9/1/44

Dear Mother:

I received another parcel from you and it was really nice and came in very handy even if the mice did eat most of the chocolate bars. The mice around here must be as big as elephants by now after eating all the stuff they do. I am sending along our Xmas menu card so you can see what we should have got and didn't. The signature on the back are of some of the members of the crew. I am also sending those pictures that we took on the Isle of Man and I will soon have some more to send you as soon as we can borrow a camera or fix Claspers up.

My skipper has been grounded for the past week so we haven't been doing any flying at all. So that means that we will be here for another fortnight more. Which is maybe just as well. Everybody is getting posted away from this dump but us and we are on our 12th week. That is just a little too long to spend in anyone place in Yorkshire anyways. Some Canadians here the other night stole a horse out of a stable and rode it back to camp. The trouble was that the horse was a mare and in foal so the old farmer was quite put out about it. The old C.O.C.B the whole camp and cancelled all days off so we are quite mad at the dear old soul. I am going to take my day off to-morrow anyways and they can do their damndest. I am really get browned off at being treated like a little kid by these old school tie drips. To bad we all wasn't in the army with half these officers so we could fix them proper. Sometimes I think that the guys in the army are a lot better off they do at least get the chance to get rid of any officer they don't like. I can't understand the attitude of some of these guys you would think that they were a bunch of old grandmothers instead of a qualified leader. After nearly five years of war some people over here don't even know there is a war on and I don't think that they will ever smarten up either.

I have got two lovely long letters from Mel since he was here which is really quite good for him. I also received the check from Dad for 2 quid and it really will come in handy after the festivities of last year. Well I really haven't got anymore news for you this time so I shall quit for now.

Orval