Letter to Donald Cochrane from Reg Mullins

Letter to Donald Cochrane from Reg Mullins

A letter written by Reg Mullins to Don Cochrane. There is a discussion on wartime colleagues and getting married. Reg is a co-pilot on Lancastrians but misses his time in the RAF.

1945-11-09

Handwritten two page letter and envelope

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EMullinsRNCochraneDH451109

[postmark]
[postage stamp]
Mr D H Cochrane
No 8 Raydean Road
Barnet
Herts
England
[page break]
R.N.Mullins
c/o Qantas Empire Airways
Shell House Carrington St
Sydney NSW.
Colombo [indecipherable word] 9/11/45
Hello Don!
I was very pleased to recieve [sic] your letter recently, I often wonder how all you chaps are getting along, of course I hear from Jock occasionally and I have heard from your Ted on one occasion. I thought you would probably be married before this. I may beat you to it yet, I hoped to be back to marry Pat before now but things have been in a mess with us. I have done [indecipherable word] trips from Aust to Karachi but never seem to be able to get right through, however I’ll manage it one of these days and will do my best to let you know so as you can come to the wedding, I would like to have you and Jock there also any of the others if we can let them know but then I don’t know just when it will be. I rather think now
[page break]
that it will be about next Feb.
I’m still a second pilot on these bloody Lancastrians and I’m not terribly keen on the job although the money is very good, it will be much better later on of course when I get some promotion. Most of the wops are pretty dim, they are always blaming the set for their mistakes, I feel that some of your RAF boys who have had plenty of experience on the equipment could do a better job, these civil people are very jealous of R.A.F. types you know, but we won’t lose any sleep over that will we Don!
Yes Don. I sometimes long for the old days we spent on the Sqdn, they were wizard days weren’t they?
I suppose you will soon be a civvy again, I hope so Don as I think you have had your share of service life.
[page break]
Re the girl back home whom you mentioned Don, that finished last August when I fell for Pat, I’ll never be sorry about that as Pat is a wizard kid.
Cyril Woolmough is still in England, he married a WAAF from Surrey. I hope to see him home early next year.
I suppose winter is setting in over your way now, the weather is very hot in Australia at present.
Each one of these trips takes about 15 days Don as we stop off for three days rest at each halt then we get about 16 days off in Sydney before commencing the next trip so you can see that we’re really not overworked.
Well Don, that’s about all for now. I’ll let you know when I’m coming over in the meantime all the Very Best From Your Old Pal Reg