Letter to Don Gray from Bill Grey
Title
Letter to Don Gray from Bill Grey
Description
Don Gray is Junior and Bill Grey, Senior. He has news of 460 Squadron. Their latest aircraft was wrecked after an engineer selected the undercarriage up. They wrecked their new aircraft after an aborted raid on Hasselt. Fortunately the bombs did not explode.
Creator
Date
1944-05-15
Temporal Coverage
Spatial Coverage
Language
Format
Six handwritten sheets
Conforms To
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
EGreyWHGrayDA440515
Transcription
[crest of The Salvation Army, Australian Comforts Fund and YMCA]
Aus421207 F/Sgt. Grey. W.H.
R.A.F. Station.
Binbrook. Lincoln.
15th May, 1944
Dear Junior,
We were very pleased indeed to receive your letter this morning. Sorry I have not written you before this, but now I’ll give you all the 460 news.
P/O Cullen is still the same shit house lander – having Knocked an “elson” and wireless equipment off their stands one afternoon.
We all had a good leave – Dan came North with me and thoroughly enjoyed himself.
Now we’re back on the job. The first day back we were presented with
[page break]
2.
the new E2. Quite pleased we were.
Then some stupid eng doing a Di selected the undercart up instead of flaps. Poor “new” E2 went down with a bang – unfortunately the Queen Mary was in front of the nose and even that was wrecked.
Well E2 is a complete write off (Cat A/C) as you can guess we are all broken hearted.
Still a new E2 is in its place now – we’ll most probably get it in a fortnights time. Quite a gen kite – I cant mention equipment in a letter.
We were out again on Thursday night – place called Hasselt in Belguim. [sic]
What a shaky do – the M/G. couldn’t drop flares on the target so told us
[page break]
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
to return home with them. (bombs)
We got to base quite O.K. (2nd kite in) and prepared to land on No. 4 runway. There was no breeze or wind.
Well in comes G2, we’re on, we’re off – bash, crash. The bloody thing doesn’t stop. A slight ground loop is necessary – then through the hedge into a ditch and down we come. Thank “god” that 6 tons of bombs didn’t go off. –
Quite a mess – knocked two engines out, broke its back and all the rest to make it Cat A/C.
Spike finished up over the hedge, but didn’t prang.
The poor old engineer (his second trip) was badly shaken up and bruised. We are all O.K.
We’ve started Y flying and the
[page break]
[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
boys are getting fed up with it.
I’m progressing O.K. with it and have a few clues.
We’ve had standown [sic] for three days running (to-day the 3rd).
The new flight commander, an Aussie in the RAF, DFC type, is not so bad – rather keen.
Spike is leaving very soon. Douglas (ex Blyton) is taking his post and being promoted to Winco.
The weather is on the nose, bags of ice etc.
The car looks O.K. and we keep the crafty eye on it.
Hope you’re back soon as your job is waiting for you. No other engineer for us. Personally, flying with a spare puts the breeze up me as they can never hear Dan on the
[page break]
5
intercom.
What did you mean by “wounds healing” – did you cop more than one? I can just see you wallying around the station with your wound stripe up.
McCleary went on Hasselt the other evening.
Remember on the 2nd May we lost 49 on France – well 460 lost 5 crews – 2 of them experienced crews.
I’ve worked out the ave. TAS & air miles for Friedrichshaven – want it?
No doubt we’ll do a few trips before you get back, but that wont matter much.
Sorry to hear your folks weren’t notified – we were told that
[page break]
[underlined] 6 [/underlined]
they were. Dan is going to make enquiries.
You will also be pleased to know that from May 1st there are no more 1/3 ops – all full dos. Quite good eh.
To-night we are all going into town to celebrate Dan’s commission came through to-day.
Your bed is making a grand flat wardrobe for my clothes. Colin want to put one of his scally bags in it.
Well slash bottom I’m off – look after yourself and get back here bloody quick.
Cheerio,
[underlined] Senior [/underlined]
P.S. Did I tell you we had a very shaky do over Friedrichshaven the other evening = bags of flak. Sr
Aus421207 F/Sgt. Grey. W.H.
R.A.F. Station.
Binbrook. Lincoln.
15th May, 1944
Dear Junior,
We were very pleased indeed to receive your letter this morning. Sorry I have not written you before this, but now I’ll give you all the 460 news.
P/O Cullen is still the same shit house lander – having Knocked an “elson” and wireless equipment off their stands one afternoon.
We all had a good leave – Dan came North with me and thoroughly enjoyed himself.
Now we’re back on the job. The first day back we were presented with
[page break]
2.
the new E2. Quite pleased we were.
Then some stupid eng doing a Di selected the undercart up instead of flaps. Poor “new” E2 went down with a bang – unfortunately the Queen Mary was in front of the nose and even that was wrecked.
Well E2 is a complete write off (Cat A/C) as you can guess we are all broken hearted.
Still a new E2 is in its place now – we’ll most probably get it in a fortnights time. Quite a gen kite – I cant mention equipment in a letter.
We were out again on Thursday night – place called Hasselt in Belguim. [sic]
What a shaky do – the M/G. couldn’t drop flares on the target so told us
[page break]
[underlined] 3 [/underlined]
to return home with them. (bombs)
We got to base quite O.K. (2nd kite in) and prepared to land on No. 4 runway. There was no breeze or wind.
Well in comes G2, we’re on, we’re off – bash, crash. The bloody thing doesn’t stop. A slight ground loop is necessary – then through the hedge into a ditch and down we come. Thank “god” that 6 tons of bombs didn’t go off. –
Quite a mess – knocked two engines out, broke its back and all the rest to make it Cat A/C.
Spike finished up over the hedge, but didn’t prang.
The poor old engineer (his second trip) was badly shaken up and bruised. We are all O.K.
We’ve started Y flying and the
[page break]
[underlined] 4 [/underlined]
boys are getting fed up with it.
I’m progressing O.K. with it and have a few clues.
We’ve had standown [sic] for three days running (to-day the 3rd).
The new flight commander, an Aussie in the RAF, DFC type, is not so bad – rather keen.
Spike is leaving very soon. Douglas (ex Blyton) is taking his post and being promoted to Winco.
The weather is on the nose, bags of ice etc.
The car looks O.K. and we keep the crafty eye on it.
Hope you’re back soon as your job is waiting for you. No other engineer for us. Personally, flying with a spare puts the breeze up me as they can never hear Dan on the
[page break]
5
intercom.
What did you mean by “wounds healing” – did you cop more than one? I can just see you wallying around the station with your wound stripe up.
McCleary went on Hasselt the other evening.
Remember on the 2nd May we lost 49 on France – well 460 lost 5 crews – 2 of them experienced crews.
I’ve worked out the ave. TAS & air miles for Friedrichshaven – want it?
No doubt we’ll do a few trips before you get back, but that wont matter much.
Sorry to hear your folks weren’t notified – we were told that
[page break]
[underlined] 6 [/underlined]
they were. Dan is going to make enquiries.
You will also be pleased to know that from May 1st there are no more 1/3 ops – all full dos. Quite good eh.
To-night we are all going into town to celebrate Dan’s commission came through to-day.
Your bed is making a grand flat wardrobe for my clothes. Colin want to put one of his scally bags in it.
Well slash bottom I’m off – look after yourself and get back here bloody quick.
Cheerio,
[underlined] Senior [/underlined]
P.S. Did I tell you we had a very shaky do over Friedrichshaven the other evening = bags of flak. Sr
Collection
Citation
Bill Grey, “Letter to Don Gray from Bill Grey,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed April 23, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/40803.
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