David Holbrook
Page from a letter to his parents
Meanwood Park, Leeds, [Summer 1944]
From MS Add. 9987

Transcript:

2

I’m getting a bit bored now that I’ve come round a bit from my horrid ordeal of the serum rash. I wrote a long letter to Dick Seabrook all about the Battle today to while away the hours. I have been recounting some of my experiences over there. –

One evening after liaising with some Canadian formation near us driving back across a vast hill covered with deep corn – suddenly realised I didn’t know where our own lines lay, and it was getting dark. We reached a road & decided to drive in one direction. The enemy was only ½ mile away. Suddenly saw a glow behind us – a tank we had had knocked out earlier in the day was blowing up – we were driving the wrong way. We crawled back cautiously, several times nearly being shot up