England Dec. 27, 1943.

Dear Mother,
         Received two of your letters today. One was
written Dec. 5 & the other Dec. 13. Both of them come
together.  The mail has been awlful slow in comeing
to us lately.  I hope it gets righted around again
soon.
       Yes it is over a year ago now since I have
been home.  I was thinking the other night that
in 1943 I haven't seen any of my folks.  It looks
as if 1943 was just a lost year for me.  Your
letter didn't get here before Christmas but it got
here anyway, so that is all that matters.
      I guess your family has sure decreased since
I was home last.  It would seem queer for me
to see just 3 or four of you at a dinner table.
Maybe someday next year you will be able
to look out and see me comeing through the
gate.  I have dreamed of comeing home two or
three times and just walking in.  Gee it sure
would be wonderful.  I'll bet Duke would even
remember me.
          I have been receiving some of your letters
telling about the oil well but never remember
of you saying anything about leasing the land
around home.
       I hope Irene spent Christmas day with
you.  I hope she enjoyed the gift you bought
for her also.  Gee it would seem good to

see her again.  I believe the U.S. Army would
be hunting for a soldier A.W.O.L. if ever I got
back in the U.S.
      I have received two copies of the Record
now.  It gives me a lot of news and I am
real pleased to be receiving it.  I also would
like to receive the Advance if it would be possible.
      You know mother, I don't believe I would
be able to eat a fresh egg again.  Gee that
would really be grand to go out and gather eggs
and fry some of them.  They can by a few around
here.  It costs the fellows about 2'6* a dozen or
50 cents.  Those marks mean two shilling and
sixpence or in other words half a crown.
     In your letter of Decemember 13 you tell how
bright the moon was that week.  Yes it was
really bright here and I don't believe I will
forget that moonlight week either. It is one
of my experiences to tell about when I get home.
I hope you have sent my flashlight by
this time.  This is the time of year a person
really needs one over here.  I haven't received
any package yet from the Riga Womens Club. Maybe
it got lost on the way over.
     I really got my share of presents this year.
soap, razor blades, shaveing kits, sewing kits,
socks, sweater, billfold, candy, nuts and Christmas
cards.  Probably will receive more of them yet.
      I try to answer all those monthly letters
from the church.  I have received two so
far and have answer both of them.  The
last one was from Orren.  I answered it.

     Well mother I guess this will be the last
letter to you in 1943.  New Years day probably
will just be a work day.  That is if we don't
celebrate to much the night before.  I hope
I will be able to return to a normal
life again in 1944.  Things look good and
I hope the war does end.
     I will try to drop my letters to you
as often in 1944 as I did in 1943.  It is
rather hard to write from this side sometimes.
At first it was easy.  But now everything is
getting old to us.  I guess we need a change of
scenery every few months.  But not as much
as we changed in 1943.
     Goodnight for this time.  Keep all the
news and letters comeing.
     I had a slight attack of the grip but I
guess I have thrown it off now.  I feel better
tonight.  I guess our mail raises our morale
about 80% when we receive it.  Goodnight
and love to all.
                                    Love Ralph.


The next letter will be posted on January 2nd.

Background Information (and comments):

• Duke was the family dog.
• Ralph's actual marks for the shilling and sixpence looked like an apostrophe and the degree symbol.
• The Advance refers to the Blissfield Advance newspaper. It was published weekly and I found it existed back in 1899, but could not find when it actually began. It is still in business.
• I'm not sure what happened in England during the full moon (it was Dec. 11th), but since he worked on airplanes, it may have been the following that occurred on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14:
• A wave of 1,462 American airplanes flew an early afternoon carpet bombing raid over the German citiees of Bremen, Hamburg and Kiel. In a departure from previous missions, all bombers in a unit would release their high explosive bombs and incendiaries, simultaneously, on the population centers.
• In the heaviest bombardment ever of Greece, more than 300 Allied warplanes dropped bombs on the German Luftwaffe airfields near Athens at Eleusis, Kalamaki and Tatoi, as well as the harbor facilities at Piraeus.
• When Ralph refers to an attack of the grip, it was actually spelled grippe. A medical website has written this: 
•  Usually referred to as the flu or grippe, influenza is a highly infectious respiratory disease. The disease is caused by certain strains of the influenza virus.