Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan

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Title

Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan

Description

Thanks her for the pen she sent but noted that the ink had leaked while in transit due to altitude. Catches up with news from home mentioning drought and bush fires. Mentions that rest of crew had gone into town and commented on his ground course. Comments on the poor weather and effect of mud and slush on their uniforms. States he does not like the part of country he is in. Catches up with news of friends and family and asks after some.

Creator

Date

1944-10-13

Temporal Coverage

Language

Format

Four sided handwritten airmail letter

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

EHoganPJHoganM441013

Transcription

A436464
F/Sgt Hogan P.
RAAF AUSPO
LONDON

13/10/44

Dear Marie,

I have the afternoon off & as my suit is at the cleaners I can’t go into town, I’ll take this opportunity of writing to thank you for the pen which arrived by this morning’s mail - just on 3 weeks from Bendigo. Not too bad really. Unfortunately you lacked my experience of the doings of fountain pens in the air & forgot to empty it. Hence at high altitude the vacuum tube contracted forcing the ink out & making a bit of a mess. Of course it had all dried out on reaching here. I know all about it because on several occasions I have ruined khaki shirts. However it doesn’t usually effect a pen much. The air graph written the following day also came to hand this morning.

Glad to know everything and everyone both at home & [indecipherable word] are as well as can be expected. Tough if this drought doesn’t soon break for you are now coming into summer. I certainly hope last years bush fires will not be repeated. There have been

[page break]

small snatches about it in the paper lately of course our own “British Australian & New Zealander” goes into much more lengthy detail. - it certainly is serious, though, of course I hear all about it from work too.

The rest of the crew have gone into town this afternoon. There is not much to do in there, particularly this weather. Believe me there is no drought in Yorkshire. Still I suppose they’ll go to a show & a dance tonight.

The ground course here is quite interesting and not at all difficult. However the weather is atrocious & we are invariably up to our knees in mud & slush. Goes particularly well with our coloured blues. I suppose it is also as bad on the Kiwis, Canucks & R.A.F boys but it doesn’t show on their uniforms like ours. I don’t like this part of the country at all but had better become resigned to it for it will get worse as time goes on towards mid-winter. Besides we will be around this district in all probability as long as we are in England.

I’ve just lit myself a nice fire & with the wireless going (even if it is the B.B.C) I shouldn’t complain about the rain

[page break]

outside. Funny you should mention Long’s being burnt out. Bill Bull[missing letters] & I were only talking about them last night. Bill was a pal of Gordon Glover & is always interested in Bendigo news. Pleased to note Dan is still around Melbourne. Let me know an adress [sic] I can write to him. I suppose he manages to get an occasional day or so at home. I suppose if he is still around he and Dad will be at the Cup tomorrow. I’m not even sufficiently conversant to even have a fancy this year although I reckon Law Robertson has a few aces up his sleeve again this spring.

I hope Dad is keeping well & not overworking himself. What is the latest re Doreen? Does she think she’ll make the grade. Kevin no doubt, is just starting to realise that the Inter exams are fast approaching. All the best to him anyway. Eileen is apparently O.K for I had an air letter from her a few days back. I sent a number of Christmas cards in time, I think, but if you find anyone whom I should have sent one & inadvertently overlooked, tender my apologies & all that sort of thing. The pen seems O.K. thanks a lot for sending it along, the 2 tone effect doesn’t matter in the slightest. As a matter of fact most of the green colouring also came off in transit & it looks rather like a moth eaten cat.

Regards & love to you all
Pat.

[page break]

AIR LETTER

[postmark] [postage stamp]

Miss Marie Hogan
67 Chapel St.,
Bendigo Victoria
Australia

Sender’s name and address:-

A436464 F/Sgt Hogan P.
RAAF AUSPO
LONDON

Collection

Citation

P J Hogan, “Letter from Pat Hogan to Miss Marie Hogan ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/31943.

Item Relations

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