Letter from Pat Hogan to his father

Letter from Pat Hogan to his father

Reports on recent mail and his leave, movements on posting to new station. Due to start flying again shortly although this might be delayed due to poor weather. Writes of new addition to crew, an English flight engineer. Notes that while there are a number of crews there his is one of the only Aussie one. Writes of recent leave in London, Kent and Surrey. Mention damaged churches and property. Mentions going to high mass at Brompton Oratory. Concludes with discussion about mail.

1944-11-04

Four sided handwritten airmail 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.

EHoganPJHoganDH441104

[inserted] P.S. I hate to be always asking for things but if you know anyone with any spare coupons try to scrounge enough for a pair of pyjamas. It is rather awkward over here as we get no coupon allowance whatever. If you do manage it make them fairly decent light weights. I hate heavy’s but anything is better than nothing. It is rather awkward staying with anyone & having to sleep in ones underwear. Pat. [/inserted]

RAAF AUSPO
LONDON
4/11/44.

Dear Dad,

I Think I last wrote home last week sometime whilst on leave. Since then I returned to my station for a day before being posted only a short distance. I still hate this wet muddy part of the country. We are due to start flying again now but it may be quite a while for the weather these days is never too favourable & we will have to wait our turn. We are getting a new addition to the crew tomorrow, the engineer.- an English lad this time. He’ll probably wonder what struck him. There are quite a number of crews here & we are one of the only 2 Aussie crews, so will probably be able to get away with quite a bit here & there.

I had a wonderful leave this time. It spun out to a fortnight in all for Alan’s commission came through

[page break]

& we got an extra week whilst he dashed around London getting fitted up. We spent 5 days in London at the beginning. I didn’t think very much of the shows or plays I saw this time but quite enjoyed the dances for at the hot spots in the West End they have some classy bands.

Roger Johnson & I then whizzed down to Kent for a week on a bit of a ramble. There is no doubt about it, it is really beautiful. Even now in autumn, the sun can still occasionally break through, most of the fields & undergrowth are still a rich green (more than I can say for this part of the country). Of course the earth is not cultivated to the same extent down there. Hops growing is the chief form of agriculture. As you know there is a war on down there & there is not quite as much entertainment as elsewhere. We went to one dance down there, it was at Maidstone & It wound up at 9.45.

We spent a night or two at Tonbridge, Tonbridge Wells, Maidstone & Guilford [sic] (in Surrey). We did quite a few bus trips round about & on the Sunday went down to Folkestone & Dover. The latter is in rather a sorry plight but people carry on as usual.