Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother

EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]420207-0001.jpg
EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]420207-0002.jpg

Title

Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother

Description

Writes he is not going with grading course but staying at Theale for Elementary Flying Training School. Mentions he had a test with Chief Flying Instructor which didn't go too badly. Writes he will now have to get down to work and there will be no leave. Writes of incident where student left his undercarriage on a muck cart and aircraft ended up on its back. Fortunately no injuries but both student and instructor to be court martialled.

Creator

Date

1942-02-07

Temporal Coverage

Language

Format

Two page handwritten letter

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

EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]420207

Transcription

No 1436220 LAC Akrill
No 26 EFTS
Theale,
Reading, Berks.
Sat. 7.2.42.
Dear Mum,
Definite “pukka gen” at last. I asked the C.F.A. myself & got to know from him what was happening to us today. No doubt you’ll be pleased to here [sic] [inserted] it [/inserted] & though I believe its definitely for the best I did feel disappointed to learn that we are not going with the Grading Course on Wednesday but are doing our E.F.T.S. Course at No 26 Theale!
I had a test with the C.F.I. today & thought it strange but it was apparently the solo test. I think I achieved something by going up with him & not be stormed at once. He only once swore when I nearly landed on some “bloody ice” which covers half the field. He told me I must wait for some nice fine weather & then see what I can do. He was extremely pleasant on the whole & I can’t imagine all the gruesome stories I’ve heard about him.
So now I suppose I’ll have to get down to
[page break]
work in good earnest & I’m afraid there’ll be no leave yet awhile so it’s a good job I snatched those few hours when I’d the chance. I shall have a crack at getting another like that when I feel [deleted] brown [/deleted] a bit browned off. My part-annual leave is due in just over another month [deleted] so [/deleted] but I can’t see either the C.F.I. or the C.O. condecending [sic] to let us have it.
Had an excitement the other day when one of the Seniors was doing Low Flying Practice & left his undercarriage on a muck cant. He circled the drome & everyone, ambulance fire tender M.O. ran out to the field as he came to land. He ended up on his back but neither he nor the instructor were hurt though they are to be Court Martialled [sic].
Thank Ros a pip for letters. Will answer later. Grub is [underlined] glorious [/underlined] & it was grand being home. Hope the snows gone at P.H.
Love
[underlined] Bill [/underlined]
[inserted] It was a lovey [underlined] gusty [/underlined] day for a test

Collection

Citation

William Akrill, “Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/18009.

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