7 August 1940
My dear family,
We have been relieved of lifeguard duty, just as the great strike against England is imminent. I think we are going to really experience something now, and we won’t have much longer to wait. I can’t tell you where we are. We are living the real outdoor life, like we used to in the Hitler Youth…
It’s a shame about the beautiful material and the white suit, but maybe we can get a better, cheaper one in England. Six planes flew over today but they were forced to turn back in a hurry. They don’t have far to go, it only takes about 10 minutes from here. All day long they flew overhead, sometimes 50 or more fighter planes.
Your Herbert
14 August 1940
My dears,
I just got Mother’s lovely letter from Freudenstadt…I am so glad all is well at home…
…I hope all this camping will finish soon. We are getting filthy, as there’s very little water and we’re in the same clothes for days on end…Tommy has discovered us and bombs us every night. But he is normally turned away by our anti-aircraft guns before he can strike. He never hits anything though. Last Saturday a Bristol Blenheim flew over at eight in the morning and was about to drop a bomb when our guns returned fire and after about ten shots he was on fire. A few seconds later he crashed near us. There was a huge explosion and bits flew everywhere. There was wreckage spread around for about 60 metres and you could hardly believe it was once a proud bomber of the Royal Air Force; all three crew were dead of course; when we arrived the bodies were still burning. But you can’t feel any sympathy for them because they were trying to kill us…
Warmest hello from your Herbert
The next day the Luftwaffe launched its biggest assault on Britain so far. In France, in response to Pétain’s call for the millions of refugees who had fled south to come home, Micheline and her family returned to their own flat in occupied Paris.
12 August 1940
The Lycée Racine reopened today and I have signed up for some summer courses. It won’t be like this for long but it’s quite shocking: no notebooks, no textbooks, no homework. Great or what! Lessons are from 9 till 11 in the morning, nothing in the afternoon. I can go up from the 5th to the 4th form without taking any exams because the head teacher ran away from the college at Verneuil and the Germans who’ve settled in there have taken everything. I found all this out from Yvette. She’s back too, I was so pleased to see her again. She told me that Mademoiselle Brachuet, the Latin teacher, was so scared during the bombing of Verneuil that she wet her pants. She was out for a walk with the weekly boarders and Yvette saw it all. I would have loved to have been there! It would have been revenge for everything she put me through.
There are 2,000 Germans in Verneuil as well as 9,000 French prisoners, 40 Scots and a few English. Everything’s been looted by those who stayed and by refugees passing through. The Germans have requisitioned most of the houses. The Flercks have a huge villa and they have four of them staying, which suits them fine as they get sent to do the shopping—the Germans don’t like to queue. The only annoying thing is that when the Germans are drunk, they sometimes go to the wrong room. Oh to be a fly on the wall!…
The Germans have launched a massive attack on the English from the sea. The English threw tonnes of oil and petrol onto the water and when their planes bombed the Channel it all burst into flames, along with the Bosches. Hip, hip, hip, hurray! At least the English know how to defend themselves! They won’t let their country be invaded while they’re busy making fine speeches, like spineless old Pétain.
The incident in the Channel was part of a deception tactic to make it appear that the shores of Britain were protected by a wall of fire, and as invincible to the Germans as Micheline hoped.
By 20 August, the RAF’s aerial defence of Britain was still keeping the invasion at bay. On that day Brian wrote to Trudie about his part in the events of the previous week.
20 August 1940
Dear Trudie,
The Battle for Britain has begun. But we are prepared for them. I have had 3 bombs dropped within 300 yards of me. We were out on duty with the Home Guard when we heard the aeroplane overhead, the scream of bombs, thuds and flashes of flame. By the time this letter reaches you I bet I’ll have had some dropped nearer than that. The Home Guard brought its first Nazi bomber down on Sunday with rifle fire. I tried to machine-gun them but it did not come off. I am practising bomb throwing every night now. We are to fight guerrilla warfare and will be tougher now to kill a sentry without making any noise and such as that. Oh Boy. What fun!!!!! The thing I am dreading most is the army boots, big hefty things with studs in the bottom, Oh oh!!!!
What do you think about our Air Force, grand work, what? A friend of mine saw an anti-aircraft gun shoot a bomber clean in two only 16 miles away from home.
Yes I did make the plane in my picture. It is only 30-inch wingspan. I did make them 60- and 70-inch wingspan. But now the war’s to be taken seriously it’s no time for a boy old enough to fight to go flying model planes.
I went to a dance last Saturday night and they had a fine new dance called the kiss waltz. It’s a waltz as you may have guessed and every time the lights go out you kiss your partner. It’s good, fine, delicious. Do you have anything like this?
You still don’t ask me any questions in your letters. When I write I have to think out all my own stuff. Write plenty. You don’t know how I look forward to your letters they buck me up fine. So don’t forget write plenty.
I suppose you are basking in the sun as I write this letter. I bet you are as brown as a berry.
I read in one of today’s papers that conscription may be reduced from 20 years to 18, that means if it is true I’ll be in it next year ready for when we invade Europe.
Have any of your letters from me been censored?
I don’t like to think some old faggot in the censor reads our letters do you?
Hoping you are well and in the best of health.
Yours,
Brian
20 September 1940
Dear Trudie,
All’s well. Still alive and kicking. But greatly enraged at the brutal bombing by our swinish enemy of London. If they destroy the Tower of London, the Houses of Parliament or any building like that I shall go raving mad.
We have been on manoeuvres all this afternoon with the Home Guard. First Day in my army boots. Oh!! Each one weighs about a ton. It’s very exciting learning how to advance in short rushes, bayonet charging. We have had grand instruction on bayonets from Dad. Where to stick it, in the throat, in the lungs or in the stomach giving it a twist as you pull it out. Things like this I would never have done before the war. But now nothing would give me greater pleasure than to cut a Hun’s throat.
In answer to your question what is ‘fish ‘n chips’. This is Britain’s favourite meal. You creep home to eat them, or now in the black-out you lower your dignity and eat them going home. If you come to England after the war you must have 12 cents worth for our first supper.
We don’t know whether Adolf is still going to invade us but the RAF are giving him a belting every night.
You might think these letters stale, with nothing but war to talk about. You see, we are now all concerned with seeing it through and have little time for films, etc. But it will take more than Hitler to stop our little timetable, won’t it?
Yours,
Brian