Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry (SRY) in North West Europe

This letter from 4th-5th May 1945...

7880500 Sgt.B.Symes
Sherwood Rangers
B.L.A

My dearest Phyl,

This afternoon I found some asparagus just popping its lovely green head up above the ground so we had some for tea. And now I shall have to use a green envelope to keep it a local secret. We have some bacon too and we aren't badly off for eggs. Chickens do a hell of a lot of cackling for one egg, they bring all of the local troops running so to get one egg one has to get started at the first sound, and it's truly amazing the number of false...

P2... alarms these birds give, but to get eggs one must have lots of patience and not give up at the first few failures. Mark you it's a bit sickening to stroll that way just in case, only to find a grinning trooper rolling out with his beret full. Even to ask what the so-and-so means by walking about without his hat on, is poor consolation but we get our share.
Your letter got here yesterday, I think today is Thursday or it may be Friday (Nb – it was Friday). Someone said its May 4th. Anyhow, thanks for the joke book and the jokes!

P3... Yes you were wrong... I don't think it's a secret any more to say we had a look in at Bremen.
So glad to hear that Cliff Cook has got home. Linton must have patience there are prisoners everywhere here so it’s a big job transporting them.
I feel sorry for the Russians. We've discovered that they have no field post so when they join the army they can't write home at all. The same applies to prisoners taken by the Russians - that's the last that's heard of them as there is no link up for the German field Post. So...

P4... unless something is arranged after the war the German wives won't know whether they have husbands or not and until their blokes get home the Russian women are in the same boat.
I’ve had a pen given to me, it's a most unusual effort and I'm not sure yet if it's any good. The nib screws into the body of the pen and that's how it's filled, I think so, there'll be a mess if it is not so.
By the way where do you vote for Parliamentary elections? Cardiff or Caerphilly? We've just had some more forms to fill in, it isn't very important but I've put...

P5... Caerphilly and it may be Cardiff.
Why couldn't you get a frock? Are you big or small in the wrong places? That calls for a thick ear. Anyway there's no chance at all for Winnie if you failed. This pen isn't going so badly.
There's the Newsflash we've been waiting for. I expect you heard it too, though here the guns are still roaring. I expect they'll stack their ammo now. Someone has just slung an empty bottle through a window, shall have to get someone to open up a bottle, I know where there is one...

P6... This is the morning after. A few are a bit shaky this morning and now we have to settle down and work. Better if I had finished this letter last night.
Never mind, the darned war is over which is what we've been waiting for.
So I'll send all my love to you my dear and an especially big kiss to Rob and Janet not forgetting yourself from your loving husband, Ben XXX.

 

Soldiers were still err "locally sourcing" Luneburg Heath asparagus in the 1980s. Bacon and asparagus - breakfast of kings at battlegroup HQ