on a sailor who had met his wife, Eve, a friend being wounded by shrapnel, his hatred of Germans, items he had 'picked up' (looted) from Germans, the beautiful weather, anger at people at HQ getting medals when front line troops were not, family life at home, descriptions of Bremen, Germans shooting themselves rather than let British use their houses as billets, stealing from German prisoners of war, being based near Belsen and seeing the horrors, and missing home. Together with: a cartoon cut from a magazine; a printed sheet (2pp, 1939) 'National Service (Armed Forces) Act, 1939, Explanatory Notes'; and an edition of 'Punch War Bulletin, Erne and Derry' (2pp, 25 September 1942), with details of Exercise Punch, Northern Ireland, and a map.
Content description
11 ms letters and a field postcard (31pp, plus envelopes), with ts transcriptions and explanatory notes (12pp), written while serving with the Anti-Tank Platoon of 'S' Company, 2/6th South Staffordshire Regiment, firstly in Folkestone, Kent (1943?), and then with the British Liberation Army (BLA) (July - October 1944) in France, and then with 129th Infantry Brigade HQ (43rd (Wessex) Division) (October 1944 – July 1945) in Holland and then in Germany from March 1945, written to a friend, Alfred Eric Morris, working as a railwayman at Aston Locomotive Depot, Birmingham, and godfather to Allen's son Tony, with details of his movements, thanking Eric for presents and cigarettes, explaining how to steer their new lorries, records he'd listened to, asking him to keep an eye on a sailor who had met his wife, Eve, a friend being wounded by shrapnel, his hatred of Germans, items he had 'picked up' (looted) from Germans, the beautiful weather, anger at people at HQ getting medals when front line troops were not, family life at home, descriptions of Bremen, Germans shooting themselves rather than let British use their houses as billets, stealing from German prisoners of war, being based near Belsen and seeing the horrors, and missing home. Together with: a cartoon cut from a magazine; a printed sheet (2pp, 1939) 'National Service (Armed Forces) Act, 1939, Explanatory Notes'; and an edition of 'Punch War Bulletin, Erne and Derry' (2pp, 25 September 1942), with details of Exercise Punch, Northern Ireland, and a map.
History note
Cataloguer SJO