Letter from Kenneth Gill to his family

Letter from Kenneth Gill to his family

Writes about recent Christmas and says a little about life and training work on his camp. Listens to aircraft taking off and comments that unlike operations crews usually come back. Asks for news of friend. Comments that recent news was good and mentions Scharnhorst sinking. Concludes with gossip.

1943-12-28

Three 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.

SGillK1438901v30029

[crest]

P/O. GILL. K.
OFFICERS MESS.
R.A.F. STATION.
SYERSTON.
[deleted] NR. NOTTS [/deleted] [inserted] NEWARK. [/inserted]
NOTTS.

DEC. 28th/43.

Dear mum, dad & David,

Hello all, hope you had a good Xmas; we didn't do bad at Loughborough but it wasn't like coming home.

I got back in camp yesterday evening and nobody had missed me.

I'm on duty tonight and again tomorrow starting at 7.30 a.m. till dinner-time. We're getting on quite well with the training lately though the weather could be much better.

Just now I can hear the engines roaring outside as the pilot taxies up to take-off, then a rising crescendo of noise and power and off they go rumbling down the runway

[page break]

2/

and away into the night.

I must sit [indecipherable word] now with my letters and my thoughts till they come back again. It's not like 'ops' though, we know we'll get these lads back every time, though sometimes they give us a twist or two, when they get themselves lost and get into a panic.

Have you had any news from Ron lately? I've not heard for a while now, I wonder what sort of Xmas he had out there. It sure will be grand to have a Xmas all of us together again like we used to be before the war.

The news looks pretty good lately doesn't it? I'll bet Jerry got a nasty shock when the Scharnhoust caught a nice salvo from our lads and sank,

[page break]

3/

it looks like he'll get a few more shocks too when they start on him from this side.

Well I can't think of any more to say just now; I've not written to Mr & Mrs. Bellhouse yet, I think I'll wait and see them when I get home again.

Hope the Nipper is well and behaving himself, he's not writing much these days, except on the Xmas cards of course, thanks David I nearly forgot and you too mum and dad.

That's all, look after yourselve’s and keep well.

Good-night and God Bless.
Your Loving Son.
Ken. [kisses]
David [kisses]

[underlined] PS. [/underlined] Send the socks please, these futility efforts are rather drafty.