Saturday, February 22, 2014

World War II Letters Home February 22, 1939-Estelles Wickenkamp

                                                                                                      No. 2 Flying Training School
                                                                                                      Royal Air Force
                                                                                                      Brize Norton
                                                                                                      February 22, 1939
Dear Folks:

As there is nothing doing this evening and besides it is raining, so will try to scribble off a few lines.  We have had real decent weather for the last few weeks but I suppose we will have a nice wet spell again.

Flying is going real well.  Most of work is bombing practice and Camera - gun from the gun turret.  For Camera gun the pilot flies about 100 ft. off the ground and a hundred yards away from 2 targets, while the gunner "shoots" them.  Bombing - we go up to 6,000 ft. and after finding wind speed and direction (W/S & D) we set it on the bomb sight and the bomb aimer directs the pilot over the target.  Instead of dropping a bomb, the bomb aimer presses a button which sets off a sort of photo flash bulb.  This is recorded in the plotting office (which is the target) and then they calculate where it would have fallen if it were a real bomb.  It is not very easy but Doug and I have been getting fairly good results.

(Stay tuned, this letter will be finished on February 27th, because that is when Estelles finished his letter)

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