This letter was written by my grandfather around 10th January 1945, whilst with the Sherwood Rangers and I would guess the "hold up" in the mail was tangentially related to the Battle of the Bulge or some such prioritisation. Despite the "As far as I’m concerned it’s a good idea", he didn't ever change unit though, if by "unit" he means the "SRY" there, as he stuck with them to the end of the war and then until demobbed in 1946. I do sometimes wonder if his "funny stories" were ones that actually occurred to him and his mates, ones he made up to amuse, or if they were just re-told stories among the men that were being passed around... All the best, Rm. SRY_A_curious_parade by Ramiles posted Jan 7, 2017 at 1:15 PM 7880500 Sgt.B.Symes Sherwood Rangers B.L.A Dearest Phyl, Plenty of snow here now, about six inches at the moment, and still going strong. This morning there was a curious parade, all the over 35’s were asked if they wanted to stay with a front line unit or go back. I don’t know back where to or what to do, but I think the idea is to move up the under thirties and move back the over thirty fives. As far as I’m concerned it’s a good idea and I for one am all for going back to a steadier job, I can still do my share of war work without being in too hectic a unit so I hope the thing goes through at a fair pace. Things are a bit dull, the weather I suppose. This morning though we had an amusing incident. Two Sgts, myself being… …one of them, went for haircut and a bath. In the barber’s we bought some stuff for the hair unusual for me I know. Anyway it was marked “Eu-de-Cologne”, it just wasn’t that, it smelt foul so we asked the lady where we are billeted exactly what the stuff was and believe it or not it was for clearing children’s hair of lice!!! We were done nice. The bath was good though. Janet is now over a month old so she should be doing well now. I’ve been reading some very good books lately, the best I think was “The Razor’s Edge” by Somerset Maugham though I doubt if it would be your cup of tea. My letters haven’t been too good lately + it’s only to you I write, and I really should write to Gaynor, but I suppose it’s because we are three Sgts. in this billet and we either play cards or talk or read… …until it’s quiet and then it’s about 11pm. It's ten past now and I’ve been trying to write this for hours. There’s no mail this morning, but I expected a gap as there was such a wide one in my mail. A story. We “found” a carpet, it’s a very nice carpet, fills a fair size room. We had to find this carpet as the room had a stone floor. We brought it into the billet and that evening we had hot water put for us to wash. Then we were told “it’s a nice carpet”. It’s a very nice carpet. Then we had three eggs. We were going to take the carpet when we next change billets but the old boy here is a bit of a psychologist, every morning we see the impossibility of keeping our carpet becoming more and more apparent. We don’t have to clean our shoes, or clean the room and last evening I noticed the old lady telling her bloke not to let his great feet roll… …up the edges of the carpet. It’s a standing joke now when the old boy rolls in with some apples, we eat another bit of the carpet. Soon we shall no doubt be saying "what a nice carpet it was". Well I want to post this off in the morning so I won’t drag it out, it’s 11.30pm, we are still talking, at the moment it’s the affect of dampness on radios, not my pet subject. I hope Rob enjoyed himself at the clinic; he should be about finished there now. I also hope you got along alright with the registration of the babe, that must be a new rule although anyone could register her with a Dis certificate. So now I’ll just send a kiss to Janet and Rob, nice having two youngsters, much better. All my love to you my darling. Cheerio and lots of love from your loving husband. Ben xx.
Ps... BTW... The Wardiary for the SRY for around this period has the following... Nb. for operation “Black ???” Operation Blackcock - Wikipedia Not sure if anyone can add any "light" though to all the other ????'s in the transcript? Though some of them I think I can glean from context, other info. etc.... 6th January 1945 Colonel inspected B Sqn in the morning and attended a conference at SCHINVELD on operation “Black ????”, in this operation 8th Armd Bde were to support 52 Mountain Div in an attack on HEINSBERG and ????? to the north . In the afternoon the Colonel and Sqn Ldrs with the Gunner O.P’s went over the ground GEILENKIRCHEN, PRUMMEREN and BEEK over which we last fought in support of 84th ???????? Div. 7th January 1945 Universal service held for those who had been killed in the GEILENKIRCHEN battle. The padre preached an excellent service. Cpt Walker joined the regiment also 7 N.C.O.’s picked by Maj. Lord Leigh ???? the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars. Colonel ?????? at 8th Armd Bde, in the evening Maj. ?????? came to discuss the fire place for operation “Black ?????”. 8th January 1945 Colonel attended conference at 8th Armd Bde HQ’s where the Army Commander General Dempsey gave details of the Ardennes offensive and confirmed that it was not under control owing to severe weather conditions. We would not be able to ???? ??????, to take as many prisoners as had at first been hoped. Colonel attended conference on the cooperation of a ????? company with an armd reg at HQ 12 KRRC and dinned with Colonel Edwards. 9th January 1945 Colonel inspected stables of C Sqn. A special ????? commanding ????? started for the next N.C.O.’s from the R.G.H. Lt Bethell-Fox rejoined the regiment after being wounded 3 times. 10th January 1945 Colonel and adjutant attended conference at Bde HQ for operation “Black ???”. The weather was bitterly cold, ???? ????? ????? officers so frozen we a ?????. “C” Company 12 K.R.R.C. joined the regiment. 11th January 1945 All leave to BRUSSELS was cancelled. Day spent in training with 52 Div for operation “Black ???”. 12th January 1945 O.P.’s joined the regiment , conference at 52 Div HQ decided that the regiment would support 153 Bde. 13th January 1945 A conference with 156 Infantry Bde decided that ????? Sqn would support 1 Bn from the Bde. 14th January 1945 Sqn Ldrs and Bn commanders held conference. Tanks have been painted completely white, snow continued to fall. 15th January 1945 Colonel attended conference 156 Bde at 09.00 and 17.00 hrs. Maj. Holman left on English leave, Capt. Coleman taking over his Sqn. 7th Armd Div started “Black ????” by opening up main road ??????? north from SITTARD to ROERMOND. 35° degrees frost. See also - The Sherwood Rangers in January 1945
Re. the book "The Razor's Edge" - mentioned in the letter in post #1 above - I noticed that this two part audio adaption was recently repeated on BBC radio 4extra: Classic Serial - W Somerset Maugham - The Razor's Edge - Episode 1 - BBC Sounds Traumatised young veteran Larry Darrell returns to Chicago after the First World War, but finds it difficult to fit back into society. To the dismay of his fiancée, Isabel, he heads for Paris, where he embarks on a spiritual quest to find the answers to his many questions. First published in 1944, W Somerset Maugham’s novel dramatised in two-parts by Ronald Frame. W Somerset Mauqham ... Nicholas Le Prevost Larry ... John Light Isabel ... Megan Dodds Elliott ... Edward Petherbridqe Maturin/Brabazon ... David Bannerman Gray ... Sam Dale The Swami ... Amerjit Deu Sophie ... Laurel Lefkow Mrs Bradley ... Carolyn Pickles Director: Gaynor MacFarlane First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2005.
