Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother

Letter from Bill Akrill to his mother

Bill writes he will now be staying at East Wretham for the time being. Possible conversion course in two weeks but currently training on Wellington. Pilot arrived after touring country looking for Honnington. Most crews have now arrived. Describes strange living accommodation and station facilities (or lack of them).

1943-02-28

Four page handwritten letter

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EAkrillWEAkrill[Mo]430228

1436220 SGT. AKRILL W.E.,
c/o SGTS’ MESS,
R.A.F. Station,
EAST WRETHAM,
Thetford.
Norfolk.
Sunday 28.2.43.
Dear Mum,
Well here I be and for a few weeks I guess, here I look like staying. We quite expected leaving here yesterday & had hopes of leave!!!! However if we’re good boys they’re going to send us on a Conversion course in about a fortnight or so and in the meantime we have to mess around getting in a bit of extra training on Wimpey IIIs. You see we’re told we’ve to be extra good to qualify for Lanc IIs. It’s possible we’ll not be here for very long anyway. I’d like to have my bike here but it’s no good sending it til I know whether I’m likely to stay or not. We may be going to our parent station. This is just a satelit ‘drome.
Our Pilot turned up yesterday
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[underlined] 2 [/underlined]
afternoon after touring the country looking for Honingtons!!! Nearly everyone has found the right place now!! What a joke! Practically everyone went to the Lincolnshire version & then chased to the U.S. station in Suffolk! The biggest joke was that I thought I’d got the [underlined] pukkah gen [/underlined] from S/Ldr. Henry & still turned up like a twerp at the wrong place among the Yanks!! Every time I thought about it I had to laugh though it [underlined] wasn’t [/underlined] such a joke to arrive here and be told we wern’t [sic] wanted. However now we’re here they decided to keep us.
It’s absolutely the queerest R.A.F. station yet – everybody drousing [sic] round log cabins & wooden shacks under the oaks and spruces. Somebody remarked that it was a lovely country but there was too much of it. I think it’s even far
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[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
enough from the madding crowd to suit [underlined] my [/underlined] liking. There’s just a few pills to swallow. [circled 1]. Billets [circled 2] Ablutions [circled 3] Mess – though the food isn’t too bad and we seem to be fairly sure of a reasonable meal at mid-day. [circled 4]. Difficulty of getting any odd things for a body’s comfort or of any provision for entertainment or recreation. That’s why I’m writing in pencil – my ink’s run out. I’m using my last stamp on this letter so can you get me a book when Mary’s in the village? Apart from that the place is O.K. I shall be quite happy.
I wish Fred was over here with his saw – there’s plenty of logs in the woods round the hut but we’ve nothing to get ‘em apart with. We have to go out “wooding” to get our stoves going to thaw the air a bit – we get hardly any coal.
I think it may be quite
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4
hopeful for leave around Easter. It would be grand if David & I could be home together again. We get no 48s or days off but it’s not long to Easter.
I shall be looking out for lots of letters! Unless I can find some stamps somewhere this is the last I can write – though I expect there will be nothing at all to write about.
Love to all
[underlined] Bill [/underlined]