Somewhere in England
May 11, 1940

Dear Mom,

The dam has broken at last; Hitler has invaded Holland and Belgium. We got the news later last night when we were miles away from home - camped in a meadow near Reading. We marched about eighteen miles yesterday and were we tired at the end of it. My feet stood it wonderfully well though; I never had a single blister.

This morning we all came back to camp by truck and right now the whole camp is a seething mass of speculation. Everyone seems to think that our time has come at last and that we will be rushed right away over to France. I don't think so myself because so far as I know, no preparations have been made to receive us over there and they certainly would not ship us over there with no plans made at all. However we are all CB tonight as there may be something afoot. I forgot to tell you by the way that I am back with my company again and am very happy. But I guess you can gather that from the above.

We have very little definite news of the fighting over in Europe but things seem to be moving very rapidly. Hitler used sky-borne infantry for the first time and whole companies of troops descended far behind the Dutch armies and began to wreck communications and vital clearance centres. However our boys are racing up through Belgium to meet them and I am sure everything will be all right as soon as we can get to grips with them. I only wish we could too, but somehow I don't think we will. That is all for now.

Love as ever

Jim