Letter from Peter Lamprey to W Gunton

Letter from Peter Lamprey to W Gunton

Peter Lamprey writes about life whilst based at Church Broughton, including the deaths of airmen in crashes, frustration at not flying and his social life including a visit to Derby. He concludes with banter about acquaintances also in the military.

Four 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.

ELampreyPGuntonW[Date]-21

Sgt. Lamprey.
Sgt’s. Mess.
R.A.F. Station.
Church Broughton.
Nr. [underlined] Derby. [/underlined]

Dear Unk and others.
Thanks a lot for the first letter I have received since being incarcerated in this hell-hole. My best regards and thanks to Alf. Barnes for the stamps, and to all the herbs for the wherewithal for another drink at their expense. It is always said that every move in the R.A.F. is for the worse and this last one is certainly the daddy of them all. The flying is down to a minimum and what there is, is very shaky. There have been too many bad crashes lately and we have lost a couple of the boys who came along with us. Talk about keep them on the deck – they fly them into it.

Existance [sic] is, from the point of view of us benighted air-crews, a hard lot.
Miles from everything that

[page break]

really lets you know there is sin and debauchery in the world. I could go a bit of the aforementioned S. and D. myself at the present moment.

After we beat them up about standing by every night, and never getting off the deck, they let us go into Derby last Saturday. Seeing that we only had two and a half hours, we did our best to destroy the local inhabitants liking for the RAF. However there are too many hotels in the place to get really going in one night. Given a few more hours I think the local A.T.S. could be induced to work in close harmony with us – and very nice too.

I see the erks – Moloney, Standivan and Co have been on this leave racket again. The good old game of letting me carry the bloody war on while they lounge around in drunken idleness. Still the day will dawn when I shall be lounging in the good old way, while they are trying to keep a foothold in France.

So Moloney has gone to Chigwell, one of the

[page break]

[underlined] 3. [/underlined]
Balloon boys – I suppose they heard him letting off some of his hot air and thought he might come in handy at some time. As for Cherry – I think it is a mistake for him to learn about guns as there is [sic] never enough blokes to fire them now, without helping him to fire his. As for Charlie – he seems to be [deleted] e [/deleted] doing fair and fine – one of these fast learners I should think.

You [smudged] seem [/smudged] to get the wrong idea entirely of my references to Bro. G,. I have no intention at all of upsetting the old war horse. All I am trying to do is give him an inside view of how things have altered since he doffed the old battle-trousers and returned to the peace and security of Civvy Street. No doubt he still looks longingly at his stone axe and wooden club but – breaking it gently – these weapons are slightly out of date.

What the hell I can fill this letter up with is a bit of a puzzle. If I could tell all I know you would still know sweet f.a. – and that would be a waste of paper. The weather here is the same as you get

[page break]

some damp, some dry and some mixed. When we get it is a military secret except to us poor perishers flying in it.

This will have to satisfy you for the time being. What is left of my great brain is exhausted so I will say cheerio. Remember me to Sam and Co.

All the sweetest.
[underlined] Pete. [/underlined].