Letter from Bill Akrill to Mary

Letter from Bill Akrill to Mary

Bill discusses a friend at home who has just gone into the RAF. Writes that he will have to go into the decompression chamber again, this time to see which men are able to crew a strato-bomber.

1942-11-14

Two page handwritten letter

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EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]421114-01

Dear Mary,
Wonder if you’ve got your gap-stoppers in yet? Make haste & get them in in case I’m home next week end.
I was interested to hear that George Sunman was following in my footsteps. Poor old George I wonder how he’ll like it. His mother seemed in a bit of a flat spin. I wrote to C.T.S. [symbol] giving him [symbol] (Mr. Sunman) all the gen I could in a short space in a letter. Expect he’ll go from ACRC to Brighton. The system’s altered a lot since my day. Gosh I wouldn’t like to think I had to go thro’ it again yet I do believe those were as happy & certainly as carefree days as we’ll have. Its a case of grim reality now & O.T.U.s solid bind, bind bind! I don’t expect he’ll know what he’ll get into until after I.T.W. Shouldn’t wonder if he becomes a Navigator W/T (wireless) on Mosquitos, Beaufighters &c.
I may have to go in the D. Chamber again, this time not as an oxygen guinea pig
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[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
but testing if my body will stand up to pressure less atmosphere. I believe we go to 40 thousand. Its only prospective stratosphere & high altitude crews who go in but [deleted] we [/deleted] [inserted] it [/inserted] may not be necessary for us to be so fitted. Those strato-bomber crews are chosen like this. It’s a tedious business as you get so “high” & then somebody goes down with pain or something & every one has to decend [sic] very, very slowly to avoid damage, extract the body & begin all over again. Not many can stand high altitudes & I’d like to have a go just to see what it’s like. Don’t know if my ears would stand it tho’.
Hope you’ve been able to get on with the work a bit. It hasn’t been so wet, but foggy & damp & miserable & flying’s held up. Hope its nice & sunny tomorrow for my day off. Day off. Gosh it’s a lovely thought.
Any tomatoes left for the week-end. Hope to see you the dear old sis.
Love to daddy, he’s the only one not included in this batch. [underlined] Bill [/underlined]