Letter from Pat Hogan to Eileen Hogan
Title
Letter from Pat Hogan to Eileen Hogan
Description
Addressing this letter to home as it would suffice as his letter home as well. Apologises as he is being distracted by other crew members in the hut. Comments on her exams and asks what he next appointment will be. Continues with gossip about friends and his activities including a dance and theatre. Comments on the weather and that he had done some flying. Says he has been playing basketball against other crews and his background in Australian rules has come in useful but their next match is against another Australian crew. Catches up with family news and gossip.
Creator
Date
1944-12-02
Temporal Coverage
Language
Format
Four sided handwritten airmail letter
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
EHoganPJHoganE441202
Transcription
A436464 F/Sgt HOGAN P.
[indecipherable word] AWSPO
LONDON WC1
2/12/44
Dear Eileen,
As I received an airletter from you the other day [deleted] I can [/deleted] & as you’ll soon be home again, I’ll address this [inserted] to [/inserted] you at home & it can suffice for the letter home as well. Forgive me if it is a little distracted but the other crew in the hut are packing up – going to a squadron in the morning. Our two gunners are having a heated argument & Vera Lynn is whineing out a few of her latest numbers. She’s not so [indecipherable word] – not compared to Anne Shelton with her “smile & a song” sessions.
Pleased to note the exams are off your chest & hope the results are O.K. Anxious to hear where your next appointment will be & trust it wont be to another bush primary school. Has Pam Caringon sung the season’s most catchy waltz yet? Talking of dancing I went to a slashing dance in Leeds a couple of nights ago. We had a 36 hour & its worth our while to travel over there where we can get good tucker, a good shopping centre, a good show, a good dance & a tasty
[page break]
beer as a let up from this hole. You’d have laughed the other night we went to a variety show at the Empire, of course they start the evening session about sixish & finish around 8.30. The star of the bill was Sandy Powell & he’s not very funny. We were up the front & endeavoured to distract the attention of ballet girls & after the show to win a bet I went up and asked a very nice looking brunette who gave a song & a dance if she’d like to come to a dance. She came from Bournemouth &, of course, has travelled most of England & has been to a lot of the place[s] I’d been to. She made very good conversation & we had quite a good night at the expense of the crew.
Life around her is much the same as it has been all the time. I’m now quite resigned to the weather & we’ve been playing a fair deal of basketball having an open challenge to any crew or combination on the station. Our Australian Rules upbringing has been very handy for English lads have no idea of using either the hip or the shoulder – nor that you are supposed to use either in basketball. But we invariably [indecipherable word] them off balance & we are usually accused of being rough or unfair. We’ve next to meet another all Australian crew & it should be pretty good fun for they’ve been threatening to “do” us for some time.
[page break]
How did Dad’s leave go? No doubt you yourself are rather looking forward to your Sydney trip. By the way, next leave I get will probably find me a letter short. Hence on receipt of this, get Marie to cable me £10 or £20 which I’ll plonk in my savings account to have on hand. If, for some reason, we get it sooner than anticipated I’ll cable home for it. I note again your remarks about tinned stuff – meats etc. aren’t so hot but fruit is very nice when you don’t see any fresh or tinned stuff at all – i.e. apart from an occasional prunes & custard. Every now & again a tube of [indecipherable word] would also be appreciated.
Pleased to note from Marie that Doreen’s results to date are quite satisfactory. I consider I’ve done pretty well tonight as I also written to both Jim & Dan[?], I must write to congratulate Mary Ryan one of these days.
Well, Eileen as Greg has a cup of cocoa waiting for me I’ll give this away for tonight.
By the way I have a group photo of [indecipherable word] to send home. When it arrives don’t get the idea I’ve grown at all when you see me beside Greg for our W/Op is a massive young man who stands 5’ 8” in his socks. Love Pat.
[page break]
[Air Letter]
Miss Eileen Hogan
67 Chapel St.,
Bendigo Vic
Australia.
Sender’s name and address:-
A436464 F/Sgt Hogan P.J.
RAAF AWSPO
LONDON.
[indecipherable word] AWSPO
LONDON WC1
2/12/44
Dear Eileen,
As I received an airletter from you the other day [deleted] I can [/deleted] & as you’ll soon be home again, I’ll address this [inserted] to [/inserted] you at home & it can suffice for the letter home as well. Forgive me if it is a little distracted but the other crew in the hut are packing up – going to a squadron in the morning. Our two gunners are having a heated argument & Vera Lynn is whineing out a few of her latest numbers. She’s not so [indecipherable word] – not compared to Anne Shelton with her “smile & a song” sessions.
Pleased to note the exams are off your chest & hope the results are O.K. Anxious to hear where your next appointment will be & trust it wont be to another bush primary school. Has Pam Caringon sung the season’s most catchy waltz yet? Talking of dancing I went to a slashing dance in Leeds a couple of nights ago. We had a 36 hour & its worth our while to travel over there where we can get good tucker, a good shopping centre, a good show, a good dance & a tasty
[page break]
beer as a let up from this hole. You’d have laughed the other night we went to a variety show at the Empire, of course they start the evening session about sixish & finish around 8.30. The star of the bill was Sandy Powell & he’s not very funny. We were up the front & endeavoured to distract the attention of ballet girls & after the show to win a bet I went up and asked a very nice looking brunette who gave a song & a dance if she’d like to come to a dance. She came from Bournemouth &, of course, has travelled most of England & has been to a lot of the place[s] I’d been to. She made very good conversation & we had quite a good night at the expense of the crew.
Life around her is much the same as it has been all the time. I’m now quite resigned to the weather & we’ve been playing a fair deal of basketball having an open challenge to any crew or combination on the station. Our Australian Rules upbringing has been very handy for English lads have no idea of using either the hip or the shoulder – nor that you are supposed to use either in basketball. But we invariably [indecipherable word] them off balance & we are usually accused of being rough or unfair. We’ve next to meet another all Australian crew & it should be pretty good fun for they’ve been threatening to “do” us for some time.
[page break]
How did Dad’s leave go? No doubt you yourself are rather looking forward to your Sydney trip. By the way, next leave I get will probably find me a letter short. Hence on receipt of this, get Marie to cable me £10 or £20 which I’ll plonk in my savings account to have on hand. If, for some reason, we get it sooner than anticipated I’ll cable home for it. I note again your remarks about tinned stuff – meats etc. aren’t so hot but fruit is very nice when you don’t see any fresh or tinned stuff at all – i.e. apart from an occasional prunes & custard. Every now & again a tube of [indecipherable word] would also be appreciated.
Pleased to note from Marie that Doreen’s results to date are quite satisfactory. I consider I’ve done pretty well tonight as I also written to both Jim & Dan[?], I must write to congratulate Mary Ryan one of these days.
Well, Eileen as Greg has a cup of cocoa waiting for me I’ll give this away for tonight.
By the way I have a group photo of [indecipherable word] to send home. When it arrives don’t get the idea I’ve grown at all when you see me beside Greg for our W/Op is a massive young man who stands 5’ 8” in his socks. Love Pat.
[page break]
[Air Letter]
Miss Eileen Hogan
67 Chapel St.,
Bendigo Vic
Australia.
Sender’s name and address:-
A436464 F/Sgt Hogan P.J.
RAAF AWSPO
LONDON.
Collection
Citation
P J Hogan, “Letter from Pat Hogan to Eileen Hogan ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 25, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/31921.
Item Relations
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