Sunday, 5th July 1942,

My Dear Dorothy,

Thank you so much for 2 very nice letters dated 25th May 7 1st June, and please thank Mother for hers of 31st May.  From all accounts you are a very busy young lady at the moment, you certainly are doing your bit; not much time for courting is there?

Is it Chester way or in the opposite direction in which you work, Burt and I are very curious.  Please do send cigarettes and tobacco, they will be most welcome.  February parcels are now arriving in large numbers so mine should be here in the next few days.  Letters to the 20th June are now here.

About books.  If any particularly good books are issued please send a copy, only now I am back in the main camp I have access to numerous books, so actually I am not short of reading matter.  From 9.00am to 1.00pm daily I go to school, where I am learning German, French and Shorthand.  The school tutors are mostly university tutors at home, for example the French tutor teaches French at Sydney university and the Shorthand tutor is from Pitmans staff and holds a certificate for a speed of 220 wordsper min, the world record is 260. 

Love to you, Mum and Dad, I am in excellent health.  Your loving brother,

Arthur

On this day:

On the Eastern Front... German General Hoth's 4th Panzer Army reach the Don River near Voronezh. To their left, General Weich's 2nd Army makes progress against the Soviet defenders.

In the Arctic... Without defensive escorts 13 vessels from the British convoy PQ-17 are sunk by Luftwaffe and U-boat attacks. The German heavy ships approach, but return to port when their presence is made unnecessary by the success of the air and submarine attacks. The sister convoy QP-17 sails into an Allied minefield in the Denmark Straits and loses 4 ships.

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