Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother
Title
Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother
Description
Bill is delighted to receive his mother's parcel and letter, and especially the home-made fruit pies which reminded him strongly of home. He includes a cartoon of him eating one with a house and farm behind him. States that the entire station has been vaccinated against small pox, given the current scare. Bill discusses farming matters and that he is keeping an eye on some peas which are ripening outside his window. He spent last evening sewing on props and badges, which didn't go very well, but will have to last until he gets home on leave in a week's time. Good results from assessments. Noted they had two Stirlings on base and got to look over them. More ground defence activity. Notes that previous course already on operations including 1000 bomber attacks.
Creator
Date
1942-07-10
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Five page handwritten letter with sketch
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
EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]420710
Transcription
No 1436220 L.A.C. Akrill,
Hut 20.
R.A.F. Station.
West Freugh.
Stranraer.
Scot.
Friday 10.7.42.
Dear Mum,
What a lovely parcel & letter! Oh thanks a lot! I had both the pies with sugar last night. The juice had gone into the crust round the edges but they were a bit of all right. I had the little one first with the rasps, red currant & goosegogs in.
[drawing of man eating pie in the countryside]
I’ve never believed the stories about 5 and 20 blackbirds being baked in a pie but I’m sure all Potter Hill was inside them! They were a real bit
[page break]
of home & I could just believe I was having Saturday dinner round the kitchen table at home. And I hope I will be a week tomorrow! Not quite sure about trains yet but I’ll let you know as soon as I do though as I shan’t be home until [deleted] late [/deleted] dinner time at best I should be able to get right to Collingham or Potter Hill. Hope this small-pox panic doesn’t get any worse. The entire station has had to be vaccinated. I was done barely a year ago but if it looks like holding up our leave I shall have another lot.
I expect there’ll be a lot of hay this year. Must see if I have any energy left to give you a bit of a hand. It’ll do me good! But I want some nice warm weather so have some ordered!
You must have had a shock when Tommy joined you in the garden. I should think that now you’ve finished the daisies & started of [sic] the buttercups there’ll not be much green left on
[page break]
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
the lawn! Glad there’s a Guineafowl laying!! Keep her going ‘till I come!
There’s a few peas ripening outside our hut door in the feeble bit of garden our instructors try to look after. I’ve got my eye on them. Should be very nice when I come back from flying some night.
You seem to see plenty of the Henrys. Hope the holy terror doesn’t come each time. It was nice of Deadly to write; I’m sure David will be flattered. Hope she doesn’t get to know I’m at home.
I spent most of last night stitching buttons & props on. It was a terrible job & my fingers are sore with stabs from the needle. Afraid you’ll have to take the props off & put them on properly. They do look a mess & will only last home anyway. I stitched the sleeve up first & wondered why I couldn’t get my arm in. What a problem! I was ready for the pies when I’d finished.
[page break]
Nothing much to tell you. Not flown for the last 2 days as my hours seem to be more than some of the others. Had a look at pilots’ reports & the assessments on my logs yesterday. They were quite encouraging. I got an especially good report from the pilot who borrows my bike!!!! Yes I think this was meant to be my job from the first but I used to think it was too far beyond my brain-power.
We had 2 Stirlings on the ‘drome yesterday. What an excitement when the first landed the night before. Half the station rushed out & there was plenty of room for all to get round! Gosh what a beautiful monster it was. Didn’t I feel envious of the crew. I believe the take off was a sight to see. They took off down wind with hardly any take off run.
We were playing at soldiers again yesterday afternoon when there was another Defence Programme on. We spent the afternoon
[page break]
re-enforcing our trench. The officers thought they were being very clever but I wouldn’t like to use it after a bit of weather. It’ll fill up again as soon as the sand is dry. Still it makes a break even if it is a waste of time.
The heather’s coming out on the moors & I’ve been looking for some “Real Scotch White Heather” but haven’t found any yet. Remember getting that from Stapleford?
