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

Transcript:

3

by our own infantry!

Then the afternoon when I was working on my maps in the turret – a roaring of planes, a whistle – three bangs and then a hell of a loud whistle, a delay & a bang. The whole sky & the orchard shook & went black. Earth cascaded down all over us. A 250lb bomb had fallen about 50 yards away, and had gone off deep in the soft earth! (A chap who was in a slit trench on the edge of crater was buried, but unharmed!!)

Then one night I was detailed to recce our harbour area, which was a lane one side of a narrow strip of wood. I reached it in my carrier, and found the rest of the regiment