Love on the frontline: letters between lovers in World War Two. Part 2

In Part I, we explored common themes that arose in the love letters exchanged between Jimmy and Freda. We also delved into the historical contexts that made this form of communication through mail possible.

Dry flower token send by Jimmy to Freda.

In the second part of the blog, we will take a closer look at the ways in which the two expressed their feelings for each other beyond words. The letters served as a medium for conveying nonverbal communication, engaging with various senses such as smell, touch and sound.

Music

As a form of inherently interactive entertainment, music often communicates collective experiences and shared feelings that are relatable to listeners. Jimmy frequently used music and quoted lyrics in his letters to Freda to express his affection, citing songs, performers, and musical films popular at the time. Below are some of examples of these.

I heard a song played on a gramophone record yesterday ‘What More Can I Say’ I love you I do. If you went away, I’d be lonesome and low…’ (E17181/26)

Listen to What More Can I say by Chick Henderson and Joe Loss & His Orchestra.

‘I managed to get to a cinema last week and saw ‘Down Argentine Way’.. I reckon that song ‘Two Dreams Met’ is a lovely tune’! (E17181/22)

Listen to Two Dreams Met by Mitchell Ayres & his Orchestra, vocal by Mary Ann Mercer, in Down Argentine Way (1940).

‘I would like to hear a few dance tunes, sometimes if possible I get some on the wireless. I am lucky at the moment I am listening to the tune ‘Sleepy Lagoon’. It’s lovely and soothing, but I did hear Bing Crosby not along ago, singing the song ‘Only Forever’. That was the very last song I heard before leaving everything I’ve ever cared for, you, home, aircrew. He sang it in the film ‘Rhythm on the River’. I could listen to him all day.’ (E17181/23)

Listen to Sleepy Lagoon by Harry James and Only Forever by Bing Crosby in Rhythm on the River (1940).

Like people today share Spotify playlists and favourite songs with their loved ones, Jimmy and Freda expressed their feelings to each other with beautiful tunes and lyrics that reminded them of their love. Here music adds an auditory dimension to the letters, closing the distance between the couple. An intimate moment is shared as the two listen to the same song on gramophones across the ocean.

Perfume

The letters also speak to the importance of scent, with one in particular highlighting Freda’s perfume. This ‘enchanting’ scent transported Jimmy to a different time and place, where he is with her:

A beautiful smell of perfume came from the letter, god it was so tantalising, a brief taste of heaven, and as you can imagine I hung on to every second of it. It brought to me visions of our future dear ‘you and I’ and the happy times we have to have when I return… (E17181/38)

Tokens of Love

Many small, two-dimensional objects were included in the letters Jimmy and Freda sent to each other, including small photographs, newspaper clippings, sketches, and pressed flowers. Here are some of the objects Jimmy sent to Freda in the letters.

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Jimmy often sent Freda small sketches he made, often containing humorous and slightly risqué images.

A drawing by Jimmy depicting a woman doing her hair, with text that reads ‘imagination is funny?? The finishing touch’. (E17181/89)

My favourites are the fragile dry flowers Jimmy collected in Petah Tikva and sent along with the letters, with him often describing how they were collected and the feelings they evoke:

Miles away from here across mountains we came to a small village thousands of feet above sea level. All the people are Armenians. We stayed there for food. A little girl gave me this rose. The first smell of it brought back vivid memories. Home, walks, canoeing, cycling, down country lanes. (E17181/23)

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Coda: Letters as a Lifeline

For reasons not revealed in the letters, Freda and Jimmy did not marry. The index of letters received in Freda’s diaries from 1944 and 1945 reveals that she stopped receiving letters from Jimmy, leading to their eventual loss of contact. The reason for Jimmy and Freda’s separation is still a mystery.

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After the war, there were two brief letters from Jimmy to Freda in 1949, saying that he married another woman but was a ‘sadly disillusioned man and I have a feeling that we’ll never see a first anniversary’, advising her not to be hasty about marrying. In the last letter of this collection, Jimmy proposed a plan to meet in London, outside the Odeon Cinema in Marble Arch. We do not know if the two met or how their stories continued.

Letters are not only written texts But also objects that carry historical significance. Handwritten with care and attention, these letters reflect the effort and time their writers invested. This unique and rare collection of over 200 items, primarily letters and cards, is a treasure trove that deserves further exploration. These letters speak of the profound loneliness mixed with sweetness from afar. By collecting and studying these objects, we are able to tell stories of the rich, lived experiences of ordinary individuals like Jimmy and Freda, preserving them for future generations.

Sources

Lyons, Martyn. ‘Love Letters and Writing Practices: On Écritures Intimes in the Nineteenth Century’. In Journal of Family History, 24 (2014), 232-239.

Schwender, Clemens. ‘Letters Between Home and the Front: Expressions of Love in World War II “Feldpost” Letters’. In Communication of Love: Mediatized Intimacy from Love Letters to SMS. Interdisciplinary and Historical Studies, edited by Eva Lia Wyss, 213-236. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2014.

Summerfield, Penny. ‘“My Heart Is a Piece of Stone”: Anxious Separations and Emotional Dislocations in British Correspondence from the Long Second World War.’ Journal of British Studies 62, no. 2 (2023): 303–32.

‘Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) 1939 – 1949’. Royal Air Force Museum.