Sameplace
Monday

Hello Folks:

I received your very welcome letter today after I came back from my navigation flight. Thanks a lot for sending the money order – it sure will come in handy no kidding. It sure seems a long time between letters down here – I guess it’s due to the extra distance. Yes you are right about the camera, it will be best to leave it till I get home. You might as well use it and let me know what it’s like. You sure are putting in the time eh Dad? How is Miriam now? And also all the rest? Kiss Barbara for me Ray – you young mush push! I sure am looking for that parcel! Believe it or not the food here is worse than at Mossbank now. No variety at all and the spuds are always wet and gooy – ah!

We are flying a lot now – 3 days in a row up till today. We went on a navigation trip today about 400 miles. The navigator did navigation and I pinpointed – which is navigating by map reading. My duties are also finding wind speeds and directions, tracks and ground speeds, courses, reporting recconaissance, finding drifts etc, etc. We go out one after the other like at Edmonton and are out about 4 hours. The navigator and I get the plane to the target and I drop 2 bombs, then we navigate home, incidentally I haven’t been ill again – my stomach was upset that day. We bomb from 10,000 feet which is plenty high, the plane is a dot from the ground and we use oxygen at times. I have the record in our class for bombs. I dropped one 28 yards and one 17 yards from the target from 10,000. It sure takes the bombs a long time to hit. I sit up with the pilot all the time and go into the nose to bomb. It sure seems funny – I know the country 100 miles all around Winnipeg like a book and I have only been here 2 weeks. Our navigator got lost today – if he goes the wrong way we can’t tell him as he must find out himself), and we were about 20 miles inside Ontario. We were down in North Dakota yesterday, we sure have no use for navigators here – as far as getting us to our destination is concerned. Well I have had 6 teeth filled now and that is all for a while, thank the Lord. We have exams (finals in 3 weeks) and I can see I am going to be very very busy soon.

I am keeping some pictures I took from the plane in our first camera exercise. They turned out swell. To take these pictures properly you must lean away out the window holding a 30lb camera, while the other guy inside holds on to your parachute harness. You can see so much and everything seems so close and yet soooo far. You get used to it tho. The work here is plenty interesting and that is the main thing. Ground work is a little boring but air work is swell. Please say hello to Uncle Bray and Jean for me when you see them. Say and cud oud dat lovey dovey stuff eh dats kits stuff ha-ha. Well Mummy and Daddy and kiddies I am really really tired tonite so I’ll sign off and hit the hay as I have a camera flip tomorrow morning at 7.30 and I will be up about 2 hours. So you can think of me tomorrow morning taking pictures between 7.30 and 9.30. What fun ha-ha. Well nite nite my loves from your shrimp of a bombardier.

Love and Stuff to All
Petee

P.S. [?]p my bed for me Ray, it won’t be long for Sergeant Biollo to return. Whoopee.

[An additional page has labeled sketches of a bombsight mechanism’s parts and a targeting diagram; centre caption of “ME TAKING PICTURES – TALK ABOUT STEADY NERVES AND SPEED – THAT IS A BOMBARDIER”]