Bill's Letters

The pages can barely contain Bill as he describes the exhilaration of flying the RAF single-seat fighters of the time. From his first days in London, to being invited to RAF training, through-out that training and the pride of becoming a Pilot Officer, Bill takes us with him through it all. His time with 41(F) Squadron is well documented on the following pages and although he was not with them during the Battle of Britain and forward, the squadron was never far from his heart. The adventures are not only in the air, but in the streets of London, the laneways and scenery of England and in the people he meets. Bill's youthful exuberance, passion for flying and delightful humour makes the early letters an absolute joy to read.

Bill requested a transfer to the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, which was granted effective August 1, 1938. He would join 802(FF) Squadron in HMS Glorious, stationed at Alexandria, Egypt. There is no slow in his letters, nor his enjoyment for everything he is experiencing; experiences he readily shares. He is quite literally having the time of his life. Almost exactly 13 months after his transfer to the FAA, Britain declared war on Germany. The war got off to a slow start for Bill and his letter writing is still quite consistent up until early 1941, after which it drops off significantly.

It is not difficult to appreciate why his letter writing slowed to a trickle. As the war progressed, so to did his responsibilities and the number of men he knew, who were killed. With everything going on around him, and to him, he manages to ensure some good cheer for his letters home. And any time he notes something he shouldn't have, the censors were there to catch it.

We are all very fortunate that Bill's sister, Jean, compiled the letters and that they were typed up (in Word) to ensure their preservation. When the letters were typed up, Bill's punctuation and spelling were retained. That said, there are some glaring mistakes to some words and I believe that this was the typist. However, it is easy to guess the right word.

I have converted the letters to PDF for their presentation here, but that had no affect on the structure of the original Word documents. The content breakdown (chapters) and cover were added by myself.