Letter from Frank Barnsdale to John Barnsdale
Title
Letter from Frank Barnsdale to John Barnsdale
Description
Back at Turner field after months of flying and would not have missed the experience. Hew had hoped for single engine school but was now Twin engine training. Would not know if fighters or bombers until return to UK. Comments on departure from Gunter and journey to Turner Field. Mentions visit to Gulf coast and farewell party in Montgomery. Catches up with gossip from home.
Creator
Date
1942-09-08
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Four page handwritten letter
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EBarnsdaleFSBarnsdaleJD420908
Transcription
No.23.
13901139 L.A.C Barnsdale FA. Class 42J [underlined] R.A.F [/underlined] [underlined] 8/9/42 [/underlined]
My dear John,
Well maybe you’ll recognise the notepaper, at any rate you’ll remember the place, and here I am back again after four months of flying, hard work and varied experiences which I would not have missed for anything. Now I’m on the last lap and I hope that next November 5th will see me celebrating, not Guy fawkes, but myself, and you know why.
I told you that I hoped to go to a single engine school (for fighters) but the majority had to come here for twin engine training so here I am. I do not know yet, and shall not know until I go to an operational training unit, probably in England, whether I shall be on fighters or bombers, but it is almost certain that I shall be flying twin engined stuff, and that’s all I can tell you at the moment. Most of the gang came along here with me, although a couple of my best pals went to a fighter school. Accidentally Butterfield is still alongside and is sharing a room with me. Fortunately he has discovered a rich uncle or something over here so the skies are blue again, at least momentarily They have never been [underlined] really [/underlined] black for me financially, thanks to the good
[page break]
2.
Start, but for Bill they’ve been definitely clouded over so the discovery of that is most offortunate.
We left Gunter field on Monday afternoon by coach in fine style. The Gunter military band arrived there last July the same day that we did and so felt a sort of attachment for 42J, having grown up with us so to speak. They had attended our farewell party and in return made the sporting gesture of entertaining us musically whilst we waited to leave. We were then treated to the sight and sound of a second rate American military band, with a very energetic maestro handling an equally energetic mace playing “Tiger Rag”, “Basin Street”, sousa marches, and “There’ll always be an England”! As a grand finale they marched ahead of our coaches through the camp to the main gate playing “way down in Dixie” and so we said farewell to Gunter field.
The journey was very uneventful and we arrived here about 10.30 that night to find this camp much as we had left it. You may remember my telling you of the food we used to have here – I’m pleased to say it has not deteriorated, and after our stay at Lakeland and Gunter it was like transferring from at Scarborough to the Savoy Grill.
Our last week at Gunter was very enjoyable. We managed to secure some leave after much persuasion, and had from Wednesday afternoon
[page break]
3.
Until Friday evening when Bob Chantler and I went down to Panama City, a small resort on the Gulf of Mexico, west of [indecipherable]. In spite of the fact that it rained most of the time we had a really quite-class time although it is by no means in the same class as the other Florida resorts.
On Friday night class 42J held its farewell party in Montgomery, which was not quite the orgy you may think it was due to the shortage (probably intentional!) of supplies. However we had a good
dinner and a few drinks, and the lads put on an impromptu concert in which Bill and I, being forced to participate, sang a rather low song which surprisingly enough was very well received by an enthusiastic audience! We felt rather cheap as we were followed by the band who put on some quite good part-singing of a few of the classics – rather like Billy Burnette being followed by Stuart [indecipherable], but it all went down o.k.!
We had to go through a sort of graduation parade on Saturday morning (maybe the reason for the supplies shortage the previous evening!) and then we had leave until Sunday evening. Bob and I went over to Birmingham which is a large and pretty good town, and of course we had a good week and spending it with some American cadets who were grand lads and entertaining as well.
I was very pleased to receive three letters
[page break]
4.
From you last week, all written in the middle and end of July, including the combined effort from Teddy and Hugh. I’ll be writing Teddy in a day or so, as soon as I have some time to spare. It’s good to know you are all well and enjoying life as much as possible, and if you have plenty of work (as you seem to have) the time will pass all the quicker. I do hope your [indecipherable] is now better, you do not mention whether your temperance is still in force but your descriptions of evenings at Boston and with Arthur you seem to be able to enjoy life once again. Arthur seems to be doing the right thing these days, I don’t suppose the supplies will hold until December but I’ll do my best to bring something home.
Heartiest congratulations to Father on his medal, the least I can do now is a V.C.!
I am very sorry to hear about Mrs. Harrison and I do hope Frances is not taking it too badly.
Well I think that is all for today old boy. I’ll write next week after we’ve started flying and let you know how the twins are. The flying will be much more sober than at single engine schools and I’ve said goodbye, temporarily at least, to slow rolls, cloud landings and all that sort of playing around. However it will be wonderful flying experience and I’m looking forward to it.
