Merry Christmas (1944)

Here is what Keith wrote to his mother just after Christmas in 1944. Some of it relates to events I haven't posted about yet so here is some brief background.

• Mr. & Mrs. Vinall were the parents of John Douglas Vinall, a friend of Philip's. They flew spitfires in Malta together in 1942. 
• John Vinall died in October 1942, and Phillip maintained a friendship with John's parents. 
• Mary is 'feeling low' because Phillip was reported missing on 19 November 1944. 

Letter from Keith to his mom, 30 December 1944.

'I had a very nice Christmas with Mary, we went over to some peoples place for the day and we really had a good time, Mr. & Mrs. Vinal(?) are really swell people, it’s a good thing Mary has them to turn to when she is feeling low. We aren’t doing anything right now, I am on picket duty in new years eve which should be very nice. Thank goodness I didn’t get it on the 2^nd as Robby & I have the same birthday we are having a birthday party at the local pub to celebrate. ... Say you talk about it being foggy in Vancouver weill I hitch hiked to London and back at Christmas and on the way back it got as bad you couldn’t see the side of the road so I had to take the train back. There was a restriction on trawl to 20 mi for the ? at the time so I had to ride free & then climb the fence when I arrived in the station.'

Christmas Presents

Here is what Keith would like from his mom for Christmas.

Letter from Keith to his mom, December 12 1944.
'You can send some cigs if you like, you be surprised, the last bunch all got burned (joke). '

Keith and Robbie pick a fight with a Scotsman

In February 1945 Keith and Robbie's crew still hadn't started flying missions yet. They were annoyed by the delays, and kept getting leave, so would head down to London.

Letter from Keith to his Mom,  22 February 1945.
'Well here I am again, in my last letter I was still in London but as you can see I am back at dear old Wombleton and it is just as bad as ever. We had an awful ride on the train back from London, there was about 200 men and women in a baggage car so I bust a window out for ventilation and some Scotchman started to give me old heck (he was in the army) & I told him that if they couldn’t ventilate the dam car I’d ventilate them for them, old Robby wanted to crack him one but the Scotchman settled down.'

Here's an old baggage carriage. 200 people???! Sounds like a recipe for aggression. 

 

Robbie and FOOD

Stewart 'Robbie' Robinson looks like a big kid. He met Keith when he was 19 years old. Keith mentions Robbie's appetite in some of his letters.  

26 November 1944
'Tell John that Robbie wants to thank him especially for the cracker pickle, he ate darn near all of them himself.'

Rationing was strict so Keith and Robbie went on the occasional black market hunter-gatherer expedition.

30 December 1944
'Robby & I went to a place called Harrogate last night & we bought a dozen eggs off an old lady so tonight we had fried eggs & beans & were they ever good, especially the way I fried them.'

Above is a picture of one week's rations.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/food_and_shopping/teachers_resources.shtml

'Robbie' Robinson - Mid Upper Gunner

Stewart 'Robbie' Robinson was the youngest member of the crew. He was from Lethbridge, Alberta.  He was 1 year younger than Keith. They shared the same birthday (2 January), but were born exactly one year apart.

Keith wrote a lot about Robbie. Here are a few things about Robbie that Keith mentions.
- He was hungry all the time, and always seemed to be looking for something to eat.
- He got into fights.
- His sister Melanie lived in Vancouver
- He didn't think much of English plumbing.

Robbie was the Mid Upper Gunner on the Lane End Lancaster.

Click below for a picture of the Mid upper Gunner's turret.
Mid Upper Gunner's turret

Stuart Thomson (Stew) - The Wireless Operator

Stuart Thomson was from Trois Rivieres, Quebec. He was the crew's Wireless Operator, and he was 6 months younger than Keith. 'Stew' died about 3 months before his 21st birthday.

All the guys in the crew were chain smokers, and they depended on their friends in family to send them cigarettes from back home.

Letter from Keith to his mom, 7 November 1944.
'There is a parcel in the Post office for me now but I was too late to get it tonight so I will wait till tomorrow, I hope it is cigarettes cus I owe Stew our Wireless o.p. 9 packages.'

Stuart McLean Thomson 

This is the Wireless Operator's station. It was situated near the front of the plane, and contained radio equipment, and a detection system for tracking enemy planes at night.

Click here to see more pictures of a Lancaster Bomber's interior. 

The Navigator - Joseph Rochford (Joe)

Joe Rochford was the second oldest person on the crew. He was 3 months older than Keith. As navigator, his job was to read maps and radar signals. The navigator sat at a table behind the pilot and the flight engineer.

 Joe - Navigator on the Lane End Lancaster

A navigator at work on a Lancaster Bomber

Radar next to the navigator's table

More Pictures of a Lancaster Bomber's interior


In December 1944 Joe was taken ill and ended up in hospital. This delayed the crew once again. They had just lost Frank, their first pilot, and were getting a bit fed up of waiting around for  new one.

Letter from Keith to his mom, 30 December 1944.
'Joe, ‘our navigator’, went into the hospital yesterday with a cold so I guess that will hold us up for a little longer. '

Edward Ashdown, Flight Engineer - Part One

The Flight Engineer in Keith's crew was Edward Thomas Ashdown.

He was about 2 months younger than Keith.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lancaster/ashdown.htm

The Flight Engineer on a Lancaster Bomber would have sat up front in the cockpit, next to the pilot. http://www.lancaster-archive.com/lanc_crew_positions.htm








http://www.lancaster-archive.com/cockpit.jpg

Frank (the first pilot ) - Part 2

Frank was the crew's first pilot. He was replaced by Joe Watson in January 1945. Keith's letters reveal very little about Frank, except that he had a pretty young wife who probably saved his life by convincing him not to fly.

Letter from Keith to his mom, October 21 1944.
'Our skipper [Frank] got a telegram three days ago & his wife in Shrewsbury had a miscarriage so he got compassionate leave to go & see her, she is in a pretty bad way & he seemed awful worried, I hope she is O.K. cause she's awful nice & is very young. '

Letter from Keith to his mom, 22 November 1944.
'Well here I am again, I am still at con [conversion] unit and we still haven’t started to fly, we were supposed to start this morning but our skipper [Frank]went to London to try & get his wife home to Canada so naturally we couldn’t fly without a skipper. '

Letter from Keith to his mom, 30 December 1944.
'we have had a lot of trouble again as I am back at Dalton again looking for another skipper which means that we will have to start all over again at conversion wait, I guess you can imagine how browned off we are getting. The reason we are getting a new pilot is because the last one [Frank] turned out to be a little yellow & although he was a very good pilot he wasn’t much good when things started getting tough, so I guess we are better off without him.'