Saturday, 17th August 1940

My dear Mother & Father,

This is my third letter to you, I do hope the other two have reached you alright, we are allowed to write six times per month, so have no fear of losing touch with me.

As far as I know, you can write to me as often as you like, but of course only local and personal news.  I expect by now you have received instructions about writing and sending parcels, and here is a small list of things I would like you to send in the next month or so, as I said before, I expect you know what you are allowed to send me, well here goes;- slabs of toffee and chocolate, a tin of sweets, treacle and syrup, biscuits, meat paste and ??????? oxo and marmite, cod liver oil and malt, razor blades and toothpaste.  That will have to do for now.

I hope you have a happy birthday and that you, Dad, Dorothy and Bill are in the best of health as I am, I have no stomach trouble now.  Please remember me to all the relations, Harry and Ernie and the neighbours.  I am going to try and increase your allotment to 2/- per day for my pay still carries on.

Well, here's to the day when once again we are all together.

All my love,
Arthur.

On this day;


Royal Navy bombards Italian bases

In the Mediterranean... Admiral Cunningham leads three battleships and several other vessels of the British Mediterranean Fleet to bombard the Italian positions at Bardia and Fort Capuzzo. Air attacks on the ships are beaten off.

Over Germany... The RAF sends a raid against the armament works at Leuna. Although at this stage of the war the RAF intends to hit only military targets, it cannot achieve the necessary accuracy in night bombing.

In Greece... Following recently increased tension with Italy, the Greek armed forces are partially mobilized with a call-up in some districts. Among the provocations is the sinking of the Greek cruiser Helle by an Italian submarine.

Over Britain... There are no major German attacks even though the weather is reasonably good. In response to pleas from Dowding the Air Ministry agrees to give Fighter Command some extra pilots from other RAF branches and to shorten the training period for new pilots even though this has obvious disadvantages.

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940