October 28, 1940

Received your letter of the fourth here yesterday. I am glad you received the snaps safely and that you found May not too hard on the optics. I hope Shirley hasn’t grown too weary of writing to Miss Jenkins, as the poor girl said she was lonely and, as I didn’t care to do anything about it, decided to give Shirley a whirl. I must say that Shirley did a good job, as Jenkins was very pleased with the letter. Apart from being a good Samaritan, it should improve Shirley’s spelling and diction.

Well, I am sorry to hear that you aren’t threshed yet, but we don’t just seem to get the breaks, do we? It would be a strange coincidence if Alan’s crop on the Stinson farm should be a complete loss, as my first and only venture there resulted in a similar experience. I feel very sorry for Alan, as it must have been very discouraging to have a lovely crop smashed in the ground before his eyes. If you remember, my first crop was very heavy and as luck would have it, we were snowed in and lost most of it. Well, keep your chin up and raise all the hogs you can and perhaps things will take an unexpected turn for the better.

It was with deep regret I read of the attack on the Empress of Britain and the subsequent loss of the ship as she was in our convoy and kept abreast of us most of the way across.  The war seems to have opened up again with a bang. After a few frosty mornings here, I wouldn’t mind some exercise in a warmer climate. I just hope our leaders are capable of handling this new crisis properly and hand the Wops a sound beating. In any event, you will see some very startling developments within the next few days. I expect Johnny Turk to make a good account of himself and only hope we can spare enough planes and material to neutralize the enemy’s mechanized forces.

I have been trying to get into the R.A.F. as a fighter pilot but, to date, haven’t received a satisfactory answer to my inquiries. I probably flatter myself, but it seems to me that I could make a good pilot and might even bring our name to the fore again as a scrapper. You will probably think me balmy to leave a good job and a soft billet just to get into a scrap, but I can’t bear the thought of spending another six months twiddling my thumbs.

What really makes me mad is the indiscriminate bombing. We have an average of four or five raids during daylight and a night raid which lasts until the wee hours every day. Often the fog is so thick that you can’t see over thirty feet, but that doesn’t stop the Gerries unloading.

I don’t often say my prayers, but I did pray for a chance to fly, so that I could repay the bums for their savagery in kind. However, wishing to fly and getting a chance are two very different things, so I won’t be too surprised if nothing comes of my application, but at least I had the satisfaction of having tried. I think I told you before, I received a second serge uniform and a very nice double-breasted overcoat. The coat really is smart and I will try to get a snap of yours truly all decked out for church parade and send it to you. By the way, I finally had the stub tooth pulled and will have another to replace it in about four weeks. My next leave starts on the nineteenth of February, so will see the aunts then. Well, cheerio.