Letter from Pat Hogan to his father

Letter from Pat Hogan to his father

Catches up with recent mail problems. Says he is very busy with little free time. Says he is tired due to much flying and irregular hours. Writes of other activities in local area in Scotland and about how the English regard beauty and of arguments he has with compatriots.

1944-06-21

Two page handwritten letter

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.

EHoganPJHoganDH440621

595663
TO:- MR D H HOGAN
67 CHAPEL ST
BENDIGO VICTORIA
AUSTRALIA
[date stamp 21.6.44]
Senders Name and Address A436464 Sgt. Hogan PJ RAAF AUSPO LONDON 21-6-44
Dear Dad,
It is now over a week or so since I heard from you at home. However I had an airgraph from Jim today and he says you’ve not heard from me for some time. It seems to be a pretty common complaint for a lot of the chaps seem to be getting cables etc. asking what is wrong. Probably it has been temporarily held up for some [indecipherable word] reason. I will warn you though, as I have little to write about and have very little time on my hands, not to be worried about me. However I think I can manage a page per week at least. I’m pretty fatigued, of late, due to plenty of flying and very irregular hours. Twice in 3 days recently I was up a full 24 hours straight and it takes it out of one. Maurice McNamara has been posted from here and wished, once more, to be remembered to you all.
Brian and I managed another day in one of the county towns last weekend and enjoyed it. As usual in Scotland, spuds form the greater part of our offal but we seem to get plenty to eat. I must get my photo taken one of these days. It isn’t the cash
[page break]
595662
that is worrying me for I have over £20 in the savings bank but most of the things they exhibit in their showcases are something wicked. Hence I’ll wait till I get to a big city. I’m rather amused at your being in envious of me flying over here during the summer months. It’s great stuck out in a remote part of West Scotland in the drizzling rain believe me. It took me some time to realise that the English have a rather distorted idea of beauty. For instance if anything is old it is therefore either beautiful or quaint [indecipherable word] however ancient and [indecipherable word] a [indecipherable word] might be it would be a sacrilege to replace it with something new. One of these days when I feel a little more [indecipherable word] I’ll express myself further. We have plenty of arguments here and the chaps are from all parts of the [indecipherable word] empire, however we have the majority. We usually side with the Kiwis in arguments with the Pongos who bite very nicely & get very heated.
Left it a too late for a bet on the Derby & just as well too . There is plenty of cricket on the station with Bill Brennan as leading light. Kindly give me an occasional idea of how my bank balance stands. Tell Marie I don’t need any knitted woolies [sic] for we can get them from the MCF However I wouldn’t mind an occasional care or parcel. I’ll wind up for the present Love to all at home. Pat