Somewhere in England

Aug 17/42.

Dear Bill:

Received your letter about a week and a half ago but as we’ve just finished moving again I haven’t had any spare time till now. We’ve moved farther along the coast now and we’re stuck in a kind of dead spot as far as people go, but there has been a little excitement to relieve the boredom. The second night we were here we had a bombing raid which put the gasworks out of commission and also tore down a good portion of the station and also wrecked completely 13 trucks of a regiment in the same brigade as we are. They were up all night fighting the fire to keep it from spreading to their petrol dump. They were using a new type of incendiary bomb which explodes a short while after it lands with a hell of a concussion and throws fire all over the place which makes them very difficult to put out. We just had another alarm a few moment ago and I seen about five spits streaking out seawards and I’ll bet somebody sure is going to catch hell.

I was in London for the week-end, the first week-end. I’ve had in nearly a year and had a fairly good time I would have been awfully mad cause it cost ten bob return to go there. Met a few Yanks while I was there but they didn’t impress me much. Their uniforms are nice but I have seen quite a few scruffy ones.

Sorry to hear that Grandmas has been so terribly ill. I figured there must be something very wrong cause she’s usually quite prompt in her letter writing. I hope that by the time you receive this that she’ll be well again.

I guess that would be a pleasant surprise finding that Murray was stationed so close and him not saying anything about it in his letters. Well I’m glad to hear that he’s stationed so close to home and be able to get home every other week-end.

The same old jock and the same old game, eh. He usually did do something like that and was sorry the next moment. I had a letter from young James a couple of days ago, he’s going to school in portage. I guess I’ll have to get busy and write back to him tonight. Had a letter also from Alice & Jean which I’ll have to answer before I get too far behind my correspondence.

Well Bill I guess I’ll call it quits for this time and hope to hear from you soon again. Give my regards to the rest of the family. Cheerio for now.

Kindest regards

Jim