Well until tomorrow week I’ll say Cheerio, Will let you know when I hope to be getting home. P’raps leaving Notts. on the next train after 10 am.
Love to all
[underlined] Billy [/underlined]
P.S. Heard that the course that passed out just after we arrived hear [sic] have been on Ops already. The fellow who had my bed before me took a successful part in one of the 1000 bomber raids!! Gosh its getting near!!
Hut 20.
R.A.F. Station.
West Freugh.
Stranraer.
Scot.
Friday 10.7.42.
Dear Mum,
What a lovely parcel & letter! Oh thanks a lot! I had both the pies with sugar last night. The juice had gone into the crust round the edges but they were a bit of all right. I had the little one first with the rasps, red currant & goosegogs in.
[drawing of man eating pie in the countryside]
I’ve never believed the stories about 5 and 20 blackbirds being baked in a pie but I’m sure all Potter Hill was inside them! They were a real bit
[page break]
of home & I could just believe I was having Saturday dinner round the kitchen table at home. And I hope I will be a week tomorrow! Not quite sure about trains yet but I’ll let you know as soon as I do though as I shan’t be home until [deleted] late [/deleted] dinner time at best I should be able to get right to Collingham or Potter Hill. Hope this small-pox panic doesn’t get any worse. The entire station has had to be vaccinated. I was done barely a year ago but if it looks like holding up our leave I shall have another lot.
I expect there’ll be a lot of hay this year. Must see if I have any energy left to give you a bit of a hand. It’ll do me good! But I want some nice warm weather so have some ordered!
You must have had a shock when Tommy joined you in the garden. I should think that now you’ve finished the daisies & started of [sic] the buttercups there’ll not be much green left on
[page break]
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
the lawn! Glad there’s a Guineafowl laying!! Keep her going ‘till I come!
There’s a few peas ripening outside our hut door in the feeble bit of garden our instructors try to look after. I’ve got my eye on them. Should be very nice when I come back from flying some night.
You seem to see plenty of the Henrys. Hope the holy terror doesn’t come each time. It was nice of Deadly to write; I’m sure David will be flattered. Hope she doesn’t get to know I’m at home.
I spent most of last night stitching buttons & props on. It was a terrible job & my fingers are sore with stabs from the needle. Afraid you’ll have to take the props off & put them on properly. They do look a mess & will only last home anyway. I stitched the sleeve up first & wondered why I couldn’t get my arm in. What a problem! I was ready for the pies when I’d finished.
[page break]
Nothing much to tell you. Not flown for the last 2 days as my hours seem to be more than some of the others. Had a look at pilots’ reports & the assessments on my logs yesterday. They were quite encouraging. I got an especially good report from the pilot who borrows my bike!!!! Yes I think this was meant to be my job from the first but I used to think it was too far beyond my brain-power.
We had 2 Stirlings on the ‘drome yesterday. What an excitement when the first landed the night before. Half the station rushed out & there was plenty of room for all to get round! Gosh what a beautiful monster it was. Didn’t I feel envious of the crew. I believe the take off was a sight to see. They took off down wind with hardly any take off run.
We were playing at soldiers again yesterday afternoon when there was another Defence Programme on. We spent the afternoon
[page break]
re-enforcing our trench. The officers thought they were being very clever but I wouldn’t like to use it after a bit of weather. It’ll fill up again as soon as the sand is dry. Still it makes a break even if it is a waste of time.
The heather’s coming out on the moors & I’ve been looking for some “Real Scotch White Heather” but haven’t found any yet. Remember getting that from Stapleford?
Well until tomorrow week I’ll say Cheerio, Will let you know when I hope to be getting home. P’raps leaving Notts. on the next train after 10 am.
Love to all
[underlined] Billy [/underlined]
P.S. Heard that the course that passed out just after we arrived hear [sic] have been on Ops already. The fellow who had my bed before me took a successful part in one of the 1000 bomber raids!! Gosh its getting near!!
Collection
Citation
William Akrill, “Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed August 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/18051.
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