And now I must close John old lad, with my love and very best wishes to Mother and Father and everyone at home.
So cheerio, all the very best, and happy landings,
[underlined] Frank [/underlined]
13901139 L.A.C Barnsdale FA. Class 42J [underlined] R.A.F [/underlined] [underlined] 8/9/42 [/underlined]
My dear John,
Well maybe you’ll recognise the notepaper, at any rate you’ll remember the place, and here I am back again after four months of flying, hard work and varied experiences which I would not have missed for anything. Now I’m on the last lap and I hope that next November 5th will see me celebrating, not Guy fawkes, but myself, and you know why.
I told you that I hoped to go to a single engine school (for fighters) but the majority had to come here for twin engine training so here I am. I do not know yet, and shall not know until I go to an operational training unit, probably in England, whether I shall be on fighters or bombers, but it is almost certain that I shall be flying twin engined stuff, and that’s all I can tell you at the moment. Most of the gang came along here with me, although a couple of my best pals went to a fighter school. Accidentally Butterfield is still alongside and is sharing a room with me. Fortunately he has discovered a rich uncle or something over here so the skies are blue again, at least momentarily They have never been [underlined] really [/underlined] black for me financially, thanks to the good
[page break]
2.
Start, but for Bill they’ve been definitely clouded over so the discovery of that is most offortunate.
We left Gunter field on Monday afternoon by coach in fine style. The Gunter military band arrived there last July the same day that we did and so felt a sort of attachment for 42J, having grown up with us so to speak. They had attended our farewell party and in return made the sporting gesture of entertaining us musically whilst we waited to leave. We were then treated to the sight and sound of a second rate American military band, with a very energetic maestro handling an equally energetic mace playing “Tiger Rag”, “Basin Street”, sousa marches, and “There’ll always be an England”! As a grand finale they marched ahead of our coaches through the camp to the main gate playing “way down in Dixie” and so we said farewell to Gunter field.
The journey was very uneventful and we arrived here about 10.30 that night to find this camp much as we had left it. You may remember my telling you of the food we used to have here – I’m pleased to say it has not deteriorated, and after our stay at Lakeland and Gunter it was like transferring from at Scarborough to the Savoy Grill.
Our last week at Gunter was very enjoyable. We managed to secure some leave after much persuasion, and had from Wednesday afternoon
[page break]
3.
Until Friday evening when Bob Chantler and I went down to Panama City, a small resort on the Gulf of Mexico, west of [indecipherable]. In spite of the fact that it rained most of the time we had a really quite-class time although it is by no means in the same class as the other Florida resorts.
On Friday night class 42J held its farewell party in Montgomery, which was not quite the orgy you may think it was due to the shortage (probably intentional!) of supplies. However we had a good
dinner and a few drinks, and the lads put on an impromptu concert in which Bill and I, being forced to participate, sang a rather low song which surprisingly enough was very well received by an enthusiastic audience! We felt rather cheap as we were followed by the band who put on some quite good part-singing of a few of the classics – rather like Billy Burnette being followed by Stuart [indecipherable], but it all went down o.k.!
We had to go through a sort of graduation parade on Saturday morning (maybe the reason for the supplies shortage the previous evening!) and then we had leave until Sunday evening. Bob and I went over to Birmingham which is a large and pretty good town, and of course we had a good week and spending it with some American cadets who were grand lads and entertaining as well.
I was very pleased to receive three letters
[page break]
4.
From you last week, all written in the middle and end of July, including the combined effort from Teddy and Hugh. I’ll be writing Teddy in a day or so, as soon as I have some time to spare. It’s good to know you are all well and enjoying life as much as possible, and if you have plenty of work (as you seem to have) the time will pass all the quicker. I do hope your [indecipherable] is now better, you do not mention whether your temperance is still in force but your descriptions of evenings at Boston and with Arthur you seem to be able to enjoy life once again. Arthur seems to be doing the right thing these days, I don’t suppose the supplies will hold until December but I’ll do my best to bring something home.
Heartiest congratulations to Father on his medal, the least I can do now is a V.C.!
I am very sorry to hear about Mrs. Harrison and I do hope Frances is not taking it too badly.
Well I think that is all for today old boy. I’ll write next week after we’ve started flying and let you know how the twins are. The flying will be much more sober than at single engine schools and I’ve said goodbye, temporarily at least, to slow rolls, cloud landings and all that sort of playing around. However it will be wonderful flying experience and I’m looking forward to it.
And now I must close John old lad, with my love and very best wishes to Mother and Father and everyone at home.
So cheerio, all the very best, and happy landings,
[underlined] Frank [/underlined]
Collection
Citation
F Barnsdale, “Letter from Frank Barnsdale to John Barnsdale,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed July 12, 2026, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/58690.