Letter from Keith to his mom, 19 January 1945.
'I
received your letter dated Dec 27th today and also my birthday
parcel and boy what a parcel, that knife is about the nicest one I’ve seen over
here, all the guys want to know where you got it, by the look of all the
government stamps it looks like Daddy done a little finagaling(?) cause I’m
sure you couldn’t buy one in the store. Everything in the parcel was swell and
thanks a lot.'
Keith wrote this on the day he arrived at 'Mohawk', the RCAF's Conversion Unit 666, in Wombleton, Yorkshire. 'Mokawk' was where the Canadians who flew Lancasters, Halifaxes, Oxfords, Spitfires and Hurricanes received final training before going on bombing operations.
He had just come through the Christmas holidays with more leave than he had expected. Keith and the others spent a lot of time travelling around, mainly in London, with little money, waiting to be assigned a new pilot. So Keith had only just received the parcel with his birthday presents from back home when he arrived at the Conversion Unit in Wombleton. Happy birthday, Keith.
Showing posts with label Keith's birthday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Keith's birthday. Show all posts
Monday, 7 January 2013
Thursday, 27 December 2012
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.
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 2nd 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.'
- 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 2nd 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.'
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