Mrs Kenneth Penman
Maycot
12 Commonside
Keston
Kent

BIRMINGHAM
1.30PM
11 DEC
1940

GROW MORE FOOD
DIG FOR VICTORY

Postage Revenue 2½d

Gnr Penman 1440280
c/o 169 Battery HAA
Birmingham City Police
Sports Ground,
Pershore Rd.
Edgbaston, Birmingham

9.12.40.

My Darling
Well here I am, safely arrived, I got back with very little trouble, managing to get a lift all the way from Watford to Brum in a car; the gun position here is very pleasantly sited on a large sports ground in one of Birmingham’ biggest parks; the battery here now is 168 but 169 are taking over this afternoon. You will remember that both these batteries are 60th Regt. I met Vic’s brother at tea last night and he was interested to learn we had seen him the previous day, he said he was…

…very fit, and he asked me how Vic was as he had not seen him for some months. It is a relief to get back on a Gun Position where all the men are not new intakes. Most of the men here have been in France and it generally follows, especially with T A units as you know, that discipline is not so strict as with the militia, although we managed to avoid most of it at the last place.

I don’t know how leave is going to mature as yet, as the Officers i/c 169 don’t arrive until later on today, but we are going to try and arrange that we revert to the old 48 hrs once a fortnight instead of three weeks as hitherto. If we are successful it will mean that I should get off on the 21st returning…

…on the 23rd. I do hope it would be alright for me to come up to m/c then as I should hate to have leave and not spend it, Darling, with you. I was so very happy this last time, you know how I adore coming home to you, it has made life very much happier and more eventful for me these last few months. One thing more before I pass over the question of leave, we are angling for another 7 days and I should have something to tell you about it when next I write.

One of Birminghams police men met his match the other day on this site, so Im told, he was engaged in an altercation with one of our Downham boys, who was collecting a few bricks in order to make a fire, the copper asked him if he knew he was looting. Our…

…lad. told him to go and do something unpleasant with himself and added that there were cases in the paper every day, of blokes like him getting ten years. The policeman retired discomforted.

Cheerio bye my succulent heart. Ill write again soon, if we have a bad raid at all, I’ll write the very next morning just to let you know I’m alright.

Keep happy and never forget I love you terribly much.

Yours Kenneth
PS Im afraid Ive forgotten Dolly’s address. K.xx
P.S.S. Percy is now Perfect Kxxx

(XXXXX) For Jill